Friday, May 8, 2009

Bonding with Angelo...


As agreed the day before, we all met at 7 am at the dog’s kennel. Angelo was more awake than I was which had the immediate effect that he would run past me with 100 km/h. It was not easy to keep him under control and it was clear that there was no solid relationship between us as for now...

At 9 am the seminar about how to have dogs run in a circle just like horses (I don’t know the English word for this but in German it’s ‘longieren’) started and took the whole day.

Then Hans and Andrea (the other trainer) cooked dinner for us as they love to cook and are pretty good at it too. We sat outside over a delicious meal and watched the sunset over the valley...As Hans always makes sure that we eat enough, I felt like going for a digestive walk in the twilight and thought that it would be a good opportunity to take Angelo along to bond with him. Also Hans thought that it was a great idea and added that I should definitely go without a leash. So Angelo and I started walking through the nearby forest and surprisingly enough Angelo behaved like a lamb!!! Even when I met Andrea with her own dog on the way back (this had been set up by Hans!!), he would follow me. Once I put Angelo back into his kennel, I quickly took Paulo and Liwa for a good-night walk. As I came back, everybody was out with their dogs for a spontaneous training session (although it was already 10 pm!!) and Hans took over Paulo and Liwa. He showed me how to walk them on the leash by holding them both just with one finger. Even though there were all these other dogs present, they both followed very quietly. Liwa immediately got the message and would nicely sit behind me like the best behaved dog on earth. Even Hans was impressed how quickly she would pick things up and said that she is a really cool dog. Paulo wouldn’t stop scratching himself as he always tends to do in tricky situations. Hans explained that dogs had different ways of releasing stress and that this was clearly one of them. So poor Paulo didn’t take it in such a cool way...However, he is now happily sleeping in my bed and seems completely relaxed!

Well, now it is really late again and although I can’t wait for the next day to start, I fear that I won’t get enough sleep...

1 comment:

  1. Stop the Madness! Stop the Cruelty!! I see what the poor Paulo has to endure now. Long walks in the German Jungle, and being led by little fingers. He can't handle it! I think Michelle and I should form a anti-training block for Paulo and petition this abuse. Poor Paulo was such a happy magical dog and now this military German Training thing will strip him of all his magic. No more I tell you!!!

    ReplyDelete