Snakebite!

Poor Senna had such rotten luck in the weekend. She was bitten by a viper and gave us all a fright.

We were in Mykyrä with Tuomo's dad and brother to do some work on the house when we heard the dog barking outside. The guys went to check what was going on and there it was, a snake. Senna was jumping around and apparently the snake was quite angry looking (I didn't see it since I was inside). Luckily I had brought the anti-venom to Mykyrä the very same day, we didn't know if she had been bitten or not yet but all the same, we gave her the tablets.

Only 5 minutes later when I went out to check on her she was lying down on her side, drool coming out of her mouth, her snout swelling up by the minute. She had been bitten alright. There was also a tiny amount of blood on her nose. Poor girl was so weak. We called the vet on call who told us to bring the dog in. She had to be lifted into the car and was looking really groggy. Her snout was now enormous. At the vet's she got three different shots and antibiotics. The vet told us these things happen and that the dogs don't really learn from it. Great:( So we stocked up on some more anti-venom, just in case.

I felt so bad for my poor girl. Obviously it hurt lying down so she was kind of sitting up and sleeping. Luckily she came round pretty quickly. Soon she was chewing her ball again and in the evening she even came swimming with us. Now she's fine, her nose is only a little bit swollen and I expect that will be gone by tomorrow. But still, nasty stuff.

Scubadog Senna!

Last night we were looking after Barney for the night so we decided to take a walk with the dogs in our new surroundsing in Pirkkala.

The weather was great, sunny and warm, so the dogs were more than happy when we reached the little ducks' pond close to where our (future) house is. Both dogs jumped into the water happily (well Senna very very very happily as always:) and Senna started swimming around. Then she did something I've never seen a dog do before, she put her head completely under water! It was as if she thought she was still on land, since she was walking around, nose to the bottom looking for stuff under water! She looked hilarious, almost like a duck, only her bum and wagging tail sticking out of the water. She would surface once in a while, shaking and spluttering a lot of water all over the place and Barney would close his eyes every time she shook and then he would shake as well:) He's no too keen on the wet stuff, but is quite brave and goes in to his elbows at least. Senna finally found a nice stick under water, but when she surfaced she shook so violenty the stick went to pieces and all she was left with was the small piece in her mouth. We were laughing like crazy!

Makes you wonder if our dog is distantly related to a duck...:)

Summer's here!

And here it is again, summer! Finally! It arrived without even knocking on the door. This week it's been an amazing +26 and sunny.

Lots of things have happened but most exciting of all, we've bought a house! A "paritalo" in Pirkkala, just on the outskirts of Tampere. Moving in date is set to 29th December this year so it's still in the process of being built but it's very exciting and we can't wait to move in! Senna will have a (although very small) garden to be outside in. It's just big enough for us to sit outside and have dinner, but it will be nice to just be able to go outside through the back-door.

Senna is doing fine and is back to her normal high energy self after having a few very slow months of wanting to do absolutely nothing after her heat. We almost got a bit worried since all she wanted to do was to lie around in her basket and I felt mean dragging her out on walks and morning runs. Now she's full of energy and it's nice to see her happy about the outdoors again. We went rollerblading with her a few times and although she doesn't really get the whole idea of pulling she runs nicely next to you. I actually perfer it this way since I'm not 100 percent when it come to breaking...Tuomo's a lot more stable so he can go a lot faster with her.

Her results from the hip x-ray came back all flawless so now there are no restrictions on exercise. She had a minor change in one of her elbows but shouldn't be anything to worry about.

We had a really nice trip to Sweden with her for Easter. She was such a good girl on the ferry and just tucked her nose in her tail first thing she did when we got into the cabin at night. Then she slept through the night. She was too desperate in the morning not to use the "dog toilet" on deck (a small sand box, which she refused to use in the evening) and felt quite relieved afterwards I think:) My family loved her and were really impressed with how great she is in all situations. My nephew and niece even got up early in the weekend to take her out for a long walk! She must have gotten a lot of treats though, since I couldn't quite ger her harness on when we got back, and she was hanging around suspiciously much in the kitchen when my mum was cooking...

This week Senna's daycare is closed so she's spending some time with the grandparents in the summer house, not doubt swimming all day long, collecting those water lilly leaves.

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.

Forest walk with friends

Last weekend we went for a walk with Johanna, a work mate of mine, Pauli and Pancho. This second meeting went much better than the last one we had during the summer, when Pancho was still very small and very scared of Senna. After Senna had calmed down somewhat we introduced the dogs to each other again and Senna invited Pancho to play immediately. Pancho is a bit wary of new dogs, true to his breed, Mexican hairless dog. Bur after a while he picked up and they were playing nicely in a deserted parking lot. Only thing was, I guess due to being hairless, Pancho is not keen on running around in the deep snow but sticks to the path. After a while Senna figured that if she wanted to get away from it all for a while all she had to do was to leave the path and run around in the forest:) We had a nice walk together and the dogs were ready for bed afterwards:)

It was very nice to see that Pancho was no longer scared of her and that they could play nicely together. Pancho is now 5 months and has grown a lot since the summer. They are on more of an even ground now.

We bought Senna a massive real bone and she was quite impressed I think:) She's been occupied with it ever since and is making real progress:)

Today we are heading out in the fog for a walk. Unfortunately the snow is almost gone, since it's been really mild lately. Hopefully winter will return soon. It was so nice to see Senna enjoy the snow.