Beautifull Virus

First Old English sheepdogs...

When I  buy my first house, I immediately want a Old English Sheepdog, than 2, 3, 4, 5. I  breed them, show them with the greatest results, and discover that I can not have more than 5 in the high residential area where I lived !! But that we can have as many small dogs under 50 cm on shoulder that we want ..... and has elite breeder Fci allowed us 2 breeds maximum

Searching for Cotons !!!

So I decided to look for a second small breed, that I could have as much as we wanted !  I discover the coton with the picture of Alika in a dog magazine in France, I immediatly contact the owners a nice old couple that adore Alika and where living in Madagascar, so I learn that beautiful Alika was 7 years old and never had puppies…and would never have. Than I went to shows to discover the future father and mother of my perfect stud male. I was so disappointed by the very bad quality of the breed in the early years, legs turning out, totally cowhocked ,lack of pigment on noose and eyes , black or yellow coat or eyes , undershot or overshot  mouths,

Alika adult and baby  in begin of the 80ties - owner Mme Meillat -France
 

Finding THEOnes !!

It took me almost 2 years to discover Ch. James, and on the same Championship show, 2 very nice bitches, Saranoya and Rose Globule, my heart went to Rose . The breeder of the 2 females  agree to mate them both to James and to keep the best male of the 2 litters for show for me…
 

James one of the first beautifull coton and !st World champion coton  in Spain in  1982

But I have wait  another 2 years to  finally had my beloved Hutchinson (Chichi for the friends ). In the meantime I had  bought Rosa-Lee(adult bitch) and a baby girl called Tsara.         

World champion 1985-1986 &1988- 26 times champions and Best of Breed at the first speciality  National organized  in France for the breed with  78 cotons

 U Hutchinson du Domaine de Manakara

Woodland Cottage was ready to begin…I make plans for the future matings operating on 10 to 11 generations  !!!

Amelioring the breed

There was so much to do, to ameliorate the breed, that I did not know where to turn to begin so I try first to fix a type, work on the construction, and the temperament, which are the 3 bases of breeding a good dog… then begin to enter different cotons in our lines, from breeders that had also follows nice lines , some to ameliorate the coat - like Frederique Haberbusch?cotons , some for more pigment - like Annick Marquis -some for more temperament -as Nicole Chandelier , etc… the big responsibility I feel on my shoulders to work to make the breed better or worse, as you don’t see the results of your work immediately, and need a few years to realise if you did good or bad. The results we had in so many shows and so many titles gained from our cotons, their children and grandchildren comforts me until now. 

  Ithalique (lines Frederique Haberbusch) in Spain for more coat 

and Cherrye(lines Nicole Chandelier)for pigment and temperament

Checking the health of the cotons.

So I begin in the early nineties to check the health, I never tougth that such a small breed could have hips-dysplasia, but the German club made the hip examination obligatory and we discovered that cotons can be affected, mostly the males.our classifictaion is :the best A: not touched,B: almost not touched, C:  changings, D : touched and E: extremely touched. And we even find males in East countries, that where E extremely touched ....  This made us decide to check Patella, Rotula-luxation, eyes, murmur of heart, herpes and Brucellose on all our dogs.Well all the things that could be checked . 

Genetic Diseas and problems in the breed

Even with all our dogs checked there has been discover in the breed a lot of genetic faults that seems to come from the old age in Madagascar where no plan was follow to breed better dogs , so there is a big work to do to get ride of those sickness that some recessif can reapear even after  20 generations , just with a bad combination of mariage .

I can council to all the people that want to breed cotons to check all their staff for health and work only with dogs that are not touched, this will make the problems less and less with the age, going to final eliminations of all. 

For CMR , veterinary has just isolated a few years ago , the gene that is causing that problem so now it will be soon very easy to make a simple blood test to no the cotons that have that gene and can transmit the Rhetinal Displasia -

We all come from this !!!!!

one of the first coton  picture..

 Pti'lou  male coton de Tulear apartenant a Mer Petit Louis president du club a Madagascar jusqu a 1999- look at the long leggs and log body and noose

 want to insist on the fact that nobody is responsable of hillness that are and where in the breed before in Madagascar for ages , due to no breding plans  . I and other breeders that  work so hard and spend so much to check all genetic diseas possible to detect , are not responsable if diseas that reapear , we just have to go on with the figth  using only for breeding dogs that are free.We can do this now , but we coudl not have done it earlier, eliminating from breedign programs the dogs with problems woudl have eliminated the all breed that was only on reconstruction, and some very beautifull exemplars can not be take away or the breed would have been totally destroy .  Lucky on that moment we did nto know .

Time to retired ??? 

In 1995 I begin to have problems with my knee that was arthritis  and needed a handler to present my cotons. This was a heartbreak, because I could not live the suspense of the judgement and I had loose that so close intimity that I so much like in the ring with my cotons, some like Cherrye did not need any orders, she seems to feel through the leash what I wanted from her.She ever was teh greatets dog I ever had in show , need no leash , stand her head up so proudly and walk like a little lipizzan horse.One day a judge make me run  with her, and again , and again and again and I really begin to wooried what she could have find to make me do it so many times, , finally she ask me to do it just one more time ......just for the pleasure of her eyes .......Ok Lady you coudl say me quicker .....lol....

In 1998 My husband and me  decided to reduce shows and breeding and to go and live a peacefull retreat in Spain where the weather was better for my arthritis., that has bring me 2 times 2 months on a wheel chair .immediatly arrive there with the dry weather I could abandonned that chair that rosterd under the pool .....and come back to normal walking , if not too long 
We lived there for 5 years with a reduced staff , 3 females and 2 males , than my son decided to take also 3 females, and so we had a little more litters but less work because he was doing the work for his bitches .

When live change totally 

In begin 2004 my husband has a hart atatck and die very suddenly......I met him when I was 17 and stay together for 40 years, so this make a very big empty space in my live. After a few very bad mouths I decide to come back to shows and I engage a yong very promising professional  handler  from Vienna in Austria ....Claudia Nowak that breed Polish Lowland Sheepdogs

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Claudia with Bambino left and Jade Rigth at championship  Palma de Mallorca 

Back to shows

...Almost immediatly the combination of her beautifull professional handling and style that was well adapted to the breed  and quality of my dogs and experience , make the biggest succes in the shows, and in the 12 first shows, Claudia was 25 times on the podium for BEST IN SHOW  qualification. a NEW RECORD . I was running to give her every time another dog jong bitch Jade, adult male Bambino , Veteran Virus and couple jade and Bambino and Group the 3, and all the time I could ear the micro saying and BEST IN SHOW  3 -2 or 1 is the COTON DE TULEAR .......its was such a trill and such  a happiness for us both that we went to so many shows from october 2004 to may 2005, you can see all the results and pictures on each dog site.   

Bambino best group 9 show Sevilla 2005(Spain) competing BEST IN SHOW

The point we try to ameliorate now on the coton  is the front legs, that are many times not straight like the standard asks. As the standard ask for a breed that is longer than higher ,it can easily turn as a basset and we need to bring it a little higher to straigth the leggs and come more to briquet morphology.

We have in our actual dogs a very high º/º of straight legs and mixed more and more straight together to fix it….

****I want specially to thank my husband, that calls himself the 5th wheel of the car , I coudl not have acomplish all those trips without his precious help !!t

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my husband Ray rusting after show with Virus in 1998 

I wish to all the actual breeders and the next coming breeders that they can go on with the work to try to eliminate as many problems as possible for the heath of our adorable breed and that future will make them more and more beautfull as close as possible to perfection as perfection is impossible....dont forget to work also as well on the tempermanent ...

Micky , Proud to be ...

"Of Woodland Cottage " 

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