The feelings are mixed. I am both very happy and excited that Rob is going to stay with us, we have sooo much to look forward to; but at the same time I am sad that one of my best friends is going away. But it's for her own good, so I am also happy for her. I think she will thrive in the States. But I miss her enough when I am in Brazil myself! Haha! Friends are common, good friends are uncommon and great friends are rare. Johanna, along with the other two girls of our little "group of 4"; Hanna and Matilda, are rare kinds. Friends that I am unexplainably grateful to have around me. Robbie will receive his own page her on RM website.
Due to that my friend Johanna suddenly has to pack her bags and leave Sweden, to move to her mother in Florida, US, I will take care of her Border Collie-mix Robbie further on, until I myself are taking off for Brazil. The feelings are mixed. I am both very happy and excited that Rob is going to stay with us, we have sooo much to look forward to; but at the same time I am sad that one of my best friends is going away. But it's for her own good, so I am also happy for her. I think she will thrive in the States. But I miss her enough when I am in Brazil myself! Haha! Friends are common, good friends are uncommon and great friends are rare. Johanna, along with the other two girls of our little "group of 4"; Hanna and Matilda, are rare kinds. Friends that I am unexplainably grateful to have around me. Robbie will receive his own page her on RM website.
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Today Chloé visited the veterinary. She got me really worried when I noticed she was spilling yellow slime from her anal and drooling like an exhausted Bulldogg. I've never seen such a symptom so we immediately dashed off to the pet clinic here in Karlskoga. She didn't have fever and she was more or less normal except for this. The vet took a peak at her and said she probably has problems with her pancreas, due to a change of feed. So today she will stay without food and tomorrow we start with boiled rice. Thank God that she seems alright! I can't believe it's happening. My favorite player, Mesut Özil, for whom I cried of happiness when he transferred to Madrid, today I'm crying of disappointment, sorrow and anger that he is leaving for one of the teams I dislike the most; Arsenal (Arse-anal). This is to me even worse than FCB signing Neymar Jr. Mesut Özil is a playmaker not worthy to loose, even of Gareth Bale joining. I am deeply disappointed... There are millions of discussions and opinions around the modern dogkeepers world whether we should picture ourselves as "pack leaders" with our dogs. Ever since Cesar Millan became famous these theories escalated enormously in popularity, and some people also claim that the domestic dogs as they are bred today don't see it that way. I do believe in the pack-theory, and I follow it philosophically. But I do not agree with being dominant. In a pack of any canis-animals such as wolves or wild dogs, the so called alpha male is very dominant. But, is the alpha female dominant? No, female dogs are usually not dominant. But that doesn't make them bad leaders, it actually makes them excellent leads! They are gentle and caring for the pack, but they are clear and consequent with the rules. How does a bitch react when someone oversteps her personal space or does something disturbing? - she snaps. Quickly. She leads and educates, and she is the mother of the majority of the pack. She is our, as dog keepers and handlers, role model and idol and has exactly what we want, to achieve a loving relationship with our dogs but still being in control. It's such a nice feeling, when you feel that you are actually getting somewhere. The second day in Sweden after I arrived, we went down to the obedience ground at the dogsports club, and training with Scrollan was hopeless. Now that I live alone with my dogs, we've been working on the obedience moments a little every day that passed, and now something is actually happening...! It's awesome :) our goal (dream) is to start an obedience class 1. Remember that I started to write about the five phases and never continued?! I'm sorry for that! Things popped up and I forgot about it. So, in return for my mistake I'll now give you a short text of information about them to give you a hint. I'll write about each phase later! Phase one: Thought The first thing we do when we ask a dog for something is to picture what we want it to do. When doing this actively, consciously painting an image in our heads what we want the dog to do, he will understand our intention much earlier. In the beginning we do everything slow just to practice, but as we go on we become more quick as well. Phase two: Energy After picturing the dog making the action you request, you apply the energy for it. Try feel how you give energy for your dog in a certain direction for the action to take place, for example if you want him to sit you direct the energy downwards on the dogs hindquarter, that's the bodypart that will move. If you want him to lay down, you reduce energy and actively give a calm impression, and when you want him to stand up, you increase the energy for the alert motion. Phase three: Body Que Here comes the part when we use the language of our body. Since dogs don't talk, they use their bodies a lot to communicate. Anything from wagging the tail, flashing the teeth, turning the ears etc. Here is where we try to show our intention with giving hints with our body. This would be turning our shoulders, pointing our feet and showing with our hands/arms. Phase four: Voice You all know what a voice-command means. This is the most normal way to command (or as I say; request) a dog, without being aware of the 3 pre-phases above. When we master them we will be more sensitive and simultaneous with the communication with our dogs, and the relationship will be much stronger since the dog will start to understand YOU better. The voice-phase is individual both for humans and dogs. In some cases it works best with straight and clear words, and in some cases works best with a sound, like an "s" or "tch" or "ey" or "uh"! And in some cases, it would be enough with saying the word/sound very gently and increase instead of being directly consequent. Phase five: Touch
So this is the last phase and you understand why. The touch-phase is just what we use when we have requested the dog using all the phases above in the right order and the dog still doesn't listen. We use always the exact amount of energy as the dog does. Touching would usually be something we use when "blocking" the dog (unrequested behaviours). In the popular and modern dogtraining-terminology the block would signify "correction", but I don't use that word. Touching can be used in a few requests apart from blocks, and should be looking like a poke or a touch of gradual intensity. If you have any questions and thoughts, just post them in the comment-field and I promise to reply! För er som är svenska och inte förstår allt, skriv/copypaste:a det ni inte fattar så ger jag er en översättning. :) I'm back in Sweden, it sucks a little bit because I miss my Weverson so, so much already. But I'm also a bit excited because I GOT IN!!!! In the school I applied for!! So I have now, on my third day back in Sweden, moved to another town. The funny thing is that I'm actually using our summer house as my home for the moment, the school is just a few hundered meters away.
Other news is that we have begun with the BARF! For those of you who are not familiar with BARF, it means "Biologically Adapted Raw Food", for pets/animals, so it's my doggies' new diet! We started out with some parts of beef. Will begin with the intestines and bones successively for getting them used to it. :) Finallyyy we're quitting with the pellets! I just found this, it popped up as a suggested video in my YouTube channel.
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