Ups and downs of living your dream

Wansink has been working with police dogs for 30 years now, and after a successful career as a criminal lawyer in the Netherlands, he moved to Antalya 18 months ago and turned his hobby into a way of supporting himself.

 “I decided I wanted a break from my career and to move to Antalya; all I needed was a suitable piece of land to get started. They used to train police dogs in Antalya, and I realized it would be a good idea to start that again; you don't see police dogs on the streets, despite them being cheap and practical. The police train dogs in Ankara and then send them all over Turkey. I've been to visit them, and they were very interested in Dutch police dog training techniques. They bought a puppy from me and the İstanbul police have bought a sniffer dog.”

 In theory, it is a hobby or job anyone could do, but you need to be able to understand the dogs you are working with and also be able to commit the time needed to train a police dog. “I work with Belgian shepherds, and I can say that, after years of working with them, I've realized that we're similar in character: they're assertive, brave, intelligent, tenacious and sweet-natured if you're a nice person and attack from the front, not the back,” he highlighted, adding: “It takes about 10 years become a police dog trainer in the Netherlands: first you train your first dog for three years and then another one. After that, it takes about two years -- part time -- to be able to pass the Royal Dutch Police Society [KNDV] exam.”

 Can any breed of dog be trained as a police dog, say, a Kangal? “No, they aren't fast enough,” he stressed, adding: “The police in Ankara mostly use Belgian shepherds, although they use German shepherds sometimes and cocker spaniels if they find one which could be trained as a sniffer dog. Although many police forces in Europe have used German shepherds they are, for the most part, inbred these days. Belgian shepherds make much better police dogs. They're bred especially for the job and are braver and healthier than German shepherds.”

 Training police dogs is not money for old rope, however. It requires a long-term commitment of energy and money, and things do not always go as planned. “It takes a minimum of three years to train an attack dog and two for a sniffer dog,” he explained, adding: “There are specific things they have to be able to do at the end. I have to train them to jump 1.9 meters; search for and find metal objects, people and drugs; obey commands; and refuse food from strangers. They also need to be able to bite people. One dog just failed the course because it didn't want to bite. If dogs fail the course, I do my best to find a good home for them.”

 And the actual costs? A female Belgian shepherd puppy costs 200 euros and a male is 300 euros -- male puppies are more sought after as police dogs as they are more aggressive. “I buy them from registered breeders,” he explained, adding: “Police dogs don't have to be pedigreed though; they can also be a mix. It costs around 1,800 TL a year [1,000 euros] to train a police dog, and in the Netherlands, I sold them to the military, the police and private security firms for 5,000 to 6,000 euros. An added expense in Turkey is good quality dried dog food as it's three times the price it is in the Netherlands.”

 Belgian shepherds are a cold climate breed, so how do the dogs deal with the heat and humidity in Antalya? “It's very hard for them,” he commented, adding: “I spent over a year looking for the right piece of land and eventually found somewhere outside the city with water on it so it's cool. I've also made them special kennels...”

How do people here --Turks and foreigners -- react when he tells them he trains police dogs? “Turks are always positive and ask lots of questions as they've probably never met a police dog trainer before,” he explained. “They describe it as a job for a ‘real' man. For the most part, foreigners are curious about why I've chosen to train the dogs here.”

Dreams versus reality

Despite having found an interesting and apparently not-so-challenging way of supporting himself here, the other side of the coin is that he has discovered that going somewhere on holiday is different from living there. “I came to live in Antalya because I thought life would be easier, and I would have a nice time, but it's been very disappointing,” he said sadly.

 On paper, he was prepared for living in Turkey, both psychologically and intellectually. He had been here 17 times on holiday, first visiting İstanbul 20 years ago and then visiting other places in the country. He liked the people he met. He was struck by how easy it was to strike up a conversation with total strangers of all ages compared to the Netherlands, where people are more reserved and teenagers do not mix with older people, for example. Although he really liked İzmir, he chose to live in Antalya because it is more cosmopolitan. He also read up on Turkish history and politics. Having been to Antalya on many occasions, he knew he wanted to buy a house in the center of the city and not live in a “site.” Through his career as a lawyer, he has had a lot of experience with different kinds of people and has dealt with a wide variety of problems, which should also have helped him deal with life abroad. His mother also gave him some practical advice when she heard he was planning to train police dogs in Turkey, saying it would better for him to start a business on his own because it would be less complicated. Friends warned him that he could encounter problems because of cultural differences.

 Now that he lives here, he realizes that the practicalities of living abroad can be quite challenging. Before he bought the land to train his dogs on, he did not realize it was going to be so complicated. He had no idea that if he bought agricultural land (“tarla”) instead of a building plot (“arsa”), he would have to open a company and that to open a company here he would have to find a Turkish partner he could depend on. As he had already bought the land, there was no going back, and so he had to go about finding a partner to start his company with. Because of legal loopholes, he has also been ripped off by people he thought he could trust. About two years ago, he bought a car, but it had to be registered in a Turk's name. The person just took the car. He has also lost three motorbikes that way. “I'm open and trusting by nature,” he emphasized. “I'm a typical Dutch person, and honesty is very important to us. I now realize that leaves you vulnerable. I don't expect much of others, and I try to be as independent as possible, but supposed foreign friends have also let me down when I needed their help to sort out problems.”

 So, is there a difference between being a single foreign man on holiday here and one who lives in the real Turkey, a family-centered culture? “Unfortunately I don't really get the chance to find out what Turkish culture is really like,” he said sadly. He realizes that learning Turkish could help him to integrate into Turkish culture and understand people better, but he openly admits that his Turkish is still not very good. “I've been trying to teach myself Turkish for a year, but I'm lazy and don't have the energy to learn another language right now. As well as Dutch, I also speak German, French, English and Spanish. Whenever I can, I do make an effort to practice the Turkish I've learned though,” he pointed out.

 He expected to make lots more friends when he moved here, but the opposite has happened. “It's easy to meet people but very difficult to find good friends here,” he lamented, adding: “My expectations of friendships have now changed. I now live more day to day, and I'm no longer disappointed if a friendship lasts just five days. I no longer see people -- both Turks and foreigners -- I met on holiday here because I've learned how to read situations and people differently. The downside is that I now find it very difficult to trust people.”

 Being a lawyer by profession, he can see both sides of a story and highlighted that if someone from Turkey were to move to the Netherlands, they would also have a lot of readjusting to do. “Added to culture shock and the challenge of learning Dutch, the first major adjustment would be getting used to the high taxes -- it's 60 to 70 percent in the Netherlands. They'd also have to learn all the regulations related to living there, as there are rules for almost everything; life is much stricter there than here. Take parking, for example: If you live in the center of a city, it can take seven years to get permission to park your car outside your house. Not only do you have to have to find out what the rules are, but it can also be very frustrating getting used to them. The general attitude towards immigrants in the Netherlands has also changed, and even though the Dutch have a reputation for being open towards and tolerant of others, immigrants now face problems trying to integrate into Dutch society. In recent years, there have been many problems with immigrants from Morocco and the Caribbean abusing the social system and getting involved in petty crime. Consequently, there are repercussions for other non-Europeans. The Dutch are less willing to help immigrants now.”

 Moving abroad has made him reassess his perceptions of the Netherlands. “My values are stronger, and I feel more positive about where I come from now,” he highlighted. When he first moved here, he intended to stay for five years, but now he's not so sure and is going back to the Netherlands for three months to decide what to do next.