Hon. Secretary
Georgia Lappin Lawrence. Alascotia
I was one of the founders of the Scottish Siberian Husky Club, and to date have served 14 years in total as Secretary, also initially served as Chairperson.
The club has formed a large part of my life, and has been quite time consuming but enjoyable along the way. The best part has been the forming of lasting friendships and all the fun times with my dogs, at so many diverse events over many years.
I bought my first Siberian in 1985 as a pet.
My first show dog was a red male purchased from Liz Love who persuaded me to show him. This was Acryse Nearctic of Alascotia (Russky) and he won 38 BOBs at open shows, when there were very few shows with classes around to attend. CCs arrived in 1986 and a few years later Russky won a RCC in very competitive times and huge classes, from the very few Ch shows we attended. The first Scottish Siberian to do so I believe.
I have always been an avid reader and will literally read anything, and I mean anything which appears in front of me with words on it! I would rather read then converse really. So I started gathering and studying as many books on the breed as I could get my hands on. I was fascinated with learning and I watched and learned at the shows too. So my next step was judging and I joined my local society Greenock & District, then the Working Breeds Association of Scotland. After 10 years travelling around judging and picking up my classes this led to me being the first Scot to award CCs in our breed in 1996, which was a great honour.
I bought a bitch called Alasams Sweet Dreams (Aisha) who was out of Skimarque Grey Dawn and sired by Russky`s litter brother Acryse Olympus. I was also fortunate enough to be considered for a white dog from the Rajarani kennel and our gorgeous Rajarani Winterwolf of Alascotia joined us from Brunette and Krystyan Greenland. This was the start of real success in the breed.
Winter was mated to Aisha to produce our Alascotia`s Tella, a beautiful white bitch whom I consider the foundation bitch of my kennel.
Winter and Tella had a huge impact, for the good, in Scotland with several kennels going on to breed through those lines.
We had by this time started running the dogs purely for their and our enjoyment, competing later in some rallies including Aviemore. But mainly we ran the dogs wherever we could for exercise for many years.
I was not looking for another dog but visited Janet Lodge (now Roe) who had a litter from my Russkys daughter Ch Muiryetts soft Amber of Sontell, with no intentions of buying a pup and came away with my lovely Rio who was sired by the handsome Ch Sarawana Zhoozhat who was by Ch Zoox Ghadzeek. Rio then went on to win 3 Rccs , 2 of them to his dad.
I consider Rio my reserve Champion 🙂
Rio was mated to Tella and I kept Dusty who was a stunning grey bitch and so obedient for a Siberian. She won 2 Rccs from very limited showing, which has always the case with me as I’m a very bad traveller. She gained her bronze Good Citizens at a very busy SKC in an open sided ring with kids wandering close by with ice cream cones and dogs all over the place and she never wavered at all. I do remember close friends peeping out from behind the tents at us hoping she would not see them and move lol. This pairing also produced Ch Alascotia Michigan, a firm favourite with most exhibitors in those days, and several other RCC winners.
Dusty was mated to a very handsome import called Ch Am Ch Solocha`s Southern Legacy, which I later owned in partnership with the late Susan Livingston. This mating proved immensely successful producing 4 champions in one litter a feat never achieved before that and commonly known as the Moon dogs after their sweet mum Alascotia Moondust.
I kept Autumn and her litter brother River was in partnership. River was put to his Grandmother Tella, from this I kept Ch Alascotia Topaz, a very sweet and beautiful silver grey blue eyed girl, who was very successful in the ring gaining her Champion title and 5 Rccs. The littermates were very rarely shown but her sister won BPIB at Crufts.
After mating Topaz and producing one dead puppy I gave up breeding, then my life changed with personal circumstances and I withdrew from the dog world for around 6 years.
I now have 2 bitches I’ve bought in, one of whom has won her Champion title and has one of my breeding and 2 of my stud dogs behind her, she is of very similar quality to the best of the 6 champions I have bred.
I am happy in the knowledge I have produced the best, and allowed the use of my studs to produce the best for others to found successful kennels in Scotland.
I will say that I had no particular path at the start, just the love of the breed and a good eye for a dog and wanted to produce the nearest to the breed standard and that’s what its all about. At this moment in time I occasionally show my dogs and spend a lot of time walking them and running them free in massive dog fields to keep them in prime condition.