About us...

As a family and growing up we had always had large breed dogs.  We sought a breed of dog that had a steady temperament, a history of being good with children, with a low maintence coat, no real breed health problems and longevity.  The Rhodesian Ridgeback seemed the perfect choice.

Prior to returning to Australia, after some twenty years in sunny England, we started looking for suitable Queensland breeders.  After tralling the net for many, many, hours I came across Starridge.   Not only were we extremely impressed with Starridges dedication to the breed, but also in the obvious quality of her dogs. 

In particular Australian Grand Champion Bearstar Ko (Mister Ko), drew our attention.  He was such a proud handsome looking dog with very kind eyes.  So we contacted Starridge to be placed on a wating list for any future pups.  We were informed that Starridge had planned a litter the following year from Mister Ko and the pups would be available around May/June 2006.  This fitted in perfectly with our return to Australia.

Unfortunately the planned litter was postponed for another six months.  So our details were kindly passed on to Fiona of LaSimba RR whom were using Australian Grand Champion Riginal Lightnin Jack (Jelani), a Mister Ko son, as the Sire of there planned litter.  From then on we kept in regular contact with Fiona via email as we were still in the UK.  At this point my family and I were not interested in showing we just wanted a male family pet, to be called 'Rocky'.

On the 10th of May 2006, we had an exciting email from Fiona stating that the pups had been born and they were all male!!  Some three weeks later and only several days after our arrival in Australia we went to visit the pups.  We visited them regularly and had our eye on the largest male, whom had been selected as a potential show pup. Only a few days before we were going to collect our new pup,  we were told he had been chosen by another family.  We knew all along that this was a possibility as they had been promised the pick dog. 

The offer was kindly still open for us to have a pup so off we went.  Strongly believing that all thing happen for a reason we decided that the first pup to come to us that wasn't already homed would be our 'Rocky'.  On arrival 'Rocky' was actually the very first pup to come to say hello, he was waiting by the gate when we got there, and I had to pick him up so we could get into the puppy area.  Fiona knew that we weren't interested in showing, but really wanted our new choice to be shown.  So we gave her our word that we would give it a go.  

We kept in regular contact with Fiona, and by a fortune of fate I happened to call her one day in November 2006, and was informed that she had not long had a one year old female, bred from a previous litter (not related to Rocky),  returned to her due to social circumstances.  Rocky had already ensured our total addiction to the bred and we were thinking about getting a female in the not so distant future anyway.  So we had her on a weeks trial.  Once home she stole our hearts, and thats how we came to owning Pebble.

With only a couple of shows left in 2006, due to the time of year and family commitments, we didn't really start showing until February/March 2007. With the best will in the world and help from other breeders our first few shows were disasters, we worn the wrong clothes, ran round the ring the wrong way et cetra, et cetra. But I was determined to crack it.