ФОРУМ ЛЮБИТЕЛЕЙ КОЛЛИ И ШЕЛТИ

My name is Harald Steinmetz; I was born in the town of Nordhausen on September 23, 1951.

Nordhausen, being an over 1000 year old town in the state of Thuringia, located in the center of Germany.

At the age of two in 1953, my parents and I fled from the eastern part of Germany to West Germany.

Already from a young age of five on, I took interest in dogs.

Being the only stranger his dogs would accept, I took the German Shepards of our neighbour for a daily walk and, whenever I could, took part in their particular training.

As time went by, I got to know more about the herding work of the Shepards as well, and my interest in pastoral dogs arose.

In 1965, at the age of 14, together with my parents, I immigrated to Adelaide, South Australia.

The father of one of my Australian high school mates had a farm and from there on I got into contact with Australian Cattle Dogs, Border Collies and – I did not know it then – my favorite breed, the Rough Collie. Of course not of the type we see on shows today, but they were really good working dogs, and even today I am still fascinated by their herding ability they had at that time.

In 1970 I had to return to Germany due to an illness my mother suffered from. Fortunately, before we left, I could finish high school in Australia so I could start my working career when I got back.

But the first thing on my return that happened was that the German army got a hold of me. So I went to the German army for the obligatory time.

When I had done my time, something beautiful happened: I got to know my wife, to which I am married for over 42 years now.

She was the one, that brought back that dog enthusiasm in me, when she decided in 1985 to give our daughter a dog for her tenth Birthday as a present, and believe it or not, it was to be a Rough Collie bitch.

She was not much of a show dog, but a very nice playmate for our daughter. But from that day on, we went to dog shows and were infected by that “virus”, wanting to have, or better even breed ourselves, Collies of the quality we had seen on so many shows throughout Germany and Europe.

So my wife decided in 1987, that we should join die Club für Britische Hütehunde e.V. (Club of British Herding dogs) to be able to breed Collies within die VDH (German Kennel Club).

Under the registered Kennel name “Golden Game” starting on the British lines of “Bretton Park Collies”, we from there on were very successful in breeding many national and international Rough Collie champions, whose offspring, even today are very successful in Great Britain and on the European Continent.

In the beginning of the nineties I then decided to become a judge for Collies (rough and smooth). Being a member of a Club of eight pastoral breeds I past the exams for all our eight breeds in 1993 to be an international judge of all herding dogs of our Club:

Border Collies, Bearded Collies, Bobtails (Old English Sheepdogs), Collies (Rough and Smooth), Shetland Sheepdogs, Welsh Corgis (Cardigan and Pembroke).

The British Kennel Club has also put me on the A-list for Collies (rough and smooth).

Meanwhile I am a member of the Board of our Club and Umpire of our judges, right now qualifying new apprentices so that they also become judges of our Club and the VDH, thus a finally also being able to judge all eight breeds on an international level.

During my work within the Club and the VDH since 1987 I also organized numerous dog shows and was able to receive the following awards:

Badge of Honor in gold with wreath (Club of British Herding dogs)
Badge of Honor in gold (VDH)

В общем, очередной раз доказано, что не должны выставки такого уровня судить оллраундеры.