Meet Chris Pretorius: our judge for our Championship Breed Show in July 2009 Chris is a well respected local and international specialist rottweiler judge who has judged for the past twenty years, not only in South Africa and Zimbabwe (the first to conduct Breed Assessments there) but also, Jamaica, Australia (twice), New Zealand, Indonesia and Norway. He was one of the initial group of four SA judges to qualify as Specialists in 1993 and presently one of five qualified to conduct BST (ZTP). He received his tutorship from ADRK judges Wili Faussner, Johann Mehlin and Paul Fleige and 'refreshers' from Willi Hedtke, Kurt Lohnert, Helmut Freiburg and Frans Schaaf of the NRC. He has attended the IFR with an SA delegation twice, traveling to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland to visit Klubsieger shows, Schutzhund Trials, training groups and breeders. Born in 1946, Chris grew up in Ladysmith, Natal. He spent 27 years in Gauteng and the last 13 years in the Western Cape but still shouts for the 'Sharks'. He first got 'hooked', at age seven, on a working sheepdog. He always admired GSD's, until he saw his first Rottweiler at a public display by the South African Police. He bought his first two and became actively involved in showing and training from 1981, competing with a Rottweiler up to B-test in Championship Obedience. One of his Champions was 3rd rated SA show Rottweiler for 1993 and another was the top rated bitch for two consecutive years at Cape Rottweiler Specialist shows. A stud of his sired the 1997 national Grand Victrix and Best in Show winner. He assists with problem dogs and difficult matings and enjoys handling dogs for friends. He has bred (infrequently) under the 'Lubecker' kennel name. Chris has been a training instructor for the Midrand and Pretoria sections of the RWBA from 1984 to 1996. As a career tutor, who holds a college diploma in Instructional Technology (SAA), he also trained two groups of ten handlers, successively over six months each, for the canine security unit of SAMCOR, a large automobile manufacturing company that used only Rottweilers. He is licensed by KUSA as a Working Trials helper. He has directed numerous public displays with RWBA Rottweiler teams from 1985 to 1995, the largest of which was a 16-dog team performing for 20,000 spectators at the Barnard Stadium in Johannesburg. He served the RWBA for 15 years as trainer, Secretary, Vice Chairman and Chairman and is proud to be one of its Honorary Life Members. He has been the longest serving Newsletter Editor for the RWBA (eight years) and has provided articles for local and foreign canine publications in Zimbabwe, the USA and Australia. He was invited, together with the RWBA's Prof. Jan Kruger, to give a talk about the breed on the SABC TV's 'Agriforum' programme. Chris was a founder-member of the national body, the Rottweiler Breed Council of KUSA (RBC) in 1989. From 1991 to 1996, he convened the RBC's PR Sub-Committee and conferred, amongst others, with the City Council of Centurion in order to help prevent the banning of Rottweilers from that city. He represented the RBC on national TV and radio, whenever the Rottweiler's reputation was at stake. Since ID of Rottweilers became mandatory in 1992, he has become the busiest Rottie 'identifier' in SA, having tattooed and micro-chipped upwards of 2,500 pups and adults. He enjoys testing of puppy litters and assessing adults for work potential. Chris, nowadays, resides with wife Vicky and their dogs in the Western Cape village of Somerset West where he runs three private dog training groups and a dog food franchise and pretends to be a graphic designer from time to time. He serves the Western Province Rottweiler Club as PR, Vice Chairman and co-delegate on the RBC (Rottweiler Breed Council of KUSA), of which he is Secretary. He chaired the Hottentots-Holland all breed Club for six years, up to 2005. He enjoys leather-crafting, hiking, photography and people.