Vazy & Aila

New Blog.

2009-05-27T16:03:00.001+02:00

I'm making a new blog right now. I've imported all the posts from this one. But there might be missing some videos, I'll check up on that later. I will probably keep this one anyway, but I will start writing in the other one from tonight. So you can change your bookmarks or bloglists!

http://vazyaila.wordpress.com/

The update from tonights training will be there instead!

Searching and agility

2009-05-25T22:02:00.003+02:00

Today I went to meet Jessi at the club in Kista to train a bit before the agility-group practice.
It went well with the object search. I had 5 different objects this time, out to about 40 meters I think. She got them all. But a bit tired from the really warm weather.. I also tried the sending to the square with Vazy. And she does go forward, but like to stay near the cones... We'll just have to work more on that.

Then I practiced some more slalom with Aila, and some heelwalking. She's getting better at the slalom and can go just a bit faster..

After that the TG training started. It was fun as usual and I got to try the new stuff I learnt. It worked well. But on the movie I'm using another "technique" (I tried two different things there, 2nd jump after the slalom).. too bad she missed the entrance of the slalom!

When everyone had finished, I tried the track with Aila, and she was amazing! I was shocked, she had gained some speed and managed the whole slalom and all. Super good! Then I practiced some on the flat tunnel, and a girl from the group helped me. That was nice!

Here you've got the clip...

I suck!

2009-05-24T12:43:00.008+02:00

Haha!
Today I got up early, after a night out 'til 1 (eventhough I didn't drink. I can tell you I was tired after having been up since 4am). I was heading for Aila's agility course. When I got there it was empty. I went for a walk. When I came back it was empty. 9.55, 10.00.. No one showed up! So I phoned Sofia with the Kelpie Ester, and I found out that it's next weekend!
So when I was already there, I decided to do some training.
I started going to the big field for a walk and then I did some object search, since I've decided to start all training (I can) with that. Today I made a 20 x 25 (or 30?) m square (zig zag) and had 4 objects. I took an empty toilet roll as well, for her to understand that she's supposed to get all kinds of objects. So she still loves it and she's good at it! She just has to practice holding and giving the objects to me, 'cause she rather throws it on the ground in front of me, ready to go out again. Today I didn't have to repeat the search command (but I still say it again after every object, so that she understands that there are more out there). First time she brought in the 3 toys, but didn't understand that she was supposed to get the toilet roll. So I followed her out, and when she found it and took it in her mouth I clicked. So next time I put out the 4 objects, she got them all straight away. So good! I filmed a small part of it... Sorry for the quality, it was with my mobile phone. For a bigger version; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxPxpFiG8uw

Then I went to do some agility training. First I was teaching Aila to go into the slalom from all directions (shaping). She gets frustrated and "barky" when I do shaping with her. But I just ignore it, cause I know it will go away as soon as she knows what to do. She managed to take the slalom from all directions. And she could make the whole slalom eventhough I was one meter from it, at least. Good girl!

Then I did some crazy combinations with Vazy. I'm going to draw them. I tried to figure out more about the "threadle". And I'm not sure I do it right. But I managed to get her to go perfectly on all kinds of different combinations. She had really tight turns around the jumps, and managed to go into the slalom when jumping from the right. See drawing.. I've only drawn some combinations, because I can't remember everything I did...
I was working on the same jumps with Aila. But mostly to try to get her to take the jumps without having me 2 cm from her side. So I put a bowl in the middle first. Then one after two jumps in a row. Then after two jumps with a turn.. It worked out pretty well...

I'm happy about my training.

I think I'm going to train more tonight with Jessi. First I have to sleep for a bit! The funny thing with Vazy is that the more we train, the more she wants to train. She never seems to get tired of it...

Oh, I'll just add one more combination that I really liked (starting on the top).. I'm really happy to be able to steer her like this now. Because usually she's just going straight on the closest jump. But now I think I've figured out a bit more how to handle her. We'll see if it gives results at training tomorrow..

I'm proud of Aila!

2009-05-23T18:02:00.004+02:00

We came in 8th place (of 18 I think...)!
She got a 7/10 on everything. Some was a bit of barking that pulled it down. But she made all the things, eventhough she had only done the jump on thursday for the first time (jump-sit-jump)

Inkallning 25 m - 7p
Läggande - 7p
Apport - 7p
Fritt följ - 7p
Hopp-sitt-hopp - 7p

I'm really proud of her. She kept a good contact all the time, and she was walking super well on heel.
It was all done in a weird order (look above) and that changed my plans a bit. If they would have started with the heelwalk (fritt följ) she would have calmed down and not barked at the come (inkallning) and probably got a 10. But she was super good! I'm planning on starting her in class I this fall, or as soon as she knows the "stand".

Then Jessi was training all the three dogs at once. It was so funny! Vazy was the one that wanted to do the most.. She never tires of training. She just loves it!

I'll put some pictures from that here. A friend of Jessi filmed us, so maybe I will put that up later, but I'm not sure. You'll see...

Waiting for Jessi at ten to five in the morning.

2009-05-23T04:48:00.001+02:00

Well. Here I am. Waiting for Jessi early in the morning. The sun is soon coming up!
Wish us good luck for today!

Gävle, here we come!

Sometimes training makes me forget...

2009-05-21T22:04:00.003+02:00

..that I'm acctually sick.. Or even if I'm feeling depressed, it all goes away when I'm training the dogs. That's great. But now I feel really tired.....

Today went quite alright.
The square was not the best with Vazy. She'd forgotten all about it and only wanted to go to the cones. I have to train it more often!! But I should, because she really likes it. She's crazy about training. When me and Jessi were talking, she just ran to the square.. She always tries different stuff.
I did the object search again. And it went just as well today.. It's fun though!

With Aila I have some problems with the fetch and jump. Haven't practiced it enough, so she might not make that on the competition. But we're gonna meet up again tomorrow to see if we can do something more about it...

It's funny. She's great at walking on heel now, and she does nothing but! 70-80% of the walks she's coming up next to me, wanting to walk on heel.. Ofcourse she gets rewards for her efforts. So the heelwalk was looking really good today! The "down" is good too.. We'll see if she remembers tomorrow, what we've done today.
It's hard with her sometimes, cause differently from Vazy, she's a bit scared of doing wrong. So sometimes she kind of "blocks" when she doesn't get her reward often enough. Maybe it's her age too. But I can still see a difference. And then she gets much more frustrated when she doesn't know what to do, that's when she starts barking.. I can't see that in Vazy to the same degree. Speaking of barking.. She was much better today! I guess she wasn't as excited, since we were training agility for hours yesterday night. Good!

More updates tomorrow.... I'm not hoping for great results at the competition, but we're gonna manage some stuff anyway! She's still so young, that I don't have to feel any pressure, and I'm not putting any pressure on her either. We're just gonna have some fun!

Agility and "object" search

2009-05-20T22:39:00.004+02:00

Back from the club.
It was fun!! But I'm so tired now!
I went a bit early to have time to take a walk and do something with Vazy. So I did, for the first time, a search for objects. Vazy LOVED it!! I haven't seen her so happy to do something for a while. I love that she works so hard and never gives up. She managed to bring in three objects, 3 times. First I made a zig zag pattern, inspired by Jessi and the course I had last week. Maybe 10-15 meters out. I put the objects far back to get her to run out. She remembered where I put the last object (a ball), and ran straight out to get it. Cause now in the beginning I'm letting her see when I put the objects out. And then she had a hard time understanding that she was supposed to get more objects. So she just looked around me. But then I went out with her for a bit, and clicked a few times when she got the object. So next time around, I made the same thing, but a few meters further back. Then she easily got all 3 objects! Third time around, I did it just because she thought it was so much fun. Then I made it even further, and I've must have been at 20 meters or maybe 25. She ran straight out and got the ball, then the other object. But the third that was futher back, took a bit more time. The wind was blowing towards her, so it was easy. That was a really good start. Gonna continue this.

Aila was really good at the agility. She seems to think it's really fun. We did some slalom, some "box exercises" and a small and easy track. She managed everything. She needs to get more distance from me though, she's staying too close. But she really understood the whole staying on the right, if I have my right hand out. I can't say that's working with Vazy. She always wanna come in on the left, no matter what. Have to train more right handling with her.
We also did the flat tunnel, which she's never tried before. She's such a wuss! As soon as it touched her back, she got all weird and didn't wanna do it again. But still, she did it quite a few times, and I guess it's just like with the A etc. She just needs time..

Tomorrow I'm gonna train with Jessi for the competition.

Oh yeah, there's a nice girl with a kelpie at the course. She's also training obedience, maybe we'll get another member to out "training group" that would be cool! 3

You gotta do what you gotta do...

2009-05-20T12:58:00.003+02:00

Eventhough I'm sick, the dogs had to go out. And I had also promised to walk Sacco again. So I gathered all my strength and went out. It was amazing weather and really nice.
Sacco was already happy to see me when I came. He was also happy to see my dogs, and Aila didn't bark anything!
He's already getting used to my rules. Not going out of the door before I'm telling him and all that. But I on the way, I noticed that he could go out into the street all of a sudden (luckily I saw it and could quickly get him back). So I practiced a bit of "don't cross the road until I say so". It went well. My dogs are used to that, so I don't have to keep them on leash all the time. But now I know I have to watch out and train a bit more with Sacco on that.
Then I walked with him on leash over to some nice fields next to a lake. When we were far enough from the road, I let him go ( I only let him go on fields where I can see if any animals are coming, since I heard he chases them sometimes...). He ran like crazy with Vazy. Aila didn't care so much. Vazy gets so upset that she can't catch up with him (he's fast!). But he calmed down after a while. Then he came to me and wanted to do some stuff. That's funny, I love that my dogs come to me when I sit down, and chill around me. And that they follow me and come and take contact with me on walks all the time. But it was super nice that Sacco did that too! As I sat down, he was staying next to us. And same when I was walking. He came running super fast when I called him. So no problem having walks with him.

On the way back I noticed a Rune stone, and then it all of a sudden turned into a sightseeing tour. I love the rune stones! They are amazing, and thinking of how old they are.. It amazes me every time! Maybe people around here are used to them, but I'm not. So, we got a nice tourist picture with the dogs next to it. Nice huh?

Now I have to rest, 'cause tonight we're going to Kista for Aila's agility course...

Sick

2009-05-19T22:01:00.002+02:00

The poor dogs are getting neglected at the moment. Too sick to train or do any long walks... Tomorrow I'll hopefully feel better. I have to since it's agility course for Aila! I'm going, no matter what... I guess I just have to stuff myself with painkillers and nose spray....

Walk in the rain

2009-05-18T14:17:00.002+02:00

The walk went really well!
A very nice dog! I could even let him off the leash a little bit on a field, 'cause he loved my reward so much (ham-cheese on tube). He always came when called, and after a while he just sat next to me, hoping for some more..
It's raining and raining now. I'm getting a bit sick.. Damn!

Playing petanque (boule)

2009-05-18T07:04:00.003+02:00

Yesterday the dogs were a bit neglected, I have so much to do for my course at university at the moment..and then I also had the basic obedience course again. Yesterday they got to try different scent exercises. It was really fun and it inspired me to do a bit more of that..! This summer I would like to start training "area search". we'll see...

Anyway, afterward we went to a park in town playing petanque. The dogs got a small walk as well. While we were playing I had put them lying down in the shadow. And they stayed there for the whole game (and even 2). About an hour or so.. ! Even with dogs, people, bikes passing. People playing freesbee next to us.. They're amazing! And Aila didn't bark! She only let out one little bark when an Amstaff came running towards them. But they didn't get up! So proud of my little doggies!

Today we're gonna have a "dog-day". First I have class, but after that I'm going to walk a German Shepherd called Sacco. My dogs will ofcourse come with us. Then I'm planning on going a bit early to the club to train Aila and some obedience before the training group in agility.. We'll see if it starts to rain, because I'm getting a bit sick I think.. so I better stay in if it's raining too much (but I'll still go to the agility training)..

If anyone feels like training some area search with me, just give me a shout! I'd really like to try it out....

Film clips - competition and training

2009-05-16T14:02:00.005+02:00

First I have to thank Jessi for filming and giving me the right to put them on the blog!

Here is the "down-stay". It's always a 10 for Vazy. But she's still a bit onfocused at certain times there. But I don't mind.

I could practice this some more. She could sit and stay. But I still got a 10, so it doesn't matter.

Heelwalk was nice. Too bad that it was itching so on her side. I also know that she can keep more contact, during the whole walk. Which she didn't do. She got some good smell in her nose and looked forwards at certain times. But I'm really happy with it anyway. She's so nice in her heelwalk!

The "down" was a bit slow. But otherwise it was perfect. I think I'm not gonna get to the competition as early next time. So that she's got a bit more energy. I felt her a bit tired, but still focused.

She's not sitting straight. But I don't mind. I think the speed is more important! She's faster now than she used to be!

The stand was good too. She was staying standing when I came, that was super good! I think it's the same here. When she has more energy, she's faster at the "stand". But she's often taking a few steps. Looking good otherwise I think..

The "fetch" (still don't know what it's called!) is good here! She's got a broken tooth and doesn't like to take the object any more. So this is really good for her. I think that she'll like it even more when we can remove her tooth. At the training a few days before she did it even better.

She loves the jump! It's sometimes hard to get her to not go and jump straight away. But she made a good one here..

Here is Aila's heelwalk where we are at the moment. I still have to practice more right turns. Been focusing too much on the left ones (because I think they are harder) that she's too used to "only" turning left. Haha! But as you can see it gets better after a few tries. She was a bit over excited, that's why she was barking..

Really good. I just have to walk and train her a bit more before so she's not so excited (barking..).

Here is the "come". She's doing it really well!

The "stand". She doesn't know this yet. So we're working on it. Some work to do still. She has to learn to stay standing. And she has to learn a command etc. Right now I'm just making a small movement and we'll see how it develops..

The "fetch" class I. She's really good! She just needs to stop chewing...

The fetch, class II. She's really good here too, a part from the chewing again...

That's all folks!

Jessi in Skarpnäck

2009-05-15T18:37:00.002+02:00

Today I was working, when I got home I heard Vazy barking in "her" room. Damn! Well. I don't think she's barking all the time.. Hopefully.

Anyway. Jessi came just after so I went out training on the field just outside. With Vazy I practiced the "come-stand" with a target in the middle. That was working quite well. She LOVES the target. I don't understand how that could be so funny. But when she sees it she wants to do nothing but run there and jump on it. So that's good, cause she gets good speed to it. But that should be really fast to learn, the hard part, that I always struggle with, is to take it away..
I can send her like 50 meters out to a target if I want, but as soon as it's gone, she doesn't understand what to do any more. So I think I might mix this technique, with the one I did yesterday (target behind her, where she can go when she stops, like a reward behind her basically).
Then we did some distance training (sit-down-stand) and that was about all I had time for with her (that I can remember).

Then I practiced some stuff with Aila. Just went through the obedience class I program. She does most stuff quite well. But today she had a tendency to bark, cause she was so excited and wanted to train too much. And I still have to practice the "stand" which she doesn't know yet. It will come.. The fetching went well, but she still chews a lot. Any ideas how to get rid of chewing?

Next weekend we're going to Gävle to compete in "Lapphunds SM" (laponian dogs swedish championships). Gonna be interesting since she's not really ready. But we're doing it for fun mostly, and we'll see how we'll manage...

Tomorrow I'll post the films from the competition, and Ailas training today..

Have a good weekend!!

Course and training

2009-05-14T22:35:00.002+02:00

Today I helped one of the instructors at the club with her course (it's the 3rd time now). It's just "every day obedience" with a nice group. It's so fun and interesting to see peoples different relations with their dogs, and how they develop during the course. It feels great to be a part of that. To see them change and to take in the little tips and tricks given to them.. Interesting.

I went there early to have some time for my own dogs. Went for a nice walk where I made them search for treats. I made a "square" of 15x15 meters. Where I only put treats at the end at first. It was great to see that both of them went out 15 meters straight.. Then I threw some more around, and I think they found them all. I think I'm gonna continue like this. But I will start to hide the sweets within gloves and other things. Then I will try and make them search for things to bring back instead. Like toys or other stuff. Gonna be interesting to see how that goes.

Then at the club I was training a bit. There were two girls training freestyle and obedience with their amazing dogs. They seemed nice so I asked if I could "borrow" their square made with cones (not the same as the ones we've been training with before). So I tried some with Vazy. She didn't get it. Cause there were toys spread out, and she rather went to them. Then I thought of what I read in Marlene's blog, about only trying once, then doing something else and so on. So after the 3rd try (when she made it), I did some heelwork. And then sent her back. She was quite confused. But went towards the square anyway (but stopped next to the cones instead of in the middle). Then I just called her back and made some more exercises. And then tried again, from different distances, not always straight at it and all. And she made some perfect ones in the end! Got quite a way to go before she's ready for competition though. She needs to learn the command more, so that she knows that she needs to look for the cones when she hears that.

I also trained some heelwork in all directions. The walking to the left is still hard (I mean when we're both facing forward, but still going to the left).. Right and back, no problem!
Then she did some really nice distance training (sit/down/stand). She does it now without moving forwards.

Then I also tried the target training with the "come-stand-come". It didn't work at first, cause I called her in two times without making her stand. Then she forgot about the target. So I made it easier, and just walked around, and told her "go on" when she could go to the target. She really loves the target, so she always turned straight away. I think we might get there one day. Just need more training.

With Aila it's great! She's great now after having finished her heat. She wanna do nothing but walk on heel, even on our regular walks. She comes up to me every one or two minutes, looking at me and walking perfect on heel, then sitting perfectly when I stop. Wohoo! Then I did some "down" and "stand". The down is great. The "stand" is not ready yet. But she stops quite well when I do a movement with my hand.
I also did some fetching (apport). And she can take it from my hand, hold it until I take it. I can also throw it, and she gets it perfectly when I give her the command. BUT, she's a little chewer. Damn... But it seems like it's getting a bit better. It seems like she chews less when running. I will see how it develops. If it gets worse, I have to do something about it...

I was supposed to train some agility too. But then the agility training group (class II) started, so I couldn't really. But then it was only 20 minutes left until the course started..
Then they've been nicely sitting in the car. Poor dogs huh?

186 points, 1st prize and 2nd place!

2009-05-13T21:43:00.003+02:00

So. Now we're back!
It went really well. But I think there was some deer smell in the wind. Because she did a better heelwalk just before going in. But then she got some wind in her nose which made her a bit unfocused. But she still got a 9!
Jessi has filmed it all, so it should come up on the blog later on.

These are the points; (I'll write it in swedish, can't be asked to translate!)
Platsliggning; 10
Tandvisning; 10
Linförighet; 9
Läggande; 9
Inkallande; 10
Ställande; 8 (tog några steg)
Apportering; 9
Hopp över hinder; 10
Helhetsintryck; 9

---------------------
186 points, 1st prize!

Wohoo! One 1st prize away from the LP title! (I'll hopefully get that on the 30th of May). I came in second out of 17..
The one who was placed first was from the club and got 191 points (or something). I never saw their turn, but they must have been really good!

Well, I'll post the movies later on....

Have a nice night!

Feeling great!

2009-05-13T07:01:00.001+02:00

I feel great today. Like nothing can go wrong!
It's gonna be fun. I'm rested, calm. Vazy has got a lot of energy and she seems motivated....

Wohoo!

Obedience class I, training

2009-05-10T12:41:00.002+02:00

Well. For the competition on Wednesday I've been training a bit.
It seems good. She's got some postition problems sometimes, but I can take that. And she also wants to sit before command on the "stand". That sucks, I can't believe that I told her to sit before when I was training. If you're doing that, don't! If you know that they know sit, don't do it when training "down" or "stand" for the class I. Maybe in a different situation if so, 'cause smart dogs learn fast! otherwise she got some good speed at the "come" and she's almost smashing in to my leg. Who would have thought?!....
I also did some quick "sit-down-stay", where I put a bowl behind her with some treats. She was quite distracted by the treats, but she surely did not move forwards. So that was good. I think that for next time I'm gonna have a friend or someone treat her whilst standing behind. A really smart tip I got from Jessi, but that I never got around to doing..

Anyway, I also trained a bit with Aila for the "Lapphunds SM" that's in 2 weeks. She managed the whole "apportation" almost perfectly (apart from the chewing but...). Amazing, I haven't done that much training! It's hard to make her jump forwards, but I'll continue training with balls and other stuff. The heelwalk is alright, and so is the "down" and "come", so we should be alright for the competition! In agility she knows the jumps and all, and she follows my command which is good. She's not so fast yet, so I think we might be able to manage..... We'll see! We have the agility course again next week. We'll see how it goes then...

So tomorrow it's agility group training and then it's resting day on tuesday (gonna be the most boring day of the year for the dogs!), and then on wednesday I'm gonna go before the competition and play and walk and have fun!

Hoping for the best now!

Aila lost her freedom part 2.

2009-05-09T17:44:00.003+02:00

Well. As I said before, I was doing pretty well with Aila's "not-hunting-training". But today we're back to square one!
We went for a nice walk in a national park. In the beginning all went well. She was gonna hunt, but I shouted quickly at her, and she came back and got loads of treats. But then I looked away for one second and she was gone. Just after we saw an elk 50 meters away. And I guess Aila must have hunted off another.. So now she's lost her freedom again. Because she can pass animals very well when she's at my side, but not when she's 20 meters ahead.
She was away for about 10-15 minutes, and we could hear her barking way off in the forest. Luckily there were no roads or nothing, and she came back fairly quickly. She walked next to me for the rest of the walk without any trouble.
It's not so much fun that I can't give her any freedom, but.. That's life I guess!

I also have to add that Vazy was amazing! She saw the elk, and smelled it. But chose not to go after... Luckily I don't have two hunters!

I had a dream...

2009-05-09T08:25:00.003+02:00

I have to tell you about the dream I just had. It was really strange, but maybe my subconcious is trying to tell me something here... Please read and write a comment.. Is it true? It's not someone I want to be, and I'm not aware of me being like that, but maybe it's the way it is??

Anyway, I was with a friend out somewhere, it was a friend from England. I'm not sure exactly where I was. But I had been to a kennel and bought a puppy. It seemed like I didn't have Aila, but only Vazy, and I had bought a finnish lapphund. I remember bringing stuff in the car, and remaking space for the pup with Vazy... Then I don't remember so much.. We were walking outside, met some weird people. Mathieu was around somewhere, but I can't remember what he did. There were a lot of my friends around...

In the morning my friend was very drunk, we must have been out partying. She said she was going training, I think it must have been at the gym..
Anyway, then I can't remember what happened. But after a while a girl from my Agility training group phoned me. And she was really pissed off. She said "I can't believe how you can ruin a whole course like that." and continued talking about how I had been the worst pain ever at this agility course. Everyone had hated me and even the instructor didn't like me. Ofcourse I was really hurt by this, but I couldn't even remember which course it was, or what we had done. Or what I had done to deserve that everyone thought I was a pain. She tried to tell me why. I had been taking over the whole thing, talking too much, seeming like I knew most and only demanding stuff for my own sake. I had said something like "Thats great, now I will save 10 days of training".. and my agility friend had said that with a voice that made it seem like that would have been a stupid thing to say. Then I said how much I had taken over the course and only thought about myself. That I had never given anything back to the group. Everyone was always helping me, and I was never helping anyone. I answered that it was because I didn't know enough. That everyone that helped me was better than me, and I didn't know what to say to help them. I said that I would probably get better and would be able to help someone later on..I can't remember what she answered to that, but I have the feeling she didn't agree...

The more she talked, the more sad I got, because I didn't know, or couldn't remember what I had done. Then I had told here that I was really sorry, that I was really ashamed and wasn't sure I would dare to come to the next course that was like the next day or something. I started crying on the phone, and as soon as I could talk again, I realized she had hung up the phone.
Then some stuff happened in between. My friend woke up after the party, she was sleeping in this really big and weird bed. And someone else was there... I was still really sad and upset. Tried to think back at what could have made them feel that way..

Then I went to the next course anyway. Then I said I was so sorry to everyone, and they just looked at me like I was stupid. One of the course leaders came up to me (And it was my grammar teacher, in real life), and she told me that I shouldn't go to courses like this, because I only ruin them. That I should keep to language courses (?!) because I would fit in better. I can't really remember everything else that she said. But more things like that. When the course was about to start, I walked around to everyone, and said I was so sorry... Everyone looked at me in a disgusted way. Like they had been talking about me all weekend and that it was all bad stuff they'd been saying.

There and then I decided not to say anything any more. So I went to sit down. It looked exactly like a lecture hall at the university. I was sitting by myself but then more and more people came. A lot of people were talking loudly. It was totally normal that it was an Agility course, eventhough, by the peoples outfit and looks, it seemed more to be a normal university class. Then some people behind me was listening to music when the teacher came in. And they were talking loudly and didn't shut the music off..

Then I hear "Åsa, you shouldn't be here. You always ruin everything". Eventhough I hadn't done anything, I had been blamed for something someone else did, just because they had not liked the way I was last time.Then I woke up...

There was something in between there where I regretted taking the puppy, and I was going to go all the way back to it (which was really far), because I felt I had to work on myself and Vazy. To change. And that a puppy would take a lot of time, that I could have used for change...

It's all from my point of view in the dream. But I had this feeling, of having taken over the class and been very selfish. I'm often very self concious and think a lot about what other people think. And I know that I often talk too much, and I want to stop doing it. But it's the way I am, so I can't really, if I want to be myself.

This dream made me think back at loads of stuff. And got me scared. Is this the way people percieve me, only that I don't know it? I find it scary. I don't want to be like that but, as in the dream, I have no clue..

Am I really like this? I mean, you can tell me. Because I'd rather know so that I have a chance to change.......

German shepherd

2009-05-08T23:54:00.001+02:00

Today we've met a German Shepherd and his owner Elisabeth. I got in contact with them because she's looking for someone to walk him. He was really nice and friendly and went on well with the dogs. So now I'm probably gonna walk him a few days a week. Maybe you'll get some pictures of him later on.. I'm really tired tonight, so no training. Hopefully I'll do some training this weekend. Needed for next week!

Amazing morning walk..

2009-05-07T15:09:00.004+02:00

This morning I woke up at 4.30 for some reason. I couldn't sleep and got up around 5. I read some stuff for uni and then I had some extra time to walk the dogs. It was so nice!
Morning sun and warm with birds singing everywhere. The water all calm and glittering in the sunlight. Nice!
I can also give you an update on Ailas hunting. It's going really well. Since 5 days I've managed to let her walk more freely. She hasn't been hunting once, eventhough she has been tempted by some birds. I yelled at her, then she stopped in her pace (only ran less than a meter) and came to me. Then she got LOADS of praise and ham-cheese on tube.. We still haven't met any deer at close distance since the time she walked next to me and didn't run. So that will be a challenge. I hope that she will stop running and come to me in that situations too.. We'll see. I'm sure I can manage to make her as good as Vazy!

(Ps. I would like a phone with a better camera. I love to be able to catch snapshots of nice moments like this morning. But it sucks that it's so bad quality on the photos I get now. I always bring the phone, so it would be nice to be able to take better pictures with it...)

First agility course for Aila, and some training with Vazy

2009-05-06T22:41:00.003+02:00

Started off towards the club (Kista) around 3.30 (or was it 3.45?) after having decided to meet up there with Jessi. It was CRAZY traffic and I didn't arrive until around 5 I think! Crazy!
Then we went for a nice walk over the fields. After that I left Aila in the car (she was going to train later) and went training only with Vazy. Yesterday at the club I noticed that the come-stand-come was hard to get with external reward (Playing like crazy with Jessi), because she's not used to external rewards and gets too sucked towards me.. I've tried it that way quite a few times without any big result.
But then I got the idea to put some treats on something behind her, and get a realease command when she stops nicely. That worked well.
But today I switched it to the target. What a breakthrough! She loves the target and ran like crazy towards it when she got the release command. Wohoo. I did some calling in without stopping her, throwing the ball behind me to get some speed and "suction" towards me.
It was great not only because I can do it on my own. But also because it's so easy to mix normal come and come with stand. Sometimes I throw the ball behind, and sometimes she gets to go to the target, where she also gets the ball. Great speed in the two directions, and she can never know which one to get. But after a few repetitions she got a bit slower, so I stopped. But that's defintely something I'm gonna work more on! And I have to have her favourite ball as well....

Otherwise we did some "square" work. And she was a bit confused, but she always chooses to go to the middle eventhough she sometimes takes a little tour before. I'm quite happy with that. I also put a greater distance between the square and me. I have to work more on that.. She's good at finding the middle eventhough we're changing place of the square. Looking good.

We also did some "down-stay". And she was great as usual. She stayed even when Oliven got her little sausage balls thrown at her!

Then it was time for agility course for Aila (time flew today!).
She didn't start barking eventhough there were loads of dogs nearby. Wohoo! She was quiet most of the night, and I'm really proud of her! She was the best! We got to go through the tunnel, easy! Then we got to jump. One, then two jumps in a row. She did that perfectly. Then We got to call her in over the two jumps, she didn't sneak! Then I put a bowl infront of the two jumps, and she jumped them both when I stayed. She managed to take a jump then a tunnel. Then I tried to send her on the jump and then the tunnel, staying behind. That was a bit harder, and the first time during the course that she wasn't sure what to do. She got a bit frustrated and started barking. But I was patient and only stayed put until she got into the tunnel and got her reward in the bowl. Wohoo! Then I did that again, and just after I managed to send her over the jump and through the tunnel. Nice one Aila!
Then we did some slalom, and she did the whole slalom both from the left and the right side. But she's still really slow.. She just needs to learn a bit better what to do, and then I'll speed her up with some balls and playing.

I was really happy about the course, because most people were really good and already knew the obstacles. That puts a higher level on the course! Yay!! I'm so lucky! The two courses I've been taking it's been the same. In the puppy course, everyone was so good, and now it's the same. It's inspiring the ones that haven't practiced so much as well. So everyone gets so much better.

Looking forward to next time....

Tomorrow I'm helping instructor at an obedience class, and I'll have to show some tricks with Vazy. She will probably do; Rolling, Backing, Target and Slalom between the legs.
I will hopefully get a little bit of time to train my own dogs before the course. Need to get ready for the competition next week!

Good day!!

SSBK, Jessi and Oliven

2009-05-05T20:00:00.002+02:00

It was raining when I came to the club. But luckily it stopped during our walk, so eventhough it was cold, it was still bearable.
I trained Vazy a bit for the competition next week. She was a bit distracted at the heelwalk. But otherwise she was doing well as usual! I have to train the jump a bit more, because she doesn't sit straight. And the "apportation" she did great!! She took it straight on command and thought it was super fun. Yay!
For Jessi and Oliven it also went really well I thought. I hope that she can compete soon. You can read more about that on her blog I think.
Aila was also alright, eventhough she's a bit barky sometimes. She enjoyed training. She was a bit confused at the heelwalk and wasn't sitting straight. But that's alright. And she manage to come back with the "object" she's supposed to get (damn. still noone that knows a site for dog sport names in english?!). She loves it and all. We also practiced jumping a bit.
I also met some Australian Sheperds and their owners! They were super nice, maybe I'll get to train with them some more, that would be fun!!
Well. Tomorrow it's agility course for Aila! Gonna be interesting!!

TG1 monday

2009-05-04T22:07:00.002+02:00

So, today we've been to training agility again.
I'm feeling quite tired and a bit down and confused. So I wasn't doing so well.. I don't really know what's happened to me, but it's not so much fun...
Anyway, it feels like Vazy is so good, and I'm so bad. I really have to learn more, but I don't know how to. She's both fast and accurate, but I'm falling behind, confusing her with the wrong moves...
I hope I feel better 'til next week. I've also done some agility with Aila. She's good and she loves it. I think she's gonna be a good agility dog...

Have a nice night.

Nature reserve

2009-05-02T23:06:00.007+02:00

Today Mathieu and me went to a nature reserve near Nyköping. It's super nice!
We chilled in the sun for hours, and Vazy got a nice swim...
But then the night ended badly with a parkingticket (900 kr!!), so I think I can forget about those new clothes I wanted.....
But here are some pics from our otherwise great day..

(The one with the dogs on the bridge is kind of funny. Cause the bridge was moving, and you could see all the way down to the water. So Vazy was kind of scared of walking on it, but she always does it anyway.. haha! )

(And the tree was really weird too. It was like two trees stuck together, but one had lost it's roots.. Weird!)

30th of April

2009-05-01T12:40:00.007+02:00

Yesterday some friends and I went for a little adventure walk with the dogs.
Vazy learnt how to jump from stuff in to the water. First time she ever made it!
Then we went climbing a bit in the rocks, but it was to steep at the end, so we had to turn around and walk another way to get to the top to watch the view. Great weather and a cool place!
Then we went home and played "Brännboll" with some friends after eating tacos. Super fun! And the dogs were really on our team, making life miserable for the other team by herding them when they were running, and catching the ball and running away with it so we couldn't get "burnt". HAHA! They didn't do stuff like that to our team though, that was funny!
Then there were a lot of fireworks. But it went super well! It went on for a long time with really loud bangs. But I was playing football with Vazy like crazy, so she barely noticed. And when I was too tired to run, I fed them with sausages and chips. So they were really happy and didn't seem too bothered. The ate and played, so eventhough they sometimes looked in the direction of the fireworks, they didn't seem to mind so much! I'm gonna continue like this, and just do loads of fun stuff and then they can get to eat good food and all when there are loud noices. Maybe they will even start to like it?

They were nice and tired later at night.

Today it's another great sunny day, so we'll see what we'll do today....

Enjoy!

(Ps. Vandraren Represent!)
(Ps 2. Internal joke, so I can see why most people are not gonna understand. hehe!)

Passed the test

2009-04-29T21:54:00.000+02:00

Aila passed the test ofcourse! So now we're probably starting the agility course next week! Wish us luck!!

The only problem is that Aila is barking more than ever! I'm going crazy! She's got a new kind of bark, the one when nothing is happening and she's excited. So annoying! But at the moment I'm just lying her down far away and ignoring her until she stops. But the training is going so slow when it's like that!!

Tomorrow it's no training, but a day out with friends. We're gonna hang out on the field infront of our flat and play games and chill. gonna be nice! I'm also meeting up with Sara for a nice walk. Have to remember to get a Scalibour collar for Aila though. But I haven't seen any tics so far....

Have a good night!

Tracking

2009-04-28T20:19:00.002+02:00

Today Vazy and Aila got to try some tracking with Jessi. That was fun but quick. Vazy started off really good! She managed the whole way, but the second time she lost the track and got confused. Aila was too crazy, I also think, as Jessi said, that it was too easy for her..

They've also been playing with some dogs at the dog-park next to our house.
Tomorrow Aila and me are going to do a test to get in to the agility course that's starting soon. Gonna be fun! Hope to be able to start her in TG1 (TG= training group) before fall.
I'll tell you how it went tomorrow.

Now I have to write a long home exam..... argh!

TG1 monday

2009-04-27T22:43:00.002+02:00

Well. I'm home from yet another monday-agility training. It was as good as usual. Many good tips, and I got to try some new handling "moves" (threadle). They were fun and I will probably develop them more with Vazy. Maybe this was the missing link?
Vazy seemed a bit tired still from this weekend, and she had some trouble with the slalom because it was a flat tunnel, then the slalom to the right but where she had to enter left. If I went on the left side of the slalom, she took it well, but then it didn't work afterwards. And if I switched behind her, she turned around in the slalom. But finally I had to stand further down and already on the right side, and then it was alright.. The end of the track went really well and she's going forward really good and fast! I would like to take a handling course to get better at handling.

I also trained Aila a bit. She thinks it's really fun at first and does it really well. But she gets a bit bored after a while.. So I think that I have to do a lot of different combinations all the time, and try and go fast. She likes that. And now she already loves going up on the zone obstacles. So that's great! (What a change in like a week...)

Now I have to finish watching a movie for my course.
Sleep well!

Eliminated again..

2009-04-26T18:33:00.013+02:00

Well. It was really fun today too, but I got eliminated again in both races. The first one went super well! The whole way until a hard combination where I had been focusing too much on the really hard part, that I kind of lost it on the one I thought would be easier. It got a bit too tight and she missed a jump and went straight to the slalom.
But I was super happy with that one, cause up until there, it went perfectly. Fast and correct! The other ones did well too. One with a few faults, and the other one eliminated too (but doing a really nice race anyway!)
Vazy had to stay in her cage quite a lot today, cause I was also working. That tires her a lot, because she can't relax at all. I think that's why she was SUPER tired at the last race. The jumping. She fell asleep next to the track not long before our race. And when it was our turn she did a good beginning but was unusually slow. Then she seemed a bit too tired to jump properly and she "sneaked" the tyre jump. That got us eliminated. But.. I'm still happy. It was super fun and she was really good! I think it would be easier with a track that's acctually on our level, Class I, because this one was more a Class II track.
For the other team members the jumping course went amazingly well! One was making it fault free, and the other one with 5 faults. Super good!!

I'll put some pics from the competition. Some of me and my team members (with the duck tolling retrievers) and some of another team from my training group (the poodles)...

(ps. I shouldn't blame it all on Vazy being tired, I was really tired too. And I'm a little bit dissapointed that I didn't make the goal of my weekend, of making a track without getting eliminated. But I think I must really do something wrong, because I never manage that actually. Anyway. I hope we'll get better by training some more...)

first agility competition!

2009-04-25T20:07:00.004+02:00

So today I did my first agility competition. It was really fun eventhough we got disqualified. Vazy was a bit too fast after having been still all morning in her cage, and I did some faults in my handling as well. But it was still super fun, so we decided to make a team and sign up "last-minute" to the competition tomorrow, which is official. That's going to be fun! I'm gonna compete with two Nova scotia duck tolling retrievers, one of which is on the pictures here. We will have a lot of fun I think.
But now I'm sooo tired. I just got home from a picnic with the dogs in town. There were LOADS of people. The dogs are so happy to be able to come with us everywhere now. They like everyone and get really tired from just hanging around. I met up with Kicki, 'cause she was at the parc too. What a coincidence!
Oh well. Now I have to eat and go to bed, I have to get up even earlier tomorrw (half past 5)..
Cross your fingers for us tomorrow!

In town again..

2009-04-24T21:52:00.002+02:00

Today I went for a walk this morning and we met some dogs at the "dog-park". My dogs were really nice and friendly!
Then I went to uni and they had to stay at home. This time they hadn't done anything in "their" room (last time I left them they had pulled out the plugs and then opened the door.. weird!).
I brought them into town after a long and nice talk with Kicki. We've been eating and drinking some beer. It's funny how many friends you make when you bring your dogs (when they don't puke!). We met some english dudes and some other nice people that were talking to us. After a few hours at the pub the dogs got a bit bored, eventhough they were quite happy saying hello to our table neighbours.. Everyone liked them as usual, they're so well behaved when they're out in town!

They were quite hungry when we came back though, but it's nice to see that Aila got her appetite back after I washed off the Exspot (she didn't wanna eat, and puked when she did, for a day or so...).

Tomorrow it's our first competition in agility.. scary!

Another busy day..

2009-04-23T22:58:00.002+02:00

Today I've been working most of the day. And luckily I've got some life-savers as friends! They really made my day by taking care of the dogs!
Then as soon as I had finished I had to rush home and back in the car to Kista. I was a "help-instructor" at a course they had. It was fun and interesting, and finally it seems like they're working quite a lot like I've been working in France. So that was good to see!
I just got home and now I have to read some stuff for class tomorrow. Poor neglected dogs!
Tomorrow is a new day, and I start class at 1, so I should have some time for walks and a bit of training.. We'll see.

Training and watching rescue dogs

2009-04-22T10:13:00.020+02:00

Yesterday was another day packed of dog-stuff.

I met up with Kicki around 12 and then we went to the club in Kista. The agilitytrack was still there since monday, so I tried it again with Vazy. There was always something, so I didn't manage to get it fault free.. I guess the fact that I can never get any fault-free tracks first try is gonna be a problem om saturday. But I hope it's easy so I can make it... We'll see!

We did as we've done with Jessi and trained the dogs one by one. It was fun. I did the square with vazy and she did it really nice the first time. And then from all directions. Ofcourse when we moved the square she was so sure it was at the same place, that she went there all the time after that. That's the proof why it's better to move the square and not the position! Especially with a dog that learns so fast!
Then I tried to do some heelwork and move to the left and right. It went quite well..

Then Izla was going to train some heelwork and all, and it was looking really good when she managed to do it. But she got really busy barking, so we've noticed that it takes at least 30 minutes training for her to be able to focus correctly... She also tried the "square" and we did it with a bowl at first, that we removed after 5 times. Then she went totally right, and Kicki clicked and I went to give a treat inside the square. She managed to get it right several times. Good Izla! (You can read more about Izlas training on Kicki's blog).

I trained some agility with Aila, and she managed to do almost half the track from monday! She's so good and loves jumping. She can keep the distance so that I can run straight. She jumps all the jumps and goes through the tunnels, and I managed to make her jump super nicely through the tunnels. And the major break-through was still that she managed to run over all the "zone" obstacles! Wohoo!

Then she was over excited, and she's started to bark when that happens. So then I've decided to ignore her completely and not move one inch and just stand still and look at the ground. When she comes to my side, sits and shuts up, she'll get a click+treat. It took some time but seemed to work. By the end of the exercice she was quiet and sitting at my side. And if I'm somewhere where it's really close to the car, I'll put her in there. I'm not gonna let this problem grow!

After having trained until around half past 3, we went to Kista Galleria and had some food. Great pesto pasta! Then we started going to the site of the rescue training. We were early so we had time to take a walk. We found a golf course and I let the dogs run. Ofcourse at the end of the walk Aila saw some birds and chased after them. Luckily it was just a big field, so I could see her all the time, and she could see me. So she didn't chase for long.. But then I realized that I have to do some more "walking next to me", cause she can't go off as she wants to any more. I need a bike!

Then we met up with the rescue "trainers" and they were all super nice. We got to see some other Laponian herders, one of which was the famous Modji. So cute!!
It was amazing to she the rescue dogs at work. It really made me want to try with my dogs! But I'm not sure that they are interested enough in people they don't know.. But I think it's something they can learn with training. Since my dogs are learning a lot by rewards, they can also learn to go to people for rewards. I'm so dissapointed that I'm gonna miss the "trying out-day" this weekend! That would have been so much fun!
The dogs were working so indepentendly and really seemed to LOVE their job. Amazing. Thank you Marianne (if you read this) for letting us come and watch.

Aila has been puking twice since yesterday. So now I've showered off the exspot. I really think it must be some side-effects, since she's not showing any other signs of illness. The side-effects have only gotten worse and worse, starting with drooling, and the more it goes into her, the more she's gotten. So that's why I think it must be exspot. But now it should already be in her blood, so maybe it will take a bit of time before she gets better. Anyone got any experience with this?

Anyway..

Have a great day!

All the photos are taken by Kicki (http://www.izla.se) Great photos!! Thanks!!

Oh, I forgot..

2009-04-21T09:12:00.002+02:00

.. not that it is very important. But I found it quite funny.
Yesterday I took the dogs for a walk on the field next to the university in Flemingsberg. There I let Aila go so that she could run, since I could see very far and therefore stop her before she wanted to chase anything.
Anyway, now she's so used to walking next to me that she did that anyway! I tried to make her run a bit, but she only came back and started to walk on heel again. Maybe it's my own "fault", cause I did still give her a treat for each time she did that. It's good to know that she don't seem to mind anyway..

Monday training with the group

2009-04-20T22:43:00.004+02:00

Agility on mondays!
As fun as always!
Today I went early to walk the dogs, and then train a bit with Aila.
It went well. She loves to jump and understands the handling quite well. She can still jump quite freely. I got her to go up half of the A and the "balance" (english words missing again!).
Vazy was doing really well today! She's so fast that I almost can't make the whole track 'cause I get too tired! I have to work on my stamina!
I have to work on the zones though! But otherwise she made an almost fault-free track. It was me that didn't see well enough in the dark for one obstacle, and the other one she was supposed to go from the back, and then I pointed at the jump, so she took it the wrong way..
I feel I'm learning so much, and I'm getting more aware of my body language..
The slalom training is super fun! Vazy loves the "tunnel" exercice. And now I can put the two slaloms almost all the way together and she's still getting the right technique! I will just continue like this, and hope to see this technique when only using one slalom soon... I took some pics of it, but I forgot the camera in the car!

Tomorrow I'm going training at the club with kicki. And then we're going to look at "rescue dog" training. Gonna be fun! I hope that Kicki brings her camera, because mine ran out of batteries and, as I said, I forgot it in the car. I'll put the pics up tomorrow with another evaluation of the day. I'm planning to train a bit more agility; zones and slalom mostly. Then I'm gonna continue my work with the "square" and the jump for the obedience. I'm also training more "sit-down-stand", and she's getting better!

Have a good night! I'm definitely gonna sleep well. Busy week!!

(ps. the two other dogs on the pictures are people from my training group. It was the small dogs that got to start off that training, and therefore they also got to enjoy the sun. After it got to dark to take any more photos... next time maybe!)

Bike

2009-04-20T07:46:00.002+02:00

Does anyone have a bike to sell? Because I would like one.
I quite need it to make Aila run in the morning before going to uni, and to give them some stamina and muscles.
So.. Just give me a shout if you know anyone that has any cheap ones.

Another sunny day!

2009-04-19T15:13:00.003+02:00

Well. Today I brought mathieu and went to meet Jessi at SSBK again. We did some slalom and "the square" again, and Vazy got it right straight away! That's the first time! So happy!!
The we tried with the cone and then the square. She was a bit confused at first, but then she got it. Need some more training there. But I'm still only gonna compete in class II first..
I'm training the slalom with putting two smaller slalom paralell. Cause Vazy can do it right from any direction, but she needs more speed. So my thought was getting the speed through this technique, but the "entrance" through clicker training. I just hope that she can assimilate the two, and mix them together. Because the goal of this is for her to get another technique in the slalom to go faster.. Since she's putting the two paws on each side now, she's bending more around the sticks, while I want her to weave straighter through, with one paw on each side. We'll see!
I'm using the same technique for Aila now, but she got a wide "tunnel" in between the slalom still. Because as soon as I make it small enough to touch her, she's going out. So she needs more time. Then I'm practicing the "stand" and "down". It was the same as usual. The "down" is good and fast, but she hasn't really got the "stand" yet.
Anyway, also did some jumping with Aila. She really likes it, and I have to run quite close to the jumps, but far enough for me to be able to run straight anyway. So that's nice. She's gotten scared of everything she has to walk up on. So I don't know if she'll get over it. Otherwise I guess I'll just do the jumping class with her. We'll see.... She might get better. I'll practice some more when she's hungry and I've got the best food she knows (maybe some good meat...).

With Vazy we also tried to do some "come" with "stand", but only the beginning. Which I do like this;
I have someone with me, where she starts, I call her in and then I give a release command. When she hears that, she should know that the reward is with the other person, which makes her turn back fast. So I want her to be "pulled" towards the back. Then when she's doing that without hesitation, I'll put the stop command, and then release her to get the reward behind again.. We'll see if we get there. Otherwise I think we're not so far from ready for the class II obedience.. There is still some small stuff to sort out (she could still be better at the "sit, stand, down", cause she's still taking a step or two at the "stand")...

Anyway. Good day as usual! I think Jessi took a pic or two again, so I might borrow one later on.. Next time I'll try to remember to bring my camera!

(Yesterday I was lying in all day with a terrible headache. I couldn't move.. So that's why I didn't write anything).

In town

2009-04-17T17:58:00.002+02:00

now we're starting to get summer feelings and we can bring the dogs to town with us. So they've been all day in town basically. Then we stopped in a parc, and they were playing with sticks. Vazy normally just chews them and spits them out.. But today, when we went for a beer at a pub, we noticed that she didn't just chew them, but swollowed as well! so the dogs puked all over the terrace. NOT nice!
Anyway, it was my fault for not noticing.
But otherwise they were amazing. I could walk with them without leash in the middle of town. They passed people and cars and dogs, and stopped at the sidewalk. They are amazing sometimes! Same at the bar, before they started puking... They ate well after anyways, so they seem alright. No more drooling either.
I think, as Annloice also said, that it's some side effects to the exspot.. I will see if they look better otherwise I guess I have to wash it all off and put something else on...

continuation..

2009-04-17T06:52:00.003+02:00

They haven't been drooling since yesterday during the day. They seem alright but tired. Vazy has been biting on her back where I had put some exspot, so that makes me think that that must be the reason.. or?
It seems to itch, but not so bad. We'll see how they are today, now I have to go to work!

weird drooling fits..

2009-04-16T16:14:00.003+02:00

Today I had to work, so the dogs had to stay home. I know they hate it, but what can I do?
Anyway, when I got home they had managed to open the door to the room they stay in. But they also pulled out the plugs next to the door. WEIRD!

Another weird thing. Yesterday Aila got a drooling fit, and puked some drool. Then she drooled for a few minutes, and then she stopped and went to bed. She didn't eat in the morning, but ate later at night. During the night I awoke at 4am from the dogs making weird noises. They sounded like they were licking their lips or something. Vazy looked like she wasn't feeling so well.
This morning when I went out with them, she drooled again for a few minutes, but not as much as yesterday. Otherwise they seem totally alright. Vazy is very hungry all the time and just wants food and food and food. They are calm, but not looking sick or anything. Now when I got home Vazy also got a drooling fit and even put some drool on the floor. WHY? what happened to them? They have normal shit and pee, they seem normal in general... very WEIRD!

If you have any idea what it could be, please write!

(the only thing I can think of that's different from normally, is that I put some exspot on them 2-3 days ago... )

at 9.40 pm we just got back from a run. I met up with my friend Veronica and we went to a cementary nearby. The dogs have really got energy, so they can't be sick for real (or?).. And it's fun to run with them. You can really see that they enjoy pulling. It's good for their muscles, and for me too! So it's a win-win situation.. It was Veronica's first time running with the dogs, and she thought it was fun, so now she might wanna come more often. Too bad we don't have 3 dogs, 'cause I want Math to run as well!

He's coming back in a few hours!

yesterday; Agility 2

2009-04-15T19:41:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I met up with Jessi at the club (SSBK) and we tried some agility. Mostly we did the slalom, and it was quite fun. We put two slaloms together like a tunnel they could run though. With Aila I had to have it quite wide, and it will take some time. But it was fun!

With Vazy I put them closer, and in the beginning she didn't understand that she could run straight trough. But when she did, it looked amazing! I think it gives her a new technique in the slalom. And I hope that, together with the clicker trained slalom, she will gain speed, but still keep her accuracy for entering. That's my plan anyway!

That's why I will try both ways of learning for Aila too. This is just an experiment, so it will be interesting to see the long term result.

Today we have a calm "staying home and resting" day. I'm in a good mood, but don't feel like a long walk. The dogs are very tired anyway, after a hard week of training a lot everyday!

Agility..

2009-04-13T22:20:00.004+02:00

Tonight I've been to the club again.
First I met up with Jessica to talk a bit about becoming a trainer at the club. It seems like fun! We will see what happens, and if I'm good enough.

Then it was my turn to build the track, and it was fun! A lot of running, but quite an easy one.. Vazy loved it. I managed a bit better this time (it was easier), bit I still have to be clearer at certain parts, because she's really sensitive and if I don't show clearly enough, she just goes straight ahead. And the first two runs I also turned too early, and then she missed the jumps because of that. I have to wait until she's almost over the jump before I turn.

After everyone had finished, I tried the track with Aila (skipping all the obstacles she doesn't know yet). And she's soo good! It was the first time on a track, ever, and she still managed to go away from me a bit, and jump and go straight in the tunnel. I was impressed. And she thought it was so much fun! Finally she got to chase a ball without having Vazy catching it first. Looks promising for her!

And then I wanna finish this with saying that I think all the people I'm training with now (and those I have been training with before too!) are amazing! I have so much fun, and everyone's so nice and so good! So, for everyone that trains with me, just want you to know that I appreciate you so much! Without you, I'm nothing...

Have fun!

Responsible..

2009-04-13T12:51:00.006+02:00

Tonight it's agility training, and I'm the one responsible for bringing the track. Scary! I'm so bad at building tracks! I wonder how it's gonna go today. I think I chose one that's quite easy. I wanna feel like I don't suck as much as I do. But we'll see.. I'm sure there are some places where I'm gonna get lost again. I'm a bit nervous for the competition soon. I can never make a track first time around, I always need like 2 or 3 times before I get it.. But luckily I've just signed up for jumping, so atleast I'm not gonna have to do any zones and stuff. Phew!
Tomorrow I'm hoping for some more training with Jessi, and maybe Kicki wants to come too (if she's back..).

Now I got the pics from Jessi! Thanks!
You can see them at the post. The first three are the ones when I try to teach Vazy "two steps to the left"...
4th is Aila training on the jump.
5th & 6th - Aila walking on heel, with her funny headturn.
7th - Vazy praticing the down stay with me and Aila playing like crazy around her.

On this post I'm putting another one of Jessi's pics of Vazy..

Nice photos!

I've also put some photos on the day before 11th of April.

For the rest of the photos, you can go to Jessi's homepage; http://www.svanstipp.se
Now I'm gonna have a rest. I'll probably write more, later on tonight. Since I have nothing else to do when I'm home now...

6 more hours..

2009-04-12T17:09:00.006+02:00

Today we've been out for 6 more hours. Decided to leave around 10 and then I went for a walk around the club (we went to Jessi's club this time, Stockholm södra). There were a lot of German Shepherds, and some other dogs. Jessi told me there are always loads of people there..
I started to train Aila a bit on agility handling without obstacles. It went quite well. She can easily follow me in hard turns and all, but she rather wanna be on the left side than the right. Same for Vazy. I guess they get a bit too much into that when they're training obedience as much.
Then I was doing some jumping and slalom with Vazy and Aila. Aila can do a few "sticks" of the slalom from both the left and the right. Eventhough she's quite slow. I think I need to speed her up somehow. Maybe use another technique...
I also tried to make her jump a bit further away from me, but it's hard. She'd rather stay at my side the whole time.. Atleast she didn't jump on the side of the jump this time...

Then Jessi came, and we trained different obedience exercices until around 4 (with a nice lunch inbetween). Then the dogs were so tired they didn't know what they were doing any more..

Today's training;

Vazy:
Has been training heelwalk, and moving towards the sides and back. She managed a few times to make 2 steps in all direction really nicely!

Then we've been practicing to stay standing eventhough I come next to her. That was hard! I guess she needs more practice.

We've also practiced the "square" and sending her to that one. I should start a bit earlier though, when she's not so tired. She needs a lot of energy to think about where to go exactly. But she still made some super nice ones! Atleast she sees the square now, eventhough it's been put out beforehand. And it takes less and less tries before she does it nicely..

What more? We've done so much!

We did some stupid stuff, slalom in between the legs, rolling and other stuff, just for fun.

Then we did some "sit/down/stand". And she was tired, but made a few perfect stands, which is quite rare. Nice!

Then we were also practicing the jump. To jump forwards, which she does, but she doesn't go out far enough. Then we threw a ball over her head, and she went further. But then we fooled her and didn't throw the ball, it worked 2 times, then she didn't fall for it anymore! You can't fool her more than three times, that's for sure!

I wanted to practice the "come-stand-come", but she was way too tired. Next time!

Aila;
We practiced the jump. Jumping towards me was easy. But then we changed, and she got to jump forward. That was a bit harder, but we solved it by putting a nice little bowl with treats on the other side. We have to work on that a bit more.

Then we did some heelwork. But she seems a bit distracted since she's in heat..

We also practiced some down and stand. But not for long.

I can't really remember any more. But.. Maybe my memory will be refreshed by Jessi's pictures coming up tonight!

Now I'm gonna have some food and chill for a bit. I've decided to finish cleaning the flat today. We'll see if I'll actually manage, because I've been saying that for a few days now....

A new morning.

2009-04-12T09:45:00.002+02:00

What do people do when they're alone?
I'm just getting bored after 5 minutes.. I was out with the dogs for 6 hours, and cleaned the kitchen and almost finished my book. But I still had time to be bored.

Today I'm going training with Jessi again at the club. Hopefully it will be possible to do some agility.

I was thinking, when I woke up 5 am yesterday morning, that I suck at handling, because I've never been aware of how I'm moving. There has been no theory behind it, other than that I have to keep my dog in sight at all times. But I never thought of the little details. Atleast, now, I've been thinking about it. So maybe it will change.. We will see today. I'm gonna practice walking and running on the right hand side..

Aila is in heat, somehow she don't seem as much in to training. But I'll just do as much as she feels like. No pressure..

Today the sun is shining again, so today we'll probably have another nice "GPS walk"..

Hopefully I'll be able to put some nice pics from yesterday, and maybe some from today?

Have a nice day!

One year with the blog!

2009-04-11T19:26:00.002+02:00

(2 days ago..)

I just noticed that I've been writing in this blog for one whole year, and I'm still doing it! That's great! Feel free to go back to the beginning to see the progress my dogs have made in the last year.

Happy birthday blog!

I'll put the pics from the last post here instead. Easier that way..

Amazing day!

2009-04-11T16:29:00.006+02:00

It's so sunny and nice today..

After having made my pasta salad, I met up with Jessi at 10 am, and we went to a nice spot. We stayed there training until 2.30 or something, and then I decided to take a walk. So I just picked a random spot on the GPS and ended up next to a really nice lake in some nature reserve. Aila pissed me off by running away twice (eventhough she always comes back after a few minutes, it's not right!). So I think I'm not gonna let her run freely as much any more! When I'm walking in the forest I'll keep her next to me. And she'll have to do the running some other time, maybe when I go running with her, and maybe I'll start biking. She'll also do some running when playing with Vazy or when I'll start the Agility. But I don't think it's right that she's running away chasing animals! We'll see for how long I'll manage to keep this up...

The training session went down like this;
We met up with Jessi's friend.
Then we started talking about what to do. We also tried some different obedience things to see what we have to work on now.. Still same things for us.
Then we had some food, but we forgot to make the track, so that'll be some other time.
After the food we started teaching Vazy to run out 30-50 meters ahead to a bowl of food. That's the starting point of teaching her to fetch objects that we'll put out. She really loves learning new stuff!
We tried the same thing with Aila, but it was a bit harder, because she's not used to running away from me. But we finally managed, so that was cool!
Olivia was doing really good, with fetching all the objects. She's really a lot more advanced than us. But I think that Vazy is gonna enjoy this activity!

Then we practiced the "square". Vazy gets it faster and faster! And today we also moved the square around, so that she really had to look for it. She always found it, eventhough she sometimes still goes to the cones.
Then we made it harder by teaching her to go to a bigger cone, and then to the square. But amazingly enough she managed that too! Even without anything inside the square.. She's so good!!
Then we tried teaching Aila to go into the square. It's quite a lot harder to train her, because she loses interest really quickly. So we tried a few times, first with a target, and then without. She managed a few times, but then she got bored..

She also got to play a lot with Olivia, and she loves that. Finally a dog that doesn't run straight over her!

It was really nice, and tomorrow I hope we'll get to go to the club to try some agility and other stuff..

Here are some pics from the walk. I almost cried 'cause I didn't have my camera, 'cause there was this cool place with a big water puddle, and the light in between the trees. There was some ice in the puddle that made the colour look almost "turquoise".

These pics will have to do until later when I'll get some of Jessi's!

Now the dogs are sleeping nicely on the floor after almost 4 hours of training and more than 1 hour walk...

Have a great day!!

(ps. I really like making my dogs climb stuff, as you can see...)

Springtime and "masterless"

2009-04-10T22:14:00.005+02:00

Today I took Mathieu to the airport, but we left like 5 hours early (or more?) and decided to go for a walk and have a "fika". It was super nice. It's so funny with the GPS. We just pick a place on the GPS, that seems nice, and then we go there. We've found some really nice places like that!

We went to Upplands Väsby somewhere, and Vazy had a swim. We saw some flowers and had the sun in our faces, and it really feels like spring!

So, now we're masterless for a week (Math has gone to France). Only me and the dogs.

Tomorrow we're gonna start off that week with a "whole day training session" in Haninge. We're bringing some food and all. We'll do some tracking, some obedience, and searching (I think I'll have to learn all the "dog-words" in English.. it sounds ridiculous the way I say it now!).

Jessi will bring her camera ('cause Mathieu brought ours to France), so hopefully I can update with some pictures and movies tomorrow!

I have to get up early to make a pasta salad... mmm!

Sleep well! (and early..)

(ps. mobile photos again.. On the first one, Mathieu is faking a throw. Vazy always falls for it!)

Aila is in heat!

2009-04-09T12:01:00.002+02:00

so, yesterday Therese was taking care of the dogs during the day.. She noticed some blood on the floor.. and yes.. that's it.. she's in heat again.... now she's becoming a real lady.

but that would also explain her weirdness lately..

today it's raining, so i think i'm gonna take it easy. no long walks today. i can feel that the dogs need to rest a bit, or at least vazy. we've been up to soo much lately, and they're not used to it. yesterday for example, we went for 1,5 hours walk first, then therese and niklas went out with them for a walk as well, then training..

the other day, 2,5 hours walk, then agility..

or 2 hours walk and then running at night...

this winter i haven't been so good with walking them. and it's mostly been an hour a day max, and then training maybe 2 times a week.. so summer is really changing everything..

oh well. hope to have some fun this weekend!

Obedience class I

2009-04-08T19:41:00.002+02:00

So, today Jessi came and we went through the programme for obedience class I, with the other one commanding as a competition leader would. With Vazy it went really well, a 1st price I think. BUT she still sits before order! really have to practice that!

Aila is crazy. She knows quite what to do, most of the time. But she's still a bit too crazy.. She likes to jump back and forth and "speak". She sits, lies down, rolls around and stuff if nothing happens. So I have to practice staying still! We're not there yet with Aila.. But she's still young!

Tomorrow I'm off, so I'll go for a long walk (like we did today too...) and then I'll do some more training I think.. Maybe go running.. I don't know yet.

Mathieu is going to France on friday, so then I'm up for suggestions what to do during next week! Just phone or email me.. ;)

Hunting.. argh!

2009-04-07T13:40:00.004+02:00

Today I went for a walk with the dogs for about 1 and a half hour, up to the lake and back. It was super nice..
I love that when I sit down the dogs always stay really close and often come to sit or lie down next to me..

The ice is starting to melt and got a huge crack in the middle..

on the way back Aila and Vazy went after some birds, ARGH! But Vazy came back after running like 20 m.. But Aila went after them for several minutes! Since there was nothing I could do, I went and hid with Vazy behind a tree.. Finally I had to call her. When she came she knew she'd done something wrong, and already knew her "punishment", which is walking next to me the rest of the way home. And she did it without command and didn't try to leave my side even. So that's one positive thing!

Tomorrow it's training time again. Jessi's coming by. Hope we'll come up with something good to practice. Hope I remember to take some pics as well..

Tonight I hope to go running with the dogs...

(only phone pictures again....)

First agility practice of the season..

2009-04-06T23:04:00.003+02:00

Today I went for a long walk next to the club before everyone in my agility-training group came. Mathieu had forgot his keys, so I went to meet him at the metro, and Aila went home with him.
I tried to keep Vazy as warm as possible during the whole training (but I can't afford a cover for her though..), to avoid problems with her muscles.. It seemed to work.
Vazy was doing really good at the agility, but I sucked!
I really don't know what I'm doing, and Vazy is so sensitive and fast, so I just end up confusing her and myself. But I guess that's what the training group is for. I got some really good advice, and at the end I managed the hard part, so that was great! If I could get advice like that more often, I think I could get somewhere. Right now I feel like I'm walking in the dark, feeling for things but not knowing where they are or how to get where I want to..
But it's only the first day of the season, and I'm gonna practice the zones and other stuff when I'm going by the club for my obedience training. I really wish I could get some nicer zones! Right now, Vazy is not sure what to do, and neither am I.
Hopefully we will manage to get some instructor over to show us how to do it.. Well, a lot to do this year!
And we're having a competition in 2 weeks time (or something like it). Scary!

Here comes the sun!

2009-04-04T16:37:00.013+02:00

Today we've been out for 4 hours, walking to and around the lake. Stopped at a café and met lots of dogs and people and the dogs were amazing.. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

2009-04-03T18:35:00.002+02:00

The owner of Ailas sister "Nelli" has made such a nice family page, where you can see photos of parents, grandparents and great grand parents. Nice Marita! Here is the link;

http://www.123hjemmeside.no/Nydelige-Nelli/18851343

and while visiting, you can look at Aila's cute sister Nelli, with her long fur and "Aila-look" in her face..

Cat watching..

2009-04-02T18:15:00.004+02:00

There is a cat in the window. It's been there for quite a while now. So cute!
It's not afraid of the dogs, and eventhough vazy is attacking the glass, it doesn't move. They've even smelled eachother when I opened the window a little bit.. I wonder if it's stuck!

Today Jessi came to train here in Skarpnäck. It was really fun, and I really enjoy her tips. Hopefully we'll start organising the training a bit better, because it's easy to just end up talking..

It could be cool maybe to do as with the agility training, where everyone is watching when one is training, and gives feedback afterwards. That would be great, together with a plan of what we should do, that we make before starting.

What do you say, girls?

Vazy has got a twin!

2009-04-01T21:53:00.003+02:00

Mathieu found this picture today. It's almost EXACTLY like Vazy! Judge for yourselves, but I had to look close... I can't see any differences. Has someone used Vazy without us noticing?!! (Click on the image to look closer..)

Anyway. Went training with Kicki today. It went quite well. I did some other stuff with Vazy than obedience. She had to sit, down and back between my legs, and slalom between my legs when I was walking. Rolling around, and stuff. It was a long time since I did things like that, so Vazy thought it was super fun. Did some rolling and backing with Aila too. She's a bit confused..But it went well..

And I have to tell you about my secret weakness (or, maybe I shouldn't...).. It's when Aila's chasing animals. I get so angry! I can't help it... Today she's done it twice, and I know it doesn't help to get angry, and that she's not chasing for long and always coming back. But I just can't help myself. Then the poor thing comes and "begs for forgiveness"... argh! I have to get better at controlling myself (I'm quite ashamed I must admit!).. Me and Kicki are hopefully gonna start practicing not chasing animals.. Soon, I hope! Vazy is always amazing in that case nowdays (she used to chase rabbits too..), and she's staying! I really think she's close to perfect now!! She's only got two flaws, it's her "herding" of people she doesn't know, and that she's barking a bit when she's left alone (or with Aila).. But noone can be perfect (neither can I.....)..

So. Overall I'm pleased with our progress in obedience. And I really feel like training more often now when the weather is getting better! Lovely spring and summer! Finally the dogs can hang around with us when we're going for a beer or a bite to eat in town!

Have fun! (And can you see any difference between the dog in the photo and Vazy?)

mud!

2009-03-31T11:33:00.002+02:00

The club was just a big mudbath!
My dogs, the little princesses, didn't want to lie and sit down in the mud. So I mostly practiced standing stuff and some jumps..

There was also the agility kick-off meeting. And it was nice! Gonna be a lot of fun to start with the agility again. I just have to be more careful about warming Vazy up properly....

Today I'm sick and at home, so no training tonight. That sucks, cause it's great weather outside!

But we're going tomorrow anyway....

Competitions!

2009-03-30T14:34:00.002+02:00

Now I've signed up for two competitions with Vazy in may. I hope to pass the LP I title with her, so that I can move on and compete with Aila in class I and Vazy in class II... That would be fun, we have to cross our fingers! because I've only given myself 3 chances to pass the LP I....

Today I'm going to train obedience at the club, then I have a meeting with my Agility training group. Tomorrow I plan to go training with Jessi, hope it's as nice weather as today!! Wednesday is probably back to Kista, but we will see then..

Now I have to sleep off my headache!

Vazy's chunks of ice

2009-03-29T19:51:00.006+02:00

Today we went for a really long walk of 2 and a half hours.. We followed a cute little river up to a nice lake and back.
Vazy found some chunks of ice that she loved so much she couldn't let them go! She had to run with one in her mouth the whole time..
But then she dropped one down a cliff.. And she really wanted to go get it, but she's also scared of hights...Luckily!

On the way back we did the same searching game as yesterday. It was fun! But I dropped my phone and didn't notice until we had gone quite a long way.. But we found it finally..

(ps. I've got a love-hate relationship with these photos! Sometimes I just wish I could remember the normal camera, so I wouldn't have to use my phone!)

Searching

2009-03-28T14:51:00.002+01:00

Well, just came back from our nice walk. We went walking in the forest on the way to Dalarö.
I walked them on leash for about 20 minutes to warm up, since I got some advice how to avoid hurting vazy's legs. then we also did a searching activity, where mathieu went hiding far in to the forest, and then they had to look for him, afterwards we did the same for me. It took some time for them to find me, but they always do.. so now they're nice and tired.

Tonight we're having a party. So I better rest and have a shower.....

Later!

Nothing much..

2009-03-28T09:40:00.002+01:00

There is nothing much happening with the dogs at the moment, so that's why I haven't been writing so much...

On monday it's the kick off for the agility though, so that will be great! I hope that Vazy will manage well this year, without hurting her legs.. Hopefully I'll be able to take an agility course with Aila too, so that I can start training with the group as well..

This weekend I'm planning on taking a really long walk, doing some running and some obedience, hopefully tomorrow..

Now I have to go get their food at a shop in Haninge.

Have fun!

Club and cold weather

2009-03-25T22:26:00.005+01:00

What happened to spring?!
I've been freezing my hands off at the club tonight.
It went well eventhough it was almost noone there. I was expecting some people and dogs, but there was only two instructors with their "students".
I went where they told me that the training normally was, and I found 2 people. They helped me to put up the "square" with the cones. Vazy still don't understand straight away, but she got better after a few times and made several really nice ones. I can even add more distance already. She was happy to train, but it was a bit harder with other dogs. I trained all the normal stuff, but also that she has to stay down or standing until she gets another command. She understands really quickly though!

With Aila i started training the heelwalk with "stand". It went really well for being a first time. She can stop now with a hand command. First I tried to throw a ball over her head, like they said in the book (or, fake a throw, and then throw when she's stopped), but she only went crazy! So I did a heelwalk and put a treat in her mouth which made her stop. I did that about 4 times, then I could already take away the treat, and she stopped when I put my hand in front of her nose. Then I could make that geste a bit smaller too. That's about how far we got.
We trained some "down-stay" aswell. And all the dogs from the courses came (about 10?) and then she started barking. But she still stayed. I guess I have to go more often to the club!
I also practiced the jump, and she understood straight away! I also tried the jump with "sit" on the other side, and she managed that 2 or 3 times. Not so bad for a second time with the jump!

Yeah, I won't write everything down, but she's doing well!

I'll put some pics from my morning walk...

Mum..

2009-03-24T19:56:00.002+01:00

Now my mum has left. So tomorrow the dogs will be alone with Jens walking them for lunch..
And tomorrow is also the big day for my mum. She's getting her new aussie "Myami".
Look at their blog here;
http://myami-aussie.blogspot.com

Have a nice night.
Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to the club. But I REALLY hope that it will be a bit warmer...

new ideas..

2009-03-22T16:57:00.003+01:00

Today Kicki came over because we were supposed to train outside my flat, on the field. We went for a walk and then we tried to train a bit, but nothing worked. Aila didn't even know what "down" meant, and vazy just wanted to sniff on the ground. I was hungry and it was cold. But then we went in to eat, and we got the idea to train indoors. That was super fun! We started shaping the dogs to put their heads on the ground when they lied down. All of them managed super well! It's gonna be good for the future when they do that when lying down in group. They will stay focused and won't look at the other dogs.. For Izla it's gonna be really good, because she can't bark and push her head down at the same time.. We will see how that goes. Next training is on wednesday, then we'll go to the club in Kista.. Gonna be interesting to see if they will manage. It seems hard for them when the snow has melted away and it's great smells everywhere. A lot of people start coming out of their homes, staying outdoors more. So it's definitely harder for them now.. Well well, just need more practice!

Running

2009-03-19T22:13:00.002+01:00

Tonight I've been out running with the dogs. So funny! I've bought some harnesses (did I tell you already?) and Vazy pulls me while I'm running. I have to run the fastest I can to keep up, but it's the first time that I acctually enjoy running.
Mathieu is coming with me, and has got Aila pulling him.. We're gonna be in great shape if we continue like this.
I look forward to spring, then my plan is to train agility on mondays, run on tuesdays, go to the club to train obedience on wednesdays, run on thursdays, and train obedience on sundays.. with a few days of only long walks.. We'll see.
Tomorrow I'm gonna go do some more training though, gonna try some of the tips I got from Madelen, and maybe some new stuff...

Have fun 'til next time..

Comment on the videos....

2009-03-16T08:53:00.000+01:00

Yeah, forgot to write that I tried to see how much the dogs could do "competition style". That means that I avoided training as usual, but rather saw what they could do without getting rewarded for little progress (and losing their reward for small faults). It's not easy! Especially when you can feel that the exercice is not done the way you want it to.. But over all I'm happy with the results.

Please comment on things you see, and on ideas how to change them.

Thanks Madelen for your tips! I will try it out...

Video evaluation..

2009-03-15T17:27:00.004+01:00

Today I've had my mum help me with filming all the exercices from obedience class I for Aila, and class II for Vazy. So now I can evaluate my training, and ask you readers for advice. If it's anything you can see that needs working on, just tell me! And please give me some tips on how to do it too..

Vazy down-stay with me playing with a ball and with Aila next to her. I really have to teach her that she can't get up before she gets my "sit" command, 'cause she gets up before that all the time now..

Vazy heelwalking. It acctually looks better from a distance than from my point of view. I think she's advancing a bit too much, and she's not sitting straight, but I'm quite happy with the result anyway..

Vazy heelwalk-down. Here the problem is really that she gets up too early again. But I haven't been practicing the down like this for ages. So it's not too bad. I guess I could have an external reward behind her so that she won't take those 3 steps..

Vazy come-stand. I haven't been practicing this at all! I acctually thought it would come in higher classes, but when I looked today, it was there. So this is something I REALLY have to work on!!

Here you have a failed "sending forwards". I noticed that I've always put out the square in front of her, so then she's been focused on it, and mostly on the cones. When we took her away while we put it out, she didn't see it! Then she got confused....

But after a few tries she got it! Now I just have to practice more on not showing her when I put the cones out, and also with more distance.. But it's only been a few months, and we got a few more months before it's competition time.. So that's alright..

Vazy - retrieve. I haven't been able to practice this for AGES, cause she has a broken tooth, and I think it hurts a bit. I don't wanna ruin everything for the future, so I'm gonna wait until I've had her tooth taken away to practice more. She got the will though. So it shouldn't be too hard later on..

sit- down-stand from a distance. I've really had some problems with this! She always wanted to move forward always taking a few steps for each command. But it's already better, especially with the reward behind her.. I'm quite happy with her progress, eventhough I know she can do the "down" better than in this video.

Now over to Aila!
Here she is doing her "down-stay". She's doing really well for being so young and all. She can stay eventhough I play with Vazy and a ball in front of her.. But she has to practice down-stay to sit a lot more! She can do it from "simple down", but when it's "stay" as well, it's harder, because she's used to getting the release command "aller"..

Aila - heelwalk. She is soooooo FUNNY! Look at her bouncing and turning her head. I just love it, eventhough I'm not sure the judges will. I have to practice the right turn a bit more, I kind of forgot about that, since the left turn is so much harder I've mostly done that. You can see how confused she gets when I turn to the right!

Here is her heelwalk-down. I have to practice more for her to sit and stay. Because she really wants to follow me.. Then she also needs to practice more down to sit. That's hard for her!

I haven't started training the "stand" yet. But I think I'll start with that next week, because I think she knows the "down" well enough by now..

Then we have the retrieve. She's making some progress. Right now I'm trying to get her to pull on it, without getting up from the sit position, so that she'll stop chewing.. We still have a long way to go. But she really loves it, so that's not a problem..

That's all folks! I haven't done everything, like the jump for example. I have to go to the club to practice that a bit more. If anyone cares to join me on wednesday nights, just give me a shout..

Still no photos..

2009-03-12T07:47:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to show some clicker training to one of the teachers from my workplacement. She has bought a bordercollie/golden x lab puppy.. She was eight months old. She's gonna really enjoy the clickertraining I think!
I showed the "clean your toys"-trick and also how to get her in to a little box (but the box was too small, so it was impossible.) Then I showed some obedience and a bit of target.
It was quite hard for my little ones, because there was soo much things happening around all the time. But the managed well anyway!
Training this weekend again, THEN I'm not gonna forget the camera! (I need to see how Vazy is doing her heelwalk now, so that maybe I can find a solution to the problem...Maybe it's me?)

2009-03-11T08:04:00.002+01:00

I just realized that I haven't put any pictures for a long time. Here's one from this sunday. I hope that I'll remember the camera for next training. Then I'll put some pics, and some films..

My dogs love training!

2009-03-10T21:10:00.002+01:00

So much fun training when you can really see how much the dogs enjoy it.
Today I went with my mum to do some training.
It was fun and we had some break-throughs. Vazy was going to the center of the square without focusing on any cones. And from all directions! I hope that it will continue this way. Then I only need to start making the distance greater. Right now I'm only like 3-5 m away..
Aila could concentrate on heelwork for a long time without a treat, and she seems to think it's fun just to walk there. So that's great too.
We also worked on the retrieve. Now I'm trying Kicki's tip; to teach her to pull on it a bit to stop her from chewing on it. Working quite well, unless she starts pulling like crazy. She can do that sometimes.
I also practiced some more heelwork with Vazy, and she's really got a tendancy to walk to much forward. I haven't noticed that before.. or has she done it before? My mum said she was wagging the tail like crazy as well, so that's fun. How she's changed since last year, when we both thought it was boring heelwalking. But she's got too much will to please, so when I walk slowly, she wants to do everything at once. Turn left (back legs), turn right, back and move in to position.. So I feel that she's not so sure exactly what position I want at the moment. I guess I have to be more clear..
I hope that I can afford fixing Vazy's tooth soon so that we can restart the retrieve with her..

By the way. Aila was going crazy last night! Around 1 o'clock she started wining and running around. After a while I thought I would see if she needed to pee, and when I came out in the livingroom (they're sleeping outside our bedroom most of the time) she went nuts! I've never seen her jump around as much! It's weird since she's getting more exercice than she's gotten for a long time.
Anyways, now I'm too tired to write any more. I feel that everything takes too much time, and I feel like I'm gonna fall in to bed already at 10 every night!

Next training I'm gonna ask my mum to make some films.. I've also promised some people to show how I'm teaching Aila the slalom... Can someone remind me what the other thing was?

Crazy and calm

2009-03-08T17:48:00.002+01:00

Now we're back from training. It was not so focused on competition obedience, but rather "everyday obedience". So my dogs are not so used to that anymore. But Aila wasn't barking so much, and was just crazy in general. Jumping and "singing". But she didn't care so much about the other dogs.. So that was good.
Vazy was a bit too calm, not really in the mood for training. I think she's got a bit of pain in her toes. I've got some painkillers from the vet, so she will probably feel a bit better with them. Then I have to start stretching her toes too.. She was quite insecure with the other dogs, but was doing well otherwise..
I talked to Jessi and we're hopefully going to train on monday and tuesday. I just wish it would be a bit warmer by then!

calm and quiet

2009-03-08T10:55:00.002+01:00

Nothing much is happening lately, so that's why I haven't been writing. This week 2 of our training sessions have been canceled.. I have a hard time motivating myself to train alone.. But today we're going training anyway, so that will be nice. I'll write more about that later. Maybe I'll get some pictures as well. I plan to train more next week.
I also really want to sign up for some competitions this spring and summer.. Whenever I get some money left over I will.

Workplacement

2009-03-04T20:01:00.002+01:00

Well..
I'm on work placement right now, so I don't have as much time for the dogs as I would like. Luckily my mum is here and takes long walks with them during the day. I have to plan lessons all night really. Tonight I was supposed to go training, but finally we couldn't meet.. So I guess I'll do some extra training this weekend. Maybe friday-saturday-sunday..
They are also renovating the bathroom, so it's a mess in here. No space for training indoors.
That's life sometimes though. Just a bit sad that I missed a nice day with some nice sun and all..

I have to go plan some questions about Al Gore´s movie....

blah...

2009-03-01T21:08:00.002+01:00

what a day. I wasn't feeling at my best today! A bit too much beer yesterday maybe. Was supposed to go training with Kicki, but didn't manage to move. I was just too tired. I didn't go out until like 4-5 in the afternoon. Luckily I have a great boyfriend that went out with the dogs... I also had to was all our clothes today. 5 machines! It took most of the day finally...

Anyway, went for a walk in town to get the painkillers for Vazy, since she has some pain in her back paws sometimes.. It's so funny now that Aila has realized that she can easily get good stuff by walking on heel.. She's doing it all the time now! And she's super fast at sitting in position when I stop. Amazing what development in only a few days.. Before she would never come to me during walks and want to do stuff.. Yesterday we went for a walk in the forest, and there it was the same. Eventhough she had a huge forest of animal smells and funny stuff, she chose to walk on heel with me! That's funny. I also can't help laughing when she's walking next to me, because her step turns in to one of those "horse dressage" walks. Haha!

Hope to manage to do some more training this week...

Alone, but still..

2009-02-27T14:10:00.002+01:00

Kicki unfortunatley got tied up today, so she couldn't make it to our training.
But eventhough it was snowing this morning I really felt like going to the club.. So I went by myself. It was really nice finally! The sun came out and it was nice and warm. I started with a nice walk so that they would be a bit tired.
Noticed that Aila is in heat! She's peeing every meter.. argh!

Anyway, she was great at the training. She manages to do the whole slalom now! So much fun with shaping the slalom.. Now I just need to practice going in from the right side.. I tried some jumps as well, but she's so used to obedience now that she wants to be close to me on the left side.. I think it's gonna be easy to change. She learns so fast! She's doing great heelwalks and can concentrate for longer now. She also managed to do some down to sit without barking.. We also practiced the jump for obedience.. I think I need to do that some more! Since I'm walking around the jump, she thinks she's supposed to do that too. But she managed to jump several times... She also needs to learn the word for it...

With Vazy I did the same thing as yesterday. And she managed to go in to the square several times from each side.. So she's making progress. She can also do sit/down without moving forward from a longer distance now. The standing is still a bit hard and needs practice.
I also practiced the heelwalk with taking steps to the left and right side.. Right is easy, left is a bit harder. She wants to move her front legs first, and then her back legs, so it doesn't become straight as I want it too. But she's getting better at backing straight... I also did some sit, down or stand while walking in heel position. She's doing good. She knows the difference in the commands, but she could be a tiny bit faster...

So.. I still long for spring when I can train for a bit longer with nice breaks... Now I've been training them for about 30 min each.. They can't really concentrate longer than that without a real break (And neither can I!)... We'll see..

Hope to go training with Kicki again soon. Would like to make some films to see what I have to work on.. Especially since I've seen that Vazy is walking a bit too far ahead, and too close.. I want to see if she does that with me too...

Nice..

2009-02-26T22:13:00.002+01:00

It was fun to do some training again! We've been practicing some heelwalking, forward sending, sit/down/stay and so on.
Vazy still has some problem to understand that she's not supposed to go to the cones. Today I made the square the right size and I used the tips I got from Jessi. So I played with her in the center of the square and then went out to send her back there. She didn't get it at all in the beginning, but just before I finished she made some nice ones. I will continue working on that tomorrow..
I also lent Vazy to Kicki. I wanted to see if we could practice how to walk like it was competition. With the sharp turns and so on. I noticed that Vazy is walking too much forward and is therefore in the way when turning left. I think I have to think about that when giving treats.. Maybe place them further back.
She's got the fact that she needs to lie down without moving forward. That means not moving her front legs. That's working well most of the time, especially on the sit and down. It's harder for the standing, then she likes to take a few steps forward. Just need some more time I guess.
With Aila I worked mostly on heelwalking, which is going really well when she focuses. But in the beginning she goes a bit crazy and is looking so funny I can't help laughing.. She's got an amazingly fast "down" now and she's waiting for me to give the command at all times. So sometimes she looks like shes "ducking". The I tried to work a bit on the "retrieve".. But it's hard. Because she likes to chew on it! So when I don't gove her a treat when she's doing that, it's taking to long for the treat to come, that she don't wanna take it at all anymore. She don't get what I want. I got some tips from Kicki that I will try tomorrow...
I also practiced the "down-stay" and they're amazing at that! First I put them down and ran around them playing with a football. They didn't move. Then I let them go.. Played like crazy with them and the football. I put them back down and did the same thing, neither moved. Great! Another hard thing, I let one of them up, and then I played with the ball and one of the dogs, in front of the other. The other one didn't move. Amazing. I'm so proud of them when they're like that...
But I think I have to start teaching them new things, it's not so much fun to always do the same things...
They were also great in the metro. When we went home it was so crowded that one sat over vazy's head when she was lying on the floor. She didn't care, and she didn't move. There were also several people that wanted to pet them, they were allowed, and Aila didn't even bark...

Kicki is doing well too. Her heelwalk is looking super nice now!

Hope it's good weather tomorrow so I can go training and going for a long walk. I think they need a bit more exercice since Aila is gaining a bit of weight...

Have fun 'til next time...

yay!

2009-02-26T10:11:00.002+01:00

Finally.. I'm so happy, 'cause yesterday was the first time Aila "asked me" to train! It was great. I went out with them around 11 at night, and she didn't care at all about smelling or anything. She just started looking at me and walking on heel in perfect position. Of course I reinforce behaviour like that with some ham cheese. Maybe she's gonna start liking training as much as Vazy, and I'll see some more of this "demanding" behaviour. Great..
Today I'm going training with Kicki, gonna be fun! I think they need some more mental exercise.
We've also been to do the yearly vaccinations this morning, so now they are all up to date!

Walk with Sara

2009-02-24T15:13:00.008+01:00

Look at these pictures how much snow there is now! It's basically the same place that we walked at this sunday, you can compare yourself. Crazy! But it was great weather with sun and it wasn't so cold. Super nice walk with Sara... ps. the pictures are taken with the phone, since I forgot the camera as usual!

Agility movie..

2009-02-23T00:16:00.005+01:00

I was looking through some old pictures when I found this movie from the summer of 2007. Vazy doing some agility.. We're not winners yet, but at least we have fun!

Flottsbro

2009-02-21T16:27:00.008+01:00

We went for a nice walk near flottsbro. That place is so cool! It's a skiing slope and a beach at the same time! How could it be any better..? Haha.
We climbed a huge hill with cliffs and stuff. Here are some pics.
Hope to have more time to train and walk this week..

I got some of my stomach problems back. Damn stress! It was a long time since I felt pain like this in my belly... Oh well. Gotta calm down I guess....

Nothing special

2009-02-19T17:37:00.002+01:00

Nothing is happening at the moment. Or, a lot is happening, but not so much with the dogs. I'm feeling a bit ill still. I think I might have gotten some of my stomach troubles back.. When I get some money I will also invest in some iron and vitamins, to get less tired..
I walk the dogs everyday in our nice forest behind the house. It's great. Haven't been training since last week sometime. But there has been a lot to do this week..
We're renovating the bathroom and I have an exam at uni. English grammar! I hope that I'm writing more correctly now.. We'll see after tomorrow...
This weekend we're going to some friends for dinner. The dogs are allowed to come as well..
As always everyone likes them! They have been nice and obedient lately.. Except that Aila has been eating a lot of deer shit, and other stuff in the forest. So she was feeling ill and threw up a few times the other day. It really stank!
Next week or maybe even this weekend, i'm planning on doing some more training. I might also make some more films....
Have fun!

The sea..

2009-02-16T18:29:00.004+01:00

Dogs on the couch

2009-02-15T01:12:00.008+01:00

Dogs that are not normally allowed on the couch, really enjoy it when they are!

Happy valentines everyone!

2009-02-14T18:04:00.002+01:00

Today Mathieu and me went for a long walk in the forest.. About 2 hours I think. Good to see the dogs a bit tired!
Couldn't get someone to take care of the dogs tonight, so we can't go out like we planned. That's life when you have dogs. Next weekend maybe...
Wanna say thanks to Kicki as well...

Have a nice valentine's night!

A hard day

2009-02-13T23:39:00.003+01:00

Well. Haven't been feeling so well today. A lot of stress and tiredness, but also headache and a weird feeling in my body..
Had to go to uni and study anyway (really forced myself..). This morning I went for a walk with the dogs.. It's funny how they know exactly when you're not in great shape.. Ofcourse they had to go crazy at a poor schnauzer that was nicely passing..
But for the rest of the walk they were ok...
Otherwise I haven't done much today.. It's not easy to get the force to do something or take long walks.. But I guess that's life, not every day is easy..
There are ups and downs..
Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow.. And that the big rock feeling in my stomach will go away....

Tired..

2009-02-12T18:58:00.002+01:00

I've been really tired lately. I think I might need some more vitamins and iron..
Anyway, wen't training with Kicki today. It was fun as usual. But it was a bit cold, and we got lost a bit with the car. I'm a bit short on money right now, so I'll try to avoid taking the car for a bit..
I was training the same things as at home with both dogs. They got more in to training now, and think it's great. Vazy's little short tail is wagging the whole time..
We haven't done any significant progress today, but mostly just continued with the same things. It's a bit harder when it's outdoors with a lot of people and cars and other things... Aila was a bit more vocal today than usually. It's hard to not get frustrated! I think she's done some progress, but some days she goes back to her old barking self....
Kicki seems to do well with Izla too. We hope to be able to compete this summer...
Too tired to write any more. Hopefully I'll put some films from next training..
Tomorrow the dogs are gonna stay with Minna and then we're going for a nice walk after uni...
Have fun!

Dogfood and walk..

2009-02-10T14:21:00.006+01:00

Went to buy some dogfood today and stopped on the way home for a nice walk in a big forest.. here are some pics.. sorry for the bad quality, but it's the phone as usual.

Watching TV with Aila

2009-02-09T19:01:00.007+01:00

Today it was finally nice weather. Had a nice sunny walk this morning. Great!
Ofcourse I had to be in school most of the day, so I didn't have time to enjoy it as much as I would have liked to.
When I came home from school there was a documentary about wolves on TV. It was so funny! Aila watched the whole thing with me, commenting on the wolves hunts and not understanding how come she could only see them on the TV and not in the room behind. She got quite bored with the nature parts, she only wanted action all the time!

Here's some proof!

Haha! The second one is even funnier. She has to look behind the TV, 'cause she can't understand where the wolves are coming from..

And also some pictures from today's walk in the forest just outside our house.

movies from today's training

2009-02-08T21:39:00.005+01:00

Well, it was so much fun to film last time, and be able to see what I do right and wrong, that I've decided to film some more.. This is the result..

Training retrieve with Aila. She can now take it on command and keep it for a very short while...

I'm also training Aila to control her back legs when walking on heel. Doing pretty well, I think!

Vazy is training to go to the middle of the square of cones. It's hard to make her go to something so abstract, and mostly she wants to go to the cones. But once in a while she makes it!

I also have a mission from the forum Lapskvallhund.se to teach the dogs to roll a ball with their noses. This is where I'm at now... Not great yet, but I still have about a week to teach them..

Vazy is a bit faster learner since she's most used to the clicker. She understood in no time..

With Aila it takes a bit more time, and she sometimes tries some crazy stuff. But we're gonna get there at some point...

Have fun!

Toys?

2009-02-07T11:58:00.004+01:00

Well. Here you have a picture of what new toys looks like after an hour or two with my monsters...

I always ask for the most hardy toys in the shop. They say that they're indestructible, but no no.. Those toys might last a month maybe, if I'm lucky..

Luckily these we're bought for 10kr a piece, so that's not the end of the world..

Anyone got any indestructible toys?

Film!

2009-02-05T20:25:00.007+01:00

Now that I've got a bigger flat I can train indoors. The first movie is the result of today and yestarday's training with Aila. The other one is to show Vazy's heelwalk..

Filming was so much fun that I think I'll put some here again soon.

Balance

2009-02-05T17:28:00.002+01:00

Look at this.. She managed to run up the side of the tree, and it must be at least 1,20 m high, maybe more. When she ran, she managed to stop on the top and balance. Maybe it's 20x20cm surface to balance on.. I'm quite amazed, since she got at least 30 cm left when she's standing on her back legs..

skarpnäck

2009-02-04T23:04:00.002+01:00

We've got this big field just outside our door, so I invited Jessi to come training her tonight. It was fun! Vazy still understands the square, eventhough she tried to go to the cones at first. But it's a new situations, so that's setbacks that I have to take. She was doing good otherwise.
But the retrieve (thanks mum) is not at all good at the moment. But I think it's 'cause she's got a broken tooth. It must hurt for her to do it..
Aila has been crazy lately, and when I tried to train a bit this morning, she didn't wanna do anything. But at night she thought it was fun, and we made some different exercises. She likes the retrieve object, so it's not gonna be so hard.
After that I went for an hours walk with Veronica afterwards. So now the dogs are really tired!
I made a new bed for Vazy (or, it's not really done yet..but soon), she loves it.... I'll put a picture later on.
Tomorrow I'll also put a picture of Vazys crazy balancing. She was running up and balancing on top of a stump of tree about 1,50 meters high! Crazy! Sometimes you could think that she's a cat...

Thanks Jessi for some nice training again. Hope we manage with out project!

No more visits..

2009-02-04T11:53:00.003+01:00

My mum has been here for the last week, my brother came over for the weekend with wife and kid. Then we've had some friends over and a lot of things to do in the flat.
Still managed to take some long walks with the dogs. When I haven't had time my mum has..
They've been really good, especially Vazy! She's been amazing with meeting other dogs and all. But Aila is going crazy, I'm suspecting she's gonna be in heat again soon.. She's totally nuts, running around like crazy, whining, jumping, barking a lot (especially at other dogs).. It's annoying. She can't concentrate at training either, she just wants to sniff and search for good smells everywhere.
Today I'm off, so I'm gonna do some training with Jessi, and go for a long walk with a friend...

The new flat..

2009-02-02T23:01:00.004+01:00

Here is some pictures of the dogs in the new flat. They got a lot of space, all good! Gonna be able to train some indoors when it all cools down a bit..

Busy Busy Busy

2009-02-01T13:59:00.000+01:00

puh!
Moving in is a business!
I've got so much to do, so many people visiting. I don't even find time to write. But soon I'll update with some words and pictures!

Two days in a row!

2009-01-28T18:18:00.002+01:00

Trained again today, with Kicki. It was fun. We went to the dogclub in Kista. I quite like it there, eventhough its far! But that's alright now when I have the car..

I did the same things with Vazy today as yesterday. But she understood that she had to go to the center of the square! She's so good! So much fun that she gets things so quickly. But there is still a long way to go..
I trained some sit/down/stand aswell. And held the reward over her head, super good! She wasn't moving forwards. She did some nice positions, folding her legs when lying down, instead of "crawling" down with her front legs. Nice one!
Then we were also doing some "apportation", and it went rather well. She still have some problems with the command, but I think I'm slowly getting there...

Aila was more concentrated today. I managed some heelwork, but she had totally forgot about the left turns (moving her back legs), but got it again after a few tries. She had a nice position when sitting aswell. I trained some "down" while walking, and it went rather well. I'm gonna continue with this, doing different exercises all the time. She still has a hard time to concentrate for longer than 30 sec- 1 min.. But I think I just have to be patient with this, so that she thinks it's more fun to train than to smell things on the ground.. Did some more small things, but nothing really interesting.

It's hard to back up so much in the training, but I have to do it. Cause they haven't been training for quite a while, and forgot about some things.. It will be better if I continue training a few times a week..

Sorry, but I forgot the camera again.....

Todays training

2009-01-27T21:25:00.003+01:00

It was nice to get out training some more. I met Jessi in Älvsjö and we trained in the Stockholm Fair garage. It was great to finally get to use the car for training! I could put one dog in the car while training the other. So that meant I didn't have to stress and could spend more time with each dog.
I trained for about one and a half hour. It went so - so, since I haven't been training for a while. It was hard for the dogs to concentrate and they weren't used to thinking so much.. Especially Aila, that got a bit crazy and jumping and running and all. But she's so good at coming and lying down (staying down) when I tell her to. So whenever she gets too excited I'll just give her the "down-stay" command.

With Vazy I tried to shape the behaviour of going in to the middle of the square of cones. It was going alright, but it's really hard for her to realize it's in between the cones she's supposed to go, since it's nothing there! But I think that it's the right technique and it only needs some time. She was really good at the "forward" command, which I only tried once.. Best yet I think. Then I was trying some heelwork and down/stand commands. Overall it was going well, but she's got a hard time concentrating.. So MORE training is needed!

With Aila I was trying to focus a bit on the heelwork, which was really hard. She was super excited and started barking when she didn't get what I wanted. But she got more focused after a while. I tried some new technique that Jessi showed me for the "down". I'll see what I'll do with that.. She's good at lying down, but not so good at staying down. But I think that I just need some more time. She needs more rewards for simple behaviour, and then I just have to make it harder step by step.. But I think I'll also continue with Jessis tip on the side..
I also tried some "apportation" (still noone that knows what it's called?). It went really well, but she's overexcited and want to grab it all the time. But in the end I managed to get the point across, I think..

Hope they will be ready for some competition this spring/summer..

Anyway. Tomorrow it's more training with Kicki! Hopefully she can take some pictures as well.

ps. Today I went for a walk in the forest with the dogs, and they were amazing! I met several dogs, the closest one I only saw when it was one meter away. And the dogs still came running like crazy to me when I called them! Great progress! It's really good, cause there are so many dogs here. I meet at least 3-4 per walk. So I think they'll get more used to meeting other dogs now...

woho!

2009-01-25T18:15:00.001+01:00

The flat is great!

And it's my birthday. Getting older every year! Haha. Time is running faster and faster..

But I'm feeling great and all is good!

(for the dogs too....)

ps. Viva Wifi (sneak)