Dogs have been part of this Family for more years than I care to remember,
starting with a Rough collie x Golden retriever and followed by a GSD. x Labrador,
then two different GSD. x Golden retrievers.
These I worked in working trials and tracking events.
While living in the Netherlands, We were 'dogless' until I met the Hovawart breed at the WINNERS Show in Amsterdam. The Hovawart Club of Netherland helped us find, and buy, two black and gold (blk/gld) dogs, one dog Tobias van het Spinhuis, from Holland and one bitch Assi vom Öresund from Germany.
These were eventually brought to UK in 1979 and came out of quarantine in 1980.
They were the first of their breed in G.B. Since then, numbers have gradually increased both in my family and in the country. At the moment we own four one bitch
Minches Vega , black (blk). The boys are Minches Volker (blk), Pines Douglas of Minches (blk/gld) and his son Minches Odysseus (blk/gld).
They can be seen on my Minches Hovawart pages.
Anyone interested in this lovely breed is welcome to contact me for information in English. I would point out that many of the other sites also have translations and a lot of information.
I have now included a Scots Hovawart page!
My pedigree program has at the last count, 38,000 or more dogs in it. Updating this is a mammoth task as I am no typist, thanks must go to my friends abroad who provide stud books, old pedigrees and photos - Thanks Bernard and the late Margaretha Damfeldt and since I started adding Photographs all the wonderful people who put pictures up on their sites, a special mention has to go to Paivi Koskinen - she is a really good photographer!
All photos are credited to the 'owner' of the copy right if I know who it is.
In Britain the hovawart is judged to the K.C.STANDARD. It is still in the 'interim stage' and the Hovawart Club G.B and non-members, like myself, are still trying to get it nearer the German Standard!The German Hovawart Club have a wonderfully informative page, lots of photos, guest book and the latest addition a translated history!
The Hovawart is in the Working group, though I think it should be in the Pastoral. This will surely give us harder temperaments and much more guardy dogs! The working group in the UK is for guarding breeds not guard shepherds and I'm sure that was the function of the hovawart when Konig recreated them.
Character Test....
Hovawart hip Tests results....
Minches Hovawarts....
My Favourite Links....
Family....
Bill Inches
My Hovawart Photos & Friends....
Scots Hovawart Photos
Last update - Thursday, May 22, 2003