About Flamewood Kennel and how it started 1988
My name is Zeljko Vasiljevic. I live in Rijeka/Croatia. And I am the owner of Amstaff Kennel Flamewood.
My life with dogs started long before my work in breding department. As a child a had mixed breed dogs, that I was growing up with. In my teens I fell in love with the AmStaff's.Back in the 80ties they wore not a well known breed. When I got my first AmStaff Arma in '88 she was the first American Staffordshire Terrier in my city, and one of the few in my country..
People didn't know much about the breed.. Arma had for that time a very good pedigree. Some of the dogs from her pedigree wore X-Pert's & Ruffian's although she also had some of the other "old lines" in her pedigree. Arma was initialy my pet, I spent my every free moment with her, and was runing home from school because of her.
I had two litters with Arma, and that is how the idea of becaming a breeder was born. Arma gave me some very good pups.
But studying the breed I had already set my golds elsewhere. After trying to breed on the so called "old lines" at that time available in Europa, I come to the conclusion that we – the owners and breeders - are all going around in a big circle, having and getting out dogs with the same flaws and with the same virtues.
The "old lines" in those days had a lot "stronger" temperament than today, those wore different times and they wore fairly rough.
The gene pool was very limited… So I made my first official steps and contacted some of the USA breeders. One of the breeders that saw my potential was the late Marsha Wood from Woodforest kennel. I was comunicating with her, and waited for 2 years until she had the combination that I liked.
And in 1994 by importing the pick of the litter CH Wood Forest EZ Dragons Flame a.k.a. Penn the Flamewood story began.
Obviously I got the name for my kennel out of Woods line and Flame out of my Penn's pedigree name.
The kennel was officially registered in 1995 under the FCI organisation. My first official litter under the Flamewood prefix was born in '96. It was the litter of ch Woods Forest EZ Chancer "R" & ch Woodorest EZ Dragons Flame. The famos "R" litter made a huge impact on a lot of Europian kennels and wrot a whole chapture in Am Staf history in Europa!
My breding aims in general are quality over quantity. I have 3 golden rules in breeding – health, temperment and soundnes. Giving a lot of attention to the pedigree's and the dogs in the backgrount of both of the parents.
My females never have more than 3 litters in there life, all liveing a pet life with daily walks, exercise and playtimes. Many of my co-owned females wore never breed.
The process of choosin a stud for each of my females lasts for months. Each potential stud is carefully studied. If I don't find the right stud for my female, and a stud that does not fit in my future breeding program. The breding does not hapen. Do to that many of my females wore bred at the age of 3-4 years for the first time.. And the period betwen the litters is usualy 1'5-2 years.
However this kind of breeding policy payed of. In only about a dozen litters I had bred many oficial champions, and some that wore showned very limited if at all, but had proven them self as great producers by giving out some well balanced ofsprings. In my breeding policy they are also my personal champions…
You can see all of them on this new and updated web site!