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...

Paulo & Liwa, the professional searching dogs...

Today was a relaxed day with just one private lesson in the afternoon. Therefore, Bryndis and I decided to work with our own dogs: Jack, Paulo & Liwa. We felt like doing something fun. First, we had them run in a circle (like the horses) as my objective is to get them really fit in this before I leave. This is a very good way to increase cooperation with your dog from a distance and strenghten your relationship. As Paulo doesn't really enjoy cooperating very much, he wouldn't stop yearning but this aside, cooperated quite well and sat down on just one command. Liwa did a really good job even though her concentration could be improved as she couldn't stop looking at the wolves that were observing all our movements...Then, the fun part started as we prepared everything to have them search our personal objects that carry our personal smell. We would place different huts on the field and hide one personal object e.g. a sock or a mobile phone etc. under one of them. While we hide the object, the dog has to sit in a certain distance and observe the whole procedure: we hide something under one hut, but then pretend to hide sth else under another hut and then go forth and back etc. until we go back to our dog and give him the command to search. It's lovely to observe the dogs that look at every single movement you do while you are in action. And then, with a lot of passion they start searching and as they indicate that they found the object, they immediately have to sit down and we start a whole procedure again of taking the thing out and giving the dog a goody in exchange. Liwa gets absolutely excited when we play this game and can barely sit quietly while I go through the procedure. Then, she starts searching like crazy and finds it quite fast. Paulo however, didn't know at all what he was supposed to do and started scratching himself non-stop...as he seemed absolutely lost, I tried to help him and in the end I just pretended that he found it when he was smelling nearby and rewarded him to make sure he wouldn't get frustrated...

dog training with a special touch...

People come to Hans Schlegel not only from Switzerland but also from mainly Germany and Austria or even from further away to seek for his advice concerning their dogs. They are not only willing to drive a long distance but also to pay a substantial amount of money to learn how to get along with their best friend, the dog. What they think is that Hans will give them simple advice and clear instructions on how to handle their dogs but when they arrive for their first lesson, they don’t know yet that this is not the case. Hans Schlegel is not just about dog training teaching dogs ‘sit’ and ‘down’ the way many people understand it, so let’s say, instructions on how to handle your dog. Hans Schlegel is about a certain philosophy of life lead by the rules of nature and his clients soon understand that they first have to change themselves before they can achieve any long lasting change with their dogs. So many people come and when they realize what is happening suffer a complete break down as they realize what is going wrong in their lives. They realize that they have to make substantial changes in order to achieve what they want and they start to panic. What I have learnt is that the dog is a very reliable mirror of his owner’s character, his strengths and his weaknesses. It is incredible but true: Hans can already characterize a person and see where the problem lies within the first 3 minutes when he meets a new client. While the client has no clue Hans already observes him very carefully when he takes the dog out of the car and starts walking. Hans already knows what’s up by looking at the way a person moves together with his dog as he has developed his own very complex movement analysis throughout the past 30 years of experience. Then, when the client starts telling Hans about his problems with the dog, Hans barely listens. For him, the only thing that matters is what the dog tells him as people have their own very subjective point of view. The dog however, is authentic, he doesn’t judge, he doesn’t make a difference between good and bad; dogs accept things just like they are and they have no good or bad conscience because they just live and do what life dictates them. Therefore, they will always tell the true story and key elements that the owner would never tell or doesn’t even realize himself. Anyways, Hans lets the client talk because the client wouldn’t understand that he is not interested at what he has to say and then he proceeds to the next part of the lesson. Although Hans at this point most of the time already knows what is the problem and the solution, he now looks more closely at the dog. He ties the dog up and the owner has to make some distance and then Hans and I confront the dog from different angles and observe his reactions and actions. Once this is done, Hans has a complete picture of the dog and his owner and knows what to do. From this Hans can see if the dog has been handled with a choke collar in the past, or if he has lived in the streets before, if his owner trained him with food or if it is the owners favourite or least favourite dog (if he has more than one dog), if he is self confident or shy or if he would potentially bite or just pretend to etc. And amazingly enough, all his conclusions were right for what I have seen! I have now observed this every single day for nearly 6 months as I was always part of it and I believe that I have learnt a lot about reading dogs and people but each time I get new surprises and you could never stop learning...It is very interesting to also observe the owner while we do the confrontations with their dogs. Most of the time you can see a huge question mark on their face...they don’t understand a single thing about what we are doing or Hans is explaining to them...and then when Hans comes up with the conclusions which is similar to a psycho analysis of the client, they just become all white...and then in the remaining 30 min of the 90 min they booked, usually Hans fixes any problem the dog has and the owner just thinks that some magic happened. But this is where the hard part starts for the dog owner because he will need to go through a process of change in order not to fall back into the same pattern again. They will need to understand the root of the problem which is always linked to the owner himself, he will need to accept this and then he will need to act upon it. It is wonderful to see how this experience on the Laubberg moves many people every day and often marks a vital change in their lives...I can surely say, that these 6 months on the Laubberg marked a considerable change in my life and that I have learnt a lot about canines but even more about the human race......I felt very alive!

Off to Hamburg...

Once again we took off for a 3 day seminar, this time in Hamburg which is about 960 km away. I was sure that we would have a lot of fun as we were a perfect team with Hans, Bryndis and I and also it was the last seminar before I would go back to my desert home. Because of the long drive and our tight schedule in Hamburg, I left Liwa at home this time with the effect that instead of spending some time with Liwa in the evenings, I had now more time to concentrate on eating and drinking...Indeed, the 3 of us were an explosive combination: Hans the lonely wolf, Bryndis the Viking goddess and I, the alpha bitch as we named each other after a short while...
The seminar started with an evening lecture by Hans which as always, was very well received. Then, the second day was about dogman ship and people could come with their dogs to learn how to establish a solid relationship with their dogs instead of just a superficial bond that fails as soon as the first cat crosses the street. People usually listen to Hans and are very impressed with what he says but then have difficulties in believing that this could actually work with their own dogs. In the morning people arrive in a quite desperate mode with their dogs that mainly pull on the leash, run away if off the leash, bark at anything that moves or generally ignore any commands they would be given by their owners. Same thing here in Hamburg. So the most effective thing to do is to teach those people the hose technique which generally solves any problem (except more complex problems such as aggression etc.). It is a simple technique but still people take time to learn it. Therefore, I was in charge to do exercises with the group without the dogs, so people can get more confident with the technique. Once this was done, Hans divided the people into 3 different groups: dogs that pull on the leash, dogs that are aggressive against other dogs and shy/unsecure dogs and we instruct and supervise the people with their dogs. At the end of the day it is extremely satisfying to see how happy and proud people leave the seminar. They literally leave with a smile on their face. At this point they still cannot believe what they have achieved in just one day. Sometimes, a person for example would have been pulled around by his dog for maybe 7 years and suddenly, it just stops. Or he would have never been able to take the dog off the leash and here he goes with the same dog who would suddenly not go further away than 3 meters and immediately come back when he calls him. Well, what I want to say is that this is a very rewarding job because you can see the immediate success for your work and make people very happy...

The next day, was not as idyllic as the first as we had some trouble makers in the group. This day was dedicated to different work patterns with your dog to keep him and his owner happy and balanced. As we started with the theoretical part, we asked everybody to leave their dogs in the car and this is when trouble started. A mother with her daughter appeared with their 2 dogs in the class room although they had heard the instructions and the rest of the group was already telling them off. So I went to talk to them and also Hans explained again that this was not possible. They were very upset because they didn’t want to leave their dogs in the car. So we suggested that they could put them into the guest kennels outside. As this was not acceptable to them either, they had no other option but put their dogs back into the car. After the theoretical part was over, the first thing they did was to take out their dogs again, this time outside on the training field and again we had to point out to them that there were certain rules on a professional training field as otherwise it would be a complete chaos if everybody would run around with their dogs while we would explain sth. The rule on such a field usually is: You can either put your dog on the side of the field if he is capable of lying down quietly with you going away, or if your dog cannot do this, he has to stay in the car. In the meantime I had build a circle on the field as my task was to instruct half of the group how to have their dogs run in a circle (like the horses) around them while Hans would teach the other half of the group how to retrieve. Unfortunately, I had the 2 trouble makers in my group and as I started to work with everybody, their two dogs just came running into the circle. At this point, I got upset and told them quite firmly to put their dogs into the car. But instead of doing what I had asked them to, the mother started explaining to me why the dogs got up and that they usually would stay down quietly etc. At this point I just said that I was not interested in knowing the reason why they got up or discussing this any further as we had to go on with the lesson and the instructions were clear from the first moment they arrived. Then they both sat down on the side of the field together with their dogs, watching us from a distance instead of participating in the lesson. Since they didn’t participate in the lesson, I just ignored them and let them sit where they were. After maybe 1 ½ hrs Hans joined our group because we came across a quite challenging dog, a young Doberman, who would bite his quite desperate owner while not following anything that she would say. So Hans took over the dog and started working with him. The dog quickly understood who was the boss and followed Hans like a lamb. The owner thought that is was magic but our two trouble makers who were observing everything from the distance, finally left saying that the way Hans had worked with the Doberman was not ‘nice’(obviously it was ok for them that he would bite his owner), that it was unfair that we had spend so much time with the Doberman and that I was lazy for not taking care of them. The funny thing here is that we later found out that the daughter was a psychologist!! They indeed were completely mad! From the moment they left the positive energy re-emerged and everybody had a great time.

Paulo & Liwa don't want to miss out...

We were getting ready for another seminar, this time in Hamburg. So in the morning I decided to clean the car and then load it with all the material we need for the seminar. This time I had to leave Paulo & Liwa behind as it was a long trip with a busy schedule. It seemed that they both knew exactly what was going on and would use any opportunity to jump into the car. Even when I was hoovering it from inside, they would just be in my way and then follow me wherever I would go to make sure they don't miss out on anything. Once we were ready to leave, I had to kick them out of the car again and close them into my caravan and then we left. Well, Liwa apparently got very upset when she first realized that I was gone without her and decided to take revenge. Every day and night she would place a nice little black sausage inside the caravan and then she would take out whatever she could find: cigarettes, papers, pluesch animals etc. This is something that she would ususally never do. And then when Claudia or Andre (they are the people taking care of Hans animals on the Laubberg) would come and want to walk them, Liwa would just escape and run back to the caravan to make sure she wouldn't miss me coming home. Also she decided to sit on the toilet flush so she could better see outside the window untill there was no water left and the caravan got flooded!! Well, when I came back she got half of a heart attack and I couldn't calm her down for the rest of the day! She would follow me absolutely everywhere and just like a little watch dog make sure to sit in front of each door that I would close behind me untill I would come out again. Paulo however, had a great time. He followed Andre everywhere and enjoyed scaring the horses, lying in their stable and steeling food. This is one of the reasons, my caravan looked like a stable when I came back. The next morning when I was back, he also made sure to wake me up very early so he wouldn't miss Andre's first walk together with the other dogs. Funnily enough though, he only joins me for walks with an aprox. 30 meters distance. He follows me but stays far behind. That's a new thing he does and maybe his way to take his little revenge on me leaving him behind...

Liwa in Vienna...

We took off for another weekend in Vienna for a 3-day seminar. Since we didn’t have much space in the car due to all the material that we need for the seminar, I had to leave Paulo behind L Bryndis, a girl who comes for training to the Wolfssprung regularly offered to take him home with her family and I was really happy about this as I know that Paulo will very much enjoy sitting on the sofa with the babies watching TV and being spoiled instead of sitting around in the kennel. Liwa and Sedona (Hans giant Schnauzer puppy) were allowed to join us for their first trip by train. We would drive 3 hours by car and 7 by train. We travelled first class and looking at the new leather seats in the elegant carpet, we were a bit worried that Sedona, being a puppy, would pee on the floor. But we were very lucky as both dogs were perfectly well behaved and we managed to let the dogs out at one stop for a couple of minutes to do their business. We even managed to ‘smuggle’ them into the train’s restaurant and enjoy a nice meal. Well, now Liwa knows all means of transport: cars, boats, planes and now trains...

We finally arrived at 1 am at our hotel in a cute little mountain village and got a few hours of sleep before our ‘marathon’ seminar started. The next day, the hotel’s young dog, a mix between a dutch hound and a hunting terrier, welcomed us at breakfast and Liwa and Cora immediately became best friends: While I would be at breakfast or dinner, Cora would show Liwa the entire village, they would jump around in the nearby fields and rest together in the middle of the restaurant. In the mornings I would take both of them for a walk and Cora would introduce me to the inhabitants of the village who we would meet on our way as everybody knew her and was curious to know who her new friend was.

We spent the first day of the seminar with a group of hunters with their hunting dogs. The meeting point was at the organiser’s house and when we arrived there were maybe 15 dogs running around like crazy in the garden. I decided to let Liwa join the group but she was very intimidated when those very energetic dogs were jumping around her and soon started hiding behind me. We then drove to a nice mountain hut in the middle of the nature, the hunter’s hunting territory. The main topic of the day was the tracking of dear and the hunters had prepared a long track through the forest with dear blood that would lead to a dear’s leg. We then selected 3 dogs that would have to find the leg. The first dog was so fast that we had to hurry behind him off-road through the forest. I had noticed that most of the hunters had a lot of scratches on their legs and now understood why and wished that I wasn’t wearing shorts...I also realized why their bellies were not small: we had lunch that consisted of sausages and steaks twice and when we left, they were getting ready for another barbeque...It was a fun day although Liwa wouldn’t say the same. She spent most of the day in the car and when I let her out in the evening to run around with the other dogs, she got attacked by one hunting dog that was protecting the dear’s leg. Liwa ran away as fast as she could and jumped back into the car. At least she learnt her lesson not to steal a dear’s leg from hunting dogs...

The second day of the seminar was a bit shocking. The seminar’s topic was how to establish a stable relationship with your dog. This day was scheduled for ‘normal’ dogs and the next day for difficult dogs e.g. dogs that are aggressive towards other dogs or people. But when we saw the dogs on the training field, there was an aggressive pit bull and a Labrador and Hans had to send them away and ask them to come back the next day. Also we were amazed to see how badly behaved all the other dogs were. They had no training whatsoever and would pull their owners around, bark at other dogs and most of them couldn’t even sit. Not much we could do with such a number of completely untrained dogs and we started off by teaching them how to sit quietly. This took up the whole morning and in the afternoon we showed them the famous ‘hose technique’ so they would learn how to teach their dogs not to run away or pull on the leash. Well, the seminar was supposed to end at 4 pm and we stayed until 8 pm as those people were not really ‘easy-going’...In the evening Hans and I were completely exhausted and decided to have a quick glass of wine. To be honest, I don’t even remember how I got back into my room but we certainly had more than one glass...

The next day, Hans and I had a huge headache and swollen eyes...Our breakfast consisted of 2 aspirins and we left to meet the aggressive dogs and their owners...Luckily, there was only 1 really aggressive dog who we already knew from last time we had been in Vienna. In my actual condition, I am sure that any aggressive dog would have eaten me alive...Well, this dog attacked me twice (fortunately he had a muzzle on!) and I was happy when the day was over (again at 8 instead of 4 pm!). Liwa had been observing everything from the car. She would sit in the back of the car which was open on top of Sedona’s kennel to have the best view and everybody fall in love with her when they would pass by. In the evening, she decided to jump out of the car in order to steal a pizza that somebody had left close by. Liwa wouldn’t miss a single opportunity to steal food...Well, everybody was quite amused about it!