Page 31 - JRT Magazine - 2023 Issue 2

1.5 years in Denmark with Kirsten Ostergaard,
Please tell us about your past and present dogs
and the future.
Well, I must say that I had the chance to breed 12
years ago a modern dog that made the history of
the breed worldwide--All Jacks Be Special “BIC”
-- that doesn’t need introduction. He was born in
the second litter with All Jacks affix, and it was a
real luck because he gave a print to my work. Bic
moved to USA in January 2013 where, thanks
to Dr Candace Lundin and her husband Frank
Zureick he earned his AKC championship and
became very popular, siring several champions,
and his kids and grandkids helped to build up
the modern Russell. Bic returned to the USA in
2018 to Sharon Lofley, who hardly wanted him
to be shown at Montgomery 2019, but he won
Best of Breed at the age of 9 from the Veteran
Class.
After Bic’s first foray to the USA, Bic moved to
Japan in February of 2014 at the recommendation
of Dr Lundin. He went to Kao Miichi’s Monamour
Kennel in Japan for a few months and then in
August 2014, after the WDS in Helsinki, Bic stood
A Worldwide Magazine for the Jack Russell Terrier / Russell Terrier • Issue 2/2023 | 31
achieving all the Nordic titles. Then he came back
home for a while, but soon moved to France, UK,
and back to the USA. He travelled most of the
time of his life, meeting up with lovely females!
Currently, he’s happily retired at home in Pollone.
During the last two years of the pandemic, without
the opportunity of showing dogs, I reviewed
through the memories of Facebook, all the pups/
dogs that I bred in 10 years, and I realized how
consistent my breeding program was from the
very beginning, and so I can say that my past
was my future. Of course, I spent years working
on fixing every aspect of my type, starting from
coat quality, which took 4 to 5 years of selection.
I worked on movement, temperament, and details
such as set and size of the ears, tail set, and
eye shape and color. Fortunately, I started with
subjects already very correct in structure and
proportions. Of course, I went through subjects
that weren’t exactly my type, but building up a
type, as I already said years ago, is like making the
Rubik’s Cube, you build up a complete side, but
then you have to lose part of it if you want to build
up the second side and then, the third and so on.
It is the same for breeding. You get perfect coat
quality, but then you want more shoulder; you
get more shoulder but then you get big ears; you
want good movement but at the same time you
get bad bites or soft temperament. With every
pro, there is it at least one con. The perfect dog
is never done, and maybe this is what fascinated
me about breeding and drives my passion. It’s a
never-ending challenge.
Which dog do you consider the foundation of
your Kennel?
Well, I prefer to say which bitches I consider my
foundation. Because dogs come and go; bitches
are the real important thing in breeding. I would
say Touchstar Freestyle “Bianca” and Speedex
Moonlight “Sushi” have been my founder bitches.
Of course, Saltisgarden Music Maestro and his son
All Jacks Be Special have been important, but I
didn’t really used them as much as I was supposed
to do. I preferred that Bic go abroad to do his job
so that I was not tempted to use him too much and
then get stuck. Instead, I used several males on
these two bitches and kept pups after them.