A LOOK INTO THE PAST HOPKINS’ TOY FOX TERRIERS I n the mid 1950s, Phil and Eliza Hopkins became interested in Toy Fox Terriers. Thus was born Hopkins’ Toy Fox Terrier Kennel. by SUSAN MCCOY Eliza holding two pups, c. 1991
just one male and seven females, all but one were Champions. The breed- ing program continued on in this lim- ited way until 2004 when the last lit- ter was born. Eliza had kept one male CH ‘PR’ Hopkins’ Mike’s Rex Al-lynn, “Al”. He remained with Eliza until he died just two months short of his fifteenth birthday. This was the end of Hopkins’ Ken- nel, producer of over one hundred TFTs that had completed titles of Cham- pion, Grand Champion and National Grand Champion. Eliza has continued her membership in the Michigan Toy Fox Terrier Asso- ciation and the UKC National Toy Fox Terrier Association, where she has been an officer since 2004. Eliza, at ninty three years of age, still lives at the homestead in Homer, Michi- gan. In addition to her Toy Fox Terrier interests, she is active in the Homer Historical Society.
The dogs were the old-fashioned type TFTs—longer bodied and more stocky. Eliza’s first time in the show ring was in 1960 and the first Hopkins’ bred TFT to complete a championship was Hopkins’ Peanut. Phil and Eliza continued to breed, show, sell and produce winners, Cham- pions and Grand Champions. Through inquiries from their advertising in Bloodlines magazine, they started exporting dogs to other countries. At first to Canada and later to Japan, Eng- land, France, Denmark and Aruba. Phil Hopkins passed away in Novem- ber, 1982, at 79 years of age. They had seven children, nine grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren. In 1998, after a mini-stroke, Eliza began reducing the kennel down to
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Eliza with Allan Chambers; Kalamazoo, MI; c. 2014.
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