Happy Christmas to our Family and Friends.

It is with great pleasure we can share the safe arrival of Verde and Kamba's litter - born on Monday, 24th August 2015, Verde did a wonderful job whelping all 12 puppies in 6 hours and 50 minutes!   Her final count is 8 girls and 4 boys.   Kamba sat outside the whelping room the whole time, as did new grandpa Colby, seemingly waiting on the news!   

We are very happy with the litter and how they are growing - a very content and peaceful bunch and Verde, despite not liking her whelping box much at first, soon realised it was a safe place to keep her flourishing brood, and is proving to be an excellent first-time mother.

 

Planned Litter Summer 2015

Verde & Kamba (above) are expecting puppies!! 

Verde has been scanned and is confirmed in whelp with at least 12 puppies!  Her due date is on or near to August 21st.

This is a larger litter than we anticipated, so we are accepting additional enquiries through our Contact Us page on this website from families seriously interested in owning one of our puppies.

This is our first Colkeririn to Colkeririn breeding, and brings together the beautiful American lines behind Verde's father Colby and Kamba's mother Indie, all supported by the best of British behind Kamba's father Bhali and the old African lines behind Verde's mother Keira - a long awaited combination. 

Verde and Kamba both live with us in our home along with Verde's father, Kamba's mother and two aunties!  We have detailed health test results on several generations behind Verde & Kamba who are both hip and elbow scored with great results (see test results on "Our Dogs" page), they are both tested and clear of Degenerative Myelopathy and are both tested with High Confidence Clear results on EOAD.  (Early Onset Adult Deafness).

We are therefore hoping for a dozen (maybe more!) happy, healthy puppies next month!  

We are so proud to share some photos of Kamba and Ashas' babies who we had the joy of meeting this week.  10 content, relaxed and adorably well natured puppies - and not to mention absolutely beautiful!  Asha is a wonderful mum and Janet, myself and Kamba couldn't be more proud of them all.  

Who doesn't love a photo of a beautiful litter of Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies!  

Janet and Asha, Kamba and I are proud to share our happy news that Asha has whelped 10 “very strong and determined” and apparently “stunning” puppies.  5 boys and 5 girls; 7 with correct ridges, 3 ridgeless, no kinks, no Dermoid Sinus detected so far, 2 possible livers.  

We haven't met the puppies yet, but Daddy Kamba, Grandma Indie and I are relieved and delighted they are all happy, healthy and even sized babies, and that Asha has taken to motherhood with such ease.  Janet tells us Asha’s even injected a little comedy into her whelping box routines by hiding food to snack on, and was caught being such a determined mum to get food to them that she dropped a bread roll on top of them!  

We are so grateful for the photos from Janet, and are so proud of the wonderful job that she and Asha are doing - they are looking fabulous - we absolutely can't wait to meet these little wonders!  

We are absolutely delighted to read the critiques for both Colkeririn's Sunlight and Colkeririn Indigo Lightly at Lonaza from the recent Championship Show, WELKS 2015 judged by breed specialist Liz Storey (Kiromol).   

Kamba won the Limit Dog Class (entry 13 with 4 absentees) and went on to win his second Reserve Dog Challenge Certificate (at his 2nd consecutive Championship Show) and his litter sister Lana placed 2nd in the Limit Bitch Class (entry 15 with 3 absentees).  

For anyone who has observed Liz's judging, you will notice she is as thorough with her hands on the dogs as she is critical with her eye, so we were delighted she acknowledged what she saw and felt on both youngsters. 

Kamba:

Colkeririn's Sunlight (Kamba) and Colkeririn Indigo Lightly at Lonaza (Lana) had a fabulous day at W.E.L.K.S. 2015 on Saturday, 25th April.  The sun managed to keep shining on our youngsters who both showed their way to excellent placements under Breed Specialist Liz Storey (Kiromol).   Kamba won the 9-strong Limit Class and went on to win the Reserve Dog Challenge Certificate - his second RDCC in two consecutive championship shows for him (we didn't get to Hound Assoc Scotland) and Lana placed 2nd in her well stocked Limit Class, placing behind the day's BCC winner.  Here's Lana standing for her judge's critique - we are so proud of her and Jane.

     

Kamba's show career since leaving the Junior Class has been a real thrilling journey.  Still at only 21 months, this is Kamba's 4th class win and 2nd RDCC under Breed Specialists at Championship Show level (in only 8 Champ Shows we've attended - where he's placed in the cards at every show):

Gillian Mitchelson (Voortrekker) 1st PGD Hound Assoc 2014

Sue Campbell (Nyassa) 1st PGD LKA 2014

Gill Lawless (Faahac) 1st PGD and RDCC Crufts 2015

Liz Storey (Kiromol) 1st Limit and RDCC WELKS 2015.  

Under 2 more Breed Specialists he's been placed 2nd:

Gill Hutcheson (Gabisa) 2nd PGD Bournemouth 2014

Charlotte Strickland (Voortrekker) 2nd PGD Richmond 2014.  

We are so grateful this first class group of ladies with so much combined experience and knowledge of our breed appreciate Kamba, so much thanks for keeping us smiling on our journey!  Although we can't attend every Championship Show in the year, we are looking forward to what has started out to be a really exciting 2015 for us!   

Colkeririn Rhodesian Ridgebacks are raw fed dogs.  We have recently discovered a fabulous source of Coconut Oil which we supplement our dogs' diets with, by adding a tablespoon to their morning feed.   We enjoyed recently meeting Garry Stiven, CEO at Coconoil.co.uk, and are thrilled to bits to be included in Garry's company website in a recent blog entitled "Coconuts for Canines".  

We highly recommend this product - read all about it's health benefits at: http://www.coconoil.co.uk/blog/

Our Crufts 2015 experience keeps on giving! We are thrilled to be able to share our two fabulous critiques for Rhodesian Ridgeback litter mates Kamba (Reserve CC) and Lana (2nd Place Yearling Bitch).  Our breed specialist judge Gill Lawless (Faahac) created not just a magical day at the NEC for what seems like her entire Rhodesian Ridgeback entry, but has also delivered a beautifully, comprehensively and throughly written set of critiques which have most certainly put smiles on our faces!  

We have picked this photo by Lena Piehl as an excellent one to look at as you read Kamba's critique, we can easily follow Gill's description as she considers his form:

And here's Lana's:

CRUFTS 2015 - What a day for Colkeririn!! (Show ring photos by kind permission of Lena Piehl)

The world's largest dog show attracts the biggest breed entry of our year at Championship Show level.   With visitors in attendance from all over the globe, we wanted to step into Breed Specialist Gill Lawless (Faahac)'s ring in the best condition we could, so in January ramped up our training to ensure we were all in tip top shape!

Although Colby qualified, we decided to focus on Kamba and Rio for Crufts 2015.  Kamba was first off the benches and gaited confidently into the ring to take his place in the 16 strong Post Graduate Class, he demonstrated his form enough to take the class and win our first ever Crufts red ribbon! (Rio won a RBCC in 2012 as the 2nd placed bitch in Open Class).  A short time later Kamba was back in the ring for the Dog Challenge.  

Standing amongst some truly magnificent dogs and soaking up the wonderful atmosphere which surrounded our ring was a magical feeling enough, but when Gill walked up to us and asked for a down and back to assess his movement one more time we felt elated.  Kamba rose to the occasion and gaited enthusiastically with his powerful reach and drive, we stood back in line and watched carefully as Gill considered her line up.  She awarded her DCC to her Open Dog class winner, a handsome dog from The Netherlands, and then to our absolute delight awarded the Reserve Dog CC to Kamba.  Gaining a Kennel Club Stud Book number under a breed specialist of Gill's calibre at Crufts just doesn't come any better!

Rio was the very next class of the day and amongst all the excitement we were both a little over exuberant and after flying round the ring were delighted to be awarded 3rd Place in Veteran Bitch behind two spectacular Grand Dames who we've stood alongside in the ring for several years now.  

Our beautiful Lana who we co-own with Jane Hawkins and John Smith was next up in Yearling Bitch and with tears in my eyes as I watched Jane and Lana standing to perfection, let out a shriek of excitement when they were awarded 2nd Place in a 12-strong class.  Not only that, Kamba and Lana's litter brother had also won 2nd Place in the Yearling dog class earlier that morning, so all in all the pops just couldn't stay in the bottles any longer!  We enjoyed a toast with friends from far and wide to our fabulous dogs, to Indie (at home) whos babies had won a 1st, RDCC, and two 2nd places, to Rio on teaching Kamba how to take it all in his stride, and to the great success of a fabulous day!  Congratulations to all who qualified, placed and won top honours on the day and thanks and gratitude to our judge Gill Lawless for her impeccable ring management and manner with our dogs.