Foxfire Kennels
Marko vom Gluckstag
April 1, 2003 marked the passing of our Marko at the age of 14. He was the
son of Alf Stoffelblick and our female Fiona vom Holstentor. While never titled
past the Begleithunde, he taught me and a number of beginning helpers what it
was to work a good, solid , hard biting dog. We also used him many times to
let rank amateurs "take a bite" just for the hell of it.
He also taught a couple of helpers that it is not always safe to drop the sleeve,
expecting the dog to carry it around like a toy.
That was, admittedly, a few years ago ..such behavior is no longer considered
"acceptable " in some training circles. The opposite is true in our
"training circle", however. We still believe that Schutzhund is not
for sport only and serves best as a breeding tool when it is not treated as
such.
We'll miss Marko, but he had a good , long working life. We'll probably never
have another one as good...but then , who knows, we might.
Utz vom Gluckstag
We lost another of our favorite, home bred dogs in 2006.
Utzy died of complications from an Pasteurella infection which we believe he
contracted from an encounter with a cat. Utz was not your average sleeve dog,
he represented what we like most in a dog, fighting spirit and a willingness
to bring the fight to any encounter. We miss him terribly especailly on training
day. Unlike Marko, he didn't have a chance to live
a long life and achieve what he was capable of..he was 4 years old.
I keep these "memorials" on the site because these are probably the
last two good dogs Betty and I have had and both were home bred. They may well
be the last we will ever have.
Training
We train with the USA affiliated Southern Tier
Schutzhund Club . We like to emphasize the dog/handler relationship and the
club setting is an excellent means of doing so.
The emphasis in our club is keeping it light and having fun. . No big egos,
no big rivalries and no turf battles. Jim is the training director and as such
enforces only 3 rules
Anyone interested in training with us is encouraged to come visit and see how we do it. You will not be ignored and we will do our best for you and your dog. We have no formal evaluation proceedure. If we like you you can join . We don't care what kind or quality of dog you have, if you want to train it, we will do what we can and we'll have some fun doing it. We want training to be fun for the dog and fun for the owner , our training methods reflect this .
Southern Tier Schutzhund Club
The Southern Tier Schutzhund Club was founded in 1996 and approved as a United Schutzhund Clubs of America full member club in 1998.
We held our annual trial on Oct. 29, 2011 under the auspices of USA judge Karen MacIntyre. Jim Baldwin earned the BH rating with Jori v. Rokanhaus and Mieke vom Eichenluft, Betty Baldwin earned the BH with Evel v. Eicenluft, Tim Schutts a BH with Eike v.Eichenluft and John Krichbaum a BH with Rhino von Eschenhagen
Betty Baldwin was not able to earn the title of SchH1 with Brio v. Heulenluft, failing both tracking and protection. Brio has his problems, but we will try to continue with his training Unfortunately Betty was not able to achieve the BH with Brigand v. Eichenluft either.
We had some unfortunate losses this year and some training,temperament issues. We hope to regroup next year for a more satisfactory trial and outcome
For more info contact Jim Baldwin 607-257-1683 E Mail Dog Training
Nutrition
We now are using a varied feeding program using Pro Plan Performance and Adult shredded formula, Native Level Four as well as our own lamb/ rice / egg mixture. We have a number of challenges ranging from old age to sensitive stomach issues. We have tested for the common digestive problems such as pancreatic function and malabsorbtion syndromes and have not been able to identify even an idiopathic problem, so we manage the problems with diet , sometimes successful sometimes not so much.
