Russian Toy Breed Magazine - Showsight

Even for someone with over thirty years of experience successfully breeding and showing toy dogs (Cavaliers and English toys), this is a challenge. It is rather like being on one of those reality TV show— you have an address for a distant and unfa- miliar destination that you must reach and you know how to drive a car. BUT just how you are going to obtain a vehicle and then get there with limited resources and all sorts of obstacles to overcome is the prob- lem. Why did I embark on this journey? All because my friend Jacqueline Rayner, AKC judge (who exhibited my Cavalier King Charles and English Toy Spaniels most successfully in her bygone career as a handler) four years ago asked if I would do an “new” breed—the Russian Toy. I said I would take a look at them, and so began our partnership as Détente Russian Toys. With quite a few “bumps in the road” on our way, we have finally established relation-

ships with fine breeders in Russia who have been most generous in sharing their dogs with us. We have also been able to meet and gain insight from the few folks in this coun- try who have seen the breed in Russia and have true knowledge of breeding and pre- senting the Russian Toy here in the USA. One of these is Scarlett King, who resides in Alabama and has bred and shown them for over ten years. Since four years in any breed is certainly not long enough to gain the title of “expert”, if you take exception to my comments made in this article about breed type—please direct all complaints to Scarlett, since she is editing for accuracy!! Russian Toys is the FULL and COM- PLETE breed name. Folks keep wanting to add something to it. Th ey do go under a di ff erent name in the UKS, Russkiy Toys, and long coats were once called Moscow Toy Terriers, but in both the AKC and Russia, they are just Russian

Toys. Th e height of our dogs in the RKF (that is the Russian Kennel Club) and the FCI standards is 20 to 28 cm ( to those of use not familiar with metric units that is 7.8 to 11 inches—just another part of the challenge dealing with “foreign” stan- dards) In these standards the dogs may weigh up to 3 kg (that translates to 6.6 lbs here in America) Th ey come in two varieties: Long Coat and Smooth Coat. Coat colors are the same for both varieties and are limited to: Black and Tan, Chocolate and Tan, Blue and Tan, Red, Red Sable, and Red Brown. Even small patches of white on the chest or toes are considered a fault! Th e Chocolate and Tan, Red Brown and Blue and Tan dogs have noses and eye rims that match coat color, while the other colors should have black noses and eye rims. Smooths have short, shiny, close lying hair with no undercoat and no

282 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , J UNE 2015

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