Hanningfield Newfoundlands - The Early Days

We first encountered this wonderful breed during a skiing holiday in the French Alps where we got to know two large black males that spent most of their day roaming the resort playing in the snow.

Jasper and Barney - our first Newfoundlands

Our first Newfoundland came to us in 1992 after a long search that led us down to Southampton to the kennels of Paddy and Gordon at Merrybear. He was Merrybear Trinity Gaspar (Jasper), sired by Merrybear Carbon ex Merrybear Matuta. Jasper matured into everything we had hoped for, a big boy with a heart of gold. During one of our trips down to Paddy and Gordon’s we fell in love with a stunning dog, Ch. Merrybear Luigi, who to this day is one of our all-time favourites.

Our first daughter Ashley arrived in 1993 and Jasper was the first thing that greeted her upon her arrival home. A swift lick to the face (from Jasper, that is) was Ashley’s baptism to the world of Newfoundlands we now found ourselves in. We had already decided that our second dog had to be a Luigi son - we did not care how long we had to wait. Truesparta Barnaby Fudge (Barney) came along sired by Ch. Merrybear Luigi again from Merrybear Matuta, the difference this time was that Barney was Brown. Not long after we got Barney we had our second Daughter Zoe, born in 1995.

Jasper and Barney were regular visitors to our local Open shows and then we, like so many before us, got 'the bug' and started to travel further to shows and eventually to Championship shows. I got very interested in the pedigrees of the dogs we had and started to look at more and more pedigrees. I read about a dog in the USA (Jake) American Ch. Pouch Cove’s Favorite Son, and what he had been producing and I started to look more and more into the American kennels. I noticed a trend many of the dogs I liked were sired by Pouch Cove males that had been bred to Mooncusser bitches. I tracked down Suzanne Jones of Mooncusser and wrote to her, after several phone calls and a trip to the USA to meet Suzanne we finally persuaded her to send something over to the UK. During the time we waited for our first imports we moved house to a larger one with some land for the dogs. Suzanne bred a few litters over the next year or so, until she had something that she would be happy to send over to the UK.

Hanningfield is born

Our Affix was granted by the Kennel Club in 1997. Then in 1998 a litter brother and sister Mooncusser Atlantic Crossing for Hanningfield (Boston) and our foundation bitch Mooncusser’s Atlantic Star for Hanningfield (Marsha) came over and entered quarantine. During the six months that Boston and Marsha spent in quarantine Cindy had the last of our three children a boy (thank God), Miley.

Summer of 1999 was when all the kids and dogs were together in our new home. Boston and Marsha's show careers got off to a good start by Qualifying for Crufts at their first Championship shows. Marsha at that time was a little different to most of the bitches in the UK. She was a smaller bitch but with gorgeous breed type and at that time more extreme angles than was commonly seen in the UK. Our friendship with Suzanne went from strength to strength, Suzanne was our first real mentor into the breeding aspect of Newfoundlands.

Cindy with "Apache"

During one of our many trips over the pond we fell for a couple of bitches that Sue had bred and initially planned to keep. However, with a little persuasion and a promise to send some dogs back to the USA Suzanne allowed us to import Mooncusser’s Clear Sailing for Hanningfield (Claudia) and her sister Mooncusser’s Abandon Ship for Hanningfield (Apache). Along with Marsha these bitches were to play a massive part in the future of Hanningfield. In the October of 2000 Claudia and Apache completed their six months in quarantine and joined the ever-growing numbers at Hanningfield.

Our first litter

After completing her health clearances we bred Marsha to UK Ch. Mayoss Booker, and in the May of 2001 Hanningfield's first litter was born, a litter of six with five males and one female. As this was our first litter there was no choice in the matter but to keep the only girl. Thankfully the bitch, Hanningfield First Edition (Georgia) was one of the standout pups in the litter while our friends Sue and Dave Barnard had the pick male who went on to become our first ever UK Champion, Ch. Hanningfield Ocean Breeze (Denver).

Our Mooncusser male Boston was also starting to make his mark. He was bred to Mooncusser’s Abandon Ship for Hanningfield (Apache) in the February of 2002 and we also bred her sister Mooncusser’s Clear Sailing for Hanningfield (Claudia) back to Ch. Mayoss Booker.

Crufts 2002

Denver and Georgia qualified for Crufts and we had a wonderful day. Hanningfield First Edition (Georgia) won her special puppy class under breed specialist judge Barbara Brooks and Marsha completed a great Crufts for us by winning Mid Limit bitch.

Hanningfield pups go the USA

Apache and Claudia gave birth to their first litters a few weeks after Crufts. First to whelp was Claudia with a litter of six, three males and three females, then two days later Apache followed suit with a litter of ten, five males and five females. From these two litters several dogs made the long trip back over the pond to the USA to Mooncusser and to our friends Janet and Jerry Cohen at Goldcoast.

The Booker offspring made a big impact in the USA with the super clean fronts and movement that the pups had inherited from their father coupled to the breed type of their mother. From these two litters we had five American Champions;

• Am. Ch. Hanningfield Goldcoast (Tyler)
• Am. Ch. Hanningfield For Goldcoast (Dee Dee)
• Am. Ch. Hanningfield By Mooncusser (Sonya)
• Am. Ch. Hanningfield Mooncusser (Norma)
• Am. Ch. Hanningfield SS Mooncusser (Gavin)

Boston as a sire

In the UK, Mooncusser Atlantic Crossing for Hanningfield (Boston) sired some very nice litters over a two-year period. He produced eight litters, amongst them from one of Carol Stuckey's super girls from her renowned Honeybear kennel a gorgeous bitch was born becoming the the multi CC winning Ch. Honeybears Pillow Talk (Gabby).

More Champions

Our friends Don and Hazel Hicks had one of the girls from our Mooncusser’s Clear Sailing for Hanningfield (Claudia) litter by Ch. Mayoss Booker and she became Ch. Hanningfield Wet N Wild who rounded off her show career in 2009 with the Bitch CC at Crufts. We also repeated our first litter with a mating of Ch. Mayoss Booker bred to Mooncusser’s Atlantic Star for Hanningfield (Marsha). Again this combination worked well for us producing another US Champion female, Am. Ch. Hanningfield SOS Mooncusser (Olivia). Don and Hazel had a male from this litter and he became Ch. Hanningfield Big Beam (Bailey).

The next generations

Marsha’s only daughter from her first litter Hanningfield First Edition was bred to Diane Richardson’s male Paradeso Spirito Di Italia, another very good combination which produced the lovely females Hanningfield Blue Moon at Paradeso, Hanningfield Stream Dancer for Blacktide and our bitch Hanningfield Evening Star (Lola). The males included the CC winning Hanningfield Sequoia (Logan) who we co–own with Paula and Mark Leonard.

2005 was a very good year for Hanningfield with our first UK Champion (Denver) Ch Hanningfield Ocean Breeze (Denver) being crowned. He also won a Reserve CC at Crufts under Italian breed specialist judges Manlio Massa. By now we have enough dogs to start to enter the Pedigree Breeders stakes class which we win best in show at during the Southern Counties Championship show that leads us to the grand final at Crufts in 2006, We start 2006 as we finished 2005 (Bailey) starts the year well by picking up a reserve CC at Crufts under all round judge Sue Garner. With the success of Marsha’s offspring she was crowned overall Dog World top brood bitch in 2006.

Bailey, Denver and Georgia continued doing well in the ring through to 2007 when Bailey won his third CC to complete his UK Championship, Ch. Hanningfield Big Beam was Don & Hazel’s first show Champion. At the LKA in December Don and Hazel had the Champagne out once more when their girl Hanningfield Wet N Wild (Ria) also won her third CC and make it two Champions in a year and Hanningfield’s third up to that time. Georgia being bred to (Billy) Paradeso Spiriti Di Italia has produced well for us so we breed her for her second and last litter to Shalowseas Pagliaccio, this breeding also produces a nice quality litter of four again with only one bitch so as before we kept her, Hanningfield Girls Aloud (Gracie).

Our 'magic' litter

Ronnie and Reggie

Hanningfield Evening Star (Lola) from Georgia’s first litter to Billy was bred to Julie Sheridan’s stunning male, the American import Am. Ch., Dan. Ch., Ch. Pouch Cove's Onyxbay Wizard (Webster) and WOW what a litter that produced - seven males and three females. We keep two of the three girls and Julie took two of the males, Ronnie and Reggie, pictured here. Another of the males went to the USA (again to Suzanne at Mooncusser).

The star of the litter so far has been Hanningfield Touch Of Magic (Reggie). He showed his outstanding quality straight away in the ring with a record breaking number of Best Puppy in Breed wins - he also finished as top winning puppy in the working group for 2008! Reggie took his first reserve CC from the puppy class and went from strength to strength gaining his Junior Warrant and his Show Certificate of Merit before completing his UK Championship before his second birthday.

In the USA his brother, Hanningfield at Mooncusser (Colin) had a good time taking his US Championship, also before his second birthday! Our two girls were a little slower developing but Hanningfield Bewitched (Sabrina) took Hanningfield to a trio of Champions so far from this 'magic' litter, and all before their second birthdays.

Crufts 2009 and since ...

Crufts 2009 was a big day for celebration for Hanningfield under breed specialist judge Ronnie Chadwick, with Ch. Hanningfield Touch of Magic (Reggie) taking the Dog CC and Best of Breed and Ch. Hanningfield Wet N Wild (Ria) taking the Bitch CC.

2009 has been a year to remember for Hanningfield for reasons both in and out of the ring with (Lola) producing again for us; we bred Hanningfield Evening Star (Lola) to Stelamah Just Jeremy that has produced another couple of possible future stars in the ring with Hanningfield Mona Lisa (Mona) and her brother Hanningfield Self Portrait (Harvey). 2009 has proved to be the most successful year for Hanningfield so far with the success of Lola’s Hanningfield Evening Star’s offspring has again brought the title of top Brood bitch to Hanningfield, Cindy and I also had the honour of being named the UK's Top Newfoundland Breeders for 2009.

If you would like to know about our more recent history and plans for the future, click here.