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Interview with Mrs. Susanna Wiles,
the owner of the Richbourne kennel
I had my first Labrador in Sweden in 1977 she was a big but well proportioned black bitch called Aroscas Funny Black Souvereign. Her sire was Sandylands Happy Jim and here my admiration for Mrs Gwen Broadley and the Sandylands line started.
In 1986 I moved to the UK and married my husband Richard who also has a passion for our lovely breed. We applied to the kennel Club for the affix Richbourne which is the first part of my husbands name Richard and the first part of our home Bourne Farm and so we had our new kennel name. We were fortunate enough to be able to buy a beautiful yellow bitch from the Jayncourt kennel – Jayncourt Earth Angel – her sire was Show Champion Sandylands Royal Escort. We also bought two bitches from the Rocheby kennel – Rocheby Play the Part and Rocheby British Wren. These three bitches formed the foundation of our kennel. A later addition was Lenches Graceful of Richbourne who joined us in 1997 and has proved to be a fantastic brood bitch. Her sire is Show Champion Sandylands Gad-About. The other addition was the yellow male imported form the Aroscas kennel in Sweden (where I had my very first Labardor from 25 years earlier!) - Aroscas Time Will Tell.
Both my husband and I judge Labradors at International level and have been fortunate enough to judge in may countries across the world as well as at numerous Championship show in the UK including Richard judging male dogs at Crufts in 2004 – the year when the Labrador won the gundog group!
On our website http://www.richbourne.com you can see a little more from our kennel.
I am the secretary of The Yellow Labrador of Great Britain which gives me a good insight to all aspects of out lovely breed as we organize both field trials and shows. This also gives us a chance to give back a little to the wonderful breed that has already given us so much.
1. Could you tell us about your kennel? How did you choose your first dog, did you associate your life with cynology right from the start, or since your first brood, when you experienced the miracle of whelping, and having traced the blind whining puppies growing into good natured dogs? How did you come up with breeding dogs professionally? How did this decision affect your life and life of your dogs?
Our kennel was started in 1986 when I first moved to the United Kingdom from Sweden. However both my husband and I had both had Labradors before this. I had my first Labrador in 1977, she was a black bitch called Aroscas Funny Black Souvereign. She was choosen by her breeders for us as we were beginners and needed all the guidance we could get, but we were very fortunate and she became a Swedish Champion. The first litter I bred was in 1980 and although this was a very difficult whelping we very much enjoyed bringing the puppies up to become good looking well socialized individuals who would go off to their new homes and make some people very happy and maybe even change their lives. When I moved to the UK my husband and I decided to base our kennel on Sandylands and Rocheby lines as we both admired the Labrador type and soundness of these two kennels. Since then we have enjoyed much success and heartbrake during our journey.
2. You have been successful with this beautiful breed for many years. How does modern Labrador of your breeding kennel differ from Labrador 30-40 years ago? What features of THAT Labrador did you keep and WHAT did you eliminate with no regret (if anything)?
Well, we can only really go back to the 70’s but I do think the Labrador today has much more class although some very peaculiar headshapes has crept into the breed. We have always tried to breed a Labrador of sound, true Labrador type with a typical head which is not overdone and with a kind eye of correct colour. We do very much like to see a correct coat texture with a typical otter tail and strong hindquaters.
3. What kinds of dogs do you prefer? Any color preferences? How do you form your breeding activities, just involve your own dogs or engage the ones from other breeding kennels and lines? What are the principles of breeding style? Do you often leave your dogs’ litters in your breeding kennel? What is the breeding time schedule of yours, or you just avoid planning ahead?
We like an oldfashioned type of Labrador with good head coat and tail. Powerful hindquarters and true movement.We have no colour preference although we have never bred or owned a Chocolate Labrador (but sometimes put them up when we judge – like when I judged in Moscow!). We put a lot of thought into our breeding programme which often is planned many years ahead with an idea of which bloodlines we would like to put together. There is no particular time of year which we breed. WE never leave a litter of puppies in the breeding kennel they are always born in the house and stay with us indoors until they leave when we start introducing our puppy/puppies to kennel life.
4. Do you experience disappointment, failures sometimes? What is the scale of successes and disappointments in dogs breeding like, i.e. what do you distinguish as your success, failure or disappointment?
Of course we experience disappointment and failure – we belive brreding is an art more than science.It certainly is character building to try and breed dogs as there are so many things that can go wrong and you just never stop learning. I can not tell you how many times I have said – “I will never have another litter of puppies!” But time lapses and you forget and learn that everyone else experiences the same rollercoater rides as you do. I think what makes it all worth while is when you manage to breed an animal which in your eyes is something that is very near to what you have been trying to achieve over the years and when the judges also see the qualities which you have created with careful breeding and planning over the years.
5. Could you part with your best breeder? Do you prefer buying or renting a male?
I could not part with my best breeder, as I said before we really only breeed for ourselves and a good breeder is your very best asset. We sometimes use other kennels males for stud on our bitches when we need new blood or find some compatible pedigree or type of Labrador to compliment our bitchline. We would not really buy a male from someone else in the U.K.
6. Who has a prior right to choose the first puppy, as a rule? Are you ready to grant the privilege of prior choice to a Russian customer? How does this right influence the price? Does such a right give any preferences to the potential owner? What’s your personal attitude to “the prior choice”? At what age do you make YOUR final choice?
WE would always have the first choice puppy as we only really breed for ourselves. Having said that we quite often run two puppies on and sell the second at a later date and this animal is often a fine example of the breed and we would be happy to sell this to any Labrador enthusiast with the right facilities to keep Labradors. If we only keep one puppy we would make the decision at around 6 weeks of age.
7. Do you refuse to mate your male dogs with bitches which, in your opinion, do not fit? What are your recommendations if any on copulations in refusal cases? How often do you mate your male? Do you prefer to mate your male with some distinguished bitch of another owner or with your own one, which may be less notable? What are your criteria for selecting the couple? Pedigree? And how specifically? Or phenotype?
Yes we would refuse to mate our male to a visiting bitch for a number of reasons; if she has a bad temperament or is very untypical of the breed, has not got good enough hip score or an eye problem (although these days with DNA testing with Optigen for detection of carriers of GPRA makes life a little easier and all our stud dogs have been tested and are all clear which means they can never produce a puppy with GPRA even if the visiting female is affected with GPRA!) We would also refuse a bitch if we deemed the pedigree to be unsuitable and would then try to advise what lines/stud dogs would be suitable for their bitch. We would mate our dogs twice a week at the most - obviously if a visiting bitch needs or wants more than one mating this could be more frequent but this is unusal and would only be with the same bitch.
It is always very flattering to be asked to provide a stud dog for a distinguished bitch of someone else but at the end of the day we keep our stud dogs to ensure we have the bloodlines which are important to our future breeding program. We obviously still use other kennels dogs quite frequently. I think the noticability of use of your stud dog on an distinguished bitch of somebody else or your own totally depends on the quality of the progeny that will be shown. When we select a stud dog we primarily select a dog on its pedigree. We are very keen on Labrador history and study pedigrees very closely and to learn what combinations of which bloodlines work etc. so we do breed quite closely sometimes which enables us to keep the type which we are trying to maintain.Occasionally we do what we would call a type mating where we go more on the similarity in type of the dogs you are mating this is when we do an outcross pedigree wise.
8. Is breed in general affected by explicit and inexplicit division of dogs into show and working dogs, or these are just different kinds?
The working and show breeders choose their puppies with totally different motives. The show breeder would look on conformation and main breed charictaristics whilst the working people would predominantly seek the best retriever in the litter often with little consideration to looks, hence the different appearances of these to lines of Labradors.
9. What is your attitude to the trend of having different breed types of Labradors? What would you assess first? What defects in dogs can you accept as a breeder and as a judge? When you are a member of board, do you regard a dog as a breeder or just a beautiful animal?
I really do not like any trend that has several types of Labradors – there is only one standard for the breed! Temperament and conformation is what I would assess first. It is difficult to say what defects I would accept – I can tell you what defects I really do not like which is untypical temperament. Labradors were bred to be mans servant and you really do not want a servant which is arrogant in any way! I also do not like light colour eyes in any colour Labardor. Cowhocks is also something I find disturbing when I judge and untypical tails and bad feet. A Labradors feet should be neat like a cats foot. When I judge I look upon the dog as a beautiful animal.
10. There is always a way to perfection? Is there any to your mind, or could the perfection be achieved in dog breeding? What kinds of dogs are the nearest to perfection?
I do not think perfection will ever be achieved, that is why we are still trying after all these years! In my opinion the two dogs closest to perfection that I have seen during my journey with Labradors are Show Champion Bradking Hugo and Show Champion Sandylands Bliss.
11. Have not you ever had an inspiration to mate a bitch with a male dog, which was neither exhibited, nor did it have any distinctive features? Do you follow your intuition? What was the result? Will you rely on your feelings in future?
I think this can be done provided the dog in question has a strong enough and good enough pedigree. There is not always the good lookers that are the good producers!
12. England is known to be a pioneer in Labrador breeding and exports. How do you fetch your new dogs lines? Do you import them? Where from? Is there a possibility you will be interested in dogs from Russia? Is to your mind there a trend to a steadfast increase in quality of dogs in Russia?
I think everyone is more open minded where they get new bloodlines from these days. Personally we have imported a dog from Sweden (Aroscas Time Will Tell) and he has proved to be a big asset in our kennel. I am sure I would be interested in Russian dogs in the future if they met the criteria I was looking for. I was most impressed with the quality of the dogs I judged when I was there in 2006 but as I had nothing to compare this with as I had not been judging there before it is difficult to say if there is an increase of quality dogs in Rusisa.
13. How many dogs should there be in breeding kennel for its steady development? What do you do with dogs you don’t use for breeding anymore? How do you treat different approaches towards exhibitions (ring system) with different international cynological organizations? Do you think the ring division of different colors Labradors is justified? Is it important for you what international organization will your puppy be registered in?
I think history has proven that it is very important for a breed to have some large breeding kennels with a knowledgeble person at the helm. Sometimes we re-home older dogs which we do no longer use in the showring or for breeding but most of them stay as retired pensioners in front of the fire in the house. Personally I do not think the ring system of different colours are justified. It makes it slightly easier to judge. It is not important which international organization my puppy is registered in as long as it well run and follows the rules set out by the Kennel Club of that country.
14. What is your attitude to edentates? If you use edentates for breeding, what is the maximum number of lacking teeth of a dog you have used at least once?
To me it is not really important if there are one or two or even three or four teeth missing. As long as the bite is correct – scissor bite I am quite happy.
15. Do you use to substitute puppy sold for breeding, if it appears to be different after growing? How do breeders proceed in such cases?
I am afraid with livestock that is a chance that anyone buying a puppy takes just the same as the breeder does when you run a puppy on. However if the puppy developed an eliminating fault we would offer a replacement puppy at the earliest opportunity.
16. How do you treat the point of view regarding existence of inter-breed Labrador types? Which types would you mark out personally? Do you consider the geography based isolation of types (as British, Scandinavian, American, etc.) as justified?
If to your mind the inter-breed types can be marked out, name their main distinguishing features if you please.
I am afraid I do not quite understand the first and last part of this question. I would consider geographically based types as justified simply because I believe an animal will adapt to where it is live in – climat etc and therefore a geographical type developes.
17. That do you think about Bolo pads? Is it deffect or not? There is nothing mentioned about Bolo pads in the Standard... So, will you mate dogs with these pads or you will mate the ones without them...
I do not believe Bolo pads to be defect and I would be quite happy to use a dog with Bolo pads for Stud.
Famous dogs of Richbourne kennel
Richbourne Star Light
Richbourne Old Macdonald
Richbourne Rock
Richbourne Roll of Honour (JW)
Aroscas Time Will Tell
Richbourne Blue Button
Richbourne Keep It Dark (JW)
Richbourne Kia Ora
Richbourne Finest Hour
Richbourne Blue Star
Lenches Graceful of Richbourne
Richbourne Time Flies
Rocheby Play the Part of Richbourne
Richbourne Lollipop
Richbourne Lorna
E-MAIL: labradorlumens@mail.ru
Moscow, Russia.
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