Sunny day - finally!

There's been raining, raining and raining. Okey, not all the time, but when it's not raining, then it's cloudy. I hope we'll get better weathers soon. Today seemed very promising! :)

We haven't done anything special. When I come from the work, I usually go to the walk with the dogs or just sit down and surf in the internet. Because of the rain, I have been very lazy. I have trained with the dogs, especially with Niji, some obedience. We participated to the unoffisial obedience competition with Niji and we did quite well :) Niji got 191,5 points out of 200! :D We were 1st on our class (Open class, our first "competition" in that class!). We have second unofficial obedience competition in next week (on saturday). The official competition is on August, but these unofficials are very good practice for the officials ;)

There is our points (ten is the best number):

Down-stay 10 (Coefficient 3)
In open class dog have to down-stay 3 minutes and the handler is out of sight the hole time. In our case there wasn't anything to complain.

Off-lead heeling 10 (coefficient 2)
There's turns to right and to left and ofcourse reverses in the scheme. There have to bee some stops and runing part. Heeling isn't very long. Niji is very good in this "move". We haven't have any problems with this :)

Down in motion 10 (coefficient 2)
This is a motion where dogs have to heel about ten meters and after that the handler command the dog to lay down. The handler keeps moving until he get permission to stop and go back to the dogs side. There's been one problem with this move with Niji: She is too slow when she lays down, but it's much faster than before because I have trained this with clicker.

Recall 8,5 (coefficient 3)
The handler leave the dog, wich is sitting, and goes about 20 meters (I don't remember the distance correctly) ahead and calls the dog. There's a spot (it's market with something, like orange cone) where handler have to stop the dog. And after the stop handler calls the dog to him. We lost points because of my mistake! :D I stopped Niji too late, so she was crossed the mark... So that's why we lost some points :)

Stand in motion 10 (coefficient 2)
This is same move than the down in motion - only difference is that dogs have to stand. This is Nijis best move - she knows exactly what to do. This is always been our strongest move :)

Retrieve 10 (coefficient 2)
Handler throws a dumbbell and dog have to bring it. This is very difficult move to us. Sometimes Niji likes this, sometimes not... I have trained this before Niji gets her dish and thats how Niji have got motivation for this. I wasn't sure how this was going to go, but my worring was needless ;) Niji did very good job with this!

Signal exercise 10 (coefficient 3)
The handler leave the dog, wich is staying down, and go about 5 meters from the dog. Handler give a signal with a hand and/or say the command. You have to get dog to sit, then down, again sit and last move is down. After these, handler goes back to dogs side (this is very hard to expline, I'm sorry if you didn't got the point of this move!). Niji did this very well! :)

Jump over the obstacle 8 (coefficient 2)
Dog have to jump over obstacle, then sit there and come back to the handler (dog have to jump when he comes back). Niji took false start, so we lost 2 points... Niji had fun so she wasn't concentrating and jumped before I have time to command her. Well, the main thing is that Niji had very fun in the competition! :)

General impression 10 (coefficien 1)
The judge rates handlers and the dogs cooperation etc. We got only positive comments from our judge :)

I hope you understand my explanations! ;D It was difficult to find the words and a way how to put them!

Theres some photos from the beach from last saturday. The both of the dogs were enjoying themselves. It's very nice to watch them when they play together on the water and run like a wind on the beach. I were on the beach today too, but only with Nepo this time :) He was so happy when I throwed a stick for him :) It's hard to believe that Nepo is almoust 5-years-old! Time is running so fast - too fast.

Oh, I almost forget that I will move soon (1.9.) to the own apartment to the Sotkamo! :) It's a apartment house, so I have been thinking that I leave Nepo here, to the country, because he will stress because of voices from other apartments. I will see Nepo often because my parents doesn't live far away and Nepo is going to live with them ;)

Thats all for this time. Tomorrow we have unofficial agility competition.. And we haven't practiced. Seriously!

See ya soon!

And that's how it begins

This is very exciting moment because I'm writing first time on my lifeblog in english ;D I will try my best, but I have to say that it's quite hard ;) I hope this will improve my english skills.

First of all I want to introduce my belgians, Nepo and Niji, to you! :)

Nepo is almost five-years-old male groenendael who don't care about other people. His life is around me, but sometimes he thinks that my life is around him and that's our problem. Nepo have been very hard for the first dog (I have been with dogs my hole life, but Nepo is the first one) so I have learned (and I will learn) much from him.

Nepo's official name is Marmara Open Heart (He is from kennel Marmara) and he celebrates his birthday on 15.10. (He is born in 2003). Nepo loves any kind of sticks and balls. Nepo's and my favorite thing is agility. Nepo likes jumping and he turns very easily from my handling. We don't compete in agility or anywhere else (I mean in obedience and working dog trials) because of Nepos charaster. Sometimes I go and do a track for him so he can use his nose for something else than locating food in the kitchen ;)

Jep, Nepo loves food. Before last autumn he ate anything what I throw to him. He even ate some very little stones from my friend! He thought that those stones were sausages... Things have changed after Nepo had very bad inflammation in his stomach because of stress. Nepo is always hungry, but he don't eat anymore what ever I offer to him. I don't know why, but his appetite isn't anymore that huge what it was about six months ago.

Nepo got "a little sister" about one year ago when I took Niji. Nepo and Niji are like a day and a night when it comes with their charasters. Niji loves everyone and everything! I were used to Nepos attitude for humans and then comes Niji who licks everyone's faces and climbs to everyone's lap. I think it's better this way when we speak about belgians ;) Soreness is a big problem in this breed I think. Niji is worlds kindest dog. She loves kids and would lovely play with them to the end of the world.

Niji is talented in tracking so thats our main hobby, but our hobbies are also agility, obedience and searching. Niji compete in open class in obedience. We have competed three times in beginner class. Every time we have got a first price and that means that Niji have a title TK1. Our next target is TK2 wich means that we have to get three first prices from open class. We haven't competed yet in open class, but our first trial is on 9.8. Before that we have two unofficial obedience trials.

Niji have also done the behavior test (I'm not sure what BH is in english ;D ) so she have right to compete in working dog trials. We will some day compete in tracking and searching but it's somewhere in the future.

Niji's official name is Willow Creek Missy (she's from kennel Willow Creek) and she is born on 29.1.2007.

Both dogs love swimming so we go often to the lake. Nepo loves bring the sticks from the water and Niji just likes to hang out with Nepo and the swimmers. She is also worried if somebody goes under water.

There was something about the dogs. About me, I'm almos 20-years-old girl from Finland and I graduated from both upper secentary school and vocational school. I studied dogs in my school. I don't know what's my vocation in english :D I hope that I can do a dog therapist's job in the future. Before that I try my best to improve my knowledge about dogs behavior and training. Now I work in a pet shop trying to get money to the driving licence ;) I hope that I can soon go to driving school.. It's hard live without own driving licence and a car especially when you live in nowhere ;D

Well, I think that's enought of us :) There's some photos from yesterday when we were on the beach: