:: Kyechu Lhasa Apsos ::

Hi there, and welcome to Kyechu Lhasa Apsos! I'm Monique van Boxtel, 40 years young and I live in The Netherlands. Please allow me to take you on a trip back in time that began in 1987. That was the year my life totally changed. I had just moved into a new home in a new town, and so I had new neighbours as well. One evening there was a ring at the door, I opened it, and one neighbour in particular, accompanied by a small, hairy dog came by to introduce herself. I was intrigued by the furry little bundle, who was looking at me as if to say, "don't touch me because I don't even know you..!" The name of this hairy creature was Illeke and she was a Lhasa Apso. I asked my new friend more about this special dog and then I was invited to visit the kennel where Illeke came from. Of course, I could not refuse such an offer. This is how I ended up visiting the Ebbink's Hoeve Kennel.

My goodness, all those Lhasas, this was like paradise to me! When I entered the kennel my eye was caught by a young, timid male. His eyes were begging me to pet him, and I fell in love with him the minute I touched him. At that moment I knew that I caught a fever that I would suffer from for the rest of my life.

Sadly enough, my financial situation didn't allow me to buy the little guy called Gulio. He stole my heart. A few weeks later he was sold to a lady in Switzerland, and I cried for two weeks. Even though this happened almost 20 years ago, I still think about him often and wish there would have been a way for me to take him home. I would have to wait another 19 years to find another little guy with who I would bond with so intensely.

During the next two years I caught another bug. It was dog shows. I started showing Lhasa Apsos and Shih Tzus and was introduced to the European Lhasa scene when I finally had the good fortune to purchase my first Lhasa Apso. She was Sinja, a two years old golden girl bred by the Benders family. She was Gulio's half sister, both sharing the same Sire.

Sinja was a very nice bitch from the Hamilton and Warwinckel lines, but she did not have full dentition. Despite her bite, I showed her at local matches, often with success. She definitely had the x-factor to draw the attention of the judge. In 1991, I bred her to Draya's Atantic-Dianan, a male who went back to Ramatsche and Orlane lines. She gave birth to three snowy white girls and one later appeared to be a Prapso. The other two girls, Mylhana and Rowena, I kept. Lhana was a beautiful bitch which did very well at the shows. Rowena was also very nice, but preferred staying at home on the sofa than spending time in the show ring.

When my Lhasas were about 16 months old I had to make a traumatic decision. Due to a bad relationship with my partner, I was forced to end this relationship and move back with my parents.

The heartache of having to part with my Lhasas was immense, but I had no other option since my parents could not take the dogs in as well. The three girls all went to live with someone else, and I was all alone and heart broken. The only thing I had to look forward to would be the result of a contract I made with the new owner of my girls. In that contract I was to get a puppy back if they were ever bred.


Rowena		Mylhana

In the Fall of 1994, I had my life back on track and moved to the northern part of The Netherlands and settled in the lovely village with a population of 5000. My dreams were realized and Rowena was bred to Chakpori's Love Joy, a Ch. Saxonsprings Song 'n' Dance and Ch. Chakpori's Unique son, and on September 12 she gave birth to 4 boys and 1 girl. I was present at the birth. The only girl in the litter touched my heart and I made my pick of litter. A few weeks later I decided to take one of her litter brothers as well, because everybody deserves a pal, right? This is how I got Ollie (Rockfordfosgate) en Issie (Tismylukt). Both were cute dogs and very nice companions, but from the moment they were born I knew they had no show potential or breeding qualities. As time went by I was not happy with their type and overall look, this was not the Lhasa Apso I fell in love with and began searching for a way to get back to the origins of the breed.

During that time internet became available. The first thing I did when I got connected was searching the web for Lhasa Apso websites. At that time there were only 3 sites available, They were the Kai-La-Sha website, the Joycelyn's site and the Stings site. I liked the Kai-La-Sha dogs best and learned they were bred from original imports from Tibet and the Himalayas. Since there was so little information about the breed available on the internet I started building my own website, and on July 10 1997 The Dutch Lhasa Apso Page was born.

It was because of that website that one day I received an email from an American lady . She had been breeding Lhasa Apsos from 1984 under the Robbee's prefix. When she discontinued her Abbotsford lines and switched to straight Hamilton and Tibetan lines, she changed her prefix into Bo. It was her who taught me what the original Lhasa looked liked like.

I didn't want to rush into things, so I did a lot of research on the breed and it's history, it's country of origin and the contemporary Lhasa Apso. Since the type was lost here in The Netherlands this lady offered to send me one of her Lhasas. This was Ch. Chiyoko RA BMOC of Bo, a male out of straight Hamiltom lines, bred by Marie Allman. She sent Korky to Canada to be campaigned when he was 8 months old, and he had recently gained his Canadian title. Now, being 20 months old, he would make a trip from Canada to The Netherlands to improve the type here.

I won't go into "The story of Korky" again here as everybody already knows how I acquired him and how he ended up at the Chakpori kennels. Korky arrived on November 21,1999.

During the time we and I were making preparations for Korky's trip to The Netherlands I was contact with Marie Allman of Chiyoko kennels. Marie was very helpful in providing me with information about the lines Korky was down from. One Saturday morning in October, I woke up, switched my computer on to check my emails and there was an email from Marie, offering me a straight Hamilton baby girl! I was ecstatic, and of course I accepted her offer. In exchange for this wonderful gift I created the Chiyoko website for Marie. Abby (Chiyoko's To Be Continued) was given the required vaccinations, acquired a perfect heath certificate and her flight from Houston to Amsterdam was booked. I still remember how I cried of tears of joy when the handler at Schiphol's Animal Hotel handed Abby over to me. She was so beautiful, such a true Lhasa, and I was on cloud nine with my new little girl.

Abby grew up to a gorgeous, typical Lhasa girl. She was 24,5 centimeters tall (a little under 10 inches), had a beautiful head and moved like a dream. Despite her close match to the standard she didn't do well at the shows. Only the breed specialists appreciated her type and size. Other judges told me so many times that she was way to small. These judges were used to seeing only Lhasas that were really way too big for the original standard to be shown. Showing Abby was always a joy, the critiques were so encouraging. When she was 2 years old I wanted to breed her, but there was no suitable male available in Europe. In the fall of 2001 I went to the United States , and I decided to take Abby with me to be bred there.

On September 11, 2000, I made another trip to the airport, accompanied by my youngest son Dennis who would turn 2 years old on the 13th. This time I picked up Lisa (Bo Continues Everglo), a black girl, and a birthday present for Dennis. I had always dreamed of having a black Lhasa.

When I looked at her, it was like looking at pictures of the old Everglo dogs. Her head was so beautiful, and she was a bundle of joy. Sadly enough Lisa didn't stop growing and she became too big. When she was 16 months old I placed her in a pet home.

In November 1999 Catherine Marley offered me a 6 months old male out of Ch. Tabu's CL Spring Forward and Kai-La-Sha Amber. After going through all the trauma with Korky I wasn't ready for a new dog in my house, so I decided to co own him and let him live in the USA until the time I would be ready to have him here. DJ (Kai-La-Sha Ku-Bo) was handled by Lyle Reed and Roxanna Belshaw at several shows and did quite well. Later he went on a holiday to Texas to be used in the breeding program of Lamel Kennels . DJ, returning from Texas, and I arrived in San Francisco on the same day. Along with DJ arrived 4 puppies. The first two were sired by Everglo Nova Nag-Po of Bo and out of Kai-La-Sha Silly Nilly. The third puppy was sired by Sharbo Yago and out of Myers Tramel Keeping Secrets. The fourth puppy was sired by Kai-La-Sha Ku-Bo and Tramel Tell It Like It Is.

Shortly before I went to visit Betty, I received an email from Primoz Peer, a Tibetan Spaniel breeder from Slovenia. He told me about Vesna Krajnc, a young woman who was breeding Lhasa Apsos and who was very interested in obtaning a male from Hamilton lines. One of the puppies described above was mine, it was the payment for using DJ as stud. I thought about letting Vesna have that puppy, but when I saw him I realized he was not good enough to send to Slovenia. Instead of this puppy, I decided to send “Tanner” (Lamel Tong-Hua Tenzin Gyatso Bo) instead. Since my flight home changed planes in Frankfurt, I met Vesna who had driven from Slovenia to meet her new “treasure”. That was the beginning of a long term friendship between two girls in Europe.


Me, Betty, Roxanna and Tanner		Vesna and baby Tanner

On April 15, 2002, the FCI approved the kennel name I had applied for - Kyechu.

After I returned from my trip to the USA I had no dogs left at home. Despite this, I did keep up to date with everything happening in Lhasa Land and I kept in close contact with Vesna and other friends. Vesna did exceptionally well at shows with Tanner, and at one point we started talking about her getting a girl from Bo to continue her breeding program. This resulted in the arrival of Anya (Everglo Anya of Bo) on March 14, 2003. That day I drove to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to pick up Vesna. Together we went to the Animal Hotel where Anya was waiting for us. We spent a wonderful weekend at my home and it was hard to say good bye to both of them when they went home two days later.

Anya, who Vesna and I co own, became the “top” Lhasa Apso in Slovenia. Recently she had her first litter of puppies, sired by Tanner. Anya couldn't have ended up in a better home. She's allowed to do anything she wants and she is spoiled rotten, just like Vesna's other Lhasas.

Over the past years I have become co owner of Lamel Miracle at Bo, Wa Tsa-Mo Tong Hua of Bo (an Abby daughter), Bo's J. Car's Sweet Revenge and Everglo Bo Yamak-San-Mo. But...still did not have a Lhasa Apso in my home.

This changed on September 4 2005, when I was sent me Milo (Bo Tanrag Mugpa Tong-Hua at Mo), bred by Pat Capra of Shigatse kennels. This was the little guy I had been waiting 19 years for. The moment we laid eyes on each other we bonded. Milo is the most happy and comical Lhasa Apso I have ever seen. He always makes us laugh. He is enjoying life to the max with our cat and my two boys. Of course he's living the true doggy life, and there's nothing he's not allowed to do. Even after a walk outside late at night in the pouring rain, the king of the house is allowed to sleep on my bed.

Milo was accompanied by his litter sister Coco (Everglo Bo Kolba Skamar at San-Mo) which I also co own. In the future Coco will be bred to Tanner and a puppy out of that mating will be send to back to the USA.

After Milo arrived I became the co owner of Everglo Kace Mo Tong-Hua Bo, Everglo Ceba Sola Mo Tong-Hua, Everglo Tong-Hua Amrita Mo of Bo and Everglo Tong-Hua Cara Mo of Bo. On December 23 2005 Bo's J. Car's Sweet Revenge gave birth to 7 straight Hamilton puppies, sired by Everglo Aruba Padma of Bo. Vesna and I took a black bitch out of this litter (Bo Tong-Hua Mo Sweet Justice) and she is co owned by Vesna and me.

Vesna and I visited the USA in the fall of 2006. When we returned home, Vesna and I took some of the dogs we already co owned with us to continue the old lines in Europe. Among them was Arkay Bo's Rincen, who is living with me. These old lines are a result because Gloria Fowler dedicated her life to breeding the true Lhasa Apso. As time progresses you will learn more about the Kyechu Lhasa Apsos!

Best wishes, Monique