I wanted a dog since I was a little girl. My wish came true when I had finnished my primary school. A Dalmatian Atos came in to my life. I have trained him and he passed several exams. He was also very good at competitions. As soon as we have moved from Ljubljana to a small village near Žalec, we got Yugoslavian Shepherd Dog-Sharplanina named Kan and Giant Schnauzer, colour salt and pepper, Orna sa Gvozda. Then we got Dalmatian Lucifer Županjski and with him I countinued visiting shows. He was a very successful dog, 1 BIS on international show in Zagreb, 1 reserve BIS on international show in Varaždin, he was also a multichampion.

And then, in 2001 I got a Karst Shepherd, named Feld Silber. His biggest success was as a veteran Best of breed on a European speciality show in 2010 in Celje.

All this time I have had only big breeds. I didn’t prefer smaller breeds. But eleven years ago my parents have bought a West Highland White Terrier and I liked his terrier vivid character. I found it pretty cool to take westie in to my arms and cuddle him so I started looking for a terrier, but I wanted one, that was not as popular in Slovenia.

I searched on the Internet, in books, I was visiting shows that I could talk to the terrier owners. I was searching a small terrier that would have everything I liked in big dogs. At the end I was choosing between Cairn terrier, a small dog with a big heart, that had all the positive attributes of my big dogs and a Lakeland terrier, a vivid and very playful dog.

And then I had to decide whether to have a male or a female dog. I have always thought that breeding is a crown of canine. Thats why I have had the Schanzer female, but she had some hormone problems and had lost her puppies, and I had almost lost her too, so I have abandoned breeding at that time But the wish was still there. Therefore I have decided to have a cairn female puppy, and at that time Rajko Rotner, first breeder of cairns in Slovenia, had Cairn litter and I got Puma Dobart. A month later Lakelands Slicey Urphee and Slicey Ula up came in to our home also. Urphee has number 1 in slovenian pedigree book, and Ula number 2. They were halfsisters from a recognized breeder Denys Lorrain from Italy. That is how my breeding Cairn and Lakeland terrier began.

The Danatera kennel is a family kennel, where dogs live all together, there is also a cat, named Zeus, and we are all one big family. This is one of my conditions for all new owners of my puppies – a dog must be a familiy member that lives inside with his owner, not outside, closed in a doghouse. As a conscientious breeder I am always available to the new owners, helping them with their questions and I really prefer that we all together solve possible difficulties if they occur.

Natalija Dragan-Gajari