Waiting

Waiting for a potential cocker spaniel friend. I must say i was nervous as to how he would behave.

Fajsty sheik al safar

Very oriental looking doggie.

Home

I think he's happy to be home.

Bonnie

Cocker cavalier mix. Charming.

On a different note i just had an incident. . When i went out to go the evening walk i saw a huge german shepherd in the agility area. It was pretty stressed out but then it pooped so i thought all was under control. Turned out it was not because when i came back they were two trying to catch it. So i thought i'll put Fajsty by the fence so they could grab the other dog. . But somehow it slipped out and then it ran around the agility fence, maybe 8 laps before it saw Fajsty. When it did it came up to us and they said their doggie hellos and the owner caught up with him and grabbed him. I wish they are on the class on saturday. Doubt it though. . I think i could actually help them. Maybe they are there again tomorrow. . Time to sleep now. Having a class again tomorrow. . Busy week.

Sleepy

The days are very long for the little dog. Today is his birthday. I gave him canned food for a treat and he absolutely loved it. I also presented a chewbone but it went down in a jiffy as usual.

My elvis

My elvis is sleeping in the twin bed. He wont be impressed when gary comes to claim it. . .

Game?

No, no game this time, just a pretty sky. We are really tired. The whole group. Tomorrow i will try to take some pictures while In training. .

Elvis

Well asides from the head hair he makes a good silhouette.

Sun dog

Why he sits in the sun when there is shadow is beyond me. Maybe the air has cooled down enough?

Easier to see

Here you can see that he's stuck. . Now he's chewing on a bone. But he wants me to be outside too. . To watch him or something. .

Same game

Called spot the dog. It's finally cooled down so all Fajsty wants is to be outside, but here is no gate to the fence so i have to have him on a string. I think he's ok with that but if does Not want to go inside. Can't blame him really but i'm starting to get cold. .

A picture from last time in Öland, Today we are off again, this time for a whole week.

A game

It's called spot the dog. I'm out on the back reading a 150 pages long thesis on dogs learning procedures. . F lay down in the grass and i could barely see him. He wanders away sometimes but never far. He stays with me. He'll probably run away now just because i said that. .

Slacker

When he's not in the pool he's slacking in the sofa.

Swim dog

He jumps in the pool by himself now. He likes it. It seems to cool him down too. A good investment of 45 kr.

Garden

Outside our apartment there is a small park. It belongs to all the apartments. I put out a pool for the dogs but they don't seem to understand how great it is. Fajsty is guarding a bone and fia is looking for shade that is cool enough. If she'd just step into the pool she'd cool down pretty fast.

Demon

The demon dog has risen.

Windy öland

Now we are on the island again. Today we are going to learn a lot about clicker training. In the wind. . .

Sea monsters

Two nutters enjoying the cool water.

Ethymology

feisty

1896, Amer.Eng. from feist "small dog," from fice, fist Amer.Eng. 1805 "small dog," short for fysting curre "stinking cur," attested from 1529, from M.E. fysten, fisten "break wind" (1440), related to O.E. fisting "stink." The 1811 slang dictionary defines fice as "a small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs." Cf. also Dan. fise "to blow, to fart," and obs. Eng. askefise, lit. "fire-blower, ash-blower," from an unrecorded O.N. source, used in M.E. for a kind of bellows, but orig. "a term of reproach among northern nations for an unwarlike fellow who stayed at home in the chimney corner" [O.E.D.]

From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feisty

Summer

It is so warm and lovely for me, but but Fajsty wants to do is get soaked to cool down. If there is time we will go to the beach tonight.

Long time no blog

When life constantly comes to bite you in the ass then you don't have much time to blog...

The passed few days have been school only so my father has had the dog for quite some time. But last night we went out on a walk over the field, I let him off because there wasn't anybody in sight.

We had walked about 3/4 of the way when he spotted a hedgehog-ball. He didn't get close enough to sniff it, so when he approached I said "no!", then he ran around like a mad man, circled the hedgehog, then made another circle in a different direction and by that time I had passed it and he didn't go back to check on it. I think the hedgehog appreciated that.

It's the first time I have seen a hedgehog make itself into a ball, live. I have always known they could though. Normally when we pass them they sort of look at us and keep walking, I think its the fact that Fajsty approached it with such speed that made it scared.





And on a completely different note, me and dad thought/talked about our old dog,
Busan (bad photo, but the only one we have online):


She was a Bordercollie, Golden Retriever and Flatcoated Retriever mix (I'm sure there was something else in her too but I don't remember it) We talked about mental Stimulation and that she never got any. But Earlier today I thought about her too, and I thought that with the right means she could probably learn anything, only I wasn't interested in going to any classes, and by the time I was interested she was too old anyway.
Not too old to do stuff but she was getting blind and deaf and was "stuck" in the habits that had been created the passed 10 years or so. She was a personality but compared to Feisty she seems less special.

I don't think I'll ever forget how she was around Margot (the little white dog that Feisty is terrorizing too) .. Whenever Margot was around Busan looked like a teenager in love, High Tail, Happy face etc.

This doesn't Really belong in the feisty blog I guess, but I wanted to write it anyway... RIP.



In 12 days its time for another weekend in Öland, class website is coming up on www.iu08.net

We're not even sure what we are supposed to have done until then, I hope they sort it out soon..


Time for bed says Fajsty.. I think its a good idea too...

Cool

The awesomeness of the sunset is so not conveyed. Now the cabin is warm and me and doggie is sharing an apple. Soon time for evening walk.

Spring time.

Now there's no fooling anybody . . Spring surely is here with it's rain and pretty flowers. . Fajsty gets very warm very quickly. He wouldn't hesitate to jump into a lake right now, but he can't because he just had a bath . I want him to look nice when if meets my future coworkers . .

Listening. . .

There are a lot of different birds singing and industrial noise in the background.

King of the hill

We have found our own little place in the forest, and old burial mound.

Problem solving

More mental activities and less stressful ones. That will be the rule for some time to see if his nutty behaviour is indeed stress related. If it is it can be fixed but it's important to do it sooner rather than later. .

Bored?

Sleepy bored puppy. Waiting for the morning walk while i write necessary e-mails and do laundry. Which reminds me, those sheets are on next.

Cockerspaniel?

After a bit of trimming he actually looks like a cocker spaniel... Except that his hind legs are naturally (for him) too far front (which I think is more normal) so his behind is too high compared to the Standard... his fur looks similar though...

I probably did something wrong somewhere, but since I have yet to find somewhere to learn that isn't too far away from here, I now learn by trial and error. . .

Now he just made the kitchen a mess by having dug up the whole garden.... But the he made me calm down by cuddling up to a tiny piece of blanket that had fell on the floor from the chair... It's hard not to be angry sometimes, but its even harder to stay angry.... He's so cute..

Happy belated easter by the way...

Another angle, a different camera..

I received about 15 dog books that I hope to have read most of within a week, given it takes about 30 minutes to read one, I don't think it will be too much of a problem.

The one I just read was a guide and method on how to stop the dog pulling the lead, she claimed (as I have also heard others do) that harnesses reduces pulling. "I'll believe it when I see it", I thought. Now I have seen it.

There is a significant difference in Feistys pulling patterns when he's in the harness compared to when he's in a collar. I wont stop use the collar (because he really hates the harness) but I will use it when I have energy and motivation to train "walk nicely" (at least one walk per day).

When I have read one book from each author I will order some for myself (because these are all loaned).

After every book I will write a short summary/review, is anybody interested in me writing it here, or should I just keep it to myself?

Poser

I forgot to blog this when i took it . . I think he looks so cute. .

In harness

Looking cute

Harness

Eating snow

Fajsty in the flowers

When the snow melted the spring flowers dared to peep out of the ground.

After play

Any ideas on how to stop that happening?

Fajsty in the snow

His first really snowy day. He was nuts.

Snowplay

It didnt help that he found someone to play with while being nutty and running around like an idiot.

Mum taught Fajsty how to dance, and Gary thinks its the coolest thing ever

Update

Gary plays football on Tuesday and Thursday evenings so me and Fajsty tag along because Fajsty is the new mascot of Örnia .

We use the grass field to practice things like stay, come, slalom between legs etc.
He's a star at that there, and after that we practice to be calm around people with varied results.

Other than that I have tried to implement brain-exercises in every walk, something that seems to reduce his nuttiness a notch.

Bat dog

Ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner BAT DOG!!!!

Play with me. .

Trying to convince me that it's a better idea to go out and play than to do the dishes. .

Work Work Work ... and Study.

Thank god for good neighbours.


I got work 3 days in a row and with about 8 hours prior notice my neighbours happily agreed to take the care of doggie during the days.

Today it is only from 9 but I have to leave a bit early to do some errands, but the work means 3000 kr extra in pay which means I can buy the agility-tunnel at hööks for me and doggie.

The homework from last weeks training was to note all the dogs calming signals. Well I havent been home that much (because when I am done at work I go straight to school). But I have noticed at one point before the evening walk he licked himself like nothing else (round the mouth) and yawned like 10 times in 5 minutes. So I think he showed the whole weeks signals in that evening.

Sometimes when Gary wants to play or cuddle and Fajsty isnt really up to it he turns away, I'm not sure if its a calming signal or not.

I just found out that Marjoram (Mejram) has calming effects.
Didn't know that before.

Time to go to work.

Have a nice day everybody, just a reminder, you know anybody can comment now, and all the images are clickable!

Spring

I'm telling you. Everybody and everything is convinced it's spring again.

Kitchen belly up

Just now he lay down, fell asleep and rolled over on his back.

Dinner

Fajsty is terrorizing margot from a distance. We got invited for dinner and Fajsty will soon taste his first shrimp.

Photo

As promised. Fajsty and margot before he made margot brown. .

11 days...

11 days since last post..

Thats a long time, I have been quite busy with school so I'm afraid there hasn't been too much doggie-training going on.

We had a class in vallås last Sunday and he behaved slightly schizo, sometimes completely nutty and sometimes an angel.

The angelic moments:
I said Fot, and he walked by my side even though all he really wanted was to run around ... He walked there until I said Varsågod.

We were practicing Stay, I had him lie down, said wait (which is my word for stay) and then rushed off myself. And he stayed. I am sure that if I had rushed behind something he'd come too... but its progress none the less.


I haven't even had time to brush him as often as I would have liked. the goal is a short one every day and a longer one every 3rd or so.



I am thinking about calling a dog hotel and have him stay there for a couple of days, both for him to get used to it and for me to get my life and studies sorted a bit.
But it costs from 150:- per night... for more than one night it is 100:- per night, so for example 3 days will be 300:- But they say they do not take puppies, so I guess that particular one is out...

I have to think some more about that....
Just spent an hour browsing them....

Long doggiewalk planned at 13:00.. May send a picture from there if I get a good one.

Pretending

Pretending to be sleeping and patiently waiting for the evening walk. .

In training

This is what we look like on training . .

Local forest

On the edge of our block there is a tiny bit of forest. Just by the field. We sat there today enjoying the warm sun. It was a nice moment.

A lot

It's been a while since a decent post because I have been really busy....

So here's what happened:

• Sunday = perfect dog after 11:00,
• Monday = Nutty,
• Tusday = more nutty in the morning, excellent in the afternoon,
• Today= So far so good. well behaved, listens to commands and follow them.

Homework 3
Indecisive leader
Have the dog with you without command, walk 2-3 steps forward, 2-3 to the side, 2-3 backwards and keep doing that in a random order. If the dog follows, click and praise. Also vary the speed, snailpace, running, normal, slowly etc...
If doggie has trouble keeping up, just take one or two steps forward, click and praise (if it follows).

Sit and stay with "Here" every 3rd time
Say sit and stay, walk 1 meter away, every 3rd time: say "here" (Hit)and click as soon as the dogs moving towards you and reward when it has arrived, the other times you just walk back and praise when you have arrived back.

Stop
Walk with the dog normally, say "stop" and break softly with the lead if needed. When the dog is standing still with all 4 legs, count to 3 and then click/praise Repeat..

Walk nicely/Heel
Train this on your daily walks, but not always on the same place! Vary amount of steps before reward and never go so far that the dog makes a mistake, then you've gone too fast forwards. Click/Praise as long as the dog goes on the right spot by your side.

Okay... when I first read that I thought, we'll never be able to do all that in one week. But the "heel" (Fot) command works quite well, in any situation I have tried so far (not too many) I can say Fot and he joins up by my side looking expectant. It's pretty cool..
He doesn't stay there for too long unless I talk alot with him, but thats a good exercise for me too.

Next class will be focused on fetching. Must remember to bring something fetchable...


Thing that happened yesterday was that he ran off on a wild crow chase on the beach.... Normally he chases them for a few minutes and then comes back to me, but that time he didn't give a crap about me, was too busy chasing birds,.. he ran so far he was only a dot on the horizon. Then I was happy I was alone at the beach so nobody else could see it.....
I caught up with him after some running, and when he needed to pee I called him. he came trotting as if nothing was wrong. We walked straight to the car and home and into the shower after that.

The stupid rows didn't help though, he'd chase one up and it'd move like 4 meters so he could chase it again. Normal birds fly away!

Next time we go (in a long time I think) he'll be on the rope and I'll have good gloves on (so the rope doesn't burn my hands) . .

Tent?

It seems like pup has discovered a liking for lying under stuff. maybe he thinks we stay up too long. It's almost ten and time for the evening pee walk. I gave up on training today. He was too nutty. We will go to the beach tomorrow and i will try to train some things there.

Summer?

Had it not been so very cold in the air and even colder in the shadow i'd argue that the summer is coming.

Grooming

Now is the time for fur care as he's loosing quite a lot. Maybe it's the puppy fur or he, as the hedges and flowers, thinks it's spring. It can't be spring because it hasn't been winter yet?!

First class of group Training

We walked down to the city, because it wasn't so far and we were awake in good time (F woke me up 17 minutes past 9, 13 minutes before my alarm would go off. I somehow thought I was late so I shot up and got ready in a flash.

Trainer felt sorry for us for walking so she drove us home.
I told her though that we walked because we wanted to, not because we had to.

(click the link to see a picture resembling the dog in question)

Only five (perhaps six) people in the class. I'd say F-dog is second best at what we did today. There is one black furball (Saga) who barks insanely for periods, and then is quiet for (thankfully) longer periods. Sometimes it could walk really nicely next to a dog and other times it couldn't be near anybody before it started... Interesting but probably annoying when one has a headache.

Then there is a Rhodesian Ridgeback (Billy) who is a puppy like Fajsty and has about the same traits only F seem to listen to a few commands a little bit better. I think its one of the biggest dogs Fajsty has ever met. (he's seen Great Danes but never really said hi to them).

There is a "dvärgschnauzer" (dont know what that is in english) called Siri who is the one that is slightly better than Fajsty at most of the things we did today.

Also a Danish Swedish Farmdog, I think its name was Laban but I'm not sure. It looks sort of like the dog on the picture but it has only white feet and tail, most of the dog is brown.

So all in all its a good bunch, all female owners, mostly male dogs (well, 3 of 5)...

We trained things like Sit wait, Come here, lie and wait, walk nicely and some more things I cant remember. F was Really excellent in all but go here (there were too many interesting sticks around) I think he was getting very tired by then too.

Doggie Homework 1 and 2

Homework:

- Teach your dog what the clicker signal means.

Use:
10 minimalistic pieces of candy
Clicker
How:
Click = Candy in the mouth.
How often:
2 times (with 10 candy) for 3 days.
Day 4:
Click when the dog isn't watching, if he looks up and or comes, give a candy and you're finished teaching him what the clicker means.


- Sit and Stay with disturbances
How:
Sit the dog down, tell it to stay, then for example say hej, elvisp, oopsidaisies, tie your shoes, drop the candybag, drop the clicker etc. praise the dog a lot verbally when staying sitting in the more difficult situations.

- Stop when walking
How:
Walk with the dog on the lead, stop yourself and softly break with the lead at the same time as you say stop. Click/Reward when the dog is standing completely still.

- Walk nicely
.. Well we have been trying this one before with various results...
How:
Have your dog on the left side without command then say preferred command (heel, walk nicely, walk here) Only once and take a few steps forward, the slightest movement from the dog showing it is walking with you on your left side, rewards with click and candy.
If everything goes well wait with the reward until the dog has taken 2-3 steps in your desired direction with kept contact with you.

Important is to only make it more difficult once the dog masters the less difficult task completely.

Hiding.

I think he heard my thoughts about showering. But i meant that i would have one, not that he should have one.

On that note i'd like to add that i'm trying to cut down his showers to every 14 days instead of every week. Partly because good schampoo is expensive and partly because a too clean dog gets more matting (tovor) than a not so clean one. It seems to be working so far.