1st Akita Club Winner Show

My judging career began in 1984 and in 1999 I gained approval to judge at Championship Shows in the UK. Since that time I have qualified to award Challenge Certificates to Dobermann, Rottweiler, Akita, Japanese Shiba Inu and the Japanese Akita and to award CACIB’s to American Akita and Akita by the FCI. In the UK I can also judge all breeds listed in the Working, Pastoral and Utility groups and Best in Show at all breed open shows.
My interest and experience with dogs spans more than 30 years and began with the Dobermann. Owning and showing this breed from 1977 was the start of my passion for the wonderful world of dogs! I have owned, trained and shown them in the UK ever since. I feel very fortunate to have one of the best breed mentors for this breed from whom I have learned so much over the years. I have served both as an Officer of my local Dobermann breed club and for the UK Dobermann Breed Council. My professional skills being directed towards delivering training events and educational programmes for aspiring judges of the breed. I also spent ten years breeding and showing Rottweilers before the American Akita came into my life early in 1985.
With the full support of my partner, Peter we registered our KITADO kennel in 1996. Proud to be a high quality hobby kennel producing healthy, well bred Dobermanns and American Akitas. Our small breeding programme has brought us success over the years with a number of Champions to our credit. We benefited so much in the early days by being closely involved with the breed clubs, training and handling show dogs for others and through listening to a wide variety of views from others about these breeds.. As a serious and select kennel we worked hard to achieve success.
The TSOYU kennel name (for Japanese Akita Inu) was established in 2007. Originally a joint venture with our friends Cherry and Alan Wilkinson and in 2016 we took sole ownership of the kennel and dogs when our friends decided to step away from the world of dogs completely. Peter and I have been involved with the introduction and development of the Akita in the UK since 2006. We began exhibiting Akita in 2007 and established our breeding programme in 2009. Since that time we have imported many quality dogs to our kennel and travelled extensively to use the most appropriate males. With nature on our side Tsoyu has produced many top dogs in the UK (including multiple Crufts Best of Breed winners), Champions and Multi Champions who have secured high level awards at some of the major shows in Europe as well as at World Dog Shows. This success has enabled us to become and remain the top breeding kennel in the UK. Our willingness and ability to build strong relationships with like minded people in the UK and across Europe in order to watch, listen and learn from their experiences has enabled us to encourage and support new comers to the breed to achieve early success.  
Peter and I played a significant role in the campaign to achieve UK recognition of the Akita Inu which was finally achieved in 2006. We are founding members of the UK Breed Club with Peter being Chairman and me an officer with responsibility for devising and delivering the judges education and training program. My enthusiasm for training dogs together with my professional expertise for training people has assisted me provide high quality dog training classes for all breeds of dogs in my local community and become appointed as an official Assessor by the Kennel Club for their Good Citizen Dog Scheme. I feel immense satisfaction through assisting more than a thousand new dog owners to achieve the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards so far. I have also gained great pleasure from sharing my knowledge and experience with others in order to make a difference to the lives of so many dogs.

I feel very honoured to be invited to judge the first Speciality Show for the Akita Club of Greece and look forward to an experience that I hope will be both challenging and rewarding.