Joy Tongue (Acadia, Portland Oregon)
Acadia, Chantilly, Haus Brau and Winshire were all located in the Pacific Northwest and were among the first to appreciate Jean Lyle's achievements. Jean believed that she couldn't give her dogs the attention they needed if she had too many around the house, or kept them in kennels. So various people, particularly ones close by, ended up with Wycliffe dogs. Joy Tongue, who lived in Portland, admired Nicola (born in 1958) - OK Joy, she's yours.
"I was seeing a great deal of Jean Lyle, because we were always competing with each other and were great friends. She was campaigning a lovely bitch called Nicola, a daughter of Carillon Dilemma and Jacqueline. I fell in love with Nicky and Jean let me take her home."
(from a 1981 Poodle Variety interview)
The "owner" could show the dog, do obedience with it or even breed it. However, the arrangement was almost always with the provision that Jean could breed from the dog if she wanted to.
Nicola was bred to her half-brother, Thomas, in early 1960. Out of the litter of seven, five finished! Joy kept a bitch which was called Acadia Barbara Beloved. Jean Lyle apparently took Victoria of Acadia, and later bred to Acadia Barrymore and Boulette. In 1962, Boulette was bred back to her father, Thomas, while Victoria was bred to uncle Timothy, and Barrymore to aunt Tiara. The Barrymore litter (Wycliffe "A2") included Aristophanes. Aristophanes was then bred to Sophia (from the "S1" litter, discussed previously), to produce Haus Sachse's Rebecca, born in 1964. (I have yet to discover the "who" behind Haus Sachse.)
Joy Tongue bred Barbara Beloved to Timothy in 1962 to obtain her "C" litter, which included Acadia Conversation Piece. (Like Jean Lyle, she gave each puppy in a litter a name starting with the same letter of the alphabet.) She continued to breed about 2 litters a year, mostly out of Nicola, Conversation Piece, and - to add a little variety - a Bel Tor bitch she had purchased called Caramel Souffle (a café-au-lait). The males were mostly Wycliffe or Wycliffe derived from Wycliffe (including her own).
In 1968, she acquired Executive, Haus Brau's Executive of Acadia (aka "Zec", or sometimes "Zek") from Arlene Brown.
"About this time Arlene wrote to me and said that she was thinking of getting out of dogs and had to get rid of this puppy... whose name was Executive."
Joy was not enthusiastic about adding another dog, but felt it would be rude to say no straight away. So she called Arlene and promised to "look at him" if Arlene brought Executive to an upcoming show in Bremerton (near Seattle). Big mistake! Once she met him, she was hooked.
"I was six feet away at the end of the lead, started taking him up and down and he just flew -- his head was so high and his neck so high that he looked exactly like a saddlebred horse. I was absolutely enchanted."
Executive quickly established a reputation as a desirable male. His record of 51 champions is particularly impressive in that he wasn't at stud for a very long time. Zec suffered his first bloat attack in 1973 and, though he survived, Joy stopped breeding him.
"It's the worst thing that can happen to a dog, and when you have watched it you don't want to propagate it. When I found out that some of his puppies were having it I simply could not go on using him. That's one of the reasons I got out of breeding."
Executive experienced two more bloat attacks, but survived and continued to live with Joy until his death at 14.
Arlene Brown (Haus Brau)
Another dog that had considerable impact was Thomas's son, Ian (1963), who went to June Hobbs. However, if June had a kennel name, I have been unable to discover it. She does not appear to have been a breeder herself, but allowed others to use Ian.
Ian was bred at least three times. The first time was to his aunt Theresa in 1964 to produce the Wycliffe "M2" litter. The second was to Chantilly Caprice (see below) in 1965. The third, by Arlene Brown in 1966, was to Haus Sachse's Rebecca. The litter included Haus Brau Adorable Aegina, Aladin and Angelique.
The next year, Arlene bred Angelique to Wycliffe Murdoch. This litter included Haus Brau Clarion, who she kept, and Haus Brau Cheri Beri Ben, who went to Harold Langseth (Winshire).
For the piéce de résistance, she bred Clarion to his aunt Aegina in 1968 to give us Executive. [See Pedigree #2] Though Arlene did not produce any later dogs of comparable reputation, neither did she stop breeding as she had intimated to Joy Tongue. She continued to use Clarion, primarily with Rebecca and Angelique, until 1973.
Harold Langseth (Winshire/Langcroft, Everett Washington)
In 1969, Harold Langseth tried to reproduce the Executive breeding by mating Clarion's sister Cheri to Aegina's brother Aladin. The chosen male from this litter was Winshire's Country Gentleman (Gentry). Though my records show only three litters from Gentry, their impact was tremendous. The first two, in 1971, were out of the Dassin bitches, Annveron Bacardi Peach and Jocelyene Marjorie. [For additional details, see The Dassin Kennel]
The third, in 1972, was out of Haus Brau Intrigue, and produced Langcroft Country Romance. In 1975 she was bred to Dassin Debauchery (Pride). The litter included an outstanding white male, Langcroft Country Pride, sire of 42 champions.
Gentry was apparently not used more extensively because he was discovered to be dysplastic. Harold Langseth later bred Toy Poodles, and was still active as an AKC Judge when this article was written.
Kathleen Baker (Chantilly)
Kathleen Baker started breeding Standard Poodles around 1955 and continued until 1981. Her founders were a diverse collection that included Pillicoc Pact of Estid and Glycene's Majestic Ko-Ko, sire and dam of her "B" litter. (If there was an "A" litter, none are listed in the database.) Her 1957 "C" litter, which included Caprice, was sired by the white Wycliffe male Fabulous Fabian (Wencair's Frere Jacques x Wycliffe Michelle), of which Jean Lyle was probably happy to rid herself, and a white bitch of English origin bearing the unlikely name Jeune Fille d'Orleyn.
As indicated above, Caprice was bred to Wycliffe Ian in 1965, and a white females from that litter, Felice, was sold to a Mrs. Kletsch (Ilex) of Seattle.
Around 1970 Mrs. Kletsch asked Joy Tongue if she could breed Felice to Executive. [See Pedigree #2] Joy later said "I was not too keen on this color mixture - a white bitch to a black dog... but it wasn't going to be my litter and it was her choice."
Their first litter produced only two puppies, both female, and as Mrs. Kletsch wanted a male, both were sold both as pets. Joy told her she could have a return service, and the second ltter was more successful, producing eight puppies - four white and four black.
"She brought the two best males down to Portland for me to see and to tell her which one to keep. I had these two 8 weeks old white puppies, Bart (who was to become Acadia Command Performance) and Barry (Ilex Barclay), trotting across my living room, and on the day I said Barry."
Mrs. Kletsch was not particularly well known as a breeder, and had only sold three when she had to move to California. She called Joy to ask whether she could take the four puppies she had left, including Bart.
"I had 22 puppies of my own but she said she would just have to put them to sleep as there was simply no chance of selling them where she was, so of course I ended up taking them on."
Jean Blackmore (Bellingham, Washington)
Thomas's brother Timothy went to Jean Blackmore and was used by Jean Lyle to sire several Wycliffe litters between 1960 and 1963. For the first two, he was bred back to his mother, Jacqueline, to produce the "V" litter of 1960, which had almost as much impact on the breed as the "T"s, and the "X" litter of early 1961.
From the V litter, Veronica went to the Kingsleys in New York, and produced 5 champions from Carillon Lousic and Dilemma, including Annveron Bacardi Peach, later acquired by Dassin. Virgil went to Joan Schilke (Koronet) and sired 50 champions, including Bibelot's Tall Dark & Handsome, Dassin's Daktari and Jocelyene Marjorie, in a career that lasted from 1961-70.
[For additional details, see The Dassin Kennel]
Others
Not all were as successful. I have a copy of the pedigree of Natasha's Wooly, bred by Florene Nederhoff of Vancouver Washington. The dam was Belle Fille de Pierre, of obscure origins (unrelated to Jeune Fille d'Orleyn). The sire was Tasia Nicodemus (Wycliffe Eli x Wycliffe Fantasia). Whatever Mrs. Nederhoff's aspirations, no champions seem to have come from this line.
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© John B. Armstrong, 1997
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