Orphan boy who charmed dogs through to UK show

Three weeks ago, an orphan boy who had been abandoned in a trench, represented Kenya in the world’s largest dog show held in England.

Shadrack Adams, stood in front of thousands of dog enthusiasts at the Genting Arena, Birmingham with 43 youngsters from all corners of the world, hoping to clinch the title of the International Junior Handler.

He was the only African in the Crufts 2017 competition with 39 girls and five boys aged between 11-18. The challenge; to handle an unfamiliar dog.

“I picked an Australian shepherd and Airedale terrier but competed with an Australian shepherd and a Shiba Inu, but I didn’t meet the dog until an hour before the competition,” says the 17-year-old.

To prepare for the show, Shadrack who learnt two years ago that he would be going for the Crufts competition after qualifying at the local show, spent a lot of time watching videos online and reading books about the breed he had picked.

“I had to train for between two hours and one hour daily, and interact with as many dogs as possible,” he says.

At the competition in UK, he was judged on his natural affinity with dogs.

First Black African

Shadrack did not make it to the final shortlist of 10, but he says he is glad to have had the chance to participate in the competition.

“I was the first black African to have made it there. That’s a milestone. I think the dog moved its leg a little and I didn’t move it back in position,” he says.

“I learnt that even the most minute of detail can affect your chances.”

Becky Adams, his adoptive mother who runs Seeds in His Garden, the home where he has grown up, says; “In spite of the result, him just being there was an achievement in itself. When I saw him on TV walking to the ring amongst all these other white kids I bawled my eyes out. And this tells the world that tends to see him as just ‘an orphan boy’, that no, he is just not just that.”

Shadrack came to the home when he was only two days old after his mum abandoned him at a dirty trench while in one of her drunken stupors.

“The mum was a chang’aa brewer. She carried him for nine months while on the bottle. He suffered fetal alcohol syndrome and came to the home through Médecins Sans Frontières,” says Becky.

He was a very stubborn kid.

“I almost burnt the home at some point and was bad to volunteers. But at eight years I started to change,” Shadrack says.

Therapeutic dogs

He cut his teeth handling dogs from a very young age at the orphanage where Becky has always had dogs because she believes they are therapeutic to traumatised children.

Shadrack whom Becky says has been good at training and socialising the dogs at home since he was a little boy, started showing dogs at the East Africa Kennel club then a predominantly ‘White club’, when he was only five.

He had lived with a Boxer that had come from California, USA with Becky when she moved to Kenya. They then got a Rottweiler with which he grew very close.

“I started training dogs when I was very young because mum (Adams) taught me how to,” says Shadrack who wants to earn his college fees money training people’s dogs at a fee.

Becky is optimistic.

“Shadrack’s got a dynamic personality and is extremely competitive. He works his tail off. I’ve seen him at a dog show literally work for eight hours and only stop to grab water to quench his thirst. I know what he can do when he sets his mind to it,” she says.