24 October 2019
They say good things come to those who wait! Winning the Sportsmanship Award at the recent International Sheepdog Trials in Aberdeenshire, when she represented the Welsh team, was a fantastic achievement for Bavarian-born Beate Behr who now lives in North Wales.
Throughout her childhood, teens and twenties, Beate, who grew up in the German city of Munich, had a long-held dream of moving overseas, living in the countryside and owning a dog. She was 30 when she finally bought her first dog - a border collie - and started taking it to obedience classes in Germany, determined to learn dog handling skills and train the new puppy!
“My working background as a manager in an adult learning environment in Germany instilled in me the benefits of lifelong learning, and I was always determined to improve my own skills as well as those of our students,” said Beate.
However, she had to wait a few more years until she found true happiness! In 2013, after making a name for herself in dog agility competitions throughout Germany, her hobby developed into working with sheepdogs. She made many visits to rural Wales to compete in sheepdog trials and then fate played its part. Beate fell in love with not only the Welsh countryside but one of our farmers too! The rest as they say is history, and Beate and her two border collies are now happily settled at Edgar Jones’ beef and sheep farm in Llansannan near Abergele.
Beate helps Edgar with much of the day to day farmwork and credits the couple’s involvement with Farming Connect for getting her up to speed on the practical side. She has also found time to keep up with training and competing with her own sheepdogs and works alongside Aled Owen, one of Wales’ most experienced and successful trialists, whose prize-winning dogs she helps look after.
Earlier this year, encouraged by Edgar, she reluctantly decided to enter border collie Breeze and her homebred two-year-old daughter Bendigedig Leni, into the Welsh National Sheepdog trials held at Llandeilo. The decision paid off. Beate and Leni, up against 150 other competitors, gained the Reserve Welsh Champion title and were selected to represent Wales in the International Sheepdog Trials in Brechin, Aberdeenshire in September.
“I was very hesitant about entering and left it until almost the last minute, because although both dogs have been running very well, I wasn’t confident they were ready for a major national competition.
“I felt that I needed to polish my handling skills, and the dogs needed to be more in tune with what I required of them too.”
Help was at hand through Beate’s local Farming Connect Agrisgôp leader Myrddin Davies. Agrisgôp is Farming Connect’s hugely successful fully funded ‘action learning’ management programme which brings together groups of forward-thinking, like-minded individuals to help them develop both personal skills and the confidence to explore rural business ideas and ventures.
Myrddin knew that there were a number of farmers in his area who would welcome the opportunity to develop their sheepdog handling skills.
“A good partnership between a stockman and his working dogs is critical and adds huge value for any busy working farm, as well as an alternative income stream through the sale of trained sheepdogs, ” said Myrddin, who set up his first ‘working with sheepdogs’ Agrisgôp group at the end of the summer.
Together with five other local farmers and their dogs, Beate and Leni were signed up for six weekly hour-long field sessions, with Aled Owen invited to guide and mentor them. She says the sessions helped her take her skills up to another level, contributing to her win at the Welsh National with Leni and selection for the Welsh team which went forward to the International Sheepdog Trials.
Myrddin says that over that six-week period, it was obvious that every member of the group was gaining a huge amount of confidence as well as the guidance and new skills Aled was able to impart.
“The value of an Agrisgôp group is that people learn so much from each other as well as the experts we bring in, and by the end of the course, both the farmers and their dogs had developed not only new skills but an even stronger bond.”
Beate says she was hugely honoured to have been selected to represent Wales as part of the Welsh team and was very excited to compete at international level for the first time.
“Being part of Myrddin’s Agrisgôp group, the guidance and mentoring from Aled together with the support of the other group members was an enormous boost to my confidence and gave me the skills I needed to improve Leni’s abilities and get her up to this world class standard.
“The conditions were quite tough in Scotland, but unlike many other dogs, Leni managed to complete the course, and it was fantastic to learn that despite being one of only three women taking part in the event, I won the Sportsmanship Award.”
For further information on how you or members of your family can benefit from joining an Agrisgôp group in your area, or for information about all other Farming Connect services, special projects and training opportunities, visit the Farming Connect website.
Farming Connect, which is delivered by Menter a Busnes and Lantra, is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and Welsh Government.