Puppy time...

Today we had another seminar on how to have your dog run in a circle (like horses). It was so hot outside that we finished earlier as dogs and dog owners just couldn’t take it anymore. Then Martina and Hans had the idea to go to a well-known breeder who breeds ‘Riesenschnauzer’. They are bread for mainly people who are into dog sports or protection training and are therefore very strong, athletic dogs with a lot of impulse. So Hans was interested to buy one and Martina too as she didn’t have a dog before and needed one for her training. The only challenge was that this breeder was located in Germany, about 460 km away from Gansingen. As there are no barriers for Hans, we went anyways and arrived there after a 4 ½ hour drive at about 9:30 pm. We were greeted by 3 cute 12 week old female puppies. They were really self-confident and energetic and within a few minutes my trousers were full of holes thanks to their sharp little puppy teeth. Hans was trying to convince me to take the third puppy as I would need a sports dog like this if I wanted to become a professional dog trainer. Well, they were cute but when I saw the parents, I definitely stopped thinking about taking one. They were HUGE and powerful dogs, and although they were friendly, it was obvious that they need a really firm and professional hand to be kept in control! Maybe in the future...but for now Paulo and Liwa keep me busy enough! The breeder was a real character too! She told us about how friendly and nice her dogs are and at the same time showed us all her scars from when she was bitten. Also she told Martina that she should immediately buy a electric collar to stop the dog from hunting...When she saw that Martina was a bit hesitant about taking a puppy, she said that she shouldn’t worry as she could just hit the dog on the head if he was not behaving well...She wouldn’t stop telling us all these stories about biting dogs and how she won so many competitions and finally we left the place at midnight with two puppies. It was a loooong drive back and I was holding Hans puppy on my lap which was crying non-stop. We reached home at about 4:30 am and I was happy to fall asleep with Paulo & Liwa, my two lambs...

On the right track...

On the third day of the seminar, we had decided to start one hour earlier so that we could take the dogs and drive somewhere else to lay some tracks for them to follow. I was looking forward to it as Liwa seemed to like this. I took Liwa with me in the morning and had a coffee while Hans was packing some stuff into the car. After a while, everybody was ready and as we wanted to leave, I couldn’t find Liwa. Finally, Hans opens the back of his car and there she is sitting in a giant bowl of meat balls that Hans had prepared to lay the tracks!!! So Liwa had already been on the right track! As Liwa had eaten enough for the whole day (or 2), we had to leave her behind. Well, as you can imagine the rest of the day was quite boring for me...

Liwa, the 'Schnueffeldog'

We started the second day of the seminar with an introduction on how to teach your dog to follow a track. Hans prepared the first track which was about 80 meters long by lying down small meat balls with each food step in a straight line. At the end of the track he placed a handful of meatballs to reward the dog. Then he walked the track together with Liwa. She did a great job and immediately understood what she was supposed to do. She liked it so much that afterwards her nose would stick non-stop on the floor, which was a rather unwanted side-effect...

Longieren-Bringen-Suchen seminar - day 1

Today a 3 day seminar started where different productive methods of entertaining your dog are presented. Surprise, surprise, Hans introduced me to everybody saying that I would explain and show most of the stuff. Great, I was not prepared but fortunately had my notes to get through the stuff. Well, I realized that I have to study and train much more...but it was a nice group and fun to work with them anyways. When the course was finished, I went back to the training field with Liwa to continue teaching her to stay ‘down’ while I go away. The aim is for her to stay down for 30 minutes while I am out of sight!!! Well, although she did a great job today (I could stay away for about 5 minutes at about 100 meters in her sight), I guess that the task is not over yet...and only once she can do this perfectly well, we will take the next step...

Funny couple...

Finally we had a really lazy day! I got up at about 08:45 as I had agreed with one of the girls, Ulrike, who had come from Germany for the next 3 day seminar to go for a power walk. She has a giant ‘Dogge’ (don’t know what they are called in English), Lola, who looks just like a cow when you see her on the field as she is the same colour and nearly the same size! Well, we went for a relaxing walk instead and it was a lot of fun to see Paulo, Liwa and Lola run together in the fields! We couldn’t stop laughing when ‘mini’ Liwa started chasing after ‘giant’ Lola. Liwa would lose orientation in the field because she couldn’t see through the high grass, would go back onto the street, locate Lola and start jumping like crazy through the grass making little squeaky noises. After the walk, Martina and I drove to Germany for a massage. We felt like new born after and went for lunch. Once back home, we packed our back pack and went all the way up the Laubberg where we enjoyed a fantastic view and took a little nap (it was really little as Arthos, Martina’s dog, would make sure to wake us up by licking our faces immediately). In the evening, we went to a cosy Italian restaurant, ate a lot of food and drank a lot of wine before we both fell asleep at Martina’s place while talking on the phone (!!)and listening to Bibi Blocksberg tapes...

Power walking...

We spent the morning going through theoretical stuff for our exam and then we spent the afternoon teaching our dogs how to stay ‘down’ for a relatively long time while we go about 100 meters away. This sounds easier than it is because in reality this is more like power walking all day long! Each time the dog gets up, we have to run the 100 meters, put him down again and run back the 100 meters and this maybe 50 times which would add up to 5 km!! Liwa did a relatively good job but we were both totally exhausted in the end. In the evening we stayed for Andrea’s course for family dogs and now, I just want to eat, drink and sleep...as usual...

Pit bull action...

Today was a public holiday and Martina and I had planned to sleep a bit longer, meet at about 9:30 for breakfast and then study together for our exam. As always, destiny had programmed something else for us. I got up at about 8:45 and with still half my pyjama on, opened the door of my caravan to let the dogs out for their ‘pipi time’ assuming that nobody would be around. What I didn’t know, is that there was a client waiting for Hans just in front of my caravan. As we already knew each other, she asked me if I had seen Hans as she was waiting for her lesson with him and nobody was in the office. I called Hans and as the office hadn’t informed him about the lesson, he was still sleeping and asked me to give the lesson myself! Well, I quickly got dressed and went back to the client. Now the next surprise was that she had two pit bulls who were aggressive against other dogs...Great, what to do? We put their muzzles on and I showed her how to behave on a walk when she crosses with other dogs. Then I got Paulo and walked towards her. Next thing I know is that the pit pull attacks Paulo with full speed. I throw the hose pieces at him in time and he goes back to his owner. Paulo of course is getting half of a heart attack with all this action...Anyways, we did the same kind of confrontation several times and finally the pit bull wouldn’t attack anymore. Then Hans joined and took out more dogs to confront. In the end we put the two pit bulls together with about 6 other dogs alone in a fenced area. Nothing happened anymore! After the lesson, Hans gave Martina, Carmen (who joined us for the next two days with her German Sheperd), a lesson with our dogs. And then finally, I could get breakfast and a shower, just before lunch time! We spent the rest of the day studying for our exam and then went for a nice dinner altogether to our favourite restaurant.

Liwa in action...

When I got up in the morning as usual, it felt strange as I had nothing to do! Angelo’s kennel was empty! Martina continued her daily routine: she walked Arthos, worked with him and Hans on the training field and cleaned the kennels...and I was just watching...The whole morning I was watching...I must admit that I learnt a lot by watching but I was missing Angelo...In the afternoon, Hans asked me to bring Liwa and I was finally back in action. We taught her how to go ‘down’ and stay down on the same spot while I would go away. As always, she learnt amazingly fast! Little Liwa would just stay on the middle of the field and wait for me without getting up; hard to imagine if you know this wibbly rat that would typically jump around and be out of control!Other people and their dogs need months to learn this but with Hans, it takes one afternoon! When I played with her and the hose, she attacked the hose with such passion that everybody agreed that Liwa will be a terrific future police dog...

Heart burn...

Today was a sad day. Angelo left to his new home in Tuscany. When his owners came to pick him up, I was just busy on the training field but could see from uphill how Angelo jumped into his new Porsche Cayenne...I didn’t really want to go down but then did so to be polite to his new owners. They were happy to see me and asked me for my mobile number in case they had any problems with Angelo. When they asked me if I wanted to say good-bye to Angelo, I denied as I had already said good-bye to him earlier when we were alone...and I also perfectly knew that I wouldn't be cabable of holding off my tears...Although I knew from the beginning that Angelo would leave, it broke my heart! In just one month we became best friends. It was a tough beginning and especially due to this, our relationship was even stronger now and I could hardly call him a ‘Mustang’ anymore but rather a ‘lamb’...Angelo would never leave me out of his sight and carefully follow every single movement I do, listen to everything I say, be best friends with Paulo, play his favorite game with all his passion where I would throw a hose and he would bring it back and be so incredibly gentle and sweet when I would snuggle him...knowing how we started off, this was such a beautiful experience...
Hans, who knew how sad I was (I know that he was at least as sad as I was and had slept with Angelo in his bed the night before!!), made sure to keep me busy that day. He put Martina and me in charge to handle an advanced course for people and their dogs who are preparing for an official Swiss exam. We were quite overwhelmed with the task but after a few initial difficulties, we managed quite well. By the time we were done, it was already nearly
9 pm and all I could think of was food, our obligatory 'most' (cider) and sleep!

Angelo's glamorous future...

After about 4 hours sleep, I had to get up again because we were expecting Angelo’s future owner for the day. I went for a last walk alone with Angelo in the morning, washed and brushed him and snuggled him before his new owner and his wife arrived. We spent the day with them showing them how to handle Angelo. Angelo will have a life many would envy: his new owners mostly travel on their luxury 60 feet yacht or enjoy life in their villa on the Steinberger lake near Munich or occasionally chill out in their new villa in Tuscany...I know that they will take excellent care of him...

Vienna...

Well, we finally left to Vienna at about 1 pm and arrived at about 1 am. We stopped for a break in Salzburg at Martina’s house where we took the eagle and the dog out into the garden and had a nice dinner prepared by Martina’s mum: my new favourite meal, ‘sur’ Schnitzel! The next day, it was Hans birthday and we welcomed him with a mini cake and a candle at our hotel’s breakfast buffet. Then we spent the whole day at the fair. We had 4 shows with Hans and his dog Sirius but nevertheless, it was a bit slow. In the evening we went to the ‘Heuriger’(a typical restaurant where they serve local wine and food)to celebrate Hans birthday. The next day at the fair was much more interesting as somebody arrived with an extremely aggressive dog (a Dutch shepherd) that attacks people and dogs, basically everything that moves, without any previous warnings. His owner had tried to train him as a police dog and one of his trainers had hanged the dog for a while when he wouldn’t bark when he was expected to!!! Starting from then, the dog became aggressive. He was wearing a muzzle and he started by attacking the security guard and then even Hans. Hans worked with him on stage while many people were watching and after a while he just took off the muzzle and snuggled with the dog! It was amazing to see how quickly he connected with the dog and the dog trusted him! Then he put the muzzle back on and asked Martina and me to come on stage to assist him. We had to walk to the dog and confront him, for example by jumping in front of him. The dog attacked Martina and hit her with the muzzle on the chin (that hurts!!). I must admit that my heart was beating much quicker than usual when Hans asked me right after to go to the dog and pet him!! However, I was lucky and nothing happened...after a while the dog became much calmer and by the end of the day the owner wouldn’t stop thanking us for what we had done. She had tried different therapies for years but nothing would work and people had told her that her dog was a hopeless case. Hans said that if she would join us for just a few days, the dog would be completely fine! We left late and finally arrived back home at 2 am!

Vienna preparations...

Today we are leaving for Vienna as we are participating in a big animal exhibition, EXOTICA. It’s aprox. an 8 hr drive from Gansingen. We were supposed to leave at 9 am but as it is quite common with Hans, plans have changed over night: He decided to take his eagle and therefore we are now waiting for the public vet to fill out some papers...Also we will have to take the trailer which will add at least 2 more hours to our trip. So we are talking about a 10 hours drive now. Well, I took advantage of the extra time and went for a walk with Angelo, Paulo and Liwa. Liwa was not all happy to see Angelo again who on the other side seems quite attracted to her...In the end, we had a good walk and a very obedient Liwa who wouldn’t leave my side. More to Vienna, when I am back on Monday...

Happy Teenies...

A school class of 16 years old came to visit Wolfsprung the whole day. It was really touching to see how they were captured by the place and fascinated by everything we would show them. I must admit that I didn’t expect this from a group of adolescent teenagers. Hans did a little show with his dogs and I took Angelo out for a little while. We also did a kind of mediation with Ayana, the eagle. For dinner Martina and I went back to our favourite restaurant ‘Baer’. Later on Hans also joined and we had a very nice chat. When we came back, we took our mustangs out together with Paulo and Liwa. Paulo was happily playing with Angelo but Liwa quickly disappeared in my caravan.

Bitchy Liwa...

Today we did a lot of theory stuff with Hans. I realized that dog training lies in the details and that it needs a lot of practice and experience to become proficient. As yesterday was an extremely long and tiring day and today our head was filled with new stuff, we are quite groggy. So I went for a 2 hr walk with Paulo & Liwa all the way to the top of the Laubberg which is at about 650 meters. We enjoyed a fantastic view and observed parachutists. When I came back Hans and Martina were having a cigarette in front of my caravan. Then Martina, the dogs and I went for a nice dinner in the village. Liwa decided not to like one of the waitresses and started growling each time she would approach the table. However, she didn’t have any problems with Sonja, the daughter of the owner who then took over from the other waitress. Restaurant ‘Baer’ is now our new top favourite. They serve excellent meat as they also have a butchery next door and Sonja always takes very good care of us.

24hrs are not enough...

Today was a long and productive day! We started at 06:45 am as always from now on and I stopped working at 10 pm! First, we started off where we left the evening before: we took the dogs in the trailer once again, drove to the other side of the mountain as the sun was shining on that side already and we played with our mustangs. Then, for the rest of the morning, Hans was busy and Martina and my task was to teach the new trainees some basics in dog training. In the afternoon, Hans taught us some new stuff that we need to know for our exam that will take place at the end of June and then we assisted Hans for his evening course where he prepares a group of people for the ‘Schweizer Halterpruefung’, an official exam for dog owners in Switzerland, developed and managed by Hans. In between all those activities, we walked our mustangs several times, I went bicycling with Paulo and Liwa, I also walked them and we ate some wild cherries from the trees, Martina and I prepared a Greek salad for everybody at lunch time , I tidied up my caravan and I did several training sessions with Paulo and Liwa to teach them how to sit quietly...Now, my feet are full of blisters and I can barely walk and I am quickly going to sleep as tomorrow we have an early start again...

Pfingsten...

Today was a public holiday and Hans went to see his daughter Tanaya. However, he had left a message with Caro asking us to clean the windows of our dog’s kennel and the bathroom that we all use and to do some work with our mustangs. In the morning 2 new trainees appeared, Dieter and Michael. Just before lunch time, Hans came back with his daughter. Then Martina and I went to lunch with the new trainees thinking that the rest of the day was more or less off. So we started eating and drinking but after a while, Hans called saying that he was waiting for us. We all rushed back and had a briefing on how the next month will look like. Later on, Hans told Martina and me that we should take the dogs in the trailer and come with him to drop Tanaya home. We were not too happy as she lives quite far away (about 1.45h). He then explained that he would drop us in a city on the way so that we could walk the dogs while he drops Tanaya. Well, Hans picked us up about 2 ½ hours later and we arrived back home at 11 pm!