Pedigree Dogs – Featured Kennel – Hotratz Black Russian Terrier & Russian Toys
Ch Hotratz Camarillo Brillo _ Annual Ch 2011
We are Stephen & Debbie Long, and we were very honoured by Paul’s invitation to introduce you to the Hotratz Kennel, home of Black Russian Terriers and Ireland’s first IKC registered Russian Toys. We use the term “kennel” lightly as our dogs are not kennelled outside… our dogs are our friends and our family and as such we are firm believers in sharing our home and lives with them.
Being an animal lover from early childhood, with my greatest devotion being to dogs, upon leaving school I studied science and trained as a veterinary nurse. This led me to a number of interesting jobs and experiences including working for the SPCA and involvement with a number of societies and groups related to animal health, welfare and genetics… always with my dogs by my side. Ultimately I was very lucky and found a wife who shared my sentiments! So for the last twenty years we have always been a multi dog household. Over the years we’ve shared our lives with various breeds including Irish Terriers, Staffies, Yorkshire Terriers, Great Danes and a very special JRT, all of whom lived long natural lives.
Today we are fortunate enough to share our lives with two very special breeds, the Russian Toy and the Black Russian Terrier.
We discovered the Russian Toy six years ago when researching our ideal toy breed. We wanted a healthy natural little dog with terrier personality wrapped up in a tiny body. We couldn’t find good representatives of breed available in the UK and none in Ireland so not doing things by half did our homework, spoke to well respected breeders World wide and eventually imported our foundation Russian Toys from Russia, Belarus and Lithuania. While we were involved in showing intermittently over the years the arrival of our first RTs spurred us on to register our affix “HotRatz” with the Irish Kennel Club and FCI and formalise our involvement in Dogdom.
Over a period of 18 months we suffered the sad loss of our two Great Danes aged 11 and 12. Our home seemed empty without our larger than life girls, but with that dark cloud came the silver lining of welcoming into our home a breed that I fell in love with over a decade before and had never forgotten… the Black Russian Terrier, a breed that I will never be without. Our first BRT came from the “Kalaslane” kennel here in Ireland sired by their now breed record breaking multi-BIS winning Tsar. Our second BRT “Franz Josef “ came from Austria’s “Of Berryland” Kennel, record breakers in their own right with outstanding health results being the only BRT kennel recorded in which every litter is HUU clear.
In the last year we have had great fun and success on the show circuit; the highlights being our BRT boy becoming a Junior Champion within a matter of months of arriving in Ireland, and our very special home bred Russian Toy “Hotratz Camarillo Brillo” becoming an Irish Champion and being awarded the title of annual Champion 2011. We breed occasionally, and given both breeds are still in relative infancy outside Russia we feel a moral duty to only produce future generations whose health, temperaments and type make them good ambassadors. We are very careful about vetting any prospective owners and while we feel our breeds are the perfect dogs great and small, they are not for everyone. For the future happiness of our puppies and their would-be owners we always welcome questions, and are happy to share the pros AND cons of these very special breeds.More information can be found on our BRT Web site and our Russian Toy web site
743 total views, 1 today
