Chantal Le Pape : Almost by accident ! We bought our first dog in 1969. It was a Westie. My husband had grown up with dogs around the house, so, of course, we decided to buy one. A year later we bought a male as company for our bitch, but our first litter of puppies didn’t arrive until four years later ! Then we became interested in other terriers breeds from Scotland and Wales, such as the Scottish, the Dandie Dinmont or Sealyham. We have been breeding "Dandies" for 20 years now but, we hae only managed to produce ten puppies !! The "Dandie" is a little-know breed despite the fact that it won the Best of Bred at this year Longchamp Championship.

Then we turned to the Cairn terriers.

We have a few examples of each breed and have always tried to keep some breeding bitches frome each litter that is born but this is not always a success. For example, our first litter of Westies, in 1973, produced 5 puppies but they were all males !! However, we still kept one of them, Igor, and he is the ancestor of all our present Westies.

We registered the business in 1973 and chose a name WALESCOT which regroups the origins of all the dogs.

Frenchtoutou : How did you make the step between keen and amateur and professional breeder ?

Chantal Le Pape : We has had enough of life in the suburbs of Paris !! We had about 12 dogs and only a small garden. My husband was a restaurant owner and we were like ships that passed in the night ! At the end of the seventies, we spent a month travelling abroad and when we returned neither of us wanted to continue our stressed-up Parisian lifestyle. So at the beginning of the 80s we moved here into the country.

Frenchtoutou : The kennels are really superb and very spacious but I suppose that it didn’t all happen overnight ?

Chantal Le Pape : Of course not ! It’s taken us fifteen years to get to this stage. At the start the dogs lived with us to be more accurate, we lived with our dogs !! One day, several females gave birth at the same time and as that time we didn’t have separate kennels, the puppies were all in the living room with us !

Now, we have a maternity unit with individual boxes for the pregnant bitches and for the puppies until they are sold, but, the birth always takes place in the house, even in our bedroom. Some of the births are difficult and the puppies are stuck in the birth canal and we need to help the mother with the delivery and sometimes reanimate them. Without this care the mortality rate can be very high.

Our maternity unit is attached to the house via our office and this means that we can keep a constant look out for any potential problems with puppies. This proximity also has great benefits in socialising the puppies as they can hear noises from the house and have regular contact with people. And of course, it is much cleaner now that we no longer live with the dogs !!

Frenchtoutou : You spoke about reanimating the puppies. How did you learn the techniques ?

Chantal Le Pape : When we started, there were no training courses as there are today in the dog breeding courses at the Maison Familiale, so we learnt by practical experience and whith a great deal of advice from other breeders when we encountered problems. I also went on several courses offered by the Societe Française de Cynotechnie" and we have also read widely in specialist publications. Today, we have a good, close working relationship with our local vet, who we can call on for our every need.

Frenchtoutou : Looking back over the years, what has been your favorite moment ?

Chantal Le Pape : The day that my Cairn stud dog Presley-Elvis was French Champion. The show was at Brives and the competition was very tough. If he won on that day, he would bring back the title we had always dreamed of. He was placed first and became the first dog born at our kennels to win the French Championship. I came out of the ring in tears !!