01 Breed Notes – January 2023

At the end of October, I wrote that what had initially looked like a reasonable number of puppies being born had come to a standstill – and I wasn’t wrong. Initially, puppy registrations started to look promising with 9 litters being born by the beginning of May, but then that was it with just 6 litters born in the last 7 months of the year.

So for 2022 we ended up with just 15 litters born, resulting in only 60 puppies – 32 dogs and 28 bitches; with at least a whopping 12 ‘misses’ although I’m 100% sure that ‘miss total’ in reality is even higher. Contributing to that number were just three unproven males and 6 maiden bitches.

Last year there were only 3 bitches having their first litter, 5 having a second litter and an astonishing 5 litters were repeat matings. The same goes for the males. There were only 3 boys being used at stud for the first time and 2 males were siring their 7th and 10th litters. All of which will do absolutely zilch to improve our virtually non-existent gene pool.

Apart from there have been more bitches missing for whatever reason; litter sizes have also been smaller. Eleven out of the fifteen litters born (75%) have been five puppies or fewer – or just 4 litters with over 6 puppies; which is as equally worrying as the number of matings which have resulted in no puppies whatsoever.

On an even more worrying note, apart from a couple of litters due shortly, I don’t know of any litters ‘in the pipe-line’, meaning ‘no buses turning up’ any time soon. We really do need a miraculous puppy explosion if the breed is to continue in any shape or form and I really just can’t see that happening.

Ron Nuttall sadly passed away last week; both Ron and his wife Doreen (with her renowned baking) supported the Club for many years. I think that I’m correct in saying that they only owned Keesie males, their most ‘famous’ being Keesland Jumping Jack Flash of Vandorne. Although only winning one CC himself as he didn’t like showing, he sired 6 Vanwall champions in 2 litters and can be found behind most of today’s Keesies. Ron was last seen in show ring with Ch Desanti Nijinsky of Vandorne in the mid 00’s.

I’ve just heard that Len Howie also passed away just before the New Year, more to follow in my next notes.

Anji Marfleet