Ole - French wonder dog!

Ole was dumped on the streets in France when just over two years old - now he is a Crufts champion.

Within the ensuing two years, this dog ran up an astonishing succession of show wins and in February 2003 he took Reserve CC at Crufts - a feat never before achieved by a Labrador from overseas.

Not bad for a stray picked up from the street!

Mademoiselle Dreyfus has explained to us how this extraordinary situation arose.

Ole was bred by Mme de Mareschal - a small, strictly non-professional breeder - the dam being from the successful show kennel of Mlle Dreyfus' aunt, Mme Forien.

At over two-years-old he was simply dumped in the street by the people who had bought him and was in due course picked up and turned over to the society for the protection of animals. They traced him back, no doubt through his tattoo number, to his breeder, who passed him over to Mlle Dreyfus. She could see his potential as a show dog, and so things took off.

Ole's pedigree shows an array of champions from differing lines. The sire is from the very successful kennel of M Jean-Philippe Perennec (Winds of Toul Diweon), descending from the Labradors of Mme Josette Germain and M. Roland Prabonne, going back largely to Mardas and Leji imports.

The dam is from mainly Poolstead and Thurbajen's bloodlines on her father's side, with her mother's side owing much to M Marc Gad's Gladlab kennels, with Reciever of Cranspire and his son Carpenny Chevalier further back.

Anne-Charlotte describes Ole as 'the dog of my life' and cannot praise enough his wonderful, well-balanced temperament clearly, like many other Labradors, unaffected by the upheavals in his life.

His impressive list of titles includes: Vice-champion of Europe, International Champion, Champion of France, Champion of the Netherlands, Champion of Luxembourg and Champion of Great Britain.