Another photo of the lake in Kuehtei
I have some catching up to do with my blog posts!
Firstly, I have been asked a few times how my tooth is going. Well, it still reminds me that it is there but is a LOT better. As in another life I am a hypnotherapist/psychotherapist, I decided to go by the edict 'physician, heal thyself.' As all hypnosis is self-hypnosis anyway, I practised it, infusing my tooth with the healing colours of blue and green and then wrapping the tooth in golden light. So far that is keeping it happy. You may say, 'Too weird.' But hey, it is working and I still have my tooth and no root-canal. I can even bite down on it again. Am I a good hypnotherapist or what?
TRAINING
No photos of this site yet.
The hot and steamy weather has continued as if Switzerland has had an identity crisis and thinks it is actually tropical Queensland! Jochen and I are struggling.
Wednesday evening was no different, hot and humid. This is the first time we have trained with this group on their home ground. They do their best to remember to speak 'high' German around me as I simply do not understand Swiss German. Nonetheless, confusion did creep in and I found myself wondering, 'what the...?' but this is no-one;s fault. It just is what it is.
We started with a simple bark alert at the alert hole and Jochen did his usual really good work there. When it was time for us to do our two-person search, I found myself in a strange place in my mind - kind of like no-man's land. This meant that I was no support for Jochen at all and confusion showed on his face.
However, despite my bemused state, he found the figurant at the end of the rubble site and did a beautiful alert. After being rewarded and praised by the figurant, I sent him on but without clarity or conviction. This meant that he found his way back to that person and alerted very strongly again. This is no problem and happens in tests too. An alert is an alert. However, it was my lack of management that created the situation. Quite simply, I stuffed up.
By this stage my mind was saying, 'This is f...d up. What the.....(you can fill in the word yourself) on earth am I doing?' Of course, with those thoughts in my head, that negative energy immediately travelled to Jochen who clearly thought, 'My god, she has lost the plot, now what do I do?' If ever this was a perfect example of how quickly our dogs are influenced by our thoughts and emotions, this was it. Put simply, we fell apart as a team and I handled like I have not done in YEARS - hopeless. It was embarrassing to say the least.
AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE HAS A PLACE
Toni who was following/supporting, asked me to think aloud and talk to him. Well, what on earth could I say? In my head was, 'This is f...d.' I couldn't really say that, could I? But I did later. I learned that he speaks and understands English quite well and so I used some good ol' Australian language to let him know what was in my head. He was initially shocked (I do come across as polite and well-mannered), but what the hell. He is a big boy and I felt better for using some really great Australian language. Man that felt good.
Anyway, Jochen did find the second person. He initially showed interest but did not bark. What??? Since when? It transpired that none of the dogs performed well at this hole as the air was so heavy that no scent was coming out all. Unless the dog pushed his nose down into the gap, he could not get any scent at all. Ok, that helped my stress somewhat.
FITNESS PROGRAM
We spoke about fitness and as Toni amongst other skills is also a personal trainer for people and has a dog who has three times in his life been very ill and knows how to bring people and dogs to peak fitness, he drew up a program for Jochen. To be honest with you guys, that lifted a load off my shoulders as Jochen's fitness has been a concern since his illness earlier this year. I had received some conflicting advice on how to deal with this but now I have guidance from someone who really does know what he is talking about. That program has begun.
ICE CREAM
After training finished (about 9.30 pm) we trooped off to a restaurant that also specialises in those wonderful ice cream concoctions that we just don't get in Australia. Given that training had been very patchy to say the least, I decided that I needed some comfort food and ordered the biggest, creamiest, ice cream dish loaded with chocolate sauce that I could find on the menu. This was indulgence in capital letters. Did I enjoy every mouthful? You bet. It sat in my stomach all night but I didn't care. I made my apologies to Jochen and we are a team again.
Firstly, I have been asked a few times how my tooth is going. Well, it still reminds me that it is there but is a LOT better. As in another life I am a hypnotherapist/psychotherapist, I decided to go by the edict 'physician, heal thyself.' As all hypnosis is self-hypnosis anyway, I practised it, infusing my tooth with the healing colours of blue and green and then wrapping the tooth in golden light. So far that is keeping it happy. You may say, 'Too weird.' But hey, it is working and I still have my tooth and no root-canal. I can even bite down on it again. Am I a good hypnotherapist or what?
TRAINING
No photos of this site yet.
The hot and steamy weather has continued as if Switzerland has had an identity crisis and thinks it is actually tropical Queensland! Jochen and I are struggling.
Wednesday evening was no different, hot and humid. This is the first time we have trained with this group on their home ground. They do their best to remember to speak 'high' German around me as I simply do not understand Swiss German. Nonetheless, confusion did creep in and I found myself wondering, 'what the...?' but this is no-one;s fault. It just is what it is.
We started with a simple bark alert at the alert hole and Jochen did his usual really good work there. When it was time for us to do our two-person search, I found myself in a strange place in my mind - kind of like no-man's land. This meant that I was no support for Jochen at all and confusion showed on his face.
However, despite my bemused state, he found the figurant at the end of the rubble site and did a beautiful alert. After being rewarded and praised by the figurant, I sent him on but without clarity or conviction. This meant that he found his way back to that person and alerted very strongly again. This is no problem and happens in tests too. An alert is an alert. However, it was my lack of management that created the situation. Quite simply, I stuffed up.
By this stage my mind was saying, 'This is f...d up. What the.....(you can fill in the word yourself) on earth am I doing?' Of course, with those thoughts in my head, that negative energy immediately travelled to Jochen who clearly thought, 'My god, she has lost the plot, now what do I do?' If ever this was a perfect example of how quickly our dogs are influenced by our thoughts and emotions, this was it. Put simply, we fell apart as a team and I handled like I have not done in YEARS - hopeless. It was embarrassing to say the least.
AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE HAS A PLACE
Toni who was following/supporting, asked me to think aloud and talk to him. Well, what on earth could I say? In my head was, 'This is f...d.' I couldn't really say that, could I? But I did later. I learned that he speaks and understands English quite well and so I used some good ol' Australian language to let him know what was in my head. He was initially shocked (I do come across as polite and well-mannered), but what the hell. He is a big boy and I felt better for using some really great Australian language. Man that felt good.
Anyway, Jochen did find the second person. He initially showed interest but did not bark. What??? Since when? It transpired that none of the dogs performed well at this hole as the air was so heavy that no scent was coming out all. Unless the dog pushed his nose down into the gap, he could not get any scent at all. Ok, that helped my stress somewhat.
FITNESS PROGRAM
We spoke about fitness and as Toni amongst other skills is also a personal trainer for people and has a dog who has three times in his life been very ill and knows how to bring people and dogs to peak fitness, he drew up a program for Jochen. To be honest with you guys, that lifted a load off my shoulders as Jochen's fitness has been a concern since his illness earlier this year. I had received some conflicting advice on how to deal with this but now I have guidance from someone who really does know what he is talking about. That program has begun.
ICE CREAM
After training finished (about 9.30 pm) we trooped off to a restaurant that also specialises in those wonderful ice cream concoctions that we just don't get in Australia. Given that training had been very patchy to say the least, I decided that I needed some comfort food and ordered the biggest, creamiest, ice cream dish loaded with chocolate sauce that I could find on the menu. This was indulgence in capital letters. Did I enjoy every mouthful? You bet. It sat in my stomach all night but I didn't care. I made my apologies to Jochen and we are a team again.