Marianna Kuipers-Kossen, the owner of "van Diaspora" kennel, has given the magazine "Dobermann" an interview which was published in the issue пїЅ5(22), 1998. We have received a lot of favourable responses concerning this interview. Our readers have requested us to continue with this interesting subject. Considering this, we are now planning to publish some articles about the Italian kennels "del Citone" and "di Campovalano" (this time with more details). We are looking forward to an interesting conversation with Sonia Franquemont's daughter Monica about the Dutch kennel "vom Franckenhorst". We are also going to publish the story of the popular French kennel "des Landrys".
For today, we present you with another "Interview with the breeder". It is now Mr. R. Beuneukens, the President of BDCB (Dobermann Club of Belgium) and the Secretary of IDC (International Dobermann Club), who talks about his creation - the worldwide famous "van Roveline" kennel.
It was in 1990, that the Dobermann fanciers of Russia saw a "van Roveline's" offspring for the first time. Pascale v. Roveline was taken by her owners Annu and Raat Kaus, the famous Estonian breeders, to an exhibition in Moscow. Presented in the Junior class, Pascale looked very much like a puppy. However, she gained the victory and the experts' and observers' hearts due to her splendor, exceptional grace and excellent pedigree, bright brick-colored tan, the beautiful expression of her black eyes and the unusual for Russians at that time head type. Pascale has a good type feminine head that still differs from the usual "van Roveline" type and belongs more to the "Quirinus" type.
Later on, Russia welcomed Saskia v. Roveline - an impressive representative of the famous kennel. Being the daughter of Queeny v. Roveline, the World Champion-1995 in Brussels, Saskia has all the good points which the "van Roveline" Dobermanns usually have.
It is, firstly, the strong, long, almost "male", but on the other hand very elegant head. The most outstanding example is the head of Lucifer's daughter Tequila Mali del Citone. It has become the AIAD symbol. There is no use to discuss the "van Roveline" dogs' character. Everyone is aware of their success on the working grounds. Everybody knows the famous brown male Orson v. Roveline who has the Korung, as well as his parents Lehia v. Roveline and Fela v. Franckenhorst have. Orson is an excellent producer. He is stable at passing his working abilities to his progeny. For many Europeans, Orson represents the "standard" of the male Dobermann behavior; while for Russians, Saskia is seen as the model of the female Dobermann behavior.
The flashing temperament, the glance of a winner and not a shadow of confusion or hesitation - that is the "brand label" of "van Roveline" kennel.
Rodion Kirin
Kuzin Rodion: Your kennel is called "v. Roveline". Please, tell us, what was the origin of the title?
Beuneukens Roland: It is made up by the parts of our names "Ro" stands for my name Roland and "veline" stands for the name of my wife Eveline.
K.R.: Did you have any dogs in your childhood? Why did you choose this breed?
B.R.: I don't think that my wife had ever had dogs. I had a gruenendal when I was a young boy. When we got married, we had a few crossbfeeds living with us. Then, after a period of time, when my son was at the age of about 12, he got interested in Dobermanns.
I always liked the Dobermanns, but the first impulse was my son. We had a training ground a few hundred meters from here, where we could see Dobermanns training. At that moment I was never at home. I was doing International Transport; I did trips to Asia, Iran, Iraq. I went to Italy, Spain. I was never at home. At the end of 1977,1 stopped working in International Transport, and took the job in somewhere near. Then, together with my son, we altogether got interested to have Dobermanns. That's how we came to this breed.
To ask, why I choose this breed is same as to ask why I took Eveline! It is as simple as that: you like or you don't like something. The question of feeling: of liking or not liking. I always was very dog minded, but if you are never at home it is very problematic to turn dreams into reality and have a dog.
K.R.: Tell us about your first Dobermann.
B.R.: Our first Dobermann we bought through my son in 1981. It was a very nice bitch. She was called Farah v.d. Guskeshoeve. No, the First was another one. We paid for a puppy, and 2 weeks later, when we were to get the puppy, the breeder phoned us and said: "You can't have it, because they are sick". A couple of days later, he called again and said: "They are not sick anymore. You can come and get them". I said: "Excuse me, a few days ago, they were almost dead. Now they are getting better. How do you want me to have a dog from that litter? I don't want it".
I went to the club that turned to be in 300 meters from our place. I saw another breeder. He had puppies at that moment, they were 2 or 3 weeks old. He said OK to pick me out the best bitch and he did. The bitch was really the best, because he has not bred anything so good since then. So we had luck to have Farah. It was a beautiful dog with a very high temper from "Guskeshoeve" kennel.
When time came, we started to do some shows with her. Nobody from our family had ever seen a dog show before. When we went to the first show, the breeder couldn't come, because of his son. We were there all alone. I remember this show very well. It was Mr. Kugel, who judged. I came into the ring, and we were first. We won. We won a lot with Farah. She was in 1982 the best Belgium black bitch. She was only beaten by German bitch from kennel "v. Nymphenburg". She has beaten us for the best bitch.
K.R.: Which Dobermann was the one who brought the world fame to you, made your kennel widely recognized?
B.R.: To answer this question, we must go back to Farah. She was the first "princess". We were very unfortunate, that we could have only one litter from her. After her first litter, she had a very bad infection, so we could not breed her anymore. The only litter that she gave us, was the "H" litter: Hiya Hebe, Hera, Hindi, Hasan, Hilo, and Heike. This was the starting of the kennel. The first litter, although there were some others who were amazingly good, was perhaps in quality the best of all. The males did only one show. In the litter there were 6 dogs: 3 bitches, 3 males. It was very strange to see it: Hera & Hilo were the same type of dog, Hiya Hebe and Hasan were also totally the same type of dog, and Hindi and Heike were also the same but totally different from the others two type of dog. So two of either one sex were typically the same dogs, 3 different types of dogs. Hera, for example, was finished, was adult, at 9 months, and Hiya Hebe was only adult at 15-16 months. When those dogs were ready to go to the" shows - and Hera was always beating Hea up till 16 months. Then it changed.
Hasan was also a beautiful dog. If he would have had the occasion to do more shows, he would have been as successful as Hiya Hebe. He was a beautiful dog with a completely parallel long head, strong bone and very nice body. But the people didn't want to do shows and they had a lot of problems with him at home, because for those people he was a very high-tempered dog. It was their first dog. One day, the man got so much afraid of the dog, that he took a shovel, beat the dog and hurt him. So the male didn't get to any shows anymore. But it was a beautiful dog.
So the kennel started with that first litter and it was immediately the top one, because Hiya Hebe and Hera for 5 years dominated all of Europe and we have won everything except of the World title.
K.R.: Owing to your kennel, the popu-lation of Dobermanns has obtained the special head type, best noticed in Tequila. How did you achieve it?
B.R.: That type of head comes from Farah. Farah was mated with Alpha v. Le Dobry. I was the first who used Alpha. I only had one litter with Farah, but we never lost that head again.
K.R.: Why did you choose Alpha for this combination?
B.R.: Don't look for any scientific base for my decision. It is more the question of feeling than anything else. Sure, I look through the pedigree of the male, but I never look very close into the pedigree -only at the 3rd up to 4th generations, I'm never looking in any scientific things, because I'm honest enough to say, that I don't know very much of genetics of a dog. It's the question of feeling and my feeling never betrayed me and has given me some very good results in my breed. Before, I have had no experience at all either in breeding Dobermanns, or in genetics. Even at this.-moment I can't say that I am very experienced in genetics. Success is the question of feeling and luck.
I personally still think at this moment, that breeding is 90% of luck and 10% of skill.
K.R.: Did the decision of the first mating belong to you, or did you consult with anyone?
B.R.: It was my personal decision, but I discussed it a little bit, because at that time, we didn't know Dobermanns much. By 1993, we had already visited several shows, seen several dogs. I talked with some dog owner at that moment - it was the breeder from the "Hallsberry Hof" kennel in Belgium, and he said: "Perhaps, Alpha". Although, he wouldn't take Alpha himself: he was "fixed" on the character of dogs. So, I took Alpha and never regretted it.
K.R.: What was the next step?
B.R.: Also in 1982 we bought another bitch - without a kennel name. The bitch was called Elfiet. We mated her to Falko v.d. Insberg, who was the top winning male in Belgium at that moment. It was a male with a lot of expression, a beautiful body, but a very bad head with not parallel lines. Out of that combination we got Haiti and Hady.
In our kennel breeding is devided into two lines: Farah v.d. Guskeshoeve line and Elfiet's line. Elfiet gave us Hatti, who later became the mother ofJenna. Jenna bears the prominent bitch of the "L" litter -Lema v. Roveline and also Lucifer.
There are sometimes difficulties in registration of litters in Belgium, because you have the same letter for all the litters for the whole year. Not like in Germany:
every litter has a different letter. In our kennel we've got 2 "L" litters that we bred in one year: one comes out of the Farah line (from Hiya Hebe and Ali v. Langenhorst), the other - of the Elfiet line (Jenna - Baron Bryan). These were fantastic litters.
For example, the first "L" litter (from Hiya Hebe and Ali v. Langenhorst). In this litter we had 6 dogs. One died very young. The other one, Lobelot, was in Australia -he had CAC there. Loyelet was in Belgium - he had several CACs in Belgium. The bitches: everyone knows Lady Levina and Lia Lorena, but there are not a lot of people who know Lora Lorin. It is a beautifulbitch, us well. She was sold to Norway, where she became, together with Jacque v. Roveline, the forming bitch of the standard at that moment in Scandinavia.
The other "I." litter, which came from Jenna, was Baron Bryan litter and as I'v already said, out of that litter came Lema and Lucifer v. Roveline.
K.R.: You were among the first breeders, who used Hcrtog Alpha and Baron Bryan. Why did you make up your mind to choose those males?
B.R.: I don't think it is very difficult to choose males like Alpha v. Le Dobry or Baron Bryan. If you are familiar with the breed, and you sec dogs like Alpha and surely like Baron Bryan, you must see already at 12-14 months, that this will be the clog of the future. If you don't tbr see that, you don't "have the eye" for the breed.
Baron Bryan was a very young male when I used him. Alpha was older and he was not the same type of dog, not the outstanding winner like' Bryan was. A lot of people discussed Alpha's character. But I was very fond of his character. It's the same with Baron Bryan: I know that he is not the same strong mental dog as his father Baron Cesar. But I prefer the type of dog like Bryan over Cesar. With a dog like Cesar, who was very-very dominant, you are never sure what is going to happen. With a dog like Bryan, you know that you have a nice, intelligent, good-looking dog - family Dobermann - one you can really trust. Bryan was in character and in social behavior a wonderful dog. I presented him at the beginning of his career a few times.
K.R.: Did you use in your breeding one male several times? For example, Baron Bryan.
B.R.: In breeding I never used a male several times. Except Hertog Alpha and Baron Bryan: each of them I used twice. Most of the young males I used only once, because every litter has it's faults and you should seek for the best and try to find something else. It leads to success more often.
K.R.: Did you repeat the same combination, bitch and male?
B.R.: Only with Jenna and Baron Bryan. I used this combination twice. The second was the "N" litter. One bitch, New Nice, was sold to Italy, where she became the foundation bitch of "di Casa Coppo" kennel. Her wonderful litter sister Nelia Nelina was killed in a car accident two months before the show. If she would have been in Madrid, she would have been the World Champion. I'm sure about that. The other dog of the owner of Nelia Nelina, the daughter of Lucifer, was also killed in that car accident. The owner had both bitches with him at that place. Nelia was a few months older than the other one. The young bitch once won in Mauvieres. She was then about 6 months old, and every judge was hesitating not to let her be the Best In Show. At 6 months old! Pezzano has been a few months later on his knees before me to sell him that bitch, and I didn't want to. And a few months later, she was killed in the car accident.
To continue in g. "Doberman" N 2/99