My name is Naomi Vermaas, I breed Pembroke Welsh Corgi's and i live in Arnemuiden, Zeeland, the Netherlands. I am a member of the Dutch breedclub (NWCC) and breed according their guidelines, but I also like to do some extra's.
To broaden my knowledge I achieved some different certificates. Like the breederscourse of Woofexperience, Professional competence holder of dogs and cats, nutritionalexpert for dogs and cats module A.
My vision is to produce healthy pups that are eager to work. I want to accomplish this by selecting on health, character and looks.
Health: The pembroke welsh corgi has quite a high COI (inbreeding coefficient). This can cause problems like, infertility, more chance of cancer and deformities.
That is why I test my dogs with Embark, these tests calculate the COI, and you can predict the COI of a litter. Also all the genetic healthtests are included, like degenerative mylopathy and von Willebrand disease type 1.
Also all my dogs will be X-rayed on their elbows, hips and back. This to seclude Elbow dysplasia (ED), Hip dysplasia (HD), 8th vertebratae (L8), Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LTV).
Character: A Pembroke Welsh Corgi is a small herding dog. They were originally bred to herd cattle, these kicked over the small dogs. Herding cattle takes courage, independance and thinking ability.
Pembroke Welsh Corgis are frequently described as stubborn, but this is not true. They just already know what needs to be doing and don't need you.
I work my dogs in search and rescue, which contains of detection, finding victims, mantrail and obedience. They are very capable of this work and do this with a lot of joy.
Looks: The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is charaterised by their short little legs, big ears and in the past a docked tail. Nowadays docking is illegal, but there is a Natural Bobtail (NBT) gene, which naturally occurs in the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. This gene was almost completely gone, because of the docking. The gene didn't have an added value because all tails would be docked. The natural bobtail gene has one flaw, you can't pair 2 NBT's together, this will result in stillbirth. I really like the NBT gene, it really shows the breedtype, so i would like to ethically preserve it.
The Pembroke Welsh corgi is between the 25 and 30 cm at the withers. The weight for a female is between the 9 and 11 kg and for a male it is between 10 and 12 kg. There is a trend that especially the males are getting bigger and heavier. Most males are now around 15 kg (this makes an impression in the showring), but it is actually a fault in the breed standard.
The Pembroke Welsh corgi is a working breed and should be able to do is job as a heeler, this is not possible if they are too big and not quick on their feet.
