Dog Brothers Public Forum

We forgot to put "Dog" Fabian Tillmanns to the list.

I'm very proud and honored to be the host for this great 2 day Gathering. Everybody fought with spirit and skill. It's a pleasure to welcome the new "Dogs" to the Tribe. And I'm happy to have a bunch of new "Candidate Dog Brothers"....

Wuff
Lonely Dog

Hi Matt

There are 2 hotels in Stettlen:
http://www.linde-stettlen.ch/  &  http://www.ziegelhuesi.ch/ 
If you looking for a cheaper possibility, here some ideas in Bern. (there is a Train conection between Bern – Stettlen, about 15 min.)
http://www.marthahaus.ch/e/preise.html ,  http://www.etaphotel.com/etaphotel/index.html  or  www.bernbackpackers.com/index.htm

If you need more Informations: www.bernetourism.ch

Wuff
Benjamin “Lonely Dog”

Gathering Report


We find ourselves in a gymnasium in Bern, Switzerland. 38 fighters are listening to the magic words of Guro Marc “Crafty Dog” Denny, with which he always starts a Gathering: "No judges, no referees, no trophies. One rule only: Be friends at the end of the day! This means no one should spend the night in the hospital, and everyone should leave with the IQ that they came with."

It’s the European “Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack”. Fighters came from Germany, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Portugal and USA. A lot of the faces were already known from the first gathering, on the other hand it was nice to see several fighters for the first time.

This time the gymnasium was smaller than at the last gathering.  There was a large audience again this year, which due to the smaller gym were able to be much closer to the fights. Thanks to the superb organization by Benjamin “Lonely Dog” Rittiner and his team the technical course of the gathering was flawless.

At this gathering the fighters decided not to do warm up rounds with knives. For this reason it was truly an event of stickfighting only. Most of the fights were done with single sticks but there were also a few double stick fights. It would be very interesting if next year some exotic weapons like Nunchaku, Tonfa, etc. would be used.

Several fights were held on a technically high level.  Also the fights were more intensive than at the last gathering and it was obvious that the fighters were well prepared for this event. It was also pleasing to see the increasing number of female fighters and hopefully this trend will continue in the future.

All these details wound up causing an unbelievable atmosphere that everyone in the gym felt so that even days later people spoke enthusiastically about the fights.

As the tradition goes the fighters meet after the gathering for the fighters dinner. Just as last year the atmosphere was great. Especially in the hours right after the fights when everyone was still caught in the atmosphere of the experience and the high adrenalin levels, lots of interesting discussions were to be found. And just as last year one of the highlights was the announcement of the new “Members of the Tribe”:


Ivan “Kuma Dog” Rebli achieved the well earned “Dog Brother” Status.

Marlon, Stefan and Marcus were proposed as “Candidate Dog Brothers”
Marlon “C-Red Dog” Höss-Böttger
Stefan “C-Cro Dog” Konstanjevec
Marcus “C-? Dog” Schillinger

And the following fighters were added to the Tribe:

“Dog” Christian Eckert
“Dog” Daniel Budar
“Dog” Jiri Söderblom
“Dog” Oskar Bernal
“Dog” Lars Christie
“Dog” Riccardo Bassani
“Dog” Roberto Cereda
“Dog” Michele Gemini
“Cat” Lynn Brown

All in all the European “Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack” 2007 was a very exciting and successful event. And we look with anticipation to the next gathering in 2008.

Wuff
Guro Benjamin “Lonely Dog” Rittiner

A heartly wuff
 
Once again I'm happy to announce the annual European "Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack" on Saturday 29.September.

And I'm glad also to announce the annual seminar with Guro Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny (Head Instructor of DBMA), on Sunday 30.September. This is one of the very few seminars that Guro Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny gives in Europe! So don’t miss the opportunity...

This time I will host the seminar in Stettlen, a nice little village close to Bern. Here some more infos:

Location: Turnhalle Bleiche / Bleichestrasse 1 / 3066 Stettlen (close to Bern)

Schedule: Saturday 16.00 (DB-Gathering)  /  Sunday 12.00 - 18.00 ("Crafty"-Seminar)

Seminar Costs: 100 sFr  /  65 Euro

Registration: 0041 79 341 34 84 / lonelydog@bluewin.ch

If you have interest in fighting you have to preregister until 14.September. Please send me an e-mail and I will send you the form.

I'm looking to this weekend...
Wuff
Guro Benjamin "Lonely Dog"

P.S.
On my homepage I listed the at the moment registered fighters www.dogbrothers.ch

 

Woof All:

Top Dog and I are now in Bern  as is the camera crew from Spike.

The Adventure continues,
Crafty Dog

I am sorry to read about the passing of Master Sonny Umpad. I was glad to meet him at the last FMA festival in Germany. I was very impressed.

I'm looking forward to see Grandfathers Speak Vol. 2. To know this extraordinary man a bit more.   

With deep respect,

Benjamin "Lonely Dog"

Wuff all

I'm very glad that DBMA in Europe is growing. And I'm very happy that also concidering the Dog Brothers and the "Gathering of the Pack" it's moving forward in Europe. For the moment the tribe in Europe is quite small ("Lonely Dog", Ivan "C-Kuma Dog" Reboli, "Dog" Andrea Solimei, "Dog" Kris Dunnage) but I'm sure it will change......

I'm working hard on spread DBMA in Europe. And I'm happy to see that it's growing. To have Tomek Jurkiewicz in Poland it's a good thing. He is a very quiet person and even if we have problems with the communication (he doesn't speak english so much) we understand each other.
I was very impressed when he and some of his students came the first time. They drove something about 18 hours by car, trained for the weekend and just had to leave after the training back to Poland to work on monday....  I meet him now 3 times and I saw a great progress in his movements. I think he fought well on the CD-Gathering. Even he is not the tallest he is very strong and fights with spirit.

Wuff
Lonely