Roy Hill is a small kennel in The Netherlands FCI registered since 1992
I grew up in the Netherlands, Singapore and New Zealand where dogs have always been a part of my life and love, at home with my parents we had English Bulldogs, German Shepherds and Dobermans none were show dogs or bred from with some rescued and simply our pets.
It wasn't until visiting the Amsterdam Winner Show in 1988 with my then boyfriend where I fell in love with the Akita and Australian Cattle Dog I placed myself on the waiting list and they were my first show dogs winning many BOB, Winner and World Winner titles between them sadly after failed health testing they weren't good enough for breeding.
I moved to London in 1993 and had a short break in the USA working as a show handler assistant where I learned about a lot of different breeds in my care and met the Shar-Pei, on my return to the UK my first Shar-Pei arrived in my life and this was the first breed that I bred after my son was born.
At the beginning of 2012 the Thai Bangkaew Dog came into our lives purely by accident, it was decided 3 years after losing our last old dog, to rescue a dog from Thailands illegal dog meat trade after getting her home, we fell in love with her wonderful unique character as she settled we learned that she was a TBD.
I was so impressed by her and became very excited when finding out that in 2011 it was a new breed recognized by the FCI on a provisional basis that my research started with the quest to import well bred Thai Bangkaew Dogs direct from Thailand to ensure their future in Europe and help preserve this amazing primitive breed.
It wasn't easy at the time to find full generation FCI registered Thai Bangkaew Dogs with so many different TBD clubs each having their own registration but not all were accepted by the THKC / FCI which was needed to get the export pedigree and some beautiful dogs I had selected could not be imported.
I ended up importing the first two FCI registered Thai Bangkaew Dogs ( selected as puppies) direct from Thailand into the UK after they had completed their Thai Championship titles but due to the breed not being recognized by the kennel club was unable to show them or register any future litters so traveling back and forth to shows on the mainland, with my son now a young adult going his own way, made me decide to return to my home country the Netherlands in 2015 to be closer to my family and breed my dogs, after having lived in the UK for 22 years.
While paving my way through the maze I started the first Thai Bangkaew Dogs in Europe (re-named Thai Bangkaew Dog World) FaceBook Group together with Paul Stanton to create a hub for other European Thai Bangkaew Dog owners to get together sharing our experience also helping newcomers in the breed, and I have created the Thai Bangkaew Dog Database having uploaded more than 800 pedigrees with pictures from my research to help me and hopefully other serious breeders that are interested in the development of the Thai Bangkaew Dog breed.
Sabine van der Zwan
