Wonderful summer continues

Another month has passed. I read people around the country have been complaining about the weather for being too rainy and too cold. Here around Stockholm we had sun, lots of sun, so much sun that we were desperate to get some rain. We had to water our plants in the garden every second day. And they have been growing like crazy. We have all the veggies we need and lots of berries, all organic and tasty. The rain came this weekend and it was very welcome.

Yesterday I took Ruda and Prima to the annual Begian Shepherd Club show. Ruda got excellent but not CQ, the judge wanted her to have more furnishings on the head. I was a bit upset about the judge who´s only criteria was the amount hair on the dog´s face and I mean it was much more important than any other qualities like body structure and the shape of the head. It felt like a bad joke!

I expect the judges at the specialty would at least read the breed standard!

This is Rudas critique.

Anyway I had a nice time with other Laekenois owners and managed to train some obedience with Christel and Compis after the show. In my opinion Compis should have won the best male title. But he also had too little hair on the head...

Vajert Compis Cracker

I believe he will be a very good match for my Ruda though.

With or without face furnishings!

Otherwise nothing special happens. The summer is about enjoying every moment of the best time of the year. To feel alive and free! 

We go for long walks in the forest, we swim as much as we can and see after Orca as her owners are on vacation.

I take care of the garden and consume a lot of fresh veggies.

We try to train every day. When it is too hot I go to the nearest club on early mornings. Even a short training is better than nothing. We are getting more and more flow in our sessions. I enjoy it and so do the dogs. I think I have to start thinking about competitions soon!

But first of all I just live the life and enjoy the company of my dogs, being outside most of the time and the beauty of the nature around. Life is good!

Summertime, busy time

June is over. I don´t know how a whole month can disappear like that. Almost unnoticed....

Only when I look at the pics I had taken I can recall some great events during that time. It has been a busy month, as it should be during the short training season.

First nice event was a family trip to Gimo where my son works during the summer holiday. Beautiful little town and spectacular nature around, like in many places in Sweden. Nice day with dogs playing on common beach with some unknown people around. And nobody seemed to mind, nobody complained about them being off leash, just on the contrary- some people watched them playing with a friendly smile. Just a normal, tolerant reaction. Afterwards the dogs rested in the shadow while we were talking, totally exhausted. Water and sand, such a powerful combination! .

View fullsize

In Stockholm most people are either afraid of dogs or alergic and some have the urge to control that the poo (and preferably the pee also) will be collected. And the dogs have to be on leash no matter what. I do understand and respect their fears and medical issues but how come this only affects residents of big cities? Strange... Big cities are sick formations...

In the middle of the month we took a part in obedience camp. Two wonderful, inspiring and joyful days with two experienced trainers. I did not have so much time of my own with every coach as I had to devide it between two dogs but learned also a lot by watching the others.  As dogs are different individuals different approaches might be needed to solve the same problem.. Working with positive reinforcement gives a lot of room for testing. While I was learning the new methods my dogs trained passivity during the long breaks, the essential  training which unfortunately is often neglected.

In the end of that week we had 4 days off from work to celebrate Midsummer. This holiday falls out around the time for a shortest night of the year. We usually travel away to the little cottage owned by a friend of ours in the coutryside, hidden in huge forests.. We have been walking a lot, swiming in a lake nearby and enjoying the silence and peaceful environment.

 I even managed to track with both once and met another friend that owns a Border Collie from the same breeder. We trained obedience on the soccer grounds in the nearest village. Flat surface with shortly cut grass- a dream for obedience freaks! And such a pleasure to have a friend that shares the same hobby even in the countryside!

Happy Minna med Karolina

The weather was as it usually is around Midsummer, both sunny and rainy. Our second training was suddenly interrupted by heavy rain.

But hopefully we will meet again!

There was another activity the dogs were exposed to. Our neighbour Frida has 4 sheep and invited me with the dogs to meet them. Prima was a bit shy and followed them from a distance  but Ruda had a very close , nose to nose contact with one of them, a very tame little sheep from last years litter. Next time we`ll meet I will have my camera with me!

The world around me is in full bloom. Sometimes it is a bit too hot to train and the mosquitos and midges try to poison our life but I would never change it for something else if I could!

A long weekend

I have been free from work the whole 4 days. Love the wonderful feeling of not having to rush anywhere and do  things I like to do, like training dogs or digging in the garden. Well, there was some cleaning and cooking included, but it did not take half of my weekend as it usually does.

One of these days we had a training competition at one of my dog clubs. It was such an important activity for me as I normally do not have any feedback on my training at all. I mostly train myself. And there there was a judge looking at us as on a real competition,  they were stewards walking around and giving commands and I even felt some kind of nervousness, though it was just a training.

Prima is prepared for the start class without doubt. The only thing we have to work on is performing without rewards longer time. This has always been the hardest part of dog training for me. I love to reward! 

Ruda has some things to learn still if we are to start in FCI class 2. It is so much difficult that before. The rules have been changed this year so the former class II that she completed without much effort last year was much, much easier.

Retrieving a metal object and jumping a hurdle with it seems to be clear. I was worried that she would never manage to do it, she hates metal objects! Distance control, recalling with stand and scent discrimination are still something we have to improve. I am working on it trying different approaches. It would be nice to be able to compete in fall but I do not have so much time to train as I would love to. And of course it would be nice to have someone to train with as it makes things so much easier.

We will see how it goes! There is no hurry!

As to my other hobby, which is growing my own veggies, the first month of spring was not optimal. Half of the month we had very cold weather with temperatures down to -6 degrees during nights, the other half was warm enough but my small plants, grown from seeds at home were big and did not get enough outside training. They had a tough beginning of their new life especially as It has not been raining for weeks now. We water them almost every day but it is not the same.

On the other hand a swimming season has been opened and water in the lake is actually much warmer than expected! Swimming in the lake with my dogs is my third hobby.

A spring day at the beach

Last weekend,as the weather was nice, we took the dogs with us to my sister´s place in the countryside. Even Orca stayed with us for the whole week.

Every time we go there I stop at the dog club in Akersberga and train some tasks, nothing complicated but at the place that is pretty unknown for my dogs. Changing places is very important I think. 

The young ones were very clever and the day started well.

Afterwards there was time for a long walk to my favorite beach. This is a spring tradition too.

At this time of year the beach is empty and the dogs can play freely.

Prima was first in the water. I suppose she did not have an idea of how cold it could be. After several jumps in and out she stood on the shore shaking all over.

Ruda, Orca and my sister´s Dandie Rura were wise enough to play in the water without soaking the whole body. But they are older and smarter of course.

The Laekens have no chance to get a stick.They don´t even have a chance to try! Prima is always first!

Spring 2017

Introduction.

It has been a long time since I last wrote a post.

My old blog disappeared  somewhere in the cyber space and was very hard to find. It is not certain I would be able to attach it to my new website.

My old homepage became out of date and I could not update it without professional help.

But thanks to changing times creating a new website is an easy task, even for an older lady like me.

I am very grateful to my friend Renia and my son Nik for helping me to get started.

 One of last pictures of all my dogs together

Spring 2017 will be remembered as the time of Queen passing away. She moved to the painfree world on April 17th.

Letting her go was not an easy task.

It took long time before I could allow the thought cross my mind. It took long time to set up the date and plan the day.

It is going to take time before I can think about her without feeling pain tearing my body into pieces.

She was not an ordinary dog.

Farewell my Grand Lady! I will always miss You!