Western Europe Working Australian Shepherd Club - Board

We live on a small farm near Aschaffenburg, half an hour south of Frankfurt. Here, we breed Charolais cattle, Merino sheep and we train western horses.   Our Aussies accompany us the whole day. They are good watchdogs and they help us to bring the cattle and sheep to the different pastures throughout the summers.  Near relatives of our dogs are working on ranches in the US and/or are top dogs in the herding trials of ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America).

Our first Aussie "Leo" started our interest in herding dogs. He could always bring back the run away cattle, all without training. After we learned, that there are only few working Aussies in Germany, especially males, we decided to import some ourselves.  Now we have two males (Solo and Rufus), four females (May, Yuma, Page and Rose), one neutered male (Leo)  and one spayed female (Junie).

We especially want the cattle breeders to recognize the usefulness of a working dog.  What we find fascinating about the Aussies is their ability to be  "normal" dogs most of the time and only when there is really something to do, they turn into working dogs.  Our dogs are not working the whole day from morning till evening. Most of the work that has to be done on our farm is not herding sheep or cattle. But they are with us all the time!

J J Ranch is located in the northern part of Holland. It is a small ranch with horses, sheep, ducks and lots of other animals.  We are also owned by 9 Australian Shepherds, a Catahoula and a Terrier mix.  All this started back in the 1990´s, when we still lived in the US. On the ranch where Anneke worked, there was an Australian Shepherd. She helped out bringing in the horses and was also a great security and watchdog. We fell in love with the breed then.

We asked around about breeders and found Pincie Creek Farms.  At Pincie Creek they were very helpful about answering our questions about this great breed. As it turned out, Pincie Creek was one of the top performance producers in the country. They had dogs ranked in the top 10 in herding. 

We moved back to Holland in 1994 with our first Aussie "Pincie Creek Red Bear" (Reba). This dog was more than we hoped for. Very smart, very friendly and a big clown. We started to ask around in Holland if there were any working males for her to breed with, but nobody worked sheep or cattle with their Aussies.

So, we asked Pincie Creek about a nice male. Roger told us about Cowboy. This black male was already 6 moths old and Roger intended to keep him for himself. We told him about the problems of finding a good male and he agreed that we could have him. To get more working dogs to Europe, we also imported "Pincie Creek Lightfoot Sis" in 2000. Sis was bred to one of Pincie Creek´s males named "Justus McCain of Pincie Creek" 

We are glad that the Aussie is now getting more recognized as a working dog, they are the best! 

Secretary: Georg Vater Waldweg 22 38176 Wendeburg GERMANY phone: +49-5303 4002 fax: +49 5303 990403 email: Secretary@wewasc.com

My wife Astrid and I are living in northern Germany near the city Braunschweig in a rural environment. In 2002 our first Aussie (Wynja) joined us. This decision was influenced by the intelligence, the working ability and the demands an Aussie request from its people. So it is no wonder that in 2003 Joycie enriched our pack.

First herding seminars in 2003 and 2004 and a clinic and trial with Wally Butler in 2005 took us to apply at least for WEWASC membership. Meanwhile own sheep allow us engage our dogs at home.

I would like to help giving the Aussie, even in European regions, the possibility to live and act in a natural way and to ensure that this disposition will not get lost.

In 2001, Dieter and I bought our first Australian Shepherd bitch, Pepper. At that time we knew, of course, that Australian Shepherds are herding dogs, but we had no further clue about it all. In 2002 we bought an old farm house in Wendenborstel, Germany with enough graze land for our Western horses and we bought our second Aussie, my male, Zach. At that time we already became addicted to Australian Shepherds and to the herding game. In 2004 and 2005 we bought 2 further Aussies, sheep and ducks, so that our human and animal "family" today consists of Dieter and me, 1 Quarter Horse, 1 Appaloosa, 4 Australian Shepherds, 1 Jack Russell Terrier, 1 tomcat, 4 budgerigars, 5 sheep and 30 Indian Runner mixes. In August 2005 we organized our first herding seminar and trial with an American judge and although this was a lot of work, time and money that we personally put into this event (as everyone, who organizes seminars and trials) it was nice and enjoyable to have so many nice people and friends around, who have the same strange interest in this "herding thing".

Past Board of Directors 2007: 

• Sandra Zilch (President)

• Anneke de Jong (Vice President)

• Anneke de Jong (Affiliate Representative)

• Carola Hilkerbäumer (Treasurer)

• Georg Vater (Secretary)

Past Board of Directors 2005: 

• Sandra Zilch (President)

• Sandra Lippert (Vice President)

• Anneke de Jong (Affiliate Representative)

• Joost Boer (Treasurer)

• Beatrice Frey (Secretary)

Past Board of Directors 2003: 

• Burkhard Krause (President)

• Sandra Zilch (Vice President)

• Anneke de Jong (Affiliate Representative)

• Joost Boer (Treasurer)

• Dagmar Lindemann (Secretary)

Past Board of Directors 2002: 

• Maarten Walter (President)

• Burkhard Krause (Vice President)

• Lena Stangvik  (Affiliate Representative)

• Joost Boer (Treasurer)

• Dagmar Lindemann (Secretary)

Maarten Walter (l), Malpaso Australian Shepherds