Born on Friday the 13th of March, 1925! What a way to enter this world.
Luckily Hazel Gregory is not a superstitious soul. Born in Aurora,
Illinois during the depression, she has certainly seen many, many
changes during her lifetime. Hazel grew up in Illinois in the areas of
Park Ridge and Des Plaines, the home of the first McDonalds Restaurant.
During high school she worked at an ice cream parlor named McVay’s
Dairy. In 1941 she met Robert Gregory while working at the ice cream
parlor. They had a date on the Sunday that Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Soon after, “Greg”, as Hazel calls him, joined the Army Signal Corps and
they were married in 1943. Something cute she mentioned to me is that
when they are in public, she routinely calls Greg, Mr. Gregory. Both
Hazel and Greg were born and grew up in Illinois, but due to a change in
Greg’s business, they moved to Texas in 1960 and currently make their
home in Lewisville. They were one of the founding members of the Chicago
area Lake Shore Great Dane Club and have been very active members of the
Great Dane Club of America for many years.
In 1944, Hazel and Greg celebrated the birth of their first daughter,
Andrea. Additionally they had two more daughters, one in 1947 and one in
1954. Sadly their second daughter, Alexandra, born in 1947 died from a
cerebral aneurysm, but is survived by her daughter, Raegan, who is now
21. Their 3rd daughter, Avis, lives with her husband in Alaska.
Asking Hazel how they came to have Great Danes, she stated, “It was
Greg’s idea”. He made it real clear that “he had always wanted a Great
Dane”. They purchased their first Dane in 1947, after the war. It was a
male that they got from neighbors who had a bitch that was from Fred
Evanger’s kennels. This male named Tong, was purchased at the age of 9
months old. They paid $350.00 for him, which as we know, was a
considerable amount of money in 1947. Hazel described Tong as “their
lesson dog”. They learned at his first show, which was the 1949
Milwaukee All Breed Show, that he was undershot and that “little things
mean a lot”. At the time, they figured this couldn’t matter all that
much . . . “dogs don’t smile, who would know?” They learned … judges
would know! After 3 years of reserve wins, Hazel confesses they learned
how important recessive traits like a bite can be. They acquired their
second Dane, a brindle bitch they leased to breed to Tong. They leased
this bitch from George Kallish, a Dane Breeder and Judge who was also
one of their most important mentors. The litter produced 12 brindles and
no fawns. This was the start of many lessons learned about genetics such
as what is dominant or recessive as well as how much work, expense and
responsibility comes with being a breeder. With the arrival of this
litter, Hazel and Greg decided they needed a kennel name. Not wanting to
use their own name, they took the advice of a friend to use something in
German. And so the Von Riesenhof name was born … translation, “From The
House of Giants”.
After this first litter, Hazel and Greg decided it was time to go back
to the drawing board. They contacted George Kallish once again and he
told them of a nice bitch that was about 1-1/2 years old that lived with
Mr. & Mrs. Matts, a preacher and his wife on the south side of Chicago.
He told Hazel that he thought they would sell her the bitch if she would
go to see them. So, Hazel made arrangements to meet with the preacher
and his wife. When Hazel arrived only the Preacher was home. After
talking awhile, he agreed to sell her the bitch and Hazel left after
making arrangements to come back another day with the money. He wanted
$300.00 for her. When Hazel returned with the money, she found that the
Preacher was the only one home again. He told her that his wife had
changed her mind and did not want to sell the bitch. Shocked and
disappointed, Hazel decided to stay and visit for a while hoping he
would change his mind again. They sat around the dining room table for
some time, talking, praying and singing hymns. Suddenly, the Preacher
spoke up and said, “the Lord had spoken to him and she could buy the
bitch.” Hazel was thrilled. She paid her money and after another prayer,
left with her foundation bitch, Doris Of Kallish, “Janie”. Bob and Hazel
showed Janie to her championship and then set about making their plans
for a litter. Greg and Hazel knew the breeder, Creighton Hayne, and they
selected one of his lovely stud dogs by the name of Ch. Lillard’s Deacon
Of Vizier as the appropriate stud dog for Janie. This was a large,
elegant dog with a beautiful long tapered neck. They felt that Janie
needed more length of neck and leg and knew this was the dog to bring
into their line.
Unfortunately these puppies were not meant to be. Janie was killed while
in whelp. Hazel remembers sadly that she had gone out one day to hang
clothes on the line and, as always, Janie was by her side. Hazel didn’t
realize that someone had left the fence gate open and a stray dog had
wondered into the yard. As soon as they got outside, Janie saw the stray
dog and took off to chase him out of the yard. Once through the fence,
she ran into the street and was struck by a car. Hazel said it was the
most horrible experience she has ever witnessed. Janie flew through the
air and landed right in front of her. When she hit the ground, she
rolled up and looked Hazel in the eye then laid back and died. Hazel was
devastated as she was so close to this dog, indicating she was more like
her child. She had loved and learned so much from this dog. Hazel gave
long consideration to getting out of dogs after this happened. She said
it was just too easy to get attached and too hard to bear the pain of
the loss. This was her first experience in understanding how emotional
involvement can effect ones judgment regarding what dogs to keep or let
go.
It certainly must have been Hazel’s destiny to “stay in Danes”, because
soon after they lost Janie, she leased a Janie daughter from a previous
breeding to Ch. Major Of Lee Dane done by the Matts. This daughter was
Ch. Raulta Von Riesenhof. Raulta was bred to another one of Creighton
Hayne’s stud dogs, Ch. Beau’s Vandal. This breeding produced Ch. Golden
Girl Von Riesenhof, which is the bitch that Hazel feels had a strong
influence in her bloodline. Golden Girl produced littermates, Ch.
Geordon Von Riesenhof and Ch. Hansel Von Riesenhof and these two dogs
represent another turning point in the Von Riesenhof bloodline. After 3
generations of half brother to half sister breedings, Hazel felt in
order to stamp in type, they needed to do a full sister/brother breeding
and selected Ch. Geordon and Ch. Hansel as the breeding of choice. This
breeding produced Ch. Geordon’s Golden Girl, “Suzie”. Hazel was pleased
overall with the quality of the get from the sister/brother breeding,
but still wanted to see more length of neck and leg. Hazel and Greg
decided they needed to breed Ch. Suzie to a dog that was hopefully
dominant for producing length of neck and leg and selected Ch. Dinro
Taboo. Hazel first saw Taboo when she judged the GDCA Futurity and
selected him for her Best In Futurity. Even though Rose Robert was
reluctant that this breeding would produce what Hazel was seeking, she
did agree to the match. And Hazel indeed got exactly what she was
looking for. This breeding produced her very lovely Ch. Taboo Von
Riesenhof. An additional breeding of another “Janie” daughter produced a
very successful litter for Hazel and Greg. Ch. Long’s Gretchen Von
Riesenhof was sold as a puppy and leased back by Hazel. Gretchen was
bred to Ch. Dinro Aslan and this litter produced 3 champions, including
the top winning Ch. Miss Erikke Von Riesenhof.
These are the early dogs that are the building stones of Von Riesenhof.
Many of them are pictured in the Photo Gallery that follows. Hazel’s
motto is “inch by inch”. She feels the road to your ideal dog is a slow
process. She likes to breed tight to narrow her odds and strengthen her
percentages. She feels when you do a breeding, the pedigree is as
important as the dog. It’s very important that you know when to inbreed,
line breed and outcross. She explains that you first look at the
pedigree and then build your percentages on the “good traits” of both
sire and dam and avoid using dogs with numerous faults. One particular
fault that really gets Hazel “crazy” is a ring tail. She feels it is a
recessive trait that is very hard to get rid of and its presence
completely ruins the outline of the dog. Once you have a bad recessive
trait, like undershot bites or bad tails, it will come back to haunt you
for many generations. If one doubts this Hazel says to just ask a
terrier breeder about the importance of tails or teeth in a breeding
program.