Wilco and I haven’t really done much training. He sleeps a lot, which I love! But I’ve tried to let him do a little work for his food today. Puppy in dog bed gets food. Puppy outside dog bed does not get food. Unless I give his release word (“fri”). He learns very quickly.
13:20 – I was going to feed him lunch, but he fell asleep. I don’t want to wake him up, so I’ll have a cup of coffee and wait for him to wake up.
13:45 -He woke up when I needed to get up. After a potty break outdoors, we went into a room with his bowl of food. He was still a bit tired, but hungry for food. I held the clicker behind my back to begin; you don’t want to scare the puppy with the sharp noise of the clicker. I took a big chunk of food in my other hand and held it behind my back too. I stood completely still. Clicked. Brought out the hand with food and let him have a little taste. Then I took both hands behind my back again and repeated after a few seconds. After a few times, I started to look for behaviors to click. As he was standing so nicely, I decided to click standing still and when he moved a back foot to correct the standing to a better position.
14:00 – A little walk with Win, Pogue and Kat. Wilco really tries to get the grown-up dogs to like him, but they are not giving him any response to his polite attempts to make contact. I feel a bit sorry for him.
14:30 – He’s fallen asleep again. I thought that he would be full of energy now, but he likes to sleep in the afternoon.
15:00 – He woke up when I moved, but just chewed on his toy. I’ll take him out when he gets up.
15:15 – Pottied outdoors, and fallen asleep again. I’m trying to make treats for him in the oven. Ground lamb, eggs and psyllium seed husks mixed. We’ll see how it turns out!
17:00 – Slept until now. Woke up when a friend came to visit. He is energetic and wants to bite everything while we have coffee.
18:00 – We go for a little walk with my friend and her puppy-friendly dog.
18.30 – Sleeps some more while we do herding with the grown-ups.
19:30 – Out to potty, and we do a little training and socializing. I introduce a release cue (“fri”) when he offers sit, and I get a few successful recalls when he is greeting another dog.
19:40 – Plays on his own indoors.
19:50 – I take him out to potty. He falls asleep when we get in.
20:00 – Sarek barks in the other room and Wilco wakes up and looks a bit worried. I let him have a few pieces of kibble on the floor, and he eats them before he falls asleep again.
20:15 – Thomas lets his dogs into the house after a walk and Wilco wakes up. I take him out to potty again and when we get in, he lies down in his bed.
20:35 – Two accidents in the house in five minutes. Fail!
20:40 – A short walk along with Epic and Squid
20:50 – We work on going in his bed, staying there and leaving it on “fri” while Thomas is using the vacuum cleaner in the same room. Good puppy!
21:15 – Dinner, and a raw stalk of broccoli to play with/investigate for dessert. And then out to potty of course.
21:30 – Playing with his broccoli
21:40 – Accident in the house again.
21:50 – Out to potty with Thomas.
22:15 – Another potty break
22:20 – Fallen asleep under my chair
23:05 – Still asleep and I’m about to go to bed. Good night!
Today, I will report on how a day looks for Wilco, 8 weeks, and me. It’s a very ordinary day. Nothing on the agenda and rain outdoors. Thomas is at a sheep dog trial, so I’m at home alone with Wilco and most of the grown up dogs. Ordinary days are very rare here, so I’ll try to use it as well as I can.
7:10 – Wilco slept for eight hours and didn’t wake us until our alarm went off. Good puppy! Now out to potty.
7:35 – Breakfast. Wilco eats Vom og Hundemat – a raw mixture of meats and bones. He gets the puppy kind, and loves it!
7:40 -A 12 minute walk with Squid and Epic. He can come on our short walks as long as he ignores the other dogs and doesn’t do any other things that I don’t like. I suspect that this time of no herding other dogs will pass soon, and he will not be allowed on walks with the other dogs unless I am actively training him to behave.
8:00 – Playing with his toys. Playing a little bit with Sisko (Sarek’s sister, living with us for a week). Finally someone who wants to play with him! But she is a little too ruff, and play ends quickly.
8:20 – Asleep. Thomas has left for herding trial with Sarek and the kitchen is quiet. Time for me to have breakfast.
8:45 – Wakes up and walks to the door. I take him out to pee.
8:50 – He does not go back to sleep, so we play with a toy in the kitchen. I focus on tugging and that he drives back to me when I let the toy go.
9:00 – Full speed! He is biting my feet and throwing his metal bowl around. I want to have coffee and answer some e-mails. I try something that often works with small puppies. I give him pieces of apple (can be any fruit or vegetable really) to investigate/play with/eat. It works this time too!
9:30 – I did get some work done while Wilco was occupied with his apple and biting my feet. Let’s go for a small walk again. Sisko can come too.
9:50 -We’re back from outdoors. I brought two toys and tried to do as many recalls as possible. It wasn’t easy, as he didn’t want to leave me and the toys. He did follow Sisko or sniff the ground a few times, and I could call his name and play with him when he reacted. I also tried the switch game for the first time. As he as tugging on one toy, I would tease him with the other and add the cue “ja!” just before he let go of the first toy to grab the new one. It went very well! He was also rewarded for attention, as I couldn’t resist rewarding when he just wanted to stay connected with me when I took the toy away.
10:05 – Playing with his toys and apples while I work on the computer.
10:30 – Has fallen asleep under my chair after playing on his own for a while
10:45 – I get up to clean the kitchen counters. Wilco wakes up and follows me calmly. I try to ignore him and hope that he goes back to sleep on his own.
11:00 – Wilco walks into the livingroom, so I decide to take him out before there is an accident. We go out in the sleet and it takes a while for him to pee. When we get back in, I find a puddle of pee in the livingroom. When did that happen? I keep moving arount the room calmly while cleaning, and I wait for him to fall asleep. He does lie down often, but if I walk too far he will follow me calmly.
11:15 – He falls asleep in his bed after 15 minutes. He is no longer disturbed by me moving around.
11:30 – I decide to take the grown-ups for a walk while Wilco sleeps. I will attempt to sneak out without waking him… He wakes up, but looks calm. When I get out I check on him through the window. He lies down on the rug.
12:00 – Back from my walk and I look through the window. He is asleep in his bed. This would be a perfect time to go to the grocery store. I’m hungry and out of food. But my wallet is on the table next to the puppy. I have to go in and wake him up. He wakes, but stays in his bed, so I decide to go.
12:20 – I am greeted by a happy puppy when I get back. I immediately take him out and he pees a lot right away. I can’t find any pee in the kitchen. Yes!
13:00 – I get distracted by a phone call during lunch, and Wilco pees on the floor again. Soon it’s time for his lunch, and my plan is to introduce the clicker to him. I’ll tell you more about that in the next post.
This is how happy I am after getting to know Wilco (he is wonderful!) and running agility with his father Epic. Epic ran three clean runs this weekend. Two first places and one second place. He seems to jump much better after our long time away from agility with rest and rehab!
Will of course write more about Wilco and what we’re doing these first days. But first, some rest after this intense weekend!
I met Wilco and his brothers on Sunday. I was quite nervous actually. I already knew that I would love him, but would he like me back? We chose our puppies, but they don’t get to chose us. Fortunately, they are usually easy to win over, and I think that I got approved. Wilco seems to be one of the calmer puppies in the litter, he enjoys rest and food and relaxed in my lap. I like that! He’ll come home on Saturday and I can’t wait.
We’re happy to present Advanced Obedience Skills – our new online class for those of you wanting to take the obedience skills from Foundation Class to the next level, while also working on some new behaviors (like sit up, scent discrimination and formal recall) and concepts like stimulus control, distraction training and sequencing.
An old friend of mine found this picture from Swedish Obedience Championships 2004. This was my first time there, a great memory with my fantastic border collie Twiggy. Tomorrow would have been her 17th birthday if she was still alive.
After nine months of rest, puppies and rehab, Squid ran her first full agility course on Saturday. We have been doing a little agility during the past months, but mostly just worked on rehab and strength. She’s far from her top condition, but I’m so glad to have her back! This was her first run of the year. She was 4th out of 91 (29 clean runs) large dogs. I’m very happy with that considering that we’re both out of shape.
Epic also competed on Saturday. He feels much stronger than Squid and had a lot of speed, but dropped some bars in every run. I think he needs some time to work his jumping out after so much time off from agility.
Already on Saturday, I started to feel pain in my achilles tendon, and on Sunday I couldn’t really run. I had two runs with Squid, but wasn’t able to handle well because I was so much slower than usual. It feels better now that I have rested, and I was able to run some sequences with Epic yesterday without pain. I really hope that this won’t persist now that my dogs are finally able to start running again!
Wow, time really flies now that I’m home. Thomas is away a lot (but we have a few days together right now), and there’s a lot to do here. We’re in the middle of lambing, I watched a first time mother give birth just an hour ago, and as I’m writing this she had a second one. Everything has gone well with lambing so far, and I hope it stays that way. We’ve mostly had wonderful spring weather since I got home, and it’s so much nicer to take care of sheep and lambs when you’re not freezing your fingers off. We’ve been able to do some agility training outdoors, which is very rare in the beginning of March. There will probably be more snow before spring is really here, but we have spring flowers, some new grass and, unfortunately, also vipers and ticks…
What a beautiful view in the beginning of March! Agility and herding in the sun.
My dogs had an appointment with their physiotherapist on Tuesday. It takes me 3,5 hours one way to get there, so it’s always a full day road trip for us. Things are going the right way, and I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I find rehab progressing much slower than I originally thought it would, and at the same time I feel that I am pushing forward faster than what I maybe should. It’s so hard! Canine rehab is a jungle. The more you learn, the less you realize that you (and others…) know. You need to find professionals that you trust, but at the same time try to learn as much as you can so that you can make good decisions on your own. Epic is now well enough to really work on strength and to do some agility. I’m glad to see that both dogs seem to remember agility very well even after a long break from it.
This is Wilco, 5 weeks old. Just 2,5 weeks left before he joins his father and aunts here in Fjugesta.
We’re back in Sweden! It’s cold. We started by visiting Tyra and her puppies! They look very nice and now all I have to do is find a name and wait. Puppies are four weeks today and will be ready to leave in another four weeks. All puppies in Sweden have to be at least eight weeks before leaving their mother and siblings. For me, that is a good age. Having had a few border collie litters of my own, I think that eight weeks is a good age for them to go to their new homes. At that age, they start to act more as individuals and need individual attention and to expand their horizons. What are the rules/laws in your country? And at what age do you want to take your new puppy home?
We left the puppies and went to a forest on the way to my parents. Epic and Squid were very happy to stretch their legs and get out of the car. Sweden might be cold, but a great walk with the dogs in the forest is never far away…
We arrived at my parents house in the afternoon, and took a walk to the sea. Sweden also has beaches worth exploring! After a night here, we’re ready to head home. It’s been over five weeks since I left Fjugesta. I just wish that Thomas was home, but I won’t be seeing much of him for the next few weeks. He travels to Norway a lot, both teaching and working on his masters thesis.
I’m sorry for not blogging during the past two weeks. I’ve had a great time in Italy. First I spent a few days outside Rome training my own dogs, walking on the beach and enjoying the sun. Then I taught three days of obedience at the same location. Lots of great dogs and handlers, and good discussions. I also had time to train my own dogs in the afternoon. Squid was quite affected by being in heat (she stopped for two weeks, then came into the peak of her heat a month after the first drop of blood) for a few days. She was tired and had a pained look in her eyes. I was a bit worried, but I gave her time to rest and after a few days she was back to normal. After the seminar, I spent a few days at another agility school outside of Rome. I trained my dogs (Squid was happy to do some obedience, and Epic got to do some jump grids and contacts. He’s looking good!).
On Wednesday, I made my way back north to Malosco where we started our Italian adventure exactly one month before. Still snow there, but nice and sunny weather. We went for walks in the forest and trained agility indoors. On the weekend, I taught an agility foundations seminar for a great group of people. A few adult dogs, but mostly puppies. So much fun, and I think we covered a lot even though translating to both Italian and German took some time.
I started to drive home yesterday. Driving went well, until i realized something was wrong with the breaks. Tried to drive without breaking, and made it to Rostock where I finally found a hotel to check into just before midnight. Now, I’m waiting for my car to be repaired. Breaks on all four wheels are ruined and needs to be changed. Luckily, they had all the parts here so I hope to be on my way in a few hours. I set up an office at the repair shop. WiFi, coffee, dogs at my feet. Almost like being at home 😀 I hope to be in Sweden by evening, and back home on Thursday. I’m so grateful for friends helping me out with finding a good repair shop, offering me places to stay for the night and especially for having the best possible help with dogs and sheep at home so that I don’t have to worry about that (Thomas is in Norway).
