PRIYA MULANI BHANDARI
I have been an ardent lover of dogs right from the late 1970’s. It took some convincing with my parents to get me my first dog, after which I have never lived a day without a dog in my life.
Over the last 2 decades I have owned and bred various breeds. My first Bassets came to me in 2000, a gorgeous pair of tri-colour bassets, Ch.Kaa’s Adora of Reegha’s (Hooghy) and Ch. Knightsville Barney (Scooby). Both came to me as adults from Mr.Padman.
I bred this combination and this was the start of Winters Hill Basset Hounds as well as a great friendship with Padman. From my first litter I retained Winters Hill's Armani Girl.
In 2001 I imported CH. Kinkiwi Fenton Feelgood (Casper) from Kinkiwi Kennels in Australia. This was a very important addition to my kennel. Casper has sired some outstanding puppies with lovely heads; and has produced over 23 champions to date.
Around the same time I also imported Dooby from USA. Dooby is a lovely tri-color bitch, but unfortunately my breeding plans with her did not go very far as she could never have a successful litter.
At that time there were not many Basset enthusiasts around. It took a lot of time and patience to bring awareness of the breed into India. Today I am proud to say that it has all paid off and Winters Hill has paved the way for other Basset Hound breeders too.
In early 2006, I felt the need to bring in new blood lines as I wanted to keep the functional purpose of Basset hounds in mind. This lead me to importing Swede Sun's Martin (from Swede Sun's Kennel, Sweden) and Bahama V. Hollandheim (Hollandheim Kennel, France). Both these bassets are extremely impressive and true to type and functional purpose. I am very grateful to Paula Sunebring and Carla Gerber for letting me have these wonderful dogs.
In 2007 I moved to Dubai and then Bombay, forcing me to cut back on shows and breeding. In April 2009 I got married and moved to Lucknow. The dogs have also joined me in Lucknow and from here I will continue breeding and showing, mostly in and around North India, though there will still be Winters Hill's puppies that will continue to be shown and bred, under the Winter's Hill prefix, in Bangalore.
