My involvement with Rottweilers goes back many years to the early 1970's when I first met Pat Lanz of the very successful Borgvaale Rottweilers. From very little I had always had an interest in animals of all shapes and sizes, my first passion was for horses but this soon moved onto dogs. As a youngster we had breeds of all shapes and sizes starting off with Labradors followed by a Bloodhound, Cocker Spaniel, Lhasa Apsos's and a GSP which gave me my first experience of the show ring. We bred a few litters of Cairn Terriers and showed them with moderate success at a time when the breed was dominated by the Redletters, Oudernarde and Unique Cottage kennels. Whilst still at school I was introduced to Pat Lanz of the famous Borgvaale Rottweilers, Hungarian Pulis and Komondors, who was looking for someone to help her at the shows and in her kennels, and so started many wonderful week-ends at her kennels and an introduction to the championship show scene. This was just before Hungarian Puli's received championship status and I was able to observe the hard work and determination that is involved in introducing a new breed into the country. Pat did not suffer fools gladly but she was single minded in her drive to improve the standard of Puli's I saw the good and bad of showing dogs and it probably taught me the danger of putting dog showing above everything. But it was the Rottweilers of Pat that started a love and interest that has remained constant through the many stages and changes in my life.
My job in the early stages at the shows was to sit on the benches with the dogs as Pat would never leave any of her dogs unattended. It did mean many hours of apparent boredom but so began a habit that still exists today and that was of reading show catalogues from cover to cover. It encouraged an ability to remember pedigrees and something that has enabled me to picture not only a dog's appearance but also its pedigree picture. I am always surprised that people go to shows and don't buy catalogues. I could not enjoy a show if I could not see how dogs are bred. Breeding is never easy and I have always been of the opion the better informed you are the easier life is. This has encouraged me to buy books of all different breeds and to follow the breeding and success of other breeds, I like to know how other people achieve there success.
Our first Rottweiler was as to be expected all Borgvaale breeding. Ch Nedraw Black Sunshine (Ch B. Lion City River at Ritonshay ex B. Sea Witch) was bred in Ireland by the late Fred Warden. She was to prove the best foundation bitch anyone could ask for. She is behind most of today's top winners and we are now seven generations on. I can still clearly remember the day we picked her up. Fred had brought the whole litter over from N.Ireland for Pat to sell and they were all running around in a large covered run. I had about ten minutes to pick my puppy as the next customer was on the way and I had no illusions that Pat had led them all to believe that they were getting pick of the litter. I was left alone in the big run with the milling black and tan hoard. I just plumped for the one that kept drawing me in. With hindsight I think I picked the one with the outline that appealed most. What may have seemed a random choice is the same method with a bit more refinement that has helped me to select all my puppies. I do not like to stack them I like to see how they hold their shapes on the move and how there character shines through. It is no good having beautiful conformation if you have not got the character to make the most of it. My choice couldn't have been that bad as Black Sunshine did have superb conformation and outline. She was superb mover but did have a rather plain head with large ears. She also had a superb temperament which was a must as she was joining a busy household as I was one of six children and a catalogue of other animals.
The Pendley kennel has always been very much a hobby kennel with only a litter bred every year or every other year. This has mainly been due to my full time occupation as a Police Officer. My 28 years spent in the force has seen 18 years spent on the dog section and thus experience the true meaning of a working dog. I think it is this experience that has always helped me to keep the true working heritage of our breed to the fore in our breeding programme and has led to us breeding some of the soundest moving dogs in the ring. Over the years I could not have done without the support of my mother who is a partner in the affix and has always been the expert in rearing puppies and producing the superb temperament for which our kennel is known. My mother has never judged which is a real shame as she has a good eye for a dog and it is always her approval that determines which pup to keep.
For Sunshine's first litter we obviously sought Pat's advice and she suggested Ch Chesara Dark Roisterer. The result was Ch Pendley Goldfinch who was to play a major influence in the successful Travillon kennel, Pendley Peregrine, the foundation bitch of the successful Hanbar kennel and our own Pendley Skylark who was to prove a superb brood bitch for the home kennel. For Sunshine's next litter we repeated the mating with the intention of keeping a dog ourselves, tragically we lost Sunshine when the pups were three days old with eclampsia. I don't think even after all these years in dogs that I have ever experienced anything as dreadful as that. We were left with eight puppies to hand rear. By this time I was working away from home and through the hard work of my mother and the rest of my family they were successfully reared and pendley Sunshine Boy was retained. Although little shown he would eventually sire a champion for us.
Skylark was shown with moderate success picking up a reserve CC but I was away from home a lot and getting time off for shows was not a top priority. Skylark was to have four litters. Three of her litters were to father, son and grandson, Chesara Dark Herod, Ch Chesara Dark Charles and Ch Caprido Minstrel of Potterspride, respectively. Her first litter was to Charles, one of the top producing dogs in the breed. She had mainly dogs and probably there were some champions among them but we were looking for a bitch and the one we kept was nice but not quite good enough. All the rest went off to pet homes. Our policy has always been to only breed from the best possible. Because we have wanted to keep our numbers down we have only bred from bitches that are capable of winning in the show ring. Her second litter to Herod only contained four puppies and again the bitch we kept was not as good as her mother so she stayed, but not bred from. Finally in her third litter we bred the bitch I had been looking for. To Minstrel she produced Ch Pendley Jasmin and Pendley Jacob of Charldane. Jasmin was a beautiful bitch, she had the head and type I had been trying to introduce but with the good movement, a hard combination to get in our breed. Jacob was little shown by his owner but he went on to be a top sire with several champion children and was to figure in our future breeding plans. For Skylark's last litter we chose a total outcross in a German import Eiko v.d. Zigeunerinsel at Herburger. From this litter we chose a beautiful dog Pendley Leopold who tragically had a bad accident at twelve weeks and was not shown. He also was to figure in future plans.
We have always believed in line-breeding with a judicious outcross now and again and any resulting progeny bred back in closely. This was the plan but with dogs it doesn't always go as planned. I always kept the dogs we were showing and all the rest stayed with my mum in Kings Lynn and when bitches came into season they would go up to the home kennel so not as to distract my Police Dogs. I had been showing Jasmin successfully and she had already won a ticket and was looking forward to campaigning her throughout the year. She came in season and when on her hols to Norfolk. Here fate took a hand, the tenacious ten month old Leopold managed to get through two doors and much to my mum's surprise she found the pair of them tied in the kitchen. If you had wanted to use a dog as young as this he would never had managed it. It took a while before my mum had the courage to ring and tell me that my promising show dog was possibly going to be in whelp to a ten month un-x-rayed dog. Once I got over the shock I had to be realistic that at least they were compatible and by the time the pups were born we would have had him x-rayed. We didn't consider any injections as I do not believe in messing about with this sort of thing. We kidded ourselves that she would miss but Murphy's Law took hold and she produced a litter of nine. From this matting came Pendley Gudrun, who had just the one litter but this was to prove important.
Jasmin recovered from her litter and went on to be made up. For her next and final litter she was put back to Pendley Sunshine Boy and the result was the beautiful Ch Pendley Bertha made up at just two years of age.
Pendley Gudrun won as a puppy but all my efforts were concentrated on campaigning her mother. I have never believed in trying to show lots of dogs I usually like to have one adult and one puppy and concentrate all your efforts on these. We decided to put Gudrun back to her uncle Pendley Jacob who was siring some lovely puppies. They complemented each other really well, Gudrun was a large angular bitch just lacking in head, where as Jacob was a smaller, short backed dog with a beautiful head. I think this was one of our better decisions as it produced the dominant stud dog Ch Pendley Winston.
Ch Bertha was to have three litters. The first produced some good winners in the ring but nothing that bred on, which is my real test of a good litter. Her second was to Hanbar Dasko a son of Ch Poirot Wham. Wham was one of those dogs that were such a good sire but I always held back from using him as he was superbly typy but did not have the freedom of movement that I like in my dogs. This I feel was probably a big mistake and I will always admit when I am wrong and consequently went on to use two of his sons with good results. The litter to Dasko produced Pendley Mackenzie and Pendley Martha. Mackenzie was to prove a very successful sire and lived with great friends and supporters of our kennel Maurice and Pat Wykes of the Revalley Rottweilers. Pendley Martha went to again good friends in Anwar Hanfullzah and Denise Williams of Luthuli Rottweilers and she went onto win a ticket. It is these forms of friendship that enable a small kennel like ours to exist. We do not like to keep many dogs and do not believe in breeding terms. We have found it far more effective to let friends have dogs from us and at some point in the future bring dogs back into the home kennel. This can only be done with people you trust and like and certainly doesn't work if money is the prime consideration.
Bertha's final litter was a bit of a gamble for me as it was a very close mating to Ch Pendley Winston. Type wise they suited each other superbly but it was a bit closer than I would usually like to go. The result was a lovely litter, Pendley Willow stayed with us and Pendley Wallis went and joined Maurice and Pat Wykes. Willow was one of my great heart breaks she had everything I wanted. She had the size, substance, beautiful head and everything I could have hoped for from this litter. Tragically she ruptured a cruciate ligament at a young age. She did go on to win two reserve CC's from junior before having to have her leg operated on , followed shortly by the other leg. Cruciates are a big problem in our breed and the hard decision was taken not to breed from her and she was spayed. She remained lovely to the end and I still don't know if I made the right decision but at least my conscience was clear. Fortunately we still had Wallis and she was mated to the Wham son Ch Fernwood Horatio, who was producing some very nice puppies. The puppies were registered as Pendley's but Maurice and Pat did all the hard work of rearing the pups. The result was my ever favourite Ch Pendley Pansy Potter, Pendley Poacher of Revalley, a very good sire and and Chilean Ch Pendley Pioneer. At the same time Denise and Anwar's Pendley Martha had had a litter to Romanmoor Wandering Star and the result was Ch Majical Mabel of Pendley.
For Ch Majical Mabel's first litter we used the lovely German import Ch Quinn vom Kummelsee. From this Pendley Be True has bred a champion for the Dortmund kennel when put back to Jordan.
We were then fortunate that Maurice and Pat let Wallis come to the home kennel to have another litter. She was mated to an extremely typy and dominant stud dog in Schutzer The Norseman and produced the present top stud in the breed for the last three years in Ch Pendley Jordan and Nor Ch Pendley Julius. Wallis was a large beautifully constructed bitch and put to two short backed typy dogs it really clicked. I have always found that the large sounder bitches always prove excellent brood bitches. The Norseman was a son of the very successful Ch Svedala The Scandinavian. Like with Wham before I held back and regretfully didn't use The Scandinavian when maybe I should have done on Bertha.
The Norseman to Wallis litter was so successful that I decided to put The Norseman to the Wallis daughter Ch Pansy Potter. This proved to be a very productive litter producing Ch Pendley Lionel, Pendley Lydia of Schutzer, Pendley Louis and Pendley Lancelot of Heldenhauss all who have gone on to produce successful offspring for their owners. For Pansy Potter's next litter I used a dog with an outcross line in Hanbar Nexus. This produced Swedish CH Pendley Rough Justice at Svedala and the dual CC winning Pendley Rough Rider at Kristalins.
For Ch Majical Mabel's second litter I decided to use Jordan which resulted in the dual CC winning Pendley New Vision and for her third and final litter I used Ch Pansy Potter's litter brother Poacher and produced Sarah Garrett's CC winning Pendley Douglas.
For Pansy's last litter I really wanted to breed my self a dog that would compliment Jordan's children. Jordan was proving a superb stud dog for type and movement but ironically the hip results of his progeny were not as good as I had hoped or as good as his breeding suggested. So I decided to try and breed a dog that would be suitable for Jordan daughters. I decided to go back into old English lines and used the all conquering NZ CH, AUST CH and CH Rolex Rumour Has It By Fantasa. He is of old English breeding with lines going back to Goldfinch and Winston. The result has been Karen Lewis's CC winning Pendley Stanley and our own Pendley Sinbad RES CC and JW, both who are young dogs but are beginning to show much potential as stud dogs. Already Sinbad has been mated to four Jordan daughters with great success a son has just won his first ticket and the first hip scores have been excellent. It's lovely when a plan works.
At present the kennel houses just five Rottweilers, the veteran champions Jordan, Majical Mabel and Pansy Potter and the comparative youngsters New Vision and Sinbad. We have always tried to keep our numbers down and the emphasis has always been on quality not quantity. The future is exciting with semen from an American and Canadian champion dog stored and a good working relationship with an American kennel will hopefully bring some fresh blood into this small kennel. Our first tailed litter to a three quarter bred German dog is anticipated. Yes we will never break any records for champions bred or multiple CC winners as our dogs are retired shortly after achieving their titles. but we think that we have achieved a tremendous amount on a very restrictive breeding schedule. More importantly we have produced Rottweilers that have had real influence on the breed and have the temperament and movement that we are proud to have bred.
My advice to anyone trying to get started is not to get carried away. Do your research, buy the best bitch possible and take advice from an experienced breeder and do not collect dogs. I am always amazed to see how quickly people acquire dogs and after only a few years in the breed they have a kennel full of substandard dogs and then proceed to breed them together and then complain when they don't win in the ring. I have always tried to use the best dogs possible and would travel anywhere in the country if it is the dog I wanted. Study pedigrees and learn by other people's mistakes and successes.
Joanne Johnson (MBIPDT)
(Dog World Aricle August 2007)