GRALOCH GSDs
(Established 1974)
Pat McCulloch
My interest in dogs started when I was a little girl. Near where we lived was an Alsatian called 'Sheila' and I thought she was wonderful. As I was growing up I pleaded with my parents for a dog like 'Sheila' My pleas were ignored - they thought it was just a whim. This went on all through my teenage years. I left school and went into banking, still asking to be allowed to have a dog, only to be told "When you get married you can have as many dogs as you like:' Little did they know!
Many, many years later, married and living in East Africa, I got my wish - a dog -not as you may think, an Alsatian, as they were once called, but a big black Labrador named Boris, born in Nairobi, Kenya. We moved to Uganda and Boris came too. He was our dog. When the troubles in Uganda became serious, we had to think about returning to Scotland. My husband had to stay on, but Boris and I left Uganda in late 1973. Boris was by then three years old and I wouldn't leave him behind. Incidentally, he lived until he was fifteen.
However, I still had a longing for a GSD and through training classes I met some 'dog show' people. One thing led to another and I learned, from a friend, about a seven month old bitch puppy that was for sale as the breeder had decided to keep the litter sister instead. The puppy was DORVAAK KLEOPATRA OF GRALOCH, a Ch Ramacon Swashbuckler daughter. The GRALOCH came about by using half my maiden name Graham with half my married name, Mcculloch. I was really very lucky to have acquired Kleo. She won well at the shows (even though I handled her myself!), and from her first litter produced CHAMPION GRALOCH AMOROUS. Kleo had a Full Certificate for her hips, and when the scoring system started I was invited to send her plates in to be scored, she had a 0:0 hip score. I have always tried to use good producing dogs with hip scores of 10 or under, and up until a few years ago the highest score at the Graloch Kennels was 13.
Ir has always been my policy not to 'puppy farm' and still only breed one or two litters a year. My line still goes back to my very first bitch, Kleo, who was instrumental in me having my beloved GSDs.
