Breeders of Crufts Best of Breed 1992
Zejak Rhodesian Ridgebacks
Established 1986
Website Updated by Amy on Tuesday 27th July 2010
Boris - Photo courtesy of Linus Moran
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July 2010 I thought that it was time to write a new introduction to our website. It has been up and running now for over 10 years, and has become the most visited Rhodesian Ridgeback website in the UK. Of this we are very proud, because it has enabled us to communicate with a large proportion of the Rhodesian Ridgeback community. We mainly want to inform you about Ridgebacks, but of course some information is relevant to many breeds. We have been devoted to the Rhodesian Ridgeback since 1985, when we met our first pair owned by a friend of ours. We admired them so much that we bought a puppy from her, and we were very fortunate that she turned out to be a very well bred good example of the breed. But of course her main asset was her fantastic nature. Our daughters were babies then, and Ellie looked after them, played with them, and gave them their first taste of caring for another being. By the time Amy was seven, she could walk with Ellie between our home and my parents’ house half a mile away in total safety. Ellie, I am sure, was very proud to walk along with her small owner. Having Ellie bought a new dimension to all of our lives. We went along to dog training (not the most successful exercise, as Ellie would rather play than train!) But it did have a ‘ringcraft’ show training element and we found that she enjoyed that part, so we took her to meet the breeders of her Sire, Alf & Joan Coventry (of Wiljoe kennels.) They had Ellie’s sister, Lass, and they were going to show her too. They approved of Ellie, and it turned out that they had to toss a coin to decide whether to take Lass or Ellie from the litter! Joan won, and Lass went home with them. She was a beautiful light wheaten bitch, so correct, and again with a lovely nature. She was very quiet, and did well in the show ring. With Alf & Joan’s encouragement we started to show Ellie, and to our amazement qualified for Crufts quite early on. She went on to have quite a successful show career. Because we had a young family, we never had the time to really campaign her or in fact any of our dogs, so dog showing has never been a big part of our lives. We occasionally show one or two of our dogs just to meet up with friends and have an interesting day out admiring lots of lovely Ridgebacks. Because our Ridgebacks spend their life meeting visitors here, they usually enjoy a day at a show, and sometimes do quite well! Most years we take one to Crufts, just for the experience. Over the years we have had a Best of Breed and usually a class win or place. That’s enough for us, as dog shows are not our main activity, and anyway it is very subjective, “one man’s meat…” and all that! To us, our Ridgebacks are much loved family members and need to fit in with our activities. We have horses and compete with them so usually a couple of our dogs will come away with us to shows throughout the Summer. We have a caravan so they get used to camping and busy showgrounds. It is excellent for their socialisation, and it enables us to find out about their temperament too. Plus they end up with a huge fan club, with lots of Ridgeback converts! Because we started with a Ridgeback as our first dog, it did focus our concentration on the breed. I have never wanted any other, and with working at a veterinary surgery I meet masses of breeds, and I always come back to the qualities of a Rudgeback. Our daughters as I said were babies with Ellie, and were, as with all parents, very precious to us. At the time there was a lot of bad press for Dobermans and Rottweiler’s, so the focus of the 1980’s was very much on how dangerous a large dog could be. We chose a Rudgeback for its size and temperament, and were very, very lucky to start with Ellie (Ellie of Wiljoe at Zejak.) She mothered the girls and anything she could get her paws on – even an orphan kitten! Ellie was responsible for focusing our attention on temperament, and from our first litter with her we chose a Sire with a wonderful disposition. He was Ch Matabelle Marksman, or Merlin to his friends & admirers! We later honoured him by using his name for our first male Ridgeback. From that very first litter in 1989, we were hooked on breeding Ridgebacks with excellent, kind temperaments. It takes a huge amount of time and effort to produce a litter of puppies, and certainly isn’t for the faint hearted! Sometimes you do have to make tough decisions, but the process is character building. Because back then, and now, we have children in our house (we now have our other daughter Hannah’s boys, Jake age 2½ years and Sam 10 months) we have always prioritised temperament. We will not compromise, as every Ridgeback we breed will go to live with a family, or have to mix with people at the very least. We love the fact that we can sell Ridgebacks to families, as we are confident that over the generations our Ridgebacks have always been lovely! We never breed from anything that is not ‘soft’. Ridgebacks have to fit into family life, and accept visitors, family, friends etc in their lives. That is not to say that they won’t chase rabbits or guard you if they have to – after all they are still Ridgebacks!
If
you would like to meet our lovely dogs in the flesh, and have a
chat about them, please call me for an initial chat and to
arrange a visit. |
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© Zejak Rhodesian Ridgebacks 2010
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