Humans
Hello, we humans are Paul and Sandra Hurkmans. In the photo I (Sandra) am holding our Maltese Humphrey in my arms (he passed away in July 2005). The Dalmatian is Joschka and the Swedish Vallhund is Kari.
As you may have guessed, we love dogs. We enjoy our lives with them and have a lot of fun training with them. On this page, we will tell you a little bit about ourselves.
Paul
I grew up with dogs. One of the clearest memories of my childhood is me in the sitting room with my brother, with my arms around our black Standard Poodle 'Moortje', while my mother is cleaning up vomit from said Poodle.
Moortje unfortunately had to leave because he was too hyper for our family. He was however quickly replaced by a dachshund cross, who we called Snuf. He was a feisty little fellow who did not always want to do as he was told. Nevertheless he was a good companion and I played a lot with him. Snuf reached the respectable age of 14 years and passed away when I had already left home to go to college in Maastricht (yep, the town of the Treaty).
In secondary school, a classmate introduced me to a dog club where they trained police dogs. At that club I was taught a lot about how to handle dogs, and in a relatively positive way, which was an exception in those days. I especially learned how to read a dog's body language. This learning process was greatly speeded up when I was sometimes allowed to be a helper, wearing the padded sleeve and suit. Believe me, you learn fast when you are eye to eye with a Bouvier des Flandres or a Malinois aiming to latch on to your sleeve!
The only time I had no dogs in my life was during my college years in Maastricht. Only then did I realise how much I missed them. Luckily, I soon got to know Sandra, who is possibly even crazier about animals than I am (this is not the only reason we are together, really). Thanks to her, this 'dogless' period in my life was interrupted from time to time thanks to visits from Flopje (little flop) when his owners were on vacation. Flopje was a huge German Sheperd that we took an many walks in and around Maastricht, from the Pietersberg to Belgium and from there to cafés in the centre of town. Eventually we 'kidnapped' Flopje when we were able to offer him a good home, as his owners couldn't provide him with the stable life and walks that he needed and deserved. But that was some years later.
After our studies in Maastricht we moved to The Hague, where we soon started to plan for our own dog. That was Boef, our Bouvier des Flandres. I've always had a soft spot for Bouviers, so when we found her at the local rescue, I was sold. She was at least 10 kilograms overweight and a bit fearful of older men. She got over that fear over time and we got her weight down to a decent level as well. Boef loved going to the beach. Normally, she would be lagging behind us, but in the dunes near Kijkduin, she would run tens of yards ahead of us and keep looking back with a look that clearly stated: "Come on, hurry up there! I wanna go to the water!" Yes, she loved the water. Even when it was freezing, she would still lie down in the surf with a ball or a stick in her mouth.
We eventually moved from The Hague to Pijnacker, a small nearby town. That was when we were able to kidnap Flopje, so we had two dogs. After about a year we got a puppy, Humphrey the Maltese. He was our first puppy and of course needed to be taught some obedience and manners. So we went to the local dog club, the K.C. Delft. Sandra enjoyed training Humphrey very much. And he became a great little dog and well trained too. Yes, really, a well-trained Maltese!
After Flopje died at the age of 12, we started looking around which breed we wanted next. That was to be the Dalmatian. We thought about it for some time, read about the breed and got ourselves informed. We wanted a dog who would bring a bit of spark to our household. Well, Joschka certainly did that! Sandra did the obedience training and later agility at the dog club while I taught Joschka manners like stopping and sitting before crossing the street, walking on lead etc. And very important in our small densily populated country: teaching him to only relieve himself where it's allowed and it won't be a nuisance to other people (or cleaning up after him).
Our Bouvier turned out to be a very good, steady alpha lady who reigned supreme over the other dogs until she passed away at 15 years of age. She was impressive. She hardly needed to look at another dog for him to know that here was a Very Important Dog indeed and that there was no arguing with her.
And she taught Joschka a doggy manner or two.
Two years after Boefie passed away, we started to yearn for another dog. A few years earlier we had already decided on the breed. A not too common breed, the Swedish Vallhund or Västgötaspets.
Sandra
I've always loved animals. At home we almost always had a dog. Also I've had gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits (not all at the same time!), though a dog was always at the top of my list.
Anyway, I always thought a household without pets is a sterile, cold place. I am happy to have found Paul, who is a soulmate to me in this respect (and many others).
As soon as we could afford it after our studies, I started working part time so that we could have a dog. That was Boefie. Not too long after she came to our household, Flopje joined her when we moved to the country town of Pijnacker. Humphrey was our first puppy and for the first time I took dog training classes, which was at the K.C. Delft. I loved doing it and the little guy did quite well. When Joschka joined us and all seemed to go well with him too, I started as a trainee instructor at the club.
Reading and learning about dogs was always something I enjoyed. As a trainee and because of our problems with Joschka, my hunger for knowledge only grew larger. Searching on the internet, I found information on clicker training. It intrigued me, especially the idea that you can train a dog without punishing him. I couldn't believe that at first. In 1996 I took my first steps in trying this out with my dogs and soon I was completely hooked. What a great training method!
Soon I wanted to teach clickertraining at our club. Because it was a new method, for myself and in the Netherlands, I wanted to get a good foundation and see how I could teach this. The K.C. Delft gave me the opportunity to try it out and in january 1999 I started my first clicker class, an introductory class. I never looked back. Now I teach obedience classes and dogdance, as well as the crossover course, which still exists.
Sandra Hurkmans
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