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The History to date of Glenvarlock

Russian Black Terriers have not been the sole breed of the Glenvarlock lines. We originally started out in Great Danes over 20 years ago, with our first being Connor, a large miss-marked harlequin his health was an issue, having entropia epilepsy and being deaf but he was a gentle giant.

We increased our Dane numbers with rescued and bought Great Danes over the many years.

Rescued Danes included:
• Becky. Another miss – marked harlequin, who came covered in soars and burns, starved and unknown to us, pregnant. She delivered 3 blue harlequin puppies who went to new homes but the birth finished poor Becky, and her little body gave up when the puppies were only a few weeks old no matter how we tried.
• Thor. A large leggy starved black male who lived to the good age of 8 years old. He was a third of the weight he should have been when he came to live with us, and jumped at the slightest noise or movement.

Bought Danes included:
• Garrick a large fawn male.
• Angel a black bitch.
• Morgan a beautifully marked harlequin.
• Heidi a deep fawn bitch.

It was with Heidi that we decided to venture in to the world of dog shows. Unfortunately never having any great wins, her highest placing being a second, but we had fun and made many friends of which we still have a few good ones. Through her breeding though we increased our Great Dane pack with the introduction of her daughter Glenvarlock Sinead, a.k.a. Finley.

With the deaths of Heidi (2004) and Thor (2005) we decided they would be our last Great Danes, but when they passed they left such a hole in our hearts we had to buy another. So in 2005, ‘Prudence’ aka ‘Puddin’ aka ‘Ebonory Russian Romance at Glenvarlock’ came to stay. With Prudence the story of the Glenvarlock Danes goes on, as does the ever expanding world of Glenvarlock Russian Black Terriers.

To the RBTs now. In 1998 while attending Crufts, we took the chance to run around the Discovery Dogs stands. We were not looking for anything in particular just curious to see the other breeds of dogs, as we had never had the chance to do this before.

As we perused the stands we came across a breed that we immediately fell in love with, and in truth we never thought we would say that about any breed of dog other than Great Danes. We spoke in great length to the lady that was manning the stall that day, about the booth, the photos on the walls and the history of this relatively new breed. We later discovered to our surprise that the woman that had been so helpful that day was Janet Huxley, secretary of the Russian Black Terrier Club. Janet did tell us her name but we were so excited about this breed of dog and all the information she had provided us with that we forgot her name.

We decided this was defiantly the breed for us; we did our homework and in 2002 brought our first Russian girl home, Armshead Ariadna of Glenvarlock, a.k.a Aaliyah at the tender age of 11 weeks. She was joined by Katie a.k.a. Tiggis Ur Sae Majoris of Glenvarlock, bred by Peter and Louise Dugdill of the Tiggis Kennel. Soon to be followed by Shedevr in 2006 and we are really looking forward to showing him in the ring.

In September 2003, we mated Aaliyah to Bibi, CH Ital, Int & JWW Babyllon Cierny Sen at Lisander, who was in the UK at the Robroyd kennel for a short time. On the 10th of November 2003, 15 puppies were born, seven girls and eight boys all black. We kept two of Aaliyahs pups ‘Poppy’ and ‘Mina’.

Over 2004 we campaigned Poppy and Mina at many shows, they constantly took first and second places, only swapping with each other on most occasions for top place. To our joy Mina took top import puppy 2004 only beating Poppy by 1 or 2 shows. We also keep a constant eye on as many of Aaliyahs other pups and how their show careers are developing and it fills us with great pride when any of the Glenvarlock off spring do well.

New to the fold, sayuri the newfie, Benkerin Sweet Child of Mine, her first show will be SKC in may 2008

And so the Glenvarlock story goes on.

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