I had my first bobtail in 1979.

An import from England joined our little family, a female from the Longdorhams kennel in Great Britain.

But after the first Bobtail, a second and third soon followed, and then more and more.

It was not until 2001 that I started showing dogs, and that was with a beautiful male: ‘Our Snowboot Bear of Fools Paradise’. He won many championship titles at shows throughout Europe, and that left me wanting more!

He was the first in a long line of champions at home and abroad.

To date, I have bred 50 dogs to become champions and purchased 10 from other breeders.

In 1997, together with a few other people, I founded the ‘Belgian Old English Sheepdog Club’ (BOESC), with which we organised the Euro Oes in Deinze in 1999 and in Genk in 2009.

The intention was to organise this show every 10 years in Belgium.

After all, it is my favourite show of the year. I have been to every Euro OES since 1993 to show.

Now, organising a Euro Oes involves a lot of work, and it was becoming increasingly difficult due to the shrinking membership and board.

But Lisa and Conny kept insisting every year that we should do it anyway!

Because, to my great regret, I am forced to completely discontinue and dissolve the BOESC in 2026, after almost 30 years as chairperson, because no one in the club wants to take over that task, I have agreed to organise this Euro OES 2026 in Blankenberge for the last time.

I will therefore use this EURO OES as the finale for the bobtail club in Belgium.