Young Dog Handler Focus - Tim Thewissen: "There is a special bond with dogs"

Originally from Belgium, I did not grow up on a farm but spent most of my weekends on my grandparents' farm where they ran Belgian Blues. My passion for working with sheep came as a teenager, following my studies in forest and nature management. Shepherding began after a traineeship with a company that uses sheep in an ecological way to graze nature reserves and green areas next to roads and public parks. 

In 2018, I imported my first Border Collie, Fellside Finn, from Cumbria. Prior to this we had dogs that rotated between the shepherds.  

The opportunity came to move to North Wales in 2019 to work as a shepherd with 2,500 sheep on a salt marsh, which allowed me to fulfil my desire to see other European sheep systems. Now 29, I am currently based near Talybont on Usk, shepherding 4,000 Talybont type ewes and 60 cattle.   

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People visit from abroad to learn about UK farming and dog training, from as far away as Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and beyond. 

Successes

I have been fortunate to see success in trials, qualifying as a Welsh National team member for the last three years. I now have the Reserve International and Welsh National Brace champion titles under my belt and multiple open wins, most recently getting in the final of the European Nursery championship with my one-year-old, Ben, who took the title of best young dog. 

Influences

Like many budding trialists, I owe a lot to Kevin Evans, who I worked alongside from 2021 to 2023 as a dog trainer. He helped my confidence as I started to compete more, got regularly placed in opens and competed in the 2022 Welsh National.  

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Despite nerves, I managed to make it into the National and International team with Finn. and into the international. Finn has been a constant, and I am grateful to him for taking me up to this level from being a complete novice and having no experience at all.  

Passion

There is a special bond with dogs, they have your back, and you have theirs. You complement each other.   

I have learnt a lot on my journey, one of the most important being to read the stock. Knowing how to handle them, when to keep pressure on and when to release. I believe every farm dog can make a trial dog, but not every trial dog can make a farm dog. I want my dogs to be all-rounders with trialling going hand-in-hand with everyday work.  

One of my favourite things is gathering hills; seeing my dogs think and deal with difficult situations. While lambing time allows you to see how brave they are and how much heart they have.   

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