Training and Seminar in Germany – Latest!!!!

Posted by admin | Posted in Articles | Posted on 14-11-2012

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At last we have landed in Germany and started our training activities. We apologize that we are unable to update the activities on time due to limited access to internet and telephone lines as most of our locations are in the country side. Neither were we able to take photos or videos of daily activities.

8 November 2012

We have touched down in Germany. Breathing in the winter air and getting ready for action.

Germany 8 Nov 2012

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Training had begun the very same day. It was fun and interesting to test out the dogs that we will be importing to Malaysia.

 

9 November 2012

Continuing training the following day. We are lucky that this year’s winter brings has good sun light. It makes our training more fun.

Germany 9 Nov 2012

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After the training, its time to unwind and relax. Now time to learn social behaviour with dogs.

This is a good way to establish pack ranking in any pack behaviour among dogs.

10 and 11 November 2012

Weekend event was Sichtungs and Korung in Saar Pfalz. It was a fantastic experience to learn from the trials. In addition we learned a lot from the Protection work training with Thomas Mueller.

10 & 11 November 2012

With friends in the morning
With friends in the morning
Listening to the speech of RSV2000 President
Listening to the speech of RSV2000 President
Listening to the speech of RSV2000 President
Listening to the speech of RSV2000 President
Dr Helmut Raiser doing Korung
Dr Helmut Raiser doing Korung
Dr Helmut Raiser doing Korung
Dr Helmut Raiser doing Korung
Dr Helmut Raiser judging
Dr Helmut Raiser judging
Unforgettable portrait with Dr Helmut Raiser
Unforgettable portrait with Dr Helmut Raiser
Learning Process
Learning Process
Sightings for GSD Standards
Sightings for GSD Standards
Group Photo at Contwig RSV2000 LCC
Group Photo at Contwig RSV2000 LCC
Nice photo with our Police friend
Nice photo with our Police friend
Our Contwig Club house
Our Contwig Club house

The gallery above shows the pictures of various trials such as Korung, Sichtungen and Talentsichtung. We also had the pleasure of interacting with the Great Master of Dog Training, Dr Helmut Raiser. In the days to come we will be training with the Guru himself.

Below is a video of Finch, Helmut Raiser’s dog performing in Korung Level 3.

More information on the event can be found at this link. However the page is in German.

Human and Dog Conflict – New!!!

Posted by admin | Posted in Articles | Posted on 14-05-2012

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I really sympathize for the victim and his family involved in the recent dog attack incident. Though there are few sincere and honest people out there trying to help. I must admit most are either trying to seek cheap publicity or make money out of this situation. We hear all kinds of comments about the breed, training undergone, etc about the dog related on this incident. But many fail to realize or perhaps are ignorant that a dog is an animal. Dogs do not have a reasoning faculty. They are intelligent because they are able to learn commands taught by human and remember it. And the willingness to learn and abide by the human master is what makes them apart in the animal kingdom. Like any other animal they either act by instinct or conditioning. Both of this is determined by the character of that animal which varies from one to another. A human can go through all the training in the world, but when faced with the situation it depends on the stability of character as to whether he is going to apply whatever he learnt. A dog is not different in many ways. Training works well only when a human is by the side to command the dog. Pedigree dogs for generation are bred for their best ability to listen and act on human commands and only when the dog is by the side of the human. No dog is sent to work without the company of a human. So all dogs left by itself will call its shot on how to act. This is what happened in this situation. Pointing at a breed is like pinpointing to a particular human race and concluding the behaviour of that race.

This could easily happen to a mongrel or even a stray. The problem with stray is that we do not have an owner to blame plus it’s not one of the sensational banned or restricted breed for all medias to give coverage. Many attacks from toy breeds in homes and strays in the street go unreported due to the damage being insignificant or absence of accountable party. We really do not know what had caused this dog to act this way. Is it the dog?, the senior citizen?, the environment? or all put together? Even the victim is not here anymore to give his side of the story. We do not have much information about the history to solve this mystery. If you ask me the dog has not done something wrong. It did the right thing but in the wrong place. If the dog bit the person inside the house, would the situation be as bad as it is now. I take it one step further, if the dog had killed a robber inside the house, would that be bad? The answer is with the reader of this article. Looking ahead, we should take a scientific approach by monitoring the behaviour pattern of this dog under different situations and documenting the outcome. A task meant for serious and professional trainers and animal behaviorist. This would provide valuable information to work backwards to understand the real reasons for this vicious attack. For time being the owners have to be held responsible as it was an animal in their care that was allowed to run loose and cause all these mess. At least that is the best we can do because their conduct is clear evidence violating the clauses in the Municipal By-Law.

But I can’t deny that the municipals are not doing enough to curb the problem from the start. Even today when I was driving in Petaling Jaya, I found dogs running around the jogger’s track and dogs standing in front of few houses. This could be strays or even pets. It is not safe at all for people or other dogs to be walked in that area as it poses a situation due to territorial instinct for dog fights where the dogs can turn around and attack humans as well. We can register the dogs, regulate breeders, register trainers, but is it going to prevent another human from being attacked? Municipal council must be pro-active by doing rounds to reprimand irresponsible owners. But if the owners remain adamant, laws must be in place to impose an extremely heavy penalty. Only then you can get people to comply. Then the problem is arrested at the root itself. That is the solution.

Guidelines to Protect Your Family – New!!!

Posted by admin | Posted in Articles | Posted on 30-04-2012

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The purpose of this article is to create awareness for everyone on possible steps to be taken before, during and after any incident related to protecting your family. It may not be directly linked with dogs but it concerns about public safety. Having dogs to protect your family is only part of the solution. There are other factors that needs to be considered to make our home to be a real heaven.

Safety Measures (Proactive)

  1. Please make sure your gates both outside and inside are always locked. There are many school of thoughts about the selection of locks. But many people forget about the location of lock. Make sure it is convenient to lock from the inside rather than just from outside. This is a real life saver when it comes to emergency.
  2. If you have the budget, you can install CCTV as a form of automated surveillance. But remember unless and until you go through the recorded footage, you have no clue of preparing yourself against any danger. You have to do your homework which means you have to view the recorded footage regularly to detect any unwanted movements around your home. This is proactive measure
  3. Get the contact number of the nearest Police Station. Get feedback from on any reported cases in your vicinity. If possible make friends with the officers to keep their personal contact numbers with you. You never know when you need it.
  4. Form a neighbourhood alliance among residents of your housing area. Meet each other once in a while to keep everyone informed of any happening in your area. Malaysians are really weak on this, to the extent I feel they put their egos ahead of them  to the fullest extreme of being foolish. The pathetic mentality is “your problem is exclusively yours until it hits me”.
  5. Make surprise rounds around your home during your working hours to check if anything funny is going on unnoticed.
  6. Always make sure your kids are never left unattended. They must be under your watchful eyes. We are horrified by the kidnapping cases going on now. Make sure that there is an adult (by this I mean realiable adults) around them. Always tell your child not to take anything or follow or talk to any strangers.
  7. Never ever speak about important matters that involves money, property etc in front of your maid, driver or even neighbours/friends/relatives whom you know will discuss it with others even if the discussion is not intended to be for bad reasons. Most cases that we hear of are from news that travels from insiders to outsides.
  8. Keep dogs regardless of breed and size. I know of many people who’s life and property has been saved by even toy dogs which alerted everyone in their home of the oncoming danger. I have also come across situation when the perpetrators have decided the to drop their plan due to the presence of dogs in a home. You must understand that dogs do not altogether rule out the possibility of a robbery. But they are a deterrent factor. The perpetrator has to give a serious thought before attempting. The dogs are there to protect you when you at home. So when you’re away you can lock them up safely in their kennel. Sometime it helps to have a dog inside your house when your sleeping at night provided you have no health issues with this kind of arrangement. It will be a good idea for your child to grow up with a good and reliable protection dog that will be his or her personal security guard wherever he goes.
  9. If you have no choice and have to hire a personal security guard, please check the background of the company if they have all relevant documentation in place to offer the service. Also please check if the personnel put to work is one with a suitable character to carry out this duty. I wish not to elaborate further on this, as you are a better judge.
  10. Whenever you go out and come into your house, take a minute or two to look around if your movements are being watched by unknown people around your housing area. Sometimes we are too busy to note this. If you have time, take a brisk walk around your housing area to spot suspicious activity.

Re-Active Measures

All the above is well and good until something goes wrong. Let’s pray that we do need to come to that point. But what if we do?
  1. I know it is difficult, but stay calm, and don’t panic or breakdown. You are the supporting morale pillars for your family. So they need you during these times. Therefore take a few steps back and relax to begin strategize.
  2. Make a Police report and speak to the officers you know about how to go about this case. Please get definitive deadline on each activity that will be carried out by the Police. If results are not produced within the planned timeline, you can begin tagging the case as serious or critical for further actions.
  3. For third party witnesses, please just don’t shut up and lock yourselves in your homes. Please have some humanitarian values by stepping up to provides eye-witness account of any evidence that you may have. Your statement can potentially be a life saver. Don’t be a self-centered creature with the selfish mentality that if it does not affect you, it’s none of your problem.
  4. Try to gather evidence and support from your neighbours. Reassure them that their identities will be not be revealed in this process, that everything will remain confidential.
  5. Re-play your CCTV footage and start going through everything frame by frame. This will be quite exhaustive but will be very helpful.
  6. Engage private investigators if you have access to such expertise. This could be costly as well.
  7. Try not to move things around your home as it could hold the key evidence for Police investigation
We all have to work together to ensure the safety of our family and property. Times have changed. The criminals have updated themselves with latest techniques to carry out their activities. As such concerned citizens as well need to get themselves aware of the situation and update themselves with the latest and best crime prevention and fighting techniques and also learn to work together with the relevant authorities.

How to choose a breeder?

Posted by admin | Posted in Articles | Posted on 04-10-2010

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Dog breeding is a full time commitment. It does not start from the time the puppies are born. In fact it starts right from the time you look for a mating stud or bitch in heat. Everything has to be right. The selection of the dogs from the aspect of health and character needs to be carefully observed. Apart from that, the owner of the dog also has to be evaluated. This would give an indication on the health of the dog as to whether it has been taken care well.

 Now on the topic of choosing the right breeder, always have one thing in mind. Just by one look you will know whether a person or organization does it for the best interest of the breed or one’s own greed. So by one look at the premise you know whether it’s a breeder premise or puppy mill. Take note of the following factors when you look for puppies.

  • If you see too many puppies and dogs running around or present in the premises, you know you’re in a puppy mill. Ask the person in charge and he will tell you all the dogs are for sale. He will not have love for any of the dog in his place. Everything is for sale. This is not a good indication. A good breeder will evaluate a buyer before even entertaining him. He will be concern about the future of the puppy that he is about to sell. Too many dogs in the same area will also expose the puppies to many kind of infections during the initial stage of life.
  • If you see that the entire setup is managed by a maid/servant or even at times by foreigners, you can be sure that the owner is only concern about making money. The owner will not be interested in the wellbeing of the dogs since he had left everything in the hands of his worker. He will be living luxuriously away from the kennels not getting his hands dirty while gambling the future of the puppies at the mercy of the worker. He can be contacted by phone and will be present at the kennels upon request. When such is the case, you can be very sure that there was no quality assurance or proper measures taken right from the time of selecting the dogs to breeding and finally to the whelping of the puppies.
  • If the so-called breeder claims that he has the best dogs and yet is willing to give a very good discount and other free gifts to lure you to buy his puppies, just be aware. He would rather sell the puppies even before they are completely weaned, just to make profit. You buy the puppy because you have confidence on the breed and feel it will serve you the purpose for the rest of its life, not because you get perks out of the purchase.
  • Look for discipline and system in the way the breeder or trainer operates or runs his operations. The only way yo ensure that all factors pertaining to the dogs are taken care of is through a consistent approach in caring and handling the dogs. The trainer or breeder has to have such qualities in order to be a responsible breeder.
  • The breeder needs to have proper facilities and equipments for the purpose of caring and handling the puppies and dogs. If you don’t see any of it, you can be sure the owner is doing this for the purpose of making some pocket money and not willing to make proper investment. On the other hand note owners who say they have other branches. It would be homes belonging to their family members where they “park” the puppies temporarily before clearing the puppies from the “main” center. If the puppies are thrown about in such a distributed fashion, you can judge by yourself whether the owner can actually spend sufficient time for all of them. This also indicates the less importance of each puppy to the owner. If the puppies are of world class standards, I’m sure you won’t trust the puppies even in your own spouse’s care unless if he or she is as good as you.
  • The way the mating is done is very important. We believe in the spirit of healthy breeding where the bitch in heat should be given time and space to be introduced to the stud. Only then when she reaches the interestrous period, she will willingly stand to mate with the stud. This is the way our principal and us carry out breeding. I have personnaly seen very disturbing mating methods, where the bitch in heat is muzzled and the head tied down to a person while another person securing her tight on both her hind legs. The unknown stud is released to mount on her to begin copulation. The poor bitch goes through horror not knowing what is happening and in most instances not wanting to stand down. This act is not breeding, in fact it is nothing short of animal cruelty and a “rape” performed by the breeders. Scientifically sperms and ovums of such breeding does not carry true quality. The mental state of  both dogs during the mating should be given high importance.
  • A good breeder also does not compel you to buy the puppies of his breeding. He leaves it upto you. If it is a dog that you will be caring for the rest of its life, the decision has to come from your own conscience.
  • Animal midwifery is like playing the role of a grandparent. Just as how you must do what is right for your daughter and your grandchild, you must do the same for your dam and her puppies. It’s all about love and devotion. Tell me how many people in our country think and acts this way. We are so far away from the aptitude and atitude of the Europeans who have perfected this over generations. Talk is very cheap. A good breeder has little time to negotiate with you. He rather spend his time caring for his dam and puppies while waiting for a deserving buyer than sitting on a table negotiating with you for hours.

We agree that at the end of the day it is about making some profit. We can’t deny that. However the means to this should be given sufficient consideration. I fully believe that the relationship of the trainer or breeder does not end the moment the money changes hand, infact it only begins then.

Concerns of a dog owner

Posted by admin | Posted in Articles | Posted on 27-09-2010

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Dog ownership is a life long process. When I say life long it does not mean your life long. It’s your dog’s life long. Our lives may well end before the live of our dog. But that does not mean that our roles are over. You will have to ensure that your dog gets a good owner to look after him after you are gone. A dog is not in a position to look for a good owner. So please atleast do that bit for your loving pet who had considered you as the center of his universe. That is the true and unconditional love that you can give your dog.

I was fortuante enough to come across some owners who were very concern about the background of the potential new owners when they asked our help to sell their dog. These customers due to unforseen circumstances were not able to continue owning their dogs. But they wanted to ensure that their dogs find a good home. You will be surprised to know that they even ask me to take them to the new owners home to visit their dog many months after the transfer of ownership. This is purely due to the fact that they missed their dog so much. I have encountered customers quite the opposite but I feel it is really not worth our time discussing about it here.

Dog owners are not dealing with a possession like their car or house. They are dealing with life animal with feelings. Feelings that go through ups and downs very much like that of ours. So that is why Westerwald Kennel is most privileged in helping the dog owners to ensure that the human-dog relationship is always in harmony. Everything that we do in our daily work is targeted in achieveing that. At first when I was writing this article I wanted to complete in one posting. But as I was organizing my thoughts, I was flooded with many concerns of a dog owner from various angles. Most being salient and sensitive. So I decided that I should break this article into few parts, wherein the first one will address on the general concerns of most owners, which is the financial perspective. Most owners need to be aware of the financial commitment of owning a dog. This mentally prepares the owner nearly a decade in advance and I hope the owner can set aside a budget accordingly.

The most common expenses will be from food and medical treatment. Food usually is a monthly commitment provided you don’t spoil your dog with too many treats. But medical expenses apart from the routine vaccination deworming, you are prone to come across unexpected incidents that would demand you to spend quite a bit. Based on my experience the size of the breed is not directly proportional to how much you will be spending. Let me give you a breakdown of the expenses involved in terms of months and finally years. Assuming you take good care of your and it leaves a healthy 12 years, then prepare to set aside the following figures in dollars and cents. The figures are based on averaged cost based on prevailing current rates.

The financial commitment will be of two types. The first being a one-time and second is recurring. Add this together for span of your dog’s life, will give you a clear picture of your total financial commitment.

(a) One Time Commitment

    1. Price of a puppy                             1 x 5,000 = 5,000.00 (Our breeding)

    2. Puppy vaccination                           3 x 300  = 900.00

     3. Dog kennel/cage                         1 x 2,000  = 2,000.00 (Our design)

     Total for One-Time Commitment                       = 7,900.00

(b) Recurring Commitment  (Yearly)

    1. Dog Food                                          12 x 200 = 2,400.00

    2. Yearly vaccination                               1 x 300 = 300.00

    3. Medical expenses                            1 x 1,000 = 1,000.00

    4. Miscellaneous (Treats/Toys)              1 x 500 = 500.00      

    Total Recurring Commitment                              = 4,200.00

    Total Recurring Commitment for Life of the dog = 12 x 4,200

                                                                              =  50,400.00

 (c) Total Financial Commitment = (One Time Commitment)

                                                                            +

                                                          (Total Recurring Commitment for Life of the dog)

                                                       = 7,900.00 + 50,400

                                                       = 58,300.00

Well that’s alot of money!!!! So are you sure you are prepared to spend that much of money for a lifetime of a dog. You could buy insurance, car, put a downpayment for your dreamhouse, fund your child’s education and many more things with that amount of money. However if you are wise enough to spend it on a dog, make sure you get the one that is really worth this much. And you would know by now, where to get it from!!!

Sports Dog Vs Guard Dog

Posted by admin | Posted in Articles | Posted on 22-01-2010

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This topic is about how we evaluate a final product of training rather than a dog that requires training or currently  undergoing training. I get so many requests for Guard Dogs. It’s a fair request by customers as it is the sole purpose of getting a dog in their home. The first thing that I always tell these customers is regardless of the breed, a dog is not born as a guard dog but rather made as one. And another equation not to be missed is that not all dogs born eventually become a Guard Dog. Apart from guarding, Guard Dogs require to provide personal protection. Check our page on Services about what constitutes Home Protection and the trainings provided for this discipline. The training that these dogs go through though initially is the  same in the beginnining as the one gone through by Sports Dogs, it will begin to branch out to another specialized area known as Home Protection. Not many trainers offer this in Malaysia if at all any. That is why we assess the dogs thoroughly during Level 1 Home Obedience training to determine if it is a protection material.

As opposed, Sports Dog are a totally different cup of tea. Like I mentioned earlier, the training starts out the same way, but the specialization for Sports Dog is very competition oriented. As such high level of structured approach is applied to the training as per the rules and regulations of the respective competition. Some famous competitive sports for dogs are such as Schutzhund, IPO, Ring Sport and KNPV. I do not want to dwell further in the sports area as it is a discipline by itself and application is limited to the area of work that we require the dogs to be for the purpose of Home Protection.

The problem arises when someone is trying to sell you a Sports Dog as a Guard Dog. For a lay man it looks the same i.e the dog barks and bites. But the protection work of a Sports Dog is to promote the aesthetics of the area of work. Nothing totally wrong about it cause it is like a martial arts athelit trying to impress the judge with his skillfull movement to score a higher point. You quite well understand that it is totally different compared to a body guard trained on special movements to guard and protect the person whom has hired him to do that job. In Malaysia most home owners do not require a Sports Dog. And believe me Sports Dogs are not cheap. I had imported a 3 years old Sports Dog for the price of EURO 8000. Normally no handler in Europe will sell a dog of that age. So if he decides to sell it will fetch that kind of price. That is why most Sports Dog in Malaysia are relatively old, not less than 8 years at the time when it is imported. That’s the time when the price will be around EURO 4000. The best price that I could get a Sports Dog for a customer in Malaysia was EURO 3000 and the dog was 5 years old, which I feel is fair enough.

The next question that might come up in your mind is, “Can I buy a Sports Dog and get it trained for Guarding?”.  My answers is “Yes, but why?”. The price of a young Sports Dog is very expensive. Nothing wrong about this as well, because the trainer would have put thousands of hours of training to prepare for competitions. Thus they will always want to recover the cost and make some profit at the same time. After buying it, you will have to send it for training which will cost you money as well. Believe me, retraining is more complicated that training. That is why our approach is to import a young dog trained for Home Protection work which is rather reasonable in price ranging from EURO 3000 to 4000 for customers who require Guard Dogs. In addition to that we also provide on-site training with simulation scenarios at customer’s home to fully accustom the dog to carry out the protection and guarding work. This service is part of the package.