Peter Wouter's Blog

Yes, I am still alive, and I am still feeding 9 canines.

So how is the family doing?  Well… Acira, Gray and Flash (the old gang) is still doing great.  The next generation Herion is going through puberty and especially we are suffering.  The youngsters of Flash (Domino, Boomer and Spot) are doing great and developing a craving for discs rapidly, but more about that later.  Our Shock is finally maturing and becoming a great dog, and our new baby El Lobo (the wolf), who is a German Shepherd is so much fun and so self-assured.

Mind you, if I look at Lobo at 16 weeks, I shudder at the future foodbills.

So what about Canine Flying Disc Sports in the Dominican Republic?  Well, we gave a demo 2 weeks ago at the major university in Santiago for quite a big crowd.  The demo consisted of obedience, security work and as finale Acira doing her stuff with a disc.

Quite a strange and funny demo… first of all it was in an aula on a wooden floor on which they had spread and taped some sheets, and we got the warning that no dog was allowed to touch the wood… yeah right…

So the demo started with some obedience shows by Acira and a Malinois owned by a Dominican friend, followed by some security work which was greatly appreciated by most of the audience, and send some women screaming out of the aula.  Then it was the turn of Argos, a German Shepherd, and the only trained Search and Rescue dog in the DR.  He and his owner, Molina, put on a great show.  Finally, Acira gave her best with the discs, but I am afraid the wood was not spared…

Strangely enough, and sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures…  Especially sad as Argos, at the age of 5, died the next week, unexpectedly, due to a torsion of the stomach and dying on the operating table due to respiratory arrest.  Not only did Molina lose a dear friend, but the DR lost a very valuable dog.

Disc Diving… I just moved to a new house, with quite a nice swimming pool and the dogs, especially the young aussies love it.  Especially around 4pm, as they know this is play time… they will gang up in front of the living room and urge me to come out and play with them…

So I take 4 discs out, go to the pool and throw them in… my god… never knew aussies could dive that well…

OK, shoot me!  I did indeed not keep my promise of posting here every month, but I was too busy being retired.  Can I????

Just joking, but then again it is indeed hard work being retired over here.

The purpose of this post?  Very simple.  I will answer your question whether or not you should tuck your dogs, cats, and kids under your arms, sell your house over there, and jump on  a plane to the Dominican Republic to start a new life.  By the way, do not forget your wife or hubby, if you think that is necessary.

We have now been living here for 18 months and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Does this mean it is paradise?  Nope, but then again I think you will have to die to reach paradise, and I know that, in my case at least, the pearly gates will remain firmly shut.  Mind you, I always enjoy a nice BBQ.

Right, let us get back on track.  Life in the DR.  Did we for one minute regret moving here?  The answer simply is no.  Is this the adventure for everyone?  Should you jump into it? NOOOO!!!!

If you would decide to move down here, you will get an enormous amount of bonuses in your quality of life as a person, but you will also make an enormous amount of sacrifices in your “quality” of life.  Up to you what is important to you.  There is no right or wrong here, just a personal preference.

Let me explain what you will sacrifice.

First of all, utilities.  You know what I mean!  That everyday stuff we all take for granted  in the US or Europe.  24/7 electricity, continuous water supply, cable, fast internet, mobile connectivity, etc…  If you want all that, un-tuck those kids, cats and dogs from under your armpits and stay there.  If you move here, make sure you get a house with an invertor and a healthy set of batteries, and a generator.  And that is just for electricity.  A 12-hour dose of mains electricity is a treat here.  All the rest is up to your batteries and generator.   Water?  Two choices.  You either have your own well, or you will have a very big “cisterna” (read tank).   A decent house without well will have something like a 14,000 gallon tank.  Let us discuss cable and internet, as they frequently go together.  TV is not a problem here, as you have plenty of choices.  Cable, Satellite, ADSL… all are available at pretty good prices.  And you will get your favorite American channels, and those weird European channels.  Faaaaast inteeeerneeeet…………. Sorry, I fell of my chair laughing at my own joke.  Fast internet simply is not available in most locations.  If available, plan on paying mega-bucks for it.  Mind you, to be honest, the improvement over the past 18 months is incredible… but still far from what you are, and we were, accustomed to.    Mobiles, cell phones, androids… every Dominican owns at least 2 of them.  And there is a reason for that…  Aside from the fact that they love to call each other, they have cards from at least 2 operators here in the hope of being connected.  Richer Dominicans will have up to 4, so they cover each operator.

Secondly… Luxuries…  ooops, those things we take for granted.  Washing Machines, Dryers, Toasters, Microwaves, arrrgh dish-washers….  Yes, they do exist over here!  But you learn something else.  Do you really need all of that crap?  Granted, I never got Hilde that far as to go down to the river and slap our undies over some stones!  But all the rest is available, if not necessary.  Your washing is dry in 10 minutes in the sun, your toast is ready quicker in your oven (mind you, you have to flip it yourself), a microwave is handy but not a necessity (the oven or a saucepan will do the job), and as far as dish-washers go… why did you marry???

Thirdly… Food…  Difficult subject this…  Depending on where you live here, you can pretty much get everything.  As far as meat goes, cut price per pound in 4, and get fantastic chicken and pork.  The beef is good in taste, but do not expect it to melt in your mouth… take a couple of days to munch it.  The bonus side, no hormones or antibiotics…  If you are vegetarian, paradise awaits you….  Pretty much of all American goodies are available here, but consider them a treat…

Fourthly… Safety and Corruption… yep, both are plenty… lol, but more info about that later

So… why would you move here, as I realize this is quite a bleak picture I am drawing…

The locals… we forgot how much fun it is to drive down your street and greet the locals.  Wave, give a lollipop to one of the kids, get waves, hugs and kisses back.  We forgot how it is to go to the local supermarket, and wanting to pay with a 10$ bill and them not having change… and telling you they trust you and just pay them the next time.  To trade some oranges from your farm for a pineapple… To take a 7$ bottle of rum down to the locals living next to you, to share it and have a blast enjoying the bachata music.  To know those people will be there for you if you need them (2-way street).  To be called by your name in the supermarkets, to be helped within 2 minutes when you have a flat tire, for free…

The utilities… yes, where do they repair the circuitboard for 5€ instead  of replacing it for 200$?  On new years eve…   ooops, I forgot the couple of glasses of rum and a hell of a lot of laughter…

Where can you take your dogs for a run on the beach?  Train them?  And enjoy a drink at 1,50$?

We moved here, and yes… we gave up a lot of the luxuries we were accustomed to… but got so much in return and learned to appreciate those luxuries again… but we are here to stay…

Next blog… canine disc sports in the DR (frisbee would have been easier, but what the heck…)

Well, almost a year here now… and things are still changing constantly… positively..

They always say you need to live a year somewhere, before you can decide whether this is a place where you would like to stay, and we can only say yes… on both counts… It takes a year, and yes we like it here…

Of course you have to get used to a whole lot of things, like local customs, food, habits, perceptions, behavior, etc…, but a lot of people forget that the local population also has to get used to you.  For the majority here, in the beginning, you are this rich “gringo”, coming to live in their community, spending his money, and not caring one bit about the locals or their community…, and, I’m ashamed to say that this is the truth in a lot of cases…

After a year, we have been accepted in the community… we are greeted all the time (like the locals do amongst themselves), we are whistled at (a gruesome custom here to get attention), we are hugged, kissed, fondled, etc…

True, we are still known as those crazy gringo’s with their 9 dogs, but they love the fact that we participate in local fairs, give demo’s, play with their children, and support the local community in general…

We have given some seminars in frisbee, and they were liked a lot… and our newest venture is to give a free summer course for the local children with their dogs (frisbee, doggydance, some obedience, etc…) so people here learn to appreciate dogs more (here a dog is either a vira lata (streetdog), or a poor creature on the end of a chain, to be released at night in the hope of it protecting the house)…

Now for the title… last week we were asked to give some demo’s in one of Santiago’s universities (vet department).  I was wondering as this is summer break, but expected a kind of summer school for veterinarian students…

To my big surprise, we were met by a whole bunch of kids, ranging from 6 to 14 years of age…  Apparently the university organised a summer camp for the kids of employees and their families, so they would get to know what university is like, and in the hope they would get interested…

So far, so good… but we then noticed the kids first had to follow a seminar, explaining in detail, the artificial insemination of pigs…  I kept fearing they would actually cart in 2 pigs to show the natural way, and the insemination way… lol

I can just imagine those 6-year olds going home that evening, explaining their parents their pigs were doing it all wrong…  This is a typical example of Dominican thinking… the idea itself is great (getting youngsters interested in university and education), but then…. hmmmmmm….

Anyways they loved the show with Acira, Gray, and Theo (a Russian black Terrier), had a great time playing with them after the show, and everybody wanted to have his/her pic taken with one of the dogs… so mission accomplished…

From now on, I do promise I will at least post once every month, and… I will never eat a pork-chop without thinking of that seminar ever again… lol

Peter

sorry guys… blame me, shoot me the next time you see me… but we needed a rest…

so far, we are only a month away from living in the Dominican Republic for a year now…

And it has been an eventful year… we had to say goodbye to our faithful Kazan, our first dog together, and at the age of 14 he died quickly from a heart-attack….  This was always the death we hoped he would get, but underestimated the pain it would cause us……

We had to say goodbye to Kiko, our little pain-in-the-butt, who got run over by one of the few cars who pass here…, and no blame on the driver, it was just unlucky… and it hurted…

but we also had some positive things…. we have given some clinics in canine flying disc sports (can’t use the word frisbee here…. lol), and have some ardent followers…

we are giving free clinics to the local kids here, so they learn to appreciate their dogs, and it is a huge success…

and, oh.. btw… we are planning on winning the pairs 2011 WC…. lol

promise to keep closer up to date in the next months… pls forgive me…

Peter

Well, last week we were asked to do 3 demo’s for some local schools, and of course we were happy to comply.  We set up a show, including how to approach and handle a dog safely (the Dominican idea is to jump up and down and scream hysterically), some demo of obedience, some security work and of course some discplaying.

The first demo was for around 200 kids and some parents, and was great fun.  At the last bit we divided the kids up into 3 groups according to age… and threw some discs to them which they could keep.

By the second day, word had spread around somehow, and it was around 500 people attending the 30 minute demo, which ended up being a couple of hours of kids petting the dogs, wanting to know their names, their breeds, etc…

The 3th day was hell and heaven in the same place with around 1,000 screaming kids and adults…  We arrived in the van, and looked kind of panicky towards each other…  The van was surrounded by screaming kids, and teachers acting as our security-guards, trying to give us some space… (so this is how a rock-star must feel, except for the lack of money we have and he doesn’t… lol).  How in heaven’s name were we going to unload the dogs, put their crates out, and safely transport them to the demo area…  Luckily this was a Jesuit school and the rector, who was very soft spoken, but apparently enormously respected, got everybody away from us, pulling an ear left and right… and giving us the time to rush the dogs out and set everything up…  The demo went great, and people loved it, never having seen dogs performing that way…  We decided not to throw some frisbees towards the kids as we did not want any trampling on our conscience, but decided to give the PE-department of the school the frisbees…

Anyway, it was a great week… and what is even greater is that all 3 schools asked us to come and give some additional lessons on how to react to dogs, how to safely approach and pet them… etc…  Great, because this will save a lot of children being bitten by stray dogs, and hopefully will change the way Dominicans look towards dogs…

First a show review of our WC, although the most was already explained in a fantastic way by Kata.  We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday at 5.30 am from Santiago.  As we had to be at the airport in Santiago at 1 am, we did not bother to go to sleep,  also because we had to explain everything to our Dominican dog-guardian…

The most boring job in the world must be to be an airhostess on Spirit Air from Santiago to Ft.  Lauderdale… 10 people on a plane, and as drinks and snacks are to be paid at excorbitant prices, nobody consumes anything…

Upon arrival, we rushed to Budget and got our car… we rented the smallest one possible as we had no dogs with us this year, but they made a mistake and assigned us a much bigger car.  So upon leaving the lot we were stopped by this very nice lady who told us we got the wrong car… so we went back to the office, and they just changed the papers and let us have the car… whahahahaha

So, on the road to Chattanooga… now, I have a problem… the roads in the US are very boring, and the speed very slow, and then I have a tendency to fall asleep… so, my solution is to drive a little faster…  Let us just say we arrived at Chattanooga a little under 11 hours, and at speeds high in excess of the 70 mph…

Thursday we did the annual shopping spree (Best Buy, FYI, etc…) and went to the party in the evening…  First hitch… not one of our prepaid phonecards from the DR worked in the US, so we bought a prepaid card in the US, and our providers here in the DR immediately locked our phones… yep… nice providers here…  As we wanted to be in contact with our dogkeeper here, we bought a new prepaid phone in the US (hey, Kata, remember this?).

On the party, we tasted the very delicious, but extremely dangerous margaritas, and untill this day I suspect  we were set up, as we were asked if would mind helping to judge the D/A the next day.  Of course they forgot to mention that there were no less than 300 rounds to judge… (Ray, Jeff… one day we will get even… )

So, on Friday we fulfilled our duty, and ended up looking like lobsters… reason why we decided to treat ourselves to a meal from Red Lobster that evening…. whahahahaha

Saturday we woke up… saw the weather and decided not to hurry, as we suspected the competition would be stopped anyways… (several of the crossings near our hotel were flooded)… of course we were right… but this also meant we were once again drafted to do D/A on Sunday…

Anyways, Sunday was a great day for us:

• a dog was lost, but luckily enough found
• after 5 years of hard labour in Europe we got the reward that Juergen and Conny from Germany got second place in the pairs, and Tiny from Germany got third place in the microdogs…

Monday we left early for Daytona Beach in Florida, where we spent a relaxing day on the beach… practising our throws… the best ones were the MTA and the boomerang…. whahahaha.  We saw a very nice looking restaurant making publicity on the local information channel and decided to give it a try… I’m still wondering why a restaurant, in a very remote area, bothers to spend tons of money on TV-Commercials and then doesn’t place signs on how to find it…  Anyways, after a couple of hours we found it and had a really delicious meal…  On the way back however, we were stopped by the local police… “how are you doing, sir”, after me opening the rear window first (oeps, those cocktails…)… “you realise you were doing 53 in a 35 mph zone?”… I first wanted to explain I was a dyslectic and switched numbers, but decided wisely he did not look like he would enjoy the joke… so I apologised and stayed polite and calm… and to my enormous surprise got of without a warning…  all the time Hilde was gniffling besides me…

The next day we visited the kennedy airspace center, and although ridiculously expensive… worth the visit…

At midnight we boarded our plane to paradise once again…

Next time more about hitches, but now of to the garden with a bottle of rum, and listening to nearby neighbors having a merengue party

Yesssss…. I’m connected to the internet again, so your peacefull and quite days are over….[IMG]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll159/BelgianK9/draak.gif[/IMG]

So, one of the big honchos at Hyperflite asked me to make an addition to my blog before the WC…  mind you… as we are this year coming without dogs, I don’t really need his approval… except for the fact that he is also responsible for the sale of the pizza on the open qualifier…[IMG]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll159/BelgianK9/mallet.gif[/IMG]

As we move to tbe DR, and Hilde judged at the Qualifier in Belgium, we did not participate at any of the 2 qualifiers and therefore are not participating, but just cheering on all other participants from Europe…

Who is participating???  Well, as far as we know there are 3 friends of Hungary participating, amongst which is Kata, so I’m sure she will tell you all about them… but we are sure looking forward to meeting them again and are hoping they smuggled some palinka into the US…

From Belgium: we know Sven and Katrien are going to qualify with KT, their lab pup in the pairs.  Sven qualified in the microdogs with jumper, but unfortunately this is a dog which you cannot put on a plane for 15 hours.  We wish them all the luck.

Froù Germany: Conny with Quigly in the freestyle, and as Juergen is coming along, I’m sure they will be trying to qualify in the pairs as well…

So, in total 7 Europeans competing, and 2 Dominican Europeans cheering them on… not bad, compared to a couple of years ago…

Chattanooga 2010… 2 dominicans competing with Acira and Gray… and winning…[IMG]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll159/BelgianK9/mooning.gif[/IMG]

CU next week at Chattanooga

Peter

Its been awhile since you heard from me, but with the move and building the kennels I was a little pressed for time.  And the lack of internet, which will become clearer after reading the following:

How to get connected to the internet?  You decide between cable and dsl, go to the office, tell them were you live, maybe pay the installation fees, and believe it or not, a couple of days later you are hooked up, ready to go, and connected to annoy all your friends and family on facebook, twitter, etc…

Oooopsss… that is the way it works in the US and in Europe.   Here is how it works in the Dominican Republic.

When you buy or rent a property in the DR, you check first on availability of internet, if you want this.  It does not matter whether you are living in the centre of a big town, on the outskirts or in the boondocks, you have to check it out.  So, I did.  The house we are renting, had cable television, and the company assured me that in the next month internet would become available there.  This was the beginning of July, and now, in the middle of September there is still no internet on the cable.

Ooopss… my first booboo… You have the Western calendar months, you have the Chinese calendar months, and you have the DR calendar…   The next month is anything between the next day or the next year…

So, no big deal!!!  Let’s go for ADSL…  Of we go to the main office, which is about 30 miles away, stand patiently in line for about 2 hours, to hear that in order to get ADSL as a “gringo” they need to run a credit check.  Kind of weird, as you have to prepay anyway, but you learn quickly not to argue but to nod friendly…  Anyways, the day before I got approved by the thoughest bank in the DR, and they gave me about a zillion checks, so who is to worry???   So, how long will this credit rating take?   Ohhh, a day, max 2 days.  So, I take my case number home with me, and not having heard anything the next day, I gave them a call.  No probs, they were working on it, and I should get an answer in the next couple of hours…

DOMINICAN HOURS !!!  Which are essentially the same as their months… whahahahaaaaaa…

So, I keep bugging them everyday for a week, and finally get a call telling me my credit was OK.

I jumped into the car, rushed over to my employers house, snatched his Dominican wife away from him, assuming I would need some supplements to my basic Spanish.  We arrived at the office, stood in line for 2 hours, to hear that the case was closed, as they tried to reach me, and failed to do so.  We explained patiently that someone had called me to say the case was approved.  Apparently this person had failed to put this into the system, and as time was over, the case was closed.  But they would be very happy to open up a new case for me.

If you are ever visiting the DR, please go over to the Codetel office in La Vega.  In the middle of their reception area there is a big concrete support.  It has several dents in it now, which you can compare to the ones on my forehead at the next WC in Chattanooga.

So, we opened up a new case… “sigh”… and waited patiently again…

Somehow… and don’t ask me why or how… they mixed up case-numbers… and therefore closed the case again… “several new dents in the concrete at Codetel”

I thought I was lucky, as my employer wanted me to be on the internet for the job I have to do for him, and proposed that he would just take an extra account on the company, and that I would pay him every month…

THANK YOU, Robert!!!!  Please let me kiss your feet in gratitude!!!  I do not care not having television, but internet is my lifeline to my parents, to the rest of my family, and to my friends all over the world…

So, of we go again to the “in”famous Codetel office, my employer and his wife securely tucked away under my arms…  I WAS GOING TO COME HOME AGAIN WITH INTERNET BEING A SURE THING…

WHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA….

“Yes Sir, no problem Sir.  Could you please give me the phone-number of the nearest house who has a Codetel line?”

You have to be joking!!!  Sure you  guys know this better than I do?  Nope… forget it… you have to provide them with this info… “sigh”

But they do have “Banda Ancha”… in English broadband, Vodafone, or whatever you choose to call it…  You plug in a device, working with the chip you use in your cellphone, and yesssss, you are on the internet…

So, yessss, please give me banda ancha….  It may cost a little more, but I would be connected again, and I would worry about finding the nearest phone within a 100 yards later on…

And yes, we sign the contract for banda ancha… and then an official shows up… telling us that he wants to be sure the signal for banda ancha is strong enough before he commits us to the contract.  “ SIGH…”

We assure him that the Codetel tower is no less than 200 yards away from my house.  That I have a contract for a cell phone from them, which works perfectly…  That I have the strongest signal possible on my phone, so banda ancha should be no problem…

Nevertheless… “Sigh”… he wants to assure this himself… but no problem… he would be in the neighbourhood in the next week (this was last Saturday, and today we are Saturday once over), he would check it and connect me at the same time…

So, this is Saturday and still no official, and still no internet… my head is aching… I have to run over to my employers house every day so I can check my emails, my bank accounts, skype real quick to my parents, etc…

And I’m not even mentioning my poor animal farm on facebook… those poor beasts must be starving… lol

Anyway… I still have high hopes of being connected in the next couple of days…  and if you hear about a building collapsing in La Vega in the DR… it is not an earthquake… it was my forehead…

Looking forward to seeing you all on the WC…  I’m the tanned guy with the quite flat forehead…

CU

Last weekend we were booked for demo’s at a hot air balloon race.  Kind of funny, as the balloons did not go up because of the wind.  Nevertheless the demo was very special for Hilde and myself, as it was our last demo in Europe.

Yes, you are reading it right, and as I have informed the 2 guru’s running these blogs, I can now let the cat out of the bag.  Therefore I would kindly ask you to put your dogs on the leash, as it would be a shame if the cat got chased away, and you would still know nothing…lol

Next month Hilde and myself will be moving to the Dominican Republic, and this for several reasons, one of them being the fact that my joints were starting to creek quite hard, and the climate over there is superior for this.  We will be living in the Dominican Alps, in a very nice village.

And what about the sport !!! I hear all of you asking…  Well, first of all, we are leaving Skyhoundz in the Benelux in the very safe hands of Sven and Katrien.  Save is of course relative, and they can continue to count on our support which we will be happy to give, sitting on our porch, sipping a mojito, grabbing a mango from our very own tree, with the laptop on our knees, thinking about Sven and Katrien in the rain…

As for ourselves, we will try to launch the sport over there, and start a new club.  We did not want our faithfull speaker at the WC to stumble over the clubname of Dominican Republican K9 Disc Heroes (and try to print that on a disc), so we chose the name of “Los Perros Voladores”.

Our biggest task: transporting all of our 10 dogs over there… pffff… we have been buying second hand varikennels left and right, and will bring 5 dogs at a time (thanks to several friends willing to take a couple of our dogs while we take the first bunch over).  Getting them to the airport and on the plane will be a hassle, but once arrived there I have to find a way to transport them from the airport to the mountains in a rental car…

Well, we will keep you informed and post pics here regularly, and anyway, we are coming to the Worlds (we are those 2 with a nice tan.. )

CU