Rhodesian Ridgeback: 7 Top documents

Reg & Kay Bean
With the kennel name of Rekaylahn ( from their first names) Reg and Kay Bean were involved with Ridegabcks since the 70s. Originally from Rhodesia, they moved back and forth from Rhodesia to South Africa and the UK with their dogs and they contributed substantially to the improvement and renewal of the breed, particularly in the countries where the quarantine was still in force: Challengers Chipo and Tara of Rekaylahn left their footprints in the UK in the early 80s in the Gunthwaite ( Julie and David Bates) , the Mangwe (John and Joanne Baldwin), Rejan (Janet Parker) kennels as well as in South Africa in the most wellknown kennels at the time: Dilesridge (Diane Duncan), Clachlan (Scottie and Annelise Stewart), Pronkberg (Steph Potgieter) , just to mention a few.
Later on at the beginning of the new millennium from Vizara Hluhluwe Rekaylahn two top winning bitches were born: R. Blaze top winner in the UK and R Amber exported to Sweden to Mrs. Marie Wijkander, of the Inanda Mellberg kennels, who later moved to back South Africa, brought back to the country of origin old and valuable bloodlines mixed with European lines of great value.

Initially interested in Pekinese, he started the Tragband kennel which was subsequently carried by several Champion Beagles and Afghan Hounds. He started judging dogs in his late teens. Subsequently approved to judge all seven of the Groups, he judged extensively all over the world, including USA and Russia.
He has written for Our Dogs and Dog World (for which newspaper he wrote a weekly column –Going Around– for more than thirty years).
He has contributed regularly to several periodicals around the world and am the author of The Essential Guide to Judging Dogs, Beagles Today and The pet owner’s guide to the boxer. He edited The ultimate rottweiler and, with Anne Rogers Clark, legendary american judge and writer, co-edited The International Encyclopaedia of Dogs.
He has presented several online zoom webinars which have proved very popular in thedog world.

Liz Megginson is from South Africa and started breeding Rhodesian Ridgebacks since 1974; she started judging in 1982 and in 1984 founded the Rhodesian Ridgeback World Congress.
Liz Megginson is qualified to judge all groups and Best In Show at championship show level. She started judging on the 2 February 1982 and has judged worldwide and was honoured by being asked to judge Ridgebacks at Crufts in 2008.
When Liz immigrated to South Africa in 1974, she discovered Rhodesian Ridgebacks and has been breeding and showing successfully ever since, holding the Dog of the Year award for ten years in succession and twice winning Hound of the Year.
Her two most famous homebred dogs were Ch Shangara’s Checheni and Ch Shangara’s Likimba, who between them won almost 200 Championship Show BOB’s, dozens of groups, numerous Best In Show placings and eight Best In Show awards. In the Hound Group, Liz has bred and championed over 50 Ridgebacks, 1 Basset, 1 Bloodhound, 3 Beagles, 1 Greyhound, 1 Saluki and 3 Whippets.
Liz Megginson always was and is still today a member of many breed clubs of which we only name a few like her membership of KUSA, Vice-President of the Sporting Dogs Association and Vice-Chairman of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club (Transvaal), which has now amalgamated with the SA Rhodesian Ridgeback Club and she also runs the RR rescue, since 1979.
Furthermore it was when she was with the RRC (Transvaal) that she, with her husband Brian, in 1984, started the World Congress Movement for Rhodesian Ridgebacks, which is still held, in a different part of the world, every four years.

In November 2009, the Ridgeback world suffered a great loss with the death of 93-year-old Rosy Brook-Risse, roundly considered the grand dame of Ridgebacks in Germany, where she first introduced them. She lived in Rhodesia from 1949 to 1954 and then moved back to Germany with her husband and two dogs. She exhibited them in Düsseldorf in 1955. In 1956, at the first world exhibition after the war in Dortmund, the male “Rhodus”, already called Chaka by Mrs Risse, won the world champion title.
She was active in exhibitions and founded the “Johokwe” kennel, registered in the KUSA in 1952 and with the VDH/FCI in 1967.
Rosy has always been very committed to the interests of the breed – even abroad.

Stig. G. Carlson was born in Finland and naturalized Swede and has been active as a dog expert since 1968. He enjoyed an international reputation as a breeder, judge and teacher specializing in Rhodesian Ridgebacks. His seminars were widely attended in South Africa, the United States, England, Israel and Australia where he served as a judge and teacher. Stig was President of the Swedish Ridgeback Club, President of the Stockholm Kennel Club, Vice President and President of the SSD (parent club of about 80 breeds) in Sweden and was part of the 100th anniversary team of the Swedish Kennel Club.

Scotty Stewart was born Cape Town, South Africa, in 1936. During the war his family moved back to England, and in 1948 they returned in south Africa where he started breeding Rhodesian Ridgebacks. He is  chairman of the board of the Rhodesian ridgeback international foundation.