Introduction Pieter Burema
My name is Pieter Burema, I am Dutch and was born in 1952.
During my whole life there have been dogs surround me. My grandfather was before the Second World War a breeder of New Foundlanders and started with the Kennel name “van Buruf”, the name also used by my mother and still in use by me. I do not believe many people have a Kennel name that is in the family for more than 75 years.
My mother was also a breeder, first of New Foundlanders, Samoyeds (one of the puppies she bred was owned by the late Queen Wilhelmina) and finally of Shih-Tzu. But we had more breeds around us, like the Afghan and the Whippet. As a little boy the first dog of my own was a Whippet.
In 1968 my mother got her first Shih-Tzu, a daughter of a Swedish Import, Jungfältets Pi-Tzé, (bred by the late Fru Erna Jüngefelt) the founding bitch of the famous Oranje-Manege Kennel. Showing dogs was my job and so I became more and more involved into the dog world and became her co-breeder.
In 1977 my mother suddenly died and I went on with the Kennel. I married in 1979 and my wife is also a great dog lover. In 1983 I became a committee member of the Breed Club, the Peek- and Toy spaniel club; I am now an honour life-member of this club. In 1990 I took the initiative to found the Shih-Tzu breed club in Holland and set up the club during the first five years as the secretary.
In 1981 I gave my wife a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and this girl became so beautiful, that I just had so show her. She died, aged 16, and is still the most awarded bitch in the Netherlands. I had a few litters with her and made one of her sons a Champion.
I was appointed as a judge for the Japan Chin 1985. I am now judging all the breeds in FCI-group 9 and Samoyeds.
Beside in Holland I judged in Germany, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Ireland.
In 2005 the Dutch Kennel club awarded me with “the Golden Pin of honour”.
Judging is hard to combine with showing and breeding, but my wife Margreeth and I have still Shih-Tzu and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. We hope to have them also in future because we cannot image a live without dogs!