Summer's back!

This week the weather has been increadible, over 20 C most days and sunny! Yesterday we went to the forest with Senna again, to the same place as last weekend, only this time we went a bit further. We combined the walk with various exercises, but she seems to tire really quickly and can't stay focused for too long, since the forest is so exciting! We successfully managed to escape once, when she went off the path, but after that she stayed close to us and didn't stray far enough for us to make it into hiding:) I think she's finally starting to learn to keep close to us. Recall is going really well and it's something we practise now on a daily basis. Even if we're on a lesh walk I'll sometimes let go of the lead and walk off. Soon enough there's "clopetti clopetti" noises behind me and a wet nose in my hand! Good girl!


There was a lake in the forest and Senna was overjoyed! Since she's been having those ear infections during the summer she hasn't been allowed in the water, but now that's cleared it was fine for her to go in. And in she went, splash splash! You really could tell just how happy she was about being in the water and she was even swimming around a bit. It might have been one of the last swims this year, so I hope she enjoyed it:)

In the course last week we did some "sniff out the treat" exercises and this is something that Senna is really good at. She managed to find the smelly Omega 3 fish treat Tuomo had hidden in no time:) We also do this in the forest with her and at home so she knows the game really well.

Today we went for a walk with a friend of mine. Being allergic to dogs Pernilla is not too keen on them and when she first saw Senna I think she though she was positively frightening:) But she saw how well behaved she was on the walk so now I think at least she can tolerate her:)

We also managed to go in the lift with a kid today without Senna going completely nuts. I was almost speachless when she sat down next to me with her back to the kid! In the past this has been a struggle, since Senna has always wanted to "kiss attack" every one in the lift before. This time it was very different! She even managed to keep calm on a slack leash when a toddler passed by behind her! I am so happy about this progress and I was really truly proud of her!

Week at home and walks

This week we left Senna at home for the first time during the days. We noticed that she was always so tired in the evenings when she came home from day care that there was not much we could do with her with regards to walks and training.

So we thought we’d try to keep her home for a few days. Also, Tuomo has been working in Tampere this week, so he wasn’t going past the day care on his way to work anyway. The idea is that we see how it goes, if she’s calm and relaxed being at home we might take her to days care say 3 days a week and keep her home 2 days, so that we get some dog to work with as well. She did really well on her own and straight away when I'd come home I’d take her out on a long walk. She had a lot of pent up energy of course, but it was remarkably quickly drained on the walk. Then after a while she was also very attentive and able to focus on training. So we have been combining the walks with contact exercises, walking off the leash to train recall and other bits and pieces.

I have also taught her some silly circus tricks like sitting on her bum like a rabbit. She doesn’t seems to mind what I ask her to do though, everything is good fun as long as there’s treats involved:)

Since the puppy course was cancelled this week we took a walk around the lake with Irene and Barney instead, training the dogs to walk side by side. They seem to find this easier now, since they are getting used to one another and there’s not too much pulling on the leash in the beginning of the walk. They are now also able to walk next to each other in the middle. Wow! I think this is very good training for our little girl, who finds it very hard to contain herself around people and dogs.

Yesterday we went to the dog park with her. We didn’t intend to stay for long but ended up talking to lots of different people who kept turning up. It is also a good place to train recall since there’s lots of “noise” around. She did quite well, but I have noticed during the past week that she sometimes suffers from “selective hearing”. Hmmm. Is this the first sign of teenagehood?

Right now she’s asleep in her “proper bed” on the floor next to our bed. She only goes there when she is really tired and intends to sleep. We just got back from an off leash walk in the forest so I guess she’ll be out of it for the rest of the afternoon. We went to a new place that Johanna, Pancho’s owner recommended. It’s a path in the forest where not many people come to walk so it’s perfect. We trained a lot of recall and every time she went off exploring on her own we’d hide behind a rock or tree. Before long we’d hear galloping noise down the path, “cloppeti cloppeti, where’s mum and dad??!! I’m all alone in the forest!!” We also hid treats in tree trunks and she had to stand on her hind legs to seek them out. New place, new smells, forest walk with training, it takes it out of a little girl:)

Left on today’s schedule is grooming. We have made a habit of brushing her regularly, although it’s not really needed, as well as clipping her claws, looking into the ears and mouth. The brushing I actually think she enjoys but when I clip her claws she usually protests at first, but I still get them all clipped though and she knows that it’s not really worth making a fuss. But you can always try:)

Training progress

Senna is doing better and better being around other dogs and people. In the weekend we went for a walk with my friend Irene and her husky lookalike Barney. It was the second walk together and it already went much better than the first.

When Irene came to our place we did some greeting exercises, with me feeding Senna ham so that she kept calm when Irene approached. She still got very excited and wanted to go say hi so badly but kept reasonably focused on me (or the ham rather...:) Then we went to get Barney from the car and just started walking, dogs not being allowed to play. Last time I was struggling with Senna for quite some time but I think the puppy course is really helping her in getting used to staying calm with other dogs around, because this time there wasn't any struggle to speak of. With a bit of ham in my hand anything is possible:)

We even tried putting both dogs in the middle between us while walking and that went well. The dogs were already so "in to" their walk they didn't really flinch:) When we got home Senna was exhausted, but since Irene and Barney wanted to come up to ours for a while we asked the dogs to stay calm while sitting on the floor a few meters apart. That was a really hard mental exercise. Senna fell asleep after a short while, completely shattered from having to concentrate for so long as well on the walk. Barney didn't give up so easily though:) Being a year older than Senna he was really eager to play! We figured that it would have been a bad idea though, since we quite like our flat:)

The puppy course is going well, last week Senna was really tired from playing with a new dog in daycare and was a lot more quiet than usual. When we got home afterwards she went straight to sleep and started making really weird noises, like the horn on a ship or something. Then she wagged her tail! In her sleep! I didn't even know dogs did that:) She truely lives up to the breed characteristic of being a "tail wagger" 24/7:)

In the course she's getting more and more used to being around other dogs and will do absolutely anything for ham and treats, so with that in my pocket she's usually 100% focused on me. I wanted to get her some new treats for the course last week and bought her some Omega3 fish oil snacks...My good were they smelly! I hid one for her in the living room that she got to sniff out, but when she found it she didn't eat it, she rolled in it! Yuck!

She's also worked out how to use her "dog pyramid" activity toy (you load it with treats and then the dog has to roll it around on the floor to try get them out). Now she either slaps it with her paw or kind of rolls it with her mouth and paws. Clever girl!

This coming weekend Senna's going to stay with Tuomo's dad. I am off to Stockholm for the weekend and Tuomo's also going away so we had to arrange "doggie sitter". They enjoy each other company though, so I'm sure they'll have a nice time together.