.
Rey and Shango
Yvonne, Biri
and Velika.
Brief Biographies
Yvonne was born in 1953, and grew up in NJ. She started learning about and training dogs in the 1960's. She and her collie Highground Tom Jones CD earned their first obedience title together in Feb of 1969. She started visiting borzoi breeders and going to shows to observe and learn about them in 1973; acquired her first borzoi, Gervaise, of Twin Elms and Majenkir breeding, from Majenkir kennel in 1975; relocated to Washington state; and started coursing him in the open field in CA the following year. She made the memorable long drives to CA by herself in her 1963 Chevy Nova wagon, while a college student. She did a lot of lure coursing with him too, in places as diverse as NJ, Delaware, PA, WA, and BC Canada. Gervaise was a unique and wonderful dog, and Yvonne has never had another quite like him even after all these years in the breed. She has continued with unabated enthusiasm for borzoi and for open field coursing since that time.
She was a student of the breed for
12 years before having her first litter, born in November of 1987. Since
then, she has successfully coursed borzoi of her own breeding in
several states. A dog of Valeska breeding, Valeska Unbridled Sea CC CM,
has taken top breed honors for three consecutive years; 2001, 2002, and
2003. Yvonne is still a student of the breed, continuing to learn every
day of her life spent with borzoi.
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Rey was born in 1956,and grew up
in various states across the US. Rey lived across the street from Yvonne,
but they were too shy to speak to each other, so they studiously ignored
each other for 7 years. Both of them moved away in 1991, but fortunately,
while Rey owned a horse boarding stable, he was "re-discovered" by Yvonne
while hugging his Arab filly Pixie in the spring of 1992. He married into
borzoi on July 17, 1993, and has been researching the history of the borzoi
breed ever since, as well as actively coursing and writing about breed
history and developement. Rey and Yvonne now live with their borzoi on
a small acreage.
Valeska has bred dogs earning top
honors in the open field and in the show ring, with individuals capable
of excelling at both. Open field performance will always be the most important
venue in our eyes, but nothing is more important than good health and good
temperaments. And no competetive venue is more important than the dogs
themselves.
About Our Breeding---Purpose and Priorities
We breed for our conception of the best possible borzoi, who will be beautiful and healthy in body and mind. We think that breeding for show purposes should always be secondary or tertiary to breeding for breed preservation, health, mental soundness, and athletic ability. Breeding , if done with the best interests of the dogs foremost in mind, is a costly and labor-intensive endeavor, to be engaged in out of love and cherishing of the breed and it's irreplaceable qualities, rather than from a desire to win at any cost, regardless of detrimental effects on the dogs themselves. We don't feel that dog shows alone are the best criteria for breeding mental and physical soundness. In fact, shows sometimes promote the reverse of these qualities; we don't believe that dog shows are a significant factor in preserving historic type, in producing healthy dogs, or in canine welfare.
First priorities in breeding should involve concern for health and temperament, because without those two things, all else becomes irrelevant, no matter how stellar a dog is in other respects. Keep in mind that temperament is breed specific, so good temperament for a laborador retreiver will be quite different than good temperament for a borzoi. Health issues also are breed specific, with problem areas in one breed being different than problem areas in another.
Following health and temperament,
our priorities are shaped by two things: the historic work of the breed,
and available historic information about the breed. Coursing hare, fox,
and less commonly, wolves, is the work the borzoi was originally bred to
perform. Hare was the predominant prey animal, and the closest activity
we have today to that original work is open field coursing on blacktailed
and whitetailed jackrabbits. Please see our Articles
page for articles about
OPEN
FIELD COURSING. This is not the same activity as lure coursing, which
involves dogs chasing after a plastic bag dragged by a machine; nor is
it the same activity as straight or oval track racing. It is true hunting,
involving the pursuit of native wild game, not planted game, which must
be searched for and coursed on it's own home territory. Our conception
of what qualities are required in an athletic borzoi is informed largely
by years spent coursing jackrabbits with our dogs in the open field, which
Yvonne began doing in about 1975. In the area of breed history, for the
last 10 years Rey has been researching breed purpose and developement in
Russia and the United States. He and Yvonne have written extensively about
their findings, and their work has been published world-wide and translated
into several languages. It too can be found on the Articles
page. Our site features a wealth of Historic
Borzoi Photographs and Historic
Borzoi Illustrations . There is also a compilation of Historic
and Current Breed Standards . The standards have changed in certain
aspects over the century-plus since their inception, and we have researched
these changes with concern for their effects on the historic form, size,
and coat of the borzoi.
(See Height
changes in the standards , WHAT'S
IN A NAME? , and other articles).
We find that open field performance
and historic breed information are compatable with and supportive
of each other. What we have learned about borzoi through our open field
coursing experience, in conjunction with what we have learned
from historic written information, photographs, illustrations, and the
standards, forms the basis of our breeding.
Our dogs have competed in the show ring and walked away with top honors; we enjoy their successes, but that is not why we have this breed nor is it the reason why we have dogs. We have dogs because we love the breed and the individuals, and we think that to hold firm to that idea is important in a world where competetive success often supplants the initial interest in the dogs themselves, and becomes the only goal and the only reason for having dogs.
Our dogs have also taken top honors
in the open field, which is much more meanigful to us. But the most meaningful
accomplishment to us is to produce beautiful long-lived healthy dogs who
are sound in body and mind and a joy to those who live with them. We bred
the first borzoi service dog, Ch.Valeska
Chase Clouds Away, who was also an AKC champion, an open field hunter,
and who lived to be 13 1/2 years old with no medication or major health
problems; we feel that his mental and physical qualities are truely a significant
achievement. In our opinion, breeding any breed should not be done
with winning as the primary goal and wins as the primary selection
criteria. All competition is only a small part of a dog's total life,
and it is the total life that we feel is the most important thing.
The rest, in the words of the immortal
bard, "...is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing."
Our goal: to produce healthy, athletic,
beautiful dogs, with the sensitive, quietly loving temperament and strong
coursing instinct typical of their breed; beautiful in body and mind; who
will be understood, dearly loved, well cared for, and have long, rich,
wonderful lives.