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About Us
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"Waldmeister" is a German word that has 2 meanings. The literal translation of the 2 parts is forest master but Waldmeister is also a herb - the English herb equivalent is Woodruff. We chose the affix because Bernd is from Berlin and he grew up near forest land which his father looked after (Forest Master). Bernd grew up with the Weimaraners his father used for hunting and was familiar with the Dachshunds that were also popular with the hunting men. He was surprised to find that in England, the Dachshund was seldom used for hunting so our first task was to find a suitable show Dachshund and to import some strong working blood from Germany. This has enabled us to begin to develop the dual purpose dogs that we like to keep. We have been showing and breeding dogs for about 12 years so we are still learning all the time and take every opportunity to ask questions and listen to the breeders that have been in the breed for far longer than us. We have had some good successes with the Dachshunds, including 5 CC's and 5 RCC's for Meadow and Best of Breed at Crufts 2006, 2 CC's, 1 RCC, a Best of Breed and a Group 2 for our foundation bitch Kate. We have carried on having success with their offspring and you can track our current achievements through the pages of this site. In Germany, the country of origin, there are 3 sizes of Dachshund in each of the 3 coats (smooth, long, wire). They are: Kaninchen (rabbit), Zwerg (dwarf) and Normal (Standard). They are differentiated by the measurement of their girth. Each of the 3 sizes is designed to fit into the holes of the prey they hunt (rabbit, fox, badger). In England, there are only 2 sizes of Dachshund in each of the 3 coats and they are differentiated by weighing miniatures, which should be under 5kgs (11lbs). As there is no recognition of the working function of the Dachshund in England, their girth seems to be of no importance in the showring.
We bought our first Sussex Spaniel because Bernd fell in love with one when he first saw one at the Sireva kennel when we were visiting. That led us to purchase a puppy from the successful Meggamooch kennel, who we campaigned to her show title and succeeded in making her up into a Full Champion - only the second Sussex bitch ever to become a Full Champion, of which we are very proud. We also made her daughter up into a Show Champion and then decided that we would concentrate on the Dachshunds as Sussex puppies are hard to place and we found it difficult to obtain suitable homes. We no longer keep and breed Sussex Spaniels, although we are still fond of the breed.
Our goals are to maintain the hunting instincts and ability and to breed healthy, happy hounds that can work and show. Our motto is:
"Follow someone else's route and you might not get lost, but you'll end up at their destination rather than your own."