I was looking for a Toller with good temperament and working-abillities when I got in touch with Mia from Kennel Seawild and finally I can say Joker is really the dog I was looking for.
It´s quite hard to describe this wonderful dog, because there are almost no words which would live up to his character. Of course he is my first self-owned and trained dog, so that´s probably one reason why he is so special to me, but it is also his behaviour which makes him a special and exceptional dog to me! On the one hand he is quite an independant male while working who forgets about limits and rules now and then, but he does it in a really charming way, so you can´t take him seriously and usually it doesn´t take long until he remembers all of the rules etc. again. 
This is another reason which makes him so special, to my mind it seems as if he knew when he can take it easy and when he is supposed to do his job in an appropriate way. During our training lessons he is crazy and sometimes even ”foolish” so that I think we won´t pass the upcoming dummy/ hunt tests but at the test, however, he is totally different and does everything he is supposed to do right away. But it is also his boundless loyality which makes him so loveable. The most important thing which matters to Joker is that he is together with me…I guess he thinks the world was made for him and me only. I can hardly move from one room in another without Joker ( & of course Sadiki ) keeping an eye on me. It doesn´t matter where we are (train, hotel, airport etc.) as long as I tell him to relax he won´t care about other people, noises dogs, so Joker is a really pleasent companion.
Besides Joker ”introduced” me to the world of ”dog shows” and I´m deeply grateful that he did so! 
Although my first priority is still working with my dogs I really enjoy dog shows and to be honest I could not imagine having dogs without taking them to dog shows any more. When Joker came into my life he was actually supposed to be a ”working dog” only, but finally I took him to a show and it went well, the more success Joker had in the ring the more I liked this kind of ”sport” and the more I wanted to become a ”Professional”, so I spent (and still spend) a lot of hours reading about dog grooming, handling and training my dogs for shows! Of course I was thrilled when Joker qualified in 2007 for the world´s greatest dog show Crufts in 2008. Because of the fact that I got to like dog shows so much, many people think I won´t care about the working abilities of my dogs, but OF COURSE I still do! In my opinion the ”perfect” tollers (of course there are as many perfect dogs in the world as humans- none) are those which are able to make a good hunting/working companion as well as a good show dog, because having a show champion doesn´t mean heaving a bad working dog, these two things are not mutually exclusive. The contrary is the case! I firmly believe that a well built toller ( good substance, medium size and well angulated, nice, thick (but not too thick) coat makes a good working dog, because he brings along all of the ”things” a good working dog needs to do his job. Honestly I can´t understand why people think good working dogs need to be tall, slim and why those people don´t care about the phenotype at all. A good working and well built toller makes the toller a toller…to my mind you can´t neglet any of these two things, otherwise you´ll loose the toller´s characteristics sooner or later which would be a disgrace to the wonderful breed of toller! I could go on giving examples etc. but these things don´t belong here on Joker´s site, so I´ll stop here…in case I´m going to breed tollers you´ll probably read more about this topic…
Alexandra Westermann
owner of Seawild’s Taste Of Truth – Joker and
Seawild’s I’m A Game Getter – Sadiki
http://www.taste-of-truth.de
