20 years with Wheatens!!

How the Wheatens came in to our lives!

Both Chris and I had been for many years in working dogs, I had Smooth Collies and Chris had Giant Schnauzers and Bouvier des Flanderes, but we wanted to have a breed together.

 

At a dog show in Malmö 1985 we saw a Wheaten for the first time and fell in love totally. ”We want a Wheaten”, we said. It took some time to find a reputable breeder, but finally we found one and in September 1986 our first Wheaten arrived, and in February 1988 our first Wheaten litter was born. Both parents were from English/American lines and had quite big and wolly coats especially the sire of the litter.

 

Brösings Kilalla

After that litter we realised we wanted the silky coat, the so called Irish coat, and since then we have bred for that coat. In our 2nd litter we got Villa Rosas Big-Wig, our first Wheaten with the correct silky coat. He also showed to have a wonderful temperament and was a very handsome dog. He was our first own bred dog to become Swedish Champion. Later on he also won another eight champion titles in Europe and became one of the highest titled Wheatens in the world. When we had had some litters from the American/English lines we started to look for pure Irish lines. We were not so pleased with the temperament in the lines we bred from and a lot of the ancestors behind our first bitch had produced RD (an inherited kidney disease in the breed) So to get away from that, we searched for new bloodlines..

 

1991 our first Irish import arrived, Maroc Inishkea.  She had a wonderful temperament and was just a typical Wheaten. She was 12 weeks when she came and she had the short, red harsh puppy coat we have learned will grow in to the beautiful correct adult coat. Maureen Holmes helped us to pick her from the litter, bred by Mary O’Carroll. We called her Niska, and she grew in to a beauty and won easily six national Champion titles. I don’t remember how many Best of Breed she won, but it was a lot. Since then we have imported many dogs from Ireland, but no one could compete with Niska in beauty and temperament.

 

We kept Mister (Big-Wig) from the old lines and started over again. Mister and Niska’s daughter Villa Rosas Key-Way, inherited the beauty and temperament from her parents and also became a big winner in the show rings. She ended up as the highest titled Wheaten bitch ever, with 8 National and International Champion titles plus winner titles. All three above mentioned dogs have passed away now, but we still breed from their grand- and great grand childrens.

 

MULTICH Villa Rosas Paddy, a son to Key-Way, was the first Swedish bred Wheaten to win the American title and to be a dog with the silky coat, he won it very fast after a little bit more than a month of showing. He his now sire to 14 American Champions and created a new trend in USA. Since Paddy came over to USA we have exported a lot of dogs over there like AmCH Villa Rosas Dun Dryk Star O’Kaler, AmCH Villa Rosas Gwerbret O’Redhill, AmCh Villa Rosas Yo-Yo to Kaler to mention a few of them.

 

We also exported a litter brother to Danny to France FrCH Villa Rosas Dun Drew Na Brookdene and he has been top winning Wheaten in France for three years. Another well known dog from us in Europe is MULTICH Villa Rosas Faridd in Poland. He was shown a lot and won almost everything.  Our latest top winning export is RUSCH Villa Rosas Lochlainn, our first export to Russia. He is also the first Swedish bred Wheaten to win that title.

 

Niska is today behind all our dogs except for two. We have both line bred and inbred her, but no bad things have come out on her off-spring. Since Mister isn’t pure Irish in lines, we keep two lines in our breeding. One with pure Irish and one with mixed lines. We always check pedigrees very much to se if there are any known inherited diseases in the lines we breed from. When it comes to the pure Irish line we are in the 5th generation after Niska and the mixed lines we are in the 6th generation after Mister and Niska.

 

After good health, the most important for us is temperament and we use to say:

An ugly dog with good temperament is a good dog,

A beautiful dog with bad temperament is shit,

A beautiful dog with good temperament is the goal we are striving for.

 

Our breeding goal has always been to breed sound and healthy and mentally strong dogs on the first hand, and many dogs from our breeding have past different mental tests and descriptions. We have also always tried to look for the origin of the breeds. When we had Smooth Collies It was natural for us to get new blood from England, the country of origin for that breed. With the Wheaten Terrier it has been as natural for us to firstly bring in new blood from Ireland. Many Wheatens from us are also used for practical hunting and game tracking.

 

The anatomy is also very important for us, since we work with our dogs. We have been very lucky to have been able to buy and breed many excellent dogs to the breed standard. Lots of dogs bred or owned by us are Champions. Many of them have lots of national and international champion titles and winner titles in many countries, like Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Luxemburg, France, Poland, USA, Canada and Russia. We have also bred the first Wheaten who achieved the Game Tracking Champion title for hunting dogs. Many dogs from our breeding are also competing in obedience, searching, tracking etc.

 

Lately we have brought in two new dogs in the kennel from other breeders. Honeyrags Island Duke of Villa Rosa “Snorre” and Cara For Villa Rosa of Queen Stars “Cara”. Both are pure Irish and Cara is not at all related to any of our dogs.

Cara is two years in February and Snorre is three years in the end of November and have sired a couple of litters litter so far.

Snorre is shown a few times and have already won two CCs in sweden and two CACs in germany and lots of CKs (CC quality). Today we have seven dogs, two males and five females at home. All dogs are young and we look forward to the future.  Two of them will leave for export in the nearest future. Since eight years we have only Wheatens.

 

We plan one litter. We are waiting for Villa Rosas Madronna "Lisa" to come in season. We will bred her to Kaler Gigolo Of Villa Rosa "Gigolo". A very exciting combination that is pure Irish and we look forward to.