Czech Spotted Dog Come Home

Come home, as close as possible to Europe, Czech Republic, Jilove u Prahy.

(Quest 1: Escape from the frost of Belarus)

This trackable bug was created as a tribute to our family member - a Czech Spotted Dog named Byl z Trpce, living with us in a little Czech town close to Prague - Jilove u Prahy. You can visit his personal web page at bylztrpce.borec.cz.

Czech (or Bohemian) Spotted Dog is a lovely, medium-sized, likeable and tolerant breed. This breed which has not been internationally recognized yet, is formerly known as Horak Laboratory Dog.

Its great virtues, that include being an attentive watchdog and its pleasant and attractive appearance make living with this breed a true pleasure. Although its history is short, this breed has been through some trully troubled times.

Czech Spotted Dog was bred for scientific experiments at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science by Frantisek Horak - the most famous Czech cynologist, who also created other Czech breeds of dogs. This breed, as its original name suggests, was especially bred for laboratory purposes. Czech Spotted Dog was used for many years as a laboratory dog, e.g. for kidney transplant experiments that helped advance human medicine.

Czech Spotted Dog was first introduced to the public at a national dog show in Prague-Chuchle in 1961.

In the late 1970s the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science reduced the number of experiments using this breed and private breeders started to consider breeding this dog. Owing to administrative delays most of the 40 breeding specimens perished of decrepitude. Only a few dogs made it to private breeders.

After the initial enthusiasm to breed Czech Spotted Dog there were many idle years that nearly brought this typical Czech breed to extinction. In the early 1990s a few keen fans tried to save Czech Spotted Dog, only to find that there were just scant remnants of the original gene pool. These were three dogs with documents proving their origin and three bitches whose documets had been lost since their owners frequently changed.

Dogs Argo Stribrecky rybnik (born 1989), Car Voderadsky haj (born 1986) and Artis z Nadejneho chovu (born 1987) and bitches Peggy, Cilka and Betyna became the basis of renewed breeding.

Nowadays, it seems that Czech Spotted Dog breed has been saved. There is an increasing number of active kennels and the number of dogs and bitches that have been included in breeding is on the rise as well as the number of dogs taking part in dog shows.

Breeding of Czech Spotted Dog is organized under the authorities of the Association of Czech Spotted Dog and the Kennel Club for Rare Breeds which are members of the Ceskomoravska kynologicka unie (CMKU). CMKU is a member of Fédération Cynologique Internationale in Belgium.