Kandu History
Janice registered the first dog with the Kandu name, an American Staffordshire Terrier, in 1970. The next year, she turned a page in Dog World magazine and saw a picture of the Ridgeback Ch. G’Quosa’s Runako. It was truly ‘love at first sight’ and although Jan has owned other breeds over the years, including a Rottweiler (when they were still a rare breed) and several English Bull Terriers, Ridgebacks have always been the dogs of her heart.
In 1972 Jan got her first Ridgeback, who grew up to be owner-handled Ch. M’Lady of Kandu, C.D. Then, in 1973, she acquired a Ch. Batoka’s Rooibaadjie son who became owner-handled Ch. Batoka’s Bid Adu Parker. Lady was bred to Ch. The Guardsman of Kimbida, and later to Parker (the only litter he sired). None of these puppies went to show/breeding homes, and so this line ended. In 1984 Jan acquired the female Rebelridge Reverie of Kandu from Ron Bourguignon. Jan had returned to college in California to get her Master’s degree, and was unable to show Revi, who was a lovely big girl (26″, 85lbs.) who lived to be just shy of 13. Bred to Ch. Rifrug Mungu Kipaji, Revi produced Kandu’s Rebelridge Rowdy (27″, 100lbs.), who was the foundation sire of the present Kandu Ridgebacks. Rowdy was a great dog with a clownish, easy-going personality, and he lived without any medical problems until old age took him at 12.
In 1993 Jan, Revi, and Rowdy moved next door to Darwin Matznick in Central Point, Oregon. Darwin proved to be a dog lover who had owned a Ridgeback in the past. They were married and have worked as partners to establish Kandu.
They built the dog pens themselves, and Jan travels to the shows and lure/racing trials while Darwin stays home to care for the rest of the dogs. Because we are located in Southern Oregon, most shows are more than 100 miles from home, and winter weather does not always cooperate with show plans. Therefore, while we show as much as we can afford, some of our Ridgebacks may not become show champions. Our main goal in the past was to let our Ridgebacks earn performance titles doing what they love – running in various lure coursing and race trials. We bred two AKC Lure Course Champions and five Senior Coursers.
Jan’s Background
Janice, is pictured above with a New Guinea singing dog skull and a copy of the Journal of Zoology (2002) in which an article she was the main author of – an expanded description of Singers – was published. The dog on the cover is a Singer. Jan has been a professional dog trainer for 45 years, and is certified by the Certification Council For Professional Dog Trainers. After studying animal behavior in various universities, and being mentored by the Animal Behavior Society Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists Mary Lee Nitschke, PhD, CAAB and Alice Moon-Fanelli, PhD, CAAB in 2003 she opened her dog behavior consulting business, The Dog Advisor.
In 2008 Jan was granted an Associate Certification in Applied Animal Behavior by the Animal Behavior Society’s Board of Professional Certification (full certification requires a PhD). Jan gave talks on dog behavior science at both the 2006 and 2007 Association of Pet Dog Trainers annual conferences, which have an attendance of about 1,000 trainers each year. In addition, Jan has been studying the behavior of New Guinea singing dogs, a wild dingo from the island of Papua New Guinea, for 17 years. She has traveled as far as Oxford, England to present about these primitive dogs at several scientific conferences, trying to get this rare species some conservation attention. Jan has published several scientific articles on the Singers, and one on the origin of the dog. She has also authored three books: Handraising Puppies (1998. TFH publ.), The Dingo (2002. PowerKids Press), and The German Shepherd (2008. Kennel Club Books). 2016 Jan published the book she had been researching for 20 years, Dawn of the Dog: The Genesis of a Natural Species. It explains the theory that dogs are not domesticated gray wolves, but a true species that evolved from the same ancestor as the wolf.
