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WE KNOW DOGS
The resume speaks for itself. Between us, we
have been involved in many different dog sports and activities, not
limited to hunting. Debra teaches obedience classes and does behavioral
consultations. Her resume is posted on this website. Tom was previously
an AKC Hunt Test Judge and handled the first female Small Munsterlander
to qualify for and compete in the NAVHDA Invitational Championship. Our
ability to problem-solve or make breeding decisions is based on our
experience in working with many breeds, breed clubs and activities. We
did not just slap two munsterlanders together one day and call ourselves
breeders. We constantly strive to broaden our dog knowledge and are not
content to rest on yesterday's laurels.
WE SEEK OUT OUR FLAWS
...because that is the only way a breeding
program is improved. We request that our buyers test their puppies in
the NAVHDA Natural Ability test and we provide an incentive refund equal
to the entry fee for a Prize 1, 2 or 3 test result. We also require in
the contract that the puppy's hips will be evaluated under the
Pennsylvania Hip Improvement program and refund up to $200 toward that
expense. Because this test is able to accurately evaluate hip laxity,
which predisposes a dog to producing dysplastic hips, at a young age, we
are able to determine whether a breeding should be repeated instead of
waiting two or more years.
How many times have you heard people say "there
are no hip problems in our line?" Unless the progeny have been tested,
they cannot honestly make this claim. While a seriously dysplastic dog
may be spotted by the characteristic "bunny hop" gait, many dogs can and
do go through life without crippling results. Unfortunately, this means
that they may be bred and the defect reproduced, thus perpetuating the
problem. You have probably seen a number of contracts that make no
requirements of the buyer concerning hip evaluations. That breeder is
probably crossing their fingers that the buyer never bothers to Xray;
most certainly they are not encouraging it! Or they may only require an
OFA film. OFA films are have no predictive value; they show
existing arthritic changes in the individual. Some do not even
offer a guarantee and will not provide a refund or replacement should
the dog be dysplastic, and sometimes only in crippling cases.
We don't hide from the problems. Our testing and
hip evaluation numbers are out there on our website for anyone to see.
Have there been problems? Yes. It is only by recognizing those that we
can make adjustments in our program. Can you think of breeders who just
list the accomplishments of their dogs? If there are genetic problems,
bad temperament or lack of drive those pups just fall of the earth and
disappear.
MORE BANG FOR THE BUCK
Our puppy price is $1000. Subtract the incentive
refunds, and your end cost is approximately $745. We are not in this to
make a quick buck. If we were, the price would be $1000 with no
guarantees and no incentive refunds. We want to breed the BEST Small
Munsterlander possible.
WE TRAIN OUR OWN DOGS
We train and test our own dogs. This is not to
say that sending your dog to a professional is necessarily a bad
decision, but as a breeder how can you KNOW your dogs if someone else is
training and handling them? If you don't keep some of the progeny
yourself to work? We know the temperament and the drive of our dogs
because our hands are on them in training. We know how willing they are
to accept correction and how biddable they are in the field. We are
able to see how they react to new environments because we see them in
the house, the kennel, the field and under the stress of competition.
Additionally, if I pay a pro trainer to work with my dog and then have
to refer buyers to him/her for information, do you believe that trainer
will tell them, "That dog? He couldn't find his own butt in a snowstorm!
And nasty? Whew!!" Not if he wants to see more referrals! Could our
own dogs have tested better in the hands of a professional gundog
trainer? Perhaps. Novices (speaking of myself) stumble through their
initial tests and make mistakes that professionals wouldn't. But our
goal is to breed a dog that can be trained and handled by the average
hunter and owner, whose nature doesn't dictate that only the most
skilled handler can instruct it.
A BREEDING PROGRAM
This is not just a means of generating extra
funds, of "letting the kids experience the miracle of birth", or of
getting a pup from that good old hunting dog. We have studied the
qualities that we want to reproduce and selected those bloodlines. That
first led us to purchase Aryan v. O'Meara/Sengpiel, whose sire was Jeiko
vom Jakobsbrunnen. Jeiko, nicknamed "Fritz", was the first SM to earn
his Prize 1 in NAVHDA Utility and compete in their Invitational
Championship. Aryan became the first female SM, and only the second
SM--male or female-- ever to compete at the Invitational. At the time of
her first breeding, only five SM's had reached this achievement, the
others being Daffy's Benji, Bridgetanne O'Meara/Sengpiel and Andreas v.
O'Meara/Sengpiel. In fact, Andreas, whose nickname is "Hans", is
Aryan's full litter brother and became the first SM to earn his
Versatile Champion title at the NAVHDA Invitational. Bridgetanne had
been bred to Daffy's Benji and that litter earned a NAVHDA Breeders
Award.
It was obvious that this was the bloodline that
had produced the best working Small Munsterlanders in the United States
at that time. Those dogs were testing well and handling pressure. Many
people will tell you that they have wonderful hunting dogs, and perhaps
they do. However, anecdotal evidence cannot be the lynchpin of a
breeding program. There must be a subjective measurement of success to
define the testing parameters with consistency.
We used the Daffy's Benji x Aryan cross in our
first two litters. It produced some very nice working dogs, but the
males were quite tall and lean like their sire, and we saw a range of
hip scores. For her last litter, Aryan was bred to Gusseisen K vom
Krieger and thus far that breeding seems to have produced much better
bone. This was a 3/3 linebreeding on Jeiko. We kept a female from that
litter. We also purchased a female from Nicolin Kennels. That pup,
Nicolin's Big Easy, goes back to Daffy's Benji and to Jeiko vom
Jackobsbrunnen on the dam's side, and her sire is Peto's Iras, a Danish
import with both working and conformation titles.
We spend hours pouring over pedigrees and testing
results, looking for the right "click' for our program. As the late
Robert Wehle recognized and proved with his Elhew pointers, the only way
to develop consistency is through careful line-breeding.
OUR DOGS ARE REGISTERED WITH UKC
and NAVHDA
In order to understand why this might be
important to you, let me explain the differences between the three
registries. NAVHDA stands for "North American Versatile Hunting Dog
Association" and it is a performance organization that provides specific
gun-dog testing for pointing breeds. Because we expect our puppy buyers
to test with this organization and because it provides the most
opportunity for gun-dog testing, we register our litters with NAVHDA.
We also register our litters with the UKC, which
stands for United Kennel Club. Within the UKC, a Small
Munsterlander owner would have the opportunity to compete in pointing
dog tests, as well, and also in obedience, agility and conformation.
Many owners and breeders view their SM's as "just" hunting dogs and have
not opened their eyes to the exceptional abilities that our breed has in
other performance events.
Neither NAVHDA nor the UKC are "breed clubs".
That is, although they maintain a registry that includes various breeds,
they are performance organizations and are not tasked with preserving or
improving any breed.
The AKC is a collection of breed clubs. The Small Munsterlander is not an AKC
(American Kennel Club) recognized breed at this time, but there is
movement toward their acceptance in the Foundation Stock Service.
The SMCNA, a club for the Small Munsterlander in the United States, does
not offer it's own tests and in fact, requires members to register with
NAVHDA. We received an award from the SMCNA for earning
conformation titles in UKC, but yet the SMCNA officials dislike the
concept of AKC affiliation. We no longer feel that the SMCNA
represents the best interest of the breed.
OUR DOGS ARE TATTOOED AND MICRO-CHIPPED
We tattoo our dogs in the right ear so that they
can be readily identified. We have also recently purchased the Home
Again system for micro-chipping.
WE PUPPY TEST
We believe the best test is our daily
observations of the litters. We have used the Vollhard Puppy Test in the
past, but research shows that such tests generally agree with breeder
observations and have no predictive value and no correlation between
their puppy scores and what they became as adults. The value in puppy
testing, however, is in recognizing what each puppy presents, so that
proper training and socializing can be done. Matching pups to owners can be the
difference between a satisfied owner and one who is not.
WE WILL BE THERE FOR YOU
We are available by phone or e-mail, should any
question arise regarding your FoxTal Small Munsterlander. In fact, we
want to hear from you! We will take one of our dogs back at any
time during it's life if you are unable to keep it. Some breeders are
not prepared to take dogs back, or to replace them because they simply
bred two individuals, with no eye to the future. We will be there
tomorrow and the next day.
WE HOPE THAT YOU ARE CONVINCED THAT A
FOXTAL SMALL MUNSTERLANDER WILL BE THE RIGHT CHOICE.
CHECK OUT OUR 2007 LITTERS AND
JOIN THE FOXTAL FAMILY OF SATISFIED OWNERS!
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