      
About Us
This is our family!
Auke & Mirjam Hofman
with children Patrick, Michael & Jessica
All about us:
We are located in Linden, Alberta, Canada.
Linden is a small town one hour Northeast of Calgary.
We live on an acreage and own a chicken farm for breeding eggs.
We imported two Appenzeller Mountain dog puppies. They arrived on our farm July 10, 2008.
Quinn vom Felsengarten is from Germany and Linda von der Schafegg is from Switzerland.
We have been around dogs all our lives but the love of the Appenzellers started in the Netherlands when my husband's family received an Appenzeller X female from an uncle.
They named her Layda. Layda was the best dog they have ever had!
Layda was the most loving and sweetest dog. She was great with Auke and his brothers.
Layda never left the children by themselves and followed them wherever they went.
Layda helped my father in law with the chores in the chicken barns.
She would pick up the dead chickens and hand them over to him.
She always stayed close and came along wherever you would go.
Whether you were hanging laundry or doing garden work, She would always be there.
My husband Auke just loved Layda and always dreamed of getting an Appenzeller.
Auke and myself both grew up in the Netherlands.
Auke purchased a broiler breeder farm in my hometown in the Netherlands and that is where we met.
We both loved dogs, and Auke told me all about the Appenzellers. I wasn’t very familiar with them at that time but had read about them in dog books.
We talked about it and with some reading we decided to buy a purebred Appenzeller from the south part of the Netherlands (Brabant).
We bought a male puppy and called him Layda (after the other Appenzeller).
I went to puppy classes with him and also to obedience classes.
We got married a year later and farmed for 1 year together. We then decided to move to Canada and we immigrated in December of 1996.
Of course we took Layda too!
We bought a broiler breeder farm once again.
A lot of neighbors asked about Layda. They wanted to know more about him, because he was such a friendly and beautiful dog.
After two years we became first time parents of our son Patrick. Of course at first we were careful with Patrick around Layda, but Layda totally accepted Patrick as a family member. When Patrick started walking Layda never left Patrick alone even if he was in the sandbox or went walking in the yard.
Layda died at an age of 13 years. We all missed him very much, so we decided to import two papered Appenzeller Mountaindogs out of Europe, since there are no other breeders in Canada and only one in the United States.
A dog is a friend for life.
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