Doggies from Russia
History of the Breed.
The history of the Russian colored lapdog, bred in Leningrad, was inseparably associated with the infancy of all dog-breeding in this city. In the early 50-s, a group of enthusiasts led by Zhanetta A. Chesnokova put the goal to breed a national decorative dwarf pet. Among this group, Julia M. Zvonareva, Diana A. Ovcharenko, Galina A. Isayeva could be singled out.
It should be mentioned that in general Russian toy-dog breeding had been in a very poor status for a long while, and it had developed in very hard conditions. Here is what respected Zhanetta Chesnokova, who had chaired the pet section of the Leningrad Hunting & Fishing Society (LHFS) for a decade (1961 – 1971), wrote about this: “During the period of the Soviet System, decorative dogs were exhibited at practically every dog show along with other dogs, but the quantity, and more importantly, quality of such dogs at these shows was far from the same. At the first post-war show in 1946, only two pets were represented (a lapdog and a toy-terrier). These figures display the exceptionally difficult conditions under which enthusiasts of decorative breeds started their pet-dog breeding in Leningrad and the rest of out Motherland.”
As I said, origin of the Russian colored lapdog breeding goes back to the 50s; to be more precise, 1951, when a group of Leningrad dog-fanciers got the first black lapdog from coupling of a coffee and a white color dogs. The black dog was called Tin-Tin. There were so few suitable by phenotype dwarf dogs available, that a white-color stud Trifon was brought to Leningrad from Hungary, and a coffee-color female lapdog Zhuzhu was bought from a touring then in Leningrad circus. Several attempts were made to add blood of some other foreign dwarf breeds, like the Maltese, Bolognese, Shi-Tzu and a few more.
Later on, the black Tin-Tin and Trof produced a coffee-color lapdog Lyu-Lyu, who in her turn, coupled with white Yozhik (Hedgehog) gave two litters, both with black and white puppies. By the end of the 50s, through thorough matching and strict selection based mostly on phenotype and later on the quality of litter, a reasonably homogeneous population has been achieved; it got the status of a breed group.