COEN SEMLER: 1909 - 1977
Dr. Erik HouttuinThe city of Eindhoven in the province of North Brabant in Holland is known for its major industries such as Phillips Electronics and the DAF automobile factories, now part of Volvo. When I recently visited Eindhoven most people I asked for directions knew of the Dafzicht Kennel and some remembered Coen Semler, now ten years after his death. Coen was born in Eindhoven on November 18th 1909 and only completed grade school before starting a job. However his staunchly independent personality made it difficult for him to work for others and he started his own pig feeder and transport companies. He was difficult to work for because he was very demanding of his employees but also of himself.
In his free time he started to train dogs and his first dogs were Belgian Sheepdogs of the Lackense variety. (These dogs are FCI but not AKC recognized.) Not until about age 25 did Coen become interested in the Bouvier des Flandres. His first Bouvier was not pure bred but was used for KNPV (Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging, which means Royal Dutch Police dog Organization) training. At that time Coen was not interested in the breeding of pure bred dogs.
Almost every year Coen was able to finish a Bouvier for KNPV certification and he obtained a total of 22 KNPV certificates on Bouviers. Not only quantity but also quality was important, and this is apparent from the fact that three of his Bouviers became National KNPV Champions of Holland. The first Champion, a Bouvier called Loef, subsequently was donated to princess Juliana, who later became Queen of the Netherlands.
Other champions of Holland trained by Coen Semler were Carthro and Sarbo. Other well known Bouviers trained by Coen, such as Karzan, Nerodan and Duko van Mereveld are prominent in the pedigrees of the working Bouviers in Holland and North America.
A number of young promising dog trainers learned their skills from Coen and formed a club called "De Hond in het Woud" (The dog in the Forest) evidence that most dog training took place in the pine forests of Brabant. Most of the members of this dog club owned Bouviers and their names are still well known among dog trainers in Holland today.
Members of KNPV dog club "De Hond in het Woud" include:
A.M. van Aggel, President Giant Schnauzers
Jan Oosterveen, Secretary Bouviers
Coen Semler, Treasurer Bouviers
M. v.d. Oetenhaar All breeds
Albert Wouters Bouviers
J. Bosmans Bouviers
H. Otten Bouviers
J. Gerrits Bouviers
J. Wouters Bouviers
J. Dubois Bouviers
J. Mootlag Bouviers
J. v Kasteren Bouviers
Another well known young trainer of Bouviers became Coen's best friend. Bart Krist of Pleinzicht Kennels became the owner of Duko v. Mereveld, son of Nerodan. Duko became a prolific producer of KNPV Bouviers. Out of the combination Duko v. Mereveld and Lisca v Dafzicht for example 76 pups were produced of which almost half or 32 obtained a KNPV certificate. One dog out of this combination is Wilson v. Pleinzicht, the only Bouvier in the world with KNPV and Schutzhund III titles.
About 1960 Coen started a breeding kennel, called Dafzicht because the kennels faced the DAF factories. His early breeding and show dogs all were KNPV dogs with exclusively Dutch pedigrees, examples of which are Buco v Dafzicht and Karzan v. Mereveld.
Coen's first Belgian import Bouvier was Noup de la Thudinie, a dog he bought at the big Winners Show in Amsterdam in 1966. (Price $250) The entire Bouvier world in Holland was quite upset about Coen buying this "wolbaal", the Dutch word for "bag of wool." Coen defended his purchase with the words: "This is how the Bouviers in Holland will look in the future." Words that certainly have come true!
Coen was married April 11, 1936 and had five children. Only his second child, Annie, became interested in dogs and is the present owner of Dafzicht Kennels. Even in 1960, when Coen started showing in conformation, he had problems with his heart. Coen would show the dogs standing still but Annie was called in to do the gaiting of the dogs.
Coen's first purely conformation dog was Oscy van Dafzicht, who became Champion in 1975 followed by his brother Ringo van Dafzicht (1976), Aron Vedette v. Dafzicht (1977) and Coen's favorite dog Hoscy Kata v. Dafzicht. Coen died of a heart attack while showing Hoscy Kata. Attempts to resuscitate Coen by Mr. Kolvoort, now president of the Dutch Bouvier Club, were unsuccessful.
When Coen trained his dogs his children frequently had to help whether they liked it or not. For example when a dog failed to return when called during pursuit of an agitator, Coen would place his children behind trees with collars that they had to rattle or throw at the dog to make the dog obey. Even in-laws were not immune from being used. Hans Krah, now Annie's husband, was called out of bed one night to come to the training field with a cat in a cage to make a Bouvier bark.
Dogs were trained and then sold. If an individual called Coen, interested to sell him a dog, he would take the dog to the training field to find out if he was worthy of the title Bouvier. Those dogs that survived the Semler test nearly always would subsequently obtain KNPV certification.
An occasional dog could be a problem. Annie recalls that she was not able to feed one of these dogs and her father told her to slide the food into the cage with a broomstick. When several days later Annie told her Father that she still could not feed this dog, Coen decided to give him an "attitude adjustment." Coen took the dog behind a building with a chain (I mean a real chain) and fifteen minutes later this dog was heeling, licking Coen's hand and no longer created feeding problems for Annie. However truly mean, especially unpredictable dogs had no place in Coen's kennel. If an individual called to let Coen know that they had a dog that might be suitable for training Coen would go over to see this dog. One time people called and said that they had a dog that bit that they wished to sell. However, they said "you must get the dog out of his run yourself and once the dog leaves he never may come back." This kind of very strong dominant dog usually proved to be very stable, reliable and trainable.
The cropping of ears became unlawful in Holland. One time the Humane Society inspectors came to visit Coen and asked who had cropped the ears of puppies in his kennel. Coen Semler answered "Officer, let me tell you something. Last night I saw these pups and the ears were there. This morning the ears are gone!" Apparently this is a true story, as it has been told to me by several people.
When Coen Semler was buried an honor guard of fifteen Bouviers and their owners were present. As if the dogs sensed the importance of this moment for the Bouvier breed none barked, even once.