Director and Trainer Ben Geurts writes about K9SA’s recent experience at Ivan Balabanov's 'Make Your Dog Someone' symposium.

After many years of gentle persuasion and unwavering persistence, we were lucky enough to host 2x World Champion, accomplished breeder, author, legendary dog trainer and true gentleman Ivan Balabanov, brought to Australia for his K9SA exclusive 'Make Your Dog Someone' symposium. You're welcome.

There are very few true masters in life, within any profession, so when you see one and you know enough to realise there's lots you don't know, they immediately stand out and challenge you. This was the case when we were lucky enough to train dogs with Bart Bellon on two occasions in his NePoPo® Gold School several years ago. We immediately recognised Bart's mastery and genius. He both challenged and humbled us. Our learning curve was steep. This feeling has not been replicated, until now...

International Dog Federation World Champion, Belgian Shepherd World Federation World Champion, 7x American Working Dog Federation National Champion, 5x American Working Malinois Association National Champion and United Schutzhund Clubs of America German Shepperd National Champion (17 national/world level championships in total), it's fair to say we were in the company of a dog training savant.

Ivan did not disappoint. His philosophies often differed to our NePoPo® approach, which profoundly challenged us, however that was the very reason we invited him to Australia, to be challenged and to learn more. You have to be open to a message to actually hear it. But opening up can be a scary thing. You must look at what you do through a different lens, a lens that says even though you are supremely confident with your system, you also may be wrong…or could be better. Doing this made my brain hurt. Interestingly, his approach also frequently aligned with NePoPo®. One thing completely identical was his attention to detail and deep practice approach.

His methods were all deeply thought out and explained in a language we could understand. However, we could see that often he thought on a deeper level than we were able to absorb. Being challenged like this can be daunting, but we embraced it, we embraced the struggle as Bart would say. There were profound concepts and simple ones. The simple ones often disguised in complexities and vice versa. My brain hurt some more….

Ivan reads dogs as though he has already conversed with them earlier, when you weren’t watching. Several times he adjusted his approach within minutes or seconds according to what the dog was “telling him”. Jase and I have been doing this a long time and read dogs well, however often we were left scratching our heads wondering how he saw what we couldn’t. I pondered the idea of him sharing a scotch and a laugh with them later....speaking a language we couldn’t understand.

The second day was devoted to protection. Ivan adjusted to each dog and pushed them forward. He seemed to have a tool and plan for every dog almost immediately. His skill catching dogs is second to none. All the dogs improved and were left empowered by the experience. The crowd were stunned.

Moments that stood out were the ease at which he caught Non Vactro Cash and Euro who were extremely fast. The way he utilised opposition reflex and conflict management to encourage younger dogs to commit to the long bite with everything they had.....the ease with which he transitioned into problem solving some aggression cases during the companion dog day, unbelievable.