Dorine Verhoef-Snoeck was born in Amsterdam and raised in Uithoorn, a town a few miles south of Amsterdam that was formed around its courthouse. During the Franco-Dutch War in the "disaster year" of 1672, Uithoorn was on the front lines and fortifications were built.
Dorine hails from a family of lawyers with no farming history in her background. Her first taste of border collies came when she was seven years old. Her father was looking for a companion on his early morning runs so her parents went to a dog show in search of an active dog. Charley soon joined the family. Dorine’s family rapidly discovered that physical activity, on its own, was not enough for this breed. Charley quickly developed ways to exercise the family’s patience. Although Dorine’s family had heard of the possibility of working sheep, they decided that since he had hip dysplasia, this kind of work would not be good for him and so working sheep was not to be for Charley.
When Charley died at the age of 12 years, Dorine’s family purchased another border collie called James who was from working lines. James was by Serge van der Zweep’s old Jim and on the advice of his breeder Dorine’s family got into contact with Ron Snoeck (whom she later married), who was teaching sheepdogs and their handlers. James was hard work so Dorine she purchased a trained, Irish bred bitch called Lass, who had been owned by Alexander Watson. Lass also turned out to be a difficult bitch to handle so while Dorine learned a lot from her, she was sold on to a dairy farm. Before she was sold, Dorine bred Fly from her, a bitch by Serge van der Zweep’s Roy. It is Fly who put Dorine on the trial field at her first nursery trial. That was almost 10 years ago now.
Dorine’s first open trial dog was Glenn, with whom she competed at the 2008 World Trial and the 2009 Continental in Switzerland. According to Dorine, Glenn “is the perfect dog for a beginner handler.” He is very obedient, has a tremendous feel for sheep and makes bad sheep look good. He is probably one of the smallest dogs on the trial circuit, but makes up for it by being incredibly smart and brave. Dorine says he has made her a “lazy handler” and has guided her preference for natural dogs who do all the outrun, lift and fetch work for her.
Alongside Glenn, Dorine has two trial bitches; one of whom, Flan, is her alternate for the 2011 World Trial. Flan is a 4 year old bitch bred by a Belgian handler called Marc van Ransbeke. Flan’s sire is René Maes’ Jack, who is a full brother to Luca Fini’s Taff, a dog that Dorine has admired for his style and feel for sheep. The mother is a bitch out of René Maes’ Dan, who, with his previous owner, Tjitse Terpstra, was second at the 1998 Continental and won the Continental the following year. Flan is everything Dorine wants in a sheepdog: she has style, quiet power and presence, and is incredibly keen. Ron bought Flan when she was 3.5 years old. She was a bit of a handful at first but once she started to trust Dorine she turned out to be quite easy to handle.
Dorine has been fortunate to train with several top handlers including Julie Hill and Bobby Dalziel who have helped shape the way she trains her dogs. From Julie Dorine learnt that the most successful way of gaining a dog’s respect is to give and take instead of just taking. You give the dog a bit of freedom and by doing so you guide the dog’s natural instincts and learning to work sheep and cooperate without the dog realizing it. From Bobby Dalziel she has added the use of a long line to her training if the dog allows it and is not responding well enough to pressure.
The traits Dorine likes and looks for in a trial dog are style and presence, a friendly character with a good will to please, and last, but certainly not least, a fair amount of naturalness. She also likes a dog that can withstand periods without sheep work because Dorine had to divide her time amongst being a mother, a student and a partner in a business. According to Dorine, this multitasking sometimes leaves her dogs lacking the fitness required for the trial field, and this is something she will be working on for the 2011 World Trial. As a counting member of the Dutch team at the World Trial, Dorine will be working harder than ever to balance her daily duties with training her dogs. With only small fields to train on, Dorine and Ron will be doing their fair share of travelling to get the dogs out for endurance work and double gathers.
Glenn
