About us
My name is Nancy van Rattingen-Schenkhuizen, I am married to Marco and since 2004 I breed Shiba in the south of The Netherlands under the kennel name Foxy Bee – Home of the Shiba. In 2001 I got, after a very long wait, my first Shiba. It was a sesame male and his name was Brandon. With Valentine the year after a red female was added, BonBon. Both reached a very high age, Bonbon passed away in 2018 and Brandon in 2019 at the age of 17,5 years old. They stood at the base of our kennel and will never be forgotten.
Our Shiba all live with us in our house, they are our companions, our source of annoyance and disputes, but foremost our great love! Our Shiba are red (red/sesame sometimes) because I personally think that in this colour the ‘fox-like’ appearance is the strongest (and that is what I love, hence my kennel name!). In all that time, I only had a litter of cream males once, the cutest polar bears ever. That can happen when both parents are carrier of cream.
Unfortunately, FCI does not recognize this colour, so you cannot show them, but it does not affect their health at all. These are normal Shiba just with a different colour jacket!
The hobby just started as an ordinary dog owner, but at present I am full into showing at home and abroad and I breed on a modest level according to the rules of the Dutch Kennel club and breed club. This means that all dogs in my breeding programme are tested on HD, Patella Luxation and hereditary eye diseases, including gonioscopy.
My goal is to breed social, breed typical dogs with lots of character, in which I make well considered choices in the combination of dogs with each mating. I look at which male is suited best for our female, trying to improve her lesser qualities for the next generation. In all these years I only repeated a mating combination once, because 1] I was very pleased with the result of the first time and 2] I am always curious to see what a new combination can bring to the breed. Also, we import dogs from abroad regularly enabling us making new combinations. Meanwhile, we have imported two dogs from England, two from the United States, one from Norway, one from Japan, one from Spain and quite recently one from Russia.
The showing of dogs only started in 2005, when a certain breeder, of whom I wanted to purchase a dog, obliged me to do so, more or less. The thought behind it was that I should subject my dogs to an impartial judgement, how else was I to know that I was on the right track with my breeding programme? Since then I have embraced the show world, because I do think it important to show my dogs. Next to that it is a social happening, which has become part of my life and has given me many friendships for life.
