BadMonday

At the moment I am a bit behind in everything. It is simply because on 19th of February I ended up laying on veterinary clinic floor.

It really was a bad Monday to all of us. Especially to poor dear Pii. I left the house at 3.50pm and she was completely fine. I arrived at 8.27 pm to hear she had drank water only to throw it out; not only once but three times. Just clear pure water, immediately after drinking. I did the palpation examination and there was simply nothing wrong in her stomach but right after the palpation she hurried to drink only to throw out again. I called the vet. At vet she started to throw out blood and had bloody diarrhea. She was IV hydrated, given medication that prevent bleeding, pain killers, something for nausea and IV antibiotics and taken blood tests. It turn out she had serious intestinal inflammation caused by infectious stomach flu of dogs.

Of course even a fear of loosing your beloved family member is a huge stress. It brings you extra stress when it is up to your cattle or working animal on which your living is partly or totally up to. Pii is soon turning to 4 years and begins to be ready. Loosing her would also mean we loose 4 years of daily work in training her. All it on the moment when she finally is becoming grown up reliable working dog whom I can count on even eyes closed when something weird happens. 

We thank all the friends and family members who supported us in the process. Pii needed 20 pills daily. They needed to be shared so she had time for meds 7 times each day! With animals the meds are given according to their weight so for a dog with 34 kg weight it was a pretty impressive pile of meds. At pharmacy the lady asked how I was going to make my dog to eat them all. Well, that was easy, but making her drinking again was another thing to do because she was 100% sure the water she drank made her sick. Now, after 13 days she is re-trained to drink water again. It was quite sneaky process but I can tell it started with human tea cups, included buckets and a kettle where a frozen meat was sink into clod water. Now she drinks without trouble or feeling nausea when seeing water but not from her old drinking bowl -she backs off when ever she sees it. In the future I need to make her drink from it too, only to wipe away the bad memory. 

We are happy to tell that despite it was infectious Nuka had it very mild. On one evening she had a bit stomach pain and that's all. We all are happy and healthy now. I am going to have a winter holiday week from work and hope I can catch you up with the blog. 💙

Dog in suit

This time the sterilization became the destiny of Pii. She was in the surgery 2 weeks ago. Despite she is pure bred Alaskan Malamute the reasons for the sterilization are the same as with Nuka. Like Nuka, Pii is a working dog. That's why we had her, not to breed puppies.

Pii's surgery and postoperative hours & days were so much easier than Nuka's. So many things have changed since Nuka's strelilization, or even Nuka's dog attack. Modern veterinary has arrived also here. Pii was taken home awake with better pain killers. Her physical fitness has been so much better than other's when fixed. We actually have been training Pii for this occasion. This was her first "physical test".

It took so much patience from Nuka to stand all the fuss and especially too active Pii who wanted to play and had no feeling of sickness. But because Nuka is well behaving dog she obied us and didn't go with the flow. 

Most of the time Pii was able to use the special after-surgery suit. Unfortunately it must wash and dried few times. On those moments Pii used her own bucket. She was a bit upset with it but as soon as she noticed she still can do the most important task, she calmed down. She is excellent dishwasher.

On the video you can see how happy Pii runs free for the 1st time after the surgery. What is the most important in this all "running free fuss" is the command "palaa" which I say on the begin of the video. It means "return". It means where ever she is or intend to go, she needs to turn around and come back to us. It is great to notice, despite she's been like ticking overloaded catastrophe with all the unused energy because of her sick leave, she still has her ears on her head and she hears it all what we say.

Pii has learnt the return command already as a puppy. She knows the wilderness is filled with boogeymen and beasts. She has learnt to return without any treats. To her that word means we are about to leave no matter where she is. She doesn't want to be left behind or alone. She knows it is the rule for it that she can run free. She must obey, not in a moment, not tomorrow, she needs to obey N O W. 

Never set you dog free if you are not 120% sure she obeys you and you can catch her/him when ever needed. 

GrowingUp

Do you remember when Nuka arrived? Do you remember when Go arrived? Do you remember when Pii arrived?

This photo was taken a month ago. Today Pii (left) weights 29,5 kg and Nuka (right) 27 kg. Still Pii is such a little puppy and counts everything on Nuka. Nuka definitely is the alpha female of our little pack.

Our cat Kukka is already 12 years old. Sometimes when it is cold enough she tolerates Pii's warmth and comfort. Slowly Pii has learnt the cat has sharp claws every single time she puts her nose somewhere it doesn't belong to. (Picture above taken by YoungLady.)

Pii is a working dog. She is just 8 moths old puppy but is learning it all. She is the lower one in our pack and loves the life in that way. But naturally, this autumn, she has started to place herself from Nuka's protection on lead when hiking or "being on the run" which in this case means moving on from a place A to place B. In wolf packs the alpha female is behind when moving on. She sees the whole picture better from the back and can give commands. They do communicate also other ways than howling. We just don't know it all yet how they do it. (Picture above taken by YoungLady.)

If we had a sled dog racing team this (Pii on lead) would be a problem because Pii is the biggest and strongest so she should be a wheel dog in the team. But we are not racing. We a living a real life. We need Pii to pull a sled, not to run for the team. She will pull her own sled or someone of us. That changes the situation. So, when you have a sled dog you need to figure out what you need it to do for you. We want her to work, to earn her own living in working: to help in hunting and transporting things in the wilderness. That is what for we need her. That is what for she needs to be trained. And that is why we must adapt her training now when she has naturally positioned on lead.

This means that yesterday she had an extra hard training day. We hiked 4,8 km route. She was pulling me and I helped a lot. The weight was not the most hardest thing. She weights 29,5 kg. I weight 59 kg. I walked and run so I was able to control all the time the burden she had on. The most difficult part was the new command she had to learn. 

"Choose the route."

WHAT!

"Yes, choose the route, decide where it is best to across the fragile ice."

GOSH!

"Yep, choose the route."

Always before we have chosen the route. When Pii has been insecure about it she has turn to us to ask where to go. Yesterday she had to decide. She had to take the responsibility which way to lead us. Only 3 times but it was enough to make her exhausted. Twice she wet her paws but we praised her a lot because she did what we asked, chose the route. In her opinion it was not the right one because she wet her paws in icy water. So, on the third time she was again about to choose the similar route twice before but suddenly stopped, looked back to see how Nuka was about to do it. Pii noticed Nuka was about to across the fragile ice from the other edge. Pii sniffed the ground and walked carefully to the other edge and across the fragile ice there before Nuka. This time she got super praising and we saw she was satisfied on herself too. No wet paws on this time! It was a lucky coincidence that is was the last chose she had to make. (Picture above taken by our GodSon.)

Other difficult thing Pii had to learn yesterday was "the bridge". We needed to across two challenging bridges. The other was 5 m long and 2 m wide but has metal cover over which you need to walk to get to the other side. This metal cover has ice cover on so it keeps similar but not the same sound as fragile ice. It causes confusion and fear. Our dogs love water but they have learnt the lesson. Water is wet and cold. When it is winter it is not fun. And water hides under the ice. (Picture above taken by our GodSon.)

The other bridge we needed to across was 1 m wide but 20 m long. It is made of wood so it doesn't keep scary sound. Under the metal bridge runs a flooding brook. But under the wooden bridge runs flooding rapids. So, both bridges are scary at the same level. 

But when I say "the bridge", they must trust and count on me that it is safe to go on and across it. That lays a huge responsibility on me. I am never allowed to lead them to across the bridge which security I am not 110% sure about. If the bridge falls down under us how can they ever trust in me when it is up to life and death? That is a very important thing we all should remember in our daily lives too. When someone counts on you, don't let them down.

Pii needs to learn to choose the right route because if she is going to be on lead we need to be able to count on her and the fact that she is experienced enough to make right chooses. Wrong choose can cost us quite a lot in arctic wilderness. 

Handling the door

Dog training can be full of challenges you never thought to face. Dog's jumping against the door and escaping from a room or the entire house is one of those things you perhaps didn't think to crash at. We have turn all our strategic door handles upside down already for 25 years. When you do that they can't at first open the door accidentally when jumping against it -and later on by purpose when they learn pressing the handle down opens the door. Even our cat tried to open the doors by jumping up to the handle and hanging from there until it got open!

See the video below how it works.

Little Pii swims

I am happy to tell little Pii has learnt to swim. She had her first moments in swimming on the 13th of June. At the age of 10 weeks. Of course I don't have any pics or videos about those moments because she needed my full attention. But now I have finally been able to make a video about her swimming. On this video she is 11 weeks old. It looks so cute that I could watch it all day long. 

She is very young to swim so we must be very careful and sensitive with it. This neither would have not been this easy if Nuka had not been there helping us around.

Learning to live

You know we had this cute little puppy in May 2020. She grows very fast and needs to learn many things despite she is just a little cute puppy.

She is very co-operative, interest about the world, fast learning, cute, fluffy...

...but you should not think she is not a little devil like all the puppies can be. She seems to be in thousands of places at the same time. She has her moments in good and bad. Still you need to be very patient with a puppy because they are babies and have not learnt it all. 

Despite Pii can be very wild like every single healthy puppy we don't keep her in a crate. Not even because she is a big breed dog with full of energy. Not even because she is so called indoor dog. Indoor dog means she lives indoors with humans.

Of course she has a crate for car travelling and vet visits. When she'll be bigger she'll travel in seat belt instead of crate. For the first few days she had a crate in the house too. We took the door out of it so she was allowed to come and go as she wished. But she rather sleeps elsewhere and we allow her to seek her "own place". We are training her to sleep in every room so that -at the end- the whole house will turn out her bedroom and the garden an amusement park. We started from one room, then go on room by room. When she gets wild we go into garden with her. Slowly she begins to learn the whole house is for the rest and the garden for the wrestle.

Also, it turn out an indoor "dog house" is not an good idea because of the fact that cat loved it. You know how cats love boxes. To avoid the conflicts we removed the crate on that very moment when we noticed the cat was in. For example now when I am writing this, Pii is sleeping under my loom.

Puppies are so clever and want to try out everything. I have had the same old heavy ceramic water bowl for my dogs for 25 years now. No dog before has push it over and believe me, there has been all kind of dogs in this house. But little Pii has one tiny obsession. It is the water. Just like Nuka... So, of course Pii managed to push it over twice on her second day in the house just because she plaid with it.

Well, because ability to swim and being familiar with the water is the lesson number one my dog must learn to save their oven lives we can't deny the access to the water from them. (Access to fresh water is also the priority number one for the animals' physical and mental health.) Because of our needs I can't tell the puppy to stop to play with her water bowl. That's why we offered her bigger bowl in the garden for her needs (24/7). In this way I can teach her not to play with the water indoors but outdoors. Just like we are gently training her to do her needs.

When it finally got a bit warmer we took Pii (and Nuka of course) by the big water. We have been there already few times despite Pii is just 9 weeks old. She is very happy about it but we have not allowed her to go too deep or swim. To avoid bad experiences; but also to keep her eagerness alive. We neither stay long to make sure it cools her down in a nice way but not to make her feel cold. Feeling cold & freezing (you know it for sure) is a thing that creates a negative memory connection with the water. More information about how to train your dog to swim and like the water you can find here.

They both love the water, to play with it... and in it. Notice how thick fur they both have. That helps a lot because they get quite hot very easy.

Cute little Pii has already dive in the sea. It was an accident caused by herself but it didn't spook her up because she has already learnt basics of diving (putting her head into the water to pick up toys she has drop in) when playing in her big bowl in the garden! 🐳

Little Pii

Nuka has got a little sister! Watching the adorable puppy and playing with her gives Nuka an excellent brain work. Nuka has been a great help training the puppy. She watches and listens what I want the puppy to do and helps me out out if she sees she can do it better or for me. She -for example- encourages and even herds the puppy. She also defends her from the neighbor's cat. She pounced like a lightning between the cat and puppy when she saw the cat coming too close. 💗

Of course Nuka's bones are the more tasty ones but Nuka is kind and understanding with her. Especially when I take care of Nuka gets the best bits and all that I know she likes. It is not necessary to let her to have it first what comes to the treats and dog training. She knows the word "wait" and its meaning. She sees and understands what the puppy gets and what she gets. The puppy understands it too. That's why it is not necessary to give it all first to the pack leader. In the wild nature the leaders' job is to make sure the heirs are taken care of -it is just a simple fact of evolution. If the older dog is considered as upper to the puppy it doesn't matter if it is not the 1st one always. They do know what we think!

When I need to feed the puppy or give her bones or toys I always tell Nuka to wait and she knows she gets her award; sometimes it is a dog treat (she hates puppy food because she ain't no puppy at all) or just cuddling or what ever I know she prefers in that situation. It might be even to be closed up in her 3 x 3 m dog fence in the garden where the puppy can't get (there are Nuka's big dog bones which are left over bits from the wild game). To get it all to go just fine we humans need to make sure we are equal and fair to the older dog.

Who is the puppy? She is Alaskan Malamute and her name is Nöhverön Pondora-Pii. Just Pii to all her friends.

How she got her name? Well, "Nöhverön" is her dog breeder's kennel name. This litter is the litter "P" so the name must start with the letter "P". The breeder gave the name "Pondora" and we the name "Pii".

Why on earth we wanted to name her as "Pii"? We had few other names in mind but when YoungLady was solving out her home school math mysteries she suddenly shout from another room to me: "It's Pii! The name of the puppy is Pii!" Now I need to tell you that Finnish word "pii" is "pi" in English. "Pi" has also other meanings. In Finnish "pii" also means the flint, a stone you need to light up a fire. In our family it also means few other things. It makes us to remember MrW who studies math. When we play together as a family and need to calculate the scores we use our initials: I am "T", he is "M", MrW is "W" and YoungLady is "TT". When you look YoungLady's initials it turns out to seem like the symbol of "pi" which happens to be " π ".  The final approval from me to YoungLady's name suggestion was the fact that all the dogs we have or have had has got the name with the literature connection. I am sure you have heard about Yann Martel's story Life of Pi. I read it on my CreteDream holiday but also blogged about it in my ReadingChallenge 2017.

Despite Pi is a boy in the book it is an unisex name with many meanings. Our Alaskan Malamute is just a tiny puppy and we don't know what she will turn out. I know that what ever she'll be this name will have the meaningful connection to it.

If you are interested about my methods in dog training and dog life stories read more if you are a mobile user and choose the label "dog".

Poor dog!

This is a good remind about it that when you are up to animals you should always bring something sharp with you. We were skiing in the woods. Yes, we still have that much snow. Poor Nuka was hit by a branch to her nose, it hurt a lot, she spooked up, jumped to a side, tried to see what was it and backed off in her sled dog harness. The result was, despite it all was still on, it was tied around her nose so tight that only my little finger fit under. There was no other option than cut it off.

I am so proud of her training... and the fact that she trust in me so much. In the middle of the panic I told her "stay" and "hold on". She frozen like a statue, it was so tight that she could not even open her eyes. There she stood, listened to me speaking to her and coming closer to help her.

This is Nuka's sled dog X-back harness. I actually made these years ago for our another dog. They have served well and are still like new despite of the use. I need to fix them now.

Nuka is Back

Since WinterWonderland you have not heard about Nuka. It is because she has been very extremely sick. In February she was attacked -without any reason- by another dog and bitten -very badly- to her throat. We had few step backs because of the injuries. She was taken care of at home -immediately after the surgery- because we don't have animal hospitals. It took several visits to vets, consulting them and all our skills to rehabilitate Nuka in both physical and mental way. If she had turn out aggressive -as the victim dogs often do- I must have put her down because the world doesn't need any more aggressive dogs. I would have managed with her but I am not always with her. That's why I don't handle with aggressive dogs and don't accept or feel pity for them. I am not alone with my dog in this world.

I am happy to tell, Nuka is back, even better than she used to be. While being sick she learnt a lot. It was a hard job but definitely worth of it. This summer she has been helping to teach Go to swim and enjoy about the water.

LittleGo is not so sure about the fun of water but slowly he is changing his mind. He started his lessons already on the last summer but because of his size and fur he gets wet & cold very easily in our arctic summer. It is not fair to keep anyone in the water when feeling cold; so with Go we do slow progress. When you look at  Nuka, you can see her fur acts differently when wet. She is mix bred arctic dog when Go is FineFrenchDog.

Remember to be respectful and sophisticated when teaching a dog to swim. I have blogged how to.

BeFaithfulFriend

During the years I have designed a collection of sayings and stitched them to be true. I used photo stitch method to create this beautiful project BeFaithfulFriend. He is the very first dog of MyOwn. I learnt so much with Him & His Brains & Attitude. He was extremely strong minded and had more "sisu" in Him than you can meet in a person.

MeetingTheHedgehog

I was going through some pics on MyComputer and found something I have not show you yet. In August Nuka met very close and brave a visitor in MyGarden. We have hedgehogs every year. Mostly they have learnt to avoid the fenced area. This time Nuka found one in HerTerritory and what a noise it turn out. She couldn't understand why it stings Her nose when She just wants to find out who that weird creature is.

How is Nuka?!

On the 22nd of June 2018 happened something very planned and very special...

...Nuka became a big sister. 

He is Taikamäen Go -just "Go" to his friends. He is Brittany Dog and born for bird hunting. In Finnish we call them Bretons. It is also called French Brittany or Epagneul Breton.

They love to play together. In these pics Little-Go is 12 weeks old.

It is lovely to see them play.

Sometimes it seems very wild...

...but despite the size difference it is safe for them both.

We allowed them to play free only when Go started to be relaxed with Nuka. The first days passed by when Go was a bit excited about Nuka. But that is only an obvious thing. Their size difference was then even bigger than on these pics. On those early days at the age of 8 weeks Little-Go was smaller than a cat. If the fear and excitement is presence, the play is not safe because the body movement is not best possible.

Soon Little-Go learnt that Nuka is very patient with him and forgives a lot.

He also learns a lot when playing with Nuka.

Nuka has been very patient to teach him the most important thing She thinks a dog can have: to kill.

When Go happens to make the right bite Nuka is so proud of him.

Sometimes it goes a bit wrong and he rolls over.

They indeed are such a good friends. Nuka is happy to be a big sister and Go loves her to the moon and back!

ArcticGarden

I told you earlier about our records with the snow. It has turn out that despite we had hard and very snowy winter, the spring wants to make a great surprise. It seems we are going to have the warmest May than ever before during the history they have been recording & measuring it all. This pic is taken on the 14th of May.

On the 17th of May I was on a walk with Nuka. It was hot (+17 Celsius degrees) but we still found some snow in the woods.

My HoneyBerries started to blossom today. In UK -for example- the flowering time is late winter or early spring. In MyGarden it is late spring or early summer.

I have always claimed that MyGarden is the coldest of the area. What comes to Finland's climate zones it is mostly subarctic / boreal. But Finland is a long country and many local zones fit in. In practical that means that the garden of my mother-in-law locates just 350 meters far away and it is a lot warmer than mine.

This OldHouse was built on 40's. The OldLady of the House seemed to love gardening like I do. But after Her and before Me the garden run wild. Most of these years we have lived here I've been weeding and cleaning the garden. I have been keeping plants that have pop out. Finally after 9 years I know now what this flower on the pic above and below is. It is a clear proof of it that MyGarden is cold. It is RoseRoot!!! WOW!!! It grows in northemost & coldest areas of Finland... and obviously in MyGarden where it loves to stay by the warmest SouthSideWalls!!!!

Beautiful Primulas have been flowering for a week now! Usually it all happens slow but now it seems everything in the nature happens at the same time. Never before I have been weeding in May. Now I've done it already twice! It is very hard to believe that still 20 days ago the sea was still frozen.

OpenWaters

Hello everyone! How are we? What has happen since MyLastBlogPost? Well, well well... This year we made some kind of record with the snow. We had it for about 200 kg per each square meter. Yes, 200 kg on every single square meter of the ground. So, on the 4th of May we got pouring rain. Before that I still had much over half of MyGarden under 20-40 cm snow cover. We got also another day with pouring rain showers. It all means that today there are just tiny stubborn snow spots here and there in MyGarden. So, since MyLastBlogPost I've been gardening a lot.

Only few days ago all the waters got free from the ice. MySea Gulf of Bothnia had 70 cm thick ice cover and many ice breakers were still needed in May to keep industrial harbors open.

So far the floods are not as bad as expected... so far...

TheSnow belongs to our arctic spring. All the creatures are busy in breeding and nesting. DearNuka is sometimes a bit confused because of them. Remember, She was fixed, so She has no idea about it all...

These creatures don't mind if it is a bit chilly. They don't let the arctic climate to stop them. They are very determined.

I am happy to announce: It is not all about TheSnow anymore!

Spring is also a great time to make HomeMadeTea for the flu seasons. We pick up the annual growth buddings of the spruce. (You need permission for that from the land owner in Finland!!!) They need to be new, fresh and still light green. Then I just put them in tiny plastic bags and straight into freezer. I put ½ dl in one bag. It is one portion for one tea pot.

When you need them you can use them as frozen. When you pour the water over them make sure it is not boiling / too hot. Too hot water makes it all to taste just bitter and awful. After 3-5 minutes you have excellent drink for ease your stubborn flu.