Feeding advice from my breeder-Circa 1964
In 1964 I was 16 years old and had saved money from mowing lawns and selling my bicycle to buy my first Sheepdog. We drove across Los Angeles to Woodland Hills to visit Mrs. Winifred Barnes and her husband Colonel Barnes, a very proper British couple in their 70's who bred and raised Old English Sheepdogs and in fact had bred a male named Lord Nelson a few years earlier, who was on a TV program of that era. I had met her at a dog show and she told me she had a new litter that would be ready in a few weeks. "They will cost $100, of course." she said, eyeing me to see if I had the stuff to be a sheepdog owner. "Yes." I said knowing I was about $20 short but that my mother would come through with the difference. I waited anxiously for weeks until Mrs. Barnes finally called to say it was OK to come to see the puppies. They were now ten weeks old. We fell in love with a little female who we decided to call Lillibet, a childhood nickname of Queen Elizabeth. (My mother was English and followed the royal family quite closely.) Mrs Barnes was very insistent about how we should care for our new puppy and had written out very explicit instructions about feeding: Morning: One cup of Gerber baby rice cooled to luke warm and two tablespoons of Cod Liver Oil. (Make sure to get the one WITH calcium!) Mid-day: One cup of Gerber baby rice cooled to luke warm. Evening: One to one and one-half cups of Nutro Puppy kibble given with two more tablespoons of Cod Liver Oil (with calcium, of course). There weren't very many brands of dog food in 1964 and Nutro was a rather premium brand in those days as I recall. It seemed like for a year my mother was always cooking up Gerber baby rice, which we dutifully administered to our special dog, along with the Cod Liver Oil (with calcium), of course. My father never said anything about the special diet our sheepdog had to have, nor the daily smell of Cod Liver Oil, but knew, I think, that inside, Sheepdogs were probably no different than other dogs. Lillibet turned out to be a real sweet dog but suffered from frequent bouts of diarrhea her first year for some reason. |
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lol! What a great story. 
Cod liver oil. huh.  |
| That is hilarious |
Great story, thanks for sharing. One of my grandfathers OES was called Lord Nelson  |
| Hahahaha!
Well, that cod liver oil goes right through ya. Complete with calcium, of course. For how long did you have Lillibet? |
| Lovely story!
We we got our first OES in 1970 the instructions were similar, not cod liver oil, just calcium capsules and flank steak  I sent my husband to the store for flank steak which was the most expensive cut except for tenderloin. He came back but said, "Find something else to feed her." I spent many months tearing apart those calcium capsules to put on her food. |
| Wow....what a great story! Do you have any pictures of Lilibet? |
| I was living in Woodland Hills in 1964...all my childhood really. I would have been 6 years old at the time. I wonder where those sheepies were. I know I saw a few around growing up. |
| I can only remember that Mrs. Barnes lived up in the hills south of the freeway on a fairly large lot. The kennel name was Bridewell. She had a foundation bitch she had brought over from England that had the longest coat I have ever seen on an OES. She kept around 5 adult dogs, all of them on the large side, which always seemed a lot for her and the Colonel to handle at their age. The only other breeder of OES in Southern California at that time was Mona Berkowitz (Momarv Kennel) who wrote a book about the bred and was/is well known to many still.
Lillibet died young at age four from some fast acting cancer but she gave me a life long interest in the breed that has lasted to this day, 11 sheepdogs later. I think I have a picture in my mother's things and will try to find it. She was on the dark side, had two black ears and looked a lot like Ron's avatar. I owned another of Mrs. Barnes' dogs a few years later, a nephew of Lillibet I called Monty. |
| I had a Bridewell dog...he was my first OES and it was in 1976 when I got him. Percy was bought from a Geniveve in Agoura, but he was out of the same lines. Small world. Percy was dark too. I have a picture, but I will have to scan it. |
Here is my Bridewell bred dog...Percy in May of 1978 at 2 yrs old.
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wendy58 wrote: Here is my Bridewell bred dog...Percy in May of 1978 at 2 yrs old.]
Handsome boy. If you still have his pedigree, you might find he is closely related to my two Bridewell dogs. Lillibet was sired by Cheyenne Sam, the original Shaggy Dog of the movie, out of Tessa II of Bridewell, the foundation bitch who Mrs. Barnes called Beauty. From an earlier litter from the same pair was Lord Nelson, the TV "Please Don't Eat the Daises" dog. His litter mates, both champions, were Adam and Charlie of Bridewell. Nelson was bred to a Shepton bitch (brought into Bridewell sometime around 1970) and had a son named Montgomery, also a Champion for Mrs Barnes. Montgomery's son was my second dog, Monty in the mid 1970's. Your dog may have been a litter mate of my Monty, but was almost certainly, at least, related to one of his uncles (all of them were large for the breed). I'm sure this is ancient trivia to most, but family history to some. |
| I know he had Bridewell in his pedigree, but I haven't seen the pedigree in many years. He wasn't full Bridewell breeding as the woman I got him from owned the bitch. He was a big boy, probably around 100 lbs and fairly dark. Obviously I love the breed since my first one too...how can you not after living with one. It is indeed a small world. |
wendy58 wrote: Here is my Bridewell bred dog...Percy in May of 1978 at 2 yrs old.
Hey, I was 2 years old in May of 1978, too, lol! He's really cute. He has a giant head and neck like Clyde.  |
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