My trip back to the desert...

I was impressed about how smooth the whole check-in of the dogs was at Zurich airport! When in Dubai it had taken us about 2 ½ hours to check them in, here, it took me about 15 minutes! I just had to go to ONE office (in Dubai we had to run from one place to the other) where they were already expecting me with all the documents ready (in Dubai I had to fill out a million different papers, get stamps etc.) and all I had to do is to deliver the dogs and pay the bill. So I ended up being at the airport far too early which doesn’t happen to me too often...I have travelled a lot and I experienced that you can get a pretty good picture of the country where you are going to looking at the crowd queuing at the gate. Usually, the crowd going to Dubai would be quite weird, some people talking Arabic, huge Indian families, tourists that had no idea where they were going, wannabees, business men looking to sell something...a weird mix of people...This time however, I felt quite comfortable in this crowd and I didn’t have the feeling that I was going to some weird place. I must admit that I was relieved. In the plane, I got to sit next to a really nice guy who was going on a business trip and we had a nice chat. Indeed, I was in a much better mood than expected. So the whole trip was very smooth until I arrived in Dubai. I couldn’t find Suhail in the airport and it took my more than 30 minutes to get my phone to work so I could call him. However, when I called him, his phone was off...So what to do? I had to pick up the dogs, this clearly was my priority. Thus, I took a cap to go to the cargo terminal and the taxi driver who was not happy to do such a small trip, just dropped me in the middle of the cargo terminal together with my 40 kg of luggage...and there I was, not knowing where to go and not being able to move because of all the luggage. Well, somehow I managed to make my way through and after 2 hours!!!!! I finally find Suhail who was in the final process of getting the dogs. After a total of 2 ½ hours Paulo and Liwa are released and since it’s the middle of the night we are all happy to finally go home...

Bye-bye Laubberg...

Well, I don’t know exactly where to start with this last story from the Laubberg, but I will start with the end of it: I got back to my caravan at 2 am with 3 eagle feathers in my hair...maybe it doesn’t sound so funny but I keep on looking at myself in the mirror and I can’t stop laughing when I see myself with all those feathers in my hair...Well, the crazy thing is that tomorrow morning I am flying back to the desert and I haven’t finished packing yet...maybe now I think it’s funny but I am sure that tomorrow morning when I wake up at 5 am, it’s not that funny anymore...Anyways, I had a fantastic last evening...I was in the middle of getting ready for tomorrow’s flight, when Hans came to my caravan...I then joined him in the dog school to take care of the last details before my departure and then we started having some wine, some good talks and finally we ended up going to the Italian restaurant to have some food. And after having some food, we had some digestives... I was very happy to see Pasquale, the restaurant’s owner, who had been seriously ill in hospital lately. Now he was back to work and he sat down with us and we had a really great time. I just realized that in this little village I made so many friends...Pasquale, from the Italian restaurant always making a very special pizza for me, Sonja, from the Baeren (another village restaurant)who already would bring food and drinks without asking because she knew my taste, Hans, my crazy but genius teacher, Bryndis, the Viking Goddess, Patricia with her ‘Kletten’(2 very charming Goldies that would never leave her side), Andre, who always has a smile on his face and works 7 days a week, Gabi, Billy’s owner who came to say goodbye with a homemade cake and a photo of Billy, her dog that I trained during 2 months...Leopold who always traded some delicious Lindt chocolate against a kiss, Martina who came by to give me some cream for Paulo’s ears as he wouldn’t stop scratching himself...I feel loved and I love this place and it’s people...and tomorrow I am leaving to start my new life in the desert...I have changed...in a good way but I am not sure if I will fit in the place where I am going to...Let’s see, after all, it is my wish and my decision to go back and start a new life...good night, Laubberg, I love you!

Paulo's many talents...

Well, one of Paulo’s biggest talents surely is to steal food and this is why his nick name on the Laubberg is Paulo, the thief. When I would let him run around free on the Laubberg, I don’t have to worry as I always know where to find him: It could be in the horse’s stable sharing the horse’s food like apples, carrots or old bread, it could be in Hans house finishing the cat food, it could be behind the dog’s kennels emptying one of the big bags of dog food or it could be behind Hans caravan cleaning the waste bucket...He perfectly knows all the spots where to find food and also how to sneak into these places without anybody noticing...Another nick name he got is the natural gas search dog. He got this name due to his passion to hunt bubbles in the water. While other dog’s would run around and have fun swimming in the water, Paulo would spend hours putting his entire head into the water of a lake or a river trying to catch bubbles that would come up from the bottom. He would then end each session with pulling out a big stone that he would put on a pile...Paulo is indeed, an extraordinary dog...

Doggies go mad in their first time snow...

Today was a big day for the dogs...From one day to the other wintertime started and the first snow showed up in the mountains. As it was a cold but sunny day my parents and I decided to spend the day in Engelberg hoping for some snow. And yes, as soon as we drove up the mountain, snow started to show and we decided to take a cable car that would take us to an about 1800 meter high lake, the Truebsee. The dogs happily jumped into the cable car and got quite a surprise when we got out: there was about 50 cm of snow waiting for us. Liwa at first was quite surprised when she got off the path into the snow and sank but the next second she got completely mad jumping around like a wild rabbit. Paulo was a bit more cautious but the moment he found out how much fun it is to run in the snow, he got wild too and we could barley stop them from going mad for hours. The funniest thing is that the snow was so high that Liwa would constantly sink and get stuck in the snow. She wouldn’t give up though and continue jumping like a wild rabbit until she would get out. In the end she got so good at it that it seemed that she was a flying rather than a running dog. Paulo looked beautiful in the white scenery, like an ice bear, especially since after a while there were little snow balls sticking to his long fur. After their very first walk in the snow, they were so incredibly exhausted that they slept in the car for the rest of the day while we enjoyed a delicious cheese fondue at the Alpenclub restaurant...

Another trip to the mountain of angels...

From Maienfeld we left to Engelberg to see Roger performing in a local jazz concert. This time, the dogs stayed in the hotel during the evening as they were exhausted from all their impressions at the wine festival anyways. The concert which took place in Engelberg’s famous monastery was an amazing experience for me. Although I don’t understand much about music, the music we got to listen to which was mainly piano and Roger with the saxophone, was so incredibly beautiful that I was deeply touched.

The next day we met early for breakfast at Roger’s beautiful country house and then took off for the Fuehrenalp Mountain. The guys decided to climb up on the steep side of the mountain and the girls and the dogs went for a relaxing and chatty walk up. Liwa decided again to play the suicide dog as she would run ahead on the walking path and then come down again vertically off-road to join us which looked quite dangerous. Paulo, as usual was more focused on stealing food from walkers having a break than on climbing adventures. Guys and girls met up again on the top of the mountain where we had a rustic Swiss mountain meal in the chalet. The dogs were again getting a lot of attention and French fries and when I left Paulo with someone else for a second I could in the last minute jump between him and the neighbour’s steak...Paulo always seems to well-behaved and it if often hard to believe how sneaky he really is...

Wine festival in Heidiland...

I took a weekend off to meet with Bernd, Vera and Roger. As I couldn’t rent a car, Hans gave me his pickup Ranger. The dogs couldn’t wait to go, happily jumped into the car and off we went to Heidiland, which is part of the authentic Switzerland where the story of Heidi the mountain girl comes from. Our final destination was Maienfeld to take part in the wine festival. As we arrived quite late in the evening and I was tired, I was planning to leave the dogs in the car while I would join my friends for dinner. But when Vera picked me up, she said that everybody was curious to see them and that I better take them. Well, they happily joined us to the restaurant and behaved reasonably well. After dinner we walked around in the small picturesque streets that were already decorated with plenty of flowers for the next day’s wine festival. Then we tied up the dogs in front of a bar and decided to taste some of the Maienfelder wine, which is, by the way, delicious! While we were enjoying the wine, everybody who would come in or out of the bar would admire the dogs, talk to them and pet them. The dogs were very happy with all this attention and I am sure that for them it felt like being in the movie theatre with so many things to observe...The next day, the streets were full of people and stands where you could buy regional specialities. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all enjoyed walking around, including the dogs. For them it was a again a big adventure as they came across things they had never seen in the desert...Liwa was very fascinated by the flying balloons filled with gas and also made friends with a fox fur which was being sold at one of the stands. Everybody had a great laugh when she would stand up on her two little back legs to reach the table and be nose to nose with the dead fox. Also the village fountains covered with floating flowers attracted Liwa’s attention as she would try to take all the flowers out...In the meantime, we had to watch Paulo who would put his long nose on all the tables where they would sell foodstuff so we wouldn’t get into any trouble...Later on, we left the busy little streets and went for a nice sunny walk around the village. Then the afternoon came to an end with a delicious glass of white wine and a selection of village cheeses...

Liwa's last hunting experience...

We went on our usual autumn, foggy morning walk except that this time I had taken along my camera to shoot some pictures for the blog. We went all the way on the top of the Laubberg which is about 30 minutes walking until you reach the 645 meters. While I was taking pictures, Liwa probably saw something more interesting, and after a while I realized that she had gone. I called her a couple of times, but nothing, she was gone. So I thought a second about what to do and decided to leave her behind. Although we were quite far, I knew that Liwa is very good at finding her way back home and I thought it would probably have a great effect on her when she comes back and I am not there anymore. I walked all the way back home and Liwa didn’t come. Then I went to the school to have a coffee and suddenly Hans opens the door and tells me that someone is looking for me quite desperately...Liwa was back, completely exhausted with her tongue on the floor and whining like crazy when she saw me! Well, it was the right thing to do because since then, she keeps an eye on me constantly. The other day she stayed behind just a few meters and then I turned into a little path into the forest. Suddenly I see her panicking, turning around and running full-speed back towards the caravan as she thought that she had lost me. When I called her, she realized where I was, changed direction and came back immediately and wouldn’t leave me out of her sight...

Thoughts...

Over the years I got used to luxury. I started my ‘world trip’ with 700 Deutsche Mark (today this would be about 350 Euros) and at certain times had to share an apartment with 5 toothless people or with 4 filthy students, drink tap water and fast and even ask my friends to help me out because I didn’t have any money...And at one point, I started having a maid, a secretary, a driver, a gardener...I would buy whatever I felt like without looking at the price and fly to wherever I felt like without thinking twice about it, go to the beauty salon to get my nails and hair done...the usual question here is: did it make me happier? Well, I can say for sure without even thinking twice: it didn’t! I must admit that I really hated the times when I had to count every single coin...but the more money I had, the less I would appreciate what I would get for it...I would jet around the world and so what, before I was in heaven when I could afford one holiday to Greece and I would never ever forget this experience and now I would barely remember the last trip...It became a fast life, so fast that I couldn’t keep pace...Well, I just thought about this because now all of a sudden I am back to zero. I just went shopping and only bought DVDs that wouldn’t cost more than 5 francs and then wondered if I should have rented, looked at shoes that would be the cheapest of the cheapest and still ask myself if I would really need them...I live in a caravan that is the size of a shoe box, shower in the dog’s shower, wear clothes that I wore when I was 15 and book hotel rooms where you have to share a shower with the whole floor...And the funny thing is that I feel truly happy. In the morning I walk out of my caravan and step right into the nature, I walk above the fog like on clouds and see the sun coming out and its soft rays penetrating the forest exposing all its autumn colours. Every morning, Liwa leads the way with her self-confident little terrier walk and Paulo strolls behind me in his relaxed Saluki path...When I come back from my morning walk, I feel fresh and full with energy. What I realize is that here I have nothing to worry about because I have nothing to lose and this gives me the peace I need...Each time I think about going back home I get nervous (actually I am terrified) because I will have to start worrying about all those things that I don’t really care about: about all the money (to be more precise, all my savings) that I invested into apartments which are not doing too well these days, about going to court because of corrupted real estate deals, about not having a real home because prices just went mad and over there you don’t really have anything in-between (it’s either a 5 star mansion or a prison and don’t even think about living in a caravan – that’s why we decided to live on a yacht...), about going to high society receptions where I have nothing to say, about dealing with superficial people every day with whom I have nothing to share...It’s really funny, I really don’t have anything over here and I look like an fff (filthy fat farmer girl) and I really don’t miss anything...I mean, in terms of’things’...I of course miss being with Suhail (my fiancée), our romantic weekends on Abu Dhabi’s deserted islands and the overwhelming silence of the desert...I don’t want to say that everything is negative back home, the point is that having not much but the essential to live, being in the middle of nature and being surrounded by very special people that I connect with and having a job that I am completely passionate about is nearly enough to make me happy...love is the only thing missing...

Billy's story...

The day has just started, it is 6 am and it is completely dark, cold and foggy outside. I had to get up early so I could shower in the special dog shower at the school. The reason for this is that Hans has started renovating his house and we cannot even go inside anymore as they are tearing everything out and my shower in the caravan is boiling hot and then turns cold after 2 minutes. So I prefer to shower there before everybody arrives at 7 am and would surprise me naked in the dog shower...

At least now I have some time to catch up on Billy’s story. Billy is a long haired German shepherd I took over from his owner for 1 ½ months (I mentioned that some time back). The problem with Billy was that due to being very unsecure, he would run away from his owner each time they would meet another dog, go towards the other dog and bark and since it’s quite of an impressive dog, people wouldn’t like this too much and his owners started getting very nervous about this. If they would keep him on the leash he would start pulling, whining and barking and it would really look like a sort of a panic attack. Also, they couldn’t walk him in unknown areas as he would become very nervous and equally get his panic attack. Taking him in the car was the worse; he would whine nonstop and then bark like crazy when you would leave him alone in the car. Same thing if you would leave him alone anywhere, even in the kennel. So you can imagine the owner’s life. They could not take him along anywhere in the civilized world and neither leave him alone without the neighbours calling the police. I remember the day when the owner who once was a famous motor bike race driver dropped Billy at the Laubberg. He was quite desperate with this dog and at the same time he had tried everything to get him under control and now was very sad to leave him behind, smoking a cigarette outside his car once he had left Billy with me.

Well, Billy turned out to be key to my training here because honestly, this dog seemed completely out of control. On my first walk with him, he ran away and gave me a first taste of what he is capable of when we met another dog. In these moments, he would close up completely and there is absolutely nothing that would calm him down. Therefore, the first step of training was to teach him to run in a circle like horses do. This is the best therapy for this kind of dog. First you teach him how it works until he can run in a circle without any leash and then you confront him with other dogs. This means that he runs clockwise and the other dogs the other way around. The effect of the circle after a while is that instead of getting nervous, he just runs faster in the circle as he can’t go anywhere else. The dog at one point gets into what we call compulsion (in short, compulsion is when the dog needs as much energy to come back to his handler as he needs to run away). It may sound easy but it took me a month of hard work, having this dog run in a circle 3 times a day for 30 minutes. Once he seemed more stable, I started taking him for walks and indeed, he was under control. In the beginning he was still getting nervous and it would still happen from time to time that he would run or bark but then by using the hose technique with the right timing, he became more and more reliable. Then, I started to walk him in new areas that he wouldn’t know and even go to very busy places, lakes, rivers, cities etc. and he would stick to me like glue. He became neutral to outside elements and extremely focused on me.

The final test before he would go back to his owner was to take him to Stuttgart to one of our 3-day seminars. This time I would participate with Billy instead of acting as a trainer. Well, this was also a good test for my nerves! As Billy was exposed to an extreme level of stress due to a completely unknown environment, 20 dogs at a time on a training field, staying alone in the car on the hotel, new people etc. we got into some conflicts again. The first challenge was the car. He started whining and it took some endurance to shut this off. I had to go through the same procedure when it came to staying alone in the car, at the training field’s guest kennel or the hotel. He wouldn’t let out any situation where he could start his game again. You can imagine that when the seminar started, my nerves were already quite stretched...Then, when I took him out of the car for the first time at the training field, he got incredibly nervous when he saw all those new dogs and people. Therefore, I just wanted him to sit until he would calm down. But to get him to sit in such situations was not easy and without me taking any physical influence on him, he would whine and cry in a way that everybody who would hear him would think that I was killing him. Surprisingly enough, he turned out to be very good during the seminar and would work extremely well with the other dogs. I had him run in a circle again to demonstrate to the group how the end product looks like while they would confront him with their dogs and it worked perfectly. Also when we went for our first walk off the leash confronting bikers, joggers and other dogs he was great. However, when I thought that everything was fine, on the last day he decided to run away with Liwa in a field first thing in the morning, attack three joggers in the later morning and a farm dog in the afternoon. Obviously, I was not happy about this and talked to Hans. He was very confident and said that this is the set back that he had been waiting for because only after this he would become really stable. Well, he was right. We kept him 2 more weeks after that and he was just perfect in any situation.

It was the most amazing experience to give Billy back to his owner. They just couldn’t believe what they saw and thought that it was a different dog. They were incredibly happy and grateful. We walked tighter with Billy along a river and through a city and he was perfectly well behaved even with his owner taking the lead. Now it comes to teach the owners as their insecurities and mistakes could surely provoke a setback. Every 2 weeks they are coming for lessons and so far so good...