Today was an interesting day! In the morning we had a client with a young Ridgeback who had issues with other dogs. So Hans asked us to take our own dogs along for a joint walk. He suggested I take Liwa. All dogs were pretty well trained and would heal. Liwa, of course, was running around like a wild rat trying to play with every single dog. So Hans started his famous 'hose technique' with her: each time she would go further then 3 meters away from me, he would throw a 30 cm long piece of a yellow hose into Liwa's legs. Once he threw it at her, all I had to do was to make a lound 'sssshhh' noise and then immediately reward her (just by stroking her). This had a huge effect on her and within minutes she wouldn't even dream of going away and would stick to my feet like a magnet. In case she would cross the 3 meter zone, I just had to 'sssh' her and immediately she would jump back onto my feet. Amazing!
In the afternoon, all trainees (we are 3 now) would be given a new dog from Hans. They are 1 year old male dogs (all brothers) from Hans's own breed the 'Malingo'. So far they had been living together as a pack in a fenced outside area. They are all reserved for differnt owners and now is the time for them to get trained. Hans said that it would be important for us to train a dog that we don't know at all and who is still 'raw'. As they will be our 'own' dogs for now we have to take full responsiblity for them: we need to clean their crates, feed them, brush them etc. We will train them 3 hours a day for the next 3 weeks and training will start at 7 am daily!!!
My new dog's name is 'Angelo' and he is quite luck, not because I will be training on him, but because his future owner is the 5th richest man in Switzerland who travels the world with his luxury yacht and will take Angelo along. Since he is a beauty surgeon, I might get a favor from him as his dog's trainer....you never know :-)
Anyways, it might all sound great but when Hans and I took him out of his kennel, it felt like I had a wild mustang on the leash!!! I was barely strong enough to hold him. We walked to the training field where Hans closed me and Angelo into a very small fenced area. Once inside there, I was first scard that the dog might eat me alive! However, I had to put him off the leash and start to train him how to sit quietly and to always stick to me. This would need a lot of concentration and dominance from my side as this is a strong male dog, bread to be a hard working police dog. I could notice that the dog would immediately loose respect if I was insecure just for a tiny second. With this kind of dog you cannot be hesitant or soft as he needs to understand who is the boss and you have to be strong: if he jumps against the door when you are trying to enter the fenced area, you have to bang the door against him so that he learns to sit quietly when you enter. If he starts jumping onto you, you need to kick him with your knee, if he doesn't sit after you gave the command once, you have to pinch him in the butt. And if you get scared or hesitate for a moment, you run the risk to get hit back by the dog. The aim is to establish a relationship with him that is based on respect and trust. To gain his trust, every time you would punish him you would also reward him by stroking him for a minute or so right away. The dog quickly understood 'the game' and we could already see a good result (not without Hans's help, I must admit).
As for Paulo and Liwa, Hans suggested that I start training them once I got the experience from my training with Angelo. For now, we will take them out from time to time to do easy excerises like I did with Liwa this morning. This way they will slowly get aqcuainted with their new world...and so will I!
In the afternoon, all trainees (we are 3 now) would be given a new dog from Hans. They are 1 year old male dogs (all brothers) from Hans's own breed the 'Malingo'. So far they had been living together as a pack in a fenced outside area. They are all reserved for differnt owners and now is the time for them to get trained. Hans said that it would be important for us to train a dog that we don't know at all and who is still 'raw'. As they will be our 'own' dogs for now we have to take full responsiblity for them: we need to clean their crates, feed them, brush them etc. We will train them 3 hours a day for the next 3 weeks and training will start at 7 am daily!!!
My new dog's name is 'Angelo' and he is quite luck, not because I will be training on him, but because his future owner is the 5th richest man in Switzerland who travels the world with his luxury yacht and will take Angelo along. Since he is a beauty surgeon, I might get a favor from him as his dog's trainer....you never know :-)
Anyways, it might all sound great but when Hans and I took him out of his kennel, it felt like I had a wild mustang on the leash!!! I was barely strong enough to hold him. We walked to the training field where Hans closed me and Angelo into a very small fenced area. Once inside there, I was first scard that the dog might eat me alive! However, I had to put him off the leash and start to train him how to sit quietly and to always stick to me. This would need a lot of concentration and dominance from my side as this is a strong male dog, bread to be a hard working police dog. I could notice that the dog would immediately loose respect if I was insecure just for a tiny second. With this kind of dog you cannot be hesitant or soft as he needs to understand who is the boss and you have to be strong: if he jumps against the door when you are trying to enter the fenced area, you have to bang the door against him so that he learns to sit quietly when you enter. If he starts jumping onto you, you need to kick him with your knee, if he doesn't sit after you gave the command once, you have to pinch him in the butt. And if you get scared or hesitate for a moment, you run the risk to get hit back by the dog. The aim is to establish a relationship with him that is based on respect and trust. To gain his trust, every time you would punish him you would also reward him by stroking him for a minute or so right away. The dog quickly understood 'the game' and we could already see a good result (not without Hans's help, I must admit).
As for Paulo and Liwa, Hans suggested that I start training them once I got the experience from my training with Angelo. For now, we will take them out from time to time to do easy excerises like I did with Liwa this morning. This way they will slowly get aqcuainted with their new world...and so will I!
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