It was about 2004 when I met the breeder of Jersey, Michaela Engstler-Anderson, for the first time. Literally I only wanted to get some information about the English lines she was using in her breeding scheme. Well, over the years we became real close friends. However, dog talks are still the major part of our conversations. What unifies us is we have identical visions of the breed and we search for the same things in matings.
And we are lucky that our husbands get on together very well, too. What unifies them is their cacophony about the miserable life of dog-breeder-husbands. They can talk about that even longer than we talk about dogs.
So I got to know Jersey even before she was born. Already on the pedigree she looked very promising. And a couple of weeks old she caught my eye. And I talked Michaela on our visit and several phonecalls into a co-ownership for her. And I’m still very happy that she said o. k. and that she proposed Thomas – her husband – should be co-owner with me, because he has a hunter’s licence and therefore allowed to handle her working education.
Her family name is Ganwales, her first name is Jersey. And as it is with dogs, the first name comes after the family name, so her official name is Ganwales Jersey. Our husbands are shaking their senile heads trying to follow this logical explanation, and out come choruswise their usual „Yes Dear“.
O.K., back to something pleasant, to Jersey: Her pedigree looks very promising too – you can find some of good British lines in it.
We two wanted to pass them on and so we started her family-career. All in all she had five litters and because she showed us very clearly that being a Mom was what she really wanted, we agreed to put a hold to her working career and concentrate on her family-career. So, she stayed with us.
By the way, Jersey is a very faithful bitch regarding her lover boys. Her first lover was Stormerick Don Giovanni (our U-Litter) with whom she lived together for years at Michaela’s place. For the next four litters she had only sex with one dog – our River. Well, it wasn’t on her own will only I had my share with this decision, but anyway such a constellation is not very common in the Retriever-world. Why did I do it? Simply because they fit regarding genetics, temperament and looks and even more important they passed on the best from each side and formed an ideal combination. Take a look by yourself at the Y-, CC-, EE- and GG-Litter. In the meantime they have a couple of grandchildren who hopefully continue that line.
Jersey doesn’t live with us anymore, she too is a victim of our malicious neighbour and the building authority. However, she too found a loving and caring family that love her to death and she loves them. She enjoys her new live, maybe a bit too much, when I hear what she weighs nowadays. But if she’s happy I have to be happy too, even if it is still a bit hard for me.
