AN HISTORIC INTERVIEW

(The Sirius Trainer wants to thank the Sirius Archives Library for their contribution of this article, originally conducted in October, 1980. The inverviewer was Holstein Nichts, internationally known authority on porcelain dog figurines and DeSoto hubcaps.)

Recently I had the opportunity to meet with one of the men who was there at the historical beginnings of the modern working dog. Dogo Kuvasz is now 100 years old, but knew and worked with most of the men we now consider as the fathers of today's working dogs. I interviewed him at the Wyoming Home for Confused Dog Trainers, where I found him still spry and full of remembrances.

H.N.-"Can you tell us what dogs were like in the early days?”

Kuvasz-"Oh, things were very much different then. As an example, we didn't have fire plugs."

H.N.-"No, what I meant was what were some of the problems that these great innovators had to overcome? For instance, you knew Captain von Stephanitz, the founder of the SV, very well didn't you"

Kuvasz-"Maxie? Oh ja, we were great friends in the beginning. He was so full of life, ready to share a glass of wine and tell funny stories. It was too bad about Maxie and the SV."

H.N.-"Too bad? He was the founder of the largest breed club in the world, the creator of the German Shepherd Dog."

Kuvasz-"That's what you say. It ruined Max for life. See, what we didn't know was that he was hard pressed for money, so he would go around picking up stray dogs. He didn't care about the dogs, he would simply sell them and make a few marks. But the local police found out and went to his house, where they found a barn with 50 dogs in it. Faced with this evidence and being a quick thinker, Max told them he was forming a new dog organization and these dogs belonged to his members. He even had a name for this new breed, German Shepherd Dog, a name that would hold up under the closest police scrutiny, for all the dog would have to do is stand around and look at sheep. There was no pressure on him to show the dogs could do anything but breed. Well, having been caught, he had to play out the role. Unfortunately, a bunch of other people, especially some rich Americans, thought it was a great idea and kept putting pressure on him to expand the organization. The next thing you knew, he was growing a Prussian mustache, wearing riding boots, attending meetings and starting to sound more and more like Sigmund Freud. Poor man, all he wanted was a few marks for wine and to tell a few good stories. I tell you, he was never the same again."

H.N.-"Well, moving on, I understand you also knew Franz Laufer, the founder of the modern working police dog and the organization that was to become the DVG?"

Kuvasz-"Well that man was certainly dedicated, but the facts have gotten all messed up over the years. He didn't invent the modern police dog. See, he lived in a village that had serious crime problems. The bigger problem was that the police would sit in the coffee shop all day and talk about anything that didn't require them to go out and stop people from hitting each other over the head. In desperation, the mayor called in that great trainer, Konrad Most, to see if dogs could help. Most taught the dogs to patrol the streets on their own, without the police and to stop the head knockers. They did a great job. But then one day the coffee shop burned down. The police, not knowing what else to do, started walking with the dogs while the animals were on patrol. People thought the police were heeling around with the dogs, but you see it was just the opposite. The dogs were heeling the policemen. This became embarrassing to the city officials, so they asked Laufer to teach the policemen to heel in better position beside the dog, so it would look like they were acting as a team. Unfortunately, Konrad Most died before anyone could ever learn his secret of making the dogs do this on their own, so today we continue to have dogs with police officers heeling beside them."

H.N -"You mention Konrad Most. Just how good a trainer was he?"

Kuvasz-"He was brilliant, the Leonardo de Vinci of dog trainers. But he suffered the same problems as Leonardo. Technology had not caught up with his farseeing talents. Many people don't know that he actually invented the electronic training collar, but he had to make it out of wood, so it didn't work very well."

H.N -"Even at your age, I understand that you are still active in training dogs."

Kuvasz-"Oh, yes. That and milk of magnesia will keep me going for several more years. Right now I am training a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever."

H.N -"Really, how unusual. What are you training it to do, Schutzhund or AKC?"

Kuvasz-"I am teaching it not to retrieve. You see this rare breed is built on hundreds of generations of retrieval. I am trying to prove just how good a trainer I am by making it deny everything it was bred to do."

H.N -"We know several trainers who do that very well, so if you need some help, I am sure the dog community will spring to your aid. Thank you for spending your time with me, away from training."

Kuvasz-"Tell me, is this going to be in People Magazine? If so, we haven't discussed royalties or residuals. I am reserving all video rights. Call my agent."

(Editor's Note: A year after this interview, and after settling his nasty law suit against The Sirius Archives Library, Kuvasz passed away. He was found on a Wyoming mountain top with a copy of Barbara Cartland's latest novel, The Duchess Who Was Ravished By Monsieur Bouvier, in his lap. His faithful Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever was sitting at his side holding a tennis ball.)