Thinking back to my last visit to Denmark with my daughter Iben this summer I can tell that one of the highlights was to meet Jytte and Ejgil Thomsen in Holstebro. This delightful couple owns an absolutely incredible dog with the name "Hedemarkens Asco". I called the Thomsens on the phone to talk dogs and I was invited to come and visit. So Iben and I set out from my parents summer cottage on the West Coast of Jutland. We were blessed with beautiful weather. Up until that time we had had so much rain that we were beginning to believe that webbing had started developing between our toes. We both enjoyed the drive through the countryside, seeing lots of Viking burial hills. We even found a lovely inn where we enjoyed a cup of strong coffee.

We arrived at the Thomsens at exactly 11 AM as promised and only expected to stay for a short time. But low and behold before we knew it the time was 3 PM. Jytte had at that time left for work and Ejgil needed to get going since he was going to drive to Fuehnen to participate in a meeting of the Danish Small Munsterlander Club that evening.

Jytte and Ejgil have two Small Munsterlanders, namely Asco and Bella, his mother. They are both champions, and Asco has so many titles and awards obtained in Denmark and Germany that I believe he is one of the highest scoring Small Munsterlanders in Denmark right now. In addition to being a great dog in the field he is also a wonderful dog to have in the house, which are characteristics that we also enjoy.

We naturally discussed our aim in the United States to maintain the characteristics of the breed and promote it in a way that maintains and preserves the breed for its beautiful exterior and its great hunting abilities. In Denmark you will find very strict breeding requirements and all litters are inspected shortly after they are born by the breed warden so a decision can be made as to any culling that is necessary. The breed warden will visit again after a few weeks to see how the puppies are developing and give any advice that may be necessary. Due to the size of the United States this kind of oversight is naturally not possible, so we will have to rely more on the ethics of the individual breeder to only do the best thing for the breed.

Most dogs are sold to hunters and all the new owners are encouraged to have their dogs tested at field trials. We saw videos of the dogs and it was clear to us that Asco had set his mark on quite a few puppies. They were all very calm, easy to train and good field dogs.

As you all know we only have a small gene pool in the United States so Jytte and Ejgil would like to help us with puppies if any of you desire to import.

I have on earlier occasions talked about the same matter with Erik Danielsen who also owns a wonderful dog "Daks."

We talked about diseases and sicknesses with our dogs and frankly we don’t have many compared to other breeds. Epilepsy is the worst and is seen very seldom. If it is found then there will naturally not be any breeding of that dog. Some dogs show teeth and eye problems just as we are finding them here when a dog is tested by NAVHDA. Such genetics defect and any appearance of hip dysplasia is recorded in the dogs papers just at it happens here.

The Danish Munsterlander Club just celebrated their 25^th anniversary this past September. They had 120 dogs that were field-tested, 100 participated in retrieveing tests, and 114 participated in bench show. Asco was judged Best-in-Breed (BIB I) and three of his offspring took BIB II, BIB III, and BIB IV. Five of Asco’s offspring were also presented with CK’s. A CK means that they received a Certificate Quality designation, which further means that they are very good specimens of the breed and their exterior is such that it should be promoted. We could all be proud of just having one dog with a CK! A very commendable showing for a 7 ½ year old dog.

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During Vibeke’s next visit to Denmark Jytte and Ejgil called and asked if she would be interested in bring back a pup to the US. His name was Uldjydens Andy. Vibeke said yes and we have him now and his call name is Appi. Appi was born on 6 January 1994.

Appi’s OFA test result was MU-104G36M-T.

His NAVHDA Natural Ability score was 112 Point, Evaluation only.