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| ABOUT KENNEL AND ABOUT MYSELF, KENNEL'S REPRESENTATIVES |
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To honor the memory of our Tootsie Kennel's history. I started my kennel in March, 1990, although I bought the first poodle in 1985. Dogs have been accompanying me throughout my life but after the birth of my son I had too many things to worry about and buying of a dog got postponed further and further until he grew up and started asking to buy a little brother, a little sister or a large dog. Of course, I understood perfectly that a fascinating picture suggested to him by his imagination - "I go out into the yard, my left hand rests on withers of a large trained for obedience dog, everyone is impressed - I'm in the center of attention" - would cost me a great labor of raising, nursing, feeding (there was no dry food then), walking and training my boy's future dream. I decided to visit Moscow dog shows in order to find a compromise variant. There were few shows in Moscow at that time - only 2-3 per year. I chose a dwarf silver poodle. Instinctively I wanted a girl to spend much time over her puppies later on. In Moscow Poodle Club I was given only one phone number. Owners of puppies didn't want to show them for a long time and I asked for a puppy from another litter. That evening my husband and I took our girl home. Her name had to begin with a letter "D" and I could choose it myself. That  time
no one gave Russian names to puppies. People preferred abracadabra in unknown
language with no meaning at all. But such were rules and so I named my baby
Jolly (merry), Tootsie (charming) Tos (male's prefix). Our family immediately
fell in love with her. She was a very nice bitch for those times and her
shows were rather successful. In summer when we went on holidays we took
her with us and we had never encountered any troubles with the stuff of
hotels and rest houses. The Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, Crimea, Georgia,
Lithuanian lakes - everywhere she became a center of attention and an object
of admiration. Many people asked, what animal was it and were surprised
to know that such a kind of dogs existed. And how beautifully Tootsie swam!At last it was time to select a male for her. I was a volunteer for dwarves' section of Moscow Poodle Club and I decided to mate her with a wonderful dog Sherry-Martin owned by Mr. Vdovin. Martin belonged to completely another phenotype than my bitch. He was considered to be very large (34 x 35) and that's why he hadn't been mated yet. At that time owners of bitches didn't take part in pair selecting, but received a list of three candidates arranged by a person responsible for breeding according to color. Everyone tried to produce as small-sized poodles as possible. Small-sized poodles were very much in fashion. But I decided to mate my little one with such a large male - I was not understood, but received a permission for mating. We had three puppies: two males and a female. Their birth marked the beginning of my life as a kynologist and later the kennel itself appeared. The litter was so excellent and successes of my puppies encouraged me so much that I felt the taste to breed further. That time Elena Alexandrovna Antonova was a director of "Dwarf Poodle" Club, she was an expert on the Debut Show of my first litter. Since rude Jiffony Sher took the first place in junior class he hadn't ever let anyone else take it on any other show (in those times 18-30 dogs participated in silver rings) until the arrival of Silver Kolja of Twist Castle. His brother Jotto Sher was a great success as a stud-dog. He had his mother's size and temperaments of his father, excellent body, energetic movements. After the end of the show Elena Alexandrovna complemented by juniors saying, "Ludmila Mikhailovna, your Jiffony was noticeably better-bred than all other dogs in all rings". His father Sherry Martin immediately became a very popular stud-dog. The next three Tootsie's litters with other studs were not so outstanding, but the only daughter of Tootsie from the first litter Jolly Sher owned by Marina Smirnova gave birth to several outstanding dogs. My higher education as an economist - specialist in international affairs (I graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Affairs) had nothing in common with my chosen kind of activity. I had to get professional knowledge in kynology and I asked governing body of the Club to give me a recommendation for matriculation to kynological courses. We had five subjects and we had to pass exams in each of them. I always liked to learn and I had already understood that my breeding would be special. The courses were very difficult and lasted practically a year, I have passed all exams with flying colors and of course started feeling myself more confident. Now after the lapse of 15 years I consider myself to be an experienced breeder with a solid reputation and I think that besides kynologic education you must have a feeling for choosing two dogs for mating. Nevertheless quality of puppies too often depends on His Majesty CHANCE. Big changes in our country affected the whole kynological world and turned it upside down. All poodles were joined into All-Union Poodle Club, then - into Union of Poodle Clubs (UPC) and now there is a National Poodle Club that unites several separate-existing national breed clubs and kennels. I registered my kennel in 1990. That same year the first puppies under the name of the kennel appeared. Many bitches were mated with my stud dogs Silver Kolja and Wonderboy. From the very beginning I insisted on including the first letters of the kennel's name "RD" in future puppies' names. That is why nowadays these two letters are present in pedigrees of some puppies. Later while changing old pedigrees for new ones Russian Kynological Federation without warning me rejected part of my contribution in development of this breed abolishing prefix "RD" for males. But Silver Kolja is a sir of more than 250 poodles and Wonderboy was used with 52 bitches and is a sir of more than 160 puppies! I dreamed about creating my own kennel long before its appearance. I was trying on sonorous names for it. I wanted to find a simple but sedate name that wouldn't resemble any cliche. I love Russia. I love and appreciate my native language and I think it deserves being used by Russians with pride. I had many variants of the kennel's name, but I didn't want it to be connected with such variables as color or place. They come and go while Russia is constant. Name Russky Dvor (Russian Yard) suited me perfectly. My country-house in Kokoshkino near Moscow which we chose as our permanent address in September, 1992 I named after the name of my kennel: country estate "RUSSKY DVOR". But dreams not supported by a basic high-quality number of poodles could remain only dreams if not for… If not for the arrival of Silver Kolja of Twist Castle from
I imported a silver dwarf bitch Silver Windsong of Twist Castle (Dushechka) from Switzerland as a pair to Silver Kolja. Now in the kennel as a result of the last mating of this pair there is a very beautiful bitch Anutiny Glazky of Russky Dvor, her son Pravilny Patsan iz Russkogo Dvora (city of Taganrog) and silver Seraja Sheika iz Russkogo Dvora who is a granddaughter of Kolja and Dushechka. Patsan and Sheika were received from my new silver male Prince Charming of Twist Castle imported from France. Now Silver Kolja is 12 years old and Dushechka is also not young - she is more than 10. They are still in good shape and enjoy a quiet life of pensioners. 
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