Olympia, Washington, United States
For the love of the breed
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About Us
Showing and breeding only the Coton de Tulear since 2001
I’m Beverly Kohler and in my normal life I work as a Nurse Practitioner. All the rest of my time is devoted to my Cotons and all my friends are now mostly dog people. There’s a reason for that, which I’d guess comes down to mutual understanding of just how crazy one has to be to do this.
I bought my first Coton de Tulear for a pet. His name was “Oscar” Multi-CH Windsong’s Driftwood and he was, to me, the greatest dog on earth. Through the encouragement of his breeder, Pat Kapp, I started showing him in the “rare breed” shows, which was our only option before AKC recognition in 2014. He won Best Puppy in Show, twice! and I was hooked. In his “rare breed show” career, he won a total of 33 Best in Shows and 23 Reserve Best in Shows. We were a team. It was a great beginning and later I figured out, very unusual.
I bought a female from my good friend, Barbara Hunter Adcock. Her name is Bar-Ken Ziggy’s Stardust. Then had my first litter of two puppies a few years later. The rest is history.
Multi-CH Bar-Ken Ziggy’s Stardust RN, RA, USACTC 2006 National Specialty Best of Breed
Multi-CH Sugar Bay’s Mademoiselle Monet, Best of Breed in Canadian National Specialty and USACTC Regional Specialties;
CH Sugar Bay’s Anything Goes Clouseau, not as much winning but he’s really cute!! He got to go to the World Dog Show in Paris 2011.
Then I bred Monet to CH Cowboy’s Rio Bravo and a star was born.
GCH CH CAN CH World ’12 Salzburg Sugar Bay’s Beringer. He also won Best of Opposite at Westminster 2017.
Sugar Bay’s Eleanor Rigby won Best of Opposite in Sweeps at the first AKC Eukanuba show where Cotons could enter in the Miscellaneous Class. Ellie would rather not show so we won’t make her do something she doesn’t like, but she’s beautiful.
GCH CH Sugar Bay’s Beamer Over the Moon, We went to Milan Italy to the World Dog Show 2015 and he won 2nd place in Intermediate Males, which makes him a Vice World Winner and a great travel companion. He was Best of Breed at the USACTC Supported Entry at Eukanuba with 28 Cotons entered in 2015.
Then there’s “Cate” BIS CH WW ’18 Amsterdam, Benelux Winner’18 Sugar Bay’s Cate Blanchett. She has gone down in AKC history as the first female Coton de Tulear to win Best in Show in AKC. Ironically, her sire, GCH CH Mi-Toi’s Icon was the first Coton to win a BIS in AKC.
Then "Dot", Cate's Sister, GCH CH World '22 '23 Sugar Bay's Dotted Swiss. CH of Espania, Best of Breed Westminster 2021.
This is a family of Cotons, all related and going back to the two, Oscar and Ziggy that I started with many years ago. It’s a great family and I’m very proud of them.
Happy, Healthy Bloodline
The longevity of the Coton de Tulear is around 15-18 years. So that’s good! My first female was Ziggy passed when she was 15.5 years old in June of 2020. Miss her. Now her Daughter, Monet, is 17.5 years old and old but hanging in there.
I do my best to breed within the breed standard and for temperament, structure and movement, and I show to find out how we’re doing.
I also do a lot of genetic screening, which you can look up online at the OFFA. Just search for Sugar Bay Cotons on the site and they will all show up.
They all live in the house of course. No crates except for the boys at bedtime.
I feed everyone two times a day. Primal Pronto beef, BIXBI Liberty Ranchers Red beef lamb and goat, Zeal Canada air dried beef, fresh carrot and apple chunks. They love their Beefy Puff treat at bedtime an lots of toys in their toy box. I use distilled water in Lixit bottles, which keeps their muzzle hair dry and less apt to stain.
They are not only related to champions of great merit but they are champions themselves. A pretty silly group of Cotons and not at all stuck up about it.
A Furever Friend with Some History
I’ve found over the years that the Coton de Tulear breed is very diverse in personality and temperament. Kind of like what you’d find in large human families. Someone is invariably the clown, the bossy one, the loner, the most popular and always the one that is the top dog. Yet basically they are a Coton, which is loving, intelligent, empathetic, athletic and having the ability to connect with your inner soul.
The Coton de Tulear they say is originally from the island of Reunion and then the Island of Madagascar. The breed is in the Bichon group, which started with the Bichon Tenerife from the volcanic island in the Canary Islands. Around the 1500's this little white dog traveled all around the world on square rigger ships to land in places like Cuba (Havenese), Malta (Maltese), Mediteraian (Bolognese, Bichon Frise), and of course, Madagascar, the Coton de Tulear.
There was a period of time when the Coton was feral on the island of Madagascar and ran in packs. It may have been at this time in their history when they honed their ability to problem solve and work together as a group. This is not your faint of heart dog but a sturdy athlete, remarkably intelligent and clever and who also has a sense of humor.