Holland's Henny Frans and her ACDs

By Michelle Weese

Henny Frans and her husband Ed live in the Netherlands. They have two Australian Cattle Dogs, Trouble and Joy. Their three Border Collies are named Drift, Leary and Luca. Rounding out the pack is Donna, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, who excels in agility. They have about 120 head of sheep for training their herding dogs. I spoke with Henny for several hours on the phone gathering information for this interview. She speaks flawless English, but then, I shouldn't be surprised, as I learned that her husband Ed is from England !!
Visit their web sites:

www.cattledognetherlands.com or www.bordercollienederland.com

This is Henny Frans with Joy (left) & Trouble (right)

Michelle: ''How did you become involved in Australian Cattle Dogs ??''

Henny: We have had Australian Cattle Dogs for nine years now. Teaser was our first rescue Australian Cattle Dog and he is responsible for our love for this special breed. Teaser van 3,5 years old when he came to live with us. The previous owner had abused Teaser and just wanted to get rid of him. In Holland, if you turn your dog into the Animal Shelter, you have to pay $ 100.

He had been locked away from the world, beaten and everything you can do wrong with a dog was done with poor Teaser. He was fearful of people and was also Dog Aggressive. It took me a year to reeducate him. Teaser was a very uptight dog. We would take him for bike rides and for 15 miles! When we came home, he was not tired at all !! The dog was missing something. He needed the herding. That is why I became involved in herding.

Teaser: December 26, 1990 - March 30, 2000

To give him ''THE'' something he needed. Teaser was an imported dog from the USA, from Helen Blankers at Silver Hills Kennels.
I will never forget Teaser and all his funny habits, like herding me to the phone when it was ringing. This big boy was a great working dog and when I look at Trouble, his daughter, I know he is still with me.

Michelle: ''tell me about Trouble and how you learned to train herding dogs''

Henny: Trouble is a 4 year old daughter of Teaser. Trouble's mother is called Bumper. Trouble came to live with us when she was 8,5 weeks old. She was 1,5 years old when she started her training on stock.

In the Netherlands working with Australian Cattle Dogs is difficult because we can't find the trainers who know the breed. We have about 150 Australian Cattle Dogs here and only a few people are really working with their dogs.

Larry and Marilyn Painter where visiting the Netherlands to give a Herding Clinic and we entered all our Cattle Dogs to this Clinic.. I had no idea how Trouble's herding instinct was or if it was there at all. I was amazed to see my dogs work under the guidance of Larry. The second problem was me: I saw livestock before but never worked with a dog and livestock.

A few months later, Trouble and I went to visit Larry and Marilyn in America and that is the place to be when you want to learn how to work with your Cattle Dog and livestock.
We trained on goats and cattle. Trouble and I both learned a lot the month we were there. Trouble is still progressing in her herding and it is really fun to work with her. Her outrun is not the same like the one of a Border Collie but that is why she is an Australian Cattle Dog. It really took some time to learn her not to take the shortest way, but now I can say my Australian Cattle Dog does have an outrun !!!, Yes herding is fun !!

Trouble when she was 2 years old facing a goat. It was taken at Larry Painters farm when Henny was there learning to train a stockdog. Notice that Trouble's tail is down and she's thinking. She means serious business with this goat, but is giving it a chance to back off.

Michelle: '' How did Trouble get her name ?''

Henny: Trouble has quite a temperament !
She is not dog/human aggressivebut don't challenge her, she will go through a brick wall for me. She is very loyal and protective. I already noticed her temperament the minute I saw her being born. She was the one, growing as fast she could, always the one in front and sometimes bullying her sisters and brother:-)
Because of her temperament I called her Trouble, if there is something going on, especially now at the moment with two Border Collie pups in the home during the evening, you can bet Trouble is also involved.

Trouble is the one educating the pups on being social and living in a pack and for the positive things I can live with it, but there are some negative things too:-)) like she is opening doors of the bedroom, bathroom etc. She is the one running around with toilet paper, sock and everything she can find and the pups like this game very much !!!!!!!

Pedigree name: Cowcockycattle's Blue Trouble (Trouble)

Born: September 10, 1996

Trained in: herding, agility and obedience

Sire: Silver Hills Blue Raider (Teaser)

Dam: A-Sherry von der Ziegelhutte (Bumper)

Michelle: Where did you get Joy, your red ACD?

Henny: I bought her in Germany. Her Father is an Australian conformation dog. Her mother is an American bred dog from working lines. I got her when she was 3 months old at a Cattle Dog Meeting.

She is our ''little red devil'' like I always call her. Well, she is not really a little dog in size, but Joy has the habit of making us feel like fools, because when we think she will react this way, she reacts different!! Every time she can astonish me in everything she does.

Like all my dogs, Joy is very obedient but there is an angle, sometimes you sense ''something'', that she is pushing the limit very hard and when she puts up her face of arrogance, the only thing to survive is, be very consistent!!

This girl with her ''teddy bear'' appearance is a pleasure to work with, she has a straight character but she is a real challenge. Joy can be a real ''wolf in sheep clothes''. She is not the gripping type of dog but when a sheep or cow wants trouble, they can get it ! She was introduced to livestock on the age of 3 years old. At first she was looking at the sheep like, yes, sheep so ????????? This is like the way Joy is, always watching and waiting and deciding if something is worth the trouble:-))

Well, she decided it was worth the trouble and over the last two years she developed as a nice working dog with a will of her own and a natural power over the livestock. Somehow, it is strange that no sheep really challenge her, maybe they know they will be in real trouble if they do!!

Pedigree name: Jumpin Jokers Arin (Joy)

BOS ACD Clubmatch 1998

Born: May 28, 1995

Trained in: herding, agility and obedience

Sire: CH. Landmaster U Show Themhow

Dam: Rawhides Momo Naomi

Michelle: Describe how your dogs work their stock. Do they grip a lot ??

Henny: They are loose-eyed, upstanding dogs. They are silent workers; no barking. My dogs only grip if they need to. Joy has a lot of natural power....doesn't have the eye of the Border Collie , but she looks at them a certain way and they turn their heads and go away. Trouble has something of the Border Collie style, sometimes she really goes very low when she's working. Joy is not the gripping type of dog only when it is really necessary and I Trouble working very stylish never had to put a command on her to grip, she is doing it naturally but like I say, only when necessary. Trouble was more a gripping dog, not mean, but in her beginners days when she had not too much confidence and she had to learn something new, sometimes she started to grip. This gripping is all over now and both my dogs grip on the nose of the livestock when needed.
Joy has more patience with the livestock than Trouble has. They both get the job done, but when I'm in a hurry, for instance to get the livestock into the pen, I take Trouble with me:-))

Trouble working showing style and eye

They can work both very nice with young lambs, Joy almost nurses them and Trouble, despite her temper, never looses it with you lambs.
Most of the time we use Joy to gather the sheep out of the thickets and bushes, which are on the land. She really likes this and she always comes back with all the sheep ! I use Trouble on the open field. She does not have to see the livestock, she searches for it and her outrun is better than Joy's is.

Joy works Ewes and Lambs

Michelle: Did you put a lot of obedience on them before starting their herding training ?

Henny: No not a lot of obedience. Sit, stay, down and stand. No fancy stuff......no real heeling. They know to stay behind me until I release them, then they go run and play. Most of the time when they loose their wild hairs.....in about 5 minutes, they come back to me automatically. When I do walk them on a leash, I don't allow the leash to get tight. The dogs know their place.

Michelle: I have found ACDs to be down right stubborn. Do you find them hard to train ?

Henny: the ACD is not just a dog, they have a very strong personality and as a ''boss'' you need to earn their respect. ACDs are independent thinkers and if you want a ''Non-Questioning, instant response to orders at all times dog'', this is not the breed for you. When you want to teach an ACD something new and it isn't working, just quit and go onto something else. Try something they know and come back to the new exercise later. Don't put a lot of pressure on ACDs. They are stubborn and when you put too much pressure on them, they will quit you !!.

Michelle: How are ACDs used in Holland ? Are they worked on farms ?

Henny: There aren't many working ACDs in Holland. Mainly, Border Collies are used on farms. There are only about 150 ACDs in my country. I want to keep it that way:-))

Michelle: Why ?

Henny: Well, they can be difficult dogs. They have many positive things inside them. They have a lot of guts, BUT, they need guidance. ACDs need a firm hand and a boss all the time. They aren't for everybody............

Michelle: Do you enter trials with your ACDs ?

Henny: It is difficult to trial the ACD, because all the trials are put on by the Border Collie club. No ACDs are allowed.

Michelle: Why ?

Henny: Well, here in Holland, the Border Collie people, I'm sorry to say, some of them are a bunch of snobs. They think the Border Collie is the only working dog in the whole wide world.

Michelle: Have you ever been refused an entry ?

Henny: Yes, several times. They said it was because she isn't a Border Collie. I agreed with them, but they wouldn't let me enter.

Michelle: Do you have livestock guardian dogs with your sheep ?

Henny: Yes, but we use specially trained Border Collies for this work. When a strange dog is killing sheep, we go live with the flock. We take a Border Collie who is trained to chase the stray dogs to us on command.

Michelle: What do you do with them once you catch them ?

Henny: We use a stick with a rope on it. We try to get in contact with the owner to get him to pay for the dead sheep. If we can't find an owner, we take them to the shelter. It is a no kill shelter. We aren't allowed to shoot or kill a stray dog with any method.

Michelle: Does that man you aren't allowed to have a Great Pyrenees with the flock ?

Henny: We can have them, but they aren't allowed to kill another dog.

Michelle: What do you do about Wolves and Coyotes ??

Henny: We only have them in Zoos :-))

Drift-Border Collie

Michelle: You also have Border Collies, why the two radically different breeds ?

Henny: To be honest I never had the intention of buying a Border Collie. I trained Border Collies for several years in agility and I think, maybe I saw some bad examples of this breed. They were nervous, neurotic and very submissive and this is not the kind of dog for me.

At that moment we were training our ACDs with John Jansen, a Border Collie breeder and herding instructor. He had a litter of Border Collies.

I saw them grow up and they were nice puppies and one thing that struck me is that his dogs are not nervous, neurotic or submissive.

Drift fetching the flock

His adult dogs are great workers and they have proven their herding abilities on trails and in daily work.
John mentioned to me: ''Henny, buy yourself a Border Collie and you can learn a lot from this breed also.'' For three months my answer was, ''NO'' !

On a Friday morning John asked me again. He showed Drift to me, 5 months old, a red/white/tan Border Collie male. I really liked this boy and John worked him for a few minutes on sheep to show something of him.''Henny'' he said: ''this is your type of dog, eager to work, eager to learn, a bit stubborn and a mind of his own''. We had the agreement that when I could not work with Drift he would go back to John. Well, he never did! !!!

From left to right: Joy, Drift, Leary, Donna, Luca and Trouble

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Holland's Henny Frans

Donna jumping

By Michelle Weese

Michelle: Tell me about Donna and the Agility training you do.

Henny: Donna is the sunshine in my life !! she is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier of almost eight years old. Donna is a real agility nut ! Put her in the front of a start and she will go !! This love for agility makes her a ''top dog''Donna and I started agility when she was a year old. After one year of hard training and a lot of support of my trainer we were ready for agility competitions.Now we were ready to learn from our experiences. It was a long and sometimes hard way. We are both stubborn most of the time and place Donna winging her way through an Agility course two stubborn females in a ring, well what do you get ? Exactly !! Fireworks !!! We had to grow together and work very hard to be a team. I had to learn to know and read my dog and most of all I had to control my nerves.
When Donna reached the age of four years she was competing in agility ''top class'' ! So what do people mean when they say: ''You don't have a dog who can learn/compete in agility''. I believe Donna proved different and I know for sure she is not an exception. Donna competed at the Dutch Agility Championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Only the first 30 dogs of the season will compete here and at all the Championships she ended with the first 10 dogs. She also competed at the Royal Canine Agility Masters in 1997 and reached 2nd place at the course with the contacts.

In 1999 Donna was badly injured at a agility trial, she fell of the dog walk and injured her shoulder. This injury is cured now but when I train agility with her she still limps just a little bit.
So I decided to quit agility training and trials because the health of my girl is everything to me.

Im proud at the trophy's (54) she has won and believe me it was a hard competition. After all Donna was the first Staffordshire Bull Terrier in the Netherlands who competed at such a high level for many years.

Michelle: Do you have any problems between Donna and your other dogs ?
Henny: Joy and Trouble came to live with us when they were pups and Donna, like an alpha bitch does, educated them in the proper way. Joy and Trouble are full grown bitches now, but they still respect the rules of Donna like it should be. It is a joy to see that different breeds can live together in harmony when they have proper guidance.

The ACD can be a very explosive dog, but Donna understands the behavior of the ACD so well, and vice versa, that they are great together !!

Michelle: You also do some agility with your ACDs. How did they take to that ?

This is Trouble in the weave poles

Henny: Trouble and I didn't compete very long in agility together. In the A class (lowest class) we needed 3 times excellent and we got 3 times excellent in only four trials.

But she is even better in herding and I decided to stop with agility because the lack of time and as you know to train a dog in herding also takes a lot of training hours.

Ed competed in agility with Joy one year longer and she was really good. She promoted to the next class in only 5 agility trials where other dogs needed 10 agility trials. But the same story because of the lack of time we stopped the agility and now she is a full time herding dog :-))

Joy working her way through the weave poles

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What do you need to train an Australian Cattle Dog for herding ???

By Henny Frans, Holland

A dog who is interested in livestock, a rope, a rake, a round pen, dogbroke sheep and a reliable down. This is no wisdom of myself but the wisdom of Larry Painter who I visited 2 years ago for a whole month to train Trouble my blue ACD.
When you start your dog in a round pen on a rope you are fully in control of your dog and you are able to protect your livestock if necessary.

Trouble showing ''eye''

The rake you use for blocking your dog when it goes for the legs of the livestock (gripping), never hit your dog with it !!
The rake is an extension of your arm. Always push the dog ''out'' to the fence of the pen. When the dog is settled and the chasing part is over you can start sending the dog towards the sheep by pushing it out, always send your dog to the head of the livestock, the livestock will turn and send your dog around and let the dog bring the livestock.

Trouble working in the round pen

When this is going alright you can go the square pen. Same setup only the pen is bigger and you can start giving some commands like ''away'' and ''come bye''.
Make sure the dog stays at the fence by pushing it out. If the dog is not listening or start to chase again you are not in control and you have to get back to the round pen again, maybe the dog is not ready yet and you are too much in a hurry :-))

Joy working some non dog-broke sheep

After the square pen comes the big field. Make sure the distance between the dog and the livestock is not too big. The only thing you will see is: a dog who is crossing and livestock all over the place !!
You put your dog down, walk to the livestock, stay in between your dog and the livestock and send the dog, push it out, away from the livestock and put it down again on 12 o'clock position. When this is going the right way, you can stay with your dog, send it and let the dog bring the livestock to you. This is the beginning of a tiny outrun. The ACD is a dog who works close to the livestock, their outrun is mostly a straight line to the livestock but.........you can teach them an outrun.

How ??? prepare yourself for a lot of walking and running !! but it can be done:-)) First of all I teached Trouble the command ''not too tide'' so when she is getting in to soon, I tell her ''too tide'' put her down and from that point I send her again. Livestock is not moving at all. When she is doing a nice outrun she will be rewarded and she is allowed to bring me the livestock.

The Australian Cattle Dog, I will say, is not an easy dog to train, but you have to know how, you have to understand the dog and they can be stubborn and they are fearless. If you can't cope with that and you want a dog who is always obedient the Australian Cattle Dog is not your kind of dog.
If you beat it, yell at it they just quit on you !! Make sure you always treat the dog fair, this is the only way to earn respect as an owner of an Australian Cattle Dog, and believe me: some of them aren't too forgiving !!

They have a mind of their own, don't take that away from them. They need to think when they are working, guide them and you will have a great working dog, who will stand up to the livestock if necessary.

Trouble holding the sheep off the pen
All you need is: PATIENCE !!!!!!!!