Hello!
As some people here are interested in Hovawarts, I will try to draw a picture of this breed as I know it here in Germany. The Hovawart is a "young old breed", dogs of Hovawart-type have been around in Germany for many centuries as farmdogs - similar to e.g. the Swiss mountain dogs. The "Hovewart" has been mentioned in the "Schwabenspiegel", a medieval legal code. Since the 1920´s Curt Koenig tried to recreate the breed using "type dogs" he collected from farms in the Harz mountains, Newfoundlands, GSDs, Leonbergers, Kuvasz and some sort of Paria dogs - rumors are he even used sibirian wolves...
Koenig was a smart opportunist, who sold the Hovawart to the Nazis as "real German dog". The Hovawart fortunately found some serious people really interested in the breed, they rebuild the breed after the second world war. As Germany was separated into several sectors, there were different gene pools and according to that different types of Hovawarts. There were some with more GSD influence, others were more on the Kuvasz or Leonberger side. In Western Germany the RZV was founded in 1948, this club held the stud book alone for a very long time and reached the goal to recognize the Hovawart as "Working Dog" besides GSD, Rottweiler, Dobermann, Boxer etc. in 1964.
In the DDR the Hovawart developed a bit differently, they wanted more "sharp" dogs, who could do real protection work. In the DDR they had some Hovawarts working for the police. These dogs were more "serious", but lacked prey drive and will to please. After the downfall of the wall both populations got mixed up, with sometimes questionable results.
Since the beginning of the breeds Hovawart fanciers had different thoughts about the Hovawart type. Some preferred a athletic dog with working dog features like the GSD, others wanted a more laid back, stronger built Mastiff type.
This has lasted until the present, so we have two big Hovawart clubs inside the VDH: the RZV who promotes the working Hovawart, and the HZD who promotes the "family dog with natural protection drive". This is somewhat funny, as there has been and alway will be an exchange of dogs between the clubs...
The Hovawart as promoted by the RZV should be an athletic dog with high prey drive, stable temperament, good nerves, good nose and which is watchful and protective. Hovawarts should never be "sharp" or "hyper" like some other working breeds, but switch on instandly if they feel real danger.
The problem at the present is how to get a Hovawart with real working ability. You do not need a Schutzhund test for breeding anymore, and more and more breeders do not pay attention to working features. For breeding purposes a Hovawart must pass two character tests (one between 9-24 months and one after 22 months), must be HD-A1 or A2, clear of eye diseases and rated "good" at a show at minimum. Most of the breeding stock have additionally passed a BH, and for a stud male it is always good if he has Schutzhund titles on his card.
Another difficulty is that the breed club is very strict about their programm. They do not allow in- or even line breeding, they want an inbreeding coefficient about 5% maximum...So you have to mate two comparative non-related dogs, and you cannot fix desired traits genetically. So every litter is a big surprise, and you never know what you get.
There is one big problem: most of the people who want to get a Hovawart don´t no nothing about Schutzhund - they only want a nice looking pet who will chase an intruder away (as opposed to the very popular Golden or Labrador Retrievers). So even if a breeder focuses on producing working dogs, he will have difficulties in finding the right people for them. The "hardcore" Schutzhund people would rather buy a GSD, Mal or Rottweiler, and for "only pet" owner a working Hovawart will most likely be too much.
But there are still quite a few good Hovawarts here in Germany, who do not need to hide. They will never reach the fast and hard performance of a high class GSD oder Mal, but whith a solid foundation you can have much fun on the Schutzhund field with them.
As most Hovawart owners choose their breed more because of the look than the working ability, the Hovawart is a real "women´s dog". Most of Hovawarts are handled by females, which leaves us with problems in finding new helpers *g*
The one thing which Hovawarts really can compete with other working breeds is tracking. There you will find quite a few dogs which do really fine. Hovawarts are also very well suited for SAR.
If you are interested in purchasing a working Hovawart, stick to the German RZV lines. There are many beautiful Hovawarts with sound temperaments in Scandinavia, but they obviously lack working traits.
As I mentioned before, the German Hovawart clubs a very strict. When a bitch has passed all the tests for breeding, then the breeder is NOT free to choose his stud. The male he wants to use must be approved by the local breed warden, otherwise he is not allowed to use him. Every aproved stud can only sire 5 litters in Germany, after that 80% of his offspring must be shown at a character test and have a hip score, only then the stud is allowed 5 more matings (max).
My own male Bartok has now 5 German litters on his record, so we will have to wait for at least 1,5 years until he can be used on German bitches again.
At the German clubs we use a program called "Dogbase" (the SV & ADRK use it, too), in which every Hovawart is lister with his test results, offspring etc. and standard breeding values. These values are HD, Overbite (overshot jaw), lenght of coat, type, temperament and prey drive. The values are evaluated during the temperament test and include the values of ancestors, siblings and offspring of that special dog. They will give the breeder a more detailed information about the "genetic value" of each dog, but they are only a tool and can never replace the "eye" of the breeder.
So, that´s all for now, please excuse if it seems a bit confused. If you want to know more, just feel free to ask!
Greetings,
Barbara
The Hovawart
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