Background for Ravensbank

The people

I am Søren Voigt, and I have Ravensbank which is devoted to breeding Field Trial Labrador Retrievers. My wife Annelise and I live at a farm in the village Tarup which is approx. 15 km. south of Odense, on the island Fuenen in the heart of Denmark. Together with Annelise, I have over the last 20 years had 13 Labrador Retrievers, of different sex, colour and breeding tradition. We have lost our hearts to the breed, and the better you get to know the Labrador Retriever, the more you appreciate the modern Lab's predictability and will-to-please.

I had my shooting license in 1972, and I have been hunting together with my father and my grandfather ever since I was a boy. Therefore it has come as a natural thing to train my dogs to work after the shot, and as I have gained more experience as a handler I have been invited to picking-up at more formal shoots and also I have become an active handler of sporting dogs.

I am a member of the Danish Retriever Club (DRK) and the Danish Kennel Club (DKK). Our dogs carry a pedigree from Dansk Kennel Club which is in association with FCI. Within DRK I have served as a gun dog trainer on all levels, as well as having been test steward, and judge at unofficial tests. I am DKK-certified aptitude-test judge.

The Ravensbank dogs

In Great Britain and Ireland, a large group of devoted breeders have for generations bred the Labrador Retriever to maintain its trainability and its qualities as a working dog in the shooting field.

In 2003 I had the opportunity to import Tidemark Ivy (Ivy) as a puppy from Angela og Andy Markham who lives near Spalding in the middle of England. Andy is a highly reputed handler of gundogs in his local area, and he spends a lot of time over the shooting season by picking-up together with several dogs at a time.

Ivy soon proved to be exactly the kind of dog we had been dreaming of. She is very easy to train, and has immense "will-to-please". Already at the age of two, Ivy participated at the Danish Team Championship where our team came in as number three. Ivy was qualified for participation at Official Field Trials at the age of two and at the age of three she was awarded 2nd winner with RCACT on official cold game tests.

Being sound, a good worker and with excellent temper I decided to use Ivy as a breeding bitch, and in 2006 I had the DKK affix of Ravensbank.

So far I have had four litters with Tidemark Ivy (Ivy) as Dam, and another UK-imported dog, DKBRCH DKJCH Cynhinfa Emperor (Leo) as Sire. Leo is owned by Mr. Bernhard Fibæk, Kennel Miska. We kept a bitch (Ravensbank Wagtail (Waggie)) from the first litter, a dog (Ravensbank Jock (Jock)) from the third litter, and a dog (Ravensbank Observer (James)) from the fourth litter. Moreover we have purchased back a bitch from the second litter (Ravensbank Flo (Flo)).

Moreover we have had three litters with Ravensbank Wagtail (Waggie) as Dam and DKBRCH DKJCH Lochiness Green Chive (Chive) as Sire. Chive is bred and owned by Kirsten Lynge og Keld Jørgensen, Kennel Lochiness, and he too is 100% purebred British field trial working lines.

Two Ravensbank dogs have been exported to Finland, one to France, two to Holland and one to Germany. Dogs from Kennel Ravensbank have already done very well in tests and trials among this a second and third runner up at the young dogs championship in 2008 and in 2009 DKBRCH DKJCH NOJCH SEJCH NORDJCH 2EV2010 3UM2008 Ravensbank Swift (Swiffer) was the first Ravensbank dog to receive a championship title (DKBRCH, Danish working championship on both cold and warm game). Swiffer was only just three years of age when he was awarded this championchip, and in 2010 he became Norwegian Field Trial Champion (NOJCH) and became no. two at the Danish Field Trial Championship. Swiffer was in 2009 and 2010 the most winning trialing dog in Denmark. In 2011 Swiffer became Danish Field Trial Champion (DKJCH), Swedish Field Trial Champion (SEJCH) and with that Nordic Field Trial Champion (NORJCH).

Going back in time

Already as a boy in the sixties, our family had a black Labrador dog called Peter. Judged on its pedigree he was a very fine dog bred by Lehnsgreve Iuel Brockdorff (Valdemar Slot), who was the founder of The Danish Retriever Club. Peter was a super retriever serving my dad as he went shooting, but he was also a bit of a rascal, and in hindsight probably the result of a lack of knowledge on my fathers side about the breed and how it can be trained. Peter had a very bad habit of straying, and was finally caught by the police and accused for, during one of his breakaways to have mated an innocent dachshund. In a court of law it could not be proven that Peter was the sinner and the judge let him go, but my father had Peter pay the highest price for the bad reputation the poor dog had established among our neighbours.

Approx. 25 years later my wife Annelise and myself decided to have a dog. We had no doubt about the breed. It just had to be a Labrador Retriever. We also knew, that we would work and train our dogs. We have had Labs ever since. For periods we have had up to five of them around us.