This month we starts in a big way. THe first interview this month it's about working dogs from Bulgaria.
This time I had the honor to interview someone who is specialized in training and breeding every working dogs with the special ability to communicate with dogs.
A person who trains dogs for a long time and reflects a great deal of fame beyond the borders of his country.
Enjoy this excellent interview with Danail Penev

Could you tell our readers a little about yourself
My name is Danail Penev, I am from Bulgaria and I was born in 1975. My passion and enthusiasm for dogs, lead me to train and work with them from the very begin of my life. My history is dogs, dogs and only dogs.

Why you have started with the working dog?
In 1989 – 1990 I started to work as security with dogs in security companies. After that I worked in dog training schools, dog breeders-kennels etc.

You are involved in the working dogs scene for more than a decade .Can you explain a bit how is nowadays the scene of working dogs in Bulgaria and how was it in the past

In the past there were dogs with “soul and hurt” for work. Nowadays there are dogs with “pedigree”. But except of this and now there are a lot of working dogs that do their job very well.
Maybe here in Bulgaria we need little time and experience in order to understand the difference between a sport dog, IPO - Mondio Ring – agility and a working dog suitable for police, army, security etc.
In recent years, sport with dogs gets publicity and interesting, but we must pass the difficult “road”. First we have to learn ourselves and then to train our dogs. Unfortunately we don’t understand that a good dog without a good trainer and group or club, cannot give us good results.
The “fight” must not be who is better from his next, but how many results can give his dog. Nowadays we are in the point “I do it better than you, so I am better”. People use their dogs as “a weapon” in order to prove to their next how good they are.
In my opinion the “fight” must be inside. We must do our dog better than the previous dog that we have. If we do this so ok yes we can say I am better than my next.
Personally I work like this and I believe that somebody who deals with dog training must have to think like this, because the other “road” finishes when the career of his “good dog” ends.

At this point we must say a thank you to Evgeni Radev with the first club “Pioner” for IPO in Bulgaria and to Nikolay Vasilev and Ivan Tanev with the club “Sirius”, the only club which for years deals with IPO in Bulgaria. Ivan Balabanov through his seminars helped club “Sirius” a lot.

Unfortunately, as I know there are not any club and history for other sports with dogs now. I’m sure that in the future will continue not to be.

I saw you that you cooperate so much with Greece. why this collaboration?
I have a lot of “dog” friends in Greece. I lived there many years and I worked in dog training schools. I can say that in Greece people deals with working dogs seriously. I knew there wonderful people with knowledge and experience in this job.

Tell us something about your collaboration with the police. How it all began
I grow and train dogs suitable for police as “police dogs”. It’s a difficult work because a dog for police must grow and train very well, differently from a simple dog. It needs knowledge, experience and a lot of “passion” in order to make a dog suitable for police.

What was your favorite training moment?
Generally, my favorite training moments are at the end of every lesson when the dog has already known these things that I wanted to learn to it at the beginning of the lesson.

What are your 3 biggest satisfaction obtained from your dog
1 We have the same passion for work
2 Every time it will find the way to make me laugh
3 When I do a mistake during the lesson, it doesn’t feel angry with me.

Which are yours Basic Obedience Training Methods
I use a lot of toys and a little food. I don’t feed the dog during the training. I want the dog to learn that the time of the lesson is time to feel good. Not time for eating between orders.

How much time you devote to training during the week
Personally I train my dogs every day and some of them twice in the day. I don’t have a specific time like twice a week or three. My dogs don’t know the difference between training and normal life. They simple live inside of the training.

At what age should a dog begin training with you?
At the time that it can walk. I start to work a dog from the very beginning of its life in order to have the chance to show it “the world”. From my point of view, with my own method I want to show it that from now it will be one of mine working dogs.

Who has had the most impact on your life?
The most impact in my life was a dog which I had in the past. It was a German shepherd called Sara. It changed my life forever. It taught me what means working a dog with love, what means working dog.

I thing that you hate?
People who I helped in this job and know they say worse things about me.

Do you have some plans for the future?
To make a dog better than the previous and so on to make the next dog better than this.

visit: www.dogdanpen.webs.com

all the photos are a courtesy of Danail Penev

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