Hi, welcome to my web site. My name is Sharron Taylor and I'm currently semi-retired (doing some casual work for a drug and alcohol testing company) but previously was a veterinary nurse, married to James (who can't sing believe me!) a veterinary pathologist. We have a son Nathan, born January 1989 and live just outside Launceston, Tasmania since October 2013. Previously we lived in Queensland.
I was first introduced to the Rhodesian Ridgeback breed back in 1977 when a veterinarian came to treat my horse and he had with him a largish (tall) elegant, short coated, muscular dog which was wheaten in colour, had this funny hair on it's back and was well behaved! After this initial meeting with the breed I then decided to look for one of these creatures to show. As I had been exhibiting my mums Labrador Retrievers for some time I decided that this would be "MY" breed. The veterinarians dog was actually a show dog and was exhibited by his wife and she always exhibited the dog in "short shorts" and "high heels"!
It took about 2 years to track down the "type" I envisaged was correct for the breed and in early 1980 my first RR became a reality. He was to become Ch. Chilolo B Hottentot. A tall elegant, red wheaten dog with fantastic side gait. He was a Multiple Class in Show, Best Exhibit in Group, Runner-Up Best Exhibit in Group winner at Championship All Breeds shows - I was hooked.
Whilst I was awaiting the arrival of a female my male met with an untimely death and that only made me more determined to really "get into this breed". So in late 1981 the female arrived and became Ch. Sixemm Sweet Thing. "Imushla" really was the most dominant matriarch you could imagine! Nevertheless she excelled in topline and depth of chest, something we have been able to keep, many generations later.
My ideal RR has always been an elegant, agile, muscular, well balanced, good tempered, short coated sound dog. All breeding stock are hip and elbow x-rayed and scored. I place great importance on hips being better than the breed average as this is the only way we as breeders can ever hope to reduce the incidence of CHD. I have also proven this can be done without sacrificing type with Multiple BIS/BISS/RUBISS/RUBIS winners with hip scores much better than breed average. I am not prepared to sacrifice soundness of limb or mind for anything. Canine Hip Dysplasia (CHD) by it's nature has been described as biochemical in that it is basically controlled by those chemical transmitters of inheritance called genes, and biomechanical in that it is influenced strongly by physical stresses. Hip Dysplasia as the name suggests occurs when there is a degree of dysplasia (looseness) in the hip region. The femur (the head of the thigh bone) does not fit correctly into the socket, which it is meant to fit snugly into. You should insist, when purchasing a puppy, that both parents have been x-rayed and scored either by the AVA (Aust. Veterinary Assoc.); GSDL/BVA; Dr G. Allen or Dr Rawlinson and ideally as many generations as possible behind the sire and dam as you can find. The current breed average for hip dysplasia is 7; therefore you would be wise to only purchase a puppy from a litter where both parents have a hip evaluation of between 0 and 7. Similarly, elbows suitable for breeding should be either 0 or 1. Elbows of 2 are acceptable but these must be bred to a 0. Scores of 3 or over are not suitable for breeding.
From late in 1989 to early 1991 our family lived in Ames, Iowa (USA) whilst my husband undertook a Masters Degree in Veterinary Pathology. We travelled and saw a lot of the USA during that time but I just had to have a RR fix whilst there. So I took myself out to San Diego for a week and took in an All Breeds show and also the Orange Coast Specialty. I was fortunate to find a bed for the week at Peggy Davis' place "Neema Kennels". It was during this week in San Diego I finally decided to bring back to Australia frozen semen from Am. Ch. Mbada's Mhondoro of Iskandar TT (USA). Frozen semen from "Leo" (owned by Jan Ayers, Texas) has proved invaluable to our kennel breeding plans. We have found that his sire Am. Ch. Rob Norms Shara G Dagga ROM has been very influencial through "Leo". To date "Leo's" frozen semen has been used 5 times for litters of 3, 8, 12, 9 and 10. We look forward to using more of his semen in the coming years.
