SunGlo Bostons Kennel History

My great grandmother, the late Clara Spurling began breeding Boston Terriers way back in the late 1920's under the prefix of Idahome Kennels. 'Grandma', as everyone called her, did not show Boston Terriers and her breeding was largely limited to breeding a litter or two per year which she sold as pets during an era when the Boston Terrier was among the most popular of dog breeds in the United States. Despite this, in her later years, she did breed some outstanding Boston Terriers, including being the co-breeder of Int. Ch. SunGlo's Pilot Light to name one.

    When my grandmother, Harriet (Schutzwohl) Kolias was young, she had never seen a Boston Terrier until marrying Grandma's son Phil Spurling in 1948, who she had met as her father Franz Schutzwohl was the leading Jersey Cattle breeder in America and Grandma and her husband Alf maintained a small Jersey dairy on the outskirts of Grants Pass, Oregon. After the marriage, Phil's Boston lived with them. After Ann was born, they had planned to start their own dairy based upon cattle from my great grandfather's "Roguelands" line, but these plans were soon shattered after Phil died of heart complications a few years later. As my grandmother left to go to college, Ann lived with Grandma in Idaho for a few years, growing up around Grandma's Bostons.

    Having re-married and having had three more children in the mid-1950's, my grandmother soon acquired more Bostons for her children as pets and for 4-H projects. At first, she was only able to obtain pet quality stock for Boston Terriers were rarely seen in SouthWest Oregon, until one day an advertisement appeared in the local paper for a male Boston Terrier who happened to be a champion; this dog being named "Mick", but who was better known as Ch. Crusader Regardless. Naturally, my grandmother and Ann made the 39 mile trip from Grants Pass to the city of Ashland to see this dog, who was for sale for the price of $50, which was a considerable amount of money for a Boston Terrier in our area at that time. After seeing the dog, they mentioned him to my great grandfather, telling him how nice he was and how he was $50. My great grandfather, just about went through the roof! While my great grandfather was the top Jersey Cattle breeder of his time, his childhood had taught him to be very practical about money, largely due to the fact that HIS father had been a well known, but over enthused Roller Canary breeder in late 19th century Bohemia. His father, my great great grandfather was so interested in Canaries that nothing else mattered to him and my great grandfather had seen the Canaries as winged devils who stole food off the family table due to his father's over interest in them. Consequently, my great grandfather grew into a man who did not believe in wasting money and he thought the idea of paying $50 for a dog was ridiculous! But, animal breeding is a an eight generation passion in our family and as can be understood, it wasn't long until my grandmother had scraped together $50 to buy Ch. Crusader Regardless! To avoid the wrath of my great grandfather they changed his name from "Mick" to "Irish" so that he wouldn't know it was the same dog!

Am/Mex. Ch. Glowing Torch Am/Can. C.D. - a fantastic pillar of the Boston breed!
Sire of Ch. Torch's Pilot CD & Grandsire of Ch. Pilot's Glowing Torch

  During this period, they also met with the acquaintance of a Boston Terrier breeder from California named Frankie Gates who was very prominent in obedience circles. In addition, Frankie (who is still living, but is now out of Bostons) also had Bostons that were working in Hollywood, most notably a dog named Suzie ( I'm Glowing Torch -Ett C.D., C.D.X., U.D.). Suzie was a daughter of Am/Mex. Ch. Glowing Torch Am/Can. CD  and Princess Little Bit Lovit whose movie career included working with Eddie Albert on "Wagon Train" in 1957 (where she was handled by Mr. Weatherwax who owned and trained Lassie), several dog food commercials, an episode of Dick Powell Theater entitled "The Boston Terrier" in 1962 and most notably, a major motion picture entitled "If A Man Answers" with Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee in 1962.

(More info on The Boston Terrier episode of the Dick Powell Theater is available on IMDb here. Unfortunately, Suzie isn't listed in the credits!)

'Suzie' (I'm Glowing Torch-Ette CD,CDX,UD) 
on the set of WAGON TRAIN with Eddie Albert in 1957

Sired by Ch. Glowing Torch CD

Suzie also had a stand-in for her acting work, which was Top Brass Bonanza C.D. (by Ch. Sue-Lynn's Campus Top Brass and Vi's Bachelor Bait). 'Bonnie' as she was called, eventually became our foundation bitch after we obtained her from Frankie while she was in whelp to Ch. Torch's Pilot Am/Mex. CD (who was bred from Am/Mex. Ch. Glowing Torch Am/Can. CD and Suzy Q VIII). Bonnie gave birth to a single male puppy who later became known as Ch. Pilot's Glowing Torch C.D.. 'Torchy' as we called him (we now refer to him as 'Old Torchy' since we have subsequently called some of his descendents by the same call name) became our first show dog. From Frankie, we also aqquired Ch. Pilot's Star Steppin' and Ch. Space Pilot C.D.

These dogs, which we refer to as our Pilot line (from Frankie's, whose kennel prefix was "Pilot", named after her Ch. Torch's Pilot), along with Ch. Crusader Regardless established our own unique bloodline of Boston Terriers.

Ch. Pilot's Glowing Torch C.D. as a puppy with Ann.
(Ch. Torch's Pilot CD X Top Brass Bonanza CD)

    During the 1960's and 1970's, our kennel was extremely active showing Boston Terriers on the California - Oregon circuit. We produced many outstanding Bostons during this period, including dozens of champions. These golden years for our kennel were very exciting times for us! We exported several outstanding Bostons to Europe and elsewhere. Among these included two of the most important Boston Terrier sires in European history: Int. Ch. SunGlo's Pilot ("Pilot Light") who was exported to the late Oetie Koudjis (Oranjelust Kennels) of Doorn, Netherlands and American/German Ch. Redwoods Glowing Kid Regards ("Buster") who went to J.A. Van Bree (de Regione Palustri Kennels) also of Doorn, Netherlands. If one was to research a large number of pedigrees of the most outstanding Boston Terriers bred in Europe prior to 1990, these two dogs are likely to be present behind the vast majority of those dogs. In particular, Pilot Light was destined to become the #1 Boston Terrier in Europe for two years straight (1970 and 1971) and was unbeaten for the nearly three years of his show career. In addition, several of his offspring went on to also attain the rank of the #1 Boston Terrier in Europe, most notably Int. Ch. Pilot's Enchantress V.H. Zuidenveld who was later sent to South Africa. In addition, in 1975 we sold a male by the name of Ch. Torchy's Good News of SunGlo to Lucille Sheets of Florida who produced two notable males. The first was Ch. Good Time Charlie T. Brown (a prominent American sire and the #1 Boston Terrier in America for 1976). The second was a dog who became known as Int. Ch. Torchlight of Oranjelust. Torchlight was bred in Florida, but was sent to Oetie Koudjis in the Netherlands and later on went to become a very important Scandinavian sire. As well, we also exported several other Bostons, including American/Canadian Ch. SunGlo's Magnificent Showman (sent to Japan), SunGlo's Twinkling Torchlite (Philipines) Ch. Hill N Dale's Beau Jangles (Netherlands) and several others. The opportunity also knocked to export many others to many points worldwide, but it has always been our kennel policy to export only the absolute best Boston Terrier possible. In the meantime, we also imported a dog and a bitch off of Pilot Light from Oetie Koudjis. These were, respectively, Int. Ch. Oranjelust Royal Showman and Ch. Oranjelust Pilot's Yakima Girl.

Int. Dutch/German/Belg/Swiss/French/Lux/Danish Ch. SunGlo's Pilot Light
(SunGlo's Top Command X Lentz's Kandy)

The #1 Boston Terrier in Europe for 1970 and 1971.

Winner 1970 (Netherlands), Winner 1971 (Netherlands), Bundeseiger 1970,
Bundeseiger 1971 (Germany), Hauptzuchtseiger 1970 (Germany), BIS
 

Exported to the late Oetie Koudjis of Doorn, Netherlands in 1970.

Int. Am/German Ch. Redwood's Glowing Kid Regards
Reproduced from the 1979 annual of The Boston Terrier Club (England)
Courtesy of Mrs. CM Knock
 

  Moving into the late 1970's and early 1980's, we began to breed Bostons on a more extensive level. Ann was also showing very extensively, largely in co-operation with another historical Boston Terrier breeder from Oregon; the late Ethel Barton of Eugene, Oregon who owned Barton Kennels. Ann and Ethel went so far as going in together on buying a motor home so they could go to dog shows more often.  They had quite a time it seemed and Ann has many interesting and lively stories she can tell about her and Ethel's exploits! Unfortunately, in the mid 1980's, Ethel was tragically killed, ending her breeding career short. Fortunately, Shirley Stiles of Mount Vernon, Washington was able to preserve Ethel's line and they continue on to this day.

    Due to outcrossing into other lines and some unfortunate mistakes, we gradually lost our pure Pilot line and by the late 1980's we also ceased showing Bostons and later liquidated much of the kennel. This had much to do with the fact that Ann's husband at the time was not a dog person and tended to resent Ann's dog activities. Gradually, many of our dogs were sold off and my grandmother only kept enough Bostons with the intention that in the future we could start again if so desired. As well, we also had several dogs out on co-ownership.

    Then in the late 90's, I gradually began to work on my grandmother and Ann to breed Bostons again. I remember the clinching event very well as I went over to see Ann and we spent the whole evening (well past midnight, in fact) going through old pedigrees and watching videos of Pilot Light that Oetie had over years earlier. It was at that point that we began to formulate new breeding plans.

    It was not long before we had assembled the leftovers of our Pilot line and also added a few dogs from other lines that we planned to incorporate into a new breeding program.

(Notes by K Spurling. Written 2002.)

After The Fact