Hisar - The Kennel Name.

Photo with kind permission of Quinn & Marilyn Harned

I was just asked recently to write a brief history of the Hisar kennel name - straightforward and brief? No chance!!

The kennel name of Hisar was chosen by the late Natalka Czartoryska and granted by The U.K Kennel Club in July 1976. Hisar is a Turkish word, and translates to 'Fortress' or 'Castle' in English.

At this time, Natalka was in partnership with Dr Nick Flemming, owner of the Havuz kennel name. Havuz is Turkish for 'Lake' or 'Pond'.

Nick and Natalka had spent much time traveling all over the world, in particular Rhodes, Crete, Cypress and Turkey on archaeological field trips. They traveled Turkey extensively between 1969 and 1974, and in 1971, they imported a working Anatolian Shepherd Dog, Mektup. Nick recalled to me some time ago how thorough Natalka was with her selection process, and how much time she spent with the shepherds and their dogs, selecting only their best working Anatolian Shepherd Dogs. She very much valued everything she learned from the shepherds on her trips to Turkey, especially between the mid 70's and late 90's, where she visited 11 times!

On 12th July 1975 their first litter was born. Whelped from Turkish Import Mektup Of Obruk and sired by Anadol Yali of Hisar.

In 1976, Natalka applied to the Kennel Club for the kennel name of Hisar for registering her Anatolian litters, but at this time, Nick's kennel name of Havuz was used.

In 1977, Nick and Natalka invested in taking Mektup back to Turkey to find a working Anatolian Shepherd Dog to mate her back to, and on 13th February 1977, Mektup was mated to Akkus of Oltan. In April of that year, the puppies were born in quarantine.

There were 4 Havuz litters in total between 1975 and 1977. In 1979, following the separation of Nick and Natalka, the first Hisar litter was born.

Natalka imported a total of 13 dogs from Turkey:

Beyaz of Meander (Piggy) in 1968, a white male.
Mektup of Obruk from Hisar (Mekki) in 1971, a pinto female.
Aslan of Divanlar (Aslan) in 1975, a fawn male with reverse mask.
Almila of Bozuyuk (Almila), in 1980, a fawn female.
Gulperi of Dagistan (Gul) in 1980, a white female who whelped a litter of 9 in quarantine.
Melemez Yigit of Yazurdu (Melli) in 1980, a fawn female who whelped a litter of 3 in quarantine.
Tarkan of Kanber (Tarki) in 1980, a red fawn rough coated male.
Zahir of Hasan Patrik (Zahir) in 1980, a fawn male.
Boncuk of Sarioren (Bonny) in 1987, a fawn female.
Kara of Sarioren (Kat) in 1987, black/fawn female, daughter of above.
Palah of Asagli (Palah) in 1987, a fawn male.
Altay of Akarca Koyu (Altay) in 1988, a pinto bitch.
Yazdik of Uluk Kaya (Big Red) in 1988, a red fawn male.

These are the very lines she based her Hisar kennels on, with Mektup being her foundation, closely followed by her other wonderful imports. These are the very lines that continue today in all of our dogs, including some of the Karabash/Kangal lines which are so highly prized. Natalka invested so much in her dogs, and her imports which were all hip x-rayed, some even before leaving Turkey! Natalka was probably the strongest promoter of health-checking and hip-scoring her dogs, and only breeding from the best possible examples.

In total, there are 214 dogs registered under the Hisar kennel name. Those traveled far and wide, and those dogs have in turn been the foundation for so many kennels around the world.

I had met Natalka in 1980 when I was a small child. From then on, she was a constant, and important part of my life - sharing the ups and downs, the successes and the failures, the joy and the sadness both within the Anatolian world and outside of it. Sadly, on September 15th 1998, Natalka passed away. Just before her death, she had started to sign her dogs over to me and in March 1999, I inherited the Hisar kennel name and the legacy which goes with it from Natalka - her final wish.

Read the full Mektup story at http://www.kehlibar.netfirms.com/mektup_of_obruk.htm

This information was compiled using archive records, and information from Dr.Nick Flemming. Dates and figures verified with the Kennel Club.

No part of this article, or accompanying photo may be reproduced fully, or in part without written permission from the author. July 2006.

Camborne Show 2006 cont.......

Young Diesel (Arkadas TuzlaZevrek) with his trophies at Camborne Show on July 12th 2006.

* * * * * * * * * *

Diesel is the son of Hisar Ataturk's Cin and Italian Import Arak of Arkadas.

Camborne Show 2006

Today was Camborne Agricultural Show. My friend Theresa and I decided to take our Anatolians, Hazine and Diesel for a bit of a fun day out. We walked to the showground, which was about a mile from my house, and it was blisteringly hot! No sooner had we arrived, when we met up with Mark and Dawn, who have recently got a puppy called Gin from Sally Endacott-Phillips of Huri Anatolians. Sally is also the breeder of Hazine, and Gin and Hazine also have the same mum! As always Anatolians attract alot of attention from people, some just wanting to comment about the size, or those genuinely intrigued as to what breed they are, and wanting to know more. Well, we too found ourselves intrigued today, when we literally bumped into two very rare dogs. These dogs were Northern Inuits, and lived locally! They belonged to Ben and Emma, and were two stunning dogs - one white, and one grey and white. Amazingly, the three ASD's and the two Inuits got along really well!

Now, to the main successes of the day! Hazine and Diesel competed against each other in the A.V Non-Sporting Class, with Hazine being placed 2nd out of a huge class, but after that, the glory was all Diesel's! He went on to take three wonderful trophies - one for Best Re-Homed Dog, one for Best Over 15", and finally, Best In Show - Novelty! Our Judge today was Mr C Caspall (Colynthia).






More Photo's to follow............

Paignton Championship Show 2006

Hazine Takes Best of Breed!

Paignton Champ Show is the closest Champ show to us, and is a wonderful show to attend. It takes about 2 hours to get there by car, and as we were expected in the ring at 10am, we decided to get there in plenty of time.

Our journey started at 6.45am, my mum and I drove up to Sallys house (Huri Anatolians), where we met up, and then travelled in convoy to the showground, about half an hour from her home.

We had a truly wonderful day. There was a good entry for our judge, Mr Vernon Miles (Kurtkir), and judging started at 10am prompt. There were no puppies present on the day, so the first class in the ring was Post Graduate Dog. I handled a three year old male, Besici Ayi for Jill O'Flaherty in this class, of which he was the only dog present, and was awarded the 1st place. I also handled this dog for Jill in the Open Dog class, where he was awarded 3rd place. Best Dog was awarded to Rachel Ancell's Nadide Kadir, and Reserve Dog was awarded to Mr White's Cazibe Cahil.

Next up was Post Graduate Bitch. I handled my own bitch Hazine in this class, which included competition from Sally's bitch Tuzla Tulin of Huri, and the litter sister of Best Dog. Hazine was awarded 1st place in this class, with Mr White's Cazibe Ferdi being awarded 2nd place, and Sally's Tulin in 3rd place.

Next, Open Bitch. This was won by Anne Yates with her French Import Ullikumis Ridil des Shumagins of Asalet, with her partner, John Field in 2nd place with their other French Import Ugarit Yacat des Shumagins of Asalet. 3rd place went to Rachel Ancell's French Import Raspa Du Val De La Boisserie.

Anne and I then competed for Best Bitch. The judge awarded Hazine with Best Bitch, and Ulli with Reserve Bitch.

Crunch time! Best of Breed. Hazine then had to try and beat Rachel Ancell's Kadir to win. A tough one in any situation, but against such a superb young male, I was sure he would get the Best Of Breed. After moving the dogs again for the judge, he awarded Best Of Breed to Hazine! I couldn't believe it! My first ever Best Of Breed showing my own dog and not someone else's!

It was an amazing day, and we decided to stay and compete in the Group Ring at the end of the day. We had quite a few hours to wait, and it was an incredibly hot day, with very little shade at this showground, so we found a quiet corner in the collecting area of the big ring and set up 'base' in the corner.

The dogs were hot, so wet towels and cool drinks for them, and cool drinks and lunch for us!

We were finally called in to the Group Ring at about 5pm. Every Best Of Breed from the Pastoral Group was present, and there was great support for every dog at ringside. Anatolians tend not to get anywhere in the group ring, and true to form, we didn't! However, it was a pleasure to have taken part, and to have been able to represent the rougher coated Anatolian in the big ring. The Group was eventually won by the Australian Shepherd Dog.

Happy with our successes, we packed up, and left the showground. The traffic leaving was quite heavy, so several miles of traffic jams before hitting the motorway. Half an hour along the way, Sally peeled off the dual carriageway to go home, after much tooting and flashing of headlights we continued what would usually be about and hour and a quarters journey. WRONG!!! A couple of miles down the road, one of our back tyres blew out in the fast lane of the dual carriageway. With smoke and sparks flying, we managed to stop fairly safely, and a bit shaken up, we got out to inspect the damage. We got Hazine out of the car, and I decided that I would try and have a go at changing the wheel myself - frantically trying to remember what my dad had taught me years before, I managed to change the wheel to the 'space-saver' spare wheel, which seemed to be about half the size! We got ourselves together and continued home at about half the speed as there are restrictions on how fast you can travel on these little frizbee wheels! So finally, at about 10pm we limped back into the driveway, tired, a bit shakey, but still so very very happy with what had happened at the show earlier in the day!

Below are a few snapshots of the day:



Above: L - Besici Ayi in PGD & R - Huri Hazine of Hisar in PGB.

Above: L - Huri Hazine of Hisar in PGB & R - PGB Class line up.

Above: L - Best Bitch & Reserve Bitch & R - BOB with Judge Vernon Miles.

Above: Tulin and Hazine cooling off while waiting for the Group Judging.

Above: L - Hazine in the Group Ring & R - Unscheduled stop!

Above: L - Frizbee wheel goes on & R - Who says women cant change wheels!

A very big thank you to our judge, Mr Vernon Miles for awarding our girl Hazine Best Of Breed. You can see Sally's Huri Anatolians at http://huri-anatolian-shepherd-dogs.blogspot.com/ where you can meet some of Hazine's family. Hazine also has her own family photo album at the Hisar Homepage www.kehlibar.netfirms.com

Double Trouble!

Here they are again! The gruesome twosome! Hazine and Diesel. Diesel is now almost 14 months old, and is beginning to mature a little (physically but NOT mentally!). He is about 30" at the shoulder, roughly the same as Hazine. It is easy to see from this picture how the different colours of the dogs is deceiving. They have a very similar head shape, and both have the same ear carriage when alert. Hazine obviously has a more feminine head, and she too still has some maturing to do. Both dogs are coming along nicely, and really are the best of buddies. We take them out together a couple of times a week, and we are very fortunate to have 'safe' areas around where we can let these two dogs off together to explore their surroundings. Like with all Anatolians, great care is taken, and careful supervision is required. They are typically stubborn, and have 'selective' hearing, especially when you want them to come back!
Diesel is very much the baby, and Hazine is definitely the instigator - I wonder how long that will stay like that?

Diesel at 13 1/2 months.

Thanks to Sandy Clark of Earthtones for these photo's - check out the mystical Earthtones web-site at: http://www.earthtonescornwall.co.uk

Yes, more horse riding........ :-)

Just couldn't resist posting a few more riding photo's! Cain's started a new 'hobby' for both myself, and my friend Jane now too! We went up to Wheal Buller today for an hour ride through some of the most beautiful Cornish countryside. Jane's pony was called Nutmeg, and I had the pleasure of riding Tilda.


Me with Tilda.






Jane with Nutmeg.








Back at the stables.



Wheal Buller Riding Stables have a web-site at http://www.cornish-riding-holidays.co.uk and offer all kinds of rides, lessons etc for all riding skills, from the complete novice up to the pro.