Martina Czylwik-Gerlach grew up in Datteln, a small town in the west of Germany, about one hour away from the Dutch border. The town marks the border between the “Ruhrgebiet“ (the biggest industrial area in Germany) and the “Münsterland” (a rural area) further north. It is also situated on a crossroads of four canals (Datteln-Hamm Canal, Wesel-Datteln Canal, Dortmund-Ems Canal and Rhein-Herne Canal), which makes it the biggest canal junction in Europe.
Martina does not come from a farming family. Her father was an accountant, but he died when Martina was just 13 years old. She has two brothers and two sisters, none of whom share Martina’s passion for sheepdogs and trialling. Her family is spread throughout Europe and further afield. She has an aunt and two cousins in Sweden (and Martina found out that one of them is training dogs for the police); a sister and her family in England (near Birmingham); a nephew in Australia; and her mother now resides in France, just across the German-French border.
Martina is no stranger to the United Kingdom. She has been coming to this country since she was 9 years old. Her first visit was Cannock in the West Midlands - Datteln’s twin town - for an exchange visit with a youth orchestra. It was during this visit that she met a childless couple that happened to have a farm. They became her ‘surrogate parents’ and for many years (until they died) Martina visited them several times a year. Since this first visit, Martina fell in love with the rural way of life, the British Isles, and the language.
Almost a decade ago Martina moved out of the town into the country. She did so because she decided it was time to have a dog. When deciding which breed of dog to purchase, Martina came across the border collie. She had seen a collie working sheep many years before in Wales, but didn’t know anything about this breed. So instead of jumping in and purchasing a border collie straight away, Martina started reading all she could find on this breed and how to train a working border collies. It also dawned on her that purchasing a sheep dog was quite pointless unless one had sheep.
Soon Martina started attending sheepdog trials and absorbing everything she could about sheep, border collies, and trialling. She went to trials, and listened and watched intently. She started visiting the UK regularly to watch and listen to the experts. Simon Mosse from Ireland was the first to help her watch, understand and handle sheep and dogs. Martina decided to purchase some sheep, starting with a small flock of Graue Gehörnte Heidschnucke, a German breed of heather sheep, and later adding some Scottish Blackface ewes. This gave her dogs different types of sheep to train on.
When it came to purchasing a border collie, Martina was advised to go to a good breeder of working sheep dogs rather than look for a bargain. This is how she met Gisela Norrman. From Gisela Martina purchased Capricorn Jake who is a son of Gisela’s Fay and Paul Welleman’s (Belgium) Ultimate Rob (who is a son of Bobby Dalziel’s Wisp). Capricorn Jake is the dog Martina will be running at this year’s World Trial. He was also on the German team for the 2008 World Trial. A littermate to Jake, Capricorn Razu is also making a repeat performance for the German WT team with Gisela Norrman.
Jake, now 8 years old, is Martina’s main dog. Right from the start, Jake proved to be a perfect dog for a beginner. He has always been eager to please and easy to train.
Jake turned out to be a natural talent and Martina says “luckily I did not manage to destroy his abilities training him.” When Martina and Jake started trialling Martina’s life slowly started to change. Her world started to revolve more around dogs, sheep and trialling. Sound familiar?
Martina likes to buy dogs as pups because they live in the house with her and she likes to teach them so many every day things while they are little. She loves watching them grow up and is always trying to understand their way of learning. Martina feels this helps her to get into their minds.
Apart from her dogs, Martina loves music, especially singing. She occasionally finds the time to take part in concerts, singing or playing the violin. She is also a church musician and used to play the organ during church services. Martina also runs and more often than not she has to run at 6 o’clock in the morning before school just to fit everything into her busy lifestyle. Imagine, if you will, Martina running through the woods in the pitch dark with her head lamp on and Jake eagerly by her side.