A dog's life...

What does a dog’s life usually consists of? Well, the answer is pretty easy: sleeping, eating and walking…I have been thinking about this these past days as I felt that I was slowly but surely becoming a dog myself: being 2 months pregnant and therefore having had a 3 week break from work, my life all of a sudden looked very similar to my dog’s lives: we would get up together in the morning and go for an extended walk on the beach which all 3 of us would enjoy in his own way: Paulo would follow his usual path, ‘reading the dog’s newspaper’ or in other words, keeping informed of who was here and leave his mark behind and then proceed to find a convenient spot on the beach to enjoy his daily swim. Liwa would prefer to jump around on the rocks near the sea and sniffle out the rats that would hide underneath or roll in a rotting fish lying around. Meanwhile, I would walk on top of a big wall stretching along the sea enjoying the fresh sea breeze and trying to spot dolphins…On the way back, we usually meet Marianna and Colin, our neighbour with her massive Weimaraner male dog. So while our dogs would proceed with their usual greeting ceremony, Marianna and I would have our quick morning chat. Once back in the marina before hopping onto our boat, we would first have to get rid of all the sand on our feet/paws and get hosed up. Then we all would have just one thought: drink half a litre of water and have breakfast! And what would happen after breakfast? Well, exhausted from all the walking and eating, we would all pass out on the sofa for our first nap of the day! What a dog’s life…

Naughty Kobe...

Naughty Kobe...

As soon as I came back from Paris, I got ready for my first training session with Kobe. I called Nadia, his owner, to confirm our usual Sunday morning training session and got shocked at what she had to tell me: Kobe was recovering from a stomach operation at the vet! The story is as follows:
While I was gone for a week, Nadia gave birth to her first child, one week earlier than planned. Therefore, obviously she didn’t have any time to spend with Kobe. At the same time, he also didn’t have any training sessions as I was gone (usually I would train him 3 times a week). Bad timing! The natural consequence was that Kobe soon got bored and frustrated...and this is when he started playing the Golden Retriever’s favourite game and took his revenge: chew and swallow anything that comes your way! Believe it or not, one day he decided to chew and swallow a huge pebble that he picked up from the bathroom, 2 smaller stones from the garden, several pieces of glass and some other stuff that could not be identified...Fortunately, someone saw him chewing on the glass and he was immediately taken to the vet where they took x-rays that clearly showed everything that he had swallowed. There was no other option but to cut open his stomach and take the stuff out. Today I picked him up and poor Kobe has a large scar on his belly. He was incredibly happy to see me and once he realised that he was back home he started to jump around out of joy...He surely has suffered but I believe that since it didn’t kill him it could have only made him stronger...

Parisien Fata Morgana...

Nayla, a Lebanese friend of mine from Abu Dhabi, won a free trip to Paris at a raffle at work and I was fortunate enough to be ‘the chosen one’ to join her for this one week trip. It was a great change for us: while we were already fighting the heat in Abu Dhabi at about 30 degrees, the climate in Paris was windy, rainy and cold...We loved it and spent most of the week walking through the entire city...To cut a long story short, at one point we were in a museum called l’Orangerie where you can admire Monet’s full size water lilies in the daylight. This museum is situated inside a park called les Tuilleries which starts at the Louvre and takes you all the way to La Concorde. While I was looking outside the window I suddenly saw Paulo and Liwa playing in the park. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ran out of the museum to get closer. And then I could clearly see a big white Saluki looking just like Paulo playing with a Jack Russell Terrier, just like Liwa (just a big bigger)...and they were playing their favourite game: The Jack Russell would sneak up as close as he could to the saluki and then he would suddenly start running and chase the saluki who would run in big circles. I went even closer and took some pictures. Then I met the owner who told me that he had bought his saluki from a Belgium breeder and was interested to know more about the Salukis in Abu Dhabi...

Dogversation...

I finally published my own dog training website!!! Check it out and let me know if you like it:

www.dogversation.ae

Sonja Gehlsen is the UAE's first certified German Dog Trainer. Whether your dog is stubborn, nervous, insecure, obsessive, hyperor just normal, Sonja Gehlsen, will work with you and your best friend to create a better bond and solve your challenges...

The Paulo & Liwa show...

We took Nixi, our small boat, to a nearby island for an early morning trip. It is definitely worth getting up early as the mornings are the dolphins favourite ‘chill-out’ time in the shallow waters. Indeed, as soon as we (Suhail, Michelle, Luka and me) approached the island, we were surrounded by dolphins...Paulo & Liwa as always got very excited and as soon as we arrived on the island, Paulo went on his usual dolphin hunting swim. He swims far out into the open sea trying to catch up with the dolphins...at one point I have to call him back as I am not sure how far he would swim and if he would have enough energy to come back all the way to shore. Once Paulo was back, we decided to walk from one side of the island to the other and while walking we could already sense that Paulo and Liwa had a great deal of energy that day...Soon we found an idyllic spot nearby the water where we sat down to ‘chill out’...However, very fast this very ‘idyllic’ spot looked like a hurricane had just come through. The Paulo & Liwa show had started.: They would just run around us as if they got completely insane or they had been injected a considerable dose of ecstasy, dug holes in between us and ran again. It surely is a first class entertainment. At the same time I wonder why they always choose to do it right in the spot that we choose to relax when they have a whole island to themselves...The Paulo & Liwa show was repeated soon after this when we got back to the boat and took out the chairs on the beach to enjoy a few drinks. Paulo and Liwa worked very well in a team to dig holes under our chairs in a way that we would suddenly sink into the sand...Finally, we decided that they got enough fund and that now it was our turn. We drove to another island where there are no dogs allowed to enjoy a nice lunch in the beach club. I tied they dogs up inside the boat and after they drank about 2 litres of water, they took a long nap in the shade enjoying the fresh sea breeze...

Scary dogs...

Challenges dog owners would face with their dogs in Switzerland, Germany or Austria were most of the time very similar: dogs would go hunting when they were not supposed to, they would not come back on command when off the lead and something became more interesting than their owner (for some dogs, anything would turn out to be more interesting than their owner...) and when on the lead, they would tugg their owner around the block...
Well, in the Arab world, things are different! I was soon to find out that the most common challenge faced in this part of the world is that people are actually scared of their own dogs! In Europe this could certainly happen if for example a strong willed dog reacts with aggression when his owner tells him off; but this is not what I am talking about here. One of my first clients is the perfect showcase. She called me one evening asking for help because she could not take her dog out anymore. As she sounded extremely desperate, I went to see her immediately and while I was expecting a ferocious dog, I am facing a 4 months old Golden Retriever puppy! I took him out of his kennel and his owner, a young Palestinian mother, runs away lifting her hands up and screaming hysterically while the puppy is jumping up her legs. This immediately gave me a clear picture of the situation. I caught the puppy, calmed him down and got him to sit so the owner could approach him. However, she still refused to touch him because he was too smelly. Indeed, since he had not been taken out of his kennel for quite a while, he had been doing his business inside and the poor guy surely needed a bath! So the first lesson consisted of showing my new client on how to clean her dog...Given this situation, the same evening we agreed for me to come every day until things are under control. The second lesson consisted of showing my client how to approach and touch her dog. I put him up on the table and had him sit while she had to touch his ears, paws, etc. This lesson was more challenging than you would think as my client asked me several times if her dog could potentially bite her and was very hesitant to touch him. As soon as he would move or try to lick her hand, she would jump back. It seemed like a desperate case and indeed another trainer had given up after the third lesson but Buster was soon to become one of my best students...

Cobe adventures...

Very soon, we went back to the desert and this time we took Cobe, my new doggy student, along. Since he was still a bit insecure back then (this has completely changed now for the good and the bad :-)), we thought that it would be good for him to join us on one of our adventures. Indeed, he very soon got into it...He loved the desert! As soon as he got out of the car he started running up and down the dunes and it seemed that he would never run out of energy...Funnily enough, his colour was so similar to the colour of the sand that sometimes it was difficult to see him and he would become one with the desert...Cobe’s favourite thing to do in the desert: eat camel poo...

Another big adventure for Cobe was his first time at the beach. We took him on our boat ‘Nixi’ to a nearby island and he got his first swimming lesson: while he, Paulo and Liwa were going wild on the beach, he barely noticed that suddenly he was in the middle of the water. He immediately swam like a seal and it seemed like he had been born in the water...while we humans take a long and sometimes painful time to learn how to swim (I have quite a few bad memories about that...), dogs don’t even have to think about it twice: swimming is part of the dog’s natural instincts...Cobe’s favourite thing to do on the beach: pick up empty water bottles...