Hello and welcome to the Granddach website. We are Calum and Mairi Grant - We have 5 children aged, 2, 6, 4, 9 and 10yrs. We live near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Calum is a Painter and Decorator and Mairi trained in Clinical & Pastoral Counselling and Criminal Psychology and is continuing to study and currently stays at home with the children and dogs.

We enjoy showing our dogs and have the occasional litter from which we select our next prospects after which we may have pups available to selected homes.

We hope you find the site useful and informative and hope you can feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. In case you were wondering, GRANDDACH means GRANT'S in Scottish Gaelic. We love Scotland and in particular the west coast and islands - hence the choice of kennel affix - and most of our dogs are given a pedigree name which is connected to Scotland.

My love of terriers began in childhood (Mairi) when we went on a family holiday to a caravan park in Inverness when I was about 11 years old. An Airedale terrier seemed to appear from nowhere on the park and took a shine to my father and decided to become his best buddy, with the result that everywhere my dad went for the entire holiday the dog appeared - even to the toilet and IN THE SHOWER!!! We have no idea where he came from or who he belonged to but we thought it was hilarious, except for dad!! It walked for miles behind us and all the way back, and from that point on my life's mission was to one day have a terrier similar to him.

In 1998 Calum and I got married, had a couple of kids and thought we would have a dog to complete our family - or so we thought (5 kids later !!!)
And so it all began, we bought our first Airedale dog and later added our bitch, we had spent a lot of time learning breed specific information in Terriers and began showing our dogs we went on to have a couple of stunning litters of these wonderful terriers and are very proud of our offspring. Our foundation Airedales are sadly no longer with us and we do not have any Airedales at present but will perhaps add one in the future as they will remain a strong favourite with us and our family.

We also have a great fondness and love for the Wire Haired Fox Terrier, Kerry Blue and Lakeland Terriers. We bought our first Fox Terriers a good few years ago and they too have given us and our kids a tremendous experience and many happy comedy filled years, we've bred a few lovely litters with very hopeful show prospects and have had a great overall experience, we now have a few Granndach Fox Terrier home bred generations and hope to breed our very own Grannddach Champion. We currently have only 4 Fox Terriers.

Our latest family addition is a miniature Bull Terrier bitch we are excited about spending time with her and showing her although we have no plans to breed her at this time, she is a much adored pet which we love dearly and we are enjoying getting to know a new breed, and indeed one which is very wrongly misunderstood and judged, she is our little clown and never fails to make us smile, even on a bad day!

Also have Sacha our Russian Black Terrier, for many years we have admired the breed from afar and in 2006 we added our own bitch. Sacha is a pet and show dog only and has never been bred nor will she ever be in the future, she is a pleasure to have around and we welcome any enquiries about the breed.

Finally we have a 2 year old Lakeland Terrier bitch which we hope to show in 2011 and use for junior handling, they are very similar to the Fox Terrier in every way and their needs are almost identical.

We also have a lot of experience with the Kerry blue Terrier and we hope to add a youngster for show at some point in the future.
So to conclude the only breed we have the occasional litter from is the Wire Fox Terrier. Although we have a few different breeds they are for show and pets and not for breeding!

Our oldest 2 children are very interested in junior handling and both are members of the Young Kennel Club, They have been consistently placed at dog shows in 2009 and have had a very good start, They will be showing frequently in 2010.
We are glad the children have shown such an interest in working with the dogs as it is important for them to realise the amount of work , money and time involved in raising a litter, keeping dogs in general and also grooming and preparing for show, they can learn animal husbandry from a young age so that when they grow up and have pets of their own they will be capable of caring for them properly and responsibly. It will hopefully give them a good hobby to take them through their teenage years as we know how easy it is for our teenagers to be led astray these days so we hope this is something they will remain interested in and get involved in to keep them busy.

We have a very busy year ahead as we will have a Wire Fox Terrier bitch and a Miniature Bull Terrier bitch showing, and perhaps Sacha too, it will be a good challenge for us and the kids to try to show them all at the same show!!!

In total at home we have 7 dogs ( including 2 youngsters and a male) therefore we are not a large kennel which is great for us as our dogs are very much our family pets as much as they are show dogs or otherwise, we have the time to exercise our dogs, take them out and about and play with all of them each day. We will of course keep a pup this year and perhaps add a Kerry Blue but will remain a very small set up.

We usually only have a couple litters at most each year, some years we have no litters at all. Our terriers are carefully chosen to be fantastic companions for children and adults alike. They are wonderful additions to family life and we are excited at the prospect of seeing more of these around as they are becoming a rare sight these days.

We breed mainly for ourselves and only when we want to keep something from the litter for ourselves for showing, some of our surplus babies have gone to show/pet homes and are a great addition to these families. Most important to us however is the temperament and health of our dogs/pups above all else. We are blessed with very good dogs which have a great nature and our desire is to see others enjoy the same pleasure, we have young children who obviously come first, we therefore have to have dogs which we can trust to be around them all day So much of our focus is in breeding only from this temperament and true to type terrier and in socialising the pups and as you can imagine with 5 youngsters on the go they get played with lots. We spend a lot of time in early training to get the pups off on the right track , we have dogs that are very much within breed standard and expect our offspring to also be of this quality therefore we do encourage new owners to consider showing as there is always a possibility of a future champion.

We are introducing more dogs into the showring in the hope of making up a Granddach champion, we enjoy the fun and the challenge as do the dogs and we plan to do more showing in the near future although this is by no means the most important aspect of what we do. and at no point will be to the detriment of our dogs and their happiness or wellbeing, they are part of our family first and foremost and whatever else happens is a bonus. We qualified for Crufts with 2 dogs in 2008, 2009 and 2010 however we have still to experience actually attending Crufts with our dogs because we felt our baby was a bit on the young side this year but hopefully we will once again qualify for Crufts 2011 and go next year.

Our breeds are becoming endangered and only by breeding responsibly and carefully and ethically will we ensure these lovely dogs continue being seen in years to come. All our litters are very carefully planned and all our surplus pups have good homes before they are born. All of our adult dogs have any neccesary health screening and testing and we have had no health issues arise in any of our dogs at Granddach.

Seeing all our pups arriving into the world and watching them grow up and go to great homes is such a pleasure, although we miss each and every one when they go. We are very particular as to where our surplus pups go and have a waiting list which affords us the ability to choose the most suitable forever homes.

Our pups are ready to leave at 8 weeks of age, vaccinated and KC Reg,microchipped and with free insurance and a good supply of puppy food. Our pups are raised in the family home and love being part of everyday life. They are taken in the car to get them used to travelling and have also been known to sit on command before they leave us. They are extensively socialised and we begin paper training and have them wear collars and walk on the lead.

We are KC Accredited Breeders and therefore strictly follow the necessary requirements of the scheme which in turn ensures the pups are off to the best start possible, it ensures we never become complacent and our new puppy owners can be confident of this also. Our adult dogs have undergone any necessary checks required by the Kennel Club. Our new puppy owners leave with an Accredited Breeders puppy sales wallet with all the information needed regarding their new baby, and an after-sales service where they can feel free to contact us for advice and indeed just to catch up and discuss how they are getting on.

If you have any questions in regards to our breeds, our showing, our litters or indeed general canine enquiries we would be more than happy to answer any questions and discuss our dogs with you. The breeds we have are by no means renowned to be easy dogs to have, the terriers are stubborn and challenging and can be dominant with other dogs on one hand requiring a firm but fair and consistent training and therefore may not be the breed for everyone, on the other hand they are among the most patient, friendly, fun loving and robust dogs, great with children and people, not too demanding and in the right hands an absolute pleasure but in the wrong hands - as with any breed - they can be a potential nightmare so with this in mind we ask that only very serious knowledgeable people who have done their breed homework approach us with puppy enquiries as we have the care and welfare of our dogs and puppies as priority in all we do at our kennel.

------------------------------------


IMPORTANT INFORMATION BEFORE CONSIDERING A PUPPY

Do You have the time to devote to a dog's needs?

Do you have the finances to supply all your dog's needs?

Are you able to exercise and provide stimulation for the dog according to it's needs?

Are you equipped to train the dog and socialise it?

Will you still be willing to groom/exercise/provide for your dog each day in 5 years time and 10 years time?

Have you got adequate knowledge of dogs and your breed in particular?

"Your dog may be living with humans in a human world, but his instincts remain pure dog."

"The secret of successful training is to learn how to communicate with your dog in a way he understands."

"It is easier to blame problem behaviour on a dog's character than to look at how the environment we have created may be affecting it."

Dogs unfortunately get the blame for being badly behaved in many instances, ie Rottweilers have a reputation for being nasty when in actual fact statisitically thay are among the most steady breeds with fewest attacks, it is only that when they do attack it tends to be more serious than a Yorkshire Terrier for example which stastically is more likely to bite, the smaller breeds are by far more likely to be a handful if not raised properly and it has EVERYTHING to do with how the dog is raised and socialised and very little to do with the breed of dog, if any breed is purchased from a responsible, caring breeder and raised in the right way it will be very unlikely to ever pose a problem or a risk however to buy a dog from an unknown breeder or backstreet breeder and not raise it properly can lead to serious consequences. A toy poodle is as capable of attack as a Doberman or other breed wrongly deemed dangerous if it is not treated as it ought to be, so with this in mind we only would have our pups go to those we consider responsible and knowledgeable of our breeds and dogs in general. There have been many temperement tests done in dogs and we are happy to say that all our breeds are among the most steady and safe dogs to have around people and in particular children, based on various temperament tests our breeds score well into the 90% and above range for safety and reliability but we cannot become complacent as we have stated before, any dog as soon as it is born has potential to harm if not raised correctly.

People have a tendency to humanise dogs and we forget they are dogs. The do not like to be pampered like humans, they definitely do not understand the English language(or any other for that matter) but yet we have conversations with them??? We dont like it when a puppy comes home and goes poo poo everywhere, we expect them to know our feelings and words and to comply to our lifestyle and this is not the case, they have minds of their own, they enjoy being dogs and feel more secure if treated with respect as a dog and not a human, many behaviour problems are born out of anthropomorphism and our inability to seperate canine from human, research shows that dog psychology is very dissimilar to human psychology and when we cross the line and humanise dogs we see jealousy, bites, attacks, nervous behaviours and many more unattractive traits, we would strongly recommend any potential owners read some material on dog behaviour, ie 'Cesar Millan', 'Victoria Stillwell' etc as well as breed specific books so that they are properly prepared for their important task of raising a well balanced well mannered companion which can go on to keep our breed characteristics and reputation good so that generations of these terriers in the future can be just as sound as those which have gone before.