wild hunting pack....

Even though it is Sunday, I had planned to get up at 5:30 am to go for my usual morning bycicle ride. But well, I woke up, it was raining, kind of dark, the dogs were sleeping deeply and I had a swollen eye because of a moquito bite and I thought that these were enough reasons to turn around and continue sleeping...I woke up again at 08:45 and as it had stopped raining, I quickly got ready and Angelo, Paulo, Liwa and I took off for our bike tripp. But today the luck was not on our side: Just after 5 minutes it started raining again and I didn't have anything to cover up. Then Paulo suddenly started running like crazy and before I could understand what was happening Liwa and Angelo joined in and all 3 of them were hunting a dear on the field. I managed to call Angelo and Liwa back but Paulo was gone and I think that I had never seen him running that fast...Anyways, he lost track of the dear and came back. I pinched him so hard that he would squeek and had all of them sit for a few seconds before we would continue our ride. At this point, I thought that everything would be fine again as at the end of the day, it was only due to my late reaction that I lost control and they had hardly shown any hunting behaviour before when we would see dear, foxes etc. crossing our way. Well, 20 minutes later, a rabbit crossed our way and although Paulo and Angelo at first kept calm, this time Liwa got TOTALLY out of control and started hunting the rabbit. She was completely gone, squeeking and running like I had never seen her before. And of course, Paulo and Angelo couldn't resist and started running after Liwa and the rabbit. At one point, the rabbit turned around and nearly ran into me and there I could stop the dogs as I jumped onto Angelo. Now I was INCREDIBLY upset. They nearly caught the rabbit and there is no way I could tolerate this. On top of all, we were in a protected area where hunting dogs are shot immediately. I punished them very hard and had them do 'down' on the floor for at least 10 minutes for them and even more for me to calm down. When we continued our way, I could feel that the dogs were in a big hunting mood. They were sniffeling the floor and pointing their ears to every single noise that would come from the forest. Only 5 minutes later, a dear crossed our way and Liwa and Angelo left again. Paulo it seems, had learned his lesson and stayed with me this time. He always made sure to leave some distance between him and me as he was now scared of any consequences. Angelo and Liwa stopped a few meters away from me as the dear had jumped into the forest and I caught them at their collars and even though I punished them again, they hardly calmed down. Especially Liwa was completely out of her mind. I decided to walk the rest of the way to be better in control and was happy when we finally reached home. What a disaster!!!

Crazy Billy...

I have a new dog! But just for a few weeks...:) His owner dropped him yesterday as he couldn't handle him anymore and Hans put me in charge to train him. He is a friendly, 1 1/2 year old long-haired German Sheperd. The only problem seems to be that his owner cannot hold him or call him back anymore when they meet other dogs because Billy wants to greet them and that he is very nervous in areas that he doesn't know. So the owners aim is to be able to call him back in every situation. He is a funny dog because he would stick to my leg like glue when we went for the first walk and not let me out of his sight for one second and then, when we arranged for another dog to meet us, he was gone so fast that I didn't have any time to react whatsoever!! However, the second encounter was already much better, probably because I now knew what to expect and he nicely sat next to me while the other dog was passing by...

chilling at the lake...

As it got very hot over here, Martina and I decided to spend one Sunday at a nearby lake together with Paulo, Liwa and Martina's puppy Baily. The dogs had a great time: Baily went for a swim for the first time of her life, Paulo hunted water bubbles for hours and read a book, Liwa decided not to get too wet and to chill like a lady in the grass...As for Martina and I, we enjoyed our pick nick and tanning session but had to pay the price: we got mosquito bites all over our bodies...

Bye bye...

I always enjoy meeting great people on the Laubberg. But unfortunately, great people come and great people leave again...And today everybody left at the same time. Caro had been here for 6 weeks to help Hans taking care of the animals and in the office and Andre had been here for a one month internship. It was a good team, Caro played a key role in planning and event mangement and would efficiently keep us all up to data on a daily level. Also I wouldn't need an alarm clock anymore as she would start taking out the dogs at 5:30 am and this is when the barking concert would start and Sonja would slowly but surely wake up...Andre put all his energy and passion in taking care of the animals, building training tables, painting, cutting grass, whatever was needed. Every morning he was there at 7 am and would leave at about 8 pm and his positive energy would spread around...It is truly refreshing to be surrounded by motivated and positive people who follow their heart...We had a delicious good bye barbeque accompanied by an impressive sun set and are looking forward to all meet very soon on the magic Laubberg again...

early morning riders...

With Hans we decided to go for a morning ride, him with the horse, Caro with the pony and me with the 'Drahtesel' (iron donkey: bicycle). Of course, our dog pack was allowed to join the early moring riders: Hans dogs, Sirius, Kirac and Sedona and my dogs Paulo, Liwa and Angelo. It was amazing to see the dogs in the pink light of the sun rise running free and full of energy in the juicy fields...Even Liwa with her short legs would keep up with the pace and make sure not to miss out on any action and Paulo would have a lot of fun running with full speed behing the horses to scare them...

As we all very much enjoyed the ride, we decided to do the same the next day. This time, Hans and Caro went for a short ride and since I was eager to discover a new track that Hans had shown me the day before , I took off on my own with Angelo, Paulo and Liwa. We went onto a path in the middle of the forest on top of the mountain and it was again an amazing experience: we saw the first sun rays coming through the tall trees, a fox crossing our way and a lot of dear. I was happy to see that Angelo would always stick next to my bike instead of going for a hunt. As for Paulo and Liwa, they were busy with keeping up the pace...

I must admit that I had a tough time getting up at 5:30 in the morning but it is definetely worth the effort...

My new 'gold bear'...

Now that Angelo is leaving soon, I got a new dog who will be here for the next 3 weeks for me to train. He is a young Golden Retriever imported from the States and as I first didn't know how to pronounce his real name, Huey, I called him 'Goldie' thanks to my creative mind...He is very friendly, even too friendly as he wants to greet everything and everybody who comes his way which is the owners main problem. Also he doesn't follow the most basic commands like sit and down. After looking at him, Hans said that he went through a fast track and rather tough and forceful training, probably in the States, using a so called choke chain. Therefore, he doesn't really enjoy to work and is quite stubborn. Within one day he would stick to me like glue when we would go on a walk (without a leash as only a free dog can learn) and he would nicely sit next to me when other dogs or people would pass by. As for sit and down, he is doing better every day and is becoming much less stubborn. Now that he follows the commands, I started to condition them with food in order for 'Goldie' to enjoy the work and to be faster...And yes, he definetely can't wait to work now...

Angelo the super dog...

Well, it has been quite some time since I wrote last and many things happened. I have been working a lot with Angelo since he is back and we finally came to a big break through. He achieved such a high level of training that we can now take any further step without much effort but with a lot of fun. He just loves to work. Sometimes when we come back from a walk, he just runs up to the training field himself and his eyes are bascially telling me: come on Sonja, don't be lazy and let's do some work! So I open the gate and as he remembers the exact order of the previous training, he takes the starting position himself and starts working the excercise without me doing anything. An example: for the past week we worked every day on him taking very quickly and precisely 3 different positions when I give the command: sit, down and standing up. So he would just walk in the middle of the field, go down by himself and wait for me to come closer. As soon as I would come into his direction he would start switching positions without me giving him any commands...Once this excerise is finished, he would then jump on the table and go down to wait for further steps just the way I would have him do it after each exercise...Well, we have now found a new owner for him. She originally is from Cologne but now lives in some sort of castle in Switzerland. Heidi will come regularly during the next month so I can show her how to deal with Angelo and at the same time Hans and I will start the police dog training with Angelo. Heidi has recently been attacked at night outside her home and now wants a dog who can protect her in such situations. Well, I can hardly imagine a better dog than Angelo...She is really lucky and I hope that this time it will also work out for Angelo...It will be very hard for me to let go of him once again...