|
Our South African Bouvier des Flandres Story
Hello Xero. Our names are Babushka, Zeus and Cola. We
live in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with
our human mom Sonja and dad Bertie May. We are Bouvier
des Flandres dogs. Our family also
includes 10 year old Grandpa Moses who is a rescue
terrier x and Peanut our house cat.
About our Bouviers
Babushka and Zeus are rescue Bouviers. Their previous
owners did not want them any more.
We had already bought Cola as a puppy from a breeder in
Bloemfontein, South Africa. Hearing about
two Bouviers needing homes we added Babushka and Zeus to
our family. They had no training and were not in a good
condition. Soon they settled in with us, Cola, Grandpa
Moses and Peanut. They have all become a wonderful happy
pack and very much loved by my husband Bertie and I.
We had already started taking Cola to dog school since a
puppy to socialize her with other dogs. Babushka and
Zeus soon joined us on our weekly trips to the school.
They have all done their basic 6 week obedience course.
Seeing them doing so well and being talented dogs we
enrolled them for further disciplines i.e. higher levels
of obedience, CD, CGC, Protection work and CARTING.
Carting is what Loes has asked us to tell you about
|
 |
History of Carting in South Africa
We arrived at the dog school one Saturday morning
earlier than usual and saw all kinds of dogs pulling
carts. We were intrigued! Before I go on with our story
I just have to say, and I am sure anyone that owns a
Bouvier will know this; In World War I and II, Bouviers
were extensively used to help soldiers in many ways. One
of these were to cart medical, food and other supplies
to the soldiers in the trenches.
We borrowed a cart and harness from Joan Steward Dumbris,
the owner of the dog school and legend in the carting
world here. Under her watchful eye she taught me to
teach our dogs to pull a cart.
Now we will first give a little insight into the History
of Carting and Carting in South Africa. Large breed dogs
were the original draught dogs and they were used to
pull many different loads. Pictures going back to the
1870’s show the dogs carrying very heavy and enormous
loads, there is no way that we would allow our dogs
today to haul loads of this nature.
The hawker and his dog had tramped for many miles to
provide British soldiers with exration delicacies. The
soldiers proved appreciative customers, buying up the
whole stock. No doubt the dog received adequate praise
and tit-bits for its friendly services.
Carting was introduced into South Africa in 1988. After
much hard work carting became an official Kennel Union
of South Africa event. The first Transvaal Provincial
Council Dog Carting Sub-Committee was formed in November
1988 with the purpose of promoting carting.
In 1990 a St Bernard was awarded the first Dog Carting
Champion status. She was owned by Peter Ghavalos and was
a breed champion. Her name was Thorberg Anesta. The
first Carting Dogs in Port Elizabeth were the Steward-Dumbris’
Rottweilers Rhodies and Chumvi and Abel Esterhuysen’s
Rottweiler Samantha. Steward-Dumbris’ travelled to Cape
Town to take part in shows and find out more about
carting.
Mike and Joan Steward-Dumbris went to Cape Town in
September 1992 to take their Judges examinations and the
first Show in which Carting took place in Port Elizabeth
was the RCEP Show in October 1992 with Joan Judging. In
September 1993 a Carting Association was formed and this
was recognized as the Eastern Province and Border Dog
Carting Sub-committee. The first Port Elizabeth KUSA
NATIONAL DOG CARTING CHAMPION was Belgian Shepherd—Groendael,
Von Hamil’s Tsoko CD Ex handled and trained by Mick
Angell.
Draught dogs were also used by farmers to cart milk and
other products around the neighbourhood. They obviously
had to be strong dogs and be able to manoeuvre turns, go
over bridges, through gates and narrow areas, over all
sorts of rough terrain and accept any sort of
distraction such as chickens or rats running in front of
them while they were standing patiently waiting to be
off loaded or for their owners to service milk to a
customer.
Can you imagine your dogs having to carry the weights
these Dogs of War did? Modern carting dogs carried much
less weight and these were recently up dated and
effective April 2009 and our Carting dogs are not
allowed to carry more than half their weight and this
makes things much easier.
Our dogs are only allowed:
Mini Novice - 1 kg and not more than 3 kg
Mini Senior —2 kg and not more than 6 kg
Standard Novice -2 kg and not more than 9 kg
Senior Standard -5 kg and not more than 12 kg
|
|
Please realize the
history of carting is a summary of our Carting in Port
Elizabeth South Africa. The carting discipline is also
done in other cities in our country.
Teaching our Bouviers to Cart
Teaching our Bouvs to cart was not difficult. The tools
you need are love and patience. We taught our dogs with
positive re-enforcement. Using food as a reward. First
we put their harness on, rewarded and took it off. We
repeated this until the dogs were calm and happy to walk
with their harness. Then we walked behind them holding
onto the harness. Once the dogs were happy with this, we
let them pull a light object. Patience is the trick. If
the dog showed any signs of discomfort, unhappiness we
would start at the beginning again. Eventually we could
hitch them up to their cart. We also let them sleep next
to their carts, eat next to their carts, so the carts
became part of their home. Now all 3 of our Bouviers
pull carts happily. Even Grandpa Moses at the age of 9
years old learnt to pull his tiny cart. I cannot go into
all the teachings of this discipline as it would take
very long.
There are four main classes of carting dogs. Mini Novice
which are small dogs like Grandpa Moses. When the Mini
Novice dog has qualified in three Championship shows
with a score of 95% and higher they move up to Mini
Senior. The difference between the two is that in Mini
Novice your dog must be on lead when doing the obstacle
course set up by the judge. In Mini Senior class your
dog does the course without a lead and very few
commands.
|
|
The next two classes are Standard Novice and Senior
Standard. These are for the bigger dogs like
Cola, Zeus and Babushka. The same rules apply. Standard
Novice you keep your dog on the lead.
Once the dog has qualified in three Championship Shows
scoring 95% and more you move up toSenior Standard which means you may not use a lead on
your dog. Off lead the dog must follow
you through the carting course which can be made up of
gates, figures of eight, distractions like
food and many other obsticals.
In both Mini and Standard classes your
dogs are expected to do a 3 minute stand stay, back up,
recall, fast pace, normal pace and slow pace. In Novice
your dog may sit. Once you are in the
Senior classes sitting is not permitted.
Cola with load
Carting with your dog is great fun. It is also very
useful at home. I use my dogs to help me unload groceries when I get back from town, I use them when I
am in the garden to pull rubbish away. We
walk up to the store and cart our goods home. We give
rides to children. The dogs enjoy helping
and like all Bouviers love to work. Our carts have been
custom made. Carts can be bought very
easily in other countries. Here we have to make our
carts or import them. Carting is not a fast
discipline, it takes time and is very sociable.
|
|
Our Achievements
We have only been carting for two and a half years. Cola
is my first Bouv to start carting. She has qualified this year from Standard Novice up to Standard
Senior. I am so proud of her. Zeus and
Babushka are much younger in the discipline, meaning
that I have only started them carting less
than a year ago. They are both with Grandpa Moses in
novice class. They are looking forward like
Cola to qualify to the senior classes. Wish us luck, our
competition is tough and we are young to
the carting world.
We have enjoyed telling you part of our story and what
we do here in South Africa. It has been a
great journey with our beautiful Bouviers and we hope we
have inspired you all to try this fabulous
discipline with your dogs. We would love to keep you up
dated with our progress with a video or
two in the future.
Thank you Loes and Xero for inviting us to share our
Bouviers, Babushka, Zeus, Cola. Grandpa
Moses and Peanut the cat with you all. A big thank you
to Joan Steward Dumbris helping us with
information we needed. Fond Regards from South Africa.
 |
