Grauenfeld
This combination I have been waiting for
I have commented on combinations in Working-dog, but now I am opening my thoughts as a breeder and reasons for this breeding. May I present a strong combination of Indy Hanmark and Odin Düstergrund
Promising litter from Odin Düstergrund and Indy Hanmark
I have told you that I have been looking for a puppy for my future breeding work, and also a suitable stud male for my actual bitch, Indy Hanmark. Well, luckily I have found both. It has required hard work, investigation, selection, and a few compromises, but I am now more than happy with my decisions. And for a good reason, I believe. I can now present you my promising, and strong combination of Indy Hanmark and Odin Düstergrund.
First, the story behind INDY HANMARK
Indy comes from Galaxy Hanmark / Apollo v. Schloss Solitude. I have to admit, that I am disappointed because Apollo’s owner wasn’t interested to discuss his dog. Unfortunately, it only underlines the way, how things today are among many stud owners, and most of the breeders too.
The Hanmark –breeder Marek Hanusovsky, on the contrary, was happy to help. We have been keeping in contact with each other already in the past, so I am more than trustful with his opinions and his view of dogs. So, this is a story behind my female, Indy Hanmark.
Galaxy Hanmark
Indy’s mom, Galaxy, was a mentally strong bitch from an early age. Moreover, from the very first bites, her grip was full and determined. Galaxy also had a balanced nature, so she was the breeder’s favorite in the litter. Her littermates were also good and they have succeeded in sport as well in breeding.
According to the breeder, Galaxy had no problems with eating, or health, except for uterine inflammation, which was sadly also the end of her breeding career. She had once yeast in her ear, but after treatment, it never recurred. Later on, during Galaxy’s training, she could have had more intense tracking and obedience. These were things, that the breeder wanted to compensate in his breeding choices for Galaxy.
Two excellent producers
Both Galaxy, and her mother Kookie Grauenfeld, were exemplary breeding dogs as well as mothers. They gave many quality offspring, all with different partners. Depending on the male with which they were covered, they were capable to transfer their quality into their litter. Typically, their offspring had a great desire to work with a great desire to bite and retrieve.
Kookie Grauenfeld
Galaxy’s mom Kookie had an excellent litter with the world champion Ängbacken’s Rosso, but some of the dogs didn’t have a good x-ray. She had also an excellent litter with Chris spod Lazov. Their offspring were beautiful, and tough dogs in defense. Unfortunately, they did not commit to obedience.
Probably Kookie’s best litter was G -Hanmark litter, with Extreme Orex Aykmar. This male fascinated the breeder, Marek Hanusovsky, with his work at such a young age when he was already a participant in a top IGP-competitions. This male has done a lot of hard training with a handler who does not have weak dogs. Despite the slight HD-risk in Extreme Orex background, Marek wanted to take Orex into his breeding. As we know now, Extrem Orex is enjoying healthy life at his older age, so now afterward Marek has told to believe that it was worth it and a really good choice.
Extreme Orex has quality dogs in his pedigree and because of that Marek wanted to make 3-3 Falk v.d Wölfen inbreeding. It is known, that Falk-inbreeding brings for example health, great ball drive, toughness, and very high work ethics. Together Kookie Grauenfeld and Extreme Orex Aykmar had offspring with a huge appetite for work and balanced nature.
How did the breeder ended up choosing Apollo into his breeding plan and as a Galaxy's partner?
I -litter was Galaxy’s best and it has also been one of the best that Hanmark -breeder has ever had. The whole litter was distinctive and natural. When planning I-litter, he wanted to “boost”, what was missing in Galaxy’s drives. Obedience was her weakest point and seeing Apollo’s commitment to obedience, was the reason, Marek chose him for Galaxy. Despite he didn’t like some things in Apollo’s defense work, as a helper himself, he saw that more as a training issue. The breeder had also seen Apollo’s offspring, but the most important things that influenced his stud choice were the details in Apollo’s work and his pedigree.
Short about Indy Hanmark
I am interested in this line, because Kookie Grauenfeld was a dog from my breeding work. K-litter was excellent, but I couldn’t get offspring from my bitch, Kookie’s sister Koshi. I had already thought of getting a pup from Kookie, but unfortunately, the time wasn’t right then. When the right time came, Kookie had already retired from breeding. So, when I saw coming litter from Galaxy – Apollo, I made my decision and asked Marek for a female pup. In addition to my old lines, this litter brought back an old interest, because I had monitored Extreme Orex Aykmar from his puppyhood. Therefore I had even more interest in this litter. Luckily there was one particular pup for me in the litter.
I saw a promise of Indy’s possible breeding use almost as soon as I got her. When she came to me as a 3-month-old puppy, I quickly realized she was a very special dog. The older the puppy grew, the more confident I became about it.
How do I evaluate a breeding dog?
There are a few things I expect to see in a dog when I first evaluate it in terms of breeding. The dog needs to show activity, concentration, clear goal in its doings, self-confidence – and THE grip. Not because of training, but naturally, genetically. And I found all these in Indy. Later – soon – she began to show other interesting, and valuable signs, that confirmed me even more about her quality.
Health is everything - as is character
When she was seven months, I took her to pre-x-rays. Her result was excellent – all clear. Then I heard that her siblings were good as well, both in health and character. I had started also IGP training with Indy, with all disciplines, and she showed everything I needed and wanted to see. She was so good that I began to doubt whether my good fortune would continue with her.
Sometimes it's just have to prioritize
Later, in defense training, I didn’t see all things eye to eye with the helper. Indy’s training started to change, pushing even more aggression into her – while she already showed a lot of natural aggression in her defense work. Nevertheless, we made progress – and despite small disagreements, we got to work with a good helper. Then came covid-19. Although the IGP result is yet to be made, I am glad that Indy has completed BH and ”Wesensbeurteilung”.
After the first year of covid-19 turned to another, I decided not to wait any longer, to get that IGP title. I value more Indy’s character and health, and her young age, so I entitled her to her first litter. But before that, I commissioned a wide genetic study for her, with excellent results. All Indy’s health data can be found in her Working-dog profile.
Indy is a really good dog, she is healthy based both on x-rays and gene tests and now she is pregnant after natural breeding, expecting a full litter. So what more could I wish for, except that she would deliver a healthy litter by the ease and natural way into this world.
Odin is a high drive male, with extreme drive and good dominance.
My journey to find a stud male for Indy
You may be able to deduce something from what I have written about Indy and her background – regarding my choice of stud males. For those who are interested, I hope, I may even be able to give you more detailed info about Odin a bit later.
For now, I can tell, that I went through numerous males, to be able to do this strong combination of Indy Hanmark and Odin Düstergrund. After finding Odin, even there were excellent and interesting choices, I always returned to him. Why? When I first saw Odin – more specifically, his video, I realized this strong, dominant dog, who had an excellent grip – and an incredible capacity for dealing with pressure. And of course, his never-ending ball drive and huge fighting spirit. He was everything I was looking for from a stud.
Odin’s x-rays also spoke in favor of the dog, as did the fact that they and the statements were visible. And those facts are something I don’t compromise when it comes to my breeding work. Odin’s owner had also gene tested him, and I thank Anna for this information. Not to mention Odin’s offspring, which was like icing on a cake! For such a young dog, he has already shown his power in producing excellent pups, with very different females. This was the last and decisive factor why I ended up in Odin. And now, I couldn’t be more excited of this strong combination of Indy Hanmark and Odin Düstergrund.
Why "unknown" Odin?
Some people may wonder, why I didn’t choose one of those popular dogs. Or why I chose a dog with “that kind of a pedigree”. Meaning, no today’s “famous” dogs in it. Well, purely because of it. I don’t want those certain dogs into my breeding.
Besides, Odin has an extremely good pedigree. It is more an “old style” background than people have used to see nowadays. And there is a lot of potentials – just look more carefully, and deeper, and study these dogs. Like Botox, maybe not the most “sport-type” of a dog, but what a grip! And his x-rays are perfect too. What about Cid v.d. Schifflache – a male who was an extremely hard dog and also left this quality into his offspring. And then among others, Zender, Eric, Nash, Falk, and all good females.
Everything is in this combination
Compared to Indy, they both dogs have a similar work ethic, fighting spirit, and ball drive. Both also have a very strong defense and pray drive. Odin however is more balanced and confident in his aggression, and together with his nature, it is also an indication of good and successful training. Indy is very temperamental, which is partly reflected in her aggression. She “gets angry” very easily, which can also be seen in her low irritation level.
Both dogs are tough, and also so-called ”real dogs”. Adding to that they are always ready for work. In return, they have good nerves. In the end, both dogs are more like ”one-man dogs”, and despite that, they are social, neither are interested in other people nor animals. In this way, I can speak only for Indy, but she is a sweet dog, with also a soft side of her personality. That makes her a very special dog to me. They both are very, very special to me, and my ideology as a working GSD breeder.
These two complement each other
From my point of view, there is basically nothing, I have had to ”search” or add from Odin’s side into this combination, that hasn’t been there (in Indy) already. And for me, that is the most ideal situation. They both simply complement each other and reinforce each other’s existing qualities. I hope to find people who are interested in training and working with this kind of strong dogs.
R -Grauenfeld litter
I think I have waited for this particular litter, this strong combination of Indy Hanmark and Odin Düstergrund for all of my breeding career. Two extremely good, healthy dogs together, with the same kind of qualities.
Epilog
Many dogs have top health/work results on paper, but the quality after them is not as good as it could expect. On the other hand, some dogs don’t give many expectations – for whatever reason – but in the end, they prove to be better than the others.
Despite I am very happy with this combination and expecting really good dogs, I am not saying these dogs are ”perfect”, or even this combination is perfect. Because there is no such thing as a perfect dog – or breeding. I have, however, done all my homework and evaluated things one by one, to reach the result I hope to get. With a bit of luck, I may even succeed.
For some, this kind of praise of persons own dog may be too much. However, I know from experience that owning a dog like Indy is not self-evident. Therefore, I cannot underestimate the happiness that has befallen me.
Ps: I didn’t look for it, but with Odin x Indy breeding, I will again get Falk v.d Wölfen inbreeding.
4 Responses
I thought the same when I first saw Odin’s pedigree. None of the typical high profile sport & competition dogs. First I continued my search, but something kept telling me to go back and look again. The more I looked into it, the more I fell in love. A majestic beast with looks to kill and super defence and civil aggression on top of super grips. What more can you ask for? Titles & trophies? Not for me. I want the real deal. I hope the puppies are everything you are looking for. Congratulations on this very special litter!
Thank you!
Please keep me informed with your upcoming breeding. My email address is charlescountess@aol.com, thanks.
Thank you for your interest. I will keep you updated.