It is getting more silent

Diary entry, 09.11.2011, Susanne Wißhak

Pictures of the day (4 images)   

Since All Saints´ Day the Wild Park is only opened on Sundays and holidays. During the rest of the days it has now become unusually quiet.

One can still book private tours, of course. Last Friday for example a group of policemen visited us from Vienna. They are doing a course with their dogs in which the dogs become trained to accompany the policemen at work e.g. for guarding or finding drugs.
The policemen were interested in how we train our wolves and dogs and how a wolf pack works. On the other hand we also were keen on hearing how they work with their animals. We learned for example that police dogs are trained with clicker and treats, quite similar to our wolves, and that they don´t live in kennels but are allowed to live at home with their owners.
After the Tour the dogs got to walk through the park which also was good exercise for them. Besides Malinois, who make the biggest part of Austrian police dogs, they also have German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Giant Schnauzers.

When it is getting more quiet in the park one also has time for other things like a meeting of our volunteers, for example. I am sure you have noticed we have very nice volunteers who give tours for the public. Every once in a while we sit together and talk about new research done at WSC or about content and didactics of the tours. On Sunday we had such a meeting where we were sitting together having a nice chat, which I (the organizer) enjoyed very much. I can´t thank our volunteers often enough, they are doing a great job!