it's all about the dogs!
This page is about how we started in the breed,what we have done to improve our own programme and our breeding plans moving forward.I won't lie,this breed can be a money pit,especially if you are a breeder and it can be full of issues at times but there is quite simply no other breed as good as it.
In 2002 we started looking into this breed,in 2003 we managed to get our old original,Celtic Connection Razina.After spending some time with her and knowing other dogs we decided to move from showing and breeding the Akitas to trying to breed Boerboels,really good Boerboels!
We bought in another 2 dogs,health issues affected both so they were removed from the breeding programme.Our next step was to whelp a litter down for Anthea Jones of Celtic Connection and we are really glad to say that this secured wee Mopsa for us,she was a half sister to our own Razzy.
Our next dog brought in was when I made a trip to Belgium and brought back Vrystaat Surprise ,a South African bitch.Our last foundation bitch was Immer Moed Anne and we made the trip to Holland to bring her into the Sandaharr family.
So,we had our foundation girls,all related in some way,Razzy was half sister to Mopsa,sharing Siglensal Mayhem as their dam.Razzy was half sister to Annie,sharing Voel Gerus Fritz as their sire. Prizey was the grandmother to Annie and so began our journey.
Our first litter was born after flying in Nico Fernout from Holland to A.I. Razzy,using a dog called Marvell Buster(II) aka Loebas.After this litter I was put in contact with Craig Bloom of Ataraxia Kennels in Australia and for over 8 years now we have worked together,he is a rare thing,a mentor that allows you to make your own mistakes,and we have,and he will still support us.We had frozen semen shipped in early 2006 and that started us down on the Ysterberg route.We have used Ysterberg Sokket and Ysterberg Laksman as our foundation males very successfully.
In June 2006 I took a trip out to South Africa to see what was out there and what else we could bring in.My time was spent with the lovely and patient Attie Badenhorst,he allowed me to choose my own guard dog each night,I always chose Baden Umfaan or Marvell Dickes.This is the man who convinced me that eventually we would breed dogs as good as what I saw in South Africa.......and in the very next litters,we absolutely did!
The first litters from Razzy x Sokket and Prizey x Laksman produced some amazing dogs that went to Europe and some that stayed with us here at Sandaharr.Those pups have been the strength and backbone to our breeding programmes.
It was always our plan to breed a Sokket son to a Laksman daughter to strengthen the Ysterberg line, and vice versa the Laksman son to the Sokket daughter- we achieved both of these goals with our own breeding stock.At the same time we also knew we would need an outcross at some point and we were given a chance to own a Linjo dog so after our first girl from there died before the trip,I then travelled out and chose a new pup in February 2007.We had the pup sent to a European breeder to do her 6 month quarantine time(the rules were all different then) and I travelled to Holland to pick her up and bring her back to Scotland,sadly this was all a waste of money as she produced nothing of note in the UK and her love for eating soft toys and football socks landed us with thousands of pounds of vet bills. We kept nothing from her due to health issues in some of the pups.Throughout the next few years we tried various methods of A.I. but due to Britbreed being taken over by another company they never managed to achieve success for ourselves or a few other Boerboel breeders.We were then in a position where we had no good A.I. vet that we could trust in the UK to do the job properly so we made a decision to have a new batch of frozen semen sent out to Europe with the plan to use a Dutch vet to A.I. our girls,yes,we were prepared to travel each time with our girls to have them A.I.'d abroad if that is what it was going to take to get the pups we knew we could breed.Just as this happened we managed to find Keith at Fit and Fertile in Preston and he was a godsend.I travelled over to Europe,arranged to have the frozen semen brought back to the UK and thus began the next stage of our breeding programme,where Avalonia Waldor and Ataraxia Darwin were the foundation dogs for the next step.In 2012 my husband decided to make the foray into the Black Boerboel and I again travelled over to Holland to bring back a black male stud dog,sadly,again this was a waste of pain due to him having a genetic,male sex linked problem called cystinuria.In 2013 we imported a black bitch from Australia and sadly she had a hyperplasia so we hade her spayed and re-homed,the third try in the Black Boerboel breeding programme was to ship semen in from a black dog that was in Australia and we had wee Aggi A.I.'d and Shadowlands Boerboels was finally started with one single black female pup being produced.In February 2014 we imported a male pup from Ataraxia,this pups goes back to our own initial breeding from Razzy xSokket with Sandaharr Bronson being the grandfather of our pup,Ataraxia Too Good To Be Called Angus- aka Chieftain.A few months later and I have made a trip out to Australia to see where our dogs descended from,to attend their appraisals and to build more relationships with other like minded people and am planning a further 3rd stage for our own Sandaharr programme in 2015 with some new frozen semen from dogs that I really liked out there.
I won't lie,it has all been very expensive,very time consuming,really heartbreaking at times,not all plans have worked - but ultimately it has been a rewarding journey as I know we are breeding the very best dogs in the UK.
Sandaharr is one of the only breeders that commit to a plan and then follow it through.
We do not breed smartie box pedigrees,we do not breed pet to pet,we plan years in advance........................ we simply breed the very best that is possible as has been shown in the winners at the 2014 appraisals for Boerboel UK with the South African Stud Book appraiser Tokkie Ysel of Bundu Valley Boerboels,South Africa. Many people and many breeders in the UK all started with Sandaharr as their original breeding stock,all you have to do is have a look at their pedigrees.
In 2002 we started looking into this breed,in 2003 we managed to get our old original,Celtic Connection Razina.After spending some time with her and knowing other dogs we decided to move from showing and breeding the Akitas to trying to breed Boerboels,really good Boerboels!
We bought in another 2 dogs,health issues affected both so they were removed from the breeding programme.Our next step was to whelp a litter down for Anthea Jones of Celtic Connection and we are really glad to say that this secured wee Mopsa for us,she was a half sister to our own Razzy.
Our next dog brought in was when I made a trip to Belgium and brought back Vrystaat Surprise ,a South African bitch.Our last foundation bitch was Immer Moed Anne and we made the trip to Holland to bring her into the Sandaharr family.
So,we had our foundation girls,all related in some way,Razzy was half sister to Mopsa,sharing Siglensal Mayhem as their dam.Razzy was half sister to Annie,sharing Voel Gerus Fritz as their sire. Prizey was the grandmother to Annie and so began our journey.
Our first litter was born after flying in Nico Fernout from Holland to A.I. Razzy,using a dog called Marvell Buster(II) aka Loebas.After this litter I was put in contact with Craig Bloom of Ataraxia Kennels in Australia and for over 8 years now we have worked together,he is a rare thing,a mentor that allows you to make your own mistakes,and we have,and he will still support us.We had frozen semen shipped in early 2006 and that started us down on the Ysterberg route.We have used Ysterberg Sokket and Ysterberg Laksman as our foundation males very successfully.
In June 2006 I took a trip out to South Africa to see what was out there and what else we could bring in.My time was spent with the lovely and patient Attie Badenhorst,he allowed me to choose my own guard dog each night,I always chose Baden Umfaan or Marvell Dickes.This is the man who convinced me that eventually we would breed dogs as good as what I saw in South Africa.......and in the very next litters,we absolutely did!
The first litters from Razzy x Sokket and Prizey x Laksman produced some amazing dogs that went to Europe and some that stayed with us here at Sandaharr.Those pups have been the strength and backbone to our breeding programmes.
It was always our plan to breed a Sokket son to a Laksman daughter to strengthen the Ysterberg line, and vice versa the Laksman son to the Sokket daughter- we achieved both of these goals with our own breeding stock.At the same time we also knew we would need an outcross at some point and we were given a chance to own a Linjo dog so after our first girl from there died before the trip,I then travelled out and chose a new pup in February 2007.We had the pup sent to a European breeder to do her 6 month quarantine time(the rules were all different then) and I travelled to Holland to pick her up and bring her back to Scotland,sadly this was all a waste of money as she produced nothing of note in the UK and her love for eating soft toys and football socks landed us with thousands of pounds of vet bills. We kept nothing from her due to health issues in some of the pups.Throughout the next few years we tried various methods of A.I. but due to Britbreed being taken over by another company they never managed to achieve success for ourselves or a few other Boerboel breeders.We were then in a position where we had no good A.I. vet that we could trust in the UK to do the job properly so we made a decision to have a new batch of frozen semen sent out to Europe with the plan to use a Dutch vet to A.I. our girls,yes,we were prepared to travel each time with our girls to have them A.I.'d abroad if that is what it was going to take to get the pups we knew we could breed.Just as this happened we managed to find Keith at Fit and Fertile in Preston and he was a godsend.I travelled over to Europe,arranged to have the frozen semen brought back to the UK and thus began the next stage of our breeding programme,where Avalonia Waldor and Ataraxia Darwin were the foundation dogs for the next step.In 2012 my husband decided to make the foray into the Black Boerboel and I again travelled over to Holland to bring back a black male stud dog,sadly,again this was a waste of pain due to him having a genetic,male sex linked problem called cystinuria.In 2013 we imported a black bitch from Australia and sadly she had a hyperplasia so we hade her spayed and re-homed,the third try in the Black Boerboel breeding programme was to ship semen in from a black dog that was in Australia and we had wee Aggi A.I.'d and Shadowlands Boerboels was finally started with one single black female pup being produced.In February 2014 we imported a male pup from Ataraxia,this pups goes back to our own initial breeding from Razzy xSokket with Sandaharr Bronson being the grandfather of our pup,Ataraxia Too Good To Be Called Angus- aka Chieftain.A few months later and I have made a trip out to Australia to see where our dogs descended from,to attend their appraisals and to build more relationships with other like minded people and am planning a further 3rd stage for our own Sandaharr programme in 2015 with some new frozen semen from dogs that I really liked out there.
I won't lie,it has all been very expensive,very time consuming,really heartbreaking at times,not all plans have worked - but ultimately it has been a rewarding journey as I know we are breeding the very best dogs in the UK.
Sandaharr is one of the only breeders that commit to a plan and then follow it through.
We do not breed smartie box pedigrees,we do not breed pet to pet,we plan years in advance........................ we simply breed the very best that is possible as has been shown in the winners at the 2014 appraisals for Boerboel UK with the South African Stud Book appraiser Tokkie Ysel of Bundu Valley Boerboels,South Africa. Many people and many breeders in the UK all started with Sandaharr as their original breeding stock,all you have to do is have a look at their pedigrees.
