MARGARET PEAT, PRAMADA DACHSHUNDS
Maggie’s first point winning BOS over a champion
Holly, CH Pramada Koradox Hollyhock with Beldachs SL, Best of Winners @ DCA 2018
Charles, UK CH GCHS Pramada’s Xavier with Jorddachs SL
“the kid” hanging with the adults, but getting to listen to so many knowledgeable people talk openly about dogs definitely influenced the breeder I am today. The Pramada/Koradox Dachshunds are widely known, highly successful and well respected. What breeding philosophies do you adhere to? Tom and I both “trust our gut,” but we may be more fluid than some breeders. We may have a plan for two to three gen- erations of breedings but, after the second generation is born and develops, we might scrap those plans and go a different route. You have to be willing to change the plan, if needed. This constant evaluation and critical decision making are key to our success. We will never have a Pramada Koradox dog shown (either by ourselves or by someone else) that we do not believe is a worthy representa- tive of our breeding program. This means some litters have no pup- pies that are shown and some litters produce multiple campaign- worthy champions. How many dogs do you currently house? Tell us about your facilities and how the dogs are maintained. We normally have between eight and 10 dogs (not counting puppies under six months) at our home, with two to three that are constant “house dogs.” We do not have a kennel set-up with indoor/outdoor runs. We have a dedicated room in our house and dog runs where multiple dogs run together. All dogs are handled daily in the movement from crates to runs, which allows us to monitor their condition constantly. The dogs not actively being shown are bathed every two to four weeks. Dogs that are currently being shown get bathed weekly and all dogs get bi-weekly mainte- nance of teeth, nails, ears, and brushing. Who were/are some of your most significant Dachshunds, both in the whelping box and in the show ring? Without a doubt, our most significant dog is Ben, CH Prama- da’s Curmudgeon L, both in the ring and the whelping box. Ben is the sire of three National Specialty winners from three separate litters. He is found in the pedigrees of many top-winning Long- haired Dachshunds over the past 20 years. Ben also won the Group at Westminster Kennel Club in 1998, the first Longhaired Dachs- hund to do so. He was a multiple BIS and SBIS winner and, since I resumed breeding, we have focused our breeding program on him. After Ben, it is very hard to narrow it down to talk about just a few dogs. The two dogs that were my “return” to breeding are, of course, significant. Bob, GCH Insight Rumorhasit at Prama- da L, sired multiple litters for Pramada Koradox, but two litters (R & Q) were very successful and instrumental in the quality of Pramada Koradox today. He made his mark not just in the US as a stud dog, but also in the UK, Europe, and Russia. Bob has achieved Register of Merit Outstanding from the Dachshund Club
It was another five years before I would have my first bred-by Long- haired Dachshund litter. While I had been involved in Pramada breeding since I was a child, the litter that produced CH Pramada’s Curmudgeon L, Ben, was my first bred-by Longhaired Dachshund litter. This dog was the culmination of over 20 years of Pramada breeding and, without a doubt, one of the proudest moments of Pramada Dachshunds. After Ben’s litter, we had a few more litters in Minnesota. I graduated from college and ultimately moved to Arizona to start my career. Although I had a few litters in Arizona, in 1999 I decided to take a break from breeding and showing. I moved to the San Francisco Bay area and lived without any dogs for about five years. (It was almost seven years between litters.) Those five years gave me time to focus on my career and also re- assess my priorities for my breeding program. While five years may not seem like a long time, I wouldn’t have any dogs to restart my breeding program without the breeders who had Pramada dogs in their pedigrees. Thank you, especially, to Cynthia Geiser (Insight Dachshunds) and Kaye Middler (Tudox Dachshunds) for their dogs (Bob and Trista) that were instrumental in my return by allowing me to have dogs in 2004. I had my first litter in 2006, after taking the break, and I haven’t looked back since. In 2012, Tom Sikora and I co-bred our first litter and, since 2015, we have been co-breeding all litters together. So, Pramada Dachshunds has now become Pramada Koradox. While Tom and I don’t show as frequently ourselves as we did in the mid-2000s, we always make sure there are Pramada Koradox Dachshunds in the ring. Who were your mentors in the sport? Please elaborate on their influence. My parents, of course, are mentors who helped me develop into the breeder, exhibitor, and dog show enthusiast that I am today. My mom was instrumental in teaching me about breeding and whelping. Her knowledge as a nurse practitioner transferred to dogs in many ways and by the time I was 10 years old I was assist- ing in all aspects of breeding and whelping. In Dachshunds, specif- ically, Hannelore Heller was a huge influence in my understanding of handling, grooming, and learning pedigrees. I had quite a few other handlers whom I consider mentors, including Jay Richard- son, Nina Fetter, Michael Work, Denny Mounce, Peggy Lloyd, Bruce Schultz, Gretchen Schultz, and Vicki Seiler-Cushman. Each of them taught me many things about care and conditioning, the business of dog shows and handling, and how to succeed in life. There are more handlers than I can even list who imparted wisdom to me over the decades while I was growing up at shows. Now that I am older, I know that the late nights hanging out with long- time Dachshund breeders gave me immeasurable exposure and knowledge about the breed, which I rely on to this day when look- ing at pedigrees and deciding about breeding plans. I was always
78 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, JANUARY 2021
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