a little walk

It was nice and sunny so Mathieu wanted to go skating, and we brought the dogs. found a place next to my university which was nice... Vazy took a swim in the fountain. And Aila was running around like crazy. We also made vazy pull us a bit on the skate. that's fun, but going a bit fast for me sometimes.....

Aila is seeming better, a bit more playful. The medicaments are maybe starting to work... See how she seems grown up on the photos now..

Otherwise nothing new..

Clawless

The last few days have been hectic (still) and Aila broke her claw! she's so unlucky at the moment. We had to go to the vet to take it all away. so now it's only a bloody stump left. and it hurts so much. poor thing. today it also got infected, so i went back to the vet. got antibiotics and painkillers. so now she should feel better soon!
We've also been to visit a dogclub nearby. it seems nice, but they don't have agility. so that's a bit disappointing. they mostly do tracking and searching, and obedience. we'll see. they seem to be very into competition training. i love to train just for training too. but it would be cool to learn from someone so experienced. maybe i can join two clubs....
i miss my old training friends. it's so hard to start over all the time!

well. it seems like maybe its finally gonna calm down...

ticks!!

Today we've been visiting the forest. Really nice and nearby but there's only one problem; the ticks!
It's amazing, I've never seen anything like it. We found around 20 ticks on Vazy and Aila after our walk today!! They like crawling on us too, disgusting little creatures! I thought there would be more in France, but no no, nowhere near!
Everything's still going well. Was just thinking of updating with some photos.. First one from the nice forest walk we made. And the other ones are from our view from the flat. It feels a bit crazy that's it's so close, on to the other....


And imagine if Vazy was happy when Mathieu came. It's nice to have him back!















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Stockholm

Now we're finally here. I haven't had one second of calm yet.
The day before we left, just after the competition, Aila started feeling really bad. We had to go to the veterinary and xray her belly. It seemed like something was stuck, and she screamed of pain all night. I was awake with her until 6 or something in the morning, when my mum took over. It was hard to see her like that, but we couldn't see anything on the xray, so we had to wait and see. In the morning she puked a bit, it was some thread, the size of a small mouse, and something that seemed like a spine from a big fish. After that she was seeming better in general. But often she still screamed and seemed to be in pain. That's continued until now. It seems like the big pieces of spine was going through her intestants, causing the pain. But between the "fits" she seemed totally normal. Eating, drinking and shitting like normal. She was tired after the sleepless night and was sleeping the whole way on the train. We were really impressed with the way she easily jumped up in the train, and stayed calm all the way! she didn't bark anything at people either, and there were a lot.
The train was late 5 hours, so we didn't get here until midday. Then we'd been on the train since 5 pm the day before. Crazy! luckily the train stood still at some places, so they could go for a small walk. When we got to the central station, she stood still waiting with Vazy and my mum whilst I went to get some stuff. Then we went in the elevator, and all this time she seemed like she'd done nothing else. There were so many people and all, but she didn't bark at anyone.
When we got here we met my brother, Lasse, and both of them seemed like he was an old friend. Strange how she barks at some people, and not at others. We went home and for a few small walks during the day. We were really tired after not sleeping more than a couple of hours, two nights in a row!
She sleeps late, and she don't mind not going out until 9 in the morning. We went in with the train to town and it also went really well. Going in the escalators and all too! We went out to get a sofa at an island, went with the ferry and all. No problem. They finally got to run like crazy! They really needed it.....

Anyways, a lot more has happened since then, but what I wanted to show with this story is that Aila is really like home everywhere. She's even less stressed than Vazy, that's been a bit of a pain lately! Vazy always go so crazy when she don't really know what's gonna happen. She wants control of the situation. She gets really stressed if she can't see me, even if she's with my mum. And she pulls on the leash, she jumps around. I think it's also cause she hasn't been running like she normally does. She's been a bit of a pain.... Maybe it's also cause she knows a lot more than Aila. She's been moving before, and she knows whats going on... Aila is just chilling, a follower, she don't need to be in control like Vazy.... Well, all this will calm down in a few days....

Obedience competition no. II this summer..

This time it went so much better than last time! I was so happy with Vazy, and I really learnt how to motivate her before going out there. The heelwalk was really good, but the judge thought it was too "close". I don't really know when that was, or really what it means. But even so, I thought she was doing great! Same with the "down", cause then she normally has problems, and now she did it fast and smooth! What we missed on was the "retrieve", where she didn't take it at first, same as last time! That's something we have to work on. And she also sat before command on the "standing" part. I was a bit dissapointed that I didn't get more points on the heel walk when she was doing so good, and also on the "down".. And they also said she touched the jump, what do you think (judge from the picture)? But over all I'm really proud of her! I think she can easily take two more first prizes, and then we'll get a diploma. Wohoo! Maybe this winter....
I'm also really proud of Annloice and Sparven, la petite moineau, that took a first prize even if she missed the down/stay (which is a lot of points)! Go Sparven! I'm gonna miss training with Annloice, Sparven and Maya. It's been a lot of fun!! Also training with Sara and Alde, and all the others...
So, first prize, second place and another (a bit bigger) cup in plastic. Haha!

Jump.

A nice left turn.

The standing.

Lying down.

We like eachother.

More heelwork.

..and more..

..and even more...

Positioning.

A great and super fast "down" from Sparven.

And look at her step, is she not nice?
Fast return to Annloice.

Soon we're off...

Well. Time passes by faster than you think, it's only a few days until I'm going to Stockholm.. That means that it's only a few days until the competition too. I'm getting a bit nervous. I've been training so much for this, and it's gone so well, that I'm scared that I'll get too nervous and Vazy will forget everything. I feel like I want to get a 1st prize and it will be one towards my LP.
Well, I'm still training almost every day. But yesterday I was doing my work placement at the pension in Persön. Christina who is working there is super nice! It's so good for my dogs to be able to join us and all the dogs for the walks. Aila is really getting used to other dogs now and wants to play with all of them. Apart, maybe, from the biggest ones, which she still has to bark at.
Her new hobby is, by the way, to kill small animals. In the span of only a few days she managed to kill 4 out of 5 mice (I managed to save one) and one bird. Murderer! I never really managed to catch her in the act, so...
But I guess she's a survivor, that's in her genes....
Otherwise it's all going well. But now I have to start packing.
I'll be back with more news from the competition on sunday.
I hope I don't get too nervous by then....

The photos from the expo..

It's hard to get Aila not to move her feet all the time!

And she's always looking at me when she's running, and I notice I'm looking at her too.. (How can I not when she's so good looking? haha..)

Vazy and Aila was lying around like this all day, not moving and inch. My mum left Vazy by her self amongst all the dogs to take all the photos..

Good looking Cissi.

Cute little Kaiza

Best in breed Puppy and HP

Well, I can start with saying that dog expositions isn't really my thing. Too much waiting!!
Anyway, the dogs were behaving perfectly! Staying sleeping or lying down all day...
It was dusty and cold, and windy... And there was only one judge for all the breeds. She didn't seem very interested in the laponian breeds, like Aila. I only got to go in for 1 or tops 2 minutes. Aila needs more practise on standing, and I need practise on handling too! She also needs to learn to look forward when she's running, cause she's always looking at me. Any tips?
Anyway, we had no. 36. So, after a few hours wait, we got Best in breed puppy (the only laponian herder) and an Honors prize. She said: "6 månander, feminint huvud, fint uttryck, korrekt bett, bra hals, bra kropp för åldern, bra ben och tassar, rör sig med fint steg och härlig resning" which is translated to something like; "6 months, feminine head, nice expression, correct teeth (?), good neck, good body for her age, good legs and paws, moving nicely with a nice "rise" (?)".

So that was the day of practise, and we need more I think... I just wish it was a bit more fun... Maybe when I get to know more people..

And by the way! Congratulations to my puppy class group, the shetland sheepdog, Kaiza got best in breed and HP too, and also the rottweiler, Cissi. They continued to the best in show (like we did too) but managed better, and Kaiza finished 5th (out of 22 I think). The puppy class is not only super good at obedience, but they're also looking good!!

Pictures coming when the batteries are charged...And internet is working..

Photos from yesterdays class

Here are some pictures from the last day of Ailas class. It was fun as usual and everyone doing good! I hope that everyone manage to keep in touch and reach the goals they put for themselves! It was a really nice experience!

The pictures are quite bad, cause I forgot to take pictures until it went almost dark..oops.

Puppy class coming to an end...

And I must say I'm very proud of our group of puppies. They are all already really obedient, and can stay "down" for several minutes, even with balls flying around and other dogs walking next to them. All the owners have a genuine interest for dogs and they all work hard to get where they want, that makes the group come to another level.
Aila is doing really well and she LOVES to work. When I'm training Vazy with the clicker, she hears it and starts whining, and dont stop until i take her for a training session. She's already quite good at the basic stuff, but I'll rather work slowly and get a genuine joy of working between us... Its so much fun training my dogs at the moment, cause they're both doing so well!! I'm so proud of them. The fact that I can keep them off the leash at the club, during the trainingsessions with lots of dogs. Even Aila keeps to me at all times, wanting to please..
I often tie one dog to the side, and like that they get training on staying calm at the same time......

Vazy is almost ready for the competition next week. As long as she's focused she can do a perfect heelwalk, but sometimes she gets a bit too excited... And there are some other details that could be better and faster... but i hope we'll do well anyway. We're gonna compete against the cute little "Sparven" from spinnrockens kennel, and I think she will do well too. I wish her all the luck!

This weekend it's also Ailas first inofficial exposition, and it's gonna be fun. I've been training her, and myself (cause i'm not really good at that kind of stuff), and she finally manages to stay standing for a while. She loves to "throw behaviours", like sit, down, paw, bark.... So it was some work to be done there. But now i think we can manage, or i hope so..

I'm trying to get some contacts in Stockholm to find someone to train with, I think it's so much more fun, and I learn so much more when I have someone there... Hope I find some nice people. Cause now we're used to training every day.. Time flies away between training sessions, walking and resting. Two or three hours have passed before I noticed anything. The dogs dont seem to mind and keeps alert at all times. I think it's good that I've got two, so they get some rest too....

If anyone's in the Stockholm area and is interested in training with me, please write me an email!

We miss you......