While Metropolis is a hobby breeder, we put considerable effort into improving the quality of our dogs in each successive litter, and in testing their physical structure, movement and temperament by showing. We have imported, collected, and stored semen to make sure that we can breed to the best available sires. It does not matter to us how big a winner a dog is, if we don’t believe they are producing offspring at least as good as themselves, or we don’t like their temperament, we will not retain them for our breeding program.
Metropolis dogs combine English bloodlines from Pitswarren kennels (considered by many around the world to be one of the most successful Hungarian Vizsla kennels ever) with bloodlines vaunted as amongst Australia’s best, including Hanafor, Hubertus, and Tanashka. Some of our dogs also have bloodlines from the famed US kennels, Russet Leather, and some have English/Hungarian bloodlines from the successful New Zealand kennels, Ponsonby. Metropolis dogs contain healthy bloodlines that no other kennels in the Southern Hemisphere have.
We proudly continue the Kimlise bloodlines made famous by Brian Neaves. Our bloodlines are founded on the well known Australian Champion bitch, Ch Kimlise Solway Mist, her mother, Ch Pitswarren Esther, and the Australian import Ch Pitswarren Judah of Hubertus (Imp UK). More directly, our dogs are founded on, and we are the only breeder in the world with access to breed from, Ch Pitswarren Picasso (Imp UK) and from 2020, Ch Pitswarren Magnum Opus of Metropolis (Imp UK). Information about each of our dogs is included on the webpage for each dog. Pitswarren Kennels has information about its dogs available on its website.
In 2019 one of our dogs broke the UK record, becoming the youngest ever vizsla to win a Challenge Certificate in the UK, winning Best of Breed under breed expert Mrs Sharon Bergin (UK) (Roughshoot Kennels) out of an entry of 76 vizslas at the UK’s largest 2 day show, the Ladies Kennel Association. He then won Puppy of Breed and Junior Dog of Breed at Crufts, the world’s largest dog show, in March 2020. We bred, own and are currently campaigning his litter sister and his pedigree brother and sister. His daughter in the UK was the number 1 Vizsla Puppy in the UK in 2022, and his son was number 2 the same year.
Our approach to breeding is to linebreed for up to 3 generations, and then breed to a healthy outcross, to ensure genetic health and variation. The significance of a particular dedicated linebred bloodline is predictability of behaviour and development, and consistency of temperament and structure.
We have invested significantly in importing fresh healthy genetic material from top winning dogs in New Zealand and the United States of America, and have also bought a dog imported from New Zealand with Swedish and English bloodlines much desired in Australia. The culmination of our breeding program has been, for our linebred dogs, being the only breeder in the world outside Pitswarren Kennels to unite the bloodlines of the 4 Pitswarren dogs imported to Australia from the UK.
Most significantly for us, importing Ch Pitswarren Magnum Opus of Metropolis (Imp UK) in 2020, the 4th Pitswarren dog exported to Australia, has given us a lifetime to observe and enjoy the temperament and structure of this dog, as well as being able to breed from him.
The only 2 other breeders in the world with our bloodlines are both in the Northern Hemisphere. One of those breeders is the origin of our bloodlines, who is considered one of the world’s leading Hungarian Vizsla kennels, Pitswarren Hungarian Vizslas in the UK. In 2015 we provided 2 bitches to a North American breeder to help provide fresh healthy genetic material exclusively to the United States of America. One of those bitches was recognised in 2021 as a Top Producing Dam of the Vizsla Club of America.
Since 2016, we have focussed on attending a limited number of shows under international or well reputed gun dog judges. This means that our participation in pointscores is solely for a record of shows attended, rather than indicating how well our dogs are performing on a State or National basis.