Why appenzeller?
When we moved from a flat in Prague to a house with a garden in a small town
we started to look for a dog. I had a number of requirements:
- short hair, easy to take care of
- not a hunting breed so that the dog can go with us for walks off leash without chasing game
- middle size
- breed suitable for theoretically educated beginners
I have read a number of different books about dog breeds and became interested in two of the swiss mountain / cattle dogs - entlebucher and appenzeller. I found web pages of the Czech Swiss Mountain Dog Club and on these a list of breeders of these two breed. In one of the kennels they even had all three shorthair swiss mountain dogs, so we agreed on a personal visit. And even after so many years I remember with big gratitude Ms Novakova from kennel Novaboon Paradise, who in summer 2006 introduced us to her dogs, explained specifics of all three breeds and let us observe them and play with them.
At the end we decided for an appenzeller - we liked his curled tail (highly practical around household and kids:) and almost quadratic shape of body.
But Ms Novakova did not have appenzeller puppies, her bitches were older ladies, and so she directed us to Lenka from kennel Šťastná Berjanka, who has a bitch after one of Ms Novakova´s bitches. And we were lucky - in December
2006 Besi gave birth to six beautifull puppies, among them was one havanna brown girl. I wanted this colour since I think that on the brown background the appenzeller smile is more visible ;) The girl was named Beatrix and in Ferbuary 2007 moved to our house.
And I could confirm that Ms Katharina von der Leyen in her book Dog characters (Charakter-Hunde) based on which I chose swiss mountain doogs, described appenzeller well - "It is a really extrovert dog, always busy with something, much more temperamental than his bigger relatives. … It is a very interesting and likeable dog, though a bit impetuous, does not trust strangers but above all dedicated to his family. … He is also quite loud …
He does not roam and loves to accompany his humans on trips, so he is an excellent tourist."
Ms Doris Meier, who has been breeding appenzellers in Switzerland for twenty years, fittingly writes about them on her web pages (a bit lose translation using google translator :)
"The essence of Appenzell is the result of its centuries of use in the Alpine area. He is very spirited and persevering. Its flexibility and power of observation for facial expressions and body language of his master is typical of the breed. The harsh conditions in the mountains and partly ruthless selection have this breed too much weather-resistant, made in the diet and uncomplicated disease-prone little dogs. Towards strangers he is rather suspicious. Through his innate instinct to guard and protect and the rather low hunting instinct, he will guard the home and family with great reliability.
Those who want an Appenzeller Sennenhund should be aware that he is a lively, spirited, and often boisterous, but full of loyalty and devotion. They should also be aware that they musT offer this dog a consistent training and leadership. This is precisely waht is very important for this very independent dog. If you do not offer him this, he takes the lead. Mercury is the right word for his temperament. Thanks to his stormy bouncy welcoming many people ended up with aching chin.
He is very persistent and has a strong power of observation. He is also very adaptable. When being trained Appenzell usually requires only short commands. He learns very quickly. Most Appenzeller love water, which may go so far that they do not want to come out of the water.
The Appenzeller is very sensitive to unwarranted punishment and often he is also very jealous. This is evident when the owner wants to stroke another dog, appenzeller forces itself inbetween and will always want to at the first place. His preferred characteristics are loyalty, devotion, vigilance, curiosity, his exuberant temperament and his extremely high intelligence."
And I do fully agree with this description!
The first couple of months we spend introducing Biba to our family, friends, people and dogs, teaching her the basic obedience stuff and enjoyed her temperament. She never destroyed anything at home, she was only playing with her toyes or pieces of wood. When she was eight months old she spent holidays with us staying in a four star hotel where we could leave her alone at the room or take her with us to the restaurants without being afraid that she may do some damage. She stays with us at the walks, and when she really needs to go to explore something interesting (such as the mole hole) she always comes back to us. One of her unwanted habbits was nibbling finger
- I tought her to walk next to me using bisquits held in finger tips and probably she all the time wanted to find our, whether other friends also have something good in their fingers. She stopped doing this when she was about 2 years old.
She is a perfect announcing guarding dog, our mailman respects her a lot. Stranger entering our garden must be ready for her fierce barking. But when we explain her that the person is our friend, she calms donw. And those she knows already must be ready for her excited greetings :)
We take her for trips and visits, she "plays" golf with us, swims in a river or just sits with us on a couch wathing TV. She loves water though it was not a love at first sight - during the first summer we had to really lure he in the water, and at the end she jumped in it to follow me, when I was slowly swimming to the other side of the river :) She is an excellent swimmer, faster than many people in our river Sazava.
Appenzellers love their family and our Biba is no different. She lets kids do all sorts of things to he, from sitting on her, through counting teeth, checking paws to pulling her curled tail. And when she is tired
of the little hands, she lickes the kids from head to toes and walks away from their reach : )
Biba loves treats and fetching, for a piece of a bisquit she even learned to roll. She is good in dog sports, eager to try anything. She had a chance to try many different sports at the dog camps where we go to. We don´t do any sports on regular basis, though this is due to her humans!
What we are good at is participation at the dog shows. Biba is really pretty so
we have a plenty of lovely cups and medals at home. Her biggest success was winning the whole autumn club show of the Czech Swiss Mountain Club,
where she won even over the nicest ones of the other three swiss mountain
dog breeds!
So who would I recommend appenzeller to? To active people, who will keep their dog busy. When he has a possibility to stay on a graden during the day it is not necessary to go for long walks every day. But it is important to spend time with the dog every day - even if it was just throwing balls or frisbee at the garden, or playing the game "find a hidden bisquit" at home. It is like with kids - when a dog is bored then he misbehaves and does silly stuff. And for families with a kid / kids, though kids must learn how to treat the dog, and that they must let him rest and sleep as well.
Appenzeller is suitable for all sorts of activities - there are appenzellers who successfully passed tests of cattle dog talents and even in the Czech Republic there are still dogs working with sheep herds, have coursing licences, compete in agility, flyball or dog frisbee, others pursue sporting cynology and successfully pas all sorts of exams, others (with a calmer naturel) engage in canisterapy. Abroad appenzellers are trained as avalanche dogs, assisting and guiding dogs for blind or other disabled people, and even search for drugs or other unwanted stuff. In summary - it is only up to the people which activity theyr start with their loved dog :)
When we moved from a flat in Prague to a house with a garden in a small town
we started to look for a dog. I had a number of requirements:
- short hair, easy to take care of
- not a hunting breed so that the dog can go with us for walks off leash without chasing game
- middle size
- breed suitable for theoretically educated beginners
I have read a number of different books about dog breeds and became interested in two of the swiss mountain / cattle dogs - entlebucher and appenzeller. I found web pages of the Czech Swiss Mountain Dog Club and on these a list of breeders of these two breed. In one of the kennels they even had all three shorthair swiss mountain dogs, so we agreed on a personal visit. And even after so many years I remember with big gratitude Ms Novakova from kennel Novaboon Paradise, who in summer 2006 introduced us to her dogs, explained specifics of all three breeds and let us observe them and play with them.
At the end we decided for an appenzeller - we liked his curled tail (highly practical around household and kids:) and almost quadratic shape of body.
But Ms Novakova did not have appenzeller puppies, her bitches were older ladies, and so she directed us to Lenka from kennel Šťastná Berjanka, who has a bitch after one of Ms Novakova´s bitches. And we were lucky - in December
2006 Besi gave birth to six beautifull puppies, among them was one havanna brown girl. I wanted this colour since I think that on the brown background the appenzeller smile is more visible ;) The girl was named Beatrix and in Ferbuary 2007 moved to our house.
And I could confirm that Ms Katharina von der Leyen in her book Dog characters (Charakter-Hunde) based on which I chose swiss mountain doogs, described appenzeller well - "It is a really extrovert dog, always busy with something, much more temperamental than his bigger relatives. … It is a very interesting and likeable dog, though a bit impetuous, does not trust strangers but above all dedicated to his family. … He is also quite loud …
He does not roam and loves to accompany his humans on trips, so he is an excellent tourist."
Ms Doris Meier, who has been breeding appenzellers in Switzerland for twenty years, fittingly writes about them on her web pages (a bit lose translation using google translator :)
"The essence of Appenzell is the result of its centuries of use in the Alpine area. He is very spirited and persevering. Its flexibility and power of observation for facial expressions and body language of his master is typical of the breed. The harsh conditions in the mountains and partly ruthless selection have this breed too much weather-resistant, made in the diet and uncomplicated disease-prone little dogs. Towards strangers he is rather suspicious. Through his innate instinct to guard and protect and the rather low hunting instinct, he will guard the home and family with great reliability.
Those who want an Appenzeller Sennenhund should be aware that he is a lively, spirited, and often boisterous, but full of loyalty and devotion. They should also be aware that they musT offer this dog a consistent training and leadership. This is precisely waht is very important for this very independent dog. If you do not offer him this, he takes the lead. Mercury is the right word for his temperament. Thanks to his stormy bouncy welcoming many people ended up with aching chin.
He is very persistent and has a strong power of observation. He is also very adaptable. When being trained Appenzell usually requires only short commands. He learns very quickly. Most Appenzeller love water, which may go so far that they do not want to come out of the water.
The Appenzeller is very sensitive to unwarranted punishment and often he is also very jealous. This is evident when the owner wants to stroke another dog, appenzeller forces itself inbetween and will always want to at the first place. His preferred characteristics are loyalty, devotion, vigilance, curiosity, his exuberant temperament and his extremely high intelligence."
And I do fully agree with this description!
The first couple of months we spend introducing Biba to our family, friends, people and dogs, teaching her the basic obedience stuff and enjoyed her temperament. She never destroyed anything at home, she was only playing with her toyes or pieces of wood. When she was eight months old she spent holidays with us staying in a four star hotel where we could leave her alone at the room or take her with us to the restaurants without being afraid that she may do some damage. She stays with us at the walks, and when she really needs to go to explore something interesting (such as the mole hole) she always comes back to us. One of her unwanted habbits was nibbling finger
- I tought her to walk next to me using bisquits held in finger tips and probably she all the time wanted to find our, whether other friends also have something good in their fingers. She stopped doing this when she was about 2 years old.
She is a perfect announcing guarding dog, our mailman respects her a lot. Stranger entering our garden must be ready for her fierce barking. But when we explain her that the person is our friend, she calms donw. And those she knows already must be ready for her excited greetings :)
We take her for trips and visits, she "plays" golf with us, swims in a river or just sits with us on a couch wathing TV. She loves water though it was not a love at first sight - during the first summer we had to really lure he in the water, and at the end she jumped in it to follow me, when I was slowly swimming to the other side of the river :) She is an excellent swimmer, faster than many people in our river Sazava.
Appenzellers love their family and our Biba is no different. She lets kids do all sorts of things to he, from sitting on her, through counting teeth, checking paws to pulling her curled tail. And when she is tired
of the little hands, she lickes the kids from head to toes and walks away from their reach : )
Biba loves treats and fetching, for a piece of a bisquit she even learned to roll. She is good in dog sports, eager to try anything. She had a chance to try many different sports at the dog camps where we go to. We don´t do any sports on regular basis, though this is due to her humans!
What we are good at is participation at the dog shows. Biba is really pretty so
we have a plenty of lovely cups and medals at home. Her biggest success was winning the whole autumn club show of the Czech Swiss Mountain Club,
where she won even over the nicest ones of the other three swiss mountain
dog breeds!
So who would I recommend appenzeller to? To active people, who will keep their dog busy. When he has a possibility to stay on a graden during the day it is not necessary to go for long walks every day. But it is important to spend time with the dog every day - even if it was just throwing balls or frisbee at the garden, or playing the game "find a hidden bisquit" at home. It is like with kids - when a dog is bored then he misbehaves and does silly stuff. And for families with a kid / kids, though kids must learn how to treat the dog, and that they must let him rest and sleep as well.
Appenzeller is suitable for all sorts of activities - there are appenzellers who successfully passed tests of cattle dog talents and even in the Czech Republic there are still dogs working with sheep herds, have coursing licences, compete in agility, flyball or dog frisbee, others pursue sporting cynology and successfully pas all sorts of exams, others (with a calmer naturel) engage in canisterapy. Abroad appenzellers are trained as avalanche dogs, assisting and guiding dogs for blind or other disabled people, and even search for drugs or other unwanted stuff. In summary - it is only up to the people which activity theyr start with their loved dog :)
I let my "mom" do anything to me
I understand golf quite well!
I love snow, even when I´m pregnant :)
Cherries? On a tree? Thank you, I´ll help myself :)
