HISTORY

 

Louise Tope was born in December 1972.  Her first dog was a liver and white English Springer Spaniel, Moss, back in 1981.  She found an interest in showing, and took Moss to a few local Open shows with minimal success!

 But, she had been bitten by the bug.  Her favourite breed was German Shepherd Dogs, and she was lucky enough to spend many years handling the Devonmead GSD's of Mrs Joy Ackland which also introduced her to the world of Championship shows.  She also successfully competed in Junior Handling competitions.

 

Showing took a back seat for a while for GCSE's and Saturday nights out! 

Louise and Keith Greening got together in 1993 and bought their house together in 1997.  By this time, Louise had returned to the dog show scene handling a friend's white Standard Poodle bitch. It was now that she and Keith discovered Whippets and fell deeply and madly in love with the breed and decided that no other dog would do!

 

Above - The opportunity to purchase their first boy arose in 1997 - the rest, as they say, is history!

Left - Keith much prefers playing guitar in the band "Beggar's Belief" than he does hanging around at dog shows!

 

Right - Keith & Louise share a serious moment

DEWERSTONE - the name

The Dewerstone Rock is a huge granite outcrop which towers over the gorge where the river Plym and the river Meavy meet.  It is a regular haunt for local climbers and there are many lovely dog walks in the surrounding areas.  The Dewerstone or Devil's Stone has several mythical connections.  Dartmoor itself is infamous for the so-called "Whist Hounds" or "Hounds of Hell", said to be a pack of spectral dogs which haunt the locality and  inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles.  The Whist Hounds are associated with the demonic Wild Hunt, which has the devil as the night huntsman, in particular, legends tell how the pack chases benighted travellers to the edge of the Dewerstone to drive them over the edge to their doom.