A Great Guy Who Loved Dachshunds: Robert Hartkemeier
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When people look at my pedigrees and attempt to determine who everyone is, there are a few questions that people want to know. One of those questions is who is Robert Hartkemeier? He shows up as co-owner of CH Boondox Emma v Walmar ROMO, breeder and co-owner of CH Boondox Panama Jack ROMO and CH Boondox Yorktown L ROMX and owner of the Miniature Wire CH Rose Farms Yukon Jack MW who sired all my great little Miniatures I had for awhile. Hardly anyone met him at the shows, but he was quite a contributor for me and this is how he became involved in helping me with my Dachshund project.
When I started breeding Dachshunds, it was not always easy to sell puppies and sometimes you wound up with too many bitches and started selling some really good ones along the way. Anyway, back during the summer of 1982 or 83, I had a call from a guy who lived in Cincinnati who wanted a Smooth bitch and I had a Smooth litter so I told him and his wife to come over and take a look and see if anything fit in with their family. They did come over and looked at the Smooth puppies and, towards the end, I turned Nola, a longhair puppy bitch out and they fell in love with her. She was one I got back from Lon Strauch and John Brading and she was a charmer. From the time she met them, Nola made it her mission to charm them and charm them she did. The couple was Robert and Emma Hartkemeier and they completely lost it to that little charmer. Nola was a puppy I got back and I could surely have finished her, but, I guess, she earned her money in a different way.
CH Boondox Quicksilver L ROMX
Anyway, the Hartkemeiers bought Nola and she completely wrapped them around her paw and she did everything possible to make them love her. She was a little charmer. During this time, I got calls from them raving about Nola and how much they liked her. Mr. Hartkemeier grew up with Smooth Dachshunds and loved them and now was enjoying his new purchase of a Longhair. He was a great guy and he had lots of questions about me starting to raise and train Dachshunds. He was quite successful and had a lot more money than I thought and really wanted to help my little project along, so I told him my plans and that I wanted to show my own dogs and be successful in the Show Ring. He did love his little dog and, I believe, he always wanted to help those doing this. Eventually, after talking a few months, Mr Hartkemeier said he wanted to co-own a few dogs with me, but wanted me to keep them at my house and he wanted them to be part of breeding better Dachshunds. Mr Hartkemeier did have an eye, but he did let me decide what to purchase from me and always loved what we did with the Dachshund breed.
He basically always liked to help out and give me money to keep his charges active in my breeding program. He was a Trust Officer at a Cincinnati bank and he and his family always helped me and gave me far too much money to keep my hobby going along. Needless to say, it was much appreciated and, even more, he never tried to boss but let me lead the way and could not believe how much we were winning along the way. I started Mr Hartkemeier out small and said I had a bitch that he should probably buy and that, I thought, she might produce some dogs who could make a difference in the Variety and that is how he got CH Boondox Emma v Walmar L ROMO from me before we ever showed her. At that point, I had too many litters going and Wally and Mary Jones co-owned her with me as well as a couple of the Lardi/Pammy daughters and so we decided to sell Emma and go with the Gerolf\Pammy daughters that we were in love with. With all that, Emma’s career was quite a surprise and she was a winner wherever we showed her and then we bred her….
CH Boondox Emma v Walmar L ROMO
Emma had a great pedigree as she was sired by CH Gerolf das Zwerglein L ROMO and out of my great bitch Rose Farms Black Berry Buff L ROMO and as I have often said, that Gerolf daughter produced far better than she was herself. Seeing her puppies was amazing. As I said, I first bred her to a dog that I loved and waited until he past five years old to breed to him. The results of Emma’s first litter were outstanding and the whole litter finished and that was a pleasure for Mr Hartkemeier indeed. Of course, after all the trouble we had with CH Boondox Panama Jack L ROMO, Mr Hartkemeier and I kept PJ who did indeed make our way into Dachshund history. We then sold Wally and Mary Jones CH Boondox Pumpkin L ROMX and where, despite being a fantastic Show Dog and a great producer, she became one of their house dogs and led a happy life indeed. Sidney Stafford also bought another one from this litter, CH Boondox Pandemonium L ROMX who also was an easier finisher and an excellent producer. Bob Hartkemeier and I also kept the last of the Champions and enjoyed CH Boondox Promise L here although we never bred her, At that time, I had so many great young bitches that there was never a place to stick her in the line up and so her producing abilities were never shown off.
CH Boondox Panama Jack ROMO
Looking back at the names here, this was a great time to really explore the Dachshund breed. Working with Lon Strauch, John Breading, Wally and Mary Jones, Sidney Stafford and. later, Martha Grantham was the way I wanted to go. Besides working with these breeders, Russ and Thelma Moffet, Hannelore Heller, Dee Hutchinson, Mary Howell, Susan Jones and Uffe and Carol Braae were still out working in the Breed and we all were trying to get as much info as we could. This was exactly where I wanted to be and share what I learned with Mr Hartkemeier and see where we went in this great group of people who all really wanted to breed better, healthier Dachshunds.
CH Delldachs Rolls Royce L ROM
Emma’s next litter was sired by a dog Hannelore showed and finished and, while he was not a big winner in the Ring, the dog had a pedigree that I wanted to take advantage of and a body that I thought would be valuable to my Longhairs. That dog was CH Bayard le Fantome who was paternal grandson and maternal great grand son of one of the greats, CH Delldachs Rolls Royce L ROM, two times DCA BV and BB winner. What a dog he was and, when bred correctly, that type and look was right there for any one to see. To be honest, looking at that litter still makes me smile as it was so full of greatness that it was passed on to the next generation that I couldn’t believe it. Trying to explain the type and style to Mr Hartkemeier was very hard indeed , but I think and hope that I made that clear. The Champions were CH Boondox Quillan L and CH Boondox Quicksilver L ROMX and that last one was also a great producer as well and she was co-owned by me and Mr Hartkemeier. Her litter was amazing and produced a couple of ROMs in bitches and a male that also would have been a great producer, but we lost in a dog fight.
CH Boondox All Aglow L ROMX
I suppose I must say that this breeding came about because of my, I guess, feud with Hannelore who got so mad at me at the 84 DCA (where I won WD, WB, BW and BOS-V in Longhairs) that she started yelling at me and had to be led out of the building screaming at me and calling me names. It wasn’t pretty and even though all my winners at that DCA were sired by her dogs (and I told anyone who asked me that it was true), Hannelore never let me use her dogs again and so I was looking all this time for other great dogs to use just as PJ came along and PJ’s emergence as a Stud Dog actually helped me out as I was basically forced to use him as my Stud Dog owner had abandoned me. BTW, Hannelore and I never spoke after that. She really cut me off.
My last litter was an in-breeding when I bred Emma (a Gerolf/Lardi daughter) to CH Lostdog’s Black Bart L ROMO, a double grandson of Gerolf with two more crosses to Elite (Emma’s sister) and their sister, Zesabel. This was a pretty great litter as well and for our pick, I named him after the 5 Gaited Saddle Horse, Yorktown, because he had that outline I was looking for and he kept that growing up. He finished quickly and soon became another Top Producer, CH Boondox Yorktown L ROMX, for me and Mr Hartkemeier. His littermate, CH Boondox Yvette L, also became a Champion in a quick fashion.
CH Rose Farms Nathan v Boondox MW
Anyway, after seeing the success we were having as breeders, he asked if there were anything I might want so I said I would love to have a Miniature Wirehair puppy, and so we bought Rose Farms Yukon Jack MW from Dee. Finished him quickly (although we never got any pictures of him) and he became the sire of the Miniature Champions that we produced whose offspring are still winning down through Sheila Parish’s line.
CH Boondox Yorktown L ROMX
Mr Hartkemeier kept this up until the 90s and was always a big supporter of my Dachshunds. He never went to shows except those held in Cincinnati and he usually brought his family to see his Dachshunds. I always introduced him, but he did not like all the attention on himself even though he had no idea how much he helped me get my line going. He was a great guy who really loved the Dachshund breed and, IMO, he made it work.
A Yorktown daughter
Counting up all the Champions from Emma, PJ and all the P litter, Quicksilver and Yorktown, that was quite a list and he was very proud of all of them including the Miniatures. I am glad Robert Hartkemeier made a difference for me and the Dachshunds.