Who are we?
Please allow us to introduce ourselfs.
We are Lucie Vos en Greg Sipsma and we live in Sittard Holland. This town is situated in the south of Holland in the region (state) Limburg and it's about a 10 minute drive to Belgium and also a 10 minute drive to Germany.
Our whole life we've been admires of the German Shepherd Dog en we own this dog not only because of his appearence, but certainly also because of the working abilities this breed is known for. The way we work with these dogs is known as dogsport or Shutzhund.
We are a member of the VDH . This is the Dutch breedclub for
German Shepherd Dogs and is related to the FCI and the SV . This breedclub
is the biggest in Holland and has got a few thousend members.
There is the opportunity for admirers of this breed to train their dog in several
disiplines. People able to train their dogs for shows where the dog gets a
confirmationrate.
We however prefer to train our dogs for trials. Within this part
of training you're able to work the German Shepherd Dog up to different kinds
of levels. Starting with the (becoming more important) B (Obedience on the
trainingfield and obedience in everyday situations) up untill the highest level
in Shutzhund SchH 3 (Protection dog). This last mentioned way of working means
training a dog in three different disciplines. These are TRACKING, OBEDIENCE
and PROTECTION.
If for one reason or another a handler/trainer isn't able to do all three parts
of this sport, there is a possibility to train every part seperately. For us
though, the COMPLETE training is THE CHALLENGE of training our German Shepherd
Dogs.
Lucie has been a member and doghandler within the VDH for more
than 30 years. As a handler she has never failed one exam or trial and has
trained several dog in the years that lay behind us. Not only dogs that she
owned, but also dogs from other owners. She's also attended a "helpers"- course.
She's been an instructor/trainer at several clubs for all the three parts of
dogtraining being tracking, obedience and protection. The past years she's
been the trainer of the Region Champion from 1988 thru 1992 and 1994 thru 1997.
In this period she has also helped/instructed several doghandlers to train
for different kinds of events they attended in Holland as well as abroard.
We're talking about The Nationals, The Dutch Clubteam Championships but also
The World Championships.
Greg
has been a member of the VDH since 1988 and is still active within dogsport.
For the last decade he's trained several dogs to the highest level in Shutzhund.
Also he succesfully completed a "helpers"-course in the beginning of the nineties.
Within the dogsport he became Region Champion with three different dogs. In
total he's accomplished this four times being the only one to achieve that
in this region.
Also he's been a competitor at The Nationals as well as the National Clubteam
Championships. Through the years he's competed at different trials in Holland
as well as abroard. Besides that and being a member of the board at our club,
he also does helperwork.
