About

After a lifetime of wanting a Dachshund, my first miniature smooth silver dapple was bought in 2008 jointly with my niece during my recovery period from a serious illness.  Berlina was almost 14 years old when she passed away in 2022.  We had a wonderful time walking and playing in Battersea Park as we were living in London at the time.   Fast forward several years and in 2012, Berlina was living with my niece in America and I was lonely without my girl.  I found the most beautiful dapple dachshund puppy from a lovely lady who specialises in whippets living in Cardiff and my current saga of Dachshunds was started.

That gorgeous girl, Kierpark Little Miss Magic (or Victoria), was the mother of the first MandalaDax litter and the starting point of my own breeding.

Another of the Kierpark girls, Kierpark Red Sunset (or Willow) came to live with us at the same time as baby Vicky.  Willow had grown too big to show in the UK but she was the perfect companion for Vicky and me.  We were still living part-time in London but moved full time back to Holland later that year.   We found the funny but sweet Dachshaus Tolko Ty (or Tolka) in 2013 and started showing, first in Croatia at the 4 Nights Summer Show in Split and then in Belgium at the Brussels Dog Show.   After breaking my hip at the end of 2013, I was home for quite some time recuperating and through Facebook met some wonderful people and the Yellow Van Crew was born.  We also became a stopping point for our Russian friends on the way to Crufts, and I acquired a little Russian Kaninchen girl, Tzukkini iz Mishkinogo Doma (or Kina) whilst her breeder was on the way to Crufts in March 2014.  Later in the year, little Dachshaus Yesterday (or Yestie) was the pick of her litter at her breeder, but she needed to go to shows so she could be certified for breeding, and I volunteered to do that….so Yestie started out on loan, but soon became a permanent fixture in our household as well.  Her little sister, Dachshaus Haiku Pup (TooToo) joined us in 2015.  And those are the first six MandalaDax girls.

In November 2015, we had our first litter on Bonfire Night, the MandalaDax “A” litter of Absolute Star, Atomic Rockette and Antique Peony (all named after types of fireworks).  They all showed as Juniors (9-18 months) and in Intermediate class (15-24 months) – and although Star was on loan to the UK when she qualified for Crufts – all lived with us for their first 18 months and all three qualified for Crufts 2017 where I showed all three puppies from the litter.   Peony did quite well in the ring with 4x BOB and 1x BOS during her first 6 months as a Junior, and qualifying for Belgian Junior Champion and qualifying for Crufts 2017 in Croatia at the Zagreb Winter Show.  As an adult, Peony has become Croatian Champion (‘17) and Luxembourg Champion (‘18), Bosnia and Herzegovina (‘19), Romania (‘22) and Belgium (‘22).  Star and Rockette had several successes as well, with Rockette becoming Best Junior at Kortrijk Eurodogshow in Belgium.  In August 2017, Star went to live with a lovely older couple with a long history of breeding and showing dachshunds in the UK, where she had a beautiful litter of four red puppies in January 2018.  Rockette left us at the same time to live in Devon with a dear friend, with a beautiful large garden Rox adores to roam in.

In 2017 we had our second litter with the help of Yulia Chalova from my sweet Yestie.  Belle, one of Yestie’s pups has stayed with us – our keeper from the second litter.  And of course, Peony has stayed with us – our permanent keeper from Vicky’s litter.   Our Willow is keeping a lovely lady company in the UK who wanted an older dog for companionship.  We then added a boy in October 2017, Makar!  And so then we had one boy and seven girls living with us.

In 2018, we added a puppy from our MandalaDax Absolute Star, who lives with Ted Jones in Bristol – she had her first litter in January 2018 and we brought Radclyffe Daisy for MandalaDax home with us in September 2018. Daisy did fantastic as a Junior but she is a miniature smooth, not kaninchen, and as I get older I find the bigger dogs more difficult for me to manage and walk, so she is co-owned with a lovely family in Split, Croatia. I get to see her when I am there for shows! She is Junior Champion of Belgium, Croatia and WUT. Daisy has had a BIG4 with me in Belgium, and BIG1 with Nora in Croatia.  Daisy had a first litter in 2020 and her little girl Mandy (MandalaDax Fiore Bassotti di Spalato) lives in Split and Mandy has just had her very first litter – a Black and Tan boy like her, named Imagine Bassotti di Spalato!  Daisy has had a second litter this year as well – and we are looking forward to welcoming MandalaDax Hermes Bassotti di Spalato to our Tiny Teckel House very soon.

Nil Petrovich iz Mishkinogo Doma is co-owned with Lorna Kay in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; he is also a miniature smooth and is too large for me to have on a constant basis, but I love showing him. We won BIG2 and BIG3 when I had him with me last year for the Brussels Dog Show 2018.  He has had some special puppies at Lorna’s.

In 2019, we had three litters!! Peony, Yestie and TooToo all had puppies – and the dad in all three litters was our Makar.   We kept two boys, one from Peony – MandalaDax Cheeky Ted who lives with a good friend in Belgium, and one from Yestie – MandalaDax Dream Puptjie, who lives here with us.

Peony had a litter in 2021 during lockdown, and all those puppies have wonderful homes, but sadly none stayed with us, we had enough dogs living in the Tiny Teckel House.  Had we known we would be losing Tolka, Kina and Willow during the rest of 2021 and 2022, we might have kept a pup from Peony’s litter.

Yestie and Peony are now both spayed (2023) and retired from the ring, enjoying life soaking up sunshine (any day the sun is out)!

In 2023, we have shown a standard girl from a friend – Proud Hunter Lilith at Lochlip – and that has convinced us to add a standard smooth to our current pack.  Joining us in June 2023 is Bombur Capax Venandi, a black-and-tan smooth standard puppy, born in February.  You can see him on our latest blog post.

The photos below are from our first year as MandalaDax, with Yestie qualifying for Crufts and the five girls in 2014 – left to right Willow, Vicky, Tolka, Kina and Yestie – in the order we brought them into the pack.