The text below is a fragment (translation: Pauline van Vliet) from the book "Verkenningstochten in de Hondenwereld" (Reconnoitring into the World of Dogs) written by C.A. Kruis. The photograph, too, is from the book and belonged to the text. The book was published in 1948; the meeting with the shepherd would to my guess have taken place in the 'twenties, when Mr. Willemse from Drunen (who supposedly is meant by "Mr. W.") was a well-known breeder.
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On a few occasions, having gone into the countryside to
look for Dutch shepherds, I've had the pleasure of getting to know more of our
shepherd dogs' splendid qualities. In the Langstraat area (near Waalwijk,
province Noord-Brabant - translator's note) I once knew three flocks, of
which I'd like to tell something.
One of those, with 199 sheep, was led by a shepherd with a handsome short-haired
Dutch shepherd - a handsome working dog, that is. Show fanatics would be sure to
remark on his white chest-blaze and his kinky tail.
The second flock, of about 60 sheep, in likeness with the
first-mentioned grazing south of Drunen, was tended by a shepherd with a two
year old wire Belgian. This was an ugly-looking dog which did its job poorly. As
it was biting the sheep too viciously, its canines had been filed halfway down .
The third flock, numbering around 150 sheep, was tended
only by a gold brindle Dutch shepherd dog, a female; no human shepherd. Little
time as I had, I still could not refrain from going there for a minute. The dog
had lain down and remained in that position. When I had come as near as 30
meters distance, I saw its teeth flash and I heard it growl. Apart from that,
the dog kept quite calm.
I had arranged to go and visit the first-mentioned flock
together with my friend Mr. W., and I don't regret having spent a few hours
there! The flock was led by a shepherd with his gold brindle male Roland, who
did his work excellently even though he had only been in training for 6 months.
His master didn't give him any actual commands. He was talking to the dog,
rather than ordering him about. I had intentionally kept the shepherd talking,
who provided me with very interesting information about "full-bloodedness",
"in-breeding" and "training". Thus I had managed to create a distance of about
100 meters between shepherd and flock. Then I asked:"If you want to let the
flock come this way, can your dog do that alone?"
"Sure sir", was the answer, "turn". This last word, spoken
as it was in exactly the same way as the words before, was meant for the dog.
Roland proved to be very attentive. He immediately galloped off in the right
direction, went on until he had gone past the furthest sheep (which were a good
deal farther off than the main body of the flock), turned, and let the whole
flock turn around and go in the shepherd's direction within seconds. He did not
bite the sheep. Whenever a sheep behaved obstinately, Roland threw his body
against it - a method which every time proved successful.
Having thus executed the command, he returned to his
master (neither slowly nor overhasting himself), and on being told "again", at
once happily repeated the whole manoeuvre. Biting was not allowed.
In case the dog should bring the sheep together near the shepherd, he was
instructed to "get them". It was amazing to see how fast and efficient the dog
drove the whole flock together on a very small area, without any visible border,
quite close to the shepherd.
If the flock should march off in a certain direction, it
sufficed to say the word "drive" and the dog would be taking care of business.
Needless to say that Roland was very obedient in every
way, without a trace of hand-shyness.
I asked the shepherd how he started training the dog and was surprised to learn
that the man would be putting the dog, which would be on a long line, through
some exercises in the early morning, with about 10 to 12 sheep.
The shepherd said he liked the looks of Mr. W.'s dog, which was a well-known
show dog. Would he have this dog working with his flock? "No, because it isn't a
full-blood." How now, I thought. I decided to change the subject. "The dog
working Flock III over there - you know it?"
"Yes, sure."
"How's that one at work?"
"Good, but I wouldn't want that one."
"Why not?"
"Because it isn't full-blooded."
This baffled me. There was no doubt that that typical female could be anything
else but a Dutch shepherd dog. And I asked:"But what do you mean by
full-blooded?"
"Look here sir, that dog's father has never seen no sheep. That's different with
Roland - his father and his mother, his grandfather and his grandmother, have
all worked sheep, all of them. Roland is a full-blood and those are always
better. There have been people wanting to buy him; they've been bidding as much
as 100 guilders! That's a lot of money, but I wouldn't like to lose Roland. My
boss has swapped him for another dog, who wasn't much good, and paid f 12, 50 on
top of that. Before buying the dog, he has investigated all about its parents
and a lot more. That's important."
"That yellow dog of Flock II there, how's that one at work? Better than Roland?"
"No, the brindle ones are the best shepherd dogs."
"And the female near Waalwijk with Flock III?" "That's a good one. But not a
real one you know, it's not a full-blood. But that can be put right."
"How?" "With inbreeding."
Now this was getting interesting indeed. An old shepherd, who presumably never
had seen anything of the world else than a little piece of Langstraat, had first
endeavoured to explain the meaning of "full-blood" to me, and was now going to
hold forth on the theory of inbreeding.
"Look here, now. If you will mate that female to a full-blood, to Roland for
example, then there'll come young shepherd dogs out of that, and when those are
grown up you'll mate one of the females to her own father, to Roland again. The
litter that will come from that mating will be full-blooded good stock."
"And would one then be breeding on and on like that with Roland, or with another
male from that line?"
"No, - then you'll want to find another full-blood. Might well be you'll have to
travel a bit to find the right one."
Shepherds are said to be taciturn folk. In this case, too, it cost some effort
to get him talking, but the result exceeded my expectations. Which fancier of
our national shepherd dog wouldn't want to be taught the ins and outs of
shepherding by such an expert as Roland's master, leader of a flock of 199
sheep!