Dogs

Three years after we landed in Switzerland the dog died.    She was nearly fifteen so not entirely unexpected but sad nonetheless.   I accepted Lisa’s (wife) contention that given the circumstances (she had just started her first job here) the time wasn’t right to re-dog but two and a half years later, after things had settled down a bit, I was able to convince her that we (she) could manage it.  The question was, which breed?   As adults, we’d had an Australian Shepherd, a Border Collie and a Jack Russell.  I remember thinking that maybe, since at that point we’d been in Switzerland almost six years, we should get a classic Swiss breed.  For instance, an Appenzeller.   Or a Bernese Mountain dog.  Or a St. Bernard,  complete with iconic barrel slung from neck .   No, after a half second’s consideration it was clear that Swiss dogs are too big, at least for us.    We lived in a flat, not on a farm or the side of a mountain.  After some thought, we decided on a classically un-Swiss breed and what could be less Swiss than a Corgi?  It turned out that there was only one active Corgi breeder in the entire country but the dog gods were smiling on us and while Lisa was conveniently away in Africa, I learned that the breeder even had a litter.  She was in Interlaken, a town most famous as the launch point for trips up to the Jungfraujoch, and off my daughter and I went.  Making a long story short, we selected a puppy and named her Ellie.  Getting a dog here is not only expensive, it’s  complicated.  And there are a few rules.    And with rules comes training so in spite of our experience as previous dog owners  as well as Lisa’s professional status (she’s a veterinarian), someone in the family had to attend the requisite training. The course is known as  Sachkundenachweis für Hundehalter, which translates as dog owner certificate of competence and is a result of a new law that went into effect in 2008.  The good news was that since our Jack Russell had been registered here we placed out of the classroom training and needed only to complete the practical training.  I suppose that the objective is to get everyone on the same behavioral sheet of music and I didn’t mind doing so as it was a nice activity to do with my daughter.   So, I signed us up and the three of us (Ellie too of course) reported one nice, bright Saturday morning in March for the first of our six training sessions.   Turns out that with our first three dogs Lisa and I did everything completely wrong.  For one, we were speaking the wrong language.  Dogs obey German much better.  “Sit” sounds too much like a suggestion, but “Platz!” Well, you see.  Much less room for interpretation.  We also learned that training aids such as shock collars and invisible fences are cruel and therefore forbidden.   The law states that dogs are not to be treated like livestock.  Tell that to the farmers in Lucerne, Appenzell, Jura and Bern who seem to do just such a thing, including eating them. ( http://www.newsweek.com/not-just-christmas-swiss-urged-stop-eating-cats-and-dogs-287378 ).  In any event, we’ve no plans to eat our Corgi and after demonstrating our competence as dog owners we’ve all settled in together quite nicely.

Ellie, during a Christmas family hike in Zermatt.