links to other topics on site: - homepage; - puppies and trained dogs for sale; - puppy training; - nutrition; - our Canadian Wolf x Olderhills; - photo gallery; - medical matters; - Press Coverage; - contact us & links to other sites
This is Us!
Cornfield's Kennels is run by two of us, Susan Spencer, (that's me on the left in the photo - I do the writing), and my partner Julie Prinsloo. This photo was taken in West Sussex, England, in August 1993, where the police very kindly demonstrated to us their Olderhills in action. I'm holding Ben (Olderhill Lofty) the hero of their station (and the father of our dog Wolfram). He did all the exciting cases. They'd drop him off by helicopter all over the country to track and catch criminals.
We went to England (and Germany) looking for dogs to match our own line of german shepherds in South Africa. We were lucky to have dogs that were big, courageous, fearless, protective towards children, and brilliant working dogs. The Olderhills were a match made in heaven! Not only were they huge, healthy dogs with flat backs and straight hind legs, and with rock-solid temperaments, but they'd been successful police dogs for the last 25 years and worked like a dream. The day that the photo was taken Ben and Rainer (a black Olderhill male ) pulled us along a 3hr old track at a jog and scooped up about 10 articles on the way. This was a stark contrast to the champion tracker dogs that we saw in Germany at the big annual working championships (the working 'Bundessieger' show). They moved at a funeral's pace, with the handler pausing between each step. When we pointed out to competitors that a dog would never catch anybody at that pace, they said that they did not train their dogs for real-life work and so it wasn't a criterion for them. We use our dogs for real-life work and so it is for us.
And so we discovered the Olderhills and were lucky enough to bring two back with us, Leo (Olderhill Ivy) and Wolfram (Olderhill Grandee). We have had several litters from the two of them together and also crossed them with our own line. The puppies that we've bred like this have been brilliant. Those who have entered competitions with them have won everything, including beating border collies at agility (jumping). More and more private groups are beginning to use them for real police work such as tracking and catching criminals and sniffing for explosives and drugs in road-block checks and building searches.
Before we imported our Olderhills we'd only bred a handful of german shepherd litters over the years for ourselves, friends, and family. We never dreamed of becoming 'breeders' because we thought that more than enough dogs were being produced already. It was only when we couldn't find suitable dogs to put to our bitches that we realized that a lot of today's dogs that are being produced are weak in body and temperament and have crippling medical problems. It is therefore very important for more people to start breeding strong, healthy dogs again. Knowing this, it became a mission of ours to keep the Olderhill line alive (as well as our own). However Ann Butler died a couple of years after we got our two and to our great dismay we discovered at the end of 2001 that her Olderhill line has died out with her. It looks as though we have the last pure Olderhills left today.
Here's
our place! Because we have lots of dogs we try to train and go for walks with
them as often as possible (yes, all together in a huge pack! ) so that they
all get a bit of attention. We're
lucky to live in the bush where we can walk with so many dogs! Except for bitches
on heat, most of our dogs live around our house in a big pack. The kennels that
we have are large thatched-roofed houses with runs in front of them. Our puppies
are all born in our house and stay there for the first few weeks before going
outside into these kennels.
Rescue scheme
Because we love dogs and are suckers, we also have a rescue scheme for unwanted
dogs (of any breed). We train them too so that they can get good homes. (People
appreciate trained dogs.) They also stay in thatched-roofed kennels and eat
the same food as our breeding dogs. They often come in thin and emaciated and
go out fat and shiny and admired. See rescue scheme for more details, and see
Trained dogs for photos of rescued dogs ready to go.
|
|
 |
Looking at our miniature pigs!! | |
Scottish Terriers, Cocker Spaniels and Miniature
Vietnamese Potbellied Pigs.
We also breed these as well as our Olderhills (but not on the same scale). Websites
will soon be available.
CONTACT US & LINKS TO OTHER SITES
links to other topics on site: - homepage; - puppies and trained dogs for sale; - puppy training; - nutrition; - our Canadian Wolf x Olderhills; - photo gallery; - medical matters; - Press Coverage