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.

Celebrities ;o)

I have reason to be happy and proud again: first of all for Karin and Fancy, because Karin's photo of Fancy is on the cover of America's next year Sheltie calendar!!!

And Lucky and Rocco are in too!!! Pictures are taken by Karin on our last summer Sheltiephotoday. I'm sure you recognize Lucky (well, just in case - he's the tricolour with sweetest face in the world) and Rocco is the one standing tall in the lake.
Real celebrities, aren't they ?

:o)

Lucky’s I litter 1 year old

Lucky's puppies get 1 year old today, 27.08
Happy birthday Essi, Indy, Peppi, Ari, Inna, Mandi and Potter

This litter turned out very good – all puppies are beautiful and all have wonderful characters.

Already in this young age they have quite a lot good show results:
WCL Inkpepper “Essi” has 1 x Jun CAC in Estonia
WCL Blue Avatar “Peppi” has 2x BOB Puppy, 2xCAC in Finland
WCL Blackpepper "Mandy" 1x CAC in Finland
WCL Blue Aragon “Ari” is German Jun CH, Ausburg JunW (in only 4 shows!)

I collect all the pictures I get to their album
and here are the links to their own pages
Essi and Indy can be followed on www.whitecoastal.net.
Essi’s page http://www.whitecoastal.net/index.php?act=art&lk=283 and
Indy’s page http://www.whitecoastal.net/index.php?act=art&lk=284

Peppi’s blog: http://shetup-shetup.blogspot.com/ and
homepage: http://www.shetup.net/peppi.htm and
albums: https://picasaweb.google.com/katriina.kauhaniemi/Porvoo3072011#

Ari’s page http://www.sheltiezucht.ch/

Inna’s (WCL Black Bonsai, kennel New Spices) page: http://kotisivu.dnainternet.net/niussa/koirat/index.htm

Mandi’s (WCL Blackpepper, kennel Rosebridges) page: http://www.sunpoint.net/~rosebridge/nartut/mandi2.html

WCL Blue Potter is living in Estonia, I hope some day we’ll meet him and then I can share more information about him with you.

Lucky and Fancy the “cover kids”

I’m so proud - Lucky and Fancy are on the cover of Netherland Sheltie club magazine! I’m proud of my beautiful little Lucky and his beautiful little friend Fancy and my talented friend Karin who made this photo. Miracles just come out from Karin’s camera one after another, it's great that we have had possibilities to be part of them.

Preparations for winter :o)

There's no better time to prepare for the winter then the hot summer :o) Well, skipping the weather aspect - I found contacts of a lady who makes yarn of the dog's hair. And even better - she knits from this yarn too. I have carefully collected all the hair Rocco and Lucky have donated and we are very well prepared for the winter now:

All our winter collection on the photos is ~80 % made of Rocco's and Lucky's undercoat, it's warm, it's soft and I love the colour. I'm very sure, that not only arms and head stay warm on winter, but heart too!!!
BIIIIIG thanks to Airi and if you wan't to see her angora's (white colour in our winter collection comes from Airi’s white bunny) and handicraft, here's the link to her blog: http://airiangoora.blogspot.com/

And to stay honest to Lucky and you I have to come back to his hair donation. Because Lucky doesn't agree here. By his opinion his every single hair in my dog-hair-foundation has been violently robbed from him :o). He hates my grooming bag and escapes even if he suspects I'll plan to groom him :o).

We are back again

Greetings from Lucky and Rocco after the long brake in our blog. It seems I'm very capable to keep myself very busy and as I definately won't steal time from my daughter and dogs there's just computer left to steal that time from :o). But all my big projects are over for now, so I hope there will be more life here again in the future.
To write here all the things we have done in between would make this posting too long, so I'll try to make it short:
Starting last autumn - we started agility trainings with Lucky.
Our trainer is Kristina, my friend and ovner of Lucky's friend Joker and Rocco's friend Kendzi. Years ago, when we run agility with Rocco, I admired cooperation between Kristina and Kendzi and Kristina's handler skills. Though Kendzi is retired now, they still are my favourite agility couple and probably always will be. Thank you, Kristina, for teaching us!!! And I just have to mention that Kendzi is Estonia's first International Agility Champion and this far the only one . Talking about our training - Lucky loves agility. He loves all the training, but running he loves even more then treats and toys I offer him on the agility field. We competed up to highest class with Rocco, before he had to retire because of his arthritis, but with Lucky I feel like I hadn't ever run agility before - Lucky is just so fast. But he is fast in everything, even barking 10 x faster then Rocco :o). And Rocco is agility tourist now, waiting in the crate and eating candies for that. Here's couple of pictures and I'll keep you updated with our progress



About winter there is a few postings already, but just to summarize : it was wonderful . With so much snow, that most roads to our beloved walkingplaces stayed closed almost until the middle of April and everywhere else you could think about walking the dogs were skiing trails and walking and dogs were prohibited. Well, still I hope that Rocco & Lucky don't have reason to complain, here's some photo evidence for you. Starting from the most beautiful I have - here is a slide show of photos made by Karin Põiklägu and bigger pictures you can see here.

Then a new experience for me - driving on the ice road. I'm not sure if dogs appreciated the new experience, but it was interesting for us. And dogs got a walk on island.


Then spring. Again I have many beautiful pictures made by Karin to show to you

And now it's summer. The weather has been amazing, sunny and very, very hot . Dogs enjoy their summer freedom at our country home. At the evening, when I get home they greet me well rested and waiting for me to entertain them :o). Lucky has most sweetest "back-molar-hi" for me :o) It means he jumps up on me and if I give him my hand to lean on (because he want's to be taller to say hi properly) he'll chew my hand and kiss me alternately :o) . There's so many things he would like to do (all those things include speed :o). ) and he is confused to choose which one to ask. Rocco, just the opposite, knows exactly what he would like - to go swimming. He is real Shetland beaver - first one to go to water and last one to come out. Swimming 30 minutes without resting is no problem for him and considering it's good for his joints + it makes him happy, I haven't really limited him. Lucky doesn't see any point in just swimming, he complains when we go in and only sometimes joins us, if it seems to him we have too much fun without him. BUT... he could chase water splaches endlessly. If I stop the splach-game and turn my attention on something else, he'll look my leg in water for some time, beeing very concentrated and then scrapes me very pollitely to remind about discontinued game:o). And if we go out of the water too early (well, it's always too early for him) he just stands there and won't go out :o). He can go swimming too if we throw something valuable there - like wooden stick :o), but then he still first tries to walk on water :o). I haven't understood why retrieving from water is so fun for him. He very seldom retrieves on land. His favourite game at home is football. Me and Kelli play with his soft ball and he chases it back and forth and barks all the time :o).
Now, link to summer album and that's all for summary. If I have forgotten something important , I'll tell about it later and I'll post some "new" news too and try to keep the track in future ;o)

It's Lucky's 2 years birthday today!

My dear Lucky is 2 years old. No, young :o). Still our happy, active, fun, sweet, little puppy, bringing joy to every single day.

Happy birthday dear little friend, happy birthday Foxy, Isac, Max and Shadow.

Here are pictures of Lucky's birthday parties with friends:


Walk with Kendzi and Joker And puppy birthday for Lucky and Fancy, pictures by Karin Põiklägu

Merry Christmas

I hope you had wonderful Christmas. We had. With a Christmas tree that we has grown big and beautiful on our land, Christmas traditions (on the pictures below), cooking and eating. But most important, with real Christmas feeling living in our home - our little daughter. And most wonderful winter outside. There's sooooo much snow and snowing more and more. We are blocked at our country home :o) We definately can't get our car out of here before snow plough comes and opens the road, also trains are very out of chedule and I have to be at work on 8:00 on monday. But I'll worry about it tomorrow and it's still wonderful in this snowstorm. Wonderful, wonderful winter, just like when I was small :o)

Here's some pictures of our Christmas:

Taking hay and carrots and apples for wild animals.

Christmas criminal Pätu sleeping to rest and start again playing with Christmastree decorations :o)

Full moon has made nights so bright

And here are Christmas cards from our friends:

On this card is Lucky's daughter White Coastal Little Blue Avatar "Peppi" who is living in Shet Up kennel in Finland

Winter wonderland

It's amazing how wonderful winter we have. Soooooo much snow outside. Just like last winter, only this year the snow came earlier. And there's a lot of it. And snowing more and more every day. A lot of snow seems to create a lot of problems - to those who have to clean it. We don't, we enjoy it very much. As extra bonus to everything you can do when it's so wonderful snow outside, dogs stay clean and they can't escape, only walk on road with us :o)

It was easy to promise, that I take winter pictures for you, in reality it's not so easy to get good photos when it's snowing. But at least you get the idea what we have here: