What Every First-time Hovawart Owner Should Know

Updated October, 20

The complete series as it turned out with the the contributions of Africa, Jan Wolfe, Evelyn B., Peggy S., Yvonne B., Anna N., Katja K., Sascha L., Björn S., Loes K., Flora B., Verena S., Heini A., Dave H., Maria E., Judith L., Lone A., Mary A., Hester O., Ine C., Min I., Silvia I., Karina J., Ellen G.
Thank you so much!

A Hovawart's Guarding Instincts
A Hovawart has a huge guarding instinct. Like all dog breeds that were bred for a purpose, either herding, hunting, or guarding, it is that genetic baggage they take with them in our modern society.With the Hovawart, it is guarding instinct.

Not A Retriever, Still A Family Dog
Being part of a family is as essential for them as breathing air. Only being with you and your family can really make them thrive. You'll have to earn it first. They bond with anybody who will treat them fair and invests time and effort in play, exercise and fun training.

Personality
Whether your Hovawart's personality is to be the clown of the house, the placid matriarch, the work-a-holic, or the clever manipulator, they all have something in common when it comes down to Personality.

Traning and Exercise
Dog training and exercise are god's gift to Hovawart owners. Without it, things tend to explode in your face. But when you train and exercise, you are set up for success.

Socialization with Dogs
Puppies have a “critical period” that spans roughly from 8 – 16 weeks of age. This period marks the time when your puppy is most impressionable, and they learn best.

More Socialization
Next to dogs, we also need to socialize our puppy with all the things we do in our daily life, so they can become a full-fledged member of our family.

Before You Buy
You are officially armed to meet some real Hovawarts in real life, although .... be prepared to find out we hardly even scratched the surface!



Original post:

When I was invited by "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" to speak to the families that adopted the Hovawarts rescued from the puppy mill in March this year, I gladly accepted the invitation. The idea was to inform them as good as possible what they could expect, as many of them became first-time Hovawart owners.

It was a great way to meet new people - and Hovawarts of course - and it shouldn't be too difficult, as I could pick most of it from the blog I guessed. Browsing through the blog I realized it was not as easy as it seemed. I missed some very important topics - i.e only one piece on socialization and one, incomplete, on health. Other information was hard to find in the first place in the chronological format of the blog.

The presentation I gave went well nonetheless and was well received, but I promised myself to re-visit the blog at a later time. One of our main goals is exactly to be of help and interest for people familiarizing with the Hovawart, and I was doing a disservice to future Hovawart parents.

I am very aware a lot of you that read this blog, are already quite educated Hovawart parents, and I would really appreciate your help in selecting the subjects that need attention.

So. If it was up to you, what is the most important subject(s) to write and discuss about if you had to chose? What should every first-time Hovawart owner know?

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Meanwhile, at the West-coast

Kenzo does, what Kenzo likes best:

The best Hovie is a tired, wet - and sandy - Hovawart.
But we are not finished yet, in the evenings, Viva joins:

Now we reached perfection. A bed full of sand.

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Spotting Pain

I'll keep on smiling

"Don't worry, she is not in pain" the vet said. Her comment left me baffled. Really. Viva's nose looks like a raw steak, and you tell me that doesn't hurt.

"It is itchy, which is uncomfortable of course", the vet persisted. "It is just not a nice sight." - the emphasis is mine.

We'll get back to that discussion later.

I really don't blame her. Spotting pain in dogs is difficult, and even worse, it is individual from dog to dog. I respond to completely different triggers depending if it concerns Kenzo or Viva.

It is best illustrated by comparing Kenzo and Viva's response to acute pain, with something they both have experienced, which is stepping into a thorn. They both start with a couple of short limping steps. After that, the similarity ends.

Kenzo stops walking almost immediately. He sits down, starts panting, and holds his injured paw up into the air for me to see: "Dad? I made a boo-boo". On investigation, I find the thorn and pull it out. When we move again, the same scenario tends to repeat itself a couple of times, as the paw is still hurtful, and Kenzo wants to double-check I did my job removing the thorn.

You can probably guess what Viva does. Right, after those first limps that look like a series of missteps, she just continuous like nothing happened. Not even a puff or a pant. After I stopped her, I pulled a 1 cm long thorn out of her paw.

Viva reminds me of Tom Sizemore in Saving Private Ryan, saying "I just got the wind knocked out of me" after taking two bullets in the chest. And I never forget when we treated her for her spondylosis - painful in itself - , and not getting it quite right as she didn't improve the way she should. After more investigation, the vet found a thorn completely embedded in her paw, that probably has sit there for quite a while.

Maybe she has experienced so much chronic pain in her life, she even responds differently to the acute pain caused by a thorn. Maybe she is just "tough". Either way, she does feel pain, even if she hardly shows it.

To be able to see how Viva is doing, I keep a simple diary, the "Chronic Cushing's Diairy", that would alert me of any issues or chronic pains. I use it to be able to compare for how long she played, walked and run on any particular day. Any slowing down in either department, and something is not right. The diary has enabled me so far, to predict each outcome of her quarterly Cushing's test and blood work.

Other than that I watch for the tiniest of clues which brings me back to the discussion with the vet. Viva soon started to make "grinning faces" and she sometimes rubbed her nose against me - both to relieve the itching - only to quickly stop. She also shows discomfort when she bumps into Kenzo with her nose when they are playing: she closes her mouth.

Other than that it is just plain common sense. She has open wounds on her nose. Her nose. That thing a dog sticks into literally everything. Put something in your open wound and see how that feels.

"Well, I don't have any other clients that are tuned in with their dog as you are, so I'll trust you on that", said our vet.

And therefore we both wondered again what it is we are looking at. Could it be a drug-induced side-effect, are we not dealing with DLE after all?

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A Hovie's Nose

The best summer ever in Denmark. According to meteorologists, the best since 1860.

The summer already started in early May, during our visit to the Danish West-coast. Viva's favorite place on the planet. We enjoyed being outside the whole day. Temperatures where not high, but nonetheless we all got a little sunburned. Also Viva was, on her nose.

The sunburn would soon heal we thought, and hoped the summer would stay, so we could go out into the light again and wash off the Danish winter and its short days.

Now, it is the end of August. We returned to the West-coast, and are looking back at this "best" summer ever. How different has the summer turned out to be. Viva's nose is still "sunburned". The vet thinks it is Lupus (DLE) - also called "Collie Nose" - an auto-immune disease, and in Viva's case, difficult to treat as the medication doesn't go along well with her Cushing's disease. We have been trying three different topical treatments so far that don't interfere with her Cushing's, to no avail.

The vet's best advice was to avoid the sun, as the ultraviolet rays seem to be a main trigger for lupus. We dodged the sun as much as we could in the short sunless window of opportunity, between 23:00 and 04:00, given to us in the South of Scandinavia.

We went for late walks, hunkered inside during the long summer days and only made short trips to potty in areas with an abundance of shadow. It did seem to help to an extend. Although about every two weeks it flared up again to it's worst state.

For us humans it is a strange experience going against the little Nordic voice in our heads telling us to suck up some sun and light now we had the opportunity. Although going nocturnal was counter-intuitive for us humans, Viva really doesn't care when she goes out, as long as she does go out. Her spirit is high, and I wonder how she can. When I look at her nose I know it must itch enough to make one crazy. It must be painful. I don't even have the stomach to add a close-up of her nose to this blog, it looks too horrible.

But somehow Viva sucks it all in and can muster enough fight to remain her cheerful self. Enjoying the little things like she always has. Tough girl.

Two vets and three treatments have not been able to help so far, leaving me in despair and self-hate for not being able to help my girl, and seeing no options other than doing a rain dance and pray this summer will soon end.

Let it storm, rain, hail and thunder. Go away sun and blue skies, you are not welcome any more.

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Missing Hot Hovie

What do you do when it is hot. Swim as much as you can. Obvious.

And when home, find a cool place in the shades to observe the world.

Well done Viva.

Although obvious for Viva.
Kenzo can't sit still, and he rushes from whatever he is doing in the burning sun, to one of his cooling places.

Sometimes we can't find him and he goes missing.

Ah right, there he is. Charging up for the next dash.

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Learning To Share

Until recently, a picture like this made my heart skip a beat:

The toy falls in the wrong place, exactly in the middle of both Kenzo and Viva and they have an equal opportunity to reach it. When one of your dogs is a resource guarder, like Viva, it is a disaster waiting to happen. A resource guarder has to own whatever it is they value high, usually a toy or food. And they'll fight to get it.

When resource guarding would lead to a conflict their relationship could be disturbed for ever. And I know plenty of people that had to give up one of their dogs because it has gotten totally out of hand and the relationship seemed beyond repair.

Managing Viva's resource guarding has therefore always been a big deal to me. The very first time I tried to play with Viva, now three years ago, I remember she left me baffled. She would take the toy as far away from me as possible, and her body stiffened as I tried to approach her. Since then, I worked with her, two or three times a day, to reach where we are today.

The obvious thing to do was to exchange the toy for a treat, and then give it back again, so Viva learns I won't take it away and it is fun to let me have the toy for a moment. Like we did with Kenzo, when he was a puppy, to socialize him how to interact with people and dogs when there are toys in the mix.

But that was a bridge too far for Viva, and the first half year just went by letting her have it, and acting casual and not interested around her when she had a toy. Then when she started to trust me with her toy around, I started making "play-ish" movements in her direction, which she recognized as play, yet kept her distance, but the blink in her eyes revealed she was enjoying it.

I think it was somewhere near the end of that first year Viva decided to make the next step. When I stopped that day with our game - of still making "play-ish" movements in her direction - and put my attention elsewhere, I noticed Viva was approaching me ... with her toy. She didn't want me stop. Finally we could get started with our training, and soon after we made our very first toy-for-treat exchange.

One-and-a-half year in she started to enjoy teasing me with her toy. Sometimes I found Viva standing beside me, pushing her toy against my hand. When I reached out she turned her head or made a step back so I couldn't reach it. After a second, I could feel her touching my hand again, asking for more. And when she dropped the toy she pushed her nose against my pocket, "treat please! didn't you notice?".

Although Viva and me were good now, it took longer with Kenzo in the equation. Thankfully Kenzo is blessed in being the absolute opposite of a resource guarder, and already proved he can cope with resource guarders before. But Viva remained more fierce towards Kenzo if he would run off with her toy. Kenzo quickly dropped it again, as soon as he discovered Viva noticed him. These next shots show how careful he is around Viva and a toy:

Kenzo sneaks in when he notices Viva drops her toy

 Just Viva's head turn makes Kenzo hit the emergency brakes

 Viva has it again ... of course

As it slowly became more clear to Viva that Kenzo was not out on owning what is "hers", she could relax more. At least during that second year, we could have toys laying around, and we could start trusting her enough not to start a fight over it.

Of course Kenzo took advantage of the fact Viva was getting more relaxed, and started to tease her by keeping a toy longer in an attempt to invite Viva to chase him, after which he quickly dropped the toy. And ran a little further, just in case. And so we slowly reached into the third year, where we finally noticed if the toy would end up in the middle of them like in the photo above, Viva was ok with letting Kenzo have it. Also for a longer while.

And this month we had our first encounter where they found themselves both on the end of a tug-of-war rope, and after a second that seemed to last a century, Viva let it go, for the very first time, and chased Kenzo-with-rope instead, because that is a lot more fun.

We can all relax a little bit more now, and although I think it is not necessary anymore to oversee and help them in their play, I think I'll keep my eyes open for a while still, just in case.

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Kenzo & Viva Art Surprise

What do you think? Aren't they beautiful?

Viva

Kenzo

You probably noticed these watercolor paintings are based on the photo's I carry on the top banner of the blog. I selected them because they both capture their different characters so well. Viva, with her sweet, loving and also somewhat dependent look. It's her expression when she feels safe and just wants to be close to me. Kenzo, the eternal optimist, having fun in the moment, and already scouting for the next thing to enjoy, full of misschief.

All credit's go to the talented and gifted Margie K. for these beautiful watercolor painted versions of my favorite couple. I am forever grateful to you Margie.

When I look at the paintings, I also think back at Shiloh the Hovawart, as Margie and me met trying to help getting Shiloh adopted. Which after a long two year fight for Shiloh and two hip operations, finally got a happy ending.

I have a lot to smile about, when I look at the wall, where they are shining now.

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Hovawart TV: Interior Dog-orating

What a way to welcome the new puppy:



Odin sets a new standard!

Kenzo The Saluki

When I found out an actual Saluki sighthound was used in the "re-creation" of the Hovawart, I started looking at Kenzo for clues of such an ancestry. And indeed, when he uses all the muscles in his face to retract that, otherwise beautiful, Newfoundland facial skin, it does show:

Puppy Buyer From Denmark? Hovawart Breeders Beware

When you are a Hovawart breeder you might want to be careful when you are contacted by a puppy buyer from Denmark. The Danish Hovawart puppy mill is out of operation but well underway with yet another relaunch attempt. As their latest relaunch attempt failed, they are trying a new tactic this time.

They are moving to a new address with new owners - still from within the same family - and try to set up a network of "satellite breeders". They have re-opened their website and added an additional website that denies everything that happened in the last twenty years in an attempt to window dress their reputation.

You might wonder why that matters to you and your puppies. Let me explain. As they have only few dogs left, they need to rebuild their stock. Like they have done in the past, when they bought Hovawart puppies from all over Europe while pretending they are just Hovawart-lovers and don't want to breed, hiding the fact they will only move them into their cages and breed for profit. Like it happened with Hovawarts as Cherry from Holland, Bamira from Poland, and many, many more.

This time they will not use their own names, or try to contact you themselves. They will let the new "satellite breeders" do that for them.

In short, if you have a buyer from Denmark, there is a risk your puppy will end up in their puppy mill. The photo on the right is showing how your puppy will spent the rest of its life. I know you don't want that to happen.

Use your Danish network to double check the buyers. If you have none, I would like to offer my help, by checking the buyer's name for you and see if it could be suspect. I count on the Danish network that fights the puppy mill, to pass me the names of people that are suspect and I can cross-check the name on both lists. I know it is not a guarantee, but at least there is something we can do, by working together across borders.

Please drop me a mail at kenzohw (at) gmail (dot) com, or send a private message on Facebook. All requests and names will be dealt with in complete discretion. I will not supply any names to protect people's privacy, but I will let you know when the name matches the name of a suspect person.

I know you will do your due diligence even sharper than usual, and put in your buyer contract your approval is needed if your puppy buyer ever would want to re-home of sell your dog.

Last but not least, let's not forget that people from Denmark are not suspects. We are dealing with just a few rotten apples we need to root out. The majority of callers from Denmark will be loving families, providing good homes for your dogs.

Thank you for helping. Let's keep one step ahead of them.

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For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

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How A Brave Trio Freed 5 Dogs From The Puppy Mill

There is one more story to tell about the unraveling of the Danish Hovawart puppy last February, when a group of three people took matters in their own hands and freed five dogs from the puppy mill. This is what happened.

After the Danish Animal Welfare Organization "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" in January 16 moved in to seize the first group of 25 dogs, the story reached a wider audience through local and social media, and left many in disbelief there were 30 dogs still left behind. Apart from sharing the news, writing letters and signing the petition that was underway at that moment, many felt frustrated why not more was done, why not more could be done.

It all came to an outburst on Saturday, January 19, the day that by coincidence also was the funeral of Gitte H., one of the puppy mill owners. Two locals Michelle and Ditte had set their minds to free the dogs that day. Through Facebook they discussed it with Linse Kessler, a Danish celebrity and dog lover, and she wanted to join them in the rescue attempt.

Although they very well knew it was illegal and vigilante what they were about to do, they were willing to take the risk for the sake of the dogs. And in the morning, they turned up at the property, which was to their surprise deserted due to the ongoing funeral the trio was not aware of, and they could undisturbed enter the stables. Nothing could have prepared them for the sight that met them inside.

The dogs in need of immediate veterinarian attention were removed some days earlier by "Dyrenes Beskyttelse", but the stench of urine and feces and the sight of emaciated dogs in cages they have spent their whole life in is overwhelming nonetheless. Linse Kessler videotaped what happened when they went in, a tape just recently disclosed in one of her TV shows.

In the middle of removing the dogs, they were discovered by a mailman, who sounded the alarm, and the trio fled the puppy mill with 5 puppies under their arms, Hovawarts and Goldens. They moved them to a secure place and started to contemplate what to do next, as contacting any vet would alarm the authorities, with the risk the dogs would be returned.

Then the most unlikely thing happened, when - as we already know - later that same day four celebrities also paid the puppy mill a visit for the very same reasons as Michelle, Ditte and Linse, and bought the remaining dogs their freedom. Now all dogs could be handed over to "Dyrenes Beskyttelse".

All but one. During the rescue Linse Kessler fell in love with one of the Golden puppies, that bit her hair and stole her hat while driving them away from the puppy mill in the car. Linse was allowed later by the shelter, to adopt this puppy, "Jytte".

The story remained untold until some weeks ago, so I am happy to be able to shed some light on this trio now as well, without that I will have to be afraid to get them into trouble. It might be illegal what they did, and it sure is dangerous, but I am glad they let their heart speak, and were so brave to put themselves in harms way for the wellbeing of the dogs.

***

For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

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First Results Start To Show From Our Raw Diet

I wish I had made a "before" photo. These are Kenzo's teeth, now 4 months into our switch from kibble to a raw fed diet. Most of the tartar on his teeth is gone. An amazing result. Kenzo's vet was as delighted as I was during his yearly check-up. His teeth are doing a lot better.

Kenzo and Viva benefited differently from their raw diet. Viva, at age 8 now, always had healthy teeth, also in her kibble days, and there was not much to improve. For Viva the main benefit was a complete energy boost, that showed quite early in the diet switch.

She needs constant and balanced training for her spondylosis, so her renewed energy is a great help in battling her back-issues. Not too much training to strain her, not too little to keep the joints flexible and muscles strong. We always had to stimulate her to really use her muscles, as strong muscles are essential to compensate for the spondylosis, but that is history now.

On a raw diet she is much more willing to go the extra mile, chase the ball one more time, and use those muscles to keep them fit. A joy to witness. Kenzo benefits too, as they play a whole lot more together, and Viva doesn't give up anymore after a couple of runs.

One of the surprises was that Kenzo's after the switch never had any stomach trouble, where before he always responded sensitive to any change or addition to his diet. His digestive system seems also to have benefited.

During the weekdays we feed them minced chicken with tripe, some cooked veggies, mostly broccoli and carrots as they love those, a vitamin-A supplement, fish oil, and - only for Viva - glucosamine. In the weekend they also get some organic yoghurt with eggs, some offal, and a huge lamb bone for crunching and working those teeth.

I always hung on to kibble because I thought it to be convenient. Now I am surprised how easy it actually is to feed raw and find it just as convenient.

The only thing that still freaks me out is when they crunch the bones. I always keep an eye out and are ready to rush to the vet if we would get unlucky. So far they do their chewing quite fine and methodically.

If you think of switching to raw, you can start by lurking in the Raw feeding facebook group. They have some great start up guides, and the people in it are very helpfull and non-judgemental. It helped me a lot answering the practical questions that follow along the way, like how do I ensure a balanced diet, how about worms and other parasites, how about salmonella, etc. Questions I will focus on as well later on this blog.

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The Mystery Of The Blond Hovawart

When you see this photo of a Russian yellow retriever, it is compelling to believe his supposed ancestor, the Russian tracker, could be a Hovawart ancestor as well. Especially when you know it was used for guarding life-stock and had the size of the current Hovawart. On top of it, it would explain how we ended up with a blond Hovawart.

As the myth goes, the creator of the Russian yellow retriever, Col. William Trench, roamed the Russian mountains for these dogs and brought them back with him to breed Golden retrievers.

Blond Retriever Or Golden Hovawart?

They do look a like, the blond Hovawart and the Golden retriever. I always wondered if both could have an ancestor in common that we don't know of. Not all Golden retriever "types" do look like blond Hovawarts, a german Golden is unmistakenly not a Hovawart also because of its smaller size. But when you look at the large North American Golden retriever, it gets a lot more difficult to see who is who.

These photo's from retrieverman's blog set an excellent example, who is the retriever and who is the Hovawart?

Viva Making New Friends

We took a little risk on our latest visit to the Danish West-coast by bringing a house guest. It was Joska the Viszla, Kenzo's great pal, stayed with us for the whole week. Viva knows Joska of course, but so far, Joska was only tolerated by Viva if he would show her his most polite behavior. And Joska walked the gauntlet the first two days, his every move sharply observed by Viva. Until Viva de-iced, and welcomed him into the group.

She even played with both Kenzo and Joska on the beaches, when both were engaged in their special edition of fetch, and had great fun when she could snatch a ball or a stick right from under their noses. Of course sometimes she had to assert her rule, but we knew she had found a new friend when Joska was allowed a place on the sofa.

We made long hikes and the Danish West-coast again delivered the three things Viva loves so much. Space, space, and space. This time we landed in Blåvand ("Blue Water"), and compared to the places we visited earlier, Hvide Sande, the beaches were even wider, and compared to Romø, even more empty.


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We thought we hit the jackpot this time with the house we stayed in, as it had no view to either neighbors or nearby paths, so we could let the dogs roam free around the house. We kept them under supervision at all times, but there was no need to leash them or keep them inside because of nearby traffic, we figured. That quickly changed though, when we spotted vipers in the area. The many vipers also made hiking through the dunes and heath fields not as relaxing as usual, so we turned more to the beaches this time.

The leash laws forbid dogs off leash on the beaches this time of year. But like I said before, with so much space and knowing how rarely it happens Viva can go off leash undisturbed for hours, I'd be happy to pay the 260 Euro fine if we would ever get caught.

And Kenzo needs his ocean. The ocean was quite calm this time, but it didn't seem to disappoint Kenzo there were no waves to surf. On the other hand it was great for Viva now, who ventured further and further into the surf, and even got her elbows wet.

Our west-coast trips mean so much for Viva, when she doesn't have to worry about other dogs and scary things that happen. She can finally be "just" another dog, enjoying the small things in life. We'll keep coming back for more of that. At least until I have figured out a way to convince the family we really have to pack our bags and move away from the city.

***

There are some more photo's of our trip in this Facebook album.

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Hovawart TV: Water Slide

Something to look forward to, with summer on the way.

Keeping Viva Safe

We started off on the wrong foot on the beach. Within minutes we were surprised by no less than three off leash dogs.

One after the other they seem to come down from the sand dunes, although I never saw any owner they might have come from. Of course, Viva's stress levels skyrocketed as a result.

Viva and Kenzo were still leashed - from April 1 dogs should be leashed on the beaches - although we were looking for a quiet moment to enjoy some off leash play as well as the others, we are no saints either.

With the third dog, I had to drop the leash on Kenzo as he or she was very persistent in wanting to meet Viva, who thought that was not a good idea at all. Kenzo send him or her packing. Further down we finally found some more space, and we could enjoy some play and getting our feet wet.

Other dogs approached from the horizon, and in an attempt to keep Viva as calm as possible, I retreated with her to the sand dunes, while my wife played some more with Kenzo in the surf. We just sad there, and returned to the surf when the dogs had passed by.

Murphy must have traveled with us that day, as most dogs did make an attempt to run up to Viva, even from that long distance. Every time Kenzo followed them, made his point that Viva is off limits, and herded them back to the surf. Kenzo played with them without any problems, no hard feelings. One abducted his ball, and he didn't care. Yet as soon as they ran towards Viva, he drew a line in the sand.

One person looked surprised at Kenzo herding the next dog away. "Wow, he really protects her". I thought it was team work. But true, Kenzo's role in keeping Viva safe is so much more then what I could achieve by myself.

The Hovawart Family Tree

During the mini-quest to track down Kenzo's ancestors on his father's and his mother's side, I discovered a lot that fascinated me. It all started for the fun of it in the Facebook group Hovawart's family, sharing "old photo's", and in my case, got a little out of hand. Here is what I observed and learned so far, in an attempt to write something down, before this exercise ends in me writing a multiple volume book about Hovawarts and genealogy.

Kenzo's Mothers: I Am A Farm Dog

After following Kenzo's father's roots, that ended with Markus the Newfoundland, lets have a look at Kenzo's mothers. And as the experts say, holds a lot more genealogical value.

Kenzo's mother was Freja, or by her official name, "Sveablik's Freja". She had in all three litters, and Kenzo was part of the first litter. I only have printed photo's of her, and she is not even in the work-dog.eu database, just in the registry of the Danish Kennel Club. Following the direct line from mother to mother we found our "Eve": Dina Geisler, a mix of two farm dogs, also called a "Hofe wart" (old-German for farm guard). These were dogs the first breeders found on farms, resembling their ideal of a Hovawart.

Kenzo's Fathers: I Am A Newfoundland

Sparked by Min Inches, we embarked on a small genealogy project of our own to find Kenzo's roots. Together with the registry of the Danish Kennel Club and working-dog.eu, this is what we found out of on Kenzo's father's side.

Kenzo's father was "Odin", or by his official name, "Chaccomo vom Bohrertal", and we were so happy to have meet him once. Odin was a Danish champion and he only had one litter. Following the direct line from father to father, we found our "Adam": Markus, a 100% Newfoundland!

Kenzo's Trash Talking

Trash Talking? Moi?

We ended up scouting the new area we stranded in, Kenzo and me. The car had to get fixed. Again. Thankfully Kenzo was with me, and a walk beats the repair shop's waiting room and bad coffee any day. It was mostly a business park area so I didn't expect to experience any thrilling sights. When you have seen one, you have seen them all. But for Kenzo, a sniff is a sniff. It's good everywhere.

Passing a fenced-in area, I got a shock when a dog on the other side of the fence suddenly started barking. They always do that right at the moment you least expect it and when you go around in your own thoughts. Kenzo pretended he didn't noticed the disturbance, continued with his sniffing like nothing happened and only changed his stance to a little more low and calm, while keeping an eye on the other dog only from the corner of his eyes.

Excellent, I thought. That was an awesome display of calming dog body language, and gave Kenzo a treat for that. It seemed to have a soothing effect on the "guard" dog, so I threw a treat over to him as well - old habits die hard. He followed us all the way down to the end of the fence. And it was a long fence. He was still barking, but the alarm sound in it was missing. Kenzo remained stoic.

On the way back I thought it was better to pass on the other side of the street to avoid all the commotion. No reason to tease the dog after all. This side of the street had a long line of two-feet high boulders along the pavement, and it gave Kenzo plenty of opportunity to do some additional sniffing. Still, the routine repeated itself. When we reached the end of the fence, the dog stopped barking and now he was up for one very rude answer.

Like in slow-motion, Kenzo seemed to use every muscle in his body to make himself as tall as possible. His tail went high up into the air, and he took one step to the closest boulder, lifted his leg facing the dog, looked straight at him with his mouth closed, and released some water. The dog answered with a tail wag.

I just witnessed Kenzo "giving the Finger" in dog language, and I started laughing out loud, while Kenzo already was parading further down the road, celebrating his "victory". Studying all that dog body language is getting more and more fun, now I have opened my eyes for it.

Hovawart TV: The Housekeeper

You're gonna love this.



And? Was I wrong?

Don't Ignore Too Much Bad Behavior

May I jump up on you? Please?

This is a post inspired by - and you might like to read that instead - "You Cannot Punish Love".

If you are still here, I only want to share why it was an Aha!-moment article for us.

We have always been your average "responsible" dog family and learning Kenzo and Viva not to jump up on people was on our shortlist, among others.

It didn't totally work out. Actually it is quite easy to train, you just ignore the behavior and they stop jumping. It was working quite fine if I could have resisted those wagging tails and cute smiles when I come in the door. But I can't. I like it when they jump.

So I admit. Kenzo is a jumper. It is entirely my fault. I look forward to the ritual that is going to go down as soon as I open the door. I just love to have his paws on my shoulders and get my ear nibbled while he bursts my ear drums with loud barks.

Viva is not a jumper, but that is because of her back issues, but she sure bounces. I come down on my knees for her instead so she can make a tiny jump and she loves it too.

Luckily for me they first start jumping up on other people after they have already had a couple of earlier good meets with them, so they will not jump up on just anybody right away. But all our regular house guests know, they will probably jump. If they don't like it, they should just ignore it by turning away, I told my guests. I know, it is not my finest hour.

Other behaviors, like coming over for a kiss and a hug, while leaving fur and slime on my guests' clothes, I told them to just ignore those advances too if they didn't liked it. Some didn't care, and actually let them jump and had a blast with Kenzo & Viva like I do. Others just did the ignoring by turning away.

And then there were the middle-way people. Ignoring the behavior, but making sure they were giving love in some way to Kenzo & Viva, in an other way. Like giving them a belly-rub when they asked for it. In hindsight: they were the smart ones.

Kenzo in particular started to develop a non-relationship to the guests that were ignoring him. He even returned to some of the typical behavior we know when he meets people for the very first time: he became suspicious. And that made things worse, as now these guests started to feel he didn't liked them. And in fact, he didn't. Not anymore.

It always puzzled me why that happened, and what I could do about it. And that's when I read "You Cannot Punish Love". According to the article, jumping up is one of the genetically hardwired tools a dog uses to bond with us humans. My poor guests were not ignoring his behavior and thereby shaping it, they were refusing his love. And as a result, Kenzo loved them a little less, too. In the words of Prescot Breeden, the author:

"it is the product of an entire evolutionary lineage that survived through cooperation and the building of strong social bonds through reciprocity, trust, play and affection. Thus when a dog is being social with us, it is essential to reciprocate their play and affection."

Dogs are complex social beings like us. Probably my biggest mistake was to see it as just another training exercise, without acknowledging what the root cause is that makes them actually jump up in the first place. So it is back to the training of the jumps, and this time in a way to make sure they get the love they are asking for in another way. I imagine my guests now having to perform a mandatory belly-rub or tug-of-war game as soon as they entered the door. At least, if they want Kenzo & Viva to bond with them.

I think I never stop learning, dogs are truly fascinating.

Viva's Inner Cat

We are well into our first month of raw feeding now, after we recently made our first baby steps. To my surprise, the first effects are already starting to show. Viva has gotten a lot more playful and self-entertaining. She even invented a new cat-and-mouse game with the raw bones we give her:

throw

shake

stare

still staring...

is-it-still-alive-check

gotcha

ignoring

finally...

The days that Kenzo was the most playful of the couple, or that Viva needed him to engage in some play, are now over. And it is not just the bones. She is a lot more active when we play fetch and she runs through the house with her squeaky toys on her own initiative. It is too early to tell if this is caused by something underlaying, like her allergies, even though we thought we had them managed, or if this is something completely new. Either way, it is a feast to see her enjoying herself.

Hovawart TV: Don't Try This With Your Hovawart

Could you do this without the vacuum cleaner getting hurt?



I am impressed.

Viva The Easter Bunny

Three years ago, on the day before Sheer Thursday and Easter, we brought Viva home with us from the shelter. Our Easter Bunny in disguise, complete with a basket of easter eggs. I can vividly remember each of the eggs she kept hidden for us in her basket during that day.

We discovered Viva was returned to the shelter by her former adopters on the Monday before Easter. I drove by the shelter later that day to have a look and hear more about her and her background. And of course, to express my interest. The shelter people thought it was best for Viva also to meet Kenzo to see if they could get along, and I got an appointment for coming Wednesday to bring Kenzo when the shelter's behavioral expert would also be there.

That Wednesday was the day before Sheer Thursday followed by Easter, which are all public holidays in Denmark, so I was slightly annoyed that would probably mean we could first get Viva home after Easter if it would work out. On the bright side, the selection process is there for a reason, and it would be best for Viva too, not to rush things. Still there was hope Wednesday we could finish the process.

On Wednesday the meet between Kenzo and Viva went excellent and we were invited into the office for the "formal" part of the adoption to answer what felt like a thousand questions. When I heard the shelter's director was not in - she would have to make the final decision - my last hope to make it before Easter melted down like snow in the sun. While answering the questions, my mind already started wandering off thinking about Viva, having to spend Easter in the shelter. My pondering was suddenly interrupted, when the interviewer stood up in the middle of the interview, and said she had to make a phone call.

Sitting alone in the room, me and my wife hardly talked, as we both in silence were trying to accept the situation as it was turning out. Not knowing that in a few seconds, we would both fall off our chairs, when the interviewer returned from her phone call, which turned out to be a call to the director on holiday, bringing the message they would be glad if we would like to adopt Viva. We could take her home with us already today. It was not normal procedure, but because everything looked so good, they wanted to make an exception. For Viva's sake.

The best highs are always the ones, that follow after the lowest of lows, so it took a moment before I could scramble all my brain cells to get used to the new reality while citing each Danish version of "yes, we would love to...", I could think of. My wife still insists to this day, I responded in my native Dutch language, without me realizing it.

Finishing up the last paper work, we finally reached the part in which we could pay the adoption fee and leave with Viva. But the Easter Bunny had one last easter egg still in her basket. The terminal of the shelter didn't accept my card. If my wife's stare could kill, I would have dropped dead on the floor that very moment. As she knows, it is not the first time my irresponsibility with financial matters put us in such a situation.

I rushed out to see if I could get the money from an ATM. And it was a slight relief to find out, after visiting the third ATM of different banks, clearly something was wrong with the ATM network and not with the color of my account. At least I could save face for the home-front, although now I had to fight the banks too to get Viva home.

Blessed with an account at an Internet bank - quite new in those days - I went home to pickup my laptop, and brought it with me to the shelter to make a wire transfer instead, which they approved as payment reading it from the screen. The whole visit to the shelter had taken three hours now, and we could finally leave with Viva to celebrate Easter and introduce her into her new home.

Kenzo and Viva made their first meet on what would be Kenzo's turf for the last day, and as you can see on the photo he was making his best impression of a peacock trying to impress this beautiful lady newcomer:

And soon after, they engaged in their first play. The Easter Bunny came home after all: