1 year old!

This Saturday Senna turned 1 year old. Can't believe she's now been with us for a whole 10 months! She got some nice tuna mixed into her meals which she loves. Every last bit of scrap was devoured and the bowl was unusually clean:)

She had a bit of a funny birthday present actually (apart from the goodies in the post from nan in Sweden and sms greetings from "dagis" and Finnish grandma:). 1 year to the day when she was born she came on heat for the first time. Our girl has grown up!

I got out of bed and spotted small spots of blood on the floor on a trail. She's doing well keeping herself clean though and we praise her every time she cleans herself. With time I think she'll manage well, at the moment we'll just have to wipe up the "mistakes".

She was scheduled to have her 1-year hip x-ray tomorrow but I think this will have to wait for a few weeks. We also have to go to the vet to pick up her passport, since we're travelling to Sweden to see my family with the dog for Easter. That will be exciting going on the boat with her:)

Today the weather was beautiful and we had a long walk on the ice with her on her line. We even brought her dummy this time for a first time practice outside. We still have a lot to learn about retrieving but she now sits still when it's thrown, goes on my command and comes back, most of the time happy to give it back to me. Good girl!

Talviloma

We've had a nice week at home with the dog and a welcome break from work. It was nice to have so much free time to do things with her and I think she's enjoyed spending a lot of time with her "pack".

In the beginning of the week we got her a long line to start practising being off the leash without running up to all dogs and people in the near vicinity. That has worked out better than we imagined. She thinks she's off the leash and runs around and sniffs etc until she spots a dog or a person approaching. Just when she starts to take off we yank her back and she just seems very surprised, "what, I can't go?". Then all we need to tell her after a while is "ei menne", don't go. She wasn't too interested in a large group of kids skiing on the ice but she can't really resist other dogs. The first time we used the line she broke the ring attaching the line to her harness clean off when charging after another dog. The first time Tuomo used it she completely floored him. Now we know how strong she really is:) It seems to be working though and hopefully she'll be able to walk off leash in the future. The ice is such a great spot for training though since it's completely open and she can spot a dog from miles away. We actually met another flattie when walking on the ice one day, a liver coloured one! I have never seen one of those before, they are quite rare. It was lovely to see a mirror image of our dog, the same body language and eagerness.

We also took her to the local pet supply shop for the first time. It was a good training activity for her and she went a bit nuts in the beginning, wanting to say hi to everyone, pick her own bones and generally run havoc in the shop. Luckily the shop assistants thought she was a cutie and didn't mind. I guess they are used to doggie whirlwinds in their shop daily:) We went there to pick up a skiing harness for her and later that afternoon we went out skiing on the ice. At first she was just very excited and didn't know what we wanted her to do, she was mostly jumping around, up and down. Then I went off ahead of them and she got it and started chasing after me! She seemed to really enjoy it. After a while we swapped and I went with her. I have never been so fast on a pair of skis, that's for sure. When both of us were going flat out we were really flying:) It was great and I can't wait to go again. She was completely exhausted after one lap around the lake and plopped into her basket as soon as we got home. Only thing we need to practise is the stopping. All of a sudden she would decide she needed to pee and would stop dead in her tracks...we'll that's not too easy on a pair of skis when you're going full steam ahead:)

We also went for a really long walk with Irene and Barney. It's lovely close to where they live, there's even this tiny island where the dogs can run around freely like idiots:) And they did. She was so tired after this walk that I had to wake her up the next morning to take her out. She wasn't even interested in any longer walkies until well after lunch:) A truly broken doggie:) Hopefully the weather will get a bit colder next week, I can't wait to get on my skis with her again, yay!

Recap

Very long time no update. Lots of things have of course happened.

Senna is now almost 1 year old and has grown into a laaaaarge girl with loooong legs :) She's doing very well and is really enjoying the winter, which has now finally arrived. We've started taking her running with us three times a week and she likes the speed, although she thinks were really slow sometimes probably. We've equipped her with a reflector harness to make her stand out in the dark. It works really well in lit areas but in the forest when we're walking at night you still can't see the pitch black dog in the pitch black night. So we got her a collar that you light up by pressing a button. Finally we can see her in the dark!

She’s as hyper as ever, just looking at the dog produces tail wag. We’re making a point of being really calm around her and seeing other dogs makes you realise how “hot” she really is all the time. Inside she sleeps most of the time but she’s always ready to join in if there’s some sort of activity on offer.

We've been on lots of walks lately with Irene and Barney and the dogs are now "this thick", best friends in the whole world. It's really lovely to see and it's nice for Senna to have a friend that matches her energy level. After a flat out run off the leash in the forest with Barney she's more than ready for the basket.

We've realised we need to get a line for her to train off leash. In the forest, as long as there are no other dogs and people it's fine but if someone's approaching she's very likely to run up to them. We really want to be able to trust her off leash so it's really important to get this training started as soon as possible. The ice provides a great opportunity for this since she can spot a person approaching from far ahead. Otherwise she usually comes when called, since we’ve been really good at training this with her.

I started training a bit of retrieving with her again and now the dummy comes back! I had to start running the other way for her to be interested in coming back to me and now she seems to get the idea. She still wants to keep it to herself though so we wont train outside for a while.

This weekend we spent in Mykyrä together with Irene, Holger and Barney. It was a nice and relaxing time with lots of play and running around for the dogs. They've not been able to let go of one another before but last night they were sleeping nicely next to each other, too exhausted to play. They were also chewing bones next to one another, really nice:)

Next week we have one week off work. It will be nice to have a lot of time to spend with the dog.