5 months

I just realize that it took me quite a while to write my first post. But I guess the day that the world is supposed to end (at least if it comes down to the Armageddon-followers) is a great day to start writing about my experiences with and my feelings towards Hudson.

When we decided that we were gonna get a dog, I haven’t even heard about Catathoulas before. The Catahoula is a breed that aint well known in Germany. Stu has been familiar with this breed for 10 years already and always wanted one. So he introduced me to it and at first I was a bit anxious. This was basically due to the fact that the breeders in Germany state quite obviously what they want from a future owner of their pups. From a nowadays perspective I think that is the right thing to do. But back then I had the feeling that I am not eligible of owning a Catahoula. To be honest – I had the impression you must be kind of a superhero in order to even be allowed to think of having one :-)

The problem was that I am not a superhero… But I decided that I am going to learn how to become one. So we got informed and suddenly knew that we can actually give what a Catahoula needs.  

So good things fell together and we met Anke Boysen who founded the EALC  http://www.ealc.info/en/ and is the owner of Indigo - a successful SAR-dog in Munich. Anke had her first litter when we met her and that’s how we got Hudson and fell head over heels for him. 

Hudson taught us to be clear in what we want, whether we really want it, when we want it, what we think and how he feel as he reacts to any uncertainty within a second.

As the Catahoula needs a job, I decided to start Mantrailing. This was actually supposed to be a hobby but this “Hobby-idea” never got realized as I had the feeling that this dog doesn’t just need a hobby - Hudson was ready to work properly!

With the help of Anke I became a member of a SAR Team in Munich. And I am so grateful, that I got introduced to the SAR work as this is something that  Hudson loves doing and also something that I love doing and on top of that you get the chance to spend real quality time with your dog and help society (also see “superhero” :-))

As Stu writes a lot about food and education, I will use the blog to write about my experiences with the SAR work as I and Hudson start from scratch and this might help other who want to follow on the way to become a SAR-Team.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!