Hechtsprung...

This was the second day of the 3 day seminar for difficult dogs. We started the day with a long walk in the forest. All dogs were off the leash and were not allowed to go more than 3 meters away from their owner. We walked extremely slow and were not allowed to talk as we had to focus 100% on every movement our dog would do. I walked with Angelo and most of the time, next to Hans who would showed me how to interpret each of Angelo’s movements and how to adapt my walk and react in a way that Angelo would reliably stick to me. I learnt a lot but it is hard to imagine how much energy it takes to maintain this high level of concentration during this 2 ½ h walk. Once we were back and discussed the walk it was already lunch time and I went to my caravan with the objective to relax just for a few minutes. I woke up 3 hours later (only because my caravan felt like a sauna in the afternoon heat) and had missed the afternoon part of the seminar. When Hans saw me, he smiled and asked me to take Angelo out again so we could catch up on what I had missed. We went to see the goats with the objective to teach Angelo not to run after them. Well, of course he did and then Hans told me how to do the famous ‘Hechtsprung’. When you see that the dog is about to run away or is already running, you have to go after him with high speed, jump on him, grab him, put him down, and hold him on the ground until he gives up. It wouldn’t be such a challenge with a small dog like Liwa or even such a gentle dog like Paulo but with a Malingo, bread to catch criminals, it is a completely different story! Hans made me jump as many times as it took for me to get it right. The first time, I jumped right onto a stone instead of the dog (I have a little souvenir on my knee), the second time, I was not strong enough to hold him on the ground and he escaped (so Angelo won the ‘battle’) and the third time I was happy when Hans said that I got better...Now, at last, I was completely awake!
Hans, Martina, Carmen (she had done the training with Hans a few years ago and joined us for a couple of days with her young German shepherd) and I ended the day with a fantastic pasta meal by chef cook Hans! Carmen told us all the stories about Hans’s military training style a few years back and warned us about what is to come...