Shikoku breeder team
Shikoku breeder, the kennel founder is Egitte van Veghel. Egitte started her breeder life with Lhasa Apso’s in 1983 with the name ”Van De Egmato”. She bred some Grand Champions and other multiple winners back then.
Her right hand and her unconditional support is her daughter Gianne Hesselmans and her husband Willem van Loon.
So how did it all started with the shikoku breed?
Egitte was amazed by the look of the face of one Shikoku painting she saw in 1990. That caused her to search and find more information about this beautiful and interesting breed.
Shikoku Puppy export from Japan
Back in the days you only had a telephone and postal mail. It took 6 years of calling, writing, and trying to find a Shikoku breeder who could help Egitte to purchase her first Shikoku Puppy. After a long search, and a lot of organization she finally found a male Shikoku Puppy in Japan called “Kekki-Ommi” and she exported him to Holland with a letter from the minister of agriculture. That was the only way to do it back then.
After a while we got an invitation from Mr. Uki who had a female for us called ”Akira”. After a while, we went to Japan once again to pick up a new Shikoku female called “Akira” but unfortunately, we couldn’t use her for breeding because the bloodlines were too close with ‘’Kekki-Ommi’.
Back then you had to wait for six months in order to receive an export pedigree for your purchased puppy, so you could finally see the bloodlines in English. Nowadays, that would be crazy.
Shikoku breeder Mr. Akiro Yano
After the time Akira arrived, it took over a year that we suddenly got an invitation from Japan. It was an honor because the invitation was from Mr. Akiro Yano, the most respected and famous breeder of the Shikoku Ken. You could only visit him and his dogs by invitation.
He checked us out for the last years and had a good feeling about our breeding skills and had the feeling he needed to help us. He had selected some dogs for us and he would enjoy it if we could come to Japan to have a look.
Magnificent Shikoku breeder program
This was a royal invitation we could not deny, so to make a long story short we went to Japan and got back home with six new Shikoku’s from Mr. Yano and two Shikoku’s from different bloodlines from a friend of Mr. Yano.
We had the base we needed and this is how Shikoku Kennel Van de Egmato Shikoku started in the year 2000 with a magnificent breeding program, as we hoped and dreamed for since the beginning. Learn more about the first and the second Shikoku litter outside Japan.
Shikoku breeder and handler, Gianne Hesselmans
Gianne Hesselmans, Egitte’s daughter grew up with all the dogs and she is completely in love with the Shikoku breed from the beginning. Throughout the years Gianne became the person who promotes V.D. Egmato Shikoku Kennel worldwide. Gianne is present at world popular dog shows every weekend and has completely devoted her life to breeding and showing Shikoku’s.
Willem van Loon
In 2009 Egitte got married to Willem van Loon, also a long-time breeder who start-off with Chow chow’s and then fell in love with Japanese Akita. He bred some great dogs in the past, but nowadays he is daily involved with our great pack of Shikoku ken. All parts of activities, but especially building, creating new areas and taking care of all the dogs, puppies, transport, etc.
The trio became a perfect team!
