A Study of the Deerhound pedigreees shows something most of you will know, a Greyhound was added into the Deerhound gene pool by Miss Noble back in the late 50's. Tracking the registered cross-breed Slipper of Ardkinglas forward has been very interesting. Slipper was mated to Saxon of Rotherwood owned by Miss Hartley so we must assume these top breeders of Deerhound world thought it a good for the breed. There was only one bitch registered with the kennel club (Tassie of Ardkinglas) she also appears as a cross breed in the KC registrations.
Tassie, in 1962, was matched with Ch Fitzroy of Ardkinglas a large dog and this union produced the first pure registered litter. 7 Offspring, 3 males (Isambard, Ivanhoe and Ian) and 4 bitches (Isobell. Ina, Isa and Ingrid). Only two of this litter was bred from Isa and Isanbard.
Isa of Ardkinglas mated to Bosun of Geltsdale produced 4 puppies, Bonus was owned by Miss Linton but this Ardkinglas litter was not bred from so this line died.
Isambard of Ardkinglas the male from this litter is a different story, he sired 3 litters between 1964 and 1966 producing 25 puppies but still at this time only Miss Noble was breeding from these genes and only four of these where bred from:-
- Sparkler of Ardkinglas (bitch) produced 17 offspring from 2 litters but only one of those was bred from. Kohinoor of Ardkinglas, he sired 2 litters of 13 puppies. None were bred from in the UK but two went to the USA and Plaid of Ardkinglas was bred from in the U.S. moving into the Lyonhil and Hamilton Hill kennels.
- Magnus of Ardlkinglas (male) The story here gets interesting as UptonMill and Sorisdale both picked up the genes in the 70's . Magnus sired 2 litters - 13 puppies Erskine of Ardkinglas a daughter of Magnus had a litter for Mr Cassels in 1972. Miss Noble had a litter by him in 1974, this produced Emerald of Ardkingkas who became Uptonmill Emerald of Ardkinglas. Emerald was dam of Uptonmill Compton one of the hot coursing dogs of the day. From these dogs the Coronach and Sorisdale took the genes forward and the first champion with this greyhound blood was Ch Sorisdale Maceithne.
- Morven of Ardkinglas (b) had 2 litters but none were bred so the line ended.
- Sovereign of Ardkinglas (d) sired two litters one for Miss Noble and one for Mr amd Mrs Kennedy but none of these produced so again this part of the line died.
All of the breeding was done by Miss Noble in the 1/2/3/4th generations but Rotherwood came on board once in early 70's. Coronach, Uptonmill and Sorisdale aquired these genes in the 5th generation and Jansown in the 6th. Most of these breeders were very keen on the running hound and I suppose it made some sense they wanted this greyhound blood. Nothing much happened until the 9th and 10 generations when many of the show kennels aquired these genes, Brangalad, Flaunden, Kilbourne, Fearnwood, Chapeltower, Hynsight Regalflight, Ardneish to name a few. Not until the 13th generation did the Torffric, Lealla, and Dufault kennel appear. At this time we have 6,757 descendants of the cross-breed Slipper of Ardkinglas - we all have the genes, amazing when you remember this was one Greyhound and the dreams of two adventureous breeders, such a pity we do not have a picture of her.
Ch Soridale Maceithe
There will be a list of all her descendants coming shortly and if you can add any other information or pictures they would be welcome.
Glenis Peach