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About Ghostwing Weimaraners
We are members of the Weimaraner Klub of the Transvaal, the Weimaraner Club of Great Britain and The Cape Gundog Club. Why Weimaraners? We, Brian and Irene Storer, now living in Cape
Town, South Africa, were first introduced to a Weimaraner in 1985,
whilst visiting friends. Besides the ghostly grey colour of the coat and the
eyes that glowed like soft candles, the thing that impressed us most about this
dog was the unusual interest that she showed in whatever we, as visitors, did.
Although outwardly friendly, the bitch never let us out of her sight. Her attention was more closely felt when we approached the
couple’s 6-month-old baby, now pressing up against us. At first we felt
disconcerted by the constant and quiet surveillance. The owners explained the
special bond that the bitch had with them and the fact that she was showing no
more than a protective instinct to ensure that, at no time, even during
successive visits, we posed any threat. The bitch also impressed us with her
natural and trained discipline. The
fact that she lived indoors, without having the house smelling like a dog box
and without shedding hair everywhere also added to our overall positive
impression. No talk yet of owning one! A year later, a work colleague who was immigrating
to the UK approached us. She asked if we would consider providing a home to her
6-month-old puppy. Having had a Golden Spaniel die on us some months before and
considering that the only alternative the puppy had was the SPCA, we thought we
would give it a bash, provided, of course, we met and liked the puppy. No mention at this stage of a Weimaraner! Any dog
would do! We duly visited the family. It was love at first
sight! The puppy Weimaraner bounced up to us, jumped up, paws on our chests and
mouthing our hands with sharp gentle jaws. How friendly and full of fun, we
thought! What an unruly bundle of
joy! Suzi was her name. We took her without any hesitation; no discipline,
no papers and no clue as to what we had let ourselves in for! All of you that have owned a Weimaraner will know
what happened next. The nightmare love affair had begun. All owners and dogs in
the discipline training class gave us the widest possible berth, including the
instructor and his aged mother, a retired instructor. Both were ‘mouthed’,
not too gently, if they made any move to take her lead off me.
To cut a long story short the all breeds club awarded me a trophy for the
‘most improved dog handler’ 2 years later!
Talk about perseverance. Our library of Weimaraner books had its first
book. Our fascination with the breed deepened. As she had no registration
papers, we decided to have her spayed. Over the next 6 years a bond developed between us
that only a Weimaraner owner would ever understand. She died at this young age
after a prolonged illness, which ended with kidney failure. We had to have another dog! Only a Weimaraner
would do! Along came our Steffi (Eweimar Asterisksteffi). We
joined the Weimaraner Klub of the Transvaal and the Weimaraner Club of Great
Britain as well as the Cape Gundog Club. Armed with pedigree papers and 5 more
books in the library, we commenced gundog (retriever) training and show
training. These activities took us to all parts of the country. Her natural
hunting ability, which was certified by the HPR (Hunt, Point, Retrieve) Field
Trial Club when she was only 8 months old, particularly excited us. The fact
that we had traced her ancestry into the picture pages of Weimaraner books
written in the UK, further convinced us that we had a very special bitch. We
considered having a litter of pups. Hunting ability was our main objective in
choosing a sire for her pups. We found this, as well as good temperament in Ch
Brierdell Royalexcalibur (Calib) belonging to Paul and Jayne Bagley, owners and
breeders of Weimaraners for many years. We
travelled from Fish Hoek, Cape Town to Johannesburg, mated Steffi, had 8 pups,
found good homes and kept a dog, Ghostwing Ash Armagh (Taxi). The puppies were 'home-reared' and our biggest
reward has been the feedback from the owners of Ghostwing pups, raving about the
temperaments of their dogs. Steffi was mated in August 2002 to SA & Greek CH Greydove Desert Storm CDX (Silver) belonging to Dimitris Kougioulis of Port Elizabeth. The 2nd Ghostwing litter was born on 21 October 2002 and was 'home reared' as was the 1st litter. Silver has since qualified as an Obedience Champion as well, the 1st Weimaraner to achieve this in South Africa. We have kept a bitch, Ghostwing Ash Brackenfire (Storm) from this litter. 2003 was a testing year to say the least! First an episode with a cobra in our garden just 10 weeks after the birth of our 2nd litter!See the webpages of Steffi and Sally for more on this horrible event. Steffi died protecting her pack but, although not given much better odds at the time, Sally survived. The effects of the snake bite resulted in the cornea of her right eye literally 'melting.' After a very trying period spanning months, the eye was saved by the opthalmologist, Gary Bauer. 2003 also so the death of 1 dog from our 1st litter and 2 from our 2nd, all dying tragically. Having home-reared them, as with all our puppies, we knew them intimately, making their deaths very personal losses for Ghostwing. 2004 was a year of consolidation. Our 2 young bitches, Sally and Storm were made up as show champions. I was very proud to have written a book called 'Living with a Weimaraner' which was published by my wife and I. The book has a chapter on the history of the breed in South Africa as well as appendices listing all the Southern African Champions. It has proved particularly useful to 1st time owners of Weimaraners, forewarned is forearmed!! For more about the book, see the LATEST NEWS page. Late in 2004 we acquired a bitch Gryffindore Taxi's Angel of Ghostwing (Ziggie), sired by our Taxi (CH Ghostwing Ash Armagh). She was one of three long haired puppies in a litter of 10. For the 1st time in many years 2 registered shorthair Weimaraners have produced long hair puppies, confirming that the parents are long hair carriers (LHC's). In the future we intend establishing a long haired line at Ghostwing. We have attached the abbreviation LHC* behind Taxi's name, the asterisk denoting that he is an LHC that has produced long hair puppies. Similarly Steffi, his Dam, must have been a LHC, although she never produced long hair puppies, hence no asterisk. Quite co-incidentally, her registered name includes the word asterisk. For our 'C' Litter we mated our Sally (CH Bromhund Galeforce) to Ash, a male from our 'B' Litter (Ghostwing Ash Brandyman) on 27 December 2004. We had travelled to Port Elizabeth, expecting to be back for Xmas! No chance, Sally made us wait! The puppies were born on 25 February 2005. We are very excited as the puppies have lines going back to ancestors that are common to their Dam and Sire. From this litter we will again keep a bitch to be called Cassie. She will be the bitch that brings together our Steffi (the foundation bitch) and Sally (our import) lines. Ghostwing Puppy Rollcall'A' Litter born to CH Eweimar Asterisksteffi of Ghostwing on 18 July 2000DogsCH Ghostwing Ash Armagh / 'Taxi' Ghostwing Ash Abercrombie / 'Q' Ghostwing Ash Ambrose of Tashanhof / 'Shadow' Ghostwing Ash Asterixx / ' Benson' BitchesGhostwing Ash Anaisanais / 'Anais' Ghostwing Ash Annanova / 'Zingi' Ghostwing Ash Annook / 'Lara' Ghostwing Ash Annanzi / 'Cleo' 'B' Litter born to CH Eweimar Asterisksteffi of Ghostwing on 21 October 2002DogsGhostwing Ash Brandyman / 'Ash' Ghostwing Ash Bravehawk / 'Chulo' BitchesCH Ghostwing Ash Brackenfire / 'Storm' Ghostwing Ash Brandysnap / 'Chilli' Ghostwing Ash Bramblemoor / 'Jemima' Ghostwing Ash Brightwater / 'Sassy' Ghostwing Ash Brightstar / 'Bungu-Liza' Ghostwing Ash Bryony / 'Cassie' Ghostwing Ash Briarose / 'Rosie' 'C' Litter born to CH Bromhund Galeforce at Ghostwing on 25 February 2005DogsGhostwing Ash Calabash / 'Jonty' Ghostwing Ash Clearflash / 'Flash' Ghostwing Ash Cannylad of Brierdell / 'Merlin' Ghostwing Ash Crossfire / 'Zieten' Ghostwing Ash Collateral / 'Oryx' BitchesGhostwing Ash Carousel / 'Suzi' Ghostwing Ash Cashel / 'Cassie' Ghostwing Ash Classikally / 'Cassie'
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