Our favourite lake...

It was a beautiful day and too hot to work much with the dogs so Suhail and I decided to go to our favourite lake. We rented a pedalos boat and the dogs were happy to follow as they are already used to being on a boat. We stopped in the middle of the lake and jumped into the water. Liwa would do her usual squeaks as she was scared of jumping into the water but then joined us for a swim when I took her in. Paulo stayed in the boat observing the ducks swimming nearby. Our day at the lake ended nicely with a delicious pizza and our favourite ‘suure Most’...

Heavenly holiday in the mountain of angels...

My daily writing was again interrupted by so many events...The most exciting of all was our trip to Engelberg. Suhail came to see me from Abu Dhabi and we rented a car in Gansingen, took the dogs and drove to the mountains. As we were meeting our friend Roger in Engelberg who hadn’t arrived yet, we decided to kill some time and walk around the ‘city’, 4 times we walked forth and back as we realized that the ‘city’ was not really huge...We then took a cable car to go high up to the mountains Fuehrenalp. We were excited as the dogs had never been in the mountains or in a cable car.They acted like they had done this every day of their life...Liwa particularly enjoyed new smells and textures and suddenly came back totally black and with a disgusting smell...yes, she rolled in some ‘freshly made’ cow shit...Paulo got ‘high’ running around like crazy while Suhail and I were getting high in our own way above the clouds...

Later on we met Roger and stayed the first night at his wonderful ‘Alpenhouse’ in the valley of Engelberg. The house is surrounded by open fields and the dogs had a great time running around and discovering the area while we were enjoying the Swiss ‘suure Most’, some kind of apple cider. As Roger shares the house with his brother and wife who have 3 boys, Paulo was delighted to play with the boys while Liwa was hunting mice in the fields. We also discovered that both dogs are passionate about playing Frisbee. They would run forth and back between us hunting the Frisbee without getting tired until the thing landed on the rooftop! Also they were quite interested in the kittens that were kept in Roger’s house but we made sure that they wouldn’t use them as a ‘Frisbee’ replacement...Eventually, they got to hunt the kitten’s mother around who in her desperation jumped against the closed kitchen window...Well, I guess there is still some training to be done...

The next day we took off for a half day excursion climbing up the mountains with the aim to go swimming in natural glacier water pools. Well, even for the dogs this water was too cold for swimming and while the guys were proving how brave they were by jumping into the water, I and the dogs took a little nap in the field. In the late afternoon, we checked into our luxury suite in the Alpenclub hotel. This was Suhail’s surprise for me: a fantastic mountain style suite including a whirlpool that changes the colour of the lights in the water every few seconds, a high wooden cealing, a cosy fire place and a mega modern bathroom with a shower where the blue shimmering water is coming from the ceiling like a waterfall...loved it! Although the hotel at first told us that dogs were not allowed, they finally agreed under the condition that the dogs would not go on the sofa or the bed. The first thing they did was of course to jump onto the bed like it was theirs and they loved it as it was big and soft...Thus, while I was removing the dogs from the bed and tying them up in the entrance, Suhail was taking care of the champagne. When we cheered, I held up the glass into the light showing Suhail the steady bubbles coming up telling him that this was an indication for a good champagne. Suhail seemed a bit weird and then asked me if I could see anything else in the champagne than just bubbles...And then I saw something shiny in the bottom of the glass...Well, I guess I don’t have to explain what exactly this was...

We spent the last day of our romantic holiday at a beautiful mountain lake. This is where Paulo got to know the mountain cows. When he saw the water he immediately ran to the beach but he hadn’t taken into consideration that this beach was the cow’s territory. Soon one cow came running towards him and when Paulo finally noticed the cow just in front of him he nearly got a heart attack and started running for his life...In his panic he even managed to climb a nearly vertical hill and then hid behind us with his tail between his legs. From now on he would make a huge detour each time we would meet other cows...Here, the water was cold but ‘swimmable’ and when we found a ‘cowless’ beach, we all went for a refreshing bath. Liwa was extremely busy diving for enormous stones that were half the size of her own body. She would put her entire head inside the water and then carry them to the beach. After a short amount of time, she had a whole collection. As for Paulo, he regained his self confidence and started exploring again. Suddenly, we heard a really loud squeak coming from him. Poor Paulo, in his curiosity, he wanted to cross a small bridge which was closed with a fence and when he got to close with his long nose, he got hit by the electricity...and again he came running towards us with his tail between his legs...He seemed to have made the connection with me punishing him for running too far away and wouldn’t leave my side anymore. Well, this was not Paulo’s lucky day as the events continue: To go back down into the village, we rented some sort of a bike (see the picture) and the dogs of course had to run down all the way on the road. At first Paulo was even faster than we were but after a while he wouldn’t want to move anymore and I had to wait for him all the time. Once in the village, I understood why: he had hurt all his paws from running that fast on the road...For the next few days, he would walk like on eggs, like a 15 year old dog...

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...