Celebrating 25 Years

 

It is difficult to criticize success; vom Kervinshof kennel has a rich twenty year history of breeding authentic German Drahthaars of the highest quality. During our breeding tenure, our record of achievement is well-documented and published in the official German breed books. We have developed an excellent strain of Drahthaars that have strong performance on upland game, waterfowl, blood tracking, with superior coats and conformation allowing them to perform their duties as a versatile hunting dog in difficult terrain and cold water retrieves. We have developed dogs with excellent character and superb temperaments, allowing them to fit very well in the family and social activities, as well as being a great hunting companion. During our tenure, we have organized more than 100 performance tests evaluating the performance of versatile hunting dogs, and I have judged dogs on the national and international level. Our kennel is one of the leading importers of trained dogs from Germany for our clientele. We select our breeding males and females from some of Germany’s most noted kennels. It has taken years of commitment and substantial expense to create and maintain the professional kennel facility we have today. I use the term “WE” because it has been a family affair with my wife Madeline, record keeper; daughter Michele, an accomplished judge/trainer and son Shelby, former trainer and kennel keeper. After serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, he now resides in Dallas and works in his chosen profession as a career police officer. It is difficult to accept and hard to believe he now owns a “YORKIE”

 

Please look at our 25 year “ track record” and you will find a kennel with a solid reputation and a set of professional standards in the selection, breeding and training of versatile hunting dogs. We invite you to compare our years of successful operation, kennel facilities, training grounds and superior sires and dams when you are investigating the purchase of your next gun dog. It is interesting to note that approximately 53% of our dog sales are to former clients. We have national and international visitors to our kennel.  We have placed our dogs in Australia, Mexico, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and the majority of states in America. Every person visiting our kennel remarks how beautiful our dogs are and cannot believe their quiet calm nature and emotional stability and quickly compare them to the noisy, incessant barking, hyper-active dogs they have seen at other kennels.

 

We have met scores of friendly people who have attended our seminars, training sessions, demonstrations and public speaking events at Bass Pro, Ducks Unlimited,Quail Unlimited, state and federal wildlife expositions and numerous other outdoor events. The positive comments on our seminars, articles and interviews are sincerely appreciated. We will soon produce our 80th litter of superb German Drahthaars and will begin our 4th trip through alpha bet with Axel IV vom Kervinshof. This is a rather impressive and unique accomplishment in the dog breeding world. Many of our clients have returned their dogs for training in our specialized versatile hunting dog program or simply purchased our trained dogs as few sportsmen have the time, skill, equipment and knowledge to correctly train a Gun Dog. After all these years my wife still marvels at the excitement I display with every new litter of pups or the next breeding or how an evening stroll through the field with little puppies can be so much fun. When looking at those little fellows chasing each other, stalking butterflies or pointing a bug I can see the traits of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents because they frolicked in the same field as puppies. As an avid sportsman hunting throughout the United States and Europe, it is hard to imagine not having the company of a superb well-bred Gun Dog as my companion. If it were not for the dogs and the joy they bring would I have really become a hunter? Maybe, I would have become a Friday night bowler or a couch potato watching “Desperate Housewives” and “Jerry Springer”! I feel fortunate and blessed that ADONAI has allowed me to follow this path and see all the wonderful sights nature offers those who will be still and know that He is Adonai Elohim.

 

If you have never had the pleasure of owning a Gentleman’s Gun Dog, every sportsman at least one time in his life, should have that experience. I have had the pleasure to own several superb Drahthaars over the years and my dogs today look a little puzzled when I mistakenly call them by names of a dogs long past. Caddo vom Kervinshof was one of those great dogs that added a perfect score in the 1995 VGP Masters Test to his long list of accomplishments. Caddo regularly attended classes or stayed in my university office when faculty meetings took precedent over evening hunts. Faculty and students were always asking me if Caddo was going to attend class today or was he doing busy work in the office. I have often found myself reminiscing about those old days and those dogs that played such an important role in my life. I remember the strange look on the face of my good friend Cent vom Hungerborn when I opened the gate to an empty kennel and told Caddo to hurry up lets go! We are going to be late and dawn will break before we can set the decoys. I know you are here Caddo because I heard the familiar sound of those tags jingle on your collar. I don’t see him but I heard his tags jingle or did I?

 

I have attached two recent letters sent from friends who owned “Gentlemen’s Gun Dogs” from our kennel. I am quiet sure as the years pass they will also hear tags jingle or the touch of a cold nose or the foot steps from the past that seem so real today.

 

#1


Subject: Cody

About 5pm on Tuesday (9 August) Fritz Vom Kervinshof aka Cody / Cody Joe/ CJ Dog – his body just gave out. Reta and I were out of town at the time but our neighbor (Phil Kuntz) who looks after the critters when we are gone, found him. He was laying in the shade of his favorite place in the back yard and was no longer breathing. Phil was really shaken up as he cares as much for our critters as I do. He called Reta and left a voice message and she gave me the bad news. We left yesterday morning and drove 16 hours straight to get back to take care of things. Cody is at the vet, I will pick him up this morning and take him to Iowa Park (outside Wichita Falls) to be cremated. Cody was 13 years old on the first of April this year. He had all the aliments of a hard working gun dog and the body of a retired hall of fame middle line backer – shoulder surgeries, bad knees, bad hips, eyes getting cataracts, going deaf (he was always hard of listening but he was getting hard of hearing too ?) and lungs that had little capacity to respire and cool. Through all of this he never whined, whimpered, complained or looked at me with that “you got to be kidding me” look in his eyes. Even though the back yard and my heart is full of an energetic 3 year old Kate, there is a huge emptiness in both for Cody that will last for a long time. I know each of you have experienced with your own critters. Rick previously shared a copy of Rainbow Bridge http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm it helps.

 

Wayne McCallum

 

#2

It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that I write to share the news that we've lost our trusted friend Indra.

 

She was an unbelievable and incredible soul that has changed my life forever. She taught me so many lessons that I will be forever grateful and thankful for.

 

She had such a gentle and courageous spirit that loved us completely and served unfailingly even when she thought it was perhaps beneath her dignity to retrieve that dummy one more time just so I could show her off to one of my hunting friends. She always retrieved the mark and would sometimes exit the water and look at me with those eyes that said "I know how to do this and I don't really need the practice".

 

Never showing any pain and her stubborn refusal to quit anything she started; her final hunt was beside Yola this last November. Because of her aging years, she was a little slower to the mark than her younger sister - but as the first covey was marked the age of her years faded away and her ears perked and eyes sparkled with joy as her body quivered with excitement.

 

Indra hunted and retrieved hard all morning until we finally broke for lunch, she ate her snack and drank heavily and rested in the shade of my truck. I could tell that she was feeling her age as her mind was more than willing but her body was beginning to fail her. As we began to take the field again, she looked at me from the comfort of her resting place with a look that said she wanted to come but she wasn't either quite ready yet or unable.

 

I rubbed her head and spoke gently to her assuring her that she was a great hunter and that she had done well and left her resting quietly in the shade.

 

We quickly took the field as Yola was working hard to locate the first birds of the afternoon. It wasn't long before her efforts paid off and she froze on point over the first set of the afternoon. The birds flushed and shotguns boomed after our desired prey and Yola was streaking after the downed birds. The report of the shots fired were still an echo on the distant hills as Indra's stoic form rambled past me to retrieve the second bird and quickly returned with her found treasure, her stubby black tail wagging and proudly rejoined the hunting party.

 

She hunted the rest of the afternoon with us but didn't pass up the opportunity for a little breather under the shade of a giant oak. I had to carry her a couple times to a nearby tank for a much needed breather and drink that her legs were just unable to carry her that far, but her heart unwilling to leave the party with birds in the field and work to be done.

 

It took her longer than usual to bounce back from this hunt, but after a couple of days rest she was back to her old self and ready to serve.

 

She began to lose a few pounds, but since the vet had suggested that she lose a few more pounds we didn't think much about it. She was always looking for that extra little morsel of food and keeping her weight in check was always a challenge!

 

Indra was always miffed when I had to leave town without her and typically would throw a tantrum by picking up everything that had my scent and carrying it around the house. Usually more fond of my shoes and hats, but socks and gloves were suitable too! When I returned, it typically took her a day or so to get over her hurt feelings and return to her lovable self, sticking by my side making sure that she kept me in sight or anchored in one place by laying on my feet. The perfect mother always waiting until all her little charges were safely in bed before she herself would curl up on hers.

 

I was out of town the first week of June, returning home late last Sunday. She was her usual self - wanting to be loved but hurt that she didn't get to go with me. She had difficulty defecating earlier in the day, so Ginger had given her some canned pumpkin thinking she was constipated. She ate the first serving but the second helping was promptly snubbed. She wasn't any better Monday night when I returned home from work so we decided to give her an enema. With only a minor change in her behavior we took her to the ER, the vet examined her and found her anal glands FULL. He relieved them and she perked up, wagged her tail and trotted over to me from the back room. The vet thought that was all that was wrong with her as she gave no other indication of her present condition. We returned home with her around 11pm and she rested comfortably for the next few hours - but was up quickly wanting to go outside, but still unproductive. She rested again until about 7am, became restless and again unable to evacuate her bowels. I called her normal vet and they graciously allowed me to bring her in immediately.

 

After testing, they found a bladder infection and dehydration and started her on antibiotics and fluids. After a day of fluids and meds they wanted to refer her to the ER for overnight monitoring and further testing. Through ultrasound they found her bladder wall had thickened and performed a needle biopsy of her bladder and abdomen as she was beginning to retain fluids. Wednesday evening with little improvement - we brought her home to spend some time with her pending the results of the biopsy. Thursday we cared and wept for her hoping to see some improvement. My hope was buoyed when she would swim in our backyard pool defiantly shaking the water off and trotting around the yard but would fail shortly later when she was still unable to produce any stool or pee.

 

I took her to work with me one last time on Friday for her to see her "work" family and to monitor her condition closely looking for any hope. She was tired and weak, but would still manage to perk up when someone came to see her or it was time to go outside.

 

The vet had recommended that it would be best to put her down within the next few days - but my heart was just not ready to let her go! Friday afternoon was hard on her and she would lift her head and look longingly at me. I told her that she didn't have to fight or be brave anymore, that I'd never forget her! It became clear that it would be best to let her go and she was put down Friday evening.

 

Thank you for entrusting us with such an incredible dog! When my heart is ready - I'd like to speak with you about another Drahthaar. One that might replace her presence but would likely never be her equal.

 

 

Blessings, Britt=