In 1980 a neighbour happened to be looking after a relatives Sibe cross Samoyed, and it was this magnificent chap who sent us scurrying off in search of Siberians. Christine Emery sold us our first Siberian Lanivet Zolushka of Zima, known by all as Potts.

We live at 1,000 feet bordering a Welsh forest in a property designed to accommodate dogs. The Siberians live in a pack environment and are very much part of the family for their natural life span. Puppies from litters are kept or go to like-minded friends.

Zima Siberians has never been a large kennel with to date, no more than 18 Siberians at any time. Interest from the outset has only been pure-bred Siberians and we have been fortunate enough to own excellent Siberians from the Alaskan Anadyr, Lokiboden/Igloo Pak and Sepp-Alta blood lines.

Zima Siberians, which we aim to be standard fitting, enjoy a life working in harness, with a mixture of training and competition and we pride ourselves in optimising the performance of each one. Showing good working dogs has also been an activity we have supported. We have always found that in spite of the UK climate, a good Siberian, given the appropriate training and conditioning, will adapt extremely well to its surroundings.

The Breeds limited bloodlines (a global issue rather than a local issue) means that dedicated breed folk will seek to add to the blood lines in the UK with top quality imports from the leading work-orientated Siberian kennels abroad. We feel that we have played a full part in this process - failure to do so would result in loss of type and attitude.

We continue with our love of working our 8-10 dog teams, and welcome friends to our kennel, this being the ideal excuse for a ‘bottle of red’ and the avoidance of chores!