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!  

Celebrations are in order as we are thrilled to share our news in from the Bath Championship Show 2015.  Jane and Lana (Colkeririn Indigo Lightly at Lonaza) have today won the Limit Bitch Class (of 11) and gone on to win the Reserve Bitch Challenge Certificate under breed specialist Janet Parker from Rejan!

This makes a hat-trick of Stud Book Number wins this year for the 3 Indie x Bhali litter mates who have gone into the show ring - all before they are 23 months in age! We are so proud of Jane and Lana and wish we had been there to celebrate with them in person.

A Reserve Challenge Certificate carries the following wording which a judge has to sign their name to:  "Having assessed the dogs and penalised any features or exaggerations which I consider detrimental to their soundness, health or welfare, I am clearly of the opinion that <<Colkeririn Indigo Lightly at Lonaza >> (Name of exhibit) owned by <<Ms Jane Hawkins, Mr John Smith and Mrs Kim Hodge>> (Name of Owner/s) is of such outstanding merit as to be worthy of being awarded the Challenge Certificate should the Challenge Certificate winner be disqualified.  

Lana won the biggest attended class of the day (10 with 1 absentee) and won her RDCC from a bitch entry of 50. The overall entry was 84 Rhodesian Ridgebacks.   

Congratulations to all the winners of the day!

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:

** Kamba's Going to be a Daddy * Puppies Due June 2nd **

We are very happy to make the exciting announcement for Janet Larkin of Msaka Ridgebacks that her beautiful liver nose girl Asha (Faahac Royaal Finesse) is in whelp with at least 8 wriggling wonders sired by our handsome boy Kamba (Colkeririn's Sunlight).  Janet was so happy Asha was in whelp she stopped counting at 8 when Asha was being scanned recently!  

Puppies are due on June 2nd.   Janet is accepting enquiries about the litter.  We are happy to pass enquiries on, or to contact Janet directly, her details are on our announcement photo below.   

We'll be sure to share some photos of this beautiful combination once they are born. We take huge responsibility in breeding and Kamba will only be used on selected, health tested bitches with good hip and elbow scores. We are honoured Janet should have selected Kamba to sire Asha's first litter.   As our announcement says, 2 beautiful parents with 4 stunning grandparents - we have excellent knowledge of the dogs behind both Asha and Kamba and have fully documented health test results for several generations behind them.

Asha:  (Faahac Royaal Finesse) Elbows:  0/0   Hips:  4/5 = 9

Kamba: (Colkeririn's Sunlight)     Elbows:  0/0   Hips:  3/4 = 7

Both Asha and Kamba are tested for and clear of Degenerative Myelopathy.

Good Luck to Janet and Asha!  

We like to remind ourselves regularly of our breed standard, so I thought I'd make an inclusion on the Rhodesian Ridgeback head.  Here is our UK breed standard for heads:

Now, Lana is not in repose in this shot, but we think she has a strong head, yet it remains feminine, her stop (the part that changes plain between the top of the head and the muzzle - between the eyes) is nicely defined.  We love her depth of muzzle and to me, she has enough cheek, but not too much. (Of course I'm referring to her facial cheek and not character cheek - that she has an abundance of!)

I'm pretty sure in a former life this youngster was a supermodel, because she has the ability to look right into the lens, perhaps those beautiful eyes can see the shutter opening and closing, and like any good sighthound is stimulated by the tiniest movement.  

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: