I live together with my friend, Rüdiger, in our own farmhouse in Kammersdorf, which is located in the north eastern part of lower Austria. A lot of animals live with us too, you can find them here. Besides studying Geodesy, I attend an eveningschool for becoming a Waldorf teachers. I earn my and my animals living by working part time. Once a week I visit honorary a school for physically and mentally retarded children in Vienna with my two dogs, Dapi and Rica and Rüdiger's Cat, Aladin. Both dogs a tested therapy dogs. And the same two are trained to become Search And Rescue dogs at the Austrian Red Cross, Vienna.
On the search for the
"perfect" SAR dog, I studied books about breed standards, visited breeders of
different breeds, and browsed the Internet. The Aussie had never come to mind. The Border
Collie certainly, as well as the Labrator Retreiver and the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling
Retriever, but what was furthermost important for me, that the dogs is also a family dog.
On the one hand I don't want to be worried that I cannot fully occupy the dog and on
the other hand I don't want to be in fear of putting too much physical stress on the young dog
within the first
year, just to prevent the common hip displasy.
At that time Dapi was a tested wilderness SAR dog, but due to his fur was not 100% ready
for action. On the rubbles he was quite good, but the usual searches in the eastern part of
Austria are wilderness searches. The desire to have a second dog who could
be used for Wilderness search came to mind. So first a family pet and then a weather
proof coat and many other different factors, eg.: hereditary diseases, rearing, ... .
During an international
disaster training a man came to visit us (I did not know him) purely accidental, who
told me about their dog who had gotten 10 puppies the other day. At that time I did not think
of anything at all. Three weeks later a friend asked my why I don't consider an Australian
Shepherd as my second dog. I said that I only know one and that one I don't like because of
her conformation as well as from her gait. (family
pets are for the sight as well as for the soul). I called them and off we went.
I remember one now, which I got to know with the Iclandics, but thats quite long ago, and at that time, I did not even had Dapi!!! 31.7.2001
Now you can probably think of who it was, click here, and so we discovered the love towards Aussies. Rica grew each day and each day brought me closer to the breed Australian Shepherd. No matter what I did with her, she just did it perfectly. With eleven months she was the youngest in Europe to succeed in both legs of the herding capability test - sheep, first place at a puppy competition (consisting of obedience, agility, "jump" and slalom race, certainly done for puppies without jumps), Therapy dog, SAR dog, going be chair lift, accompanying my biking, my riding, mountaineering, and and and ....
I showed Rica just for fun, but as she got good results I wanted to do more and now Rica is Austrian Youth Champion. To promote the breed Australian Shepherd we want to breed under the regulations of the ASA. Although Rica doesn't contribute much new genes for Austria, she will contribute a tremendous desire to work and to herd and her soundness (HD A1 equivalent to OFA Excellent, and Eyes Checked annually: and found to befree). Therefore the choice of the right sire is our most difficult but most important aim. The sire should be sound too, and through him the genetic pool should be enlargened for Austria. Rica is more the working style Aussie, so the sire doesn't have to be a workaholic, more important for me is that he has not sired a girl in Austria (or at least no more than one), and he will probably not be used for the Austrian breeding programm again. For that reason we travel quite far, just to get to know the sire's character before Rica is even in her season.
We have a second girl now,
but right now she takes all of her effort in becoming a grown up Aussie and when she is
two and everything is ok (soundness, showing, working title), then I want to breed with
her too. She (her genes) are not very common in Europe.
She is just an Aussie and such a lovely one, that all of the drudgeries (this is a word I
looked up) of the import was worth it.
I want to thank Crystal that she had also a lot of problems to solve on the other side of the Atlantic and for showing her on two shows already.