Kourika Rough Collies

Our Rough Collie adventure started in 1982 with a sable and white bitch from Tom Walls’ kennel: Fellview Miss Scarlet. We took her to an exemption show and as she got a minor placing, decided to go to an open show after that. Although she did not get anything, guess what: like countless other people, we got the bug.

We soon realised however that she was not a good enough showdog, and went back to Tom Walls’ to buy another bitch, tri colour this time, named Fellview Black Satin, by Karava Kornishman. Lovely bitch, too bad we were given the wrong advice about her ears - being light through teething - by the lady who ran the training classes. We were to bring her over so she could shave the hair to sort the problem…. Argh!!! If only we had known.
Unfortunately, Black Satin turned out to have a pancreas problem and was never shown, but she was one of the most intelligent and clever dogs we have ever had.

We then decided to try breeding our sable bitch Miss Scarlet and took her to a tri dog living at Tom Walls’ kennel, Aberthorne Aphrobeat. 6 puppies resulted from the mating but sadly our bitch got serious eclampsia and we had to have her put to sleep which left us with the daunting task of hand rearing our very first litter at 7 days of age. We managed, though I don’t know how, but with some help and advice they all survived and we kept a sable bitch. We took her to our first Champion show in Manchester in 1986, where she was placed 4th in minor puppy. We thought we had won Crufts!

That was us at the beginning of this wonderful journey with all the highs and lows of the mad world called breeding and showing dogs.

I was introduced to the Mybern kennel through Willie Robertson of the then Battock kennel, a good friend who taught me a lot in the early days of our journey. As soon as I saw the Mybern dogs I was blown away with their exquisite expressions, their coats and a shape I had not seen before. We didn’t think long and took our sable bitch to be mated to Myberns Meridion.
Out of this litter we kept a tri bitch, Capri of Kourika, took her to the Scottish Collie Champion Show at Haddington under Jimmy Tait and got our first ever 1st in puppy. I couldn’t understand it at the time, but I know now why Jimmy must have liked her that much: she was right up his street. Sadly she had to be spayed.

On another visit to the Mybern kennel I saw Troydon Pebble Mill and knew right away this was the kind of collie I wanted. We bought a blue bitch by Pebbles from Mike and Bernice: Myberns Blue Misty at Kourika, the bitch that really got us started. She won well as a puppy and was admired by a lot of breeders. We took her back to Myberns to have her mated to Ch Jankeith Gideon, but as he was getting on he would only mate occasionally and this was clearly not one of those occasions.

Mike and I got talking and I told him I felt it was a pity Pebbles was Misty’s father and a blue at that. Mike however thought I should mate them as there was outcross through Tashadon Hot Chocolate. Looking at them, dog and bitch together, it felt good but being a novice to breeding blues I wasn’t sure at first. After a few cups of tea however I decided to take the plunge and as they say, the rest is history: Blue Misty at Kourika produced the now world famous Ch Kourika Mantika. We let him go to Bill and Glynis Shaw at Troydon… well I did say we were novices!

Later on we were lucky enough to have a second chance with Blue Misty and Ch Jankeith Gideon at Myberns, who produced Kourika Krystal Klear at Aaronwell. She won well for John and Margaret Congdon who I know thought the world of her.
The next few years we bred mostly blues and tris.
When I heard that Pauline and Brian Skyrme had used Mantika on their Emryks Love in the Mist, we bought our tri bitch, Emryks Tri to Resist at Kourika (Meg). Litter sister to Ch Emryks Phantom of the Night, she was a favorite of mine, was given RCC by judge Brian Hawkins in 1995 and admired by many breeders as well. She produced some lovely stock for us which I can still see coming through our line.


Emryks Tri to Resist at Kourika

We were still dabbling with the sables at the time, so we decided to buy a sable dog from the Geosan kennel, Geosan Matchmaker at Kourika, litter brother to Ch Geosan Chocolate Box. He did very well for us and we simply loved his outgoing ways. Our Kourika Kool Kidd reminds us so much of him, but unfortunately we were never able to get the right bitch for him; living in Scotland didn’t make it any easier. I am sure if he had been used more there would have been some lovely progeny from him.


Geosan Matchmaker at Kourika


Degallo Double Ace of Kourika	Kourika Sun Dancer

We have always tried to use other kennels’ stud dogs to try and bring something in to improve the breed. Although for one reason or another we didn’t manage to use dogs of kennels I would have liked to go to, such as Brilyn and Lynway to name a few, I have had the good fortune of having used dogs that carried their lines.

We used Steelhurst Dark Shadow on our Gideon blue daughter Kourika Sapphire, with Polish Champion Kourika Blue Cascade as a result


Kourika Sapphire	Kourika Blue Cascade

I also used Redola Midnight Runner at Lynaire as I have always admired the beautiful colour Lynaire produced and I feel we gained that clearer colour in doing so.

We kept a blue daughter from the mating of Redola Midnight Runner and our Kourika Kool Mint, and named her Kourika Klear Kiss to You. Unfortunately, she didn’t like the showring at all, but she had the most beautiful clear colour, head and expression. We mated her to the tri dog Camanna The Copyist after I had judged this dog and gave him the DCC at SKC; I really loved his free flowing movement. This mating got us our blue dog Kourika Kool Water (Micky), who moved so well. He only went to two shows, his first being the Scottish Collie Champion Show under Anne Hollywood (Amalie) where he won first in minor puppy dog and Best Puppy Dog.