Bonitos Companeros (Германия)
http://www.kirschbaum-cavaliere.de/cavaliere/frame_neu/cavalier_frame_eng.html
How I got to the Cavalier...
In the Kirschbaum family, animals always held an important place. When I was a child, I remember roaming among all kinds of pens where there were various kinds of poultry and birds, which were my first big passion.
Theere were our Toulouse Geese, for instance, which I kept after the example of the great behaviorist Konrad Lorenz and which thus became very tame. Rats and Rübe, these were their names, waited for me each afternoon at the garden fence, until they saw me come home from school and then rushed toward me to meet their “Mother goose, Markus”
Then there was Jacob the Magpie, which I saved from being shot. I got him as a small chick and raised him, and he for many years afterwards he tyrannised us with hiding things.
We also bred chickens and postal pigeons, the latter passion is still continued to this day by my brother in law, Frank. At this stage, I would also like to thank my parents who saw so many of our birds grow up under the Infrared light in their living room and had to bear them.
I was always fascinated by nature and what it does to procrastinate, which is one of the reasons I later chose the profession of gardener.
When my uncle Wolfgang brought his first tricolour dog to Germany from Scotland at the end of the 70ties, it was clear to me that I had also caught the cavalier virus. He simply called the dog “King” and that was what he was, too.
My dream of youth, the Cavalier virus, remained dormant inside me for 15 years and then it really broke out, which resulted in my first dogs coming from an old bloodline that is very similar to that of King.
This type of Cavalier was exactly the type I had envisioned for my future breeding endeavours.
To my great joy, I am finding out that our bitch "Lili", which stems of the line of PT Party Time of Homerbrent, I starting to look more and more like him with each passing day.
This fits the motto: if the prophet does not go to the mountain, then the mountain ...
What I want to say is this:
I struck lucky on two sides, for I also managed to make my other passion, dealing with people and plants, my profession:
I opened my own garden center in Remscheid-Lennep
Since 2009 much has happened - we moved bag and baggage and bought an old farmhouse in Reichshof Erdingen. Now with more than 4000 m2 garden we can live our dream of country life. My working home is now the Professional Gartencentercooperation Sagaflor "Bellandirs My Garden Center". Here I am appointed as Sales & Category Manager for more than 40 garden centers, what gives me great fun and gives me plenty of time for our wonderful hobby Bonitos Companeros.
Wie der Zufall so spielte lernte ich meinen jetzigen Freund & Lebenspartner Klaus auch in der Cavalier Welt kennen. Klaus ist auch schon seit seinem 15 Lebensjahr mit dem Cavalier Virus verfallen. Vor allem das Ausstellungswesen ist seine große Passion.Seit 2003 teilen wir uns nun diese Passion für die beiden Zwergspanielrassen Cavalier King Charles und dem King Charles Spaniel.Klaus hat durch seine Lebständigkeit das grosse Glück seine Arbeit zu Hause bei uns erleigen zu können. As luck played I met my current boyfriend and life partner Klaus in the Cavalier world. Klaus was also infected with the "Cavalier virus" since his 15th birthdays. Above all, showing our dogs is his passion. Since 2003, we now share our passion for both toyspaniel breeds - the Cavalier King Charles spaniels as well as the King Charles Spaniel. Luckily Klaus can work at home and has plenty of time for taking good care of our doggies.
hat excellent mixture is a very good foundation for the kennel of the beautiful companions - Bonitos Companeros
We have moved to a new home !
We made our lifelong dream come true and bought a small farm in the countryside - no neighbors in a secluded location near the forest in the beautiful health-resort Erdingen.
The year 2011 started for us already in our new home and we are looking forward to a new step in our life.
Here are some impressions of our little Companeros-Farm:
Now we are looking forward to spring time when the nature is coming back to green and the flavour of grass is waking us each morning
Amagedon – the end of the world. I must admit that’s taking matters a bit far but it is king-like!!!
There were dramatic happenings on that frosty February morning on the A 3 motorway near Cologne inside our Audi A3 … our new little kennel threatened to come to an end…
But first I must report, we seemed to have made it and the long time of preparing for our own kennel seemed to have come to an end.
I had been able to convince my family in supporting me when turning the dream of my youth into reality, I was able to unite job and hobby in a good manner for the Cavaliers simply came along to work with me.
The allergy test had been passed and nothing seemed to stand in our way anymore!!!
At last, I had been able to collect my long-desired Tricolor bitch „Lilli“ at the age of 11 weeks, from a very experienced breeder in the Sauerland region and take her home to the Kirschbaum family.
A beautiful time of preparing for a healthy breeding dog with strong character was on its way.
For me, it is important that the dogs become part of the family life and so I went to a puppy school with Lilli, or rather, we attended the puppy play group in a local dog school.
I can only advise any Cavalier owner to attend these kin of schools. It pays off in the course of the life together of man and dog and also of dog and dog.
Time went by and as it passed it became clear to me that we wouldn’t remain restricted to one Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, so Fina arrived, a Blenheim bitch who also happened to be a cousin of Lili.
Now everyone in the family began to realize that this would grow into a kennel eventually. The time had come to look for a suitable club inside the VDH and to decide on the optimum goals for breeding.
In our mind it was clear to breed only in a VDH-associated kennel club. The VDH is a kennel club where the breeding dogs get a special protection. You have to fullfit specific requirements in health, in the breeder hisselves and in the doggy-rooms as well.
We meet all this conditions and we are members and breeders of the German Cavalier Club e.V. CCD
What followed were a number of breeding admission exams for my bitches, which they both passed without restrictions.
So, I was finally ready to start!!!!
In the meantime, we had also decided on a name for our kennel and registered it with the VDH International. The name expresses for me the essentials of the breed of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel:
*** Bonitos Companeros, beautiful companions ***
Now I just had to wait until the bitches came into heat ...
In the meantime, I had looked around for a suitable dog that would fit well into my breeding programme and one that had caught my eye was Ch. Pamedna Waterloo.
The heat came, the dates for covering the bitches were made with the owner of the stud dog, and then things happened very fast. Pamedna Waterloo lived up to his reputation of being an experienced breeding dog and this was another part in the breeding puzzle that happened very quickly.
But then there came he wait .... 9 long weeks!!!
Impatient people like myself get antsy half-way through. So in the 4th week we went for an ultrasound. Everything seemed to be all right. Lili had all the symptoms that a pregnant dog should display and I just wanted it confirmed. But my vet looked on with a worried look as he did the ultrasound and I could make out the strangest shapes on the screen. Bladder filled well, kidneys and liver in great condition but Lili was not pregnant …
That was precisely what I didn’t want to hear, I couldn’t believe it – all the right signs and for nothing???!!! So I could kiss goodbye my litter dreams for the next 6 months.
And this is where the story continues that took place that frosty February morning:
The 8 weeks were almost over when our Tricolor both had a massive phantom pregnancy. Within 1 week, Lili’s milk shot in and our breeder colleagues and mentor all confirmed that this is normal, yes,that she could even have contractions because the hormones were all upside down.
That was a great view of the future days to come, I thought sourly and even got myself a homeopathic medicine that is being used by breeders to support Lili a little bit and be able to do anything at all.
Then came the signs we had feared!!! Lili began panting in the middle of the night.
I decided to drive her to the vet clinic and have an X-ray done, just to make sure that nothing bad could happen.
Outside, it was very cold, -8 degrees Celsius, which is really very cold for Cologne.
I had driven on the motorway for about half an hour when Lili gave a brief yelp and suddenly there was a little blenheim puppy, which came into the world right there in our A3, on the A3 motorway while we are travelling at a speed of 160km/hour.
Now we had to act fast.
The heater in the Audi did its best, and via cell phone we arranged for an emergency bedding.
At the soft shoulder of the A3, I cut the umbilical cord and christened the little dog "Amagedon".
I don’t think we will ever get bored here at the Bonitos Companeros Kennel!
Our Don (this is how we call Amagedon in our family) is now living in the house of our friends Manfred and Beate. Together we bought a big house in the countryside for living our dream to live a life with our dogs. Now we are able to meet our neighbour Don, the "Firstborn", every day ...
Keep watching this space, for we will update it with further news from Don....
Breeding Goals
Goals mean: to start off with things you have put into your mind you want to achieve.
Since there are many different goals in the world of dog breeding, and many different ways of getting there, I want to provide a brief insight here what the “Beautiful Companions“ – Bonitos Companeros – have set for themselves as goals.
First of all, I want to mention the issue of enjoying being around the creature. In order to ensure that both the human and hence life partner of the dog, as well as the Cavalier, enjoy a high quality of life, it is important that the dogs are innately of good health.
This is why I decided to build my breeding stock from an old and tried line that has been passing on good health and strong character for over three decades and has been undergoing a stringent selection process for these traits. Many relatives and ancestors are still alive at the old age of 14 and are in good health even then. Our breeding stock all undergo regular veterinary checks. A special chapter here is dedicated to a healthy heart. Our dogs participate in a long-term pilot project under the auspices of Mr Hagel/Hannover University Veterinary School. This pilot project relies on a dual ultrasound exam in order to examine especially the mitral valve for certain defects, the so-called Mitral Valve deficiency.
Since our breeding stock, as I have already mentioned, are checked for heart deseases before breeding with them, it is very important from a breeders’ point of view to continue with this process. Only healthy Cavaliers are used for breeding.
But we are not only concentration of the heart of our cavaliers. There are more health problems that we are checking here at Bonitos Companeros that are lying hidden in the genes of our beloved breed and other breeds as well.
I am talking about the so-called „phantom scratching“, Syringomyelia, known among humans as the Arnold-Chiarie-Syndrome.
It is a challenge for responsible breeders to not only recognize this genetic defect but also to weed it out as much as possible.
What exactly is this „phantom scratching“?
Many Cavalier fans, as well as newly interested persons in the breed, have been asking us this question lately, and they are seeking answers, and rightly so. I thus want to briefly outline the symptoms, because it is important to me to set out the classical signs, as normal dog scratching has nothing to do with this genetic defect, which is abbreviated as “Syri”.
The most important symptom is that it is really a type of phantom scratching, meaning that the dogs do not actually touch themselves with their paws but scratch in the air. Hence, typical dog scratching must not be misinterpreted as “phantom scratching”.
During the attack, the entire dog looks very tense. The attacks rarely happen without provocation but mainly during times of stress such as when playing or periods of great joy. It is especially strong also when the dog is put on a leash, which is when symptoms worsen. This type of nerve reaction can also be brought about through massaging or petting in the neck region, precisely where a normal dog collar is located.
Before this noble breed of ours, which has made it all the way from the 15th century into our modern time, is pushed into a corner where it definately does not belong, we are being called upon as breeders.
There is definitely a need for clear information. If we look at the genetic defect in terms of the overall population, we can see that in its worst form it only appears in about 1.5% of dogs. While this may not be a reason to breathe easy, it is also not a reason for panicking out of control.
Our breed association, the CCD e.V. has included this disease into its health check index. This index means that also other diseases, such as heart valve insufficiency or patella luxation, have been reduced to a minimum in the past years through a careful breeding selection proves and examination that are mandatory from the side of the breeding association.
As a result the deseases - for example heart or patella luxation - were reduced to a healthy level.
What exactly does this mean?
Since the CCD now also has included Syringomyelia into its selection criteria, all known dogs are being marked accordingly, so that the breeders are informed when it comes to influencing the passing on of this genetic disease in terms of their paring selection.
This is a very important aspect for our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed.
I hope to have broken a bit through the tabu zone of that subject for us breeders. We, here at „Bonitos Companeros“ inform our puppy buyers.
In summing up, I would like to emphasize that we are not hysterical by any stretch of the imagination! Being informed is still the best method to solve a problem. With our voluntary selection process, we are on a good path.
Our litter planning process is always based on the background that we strive to keep undesired genetic factors, such as heart problems or Syringomyelia, as small as possible. I am more than prepared for this.
continue
http://www.kirschbaum-cavaliere.de/cavaliere/frame_neu/cavalier_frame_eng.html
How I got to the Cavalier...
In the Kirschbaum family, animals always held an important place. When I was a child, I remember roaming among all kinds of pens where there were various kinds of poultry and birds, which were my first big passion.
Theere were our Toulouse Geese, for instance, which I kept after the example of the great behaviorist Konrad Lorenz and which thus became very tame. Rats and Rübe, these were their names, waited for me each afternoon at the garden fence, until they saw me come home from school and then rushed toward me to meet their “Mother goose, Markus”
Then there was Jacob the Magpie, which I saved from being shot. I got him as a small chick and raised him, and he for many years afterwards he tyrannised us with hiding things.
We also bred chickens and postal pigeons, the latter passion is still continued to this day by my brother in law, Frank. At this stage, I would also like to thank my parents who saw so many of our birds grow up under the Infrared light in their living room and had to bear them.
I was always fascinated by nature and what it does to procrastinate, which is one of the reasons I later chose the profession of gardener.
When my uncle Wolfgang brought his first tricolour dog to Germany from Scotland at the end of the 70ties, it was clear to me that I had also caught the cavalier virus. He simply called the dog “King” and that was what he was, too.
My dream of youth, the Cavalier virus, remained dormant inside me for 15 years and then it really broke out, which resulted in my first dogs coming from an old bloodline that is very similar to that of King.
This type of Cavalier was exactly the type I had envisioned for my future breeding endeavours.
To my great joy, I am finding out that our bitch "Lili", which stems of the line of PT Party Time of Homerbrent, I starting to look more and more like him with each passing day.
This fits the motto: if the prophet does not go to the mountain, then the mountain ...
What I want to say is this:
I struck lucky on two sides, for I also managed to make my other passion, dealing with people and plants, my profession:
I opened my own garden center in Remscheid-Lennep
Since 2009 much has happened - we moved bag and baggage and bought an old farmhouse in Reichshof Erdingen. Now with more than 4000 m2 garden we can live our dream of country life. My working home is now the Professional Gartencentercooperation Sagaflor "Bellandirs My Garden Center". Here I am appointed as Sales & Category Manager for more than 40 garden centers, what gives me great fun and gives me plenty of time for our wonderful hobby Bonitos Companeros.
Wie der Zufall so spielte lernte ich meinen jetzigen Freund & Lebenspartner Klaus auch in der Cavalier Welt kennen. Klaus ist auch schon seit seinem 15 Lebensjahr mit dem Cavalier Virus verfallen. Vor allem das Ausstellungswesen ist seine große Passion.Seit 2003 teilen wir uns nun diese Passion für die beiden Zwergspanielrassen Cavalier King Charles und dem King Charles Spaniel.Klaus hat durch seine Lebständigkeit das grosse Glück seine Arbeit zu Hause bei uns erleigen zu können. As luck played I met my current boyfriend and life partner Klaus in the Cavalier world. Klaus was also infected with the "Cavalier virus" since his 15th birthdays. Above all, showing our dogs is his passion. Since 2003, we now share our passion for both toyspaniel breeds - the Cavalier King Charles spaniels as well as the King Charles Spaniel. Luckily Klaus can work at home and has plenty of time for taking good care of our doggies.
hat excellent mixture is a very good foundation for the kennel of the beautiful companions - Bonitos Companeros
We have moved to a new home !
We made our lifelong dream come true and bought a small farm in the countryside - no neighbors in a secluded location near the forest in the beautiful health-resort Erdingen.
The year 2011 started for us already in our new home and we are looking forward to a new step in our life.
Here are some impressions of our little Companeros-Farm:
Now we are looking forward to spring time when the nature is coming back to green and the flavour of grass is waking us each morning
Amagedon – the end of the world. I must admit that’s taking matters a bit far but it is king-like!!!
There were dramatic happenings on that frosty February morning on the A 3 motorway near Cologne inside our Audi A3 … our new little kennel threatened to come to an end…
But first I must report, we seemed to have made it and the long time of preparing for our own kennel seemed to have come to an end.
I had been able to convince my family in supporting me when turning the dream of my youth into reality, I was able to unite job and hobby in a good manner for the Cavaliers simply came along to work with me.
The allergy test had been passed and nothing seemed to stand in our way anymore!!!
At last, I had been able to collect my long-desired Tricolor bitch „Lilli“ at the age of 11 weeks, from a very experienced breeder in the Sauerland region and take her home to the Kirschbaum family.
A beautiful time of preparing for a healthy breeding dog with strong character was on its way.
For me, it is important that the dogs become part of the family life and so I went to a puppy school with Lilli, or rather, we attended the puppy play group in a local dog school.
I can only advise any Cavalier owner to attend these kin of schools. It pays off in the course of the life together of man and dog and also of dog and dog.
Time went by and as it passed it became clear to me that we wouldn’t remain restricted to one Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, so Fina arrived, a Blenheim bitch who also happened to be a cousin of Lili.
Now everyone in the family began to realize that this would grow into a kennel eventually. The time had come to look for a suitable club inside the VDH and to decide on the optimum goals for breeding.
In our mind it was clear to breed only in a VDH-associated kennel club. The VDH is a kennel club where the breeding dogs get a special protection. You have to fullfit specific requirements in health, in the breeder hisselves and in the doggy-rooms as well.
We meet all this conditions and we are members and breeders of the German Cavalier Club e.V. CCD
What followed were a number of breeding admission exams for my bitches, which they both passed without restrictions.
So, I was finally ready to start!!!!
In the meantime, we had also decided on a name for our kennel and registered it with the VDH International. The name expresses for me the essentials of the breed of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel:
*** Bonitos Companeros, beautiful companions ***
Now I just had to wait until the bitches came into heat ...
In the meantime, I had looked around for a suitable dog that would fit well into my breeding programme and one that had caught my eye was Ch. Pamedna Waterloo.
The heat came, the dates for covering the bitches were made with the owner of the stud dog, and then things happened very fast. Pamedna Waterloo lived up to his reputation of being an experienced breeding dog and this was another part in the breeding puzzle that happened very quickly.
But then there came he wait .... 9 long weeks!!!
Impatient people like myself get antsy half-way through. So in the 4th week we went for an ultrasound. Everything seemed to be all right. Lili had all the symptoms that a pregnant dog should display and I just wanted it confirmed. But my vet looked on with a worried look as he did the ultrasound and I could make out the strangest shapes on the screen. Bladder filled well, kidneys and liver in great condition but Lili was not pregnant …
That was precisely what I didn’t want to hear, I couldn’t believe it – all the right signs and for nothing???!!! So I could kiss goodbye my litter dreams for the next 6 months.
And this is where the story continues that took place that frosty February morning:
The 8 weeks were almost over when our Tricolor both had a massive phantom pregnancy. Within 1 week, Lili’s milk shot in and our breeder colleagues and mentor all confirmed that this is normal, yes,that she could even have contractions because the hormones were all upside down.
That was a great view of the future days to come, I thought sourly and even got myself a homeopathic medicine that is being used by breeders to support Lili a little bit and be able to do anything at all.
Then came the signs we had feared!!! Lili began panting in the middle of the night.
I decided to drive her to the vet clinic and have an X-ray done, just to make sure that nothing bad could happen.
Outside, it was very cold, -8 degrees Celsius, which is really very cold for Cologne.
I had driven on the motorway for about half an hour when Lili gave a brief yelp and suddenly there was a little blenheim puppy, which came into the world right there in our A3, on the A3 motorway while we are travelling at a speed of 160km/hour.
Now we had to act fast.
The heater in the Audi did its best, and via cell phone we arranged for an emergency bedding.
At the soft shoulder of the A3, I cut the umbilical cord and christened the little dog "Amagedon".
I don’t think we will ever get bored here at the Bonitos Companeros Kennel!
Our Don (this is how we call Amagedon in our family) is now living in the house of our friends Manfred and Beate. Together we bought a big house in the countryside for living our dream to live a life with our dogs. Now we are able to meet our neighbour Don, the "Firstborn", every day ...
Keep watching this space, for we will update it with further news from Don....
Breeding Goals
Goals mean: to start off with things you have put into your mind you want to achieve.
Since there are many different goals in the world of dog breeding, and many different ways of getting there, I want to provide a brief insight here what the “Beautiful Companions“ – Bonitos Companeros – have set for themselves as goals.
First of all, I want to mention the issue of enjoying being around the creature. In order to ensure that both the human and hence life partner of the dog, as well as the Cavalier, enjoy a high quality of life, it is important that the dogs are innately of good health.
This is why I decided to build my breeding stock from an old and tried line that has been passing on good health and strong character for over three decades and has been undergoing a stringent selection process for these traits. Many relatives and ancestors are still alive at the old age of 14 and are in good health even then. Our breeding stock all undergo regular veterinary checks. A special chapter here is dedicated to a healthy heart. Our dogs participate in a long-term pilot project under the auspices of Mr Hagel/Hannover University Veterinary School. This pilot project relies on a dual ultrasound exam in order to examine especially the mitral valve for certain defects, the so-called Mitral Valve deficiency.
Since our breeding stock, as I have already mentioned, are checked for heart deseases before breeding with them, it is very important from a breeders’ point of view to continue with this process. Only healthy Cavaliers are used for breeding.
But we are not only concentration of the heart of our cavaliers. There are more health problems that we are checking here at Bonitos Companeros that are lying hidden in the genes of our beloved breed and other breeds as well.
I am talking about the so-called „phantom scratching“, Syringomyelia, known among humans as the Arnold-Chiarie-Syndrome.
It is a challenge for responsible breeders to not only recognize this genetic defect but also to weed it out as much as possible.
What exactly is this „phantom scratching“?
Many Cavalier fans, as well as newly interested persons in the breed, have been asking us this question lately, and they are seeking answers, and rightly so. I thus want to briefly outline the symptoms, because it is important to me to set out the classical signs, as normal dog scratching has nothing to do with this genetic defect, which is abbreviated as “Syri”.
The most important symptom is that it is really a type of phantom scratching, meaning that the dogs do not actually touch themselves with their paws but scratch in the air. Hence, typical dog scratching must not be misinterpreted as “phantom scratching”.
During the attack, the entire dog looks very tense. The attacks rarely happen without provocation but mainly during times of stress such as when playing or periods of great joy. It is especially strong also when the dog is put on a leash, which is when symptoms worsen. This type of nerve reaction can also be brought about through massaging or petting in the neck region, precisely where a normal dog collar is located.
Before this noble breed of ours, which has made it all the way from the 15th century into our modern time, is pushed into a corner where it definately does not belong, we are being called upon as breeders.
There is definitely a need for clear information. If we look at the genetic defect in terms of the overall population, we can see that in its worst form it only appears in about 1.5% of dogs. While this may not be a reason to breathe easy, it is also not a reason for panicking out of control.
Our breed association, the CCD e.V. has included this disease into its health check index. This index means that also other diseases, such as heart valve insufficiency or patella luxation, have been reduced to a minimum in the past years through a careful breeding selection proves and examination that are mandatory from the side of the breeding association.
As a result the deseases - for example heart or patella luxation - were reduced to a healthy level.
What exactly does this mean?
Since the CCD now also has included Syringomyelia into its selection criteria, all known dogs are being marked accordingly, so that the breeders are informed when it comes to influencing the passing on of this genetic disease in terms of their paring selection.
This is a very important aspect for our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed.
I hope to have broken a bit through the tabu zone of that subject for us breeders. We, here at „Bonitos Companeros“ inform our puppy buyers.
In summing up, I would like to emphasize that we are not hysterical by any stretch of the imagination! Being informed is still the best method to solve a problem. With our voluntary selection process, we are on a good path.
Our litter planning process is always based on the background that we strive to keep undesired genetic factors, such as heart problems or Syringomyelia, as small as possible. I am more than prepared for this.
continue
