Influential Historical Kennels

On this page we would like to introduce you to historical kennels whose dogs have had a lasting influence on the development of the breed and comment on their breeding programs from today’s perspective.

Her first champion was Nanfan Nimbus, born in 1960. His son Nanfan Nimble sired 7 champions with the bitch Nanfan Hayseed, one of whom, Nanfan Heckle, won BOB three times at Crufts between 1965 and 1968. Heckle was the right dog at the right time and, with his tremendous temperament, was very popular at a time when Norfolks still used to apologize for their presence in the ring. Heckle’s younger brother Nanfan Hayrake was also successful at Crufts. Her dogs won Norfolk BOB at Crufts a total of 12 times, twice as often as any other kennel.

The well-known Norfolk, Norwich and Border Terrier kennel “Ragus” of Marjorie Bunting, daughter Lesley Crawley and mother Grace Marks produced a total of 94 English champions, of which 34 were Norfolks. If you add Lesley’s husband Michael Crawley’s champions, the total is over 100. No other kennel has ever had so many English champions.

The Ragus kennel was founded in 1943. Although it was to take until 1971 before it produced its first champion, the bitch Ch. Ragus Bewitched, several kennels had already begun successful breedings with Ragus dogs. Ragus Bewitched’s sire was Ragus Sir Bear, who was the first black-and-tan to win two CCs and became the most important founder of the kennel’s line, mainly due to his beautiful head and set-back shoulders.

Ragus Sir Bear was a dog with pure “Withalder We” ancestry. He was line-bred not only to Ch. Nanfan Heckle, but also to Hunston Half Pint and therefore also carried less common blood. Like Joy Taylor, Marjorie Bunting also relied on line breeding, but avoided very close matings:

This mating can be considered a prime example of line breeding: The maternal grandfather of both Whipcord and Brown Sugar was the founder of the line, Ragus Sir Bear. The other ancestors of both dogs were predominantly of Nanfan descent. In particular, their sires (Ch. Ickworth Ready and Ragus Humphrey Bear) were line-bred to Nanfan Nimble, the sire of Heckle.

Line breeding, also known as “breeding by pedigree”, was the breeding method that produced 94 champions for her kennel. In 1979 she described it in the Norfolk Terrier Newsletter as follows:

Other influential Norfolks of the kennel were Ch. Ragus Browned Off (son of Whipcord and Brown Sugar), who won 9 CC’s, as well as his son Ch. Ragus Blacksmith. His pedigree is also interesting: the sire, a granddam and also a great-granddam of Blacksmith come from the proven mating (Whipcord x Brown Sugar). Also noteworthy is Ch. Ragus Boy Blue, born in 1986, who was one of the last Norfolk champions of the Ragus kennel and won 10 of his 16 CCs as a puppy.

Marjorie Bunting attached great importance to a short back, short legs, a good head (as in Ragus Sir Bear, Nanfan Heckle, or Gotoground Widgeon Bunny), hard coat, good shoulders, strong bone and substance, health and show temperament in her dogs.

Mrs. Bunting advised new breeders to pay particular attention to the pedigree when starting a line:

With the marriage of Mr. Michael Crawley and Lesley, his kennel “Elve” also received a boost. A great star was Ch. Sallette Gold Bullion, son of the important sire Ch. Elve Cloudyhead, who won 25 CC’s and a terrier group between 1991 and 1993.

Marjorie Bunting died in 2001 at the age of 75. The kennel is run by her daughter Lesley Crawley.

The inbreeding coefficients of the Ragus dogs were significantly lower than those of the Nanfan dogs. Since the kennel also bred more English champions than any other kennel, one could say that the success of her breeding program proved Marjorie Bunting right.

Unfortunately, this is only partly the case. The problem is that a successful kennel that sells many of its puppies as breeding dogs can “flood” the entire population with the offspring of its dogs, which can lead to a collapse in the genetic diversity of the breed as a whole. The effective size of the total population in such a case is determined by the effective size of the sub-population consisting of the dogs from the successful kennels. As a result, the effective population size of English Norfolk Terriers up to 1990 was only around 25 dogs, whereas an effective population size of at least 100 animals is recommended by scientists. This had led to a steady increase in the breed’s inbreeding coefficients, which came to an end around 1990. Since then, the inbreeding coefficients have hardly increased at all.

Further information on current developments in dog breeding can be found here.