About us:

In 1996, my Irish Setter dog Indiana vom Rother Berg- known as Indy- came into our life and changed it enormously. My interest in this beautiful breed began when I was a twelve year old teenager. Every day on my way home from school I passed a butcher shop with a big garden behind the house, where an Irish Setter bitch called Senta was running in the garden. She was so happy seeing me, came for a cuddle to me and then we conducted a kind of ritual every day: barking together and racing along the garden fence. I felt so sorry for her as she had little outlet due to the labour intensive profession of her owner. Some time later I asked the butcher carefully, if I could take Senta out for a walk after school. So nothing else than Senta was in my mind the next two years and I spent a lot of time with her. We had such wonderful afternoons together and we both enjoyed it so much…up to one day when Senta suddenly passed away, she died with almost twelve years. I was so upset, because I have lost my best friend. From that day on I decided that I will have my own Setter one day…the time will come…

Due to sporting activities and employment, it was impractical for me for a number of years to keep my own dog, but the desire to have my own Irish Setter remained. When I met my husband the first time he had a small mixed breed dog called Lucky. She was a wonderful bitch, I liked her very much, but she was not like my Senta…And when she died during the summer of 1996, the time had come to fulfil my long awaited dream.

So an Irish Setter rude called Indiana from Rother Berg (breed of Norbert Spalt)- with nickname Indy- came into our house. He had not learned much from his first owner, where he only lived for four months. So he kept us very much out on toes. You can imagine where it leads to when a Setter is getting no order for work. He was a naughty teenager through and through and it took a while until he has learned his lessons and became a wonderful assistant in life, a good and reliable companion. We enjoyed a deep and intimate friendship together. Through him and his vitality I got to know all specials of this race, the immense joy to live and to have fun together and I learned to appreciate the wonders of nature with their own eyes. We had such a great time together and when he died in May 2008 at the age of nearly thirteen, I was heartbroken. I thought the world had stopped from one minute to the next. To fill this big hole that he left, my husband and me decided to look for a new Setter, but this time it must be a puppy.

While researching Indy’s pedigree I had discovered the Skibbereen Kennel of Mr. and Mrs. Wicker (Westerwald, Germany). To my delight the breeder just had puppies from N- litter and still two male puppies available. With great excitement my husband and me visited the puppy-group a few days later on. Armed with my camera I captured every moment of the playing puppies.

We could decide between male No. B and No. D. Both were beautiful puppies. To that time I did not know how to choose the right dog for us. However, not I made the decision, but it was puppy No. B, who made HIS decision: at the age of seven weeks,  while I was making photographs of the pups’ activities in the garden, Norman suddenly ran over to me and sat down beside me, he looked up to my husband as if he wanted to say: this is my new Mummy! OK?”  So the decision was made and at the age of thirteen weeks we picked him up to live with us in Aachen. From that time on he was my best friend, my companion and I didn’t want to miss any minute with him.

Of course it took a long time for normal education, obedience-training, hunting training and a bit agility later on, but it was worthy it, because the result of all this was that Norman has become a happy, well balanced and content dog.

We have successfully attended several National and International Dog Shows, and all the cups and trophees have got a special place on the cupboard.

But our favourite hobby was and is to have wonderful bicycle-tours along the coast of Netherlands and enjoy a little sea-breeze and wonderful nature and of course walking along the beach together. Here at the Dutch coast we have found a second home close to the wonderful dunes of Oostkapelle. Norman loved it so much, he nearly got crazy while running on the sandy beach. He enjoys the smell of pheasants and other deers in the dunes and he adores the big waves of the Ocean (North Sea). For more details see our photo gallery.

As Norman had great charisma and a loving personality we have decided to allow him to be used as a stud dog. For us, health, temperament and good character are really important factors in any pairing.
Norman got beautiful offsprings out of several litters (74 babies all together) and they all got wonderful families all over the world. We were very proud that not only his outer appearance has inherited, but also his health and wonderful character.
Norman was able to show everybody his pure joy of life and activities to the fullest, and occasionally he was still allowed to participate in hunting missions, especially at the water. In our spare time we drove a lot into the mountains, he still went to dog shows and got finally “Veteran Winner of 2018”. We visited his babies from the kennel "von der Osterpforte", we surprised his grandchildren with a visit in Aschaffenburg and had so much fun together, we still did a senior check where we got to know that Norman was in really good health condition – so we were floating on cloud No.7- everything seemed so perfect until our sweetheart was knocked out of life by an accident –nobody noticed that he got really injured inside the body, some circulation problems…ok, but nothing special…. So neither the doctors nor we could have guessed that he could die from the long-term consequences of his injury inside. Norman has hidden his problems (hurted spleen) for more than 5 weeks, then the spleen has torn one morning and he lost so much blood within six hours …. the vet tried to rescue him by operation but he was already too weak and couldn’t win the battle any more. So he did not wake up out of narcosis any more. We were all in shock, paralyzed and unwilling to accept what has happened just now. How much I wished I had another descendant of Norman who would still be educated by him. Norman always enjoyed it so much when a daughter or son of him came to visit us. He treated them so patiently and with care- even in his older age he was the perfect father, the perfect teacher ever- all my dreams and wishes for the next time with him… they were now burst like a soap-bubble!
During our deep grief it happened that we met by chance Lilly. Her real name "Gwendeavour’s A Little Miss Sunshine" is more than justified: with her lovable nature and her big wide shiny eyes she had convinced us that she will be our new sweetheart, and so we took her home to us at the early May 2019 at the age of 10 weeks.

If you require any further information about us or Lilly, click HERE.