• KENNEL:

  Vom Bartenwetzer

• FCI:

  All Breeds

Walter's grandfather got a cross-bred black Doberman for him when he was only six years old. His grandparents enjoyed farming on a small scale and so he developed a natural closeness to animals at a very early age. Following the Second World War, it was necessary to concentrate on the basic things of life. Eventually he finished secondary school and took up studies in English, Political Science and Psychology at Marlburg University and King's College, University of Durham located in Northumberland. In 1967 he married a dog lover. Tragically, in 1968 their black Schnauzer escaped from their new home and was killed by a car. This was a terrible blow to them. Then shortly after that fate took a hand in the advance of their life with dogs. They bought a pepper and salt Schnauzer bitch, she turned out to be a high quality dog and so she marked the beginning of their show and breeding careers. They have bred, owned, trained and shown all three sizes of Schnauzers to championship Group wins, Best in Show, International Champions, European Champions and Bundessieger. In the past 20 years they have concentrated on black Giant Schnauzers. Until they gave up showing and breeding in favor of their judging careers in 2000, they had 34 litters of mainly black Giants under the affix 'vom Bartenwetzer'. As the Giant Schnauzer is classified as an FCI working dog, all their bitches as well as stud dogs they used, had to have passed their working trials. Dogs from their kennel have served in the Swiss Army as rescue and avalanche dogs and many of them proved their qualities as security and tracking dogs apart from their successes in the show ring. For over thirty years Walter and his wife Gisa have been heavily involved in dog club administration. In 1999 they published a book on Giant Schnauzers as a result of their breeding experience in that time. Walter is currently a member of the VDH Standard and Judges Committees and belongs to the teaching staff. He believes that judging is a constant learning process and so he has been very pleased to participate as co-organizer and panel member of symposiums where the topics of conformation, movement, judging and dog legislation have been discussed. He started his judging career in 1984 and gradually worked his way up as FCI All Breed judge, Best in Group and Best in Show judge. His international judging career has taken him to many parts of the world. He has had the privilege of judging in the very many European countries, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and South Africa and all that was climaxed with the apex of judging assignments for the World Winners Shows in Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. Fluent in German, English, French & Spanish.