RYMY, HUGO & COCO AS DRAWINGS

Look what I've got!!

They're absolutely gorgeous, are they not? Yeah, I know they are 

(even without you saying so).

Both of these awesome pictures were drawn

by my beloved slave friend Addy,

just  because I asked her to.

They're actually part of a bigger project of mine ours,

but for the time being, I won't explain it any better... 

although I'm not very good when it comes to keeping

my own secrets, so.

Anyway, I had to share these babies with you guys, obviously.

ONKO SINULLA AIKAA KOIRALLESI?

"Today I have a hundred and one things to do.  As well as filming for the various shows I have, I run a business that takes up a lot of my time.  I am also a mother, and when I am not on the road, my daughter and her needs take precedence over everything else.   Yes, there is a team that works with me, but like a lot of people, my workload is still vast and it’s hard to find the time to get everything done.  I’m not complaining, but I think that sometimes my dogs might.

I have never been comfortable with having dogs that just fit into my day.  I fully admit that there are some times when I don’t want to take them for a walk or play with them – there are so many other things I need to get done and it would be a lot easier if I had those extra hours each day to do them.  However, I just don’t feel right until my dogs have had daily exercise and all their needs have been attended to.  I personally cannot concentrate until I know they are fulfilled, which means  I make sure a certain portion of the day is set aside just for them.  I am responsible for making my dogs’ lives the best they can be and I encourage all my clients to try and do the same with theirs – making time for the animals in your life is essential for their physical and mental health."

source: Victoria Stilwell's blog post;

Do You Have Time For Your Dogs?

On varsin huojentavaa tietää, että jopa yksi maailman suosituimmista kouluttajista kärsii välillä huonoista päivistä ja hetkistä - niistä, jolloin ei vain jaksaisi tai ehtisi, kun on niin paljon kaikkea muuta, vaikka koira tärkeysjärjestyksessään onkin mulle aikalailla ykkönen. 

Boldasin  tuon yhden kohdan, koska samaistun siihen niin hyvin: minäkään en aina jaksa, mutta silloin kun en jaksa, en pysty keskittymään mihinkään muuhun täysillä koska poden niin hirveää syyllisyyttä jostain, mitä minun olisi pitänyt jaksaa tehdä. Minäkään en aina pääse, tai jaksa, lähteä parille lenkille päivän aikana, mutta korvaan, tai mieheke korvaa, tämän melkein aina yhdellä pitkällä lenkillä. Tästä olen välillä potenut myös syyllisyyttä, mutta hitsi, jos sen voi tehdä Victoriakin, ei se voi olla niin huono juttu, eihän?

Toiseksi, pienillä asioilla tosiaan saa paljon aikaan. Loppujen lopuksi sen aktivointipallon tai lelun valmiiksi laittaminen ei vie niin kamalasti aikaa itseltä, mutta koira saattaa jaksaa sen kanssa telmiä pitkiäkin pätkiä. 

Eli tiivistettynä, mä yritän ja teen parhaani, ja se on aika paljon enemmän, mitä moni muu koiranomistaja tässä maailmassa tekee, niin surullista kuin se onkin.  

DOGGY SLEEPING POSITIONS 1 TO 4

(Rymy, these days, is definitely number four - with a hint of three)

VICTORIA STILWELL: What I Learned on my European Tour – Part 1

"We started with a few days in Helsinki. I’d never been to Finland before, and didn’t really know what to expect. I knew the sun didn’t set very much in the middle of the summer, but I still wasn’t prepared for the odd sensation of driving away from the airport with our phenomenal hosts at 11pm in broad sunlight. I was brought to Helsinki to do a live show in the lovely Finlandia Hall by an animal communicator named Maiccu Kostiainen of Animals Talk – one of the most dynamic animal people I’ve ever met. Maiccu is a huge proponent of force-free training and is committed to providing her local Finnish people with as much info as she can. The show was great - fortunately, the vast majority of Finns speak fluent English, so I didn’t need an interpreter. I usually demonstrate my training techniques with rescue dogs from whatever area I’m visiting, but in Finland we had the wonderful problem of not being able to find shelter dogs. There were no shelters, as there’s no significant pet overpopulation problem there. I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to be in a place where not only did people ‘get it’, but they also lived it in terms of their legislation, levels of responsibility with their own pets and overall ideas about pet ownership. In the end, we ended up finding some dogs that had been rescued from Spain (the opposite of Finland in terms of animal welfare in general). Another example of how forward thinking the Finns are in terms of animal welfare is that the use of shock collars to train dogs is illegal. How refreshing!"

(lue koko juttu)

MIKE TYSON VS BRUCE LEE

On Wednesday and Thursday, we yet again had another so called puppy meeting with 

Sherlock. 

(Not that Rymy can be called puppy anymore, he's turning one year next month!!!)

The progress we've seen with these two friends so far, or mainly in Rymy's behavior that is, is quite something. It's awesome, honestly. Whereas in the beginning, Rymy was only trying to dry-hump the little rottweiler puppy (he was about 15 weeks at the time), he's almost completely given up on that one. Sherlock, despite showing some signs of that famous "negative age" where he'd rather do his way than what he's been asked to and despite his rough play-wrestling, has so far been quite gentle with Rymy. He does try and use his teeth a lot, of course, but there's luckily the fact that while Sherlock is heavy-built and strong and knows how to use his paws, too, Rymy is most definitely a lot quicker so they sort of balance each other out.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rymy asks, because he's never (as far as I can tell) done this. "I'm just enjoying this amazing smell," Sherlock says and Rymy's like, okay, I wanna try this thing too! And so he does...

To the audience, it felt like it went on and on about forever.

Rymy even tested this whole thing on his own, but his style differed from Sherlock's quite a bit...

Anyways. Other than that, the meeting included a lot of running and a lot of playing...

These two are actually quite silent when they play - mostly it's Rymy who makes some noise, if at all; either to let the playmate know that he's not comfortable with his huge mass on top of him ;D -- or because he's frustrated, for example, if he can't get a toy out of Sherlock's powerful jaws. Sherlock is quite smart, by the way, because when Rymy comes too close and tries to take the toy, he blocks our whippet with his body; he simply turns around. Rymy's answer to everything is naturally running so it gets kind of funny-looking when he's just running around Sherlock, persistently trying to get the toy and Sherlock just keeps turning around on the spot :D A nice way to tire our baby out, indeed.

Sometimes Sherlock would come seek shelter from Rymy's never-ending-energy by sitting next to us or like in this case, between me and my sister.

At this point, my sis was saying how she wants a dog like Sherlock, the kind that lets you pet him and everything! As much as Rymy loves people, he's never been one to enjoy petting as much as you'd "expect" a dog to enjoy and personally, I'm totally cool with it. It's our guests who usually find it odd and some even a bit annoying because all they'd wanna do is pet the dog. Their wants and desires are not, fortunately, my problem so I'm all good and content :)

Oh and! On Friday, after an hour or so, the boys both fell asleep on the floor. It took a while for both of them to calm down because they kept looking over their shoulders, so to speak, and at one point, I actually had to hold Rymy on the couch with a STAY -command just to get him stay still for a few minutes because all he wanted to do was go sniff the sleeping puppy and Sherlock really wasn't into it. Whenever Rymy moved, Sherlock was disturbed. Finally Rymy got it, calmed down and after a few more strolls around the puppy, he finally went to sleep... keeping an eye on the puppy while at it, of course. Sherlock also seemed to realize, in the end, that Rymy would not jump him or anything and just closed his eyes and started snoring.

Yeah, I had a lot of fun and I think the boys did too, so I really do hope Sherlock continues to visit us frequently :)

VICTORIA STILWELL - OPERATION SECOND CHANCE

Operation Second Chance - jail dogs!

 

"Operation Second Chance, or Jail Dogs, started in February 2010 as a partnership between Sheriff Butch Conway and the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department and The Society of Humane Friends of Georgia. It is, to the best of our knowledge, the first program of its kind in a jail. Most programs like this are in prisons, where the inmates are there for a long-term, known period of time. Inmates at Gwinnett's Detention Center are there often for short periods of time, with much inmate turnover on unit, which offers some unique challenges and opportunities. The Sheriff and his staff provide the unit and supervision, screen and select inmates for the unit, and welcome potential adopters into the unit to visit or adopt dogs. SOHFGA provides all financial support for the program (no taxpayer dollars are spent), selects the dogs, handles the application and screening process for potential adopters, and supports the volunteer efforts by the trainers and others.

Started initially with five dogs pulled from the euthanasia line at Gwinnett County Animal Control, Jail Dogs now houses over fifteen dogs at a time. Upon arrival at the unit, each dog is assigned a primary inmate handler, in whose room the dog sleeps, plus either one or two secondary handlers. This not only gives more inmates access to dogs and ability to learn handling skills, but also provides continuity for the dog should one of its handlers leave the unit. Trainers visit with the dogs and inmates three times a week, teaching the inmates how to train and care for the dogs. Basic obedience, tricks, and agility are all taught to the dogs and many have become quite adept! We also have groomers, vet techs, and other animal welfare volunteers and professionals visit the unit to educate the inmates on different issues surrounding the dogs, their care, and ways to reduce pet overpopulation.

Since the program's founding, over eighty dogs have been rescued, vetted, trained, and adopted into new families. In addition to saving dogs, we're also benefiting the inmates, giving them new skills in dog training and handling, as well as learning to care for something other than themselves and the knowledge that they have made a positive difference in a dog's life."

(source) 

EXCITABLE GREETING SYNDROME? CHECK!!!

HUGONATOR PICSPAM WITH SOME DOG ON THE SIDE

I've been having some problems with livejournal and therefore, haven't been able to update Hugo's own blog properly - I promised a Hugo picspam over there forever ago and I figured it's finally time to fulfill that promise, only I'll do it here instead :)

 Oh and, btw, in case I've forgotten to mention it in English, all the posts focusing on Huge can be found under the päätähtenä hugo-eevert -tag.

The last time I updated said journal, Hugo had that spot on his chin, which turned out to be a small abscess. The  vet emptied the spot and Hugo was on antibiotics for a while, but unfortunately, the abscess returned and the procedure had to be redone. Since then, Hugo's been fine and at times, rather adventurous, too.

Anyways!

One evening, a little while ago, we were cleaning Hugo's place and as usual, placed him on the sauna's floor inside a fleece blanket.

Hugo decided that H's smelly shoe is a much better spot for waiting.

After the cleaning, Hugo had his "dry" dinner

- and as always, looked incredibly cute eating :D

 ---
THE STORY OF A ONE STUBBORN HEDGEHOG:

"I want to go through these legs. Period."

"FINE, DAMNIT, I'M GOING AROUND, THEN!"

(and while at it, I'm gonna try and taste your sweater a bit) --->

Another day, Rymy's toys smelled so nice that Hugo had to self-anoint a few times:

Rymy got bored of his big bro and seized an opportunity as I was on the floor with Huge and H.

Rymy dropped his goodie on the floor, right next to Huge and waited a moment. It looked as if he'd waited to see whether or not Huge would accept his present :D Such a gentleman, our Rymy. Seriously, though, he doesn't seem to mind sharing his stuff with Hugo, at all.

In the end, Rymster ate it himself, though

RYMY TAKES IT EASY

A few pictures taken last month. First of all,

 ... one morning we were on the sofa with Rymy when my phone suddenly rang. I moved to pick it up, I guess I accidentally pushing the dog a bit or at least disturbing him in the sense that he moved on his own. The next second I realize he's fallen of the sofa with a thumb but against all expectations, he simply continued sleeping on the floor. Didn't open his eyes, not even once. I laughed, honestly.

 Rymy has a very special style when it comes to playing.

Same goes for sleeping... firstly, when I'm on the computer, some part of him just has to touch me. This time it was his paw against my scary toes. And secondly, the position; it's really one of his favorites - yet again, it took a lot NOT to laugh and wake up both of my sleeping men :D

 "How ya doin'?"  (like Joey would go, obviously ^^;) I don't understand how any girl could resist this face, not to mention the attitude.

 When he isn't doing something "bad" outside, like digging or eating the terrace's carpet, Rymy often sits on this big pile of snow we have in the backyard. He can sit there for five minutes in a row, just watching the neighborhood and eating snow while at it. I'm kinda hoping he'll eat the whole pile so it won't melt and make a lake of our backyard come spring. We'll see.