“As a puppy he looked like a bear, but now he is getting to look more like a lion,” Lorraine said of her dog.

Although Christopher is not as heavily involved with dog shows as Lorraine, he still enjoys their company and recently accompanied his wife to the Kempsey Dog Show.

Lorraine said she was introduced to her love of dog shows in her 20s when she bought her first Afghan Hound.

“The lady who did the dog obedience classes said my new dog was no good for shows,” Lorraine said.

But someone else said her new dog would go fine, and dog shows became a regular part of her life.

“I started showing Afghans in the ‘70s until I moved to Forster in ’77,” she said.

“Three years ago I started showing Irish Wolf Hounds.”

Quite differently, she met Christopher at line dance.

“We would meet at the dances and say hello to each other,” Lorraine said.

“But I stopped going so I didn’t see Christopher for a while.

“Some time later we met at the beach and started talking again. The rest is history.”

Christopher and Lorraine are planning to get a second Tibetan Mastiff puppy.

“Tibetan Mastiffs are not for the novice owner,” she warned.

“They are a guardian dog. They can be stubborn and savage.  You need to train them properly.”