I  was born and brought up in the Fife mining village of Kinglassie, as were my father, grandfather and great-grandfather. As a child I went with my father to local farms where he was allowed to shoot. As often as not the farmer would come out and blether over the gate about this and that, and usually get round to asking my father, a welder burner, to have a look at some broken bit of farm machinery, which they would then go away and examine, leaving me happily parked on the back of a pony until either the job was done or another time arranged. As long I got my wee hurl round a field I never complained, as as the farmer got his bits and pieces fixed, everybody was happy. This was in the spirit of the times, neighbours helping each other with their skills.

The good rapport that my father built up with the farmers stood me in good stead and as I got older I was able to graze, stable and ride my own ponies and horses, and exercise my dogs in the fields around about, and I have many happy memories of the fun and adventures I got up to with them.

On leaving school, I went to working St Andrews, Perth and London for a while, then came back to live in Clackmannan, although I still regularly visited my mother and father in Kinglassie. Sadly for me, there was a lot of house building going on in Clackmannan at the time and I reluctantly had to sell the horses as there was nowhere to keep them with all the available fields being sold for development. With no horses to ride and look after, I thought a dog would help fill up my time.

One day, while walking up the High Street in Alloa, my eye was drawn to the most fabulous looking dog I had ever seen. I followed him and his owner through the streets to get a better look, thinking "This is the dog for me, I want one!" A visit to the library later, I identified my hearts desire as a Rottweiler, and Valdez Ruairidh came into my life, the first of many wonderful dogs.

As my mother & father were getting older, they wanted to move to a smaller house and so I came to live in the family home back in Kinglassie. There was plenty of space here and I began to establish the Armagret kennel.