Winter

By estonian national calendar, 2 weeks ago the backbone of winter was broken and now every day brings us closer to spring. So it's definately too late to have "merry Christmast" posting up here :o). We don't have very exciting news to tell you, but some things need to be told and so it comes a summary again - of what we have done lately.
Starting with the good news that we finally have the winter outside I was dreaming about since October 1st :o).  Dogs don't need to be washed several times every day and all streets are covered with motivation for Lucky - snow :o). There's absolutely no need to put "candies" for dogs to my pocket, Rocco is very obedient anyway and there's no food in the world that would motivate Lucky better then snow balls:o). Not that he's eating them, just chasing :o). I have tested him in the situation where he was out of leach and there were 2 small babe's ( = nice little bitches) walking in front of us. We passed them playing together without him even looking at them :o). And if he run's free and sees something interesting I only need to mention I have a ball and he turns back in a second. So life is easy for me :o)
Then -  there's one more very special gift Lucky and I got from elves:

 Now I have it on the office wall so Lucky is with me at work too. Biiig thanks to Karin.

What's not so good about winter is that Rocco doesn't much like to join us on our walks. Weather seems to have big impact to his joints and cold or wet weather isn't good for him. So sooner or later I need back-bag to still have him with us on our walks (if any of you have seen such thing, I'm really thinking about it, please let me know too). Additionally Rocco had a strange thing under his skin in the end of last year. We showed it to vet and luckyly it's only a lipoma, nothing bad. I tried to get advantage out of that - told to Rocco, that this is what happens if you steal from puppy's (= Lucky, he always remains puppy in our home :o) ) bowl. But obviously he doesn't care at all :o), if nobody sees, he can't pass Lucky's bowl without emptying it :o). Well, let him enjoy the last opportunities, because in case he want's to travel in back bag in the future, he goes to diet :o). Only carrots and cabbage :o)

And then a good way to entertain your dogs - skiing. I bought ski's year ago -  after about 25  years brake . And my trying to learn to ski again is sooooo funny for Lucky. Last weekend we tried to choose the trail with less people getting part of the fun :o) and let Lucky run free. He ran next to me barking all the time, then went to chase daddy and then back to me again. I had my fancy sport watch, and looking Lucky running free, I thought to test it on Lucky too. So next day we took the same route and Lucky weared the watch. Result was, that when I skied 8.5 km with speed 8.65(now you know why Lucky is barking and laughing next to me, I'm snail slow:o) ), Lucky covered 12.13 km and his average speed was 9.67.  Lucky's speed maybe isn't very accurate, because we met a friend and of course had to chat, which is no good for statistics. But we can test again and I'll tell you, if we improve our results :o). Here's a photo made last weekend:

And this photo is made year ago, on 25.03. This was definately the best skiing trip I have ever had. Days were warm and sunny but nights very cold. Snow was melting at day time and freezing at night time, so it was strong surface to ski on and skis run very fast. We skied on shore of the river, where it's impossible to access in any other time of year and there was nobody else then us. Well, we didn't see, only the footprints - of wolf. Many times bigger then our Jossu's foot prints. And beavers "building" higher then me. This really was great experience.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas has been very different compared to last year. Last year at the same time I was wondering how we get the car out of snow next morning to go to work (well, we didn't, we walked 2 km in snow to main road and borrowed daddy's dad's car :o) ). This year, beeing very optimistic, I can say at least we had kind of white Christmas :

But reason to worry about how we get the car out tomorrow we still have - because of storm today, that has broken the trees to the road. Living in country you really feel the power of the nature :o). Today electricity was disconnected before we woke up in the morning and hasn't come back yet. Wouldn't it be Christmas, I would say the weather has been wonderful today, +9C, full sun. And wind, 35 m/sec that's braking the trees.

But still, Christmas was great, and thank you very much, my dear friends, for wonderful Christmas Cards:

And the sweetest photo I have ever seen - the tricolour of course is Lucky. It's made by Linda, owner of Lucky's sister Foxy and so I post it here with greetings from Linda and Foxy:

Merry Christmas to you and your family

Head vana asta lõppu ja edukat Uut aastat! Kristina & Co

Autumn summary

It has been quiet autumn in our blog. Mostly because we are living our usual everyday life and I don't have big news to tell you. This year it seems that autumn doesn't want to end.  The weather has been warm, but it's dark outside and thinking about bears who can go to winter sleep makes me jealous :o). Last year at the same time it was real winter outside, cold and 45 cm of snow.  Rocco seems to sense cold winter coming this year too, considering his appetite :o). Me too :os.  Together with him we are like vacuum cleaners, checking all the corners of the house for food every evening :o). But Lucky has summer in his heart all year long and that means no weather can't stop him from wanting to go to walk, to play and so on. Well, to make a compromise - we keep preparing with Rocco :o), but we don't go to winter sleep :o).

 But we really have had enough of the autumn now and so I make a summary of it here and hope the snow comes very, very soon.

As pictures tell more then words, I'll contribute to photos again

First a picture with Kelli and dogs and carrots that my mum raised this summer. Also the flowers behind are evidence of my mum's "green fingers". Cosmos flowers seemed really grow to cosmos :o)

One news, probably most important for me this year, about Kelli too - Kelli went to school!

 I had vacation in beginning of September when we walked Kelli to school in the morning and later came to meet her there to go home together. In the mean time we took a long walk on our beach with dogs. Next photo of  Rocco on his birthday. It's funny to think that just a month before this picture was taken, there was as many people on the beach, as sea shells on the photo :o). When we walked there, we meet maybe only couple of people

On the same day - Lucky just being Lucky :o)

Photo made by Karin on our beach on Rocco's birthday walk

And here some pictures taken on our weekend walks at country.

In the end of November it's Kadripäev (St.Catherine's day) in Estonian national calendar.  Day before it Kadri beggars go from door to door wishing good luck and asking candies. Obviously there are different traditions on Shetland, so please excuse the dogs for looking vary to our visitors :o).

We got one more very interesting visitor, on weekend, at our country home. An hunting dog came to take a break on hunting :o). He was very kind and if we first put a leash to keep him until we called on the number on his jacket, later he played with Lucky until his owner arrived and didn't want to leave even then :o)

And last one - photo of our walk last weekend.

There's one very special friend on this photo I haven't wrote about much here - Riki. Riki and Jossu are both living with daddy's parents. And both were stray dogs as a puppy. Riki we found  more then 10 years ago on our walk. He was settled under a tree and we thought his owner is somewhere near. When we walked same route week later, he was still there. We took him food there several weeks hoping he finds his way back home or his owner finds him. But he was so loyal to the place under the tree, never left from there. As it was about same time of the year as now and same weather, getting colder and colder, daddy's parents agreed to take him. And Riki has been loyal. Their garden isn't fenced, but Riki knows the border and hasn't ever crossed it allone. Riki is first dog Rocco met, when he came to us, as Riki was for sure kind and patient. And now he is kind and patient with Lucky. Riki was so much asking to come with us last weekend, that we just couldn't say no to him. And we took the route we used to walk when he and Jossu were young and Rally with us. And later  Rocco, who still thinks Riki and Jossu are sheep and he is their sheepdog :o). 3 old friends were walkig nicely with us and only Lucky flied around like they used to 10 years back. It was sweet to be in same places again, and to think back on "old" times. Wonder, if they remembered their younger years too 

Elves

We got wonderful early Christmas gift:

Biiiiiiig thanks to Lucky's daughter Peppi and Kati, her ovner

Rocco's birthday vol 2

10 years is respectable age, so don't be surprised about one more birhtday posting.

On wednesday we celebrated Rocco's 10 years birthday with his breeder, Inna Tolli.

Thank you, Inna, for this amazing dog, thank you for beeing our friend and shareing your experience for last 10 years.

Lucky HD/ED tested

We got Lucky's HD/ED test results today - AA/00. It's just as it had to be, but soooo good to know.

Rocco is 10 years old

It's Rocco's 10 years birthday today!!!

Link to birthday photos

In most of postings here Lucky is main character, so this will be Rocco's. There's a lot of sweet memories considering our long history together, so it's going to be long one :o).

I start with a sweet habbit he has, that goes back to his second day with us. It was Friday, so we went to our country home after work. Weather was cold and so was the house so when it was time to go to sleep, I didn't dare to leave him on the floor, but took to the bed with us and under the blanket.

He slept all night as my teddy bear. Next weekends we repeated the same procedure and since

that time it has been his tradition every night. No matter what time I go to sleep, he comes with

me and cuddles under the blanket beeing the most calming teddy bear in the world. He can't stay long

because of his long coat, but he hasn't skipped a day.

Next thing that definately needs to be told is his kind help raising Kelli :o). When Kelli was born, I had 0 experience with children before, so often even his heart-warming presence was a big support for me. Kelli was wonderful baby from her first day and slept all night long. But few nights we stayed awake because gas pain and it was scary then to think that everybody else in the house are sleeping but my baby doesn't feel good and nothing I can do can help her. It was much easier then, if little furry friend stayed with us, curled on my toes and helped me watch her. And boy was he worried when Kelli started to cry. Kelli was always in good mood and only reason she cried as a baby was when she got hungry .It always happened very suddenly and then she had to complain loud. Then it was always a big fuss, baby to my arms and again it was peace in our world :o) But not that Rocco could ignore the crying. He too had to act very quickly and usually ended up somewhere next to us, as close to me as possible. So I think he newer knew that baby was saying she is hungry by crying, he tought the reason was him beeing in wrong place :o). And what ever he was doing or where he was, until Kelli told she's hungry by crying, came Rocco as fast as he could and setteled as close to me as possible, beeing happy for solving his little friends problems so skillfully :o) Later they two became good playmates (poor neighbours :o) ) who were always ready to stand up for each other. Like when "no's" of a 2 years old got beyond my patience level and I tried to fix the situation by nagging on Kelli, Rocco was immidiately there, so very worried and quilty, trying to climb in my arms and apologize, so that I had to make a pause in nagging to comfort Rocco's tender soul, after what it was hard to get in nagging mood again :o) and when I tried to spray a very unpopular medicine under Rocco's paw and Rocco of course struggled to save his paw from me, his little friend helped him by starting to cry, so I had to release Rocco and comfort my little girl :o)

One thing that's unusual for a dog is Rocco's playing.

He did play with toys a little as a puppy but later had almost no interest in them. He got (still gets) happy, no, crazy and thrilled when somebody takes water from well:o). And when car  wipers are working. Later he learned to enjoy retrieving game with his friend Jossu - Jossu retrieved the toy and Rocco herded him  by bouncing on his way and barking. With clicker I teached him to like toys too, you should hear his crowl when tugging, very impressive :o). One toy he has always liked, it's Kong stuff-a-ball. This game started years ago, when, wanting to know what Rocco does at home, when we are at work, I hided some dog bisquites for him. Obviously he wondered around the appartement - he found them all. So we continued hiding food for him and he just loved it. It was hard to catch him for his daily "I go to work, be a good boy" lecture :o), he was so focused on going to search his "candies". Later we started to hide food with Kong ball, so he should work more to get it. And from that he created new tradition. Told him to find the ball and bring it to me for filling in the mornings. Now I don't even have to tell him any more, he goes himself after he has eaten his breakfest. When Lucky came, second Kong ball came too and he found and brought them both. In the beginning Lucky only watched him doing it, but soon he got the point and now it's competition who get's first. And as they get revard for bringing the ball, they try to cheat a little too :o) Rocco some days comes a toy or hair donuts or what ever he can find in his mouth. Some days I get quite big collection of thing he has found :o). But little about Lucky too - he has different strategy to earn candies - he brings the ball and put's it on the floor. I give him candy and he quicky grabs ball and escapes with it :o), to come back with it soon again :o). And there's no sad dogs in our home if we go to work, on the contrary, daddy takes them out for 2 minutes last thing before we leave, (just in case they forgot to do something during our morning walk,) they rush back home and sit and wait for us to leave, so they could get their filled balls :o).

Then a topic very important for Rocco - eating ;o). He was very picky eater as a puppy. Dry food in his bowl was ignored all day long, only late in the evening he went and eate it. Well, at some moment, when Kelli made her first steps, it was so interesting for her to go to kitchen, take one kibble, take it to Rocco who was in other room with us and then go to next one. This kind of attention Rocco appreciated and eate all that Kelli brought to him :o). His attitude to try food (all food)
changed totally when Lucky came to us. Lucky had very good appetite, finished his bowl first and usually tried to help Rocco. At some point they changed their roles, now Rocco is like vacuum cleaner - just breathes in all that's in his bowl. He is just always hungry. He is over motivated for food in training and if I give him a tiny piece from my hand he usually takes 2 fingers too :o). With my mom and dad he has his own agreement. After breakfast he gets a piece of cheese from my dad.
He is so silent under the table and appears when he thinks it's cheese time :o). If dad tells him it's too early, he goes back and tries again after a little while :o). And when we are cleaning table he goes to my mom, saying "hi" to her so happily like he wouldn't have seen her for ages. And next to praising and petting usually gets something good too :o)

I think thanks to the genes he got from his father he was born a winners class obedience dog :o). Quoting to a colleaque of mine, he is smarter then some people :o). He has never really needed the leash to control him, he just understands everything I tell him. Something even without the words. This last one - whitout the words - has sometimes been disadvantage :o). He senced me beeing nervous on our first dogshows and obedience competitions and made his conclusions out of it. My last nerves died on our first agility

competition and after that, I think, I have behaved better and better :o), but Rocco hasn't changed his mind during the years :o)

Every dog has something that makes him unforgettable for his family. Those were the sweet and funny sides of Rocco I never forget. And of course his kindness and loyalty to me.

So happy birthday my dear little friend.

I wish strong health to you and many many happy years more with us.

Summerfun with friends

Summer is time to do a lot of fun and meet friends to collect warm memories for cold winter. Same comes to dogs and here are some photos of Lucky and Rocco and their friends having summerfun

First a walk with Kaire and her Cavaliers Winston and Morris. We definately have to take it one more time, the real 30 C summer wasn't arrived then yet and because  of rain we had to hide our cameras and don't have much photoevidence to show you :o)

Look at little Morris flying

Then a beautiful sunny day with Karin and Inna and 7 Shelties.

Here's the slideshow of photos made by Karin

and bigger pictures you can see here

Then a wonderful day with Free Soul Dachhounds Lotte and Annu (Luna was left home this time) and their family

We didn't get 4 dogs on the same picture this time, because it's very cruel to waste huntingdog's time with your camera if the world if full of smells :o). But here are Lotte and Annu before they escaped to chace mices and other prey animals fields and forests are full of :o)

And we managed to catch Annu for one more picture

But a proper Dachhound has more hobbies then hunting, here's Lotte, doing her 10 points diving

1. And should you blame my innocent Shelties - no, it's not because she's escaping Lucky and Rocco :o)

Then, visiting Helle and Uno and Cheddarhill Welsh Springer Spaniels in their wonderful summer home, photos are taken in the bog near to it

Next to Lucky and me is witches broom :o)

And now we are back in town.

I have wonderful pictures to show you of our walk with Karin and Fancy and Pippi on our beach, look at this link.

But here one photo made by Kelli on the alley next to our city home

We very much miss a day with Kristina, Kendzi and Joker, but summer isn't over yet, hopefully we have time to fix this.