Background for Ravensbank

The people

I am Søren Voigt, and I have Ravensbank which is devoted to breeding Field Trial Labrador Retrievers. 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 my wife Annelise, I have over the last 15 years had 11 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.

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) 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 about. 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 price (Champion Class) on official cold game tests.

Kennel Ravensbank has had in all four litters of puppies.

Three litters have been with Tidemark Ivy (Ivy) as Dam, and another UK-imported dog, DKJCH DKBRCH 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, and a dog (Ravensbank Jock (Jock)) from the third litter.

Moreover we have had a litter of puppies with Ravensbank Wagtail (Waggie) as Dam and Lochiness Green Chive (Chive) as Sire. Chive is bred and owned by Kirsten Lynge og Keld Jørgensen, Kennel Lochiness.

Two Ravensbank dogs have been exported to Finland, and one to France, and 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 NOJCH 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.

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.