John Mustain
My name is John Mustain and I started hunting with my dad at a young age, just as I took my sons hunting when they were young. I’ve always owned hunting dogs and after Sande and I were married I began training and breeding German Shorthaired Pointers and owned that breed for many years. Then I was told my favorite female GSP “Stonie” had cancer and after that I just lost interest in training dogs, and even hunting.
Breeding Dogs
Fast forward a few years later and I started to think about training dogs and how much I missed it, so I started doing research on this new breed I’d heard about – Small Munsterlanders from Germany. After many months of research and phone calls with various breeders we brought our first Small Munsterlander home in 2010, Brush Dale’s All Guns Blazing (Angus).
By the time Angus was 6 months old I realized how special this breed was – easy to train and highly intelligent, cooperative and relentless in the field and a calm and loving dog in the house which my wife loved. So the following year we bought our second Small Munsterlander, Gunwood’s Gypsy Annalise V Hemi (Ani) from Kris and Jeff Hill at Hunting Hills Kennel, and Ani exceeded our expectations – she was the perfect combination of hunting companion and loving dog in the home!
A few more years passed and Angus and Ani passed their NAVDA natural ability tests with the highest scores, 112 (Prize I) and grew into excellent hunters. Angus won 3rd place in the 2013 Bird Derby, Hunter Division at the National Conference in Nebraska and both dogs were awarded their AKC Canine Good Citizen awards. We felt both dogs were excellent examples of the breed and decided we wanted to help others own these amazing dogs so we started our kennel business.
In June 2013 we bought our 3rd Small Munsterlander from Hunting Hill’s Kennel in Nebraska, Hunting Hills Uma Abigale (Abi). Abi has been a wonderful addition to our kennel and whelped several litters of beautiful puppies. In the summer of 2018 at 5 years old we placed her in her forever home with a wonderful owner from Chicago. We miss her but know she is very loved and well taken care of.
In Janaury 2014 we welcomed our first litter from Ani and we kept a puppy from that litter, Mustain’s Asia von Annalise (Asia). Sadly, we lost Ani that year to cancer (see “Losing Ani” on Ani’s page), but we are thankful for the beautiful puppies she gave us. You can read more about Ani and our other dogs who are no longer with us or retired from breeding on our Gone But Not Forgotten page.
In December 2014 we brought home a female pup from Timber Trails Kennel in Connecticut, Timber Trails Emma. Emmie grew up to be a beautiful Munsterlander but sadly after breeding her 3 times with no pregnancies we had to re-home her. Emmie now lives with a wonderful family in Utah and is very loved.
In the spring of 2016 we again partnered with Katerina Lisova from the Czech Republic to bring 4 puppies into the US and we kept one of the females, Violet EBEN-EZER who we named “Pepper” because she is almost all white with black sprinkles across her back. Pepper is a gorgeous dog who like Uros, excels at everything she tries – at a little over 1 year old she won 1st place in the SMCNA Bird Derby (puppy division) and received a perfect 112 on her NA test. Pepper has been the cornerstone of our breeding program and we’ve kept several of her pups over the years to continue her amazing lines.
Shortly after Christmas in 2016 we imported a Danish beauty who we named Trixer Jixer Judy after her sire Pixer Jixer van de Chesannehof who is a grand champion in the Dasnk Munsterlander Klub and 7 other European countries (his breeder is from the Netherlands) and Trixie’s dam who is from Fuglejæger’s Kennel in Denmark named Hedeskov’s Judy. Trixie produced 2 beautiful litters for us and she’s now living an amazing life with her new family in Utah.
In the fall of 2017 we imported another pup sired by Pixer Jixer van de Chesannehof, this time a dark roan male from a Danish Kennel, Svalegaardens Kleiners named Ronko. Ronko is as sweet as he is beautiful, a very intelligent dog with amazing natural abilities who has been easy to train with a gentle temperament and a joy to own. Ronko has produced over 200 gorgeous puppies to date for our kennel and several others – he has proven to be a superior sire for our future litters as well and we are fortunate to have him and thankful to his European breeders for this amazing Munster!
In the spring of 2019 Pepper and Ronko had a beautiful litter and we kept one of the pups, Mina. Mina was the runt of the litter and was barely 2 oz when she was born, but she was feisty and a fighter and pulled through, and as she grew we fell in love with her sweet personality and fighting spirit. Mina grew up healthy but stayed very small, and we bred her when she was 2.5 years old and she had 10 beautiful pups but the pregnancy was hard on her because she was so tiny and she needed to deliver by c-section. We decided we didn’t want to put Mina through another hard pregnancy so we placed her with a dear friend in California and she is very loved and has a wonderful home now – and we kept one of her pups, Tallulah (Lula), who will carry on Mina’s wonderful attributes with her puppies.
With Uros and Pepper being such amazing dogs we dug into their history a little more and discovered that their mother came from a breeder in Serbia named Dragan Milićev Šumar and so we contacted him and after many years of writing back and forth we found a way to import several of his pups to the US – we were the first breeders in the US to import from Serbia. Our 2 pups arrived as a wonderful Christmas present in December 2019 and we kept Phoenix Dragan (named in honor of her breeder) and her sister Contessa Dragan went to her new owners in Canada. Phoenix has been an amazing dog with extremely strong natural abilities. intelligence and drive, but loving and sweet in the home.
Also in the Fall of 2019 we heard that Brushdale Kennels was breeding 2 imports and they were the brother and sister of 2 dogs we had imported, so we got a pup from that litter – Brushdale’s Fatal Beauty – and named her Skye. Skye is a beautiful dark roan female who has a quiet, sweet personality, hunts with intensity and has been a lovely addition to our pack.
In the spring 2020 Pepper and Ronko had another litter and we again kept a pup. She was actually the first pick from one of our customers and as she grew we kept saying darn, wish we would have kept her because she continued to get more and more beautiful with a unique heavy ticked coat. She was also so very smart and quick to learn everything with a very quiet, sweet personality. As the pups turned 8 weeks old and began to leave for their new homes we got a call from our customer and he wasn’t able to get a pup at that time… so we felt like we just won the lottery and kept this beautiful pup for our own. We named her Quinnlyn from our Q-Litter (Quinnie) and she’s been a joy since she was born!
In the fall 2021 Mina our sweet pup we kept from Pepper and Ronko’s “M-Litter” had her first litter (T-Litter) and we ketp one of Mina’s pups, Tallulah (Lula) and she is such a sweet and beautiful girl – her structure and conformation are excellent and she has a lovely face. Lula is full of life and energy with a strong hunting drive. She reminds us of Mina every day!
In the spring of 2022 Pepper had her last litter (X-Litter) with Ronko and delivered 8 beautiful pups. We decided to keep one of the pups to ensure we can keep this amazing line going from Pepper and Ronko through their amazing genetics and Xia fits right into our pack! Xia is a beautiful combination of the best traits from her parents, has strong natural abilities and that sweet temperament that we love about Pepper and Ronko.
In the spring of 2022 Pepper had her last litter (X-Litter) with Ronko and delivered 8 beautiful pups. We decided to keep one of the pups to ensure we can keep this amazing line going from Pepper and Ronko through their amazing genetics and Xia fits right into our pack! Xia is a beautiful combination of the best traits from her parents, has strong natural abilities and that sweet temperament that we love about Pepper and Ronko.
We have been so impressed with Phoenix and everyone who meets her or hunts with her wants one of her pups, so we spoke with our friend Dragan in Serbia about importing more pups. It took about a year but finally he called us with choices from 2 litters, and by then we had been communicating with 4 other breeders (2 from Canada and 1 from the US) so we ended up imported 6 pups, one pup from each litter for us and 4 for the other breeders. Everyone was wonderful to work with and we met in Chicago to collect our pups.
Unfortunately, the plane was delayed and Sande was tired when the transporter told her the names of our pups. Consequently, several months later when we began posting pictures of the girls, Dragan informed us that we had their names backwards, but too late by then, they already knew their names. So, if you buy a Rossi pup from us in a few years and the pedigree has the dam listed as S-Sevyn v Diamanti… you’ll know why!
ABOUT OUR KENNEL
Sande and I want our kennel to be more than just a place to purchase a dog – we promise to be available to our buyers to assist with questions as the puppies grow, assistance with training and providing training events and on-going support and camaraderie throughout the lifetime of your Small Munsterlander. We have trained and bred hunting dogs for 20+ years and after discovering the Small Munsterlander have not thought about owning another breed since – their intelligence, hunting drive and eager to please personalities make them stand out as the dog of choice for us.
Our goal as a kennel is to breed healthy, stable, well trained hunting dogs who are also calm, loving companions in the home. Having a small homed-based kennel ensures that our dogs are given plenty of individual care and attention and nurtured in a warm and loving environment. We also have a structured program for working with and training our puppies in the critical first 8-10 weeks of life to create dogs with “emotional intelligence” as well as calm, focused dispositions by immersing them in an environment rich with mental stimulation and challenges. (Please see our Puppies Page for more specifics on our breeding/training program).
We are proud members and a registered kennel with the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) and support our local NAVHDA chapter. John was instrumental in starting the MOKAN NAVHDA chapter in Kansas City and serves on the Board of Directors. We are also members and Cooperating Breeders of the Small Munsterlander Club of America (SMCA) and Sande serves on that Board of Directors. We register our puppies with both NAVHDA and AKC so our customers will get registrations/pedigrees from each organization.
Our promise to our buyers is to breed only healthy, high-quality dogs who have exceeded NAVHDA testing standards and are proven in the field as aggressive, relentless hunters. Our breeding program includes inporting semen and/or puppies from European countries to diversify and improve the genetics of the breed. If you would like to see this breed in action, please call or email – it would be our honor and pleasure to introduce you.
OUR VISION
- To continue to produce excellent quality Munsterlanders who are intelligent, healthy,tireless hunting/tracking/retrieving versatile hunting dogs who are also gentle and loving in the home.
- To only breed the best quality dogs we can find based on conformation, temperament and exceptional hunting ability.
- To remain committed to preserving and improving the Small Munsterlander breed by only breeding healthy, proven hunting dogs with impressive pedigrees and conformations that are true to the FCI standard.
We welcome questions and comments and are here to help you in your search for the perfect Versatile Hunting Dog and companion! We hope to hear from you soon.
