CRIADERO SUDESTADA - Irish Wolfhound

When I was 11, a prestigious Saluki breeder from Uruguay, Mrs. Ivonne de Bourbon from Jinnah al Tayr Kennels presented my parents with a Saluki bitch as a gift for me, under the condition that we would show her at dog shows. My parents were delighted with the present but had no intention whatsoever of attending dog shows; therefore the task of showing Tantana fell in my hands. So, together with who was to become my beloved companion, Tantana, I entered a ring for the first time, and I was hooked. I knew then with absolute certainty that when I grew up I would relate very closely with the world of dogs.

When I turned 13, I asked my parents to give me as a present the complete collection of back issues of “El Mundo del Perro” (The World of Dogs) magazine from where I copied (typing with a typing machine!) the breeder’s bylaws imagining the time when I would be a breeder myself. Those were years filled with illusions, always fantasizing with the time when I would become independent and make my dream as a dog breeder come true. Afterwards I followed different trails, I concentrated in my career, Anthropology, and lived abroad for some years, but dogs and the dream of breeding never abandoned my heart.

Willy with Whisky, Bonny the Basset Hound and the Shar Pei, Mao

And I was enormously lucky that my husband shared this passion with me. Along his life, Willy lived with a variety of dogs (and other species of animals) from Whisky, a Fox Terrier Wire that shared his childhood years, to Bonny, a grumpy but affectionate Basset Hound that went through teen-age years with him, and afterwards came Mao a Chinese Shar Pei that Willy brought from the United States when there were none in Argentina. But the dog that left an everlasting impression in him, and of whom he keeps a fond memory, was Jenny, an Irish Wolfhound that lived with his aunt and uncle in a farm in Patagonia where Willy used to spend his summer holidays. The story goes (although there is no certain data to confirm this family legend) that Jenny was a daughter of one of the Irish Wolfhounds that Agustín Nores Martínez used in his crossings to give size to the Dogo Argentino during the “construction” of our national breed.

Ever since the summers spent in the company of Jenny, Willy decided that some day he would have an Irish Wolfhound himself, but for one or other reason this took longer than he had imagined. Every time he searched for a breeder, he found that there were none in Argentina or surrounding countries. Many times he tried to import a puppy from abroad (in the time where communications without internet, via letters were way more difficult than they are now) but he wasn’t successful, either there were no puppies available at the time he wrote or the breeders didn’t want to send their dogs so far away or else, the whole business was so expensive that it was impossible to undertake.

When we started living together, Willy already had Aspro, a Dogo Argentino and his most faithful friend who, at 9 years old, still lives with us. After living together for some time, we bought Mabra a Dogo female, who also currently lives with us. Then, Aspro and Mabra had a litter of puppies and we had a daughter.

This is how we got to the moment when we decided that it was time to make our dream come true. I wanted to breed dogs and Willy wanted to have Irish Wolfhounds, so why not breed Irish Wolfhounds? That is how in 1999 we began a thorough study of the breed, researching European, British and North American bloodlines, following up on the results of Specialties around the world. But we were still uncertain about a number of things: what type of dog should we decide for? How should we undertake the whole project? I had never seen an Irish Wolfhound live. So I started reading books, websites, magazines, I signed up in various Wolfhound mailing lists and forums and read all the information that I got hold of, and slowly started building an idea of the type of hound that I wanted. This was essentially an athletic dog of flowing lines, “large and of commanding appearance” as the breed standard states but yet maintaining its balance, a dog that would reveal its function, a runner, a wolf hunter. All this had to be achieved without disregarding health and longevity. We are well aware that this is a difficult breed to breed; Irish Wolfhounds, as any other giant breed have a shorter life span (8 years average), therefore it was essential to ensure that all of our dogs came not only from stable and consolidated bloodlines in type, but they also had to be stable health wise and hold a good record of longevity. We were lucky enough to make contact not only with very prestigious breeders but also with excellent persons who patiently guided us through the process of selecting our first hounds.

Finally in 2006 I flew to Ireland to Tim & Marion Finney’s Gulliagh Kennels. The Finneys have been working very seriously and passionately for over 40 years for the Irish Wolfhound breed, they have produced their own blood-line that has given them innumerable champions over the years including a Best of Breed at Crufts (Ir & GB Ch Culvercroft Benjamin of Gulliagh, BOB Crufts 1991) and multiple ranking winners (amongst them the sire to our first female Gulliagh Currabeg, Int. Ir. Ch Gulliagh Zest, Ireland’s Nº 1 Irish Wolfhound in 2003, An.Ch) During my visit to Ireland I had the privilege of seeing Zest (sire to our female) making it to BIS at Cloghran International Show competing with over 1200 dogs. And I was there to bring home one of his daughter’s to start our breeding plan. How promising!!

From Ireland I flew to Jürgen Roesner and Jürgen Papenfuss’ von der Oelmühle Kennel in Germany. These men have also dedicated a big part of their lives to breeding Irish Wolfhounds and Scottish Deerhounds and have produced numerous champions and multiple winners in Europe and the United States. They have also produced some of the most renowned Wolfhounds who have contributed to the history of the breed such as Zeno von del Oelmühle and Oelmühle Anton, grandfather of the most famous Irish Wolfhound of the last 30 years, Quincy of Kilmara.

From this journey I brought our two first inputs to SUDESTADA Kennel, Gulliagh Currabeg and Taxi Driver von der Oelmühle. After that, in 2007 we welcomed the arrival of a black female from the famous Erinwood Kennel of Pam Paloma in the United States, her name: Erinwood Tambourine at Sudestada. In early 2008 we received a new girl, this time from Mexico, her name is Ratxa III (Moya). Soon another male from a prestigious kennel from Canada will follow. We are starting to walk a path that has, in fact, been in process of development for many years. We are very enthusiastic and passionate about this project, but above all we are very willing to learn at every step of the way and try to do things as best as possible in this undertaking that we hope we will continue to enjoy for the rest of our lives.

One summer afternoon as I was reading through a Spanish Dog Magazine, I run into the picture of a White Miniature Schnauzer. I didn't know that there were White Schnauzers! We in the family have a Black & Silver Mini and I always loved the determination and intelligence of this breed.

So... there I was, in the game again, I started a thorough research on the White Minis, and I found out that this is the last of all the colours to be accepted by FCI, and also that there is still much work to be done for the breed because the quality of the White Minis isn't still as good as the other colours of Miniature Schnauzer (each colour is considered as a separate breed). Soon I had become passionate about the White Minis and I wanted one.

Willy travelled to The Netherlands and he brought back as a present for me a fantastic female, a daughter of Phil Blues La Nanasim, whom to my understanding is the most correct White Mini out there, Bella my new girl was a dream. She won our hearts and that is how we started fantasising with the idea of breeding White Minis. For a long time we had been searching for a smaller breed to breed apart from our beloved giants, dogs that would seat on our laps and not crush our bodies!

So soon came Made in Spain Glamour from Spain, afterwards Peter & Ingrid from Roxy’s Pride Kennel in The Netherlands trusted us with a beautiful male, It is Now or Never of Roxy’s Pride is his name, and lastly came Play it Again Roxy’s Pride Abella Barba, who was conceived in The Netherlands and born in Brazil at Ivana Abella's and my friend Ana Clara Alves' Abella Barba Kennel.

That is how in 2007 we added the adorable White Minis to our Irish Wolfhounds of SUDESTADA. Now we all form a 'multi-sized' family. We sincerely hope that our work and enthusiasm with this versatile and beautiful breed contributes to the improvement of these fantastic dogs.