Hovawart history
Ombra
Ombra came to live with my husband Govert and myself when our son Marco was 6 and daughter Jirka was 4. Because Ombra was only 5 and a half weeks old, and to give her the comfort of a nest, she slept between us on our bed, and so a tremendous bond was created between us. We were building a new house at Drenthe, so Govert took her there to be trained, in the old fashioned way by Paul Scheurleer. Sadly, Ombra passed away at the age of 9, of bone cancer. She was beautiful and our real soulmate.
Babbel
Babbel came in October 1985, aged 7 weeks,to our home in Heenvliet. The Hovawart Club had started a Training Class at Maarn, near to the De Koeheuvel (‘Cowhill’) Restaurant. The trainer was Miss Trudy Trompetter who used the obedience method – very modern in those days.
We started at 10pm, sometimes not finishing until 3 or 4 hours later; by that time we needed a seat and something to eat, like buttercake and coffee; however, the theory we had learned was not forgotten. She taught us to think like a dog!
Hovawart owners came to Maarn from all over the country.
Pandoh
By the time Pandoh joined us in 1987, as a rescue dog, Babbel had started going out to Youth Winster. At our Club Match she was discovered to have 2 missing molars, M2 and M3, just a minor fault, but it did mean that she could not be bred from.
With Pandoh we did IPO training, which is a Police Course of Packwork, Trail Searching, and Obedience. We trained in Stellendam under Kees Aalders, a very good Instructor then, and now. Pandoh’s bite level was very high. He was a very special working dog. Pandoh and Babbel did the 20km bike exam. Both did well in the pouring rain and cold. We were all like drowned rats – dripping wet and freezing. We can still remember it!
Pandoh mated a black and tan bitch in Belgium owned by Miss Inge Overmeire.
He lived until 11, and died, like Ombra, from bone cancer.
Astra
From an unplanned mating to Pandoh, Babbel gave birth to 9 puppies, which were sold to their new owners with a contract stating that they must agree to x-ray the dogs for Hip Displasia at age 2. As an encouragement, they were told that, on receipt of the result from our Hirschfeld Foundation, I would pay them 100 guilders. I felt it was important that every puppy in the litter was x-rayed to evaluate the breeding combination. My idea was later adopted by and is now a rule of, our Hovawart Club.
From the litter we kept a blonde and tan bitch, Astra. In 1992, she became very ill and had to spend 2 weeks in intensive care suffering from a very serious loss of muscle in her head and gullet. On the advice of Miss ME Peters who did the surgery, we let her go. We took her home to Drenthe and buried her here. All my beloved Hovawarts are buried here, near me.
Next we had a sad experience with Sadik, a black and tan dog bred under the auspicies of the Hovawart Club. Sadik was such an excellent guard dog that he prevented even our neighbours coming to our house, so, we had to place him where he was always under strict control.
Vicky
After some months, a daughter of our Pandoh had a litter in Belgium, so Vicky, a grand daughter of our Pandoh came to Drenthe. With Vicky we went to Austria to do a course on Snow Victim Training – or Search and Rescue as it is now called. That was very educational!
On one afternoon of the course, while my friend Els and I were studying theory, Vicky and her canine room mate became bored . They climbed out of an open window in our room onto the roof of the Hotel and went for a stroll! We were embarrassed to admit that they belonged to us!
Vicky was quite a character! She passed away on 29.10.2009, of cancer of the reproductive organs.
Babka
Vicky was, in all aspects, a good Hovawart: eyes, hips, and of excellent temperament. She fitted the standard for conformation and type and passed a ‘behaviour plus’ test. The ‘plus’ is for gunshot reaction. We mated her to a dog in Hanover and she had 5 puppies. We kept Babka.
With Babka we did no training at all but let Mother Nature do the work. She was a very sociable and lovely bitch, but had not the stability of character we look for in the breed. At the age of 10 we had to let her go with bone cancer. She was our last Hovawart. So we have no more big dogs around at Trusties………our age dictates that now. It is really a miss, I can assure you.