My name is Marcus, and I am living in Salzburg, Austria. Since two years, we have a male Groenendael, named "Chagall". His official name is Sly-Nat du Chemin des Sorcières, and he is from Hungary.
I stumbled over this site during my search for web resources dedicated to Belgian Shepherds, which apparently are rare and difficult to find. I am very glad to have finally found a community of fans of the wonderful Belgians!
My wife is doing a lot of obedience and agility work with Chagall, and we would also be happy to find the opportunity doing some sheep herding as well. However, this is very difficult here in Austria, since there are barely any communities offering the facilities, trainers, and - last but not least - the sheep.
Herding is pretty much problem all over the world.. Here in Sweden there are clubs and there sure is enough sheep but the problem is when you call and say:
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me: Hi! I would like to do some hearding with my dogs. person on other side: "Great, prices are this and this you get this and this.." then a pause.. "You have a border collie right?" me: No, we have malinois and tervueren. person on other side: "Oh, sorry, we only accept border collies."
Strange if you ask me but so it is..
Anyway enjoy Belgians World.
Raven
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Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. ~Dandemis
Thank you very much for the welcome! I have posted a few pics of Chagall to the Gronendael gallery, and will add some others later.
Regarding herding: The funny thing is, that we once accompanied a friend and his Border Collie to a herding contest, and the people there were eager to do some work with Chagall, because they wanted to see how much of the original herding urge is left in the Gronendael. One of them, a former professional sheep herder in Eastern Germany, during the communist era. He observed Chagall a time, and then stated to be sure he has this talent.
However, those people and their sheep are living some twohundred kilometers away from us, so it is impossible to go there twice a week or so.
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