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Some of the news is written for my friends and family who all live abroad. However most is dog related news that might be of interest to those who like dogs or if you just like to see what my life is like. Please feel free to read through and also check out the older news, articles or photos on the site.

Been busy since Rúnar got home, hardly have any time for the computer or emails. We took Skella with us the 26th to the store in Selfoss, we took the long way around so we could visit our friend Brynhildur on the way home. We let Skella run in a sandy field on the way home and she had a ball when she found a big stick to run around with. However these days we have to watch where we stop because the terns are all over the place and do nose dives to try and chase people away from their nests. There were a couple there but luckily we stayed by the road and they didn't bother us as much. It appears she is not going to have any puppies in the next few days so no doubt she did re-absorb due to stress soon after Rúnar left at the time I saw the discharge. In a way I'm relieved since at the moment my health isn't all that great to be getting a litter to look after and also there are so many unsold puppies with many breeders due to the depression. Maybe we´ll try again later this year but we will be letting Hofi have a litter so time will tell if we mate them both or not.

Today we went into Reykjavík to see if we could find a jacket and rain resistant pants for Rúnar, he wants to have some clothes to be able to train outside year round he always gets soaked and thought it's about time he got some protective clothing. Unfortunately they didn't have any in his size so he didn't get anything so it was a trip for nothing but we made sure we bought some goodies for the dogs at least.

I am on the last chapters of Karen Pryor's book, very interesting book. As soon as I finish that I'm looking forward to reading a book Rúnar brought back with him by Terry Ryan. Gonna be busy reading for quite awhile it looks like, sadly he forgot a couple of the books he had gotten including one called the Bark Stops Here, I was looking forward to reading that! I have to admit that I'm a bit happy Rúnar will be home for 2 weeks since there is nothing to do at work, on the one hand not a good thing to be without a pay check but at the same time we get some quality time together and can hopefully do some stuff with the dogs. He has a few assignments left to do to keep in practice.

I decided due to my health, the lack of funds and my total lack of interest that we won't be showing any dogs in August. Guðrún and Sigríður are both judging and it's two different shows in two days which will be a first here in Iceland so I will admit that I wouldn't have minded going just because it is them but I've been to Sigríður a few times and even though she did like Klói he is losing his coat now so won't be ready for a show in a few weeks to a month anyway. I think our money was much better spent on Rúnar's education and something we can benefit from in future and I don't regret missing out on dog shows for years to come if need be. We have so many ribbons and rosettes stashed away in the attic and they are not doing anything for us. Hehe

They had predicted a big earthquake yesterday around midnight but so far nothing but smaller ones as usual so I'm relieved. There was a bit of a shake while Rúnar was away and I remember how scared I was so I was glad he was back just in case the predictions held true. So far so good. I've been sleeping like a baby the past couple days, Rúnar gets up with the dogs in the morning and let's me sleep in...he's been spoiling me rotten again, doing dishes, cleaning house and looking after the dogs. What a gem, it's no wonder I missed him so much. :-)

Yesterday Rúnar came home and all I can say is Yippee, the dogs have settled down to have him back because I've settled my nerves and they mirror me so well. It's hard to believe that he's been away for whole month but boy it felt like a long time while he was gone. I had a few setbacks with my health while he was gone but hopefully I'll get back to normal soon. The dogs were ecstatic to see him, we were in the bedroom when he arrived, couldn't really sleep all night for worry and excitement and I had already gotten the call from the airport to say he had arrived (I insisted so didn't mind the early call) so I was trying to sleep a little bit while he was on his way from the airport. He came in so quietly that the dogs didn't hear him (they were half asleep) and when he opened the door to the bedroom oh my gosh did we have some happy doggies. Little Birta sounded exactly like her mother Freyja with little whining happy cries and I got a little warming of my heart when I heard her. Only problem with having 5 dogs is you have to make sure they all get some greeting time and I didn't get to hug him for a whole 15 minutes or so because they were HOGGING him. However when I finally got my hug it was awesome and I was so happy. As they say absence makes the heart grow fonder and well let's just say I'm hoping he doesn't have to go on another trip without me for a long long time.

We had to go to the store and the bank as soon as he got home so I felt really sorry for him that he hadn't slept at all, the time difference is 7 hours and he flew through the night but couldn't sleep because it was early when he left Seattle. By the time we got back home he was exhausted and got a couple hours sleep on the couch but nowhere near enough sleep in my mind. Slept well last night but we stayed up late to watch Marley and Me because he bought it at the airport and so we were up way too late to get a full night's sleep.

So he didn't get too much time to rest because we had to get up early this morning to go judge the obedience trial that was scheduled a week ago but that they had postponed until today so that I didn't have to go into town until Rúnar was back. It was a strange day for the weather, cold and wet. Half of the trial was raining so hard that I couldn't hardly see and the dogs that managed to go through all the exercises really deserved good points. The later part of the trial the dogs got to compete without rain. However the trial leader and myself were soaked to the bone since we had to stand out in the rain the whole time while everyone else ran into the cars and sat there for the worst of it except for the competitors in the ring each time. Even my writer had to sit in the car with Rúnar because the papers got soaked and the pen wouldn't work outside. So by the time I got home my feet were so cold and I was glad to put my pj's on and lay under the comforter on the couch for a little while. We had two competitors in the children's trial. We made up this class at the last trial for some fun because a youngster wanted to compete. We just used the same exercises but they get higher points and are allowed to use treats and we use about half the length of the ring for heeling. Works out well and they had fun. The same two dogs won in the lower and the first class of obedience and they did a good job considering they were a couple of the ones that got rained on the most in the lower class. The second place dog in the lower class had gone home before the pictures were taken but it was a Labrador.

Next trial I'll be judging in August and the last one (club championship match) will be in September. The one in September is by "invitation" only since the only dogs that are allowed to compete are the dogs that have completed all the exercises in one of the trials without getting any disqualifying score so I've been a little bit nice and tried to give people the benefit of the doubt in some exercises so they can compete in the finals. It's the first time a club match like this is held so we want a good turnout. :-) I'm a little disappointed that the kennel club isn't holding any trials so there are none that Rúnar or me can take part in. Rúnar of course can't compete in a trial I'm judging so he just gets to watch and figure out the score papers to keep him busy. Hopefully in the near future we'll get the opportunity since Rúnar is all revved up now and wants to bring a clicker trained dog to a trial. Can't wait to see how he does training now that he's interested in the sport.

Rúnar learned so much and brought lots of material home with him so it's going to be fun to pick his brain over the next little while. He's hoping to be able to hold a course very soon to keep in practice and I'll of course help him with it. We have a booking for a short seminar with the Sighthound club (they ordered the seminar before he left) and that should be fun. It's really rewarding to work with sighthounds and the clicker, people often think they are impossible or harder to train but we know better.

I talked to my Mom the day before yesterday and she mentioned she had just gotten a phone call to say that my uncle is in the start of Alzheimer's (like their mother) so I'm sad to hear that. He was really a wonderful part of my life when I was young, like a second father he did so much with and for us kids so many of my fondest memories are with my Uncle Wayne. I really care deeply for him although unfortunately I haven't heard from or seen him in so many years I've lost count. He lives in the west part of Canada and I've never been out that way, our whole family is not good at emails or letters. Marilyn please give your father my love and let him know I'm thinking of him all the time. My Mom went to see my grandmother a couple days ago, she said she didn't recognize her at all that day but my Mom always stays with her and keeps her company even though she doesn't know her. It's the hardest thing to do, visiting a relative with Alzheimer's and they don't know you or remember any of their life. My Aunt Janeen had her 65th birthday yesterday, she is blind so won't see this but I do send my love and greetings to her as well. Time flies, it's so hard to believe how much older everyone around me is getting, strange how we never feel like we are aging ourselves but those around us always grow up so quickly.

Well, I can’t wait any longer to shout out the news. If Rúnar isn’t going to write about it himself then I’ll do it! J I thought he might have snuck a few sentences onto the website but I guess he doesn’t want to toot his own horn. Hehe Rúnar passed his assessments and is now a certified training partner with the Karen Pryor Academy! Congratulations Rúnar I knew you could do it. He was a little discouraged because he thought he could have done better on one of the assessments but they obviously saw what they needed to see in him and he should be so proud of himself, I sure am proud of him. He did outstanding on his online exams as well as his training portion, it was no doubt hard for him to hold a speech in English. He got to meet so many awesome people and trainers, people I’ve only dreamed of meeting in my lifetime. Now we hope to be able to spread the word in Iceland about the benefits of clicker training. Although I have been training and holding courses for years I am so happy that Rúnar will now be the main trainer and I think he is quite excited about it too.

Well, Klói did it yet again proved what a genius he is. I was speaking to my friend with the German Pointer puppies on the phone a couple days ago and then he had to go because his other phone rang. So I wasn’t expecting a call back and went to do the dishes. I had the water running and didn’t hear anything except from the corner of my eye I saw Klói jumping up onto the desk in the other room where the computer is. He loves to bring me things all the time and especially likes to bring me the clicker when it’s laying around in his reach. It gets a bit annoying sometimes and I will admit I tell him off sometimes. I was about to go take whatever it was from him when he came running so happy with tail wagging and my phone in his mouth. It was connected and read “answer call or hang up” I saw the connection to this friend of mine so answered a little skeptical and embarrassed. I asked did you call or did Klói push a button by accident and call you back? He loves to bring my phone whenever he can reach it and I will admit that he hasn’t quite figured out that the ringing is the cue or at least that’s what I thought. Well, he definitely was phoning again and it seems Klói had heard the phone and I didn’t. I probably pushed the wrong button when I put it down on the desk and turned down the volume of the ringing sound or my hearing is just getting that bad. It’s not the first time I didn’t hear the phone ring. I was so surprised that I totally forgot to reward him and now I feel bad. Hopefully he’ll find it worthwhile to keep up the behaviour though because I was so impressed with my smart little boy. Seems the training when he was smaller paid off but I hadn’t really given him the chance to actually follow through with the chain because I’d always walk towards the phone when it rang or I’d make it ring myself with the phone right beside me and just ask him to give it to me or show me where it was. He has been very good at running to the phone whenever it rings but it’s usually out of reach so he’ll just come and get me or wait for me to answer it before he stops looking at it. I never really had finished the training of bringing it to me from a different room as I should have. Good thing I have a smart enough clicker trained dog to figure out on his own what I failed to teach him. Hehe

The whole town is celebrating this weekend and as a part of the celebration they have decorated the streets in the colours of the different soccer teams that they have created, normal people competing against each other as players on teams made up of each section of town. I’m really not into that stuff, so I didn’t bother to read the paper that was delivered the other day talking about the whole thing and how they wanted people to celebrate with their colour. Well, I glanced at it so knew the main subject matter but when I let the dogs out last night we got a shock that the neighbours had all put balloons all over the place, one neighbour even put a dummy in a chair with umbrella up on their roof. The dogs were quite surprised but I will admit they didn’t bark as much as I thought they would, I guess they unlike me realized right away that it was just a dummy and not an actual person. I was scared this neighbour was going to fall down and hurt himself what an idiot sitting up on the roof I thought. I tell ya, sometimes I just crack myself up that I can be so silly. There will no doubt be lots of noise this weekend, people have even decorated their cars and have cans and cups hanging off them and are dragging them around making noise, streamers flying in the air all over the place. Lots of loose dogs in the streets again as usual, I saw a Chihuahua almost get hit by one of the decorated cars yesterday, maybe the dogs are frightened by all the balloons some dogs get scared of that stuff. There will be bands playing long into the morning probably tonight and tomorrow night, this celebration is every year and lots of out-of-towners who used to live here camp in the campsites and come to have fun with the locals. I wish Rúnar was here this weekend, it will no doubt be hectic and stressful for the dogs because I will be stressed out to no end. But the good thing is that now I can say Rúnar will be back next week, only one more week to go. Yay, it’s been a long time I can’t wait to have him back home. Boy, I can’t wait to see how Birta and Klói welcome him back.

Have had great weather lately. I thought I’d be smart yesterday and buy a floor fan to cool down the house, well now it’s been on for hours and it’s ONLY 32 degrees in the living room and the floor is so hot you almost burn your feet from the sun shining in. I wonder how hot it would be out there without the fan. No wonder Skella gets hot in the living room with all her coat. I have to keep the curtains closed and hope that helps. Skella likes to lay in the bedroom the most, seems the coolest in there so I have to remember to leave the door open for her.

We had another day of shock and panic yesterday. I tell yah, it does make you appreciate the ones you love more, that you can’t wait until they get back home, hint, hint, and the dogs. The morning started that I was going to take Skella out for a short run after I went to the store and so took her to the car. Couldn’t open the door, but then I got it open and couldn’t close it again. She was in the cage waiting and well, I tried and I tried and I tried but gave up. I grabbed Skella out of the car all angry and thought I’d not be able to use the car at all for two weeks since now I couldn’t close the back door. The other day Rúnar’s brother-in-law came over to check on the clutch of the car so it’s been one thing after the other and my nerves are shot. Didn’t know how I’d fix it, my one neighbour came out and offered me some oil to help loosen up the joints and just as she was offering me that I got it closed. I decided not to open it again just in case! So the dogs will have to let the yard do for now. We had a short talk about the dogs and barking and she is so understanding and calmed my nerves so much, a nice conversation.

Later after I got back from the store (went without a dog) to buy the fan I was in the yard at the back where I usually don’t let them go without supervision because there is an escape route there in the fence. So I was doing something can’t even remember what and ran into the house for a split second. With that a guy had walked past the fence and the dogs wanted to run out to see him. Skella and Klói ran right out the fence, through the neighbours yard onto the sidewalk. I had run out when I heard the barking and tried to call them back but Klói couldn’t find the way back into the fence. I asked the guy to please show him where the opening was but he turned around without acknowledgement other than a strange look and kept walking. No doubt he wasn’t happy the dogs had run out to greet him, I’m so sorry about that, but by him walking instead of stopping and waiting for me to come get them, they of course followed him. So while I was climbing over the fence (I can’t get under where they do) to try to get to them they ran out onto the road where there were cars coming. I screamed and tried to call them and while I was climbing the fence the three others ran under the fence. Sneaky devils, they wanted in on the fun! Oh my goodness, have you ever tried to control a situation and been totally out of control of yourself with anxiety so it’s like oil on a fire. I got Klói to come back and Skella followed him, while I was doing this the neighbours had come running to see what was up and with that Klói saw the neighbours dog who was visiting our adjoining neighbour. He and this dog have never really met since he was about 9-10 weeks old, they stay on opposite sides of the fence. It’s an intact male Golden cross and a very nice dog who used to play with all the girls but I have heard he has been in fights with other dogs including Birta’s half brother who lives not too far from here. Klói has met Birta’s half brother and they don’t fight so I don’t know who starts it. Klói is always such a big tough guy on our side of the fence when he sees this dog so I was totally expecting something not so great and thought Klói might start something out of insecurity, and now that Klói has also mated Skella you never know how the macho attitude changes them. Luckily it seems Klói is still the same goof he always was.

Much to my relief they just sniffed each other, showed calming signals and he and Klói didn’t fight but now the task was to try and get all five dogs back home and to do that we had to walk out onto the street and back into our yard that they had just escaped from. No one had any collar or leash on so I was trying to get one or two to follow me at a time. Gee, I was going nuts I was so stressed out, my neighbours know what a worry wart I am by now so they are used to my stress and I guess were trying to calm me down. I could see Frigg, Birta and Hofi still out by the other road in the neighbours backyard. I called and Frigg but Hofi wanted to stay with the other dog so I got Frigg and Skella into the fence but Birta wasn’t with them. Then I called and called Birta but she didn’t come and the neighbour went to see where she was and couldn’t see her. I feared she had run away into the street or was so far away by now that I’d have to go look for her (mind you Birta has never, knock on wood, run away but you never know). I walked back to the yard with Skella and who was in the fence smiling and running towards me like a little angel. Birta had come back through the back fence again when she heard me calling and was at home behaving herself. Hehehe The neighbour was saying yesterday how much Birta has changed, she is so good and such a different dog from when we got her. She’s getting so much more like her mother, thank goodness. Now it’s Skella and Klói who are the daredevils wanting all the attention and barking up a storm. We´ve had so much traffic around here that kids have been teasing them by barking, they think it’s funny no doubt and finally it seems they are getting a bit more used to all the cars and people that have been visiting all the neighbours.

I’m working on them and starting to see some progress. We got Skella with some barking issues so it’s a slow process to work with the issues while at the same time she got Klói started, he’s so impressionable. It’s always harder when one starts and gets the others going, Birta and Skella seem to excite each other into barking. I’m trying to do some structured training instead of just trying to calm down the barking, I tried to reward for “look at that” without barking in the yard and it’s been working okay, as long as I catch them before they start or if something doesn’t just suddenly appear that we didn’t expect like a lose dog from the neighbours yard. So I’m trying to teach them to calm themselves and that is a long process when you have 5 dogs to work with at the same time. Klói knows his “sleepy behaviour” but until now he wouldn’t do it so well under stress, but he’s getting there finally and doing it in the yard when asked so I’m happy about that. I definitely see what a good effect Rúnar has on the dogs! Can’t wait until he gets home with all his new found knowledge, his built in calmness and the TTouch DVD, I’ve wanted for years.

After such a horribly stressful day the doorbell rang a little while later and my neighbour who owns the dog, offered to mow my lawn for me, such a wonderful lady. I accepted gladly well, more like with tears of joy in my eyes, then I used the weedwacker on the edges and pulled out a bunch of weeds while she was at it. I couldn’t let her do the lawn all by herself? I’m SO tired today and feel like I’ll need a few days to recover but the lawn looks great…for now! Wow, how grateful I am for good neighbours.

Very sad occurance in the news today. The hotel Valhöll (Valhalla) at Þingvellir is burning down to the ground. The photos can be seen in the newspaper mbl.is. Many say it’s the heathen gods getting angry for all the crazy stuff the Parliament has been doing lately. Þingvellir was the first Parliament in Iceland.

Well, I noticed I was a total twit and put the wrong name of the book. Looks great for me to make a mistake like that when Rúnar is in the Karen Pryor Academy! Of course I should have read my update before I sent it. Karen Pryor’s new book is called “Reaching the animal mind” and I’m almost half way through. It’s great, makes me wish I could have lived a life of dolphin training or some other weird and exotic species; I loved animals as a kid. Why can’t I be young, healthy and have the world at my feet, there’s so much I’d like to do with all this new found knowledge. Hey Rúnar is! ;-)

There hasn’t been too much new but still quite a bit of stress hormones in the house at the moment. Yes MINE causing everyone else to mirror my feelings. Skella had some vaginal discharge the other day so I don’t know what that means but at times I’m not sure she actually is pregnant. I know that re-absorption can cause discharge and since it didn’t last too long that could be an explanation. She has been in a stressed mood lately and I don’t think it’s good for her. Makes me wonder what’s bothering her besides Rúnar not being at home to keep me calm and she has been breathing very heavy and fast, but she’s pretty much done that since she got here. I figured she was both stressed and hot. She is getting very scared of being left alone it’s progressed so I haven’t gone anywhere except into the yard to do some work.

I’ve had horrible vertigo and dizziness the past couple days (it always comes with my swollen shoulders) I also woke up with a sore throat and a bad stomach. I was “mowing” the lawn the day before and because I can’t start the lawnmower or lift it over the fence I decided I’d just do the whole lawn with the weed whacker. I needed to do something couldn’t find the dog poop to pick up anymore! How hard would that be? Well seems that is not a good way of doing it for a person with a bad back, swollen shoulders and neck and allergies. Good idea of course if you think of the muscle I could build up in my stomach and back, but not sure I’d like to repeat it too often. Maybe I can get by with “mowing” (or should I say whacking!) once a week.

Rúnar’s sister got married yesterday but I couldn’t make it, I was going to try but unfortunately had to call at the last minute and say I couldn’t. It would have been a great thing to see, a wedding in the Norse Heathenism style (Ásatrú) I’ve never seen that. Although I have quite a few friends who belong to that and have gotten married that way, so I’ve seen photos at least and hopefully will be able to see photos of their wedding as well. Congratulations Kiddi and Þórunn.

I thought leaving the dogs for too long might not be a good thing. It is extremely hot in the house and it doesn’t matter if I open the windows (which I have to close when we are not home so when they bark it’s not as loud) it can be 10-16 degrees outside but it’s 29-30 in here even when the windows are open. When I leave the dogs alone they are in their cages and I’ve come home a couple times to panting almost distressing dogs from the sticky heat in the house. When I’m here at least I can have them loose and can let them out to cool down or have the door or window open. I just heard of someone who managed to save their dog in the nick of time from dying of heat stroke, so many dogs on the news lately as well who have succumbed to it. I don’t know what it is with this apartment, I don’t know of any other place that gets so hot. I can’t find any of the radiators turned on so maybe it’s just the way the house is situated when the sun shines in the big ceiling to floor windows. No wonder Klói loves to play around in the wading pool every chance he gets, even Birta had a go yesterday and I could definitely see where Klói gets his character from.

Frigg has been bothered by Klói again telling me that the sore on her back has opened up again. It doesn’t bleed but the skin is red and open, it just won’t heal. I don’t think that’s a good sign. It doesn’t seem infected; she is eating well with no fever and no puss or anything coming out of it. Oh and he is intent on telling me that her teeth are bothering her again, but of course she resents the fact that he won’t stop trying to “help” her by licking her face and back and she keeps trying to escape from his attention. Get’s a bit annoying sometimes when he won’t leave her alone he gets just plain upset when she won’t let him lick her.

I had a wonderful visit from Brynhildur yesterday so it brightened up an otherwise loooong and lonely week. The dogs of course stressed when they got a visitor as I think they have been feeling a little bored only having me around, I’m such a scatterbrain and stress over the smallest things. I stress over the neighbours, I stress over the phone ringing, I stress over, well you name it, or when I know guests are coming it puts me into “jikes” mode. Good thing my friends don’t mind the state of the house or the state of me or the dogs. Hehe So that’s life at the funny farm.

Rúnar is doing well in the seminars and schooling and I can’t wait to hear all he’s learned when he gets home. He was training a chicken and that’s something I’ve always wanted to try, by the sounds of it he did a fantastic job as I would have expected. J Really it is a chance of a lifetime to get to take part in something like that. I’m so proud of him for going and I’m praying he will do well on his tests. He got to pick fresh strawberries on the 4^th of July, been years since I’ve done that. Ours are all either green house grown or imported and cost an arm and a leg.

I worked on my book a little but haven’t had the energy or inspiration to do any writing the past few days. The day before yesterday poor Birta almost choked to death eating her breakfast. I have never been so scared, well maybe once or twice (I’ve almost choked to death myself once!) but it really shortened my last nerve such an adrenalin rush. She was gobbling up her food as usual, she loves the raw stuff and then she brought up a lump of it and started coughing and foam came out her nose, she couldn’t breath and started to walk towards me but was almost fainting, she was falling over so I grabbed her and pounded on her sides and pushed on her stomach then she coughed up a little bit and went right back to eating as if nothing had happened. Oh my gosh what a start to the day. I found some more “possible culprits” in the food today so I removed them before I gave the dogs. I think I’ll check the food well for big chunks from now on since it seems the dogs just gobble without chewing when they are hungry. When I picked up Birta’s puke it looked like there was a big piece of unchewed tripe in it just like this, in any case I wasn’t taking the chance. I know my dogs don’t know how to chew their food, they lived a very sheltered life. Hehe

So the car is breaking down, wonderful! The clutch sticks and I have to pull it out with my foot while I’m driving so it doesn’t stall. I’m not going to be doing much driving, good thing I didn’t intend to anyway it will save me money on groceries and gas too. When I can’t get to the store I can’t spend money, aha there is a silver lining. But I had been trying to get up the nerve to try to pick Rúnar up when he comes so his brother didn’t have to. Of course mostly because I can’t wait to see him but we´ll see if his brother-in-law can possibly fix it for me soon. Lord knows I’m not a mechanic. J I ask you is it just me or does everything fall apart when you least want it to?

A friend of mine lost his beautiful 7 ½ year old bitch yesterday from what appeared to be a heart attack. They were out on a nice summer walk playing and then she was gone. That must be the most horrible thing to have to witness, one minute the dog is running around and the next it’s dead. With how close I almost got to that with Birta a couple days ago I can definitely relate to how shocked and stunned he must have felt. I think however that it must be a good way to go for the dog, doing something they love to do. My sincerest condolences to him.

There are so great new photos on Raggi and Rún’s pages. They had a reunion and looks like they had a great time, I miss those two they are so special. J

Decided to try to give the dogs some mental exercise today I know that’s what they need desperately. I tried for the 3^rd time to get Skella to try the dog puzzle. This time I put hotdog pieces in that I’d dried out slightly in the oven today and well she figured it out. So she did the puzzle for the very first time and it was great to see that she was interested in it for a little bit. I did have to encourage her a bit at first but then she did it by herself and I didn’t have to say a thing. She didn’t have a lot of stamina to finish the whole thing but it’s a great start and she’s tuckered out for now. Klói is so quick that he has to do the puzzle over and over and over again and still doesn’t get tired out but he is a bit impatience and gets a bit upset that the others get to try so he usually has to be put into “sleepy” position and get paid for that while he waits. It’s a bit of work playing the puzzle game with 5 dogs let me tell you. I have to let each one do it a few times and have to make sure the one doing the puzzle gets peace. I’m just as tuckered out now I think. Got a video of Skella’s first try and a funny video of Klói playing it. I put it up on the dining room table each time to fill it with goodies and so when he jumped up on the chair and was so good behaving himself waiting patiently (very unlike him, LOL) I let him do the puzzle from there. It meant he got peace from the other dogs while I was recording too. I know I’m a horrible dog owner, disgusting to let your dog be “part human”, aw but I love the character when the dog gets to be a little bit naughty. J It’s my house, so love me love my dogs and get over it! Hehehe

Rúnar’s father called me tonight, I thought that was really nice of him. He wanted to check in on me with a phone call before they left for home in the morning since I was sick yesterday and didn’t make it to the wedding. I’ve had a bit of a fever today so I think it was more than the mowing of the lawn, it’s been a bit cooler out and I’ve been silly enough to go out in my short sleeve shirt a bit along with while filling the wading pool Klói has been splashing me so I get soaked to the skin, it was just a game we were playing but I guess a bit too cold out for that, for me anyway.

I noticed we’ve had a bit of traffic to the site, didn’t expect that so decided a short update might be a good idea. Whenever Rúnar has the time to do it for me (pretty please J ) Rúnar started the workshops today and he’s finished the Canine Aggression Seminar he had been looking forward to. He met one of my clicker idols Kathy Sdao so I am quite envious of him now. Really long days though and I can imagine how exhausted he must be, seminars and using your brain is just as tiring if not more so at times than physical labour. We´ve been able to talk a little on MSN but not that much since he is so busy and he’s usually sleeping when I’m awake so I’m staying up all night now and that’s fine I’m finding it easier with the dogs too. I should be used to the time difference and communication troubles but actually it’s 7 hours in Seattle so it’s a couple hours more than from my Mom.

Karen Pryor’s new book “Understanding the Animal Mind” arrived in the mail today, a surprise Rúnar had obviously arranged before he left so that should keep me busy reading until he gets home. I’m a very slow reader actually so I’m not exaggerating when I say it might take me all month. J I’ve been really writing up a storm myself though missing Rúnar has been a bit of an inspiration I guess. However that DOESN’T mean I want him going away on a regular basis, once is enough. Hehe

The dogs have been acting up of course they keep looking out for Dad to come home so the slightest noise, a car or door closing outside sends them to the window. Lord help us if the doorbell rings, excitement FRENZY. The neighbours are driving me crazy I don’t know what’s up, everyone on summer holidays no doubt. It’s like grand central station in our street now, especially on weekends but weekdays too now, tourists have started pouring in, all of a sudden everyone and his uncle has a fleet of cars and RV’s parked outside their houses. People seem to get a lot of out of town visitors in the summertime and they “camp out” here. One neighbour has set up “shop” in his front yard, has a big sign “Icelandic woolens” and I guess his wife is a knitter as there are sweaters hanging up all over the front of the house and they sit out there all day now waiting for tourists. Again something the dogs are not used to as it’s always been a pretty quiet street. I’m kind of glad the computer is in the other room now since I can actually close them in the room with me and they are calmer that way, nothing to distract them there. However it means I can’t watch the TV while I’m on the computer like I used to do, obviously why I’m getting more work done. Duh!

Klói is having a great time in his wading pool, it leads to me having to mop the floor many times a day but it keeps him busy for a few minutes each time he goes outside. He had a brilliant idea the other day and found one of Rúnar’s socks (an old one he is allowed to play with) and ran with it out to the pool then proceeded to dip it in and swoosh it around like he was trying to wash it. Then of course he ran straight in the house with a dripping sock all over the place. You gotta love him, he keeps me busy! I put a couple videos of him on YouTube and Facebook. Trouble is Skella gets so pissed off at him for splashing and getting the “sillies” in the pool that she stands there and barks at him the whole time. My neighbours are such tolerant people, I’m truly lucky! I’ll put up with their tourist shops if they put up with the barking. Hehehe I’m a horrible dog owner these days, sitting at the computer all day and night writing means they are totally ignored and Klói gets a lot of built up energy. I’m trying to click them for some minor new tricks in between to keep them sane if possible.

I’m not sure about Skella, she sometimes seems like she is pregnant but she has so much coat (it’s so dense you can’t feel through it) that I can’t really feel if she has a belly or not. She isn’t eating as well as she should at times but other times she’ll be quite normal. She is being a bit “bitchy” with the other dogs so that is new and could very well be we will have a litter at the end of July, I’ll keep everyone posted.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll try to maybe write something once a week if Rúnar doesn’t mind. I was hoping he’d put in a few words about how the course is going, I’d love to hear about it but I guess I’ll have to wait until he gets back home.

We went to see Rúnar's sister tonight and took Birta along to let her out a few minutes by the ocean since it's been awhile since she got to go on her own somewhere and well she is "Daddy's" favourite. ;-) So maybe we should have went to his sister's FIRST because she decided she was going to make sure the other dogs knew exactly where she had been. She rolled around in every mound of seaweed she could find and got dirty and stinky of course that meant she had to wait in the car instead of getting to say hi to everybody. She had herself to blame. Hehehe

Boy you stink where have you been? :-) Rúnar has had a very busy evening after we got back from his sister's. Putting together the whelping box (just in case), trimming nails, bathing Birta and finishing packing. I hope he doesn't forget anything he's been too busy doing stuff around the house that he hasn't really had his mind on the trip or the workshop!

I just realized my father and step mother will celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary on the 25th. They will be driving Rúnar to the airport that day but I'm gonna have to phone them in the morning then I can talk to Rúnar too! ;-)

Grabbing a few minutes, got a couple cute photos while Rúnar was packing. Well, he came home actually around lunchtime and surprised me. I was so happy to see him. I supposed he was going to get everything ready and use the day well but ended up getting stuck on Facebook most the day arguing with a person we used to work with. We both were pretty much answering her back and forth. She apparently has started a genetics engineering company and they have now gotten permission to plant crops in our part of the countryside. She is of course so proud of the fact and says there is absolutely no danger, there are alot of people that are against this (not just us) and these people are of course being seen as extremist with no clue. Of course I have been reading about this for so many years and have been a very strict organic follower for many years.

These will be the first genetically engineered crops planted in Icelandic nature and we are furious. We loved living here for the main reason that there was clean organic nature all around us, we didn't have to worry about food we bought that is produced in Iceland. Now we wonder what the next step will be with this "wonderful" new government. They say this is ONLY barley and it's a TRIAL and the protein is to be used in drug tests not for eating but to us there is no difference. We don't believe in the drug industry, they are always in it for their own profit and when the government starts to get involved in schemes to make drugs then there is no turning back. I believe a lot if not most of the cancers and diseases we suffer from are actually BECAUSE of the unnatural things we eat or that are in our environment. Genetically engineered is genetically engineered and putting it into our countryside isn't acceptable in our minds. Many other countries are working on turning back the clock but it's too late for them, we should have learned from mistakes of others. Given that the movie "HOME" was shown on TV the other day I thought people and hopefully the government had taken something away from that film, wishful thinking. :(

We don't have that many insects in Iceland so when we know that there are strains of bees and butterflies dying out in North America because they are sterile as a result of the genetically engineered stuff there it makes you wonder how much effect this will have in our extremely windy country. Anyway, enough of that there are all kinds of links on the internet that I put onto my Facebook page, Rúnar only answered first because he felt her attitude towards me and her answers were rude. And then the two of them were writing back and forth but it was all in good exchange of opinions. We´re pretty much wondering what is going on, as if the ICESAVE (Icelanders call it the ICESLAVE matter) problem isn't bad enough, the sugar tax, the lowering of disability payments, raising of all other things, taxes, food, gas, healthcare both human and animal etc. then we get this wonderful (NOT) news that the stupid GE crops have been allowed until the year 2013, when they will be evaluated. They will of course without a doubt continue to allow them after that because the problems may not be apparent by then so the damage is done as soon as those first seeds have been planted which I think is very soon if they haven't already planted them and the bill was passed as a formality!? Luckily the earthquakes and tremors are not as bad as they were, and one bit of good news is that finally they have stopped the hunting of Puffins in the Westmann Islands. Now maybe the populations will get a bit bigger again.

Whatever, I'm gonna get my mind off of all the negatives in the country because now Rúnar is getting ready to leave tomorrow. I just can't believe it still and that is the biggest negative at the moment in my heart and the dogs. We will miss him SOOOO much. We've never been away from each other for more than a few days if that in the 5 1/2 years we've been together. Birta just lays beside him and has a sad look on her face, her whole demeanour has been sad the past little while and I was wondering if she was actually getting sick but I'm sure it's just a feeling she has that "daddy" is going away. She's seen that stupid suitcase before and it always meant they didn't see us for a couple weeks. Klói of course always fixes things on his own, he has an answer to every problem so he decided he was just going to get into the suitcase and go along. Hehehe I don't think anyone will notice him, do you? Rúnar has said that he is glad he had the generous invite of Scotti to stay with her lovely family since it means he can't miss the dogs as much, especially Birta and Klói since I'm sure Kelikátur is alot like his mom and brother. Knowing he is staying with them has made his decision to go so much easier and less stressful, since he will at least have a couple familiar faces around him. I am trying to see the positive and think that what an awesome opportunity for Rúnar and I look forward to hearing all about it when he comes home. Hopefully he will take loads of photos and notes.

No doubt the computer will need to be packed up tomorrow morning at the latest I have to put my book onto a memory stick so I can put it onto the other computer. I almost forgot about that, phew! Guess I better go do some other stuff too, how can the day fly past this fast? I've got supper to make already, we´re having lamb chops since it's one of Rúnar's favourite things. It's been raining all day so nothing much exciting happening outside. :-)

Rúnar's sister is getting married in the middle of July so here's an early Congratulations to her and Kiddi! His nephew had a birthday on Sunday which we didn't get a chance to be at either because of the obedience trial I forgot to mention that! Happy Birthday Tryggvi Rúnar.

Just realized something when I was trying to sleep last night. When Rúnar takes the computer with him besides not being able to download photos I won't be able to update the website either. He had said something about sending him the photos and he would update and it didn't sink in until I realized that the program to update is only on the laptop. Boy I'm dense sometimes! Oh well, I'll try to if possible get Rúnar to put a few photos or if something very interesting happens I'll send him an email that he can copy onto the site during July when he has the time.

I was judging an obedience club match for the Doberman club yesterday and it was a great day besides being really cold and windy. I forgot to take a hat with me or gloves so after standing in the cold for a while I was happy that before we left the house Rúnar ran back in to get my heavy winter pants and I wore them the whole time. Just can't imagine how cold I would have been without my "snow suit"! It is totally ridiculous that my writer and myself should be so cold that we couldn't feel our toes or fingers at times, I mean it's the middle of SUMMER! I can't lie I get so jealous when friends are complaining about how hot it is in the countries they live, I'm sure if I had to live in the heat all the time too I'd be longing for a freezing Icelandic summer but while I live here I just get so pissed off that we can't have a few weeks of actual HEAT a year. I'd love to have a clear difference between the seasons it gives you something to look forward to. Here you just keep waiting for the summer to arrive and then before it's arrived it's already winter again. A couple days of scorching heat, is that too much to ask? I have permafrost in my body, feet and hands they never warm up for any more than a few minutes it seems. I love when I go to Canada and can feel that my feet are warm all day, the blood actually flows in my veins for a change. I love the way you stay indoors so you don't get too hot or go to a mall to cool down and if you get too cold you just walk outside and take in the nice sunshine. Instead of having to stay indoors to keep warm and even then needing a comforter sometimes. I think I'd love to live in a tropical place for a year just for a change, not sure about the dogs though. :-) I do feel sorry for dogs that live in warm places. I'm sure that the grass is always greener in my mind and I'd get sick of the heat too!

So the obedience match was very fun, we had 9 in the lowest level and 5 in the first level. We even let a 10 year old do slightly easier exercises and he was judged with "encouraging scores" and we called it the kid's class. It was clear people were there to have fun and I hope they appreciated my humour as I know I have a sense of humour that some don't get unless they get to know me. One dog ran off and it took probably about a half hour (at least it felt that way) to get him back so it was a good thing we were not close to traffic or houses. We all took a long coffee break until the owner got him back. The owner looked like he was about to explode but then he laughed about it himself so we teased him a bit during the day and when a dog got a not so high score I also added sometimes (just in a fun way) that at least he stayed in the arena. Hehehe It calmed people's nerves a bit that we could laugh together or at least that is the impression I got and I've heard that everyone had fun. One girl had a very bad cough and I offered her a menthol candy but she declined and I said well I will count coughs as extra commands, we laughed but I think she was too nervous to think it was funny at the time.

I tried to explain my decisions to people after each pair was finished and I hoped that it would help them to train in future as well as help others to "see" how they can change things in their own training habits. There was one guy who had a good dog that was very promising but he "pushed him back" in a sense during the heel work by always turning his head right around and looking at him and the dog was too far back because of it. I explained he should get himself a mirror to train with and try to break that habit since it would make such a difference in his own performance and his dogs. I hope he does since the dog seemed quite sensitive and with a dog like that the training can go so easily if you don't overpower it. I know it's an easy thing to do accidently and I need to do some work on my own habits too like everybody else so I'd love for someone to watch me train and give me tips. I don't think people took my "tips" as negative and hope not since they were of course meant as positive feedback.

Some were way too nervous and it showed in their dogs and their performance so hopefully they will train their own behaviour a bit more and come back next time knowing that they don't have to take it that serious, I don't bite. :-) I'm not sure they realize that judges (most of us, unfortunately not all here in Iceland!!!) have been in the same place as they are now and I know how they feel. Some were there for their first time others have only been to one or two trials. We don't have the opportunity here (not until now!) to go regularly to compete in order to get used to it and learn how to calm nervous habits. I used to be the same way when I competed, you can't help being stressed. I went to a seminar once held by a club I was in in Norway about stress and how to use it to your advantage in competition. It was such a smart thing for the club to do for their members it helped so much and I also bought a Swedish book about it so the last few years I competed I had totally changed my habit of being nervous and I did see a difference in my dogs. Now today with my bad nerves that might be a different story, if I was to go to compete today I'd probably be a wreck since I haven't participated for so long.

By the end of the day I could hardly walk because of my lower back pain. I know I have a hard time standing for long periods and that's why I've given up working at the shows if I can help it, so when it ended up being 5 hours straight and in the freezing cold I was glad when I could finally sit down in the car for the ride home. I lay on the couch all evening and I feel better today. Now I have to get prepared for next trial in July and I hope there will be just as many competing even though it makes for a long day it is a lot of fun to see so many different dogs and their owners. It's a great bunch of people who have a burning interest in doing something with their dogs other than dog shows and it's a great breath of fresh air to be able to be part of it. I'm honoured they want me to judge but I will admit I can see that I need to judge more often to be able to practice.

I think the club is doing great things for the dog culture here. The fact that they have training sessions every week (traditional training but at least they are trying) where everyone is welcome. They are mainly Doberman owners but they open their events to everyone who wants to train, there was a Labrador, Rottweiler, Schauzers, a Husky and Border Collie so it was a colourful group. They are holding this club championship meet which is one trial a month for three summer months and then a trial in September that all those who have scored without any DQ's can participate in for a great prize of a year's worth of dog food (ProPac). I think 6 made it into the finals as of yesterday! It makes me so happy to see that there are some who want to do obedience and have fun with their dogs, I used to be like these people and I've wanted to go back to that "lifestyle" if it wasn't for my health I'd probably be active now that I know there is an opportunity to do stuff here. Well I get to judge instead so I get to at least have fun one day a month this summer. :-)

On a hilarious note. Rúnar knew I wanted a kiddie pool for the dogs during the summer so when we went to the grocery store last week he bought a little one made in China for a company in Mississauga, Canada. I blew it up with a foot pump and then filled it up today, I didn't realize that when I take the end off the hose I couldn't put it back on while the hose was running, the phone ran and I was trying to hold the phone on my shoulder and put the end on the hose. The water of course was just spraying all over the place and I was soaking wet, I asked the person on the phone to hold on just a minute. I ran in totally soaked to the bone with the hose spraying all over the deck and Klói and Birta of course loving that since they LOVE to play with water. I ran into the laundry room on the other side of the house to turn off the water supply. Of course as soon as I finished that I picked up the phone again and got the dogs into the house, it started raining and it rained and rained so why did I bother filling it with the hose! Rúnar came home, went out for a smoke on the porch and saw that on the pool itself there is a bunch of writing. I didn't bother to read it while I was blowing it up. It says there is a pool fencing law that this little pool falls into. Common' eh? That's just silly! Good thing our parents didn't have all these laws to follow when we were kids! Well, I'm not going to build a fence around it so I hope I don't get arrested. hehehe

Well, it's taken me all day to write this since I've been running around doing stuff and coming back to write a little. When Rúnar got home we had to run out again and go fill the car with gas since he heard on the news that gas prices had already gone up at the one gas station and would be going up at all the others within the next few days. Twelve whole kroners a liter, so now it's around 190 kroner per liter for gas. It may not seem like much because of the exchange rate but for us it's extremely expensive. There is no end to the taxes and money the government wants to collect from us all and we don't have any to give. There is a pretty accurate cartoon about what's going on here at the moment and I have to add the link. For those who don't understand the bucket says "taxes" and the Prime Minister is portrayed as the woman milking the "cow". She's asking where it's teats are. You'll see what I mean if you go look at the cartoon. Anyway, there is a sugar tax being added in a couple months, at least they gave us a bit of warning with that but we thought well, they can't charge more for the natural organic fruit juices that contain no sugar but we were wrong since we saw yesterday they have already raised the prices of those, no doubt they blame the state of the kroner so they have an excuse. We both definitely "give up" and want to just move from Iceland now, there seems to be no end to this craziness.

Rúnar is getting so stressed now about his trip. He's been packing tonight. He feels he isn't quite ready for the workshops but I know he'll catch on fast and hope he has fun and enjoys his visit I'm sure he will not regret taking the course now rather than waiting. He'll probably come home all fired up to train the dogs and they'll be so happy with that. ;-) I've decided I'm turning into a hermit for the month of July, I am going to turn the day and night around since it's always easier to write at night time and I'm gonna try to spend as much time writing as I possibly can hopefully I can get a big chunk of the book finished while Rúnar is away. That's my plan anyway, just like some writers go into solitude to write I'm just gonna use my time well. Now remind me I said that when I'm feeling lazy! Hehehe I'll still have my email like I said before but I don't know when I'll be able to update the website. I'll do my best to get a few updates to Rúnar. He's leaving on Wednesday so maybe I'll get a short one in before he leaves!

Wow, got some great news and photos yesterday! Kolla has been for her hip ex-rays and another eye test, she has Good hips or the equivalent of A in our system and her eyes are clear. That was her second eye test like Klói. Oh my gosh talk about twins, I'm sure they are actually real twins look at how much she looks like Klói! She has slightly better eye shape a much better tail too but otherwise she's a feminine copy of him. Love her colouring on her back it's slightly darker than Klói.

We are so happy with Birta's litter and now we wonder if we should have mated her again! Even if we don't let her have another litter I'm ecstatic that the puppies she does have are going into breeding programs, we have saved Freyja's and Birta's line for future. :-) Of the four puppies ex-rayed we have 2 A's, 1 A/B and 1 A/C. Káta is the only one not ex-rayed and we are not sure if we will spend the money to do it since she will not be going into breeding. All four puppies have also had their eyes tested and are clear! Could we have asked for anything more? Seems the studying of pedigrees and family status etc really paid off this time. Of course we are well aware that they also need to be used wisely in breeding, as with any other dog they all have their defective genes. However, we are really happy these days, this was the first litter Rúnar and I bred together so it will always be a little special! :-)

Rúnar mentioned yesterday that he wants to add a special litters page with all the information from all the litters on one page like a chart. He thinks it might be too much work for people to go through all the info from all the litters even though we put the info on those pages. He thinks a quick easy chart might give a quick overall view of the lines and I think it's a great idea. It might take a little while to set up but I'm going to try to do that soon. We have seen some great websites that list the health information for all their dogs in one spot, we love it when other breeders are honest and give out the info, those are the breeders we trust. The sad part is that as with most breeders not all the information is as we would have liked it or hoped for in our litters and some may use info in a negative sense to put down our dogs, I've had it happen to me. It's not a fun feeling to be put down for being honest but if we care about the breeds we breed then it is all information that people are entitled to know about our dogs and our bloodlines. I heard a comment once from someone who had never seen info about diseases on a website before and they thought a breeder had way too many diseases or faults in their breeding program. I said it's just because they have it all public where you can see it that makes it look like alot. If you really went through the info you could plainly see that the majority of the puppies were healthy and I felt the info was quite helpful. Just because people don't talk about defects or diseases doesn't mean they don't have them in their dogs or lines. Every single one of us has the same diseases to deal with in our lines in one way or another, either in our own dogs or dogs we are contemplating using in our programs.

All of the dogs in the population are pretty much related so we all have a duty to work together to fix or minimize problems (the same holds true in all breeds) and if info about my dogs can help someone else than I want them to be able to use it. The same as I hope others are honest and open with their information so that I can try to use it to help my program as well. I like to think that it was because of the open information of the lines I used that we were able to get the success in Birta's litter in regards to the hips. It took 3 generations but was worth keeping the lines in the population in my mind, many would have thrown out the baby with the bath water. As I do feel with many dogs, the more dogs we use the better off the population is and all those dogs will not be perfect so we need to be able to mix and match the lines to get the best combinations. I have sometimes contacted breeders and asked questions about dogs I'm thinking of using or that are relatives to mine and in many cases either the only info they give me is that everything is "perfect" (which I might have heard the contrary to and was the reason I asked!) or that they refuse to say anything. We have little or no control over genetic diseases per se and every breeder will experience some setbacks in their lifetime if they breed enough dogs. It's what we learn from those setbacks that makes the difference.

I'm hoping that breeders can stop competing with each other and start working together for the good of the breed and it's future. It's not a race to see who gets "there" first, no one can get anywhere without each others lines to fall back on occasionally. None of us would have the dogs we have today without the dedication and love of the breed those who lived or bred before us shared. We are simply blessed to have such a great healthy breed that will hopefully remain little changed physically and mentally and hopefully with continued low-coefficient breeding and exchange of breeding dogs between countries we can help it to remain so. At times we do need to linebreed either intentionally or not and then it's great to know what to avoid or at least know what we might expect in the litter. Not that low-coefficients will not also give us diseases and faults. We can't always avoid problems like I say but I'm so thankful to the breeders who allow their programs to be an open book for the rest of us. And now I'll get off the soapbox. Hehehe

There were more fun emails yesterday! I got a couple adorable photos of my grandpuppy Isrima Snædis who went to Canada, she is out of Töfra Hekla. She lives will Dawne at Tsar Shadow kennel with a house full of Norwegian Buhunds and Carelian Bear dogs. A real "Nordic" breed lover. :-) Snædis is such a cute puppy I'm looking forward to hearing more about her accomplishments in future.

Days are flying by! The 17th was Iceland's Independence Day, a holiday and celebration. Oddly enough it seems it was a good thing that Hera had her puppies early since we got an invite to my goddaughter's birthday which is tomorrow but was celebrated yesterday because of the holiday. It was great to see my brother again, I see him way too seldom. Finally remembered to take the camera so I could get a couple photos for my Mom and here are a couple photos of Runar (David's son) and Anna Bríet and of David. Gave her a silly little air football game and they enjoyed that for a few minutes (typical kids). She is quite the football player in real life just like her Dad used to be although he unfortunately never pursued it.

While we were in town we also went to see Rúnar's mother and grandparents, his grandfather is not doing too well so he wanted to make sure he got to see him.

Feeling horrible today, my heart is palpating like crazy I feel dizzy, a bit numb and strange not really a headache but a bit of pressure and numbness. Could be allergies or it could just be anxiety or the swollen neck and shoulder muscles causing it all. I get that every once and awhile and it just makes me more anxious and is a vicious circle. The trips into town always cause me shoulder and neck pain, as well as I get motion sickness that takes a few days to get rid of. So I haven't quite gotten over it from last time and we went back into town so no doubt it'll take a few days after the trip next weekend for me to feel back to "normal". I know I'm a strange one, but actually it's because my inner ear was damaged in a car accident many years ago and my balance has been slightly off since but gets worse if I'm nervous or tired and has gotten worse every year. On top of that I'm really stressing since I'm to judge the obedience trial on Sunday, all day long it seems because this time many are showing interest. I always get extremely nervous about doing anything in public. My back has been really bad the past couple days, can hardly walk if I stand for too long, I'm thinking I will need to have a chair with me, hopefully people won't mind me sitting down part of the time. We have really warm weather today and the weekend is supposed to be similar I believe. It is an outside trial at a parking lot in Hafnarfjördur so another trip into town. This is getting ridiculous!

On the way home yesterday we stopped at Brynhildur's and she is looking after Hrafn Dreki so got a character shot of him. He always has his tail going and it's near impossible to take his photo so I just think he's cute here.

Speaking of cuteness, here are a couple photos of his son and daughter that I borrowed from their owners websites. Raggi is just the sweetest in these photos.

Rún is looking so much more grown up and does remind me a bit of Hofi. Such a pretty puppy.

Many Icelanders are referring to a 60 year old man as a hero today. He decided to show his true feelings yesterday on Independence day (many think it may be our last if the government manages to get their way with the ESB). The bank had taken his house due to his inability to pay the bills which were in foreign currency loans, so rather than hand them the key he took it upon himself to demolish his house and burry his car. It is shocking but at the same time a very real protest. After all it was the banks that put the country in the state it's in, they were the one's who convinced people to take the foreign currency loans besides all their other actions, so why should they be able to take his house that he has worked hard for all these years. Sadly it is happening to many. The video I linked has a little bit in English (a Dutch tourist was at the scene taking photos and was interviewed) but mostly Icelandic however you can see the state of the man's property. Of course he is the one that will suffer for his actions but he did get a very strong point across and many are glad he did. The government promised to help the little guy but they totally turned their backs on everyone to get through their own agenda. This house is near the street I lived on for many years, it is not too far from where the president lives.

Here is more coverage from today where he apologized to his neighbours because he didn't know there would be so much traffic because of it.

His family had already moved out of the country to work somewhere else, and now he may be looking at 6 years in prison they say on the news tonight. I sincerely hope he doesn't have to go to jail. I can totally understand him, his loans went from 34 million kroner to 76 million because of the currency falling so drastically. He built the house with his own two hands and had lived there 5 1/2 years. Finally there is dialogue on the news and TV tonight talking about how hard it is for the average Joe and about how many are losing their homes, it obviously took this action for the dialogue to start!

More sad news, this time from Sweden. A friend of mine lost her 13 1/2 year old bitch SUCH NUCH Tildras Litla from her first litter. She had just managed to get the whole litter together for a wonderful historical photo in May of this year. The whole litter was alive and looked so great at age 13 1/2, it is such a great thing to see. This bitch I will always remember well because I met her a few times at dog shows in Norway, this is how I originally met Maria. Litla was a beautiful bitch with the type I love and all the breed details that we don't always see anymore, good double dews, a hook in her tail, strong ears and a correct short coat. A healthy line of dogs with wonderful temperament and working ability competing in all kinds of dog sports. One of the bitches I found to be a worthy competitor when I lived in Norway and I remember I was always a bit nervous when Maria showed up with her dogs at the same shows as me. :-) One of her most beautiful sons was killed a few years ago by a wolf. She thankfully left behind progeny from a few litters and grandpuppies. It is always sad when a family member (in my mind dogs are clearly family members) passes away and my thoughts and condolences go to her owner and family, I'm sure Töfra Karma will miss her "sister" who she's gotten to know over the past two years as will the other dogs in the household. I remember how much mine missed Freyja when she passed on, it seems they were about the same age so I can just imagine the hole she has left in the lives of those who loved her.

I guess that's it for now, can't remember anything else. I did talk to my Mom on the 16th and she is having some trouble with her left hand, very swollen and she can't move it. She has no idea what it could be. They took ex-rays at the emergency when she visited Mandy and didn't find anything but she has another appointment soon. I'm glad Rúnar is going to be able to see her when he passes through Canada on his way to Seattle. He'll only be there one night but at least they get to say hello, I wish I could have just stayed with my Mom while he was in school but with all these dogs it's impossible.

We got a call yesterday and it seemed Hera wanted to give birth a few days early and so we hurried out the door to drive to Kopavogur (just on the other side of Reykjavík). It was a very long day and we were really feeling guilty about the dogs at home but since we hardly ever leave them alone at ALL the occasional longer time alone at home is not as bad as if they were always alone at home. None the less we were a little worried about them. Our neighbour was really nice when we got home and told us they were very good while we were gone, she even thought we had come home and taken them with us somewhere because she heard them a little just after we left but then she didn't hear them at all for the rest of the evening. We left around 2 and came back around midnight, totally forgot how long litters can take to be born. So although we did feel bad coming home so late we were extremely happy we had gone to help out. Hera is 7 years old and this is her first litter and we have all been nervous from the time she was mated but this litter was important to us all.

She was supposed to have them on Wednesday but lucky for us she thought the weekend might be a better time. :-) We are ecstatic at the outcome and so happy at how well she did. I had been worried because although I wanted to believe everything would go well I had heard some negative things and have also read about the difficult in birthing that older females have. I've had problems before with Freyja when she was 9 years old and had Birta. By the time we got to the owners house she had already given birth to 3 puppies so it was just a question of being there for moral support and to make sure the rest went smoothly. As any first time breeder he was happy to have support and help from someone who has been through it before, we of course just had fun being able to help. Sometimes I wished we lived nearer to town, especially when you want to get there in a hurry! Anyway, she managed to do it on her own although it took her a bit longer than a younger bitch she did a fantastic job and I'm so proud of her. Six healthy puppies have been added to the family and she seems quite happy with her accomplishment. We went back today to check how things are going and to bring puppy milk substitute just in case, but she is doing just fine. Only one little guy that was born much smaller than the others that we gave a little supplement to but I'm sure he will do fine just needed a slight boost. He is quite strong and seeks out the milk on his own, it's just going to be a task for the breeder to get him onto a teat before all the bigger ones hog it all over the next few days. I love this photo of Hera and her puppies that I got today, it's funny though how the blankets around the box are almost camouflage colours for her and the pups. The breeder assures me it was totally by accident. Hehe

As each puppy came out we checked the sex and each time it was the same thing "it's a boy!" we started to look at each other and I said you know it's a good thing they are all boys since I would have had a terrible time passing one up. Hera is the kind of dog that you just adore and fall in love with each time you see her she takes a little bit more of your heart and just the type of dog I'd like a puppy from in terms of temperament. I love the temperament of the dogs from Valdís' first litter!

Luckily before she was finished the owner got his little female that he was so hoping for. It was just perfect and the reason he wanted to mate her was to have a puppy for himself. He'd tried before without luck so that was awesome she managed to have puppies because he wouldn't have tried again. Here are a few photos taken last night and today. The little girl is the one with the white blaze, so sweet! She really reminds me of Beggi's puppy named Heida who is Hera's half sister. What a great weekend it turned out to be with a nice colourful bunch of puppies.

This big beautiful dark boy below (yes he's already a favourite, good thing he isn't a girl) took a little longer to come out because he was the last one and she was tired (unbelievable how much energy she did have at her age) and he was the second biggest one. He swallowed a little fluid and was a bit limp but just a slight shake and massaging with a dry towel and he was raring to go. And boy is he strong as you can see on the photos. The first two taken yesterday (one he is already walking around) and the later two taken today. They were all bigger already today (except the little guy who was about the same) and it was great to see them again. It's been years since I've been able to deliver a GSP litter and I'd forgotten what good whelpers they are. Now I suspect we won't see them again until they are running around since there's only a little over a week until Rúnar goes on his trip and I won't be going into town in July at all. Maybe we´ll get into town again before he leaves but there is so much to do and he really should be training and studying which he hasn't had any time to do lately. I'll have to watch them in photos for a little while no doubt but I know the breeder will be very good at posting photos on his Facebook site. :-)

That being said, a great weekend but at the same time we are both feeling pretty much like we haven't slept in a week and we have aches and pains all over the place from all the silly positions, sitting, crouching, bending etc. As most who have had litters know you use pretty much every muscle in some way sitting beside a whelping box for 10 hours. We´re complaining? Poor Hera! Hehehe

Extremely disturbing news also came by email this weekend. An Icelandic sheepdog breeder who I'd emailed in the past and felt like I'd gotten to know a little bit was killed in a car accident. How quickly life can change, it's shocking things like that happen and although I don't know them my thoughts go to her family and her dogs who are now in need of a new home. How thankful we should be for everything we have each and every day, life is short and we never know when our time is up or those we love. I'm going to go hug my dogs and my sweetheart Rúnar now. Hopefully all who are reading this are well, for those who don't hear from me enough do know that my thoughts are always with you none the less.

Wow, it's the weekend again ALREADY! Went to Reykjavík and got the 50 kg box of food yesterday and spent half the night trying to figure out a way to fit it all in the freezer. Hehehe It's all in there now so fingers crossed the electricity doesn't fail for any period of time while we're using it all up. While we were in town we drove to Hafnarfjördur to the store that carries the gluten free stuff and got lots of flour since we were out. Of course that meant a pizza tonight. :-)

Other "while we were in town" stops included going to pick up Skella's cage at her first owner's house and of course we took her with us so she could see her "mom" again and it was a happy reunion. We decided to check on "little" Hera while we were driving past the town she lives in, Kópavogur. I think it's safe to say she has more than one or two pups in there! She's set to whelp on the 17th (which is a holiday here so maybe we'll be able to go help out) but she could of course decide to hurry it up any day now. The little heart shaped spot on her back has stretched and isn't as noticeable as a heart these days. She is such a sweetie and I hate to say it but I can't visit her without wanting to bring home a GSP puppy. I'm going to have to be really strict on the will power the next couple months!

I think that was about it, weather was awesome again today and I spent time outside in the yard with the dogs. We're supposed to have rain all next week and this weekend as well. I'm hoping the forecast is wrong! We had planned on taking the dogs to the beach but we won't be doing that in the rain. I'm a bit relieved that the obedience trial that was supposed to be tomorrow (Saturday) was postponed until next Sunday the 21st, hopefully no rain then. Fingers crossed.

Today would have been Freyja's 15th and Valdís' 11th birthday. I often think of them and can't help but remember Freyja well when her daughter and grandson are such the spitting image. I found it quite amazing while watching Rúnar and Birta train yesterday how much Birta looked like her mother. He was changing positions while practicing her "stick your tongue out" cue and sat on the floor for one session. My stupid camera was always too late. I did get a couple of her before and after getting her treat but none of the tongue being stuck out, but she is so cute when she does it. She puts so much thought into it, closes her mouth and then sticks it out. I'll hopefully get a photo when it's under better stimulus control and my camera is more willing to actually take a shot when I push the button and not seconds afterwards. ;-)

The other two near clones went for a short run the day before yesterday. I seldom say it but I have a true gem in Hofi and I see that even more clearly after taking in a dog with stress and barking problems like Skella. We were forewarned but such is life, you think you have the solution and let's hope that she will settle down a bit with training and as she gets older. She was so great before her heat so I'm still thinking it's partly hormonal. However it's so comforting to have a dog like Hofi who never makes a nuisance of herself, she is so well behaved without having to be trained to be that way, like her great grandma and grandma what I call "naturally obedient" which is a strange thing to say maybe but I'm sure if you met them you would know what I mean. They are not lacking in a need to explore or be a fun character but it's as if they read your mind and are quick to respond to any body cues. Hofi is calm, so quiet (which is good because she has a very high pitched voice ;-) ) and eager to please I wish I could just bottle her temperament. Unfortunately as is always the way, the best behaved is the one that is ignored the most and often forgotten, it's been the same with Hofi Sr who was and Frigg who is the same way. Could it be that they are well behaved because they are ignored and the other ones are getting attention for being brats, hehehe sssssshhhhh we won't talk about that.

Little Hofi is my sweetheart and I'm forever grateful to her breeder for entrusting her to me! She is an improvement on her grandma in the sense that although she is attached to me (or whoever is with her at the time) just like her grandma she is independent enough to not be overly anxious when left alone and she is open and loves everyone she meets without being overpowering. Frigg has always had separation anxiety problems and it's getting extremely bad since her hearing is failing now.

Hofi is so funny and we really enjoy her company when we are smart enough to give her some extra time on her own and everybody else always wants a dog like Hofi when they meet her. When she gets excited like when we stop the car is the only time she barks like a maniac for a few seconds but just as the hand break is being pulled then she quits. We laugh at her for that one and often tease her (also trying to get her used to the "sound" and stop the association) by pulling the hand break a couple times just for the fun of it and she will not bark when you do that but anytime she knows she or us is going out of the car and hears the "tell-tale" hand break sign as the car is being turned off or seat belts are being released, it's bark time. We of course never let them out until they stop and it only lasts a couple seconds because they know that. They know that if they keep barking we either sit in the car ourselves until they stop or leave them there and go for a walk on our own, we only had to do that once or twice. They are not stupid dogs by any means. :-) Which brings me to the other part of her cuteness, she has now started to instead of bark give a mumbling singing sound that reminds us of a mogwai from The Gremlins. We tried to keep from bursting out laughing at her but it was impossible, that sweet little face of hers adds to the cuteness. I'm hoping that is going to be her new substitute bark from now on. Hehehe

Hofi seems to be like her mother's side of the family, she just needed three years and a litter to fill out and mature. She's gotten so much more substance in her body these days she is almost fat but isn't. Her coat came back a little different than it was before her litter, it's lighter in colour now and more undercoat even a little bit wavy. Funny how the bitches especially tend to get a wavier coat as they grow older.

I have to go get ready to go to Reykjavík as soon as Rúnar gets home from work. I hate trips to Reykjavík, they are so stressful with the mountain and then the traffic when you get to town. The days are going fast and it seems they are over before I know it, I feel like I just sat down at the computer but he'll be home any minute now. We´re starting to stock up and get things in order before his trip so we´ve got a big box of raw food to pick up today to put in the freezer so I won't have to be without food for the dogs. I don't like to drive long distances.

For those wondering yes the litter has arrived out of Soley and Max. I've been watching them a little bit on live internet coverage, pretty cool! Hopefully you have just gone straight to Solhundur's blog and seen the photos and info since I haven't gotten back to updating for a few days. It seems they were all pre-sold so I have taken down the litter on my puppies page but here is a photo of the little bundles of joy! Congratulations with a gorgeous litter Scott, Laura, Maureen, Max and Soley!

Protestors gathered at the Parliament building today, around 800 they say. I was glad to see that I'm not the only one that is not happy with the new government and it's strange ideas. It was pretty peaceful although 5 were arrested. The government is signing loans with other countries to pay for the debts of the privately owned banks, the Icesave debts, the debts that each person and their children and grandchildren are being made to pay because a few wannabe millionaires had a great time living the high life for a few years and they get off scot-free. We are supposed to feel sorry for them because some of them are bankrupt while others still have money and companies but lost millions and still make it onto the list of the richest Icelanders. The government is writing off all their debts but making the country pay the foreign debts they accumulated because we are getting threatening letters from other countries. The Icelandic people want the problem to go to the international courts but we don't get a say, just pay and smile! Well, sorry I tend to feel sorry for the innocent people who are losing their houses (or like most of us have lost what they did own of their houses and have nothing but debts left because their mortgages doubled), those who don't have enough to eat, can't take their animals to the vets or care for them anymore. I know for certain I'm not the only one that can't afford the dentist, so many businesses are going belly up, it's so sad. I know that it's pretty much the same in most countries because of the depression but at the same time it seems that most of our troubles here were caused by individuals, business men that thought Iceland was the perfect place to do an Enron scam and they all got away with it and go live in their villas in foreign countries. I'm expecting that the protests will continue but I do certainly hope they are peaceful and don't end up being as bad as last time.

We´re already wondering if having a litter was such a smart thing to do. It seems everybody and their uncle are having litters these days, whether it's just because everyone is being optimistic or they are doing it to keep themselves busy because they lost their jobs or to keep their mind off of other things I don't know. I just know of way too many litters on the way of all different breeds, scary. Every day we see advertisements for dogs looking for new homes and the vets say that many are putting down dogs and puppies because they can't care for them. The other day a mixed litter of puppies was found left in a box outside the cat rescue building, this sort of thing never happened in Iceland. Many are leaving the country and put their dogs down before they leave and I can understand that to a point since we would love to leave the country but you can't find a place to rent that easily anywhere when you have too many dogs. Like I say one friend of mine had 3 dogs and a cat and put the oldest dog down because she is moving to Norway.

Weather has been nice and we've been able to barbeque every day for almost a week now. That's really something to be thankful for sunshine, clear skies and our health is okay. I have been feeling not so good lately but again I think it's stress and anxiety because I'll be alone for a month and I'm not looking forward to that. Weekends are so precious these days spending time together so I've not been using them to update, hopefully no one minds. Hehehe Somebody else is savouring every moment as well, Daddy's girl climbed up on his lap today after he came home from work. Things could be worse and I am thankful for each day even though I do tend to see the negative often I'm working on changing that! ;-)

Really wish I could have been in Canada to celebrate my sister Mandy's birthday today, however the feeling of loneliness and missing every birthday year after year is getting to be so normal that it seems every day is just another day in the life of Mony (my nickname). Makes me think none of us will ever grow old because I miss all the birthdays so don't have a clue how old anyone is around me anymore. We are all still young in my mind at least! Hehehe I can only see on photos how people change and especially my nieces who are all so big now almost adults themselves. A normal day, tried to do some writing and I'm getting a few hours each day in on that, really trying to speed it up since it's taking me forever I feel. The dogs are calmer now and I don't have to play musical cages except for Frigg so it's a lot easier.

Went to the store when Rúnar got home instead of waiting until tomorrow. The town of Selfoss is extremely busy in the summer time on Fridays and weekends because so many people going to other parts of the country (the main highway goes directly through it) or staying in summer cottages just outside the town stop at the grocery stores to get supplies. Rúnar needs to spend tomorrow evening fixing the car again, he did a small repair on it tonight too. He thought he had fixed it the other day but when he took it in hoping to get the certification today it failed again, some small thing. He had such a headache that day that he understandably didn't have his mind on the job. He bought his ticket today so it looks like he's got just a few more weeks to study before his trip.

Let Klói out on the beach tonight for a change and took a few photos. Something quite strange, when we walked down to the beach we saw a young man fully clothed walking into the ocean. He was all alone and when he saw us coming he came back out and walked at first and then ran in the other direction up towards the houses. I'm hoping he didn't have something unmentionable on his mind. In any case we saw him walking into one of the houses when we drove home. There are so many desperate people these days and it is quite sad that you can actually sympathize with their desperation. I've known people during the years who appeared to be extremely happy and had everything to live for who took their lives so you just never know. Hopefully this young man, if he had such thoughts, will be able to find a reason now to stick around. Funny that we should decide to take Klói for a walk on the right side of the road (down by the ocean) instead of the left like we usually do.

He's so skinny these days gotta get him fattened up a bit. Good thing we haven't entered him for the show in the end of June. I'm not taking any dogs, don't know when I'll feel comfortable spending money on shows again, and I'm not working at this show either. I decided to stay at home since Rúnar will be in the States at the time, I'm scared to drive over the mountain on my own to go to Reykjavík and can't leave the dogs alone all day either, the shows are very long days.

I've been waiting to hear news of a litter at a friend's place in Canada today but so far Soley (Belglen Röskva) is still in labour so I'm looking forward to checking the website tomorrow for an update. Unbelievable that in a couple months I might have a litter here myself and I certainly hope Rúnar will be home in time for their arrival because the whelping box is in the attic and I'm scared of heights and can't go up and get it. Honestly though I need him here to help calm my nerves, I am always nervous no matter how many years I've been doing this some things are always exciting and new. We´ll just have to wait a few weeks or so to know for sure but I'm optimistic that it worked.

The long weekend is over already, they always go by so fast. We stayed at home and I was mostly by myself inside with the girls. Rúnar has been busy in the yard, weeding, mowing our lawn and his mother's lawn (she still has her house here in town up for sale). It's been hard for him to concentrate on schooling because he hasn't been able to train but he's been doing written lessons in between when he gets the chance. Today it seems like the girls are pretty much over their high time except maybe Frigg who started last. The girls have been driving me nuts with barking at pretty much anything they hear or see and humping each other so it's really been anything but a relaxing week for me. I haven't been able to concentrate enough to write for the longest time, playing musical cages and listening to whining (from the girls mostly). Klói started eating again today thank goodness I was getting really worried about him, now he's much calmer and following US around again instead of the girls. Couldn't help but feel sorry for him and I remember why I never wanted to keep a male dog with a house full of females. It's too bad he's such a good boy because that means he'll have to suffer through the years, there's NO way I want to give him away! Looks like things will be getting back to normal finally.

Took Klói out for a drive today and yesterday and got photos of him playing fetch. It's been nice weather but the wind has been chilly so pretty much jacket weather. Typical for the summer here most of the time.

Find Klói! He didn't have much energy after almost a week of hardly eating so he lay down to rest while playing fetch.

Birta hiding so Klói will leave her alone. He's been sniffing around her the past few days and she has been so nasty but he doesn't listen too well and always goes back to licking her face and ears trying to make her stop being mean to him. That makes her even more angry, he is such a goof ball, never gets the point! It'll be good when she lets him be close to her again, the two of them are usually so close so he doesn't get why he can't come within a large radius of her these days. Talk about goof balls, Skella often thinks she is a tiny lap dog...NOT!!

Saw some cute little lambs with their mothers on our drive around the "block" today...we drove past a few of the farms by our house. They were being really cute and the lambs would jump up in the air and the mother's would then copy them. A couple of them where playing around being "king of the castle" on the mound of grass and one little lamb stood up on his mother's back and was so proud of himself, we didn't get a photo of him but it was funny the mother was so patient with him.

The Dalai Lama is in Iceland right now and there was a combined prayer meeting of all the religions that wanted to take part, a meeting held by the Bishop of Iceland (Lutheran) at the Hallgrimskirkja (main church downtown) in Reykjavik today. I didn't go but I've watched him on the TV the past little while they have had interviews and shows about him in preparation for his visit. Very interesting man, so tolerant of all people and religions. It is wonderful how peace loving he is and so much can be learned from his teachings. I have friends of all different religions even some of the Aasatru (I think it's called Heathenism in English, it's the old Norse faith) and I know quite a few were at the meeting today and found it to be a very inspiring. The earthquakes seem to have settled down since the Dalai Lama got here. :-)

However the "quakes" among people continue. There are many very upset and angry at the new government for not accepting or even acknowledging the Dalai Lama's visit since he is not here on a political visit but rather as a religious leader and teacher. Our country is supposed to be a neutral country and we have in the past always showed every leader the respect they deserve regardless of their nationality or political views. It gives the country a bad name when the government voted in by the people (well not really, it was "chosen" by the President but that's a different story) doesn't show the respect that the population wishes it to show. Not too long ago, just this past April our President made a mockery of the country by sending the American Ambassador to Iceland Carol van Voorst a letter inviting her to accept the medal of honour and then she got a call while on her way to the President's residence telling her she wasn't being given the medal afterall but she was welcome to come anyway. This type of "mistake" has never happened before, the whole country was furious and embarrassed, some say it was the "new government" that was behind that as well.

As usual I spoke too soon, Klói has turned into a nervous wreck now, he is not eating anything and shaking like a leaf wanting to get to the girls. He's not so much a whiner or barker so that's at least one positive but it is driving us nuts. The girls are going more nuts than he is, we can't wait until this multiple heat is over! It seems as one is getting over the high time the next one comes into hers and then on and on, it is feeling endless this time. Wish they all could have been right on time at exactly the same time it would make it so much quicker and easier. We did allow Klói and Skella to have one more tie when Rúnar was home after work yesterday, it appears she is over her high time now.

The past couple days I will say there has been more going on that might slightly be responsible for the stressed environment in the house. We've had a slew of small tremors, can't really call them earthquakes I guess since they aren't that big. We are lucky enough that they are farther away from us than they were last year. Speaking of last year it seems the first bigger quake (4,9 on Richter) came yesterday which is a year since the big quakes. So far today we've had another 4,5 on Richter and a couple around 4, about eight quakes around and over 3 and uncountable smaller ones. I get so upset and anxious just knowing that we can have a quake any minute and my lack of balance is bad enough so I sometimes wonder if it's just me or if it's a quake. Here is a link to the website that shows the quakes and their size, probably need to refresh to see the newest quakes.

As we sat and watched TV last night the 4,9 quake shook us slightly just for a split second but it was enough to know what was going on. We looked at each other and me and Hofi and Skella looked at each other. It really wasn't that scary but it kind of always is no matter how little we feel the movement because you always expect there might be an even bigger one on the way. I thought how lucky we are that we are far enough away to hardly feel a thing. Strange if we are going to have to expect to have quakes of this size or larger on a yearly basis. Yes they always tell me that there are almost constant tremors somewhere in the country all the time but usually in areas that are not inhabited or in the ocean around us. I'm not happy about all these quakes the last few years, I don't ever remember feeling tremors before, I'm really wanting to move now. Getting nervous, hopefully we have no big quakes while Rúnar is away, he'll have to visit me at the funny farm when he comes home if we do. We have enough worries with the economic situation which by the way the new government is much much worse than the one we used to have. I'm so regretting the vote I gave, the first time I didn't vote the party I have from the time I started voting. I'm wondering is there a way to overturn this government right away before they do any more damage. Each day they do more and more to make it impossible for the normal family to survive. They are wasting all the time talking about the Euro while families are going bankrupt all over the country, people are moving to other countries every day. I doubt half those families will ever return.

The newest not so pleasant surprise is they raised the price of gas again, some special new tax that added around 10-11% (can't remember exactly) to the cost that was already way too high. Means people who intended spending summer holidays in Iceland because flights are so expensive to go to other countries won't even be able to drive too much through the country this summer. People will be going stir crazy at home having to focus on their troubles even more. It also means fewer trips to Reykjavík for us and we were already keeping them to the minimum. It's really bad when people can't even visit their families any more because of the cost of gas. If I´m not mistaken it costs around $1.50 pr litre now, the prices went up without warning because they passed the bill late evening and raised them the morning after. Caught everyone off guard because the prices had been raised because of "foreign costs due to the currency" just the day before and so the price rise was really double what the government talked about, it went up 16 kroner instead of 10 as they had talked about. There are bills being passed without the opposing government being informed of the contents, pushing through of votes in the Parliament when the "right people" are present so that not everyone has the opportunity to become familiar with what's being discussed. I could go on and on the things this new so-called improved government have done but it's just depressing. If I had the money I'd already be living either in Canada or Norway!

Talked to my Mom and she said she is doing great so at least I have some positives in my life at the moment. :-)

I'm quite pleased with the results, two good ties, one yesterday and one today pretty much 24 hours between. I don't know how they timed it that well but they did. She was a little bit nasty at times today so we are going to let that suffice and wait to see if we have puppies in the end of July. She's resting nicely in her cage and Klói is exhausted, it was pretty warm and sunny and high noon. I was alone at home both times and we've only let them try outside so I was lucky enough that the weather was good both times, 30 minute yesterday and 20 minute tie today so it was a bit tiring kneeling on the ground. The first time Skella was very fidgety and wanted to drag him around so I held her and had quite a hard time keeping her still because she is really strong, she was able to slightly drag us both around at times. Today she was better during the tie and stood pretty much still on her own but was nipping at him and making a nuisance of herself when he was trying to mount her. I am happy to say they got no help from us (holding her during the tie was for my own peace of mind) it was all very natural just the way I like to see it happen, it tells me alot about the line and fertility if the dogs need human assistance and the years have taught me that it's better for the breed to not interfere. As I said before I would have changed my plans completely if they hadn't done anything on their own so I'm a bit relieved it worked out.

He was a bit silly of course the first few tries and we were quite lucky that Skella has had a litter before so she did help him with the placement at times. It was quite hilarious to watch him because I swear he was using what he learned of rear leg awareness to help him manoeuvre around from her head to her backend, no need to waste time by jumping down and walking around her, just let his little back legs do the walking and rested his front on her back! No lesson is ever wasted on Klói that's for sure! :-) Don't know if it would have gone so well with a maiden bitch but at least we know Klói knows how to get the job done now. Now I can't wait for all the girls to finish their heats, enough is enough! Musical cages and little denim pants are only so much fun and then it gets annoying.

Speaking of Skella's litter, I will say that we have been watching with interest as a litter of "foster grandpuppies" (ours through association since we got Skella :-) ) grows up in Denmark out of Hofi's father Icetops Samur from Norway. The litter is at Westmanna kennel and they have some wonderful photos of Hofi's father on their site. They are really cute with special markings and I'm excited to see what I'll get from Skella. I'm hoping I won't get pied (I'm thinking Klói doesn't carry it) and I'm pretty sure we are able to get a rainbow of colours, hoping for some black tris.

Weird weather yesterday afternoon. Rúnar came home from work and said have you seen the lightening and heard the thunder? I said no it's been sunny and nice here all day and he said I know I could see while driving home that the weather was only nice over our town. There was snow on one side of him, lightening and thunder on the other, dark clouds and hail somewhere else. We went to the store with Klói with us and stopped on the way home to let him out and I got a photo of the weather on the mountain and the dark clouds and rain and then a second later I turned around walked a few meters and took a nice clear photo of Klói running around. Like I say it was as if our small town was clipped out and had summer all on it's own, it was just like we had a curtain around us.

A few cars had apparently ran off the road (the mountain roads to Reykjavík) because of the snow storm that suddenly appeared, they even had to call out the snow blowers!! My friend Brynhildur who lives right by the mountain had some photos taken at her house with a couple centimetres of snow where she had been admiring the spring weather and eggs in a bird's nest earlier in the day. Unbelievable how strange the weather is, I'm sure the earth is moving on it's axis.

What else is new? Nothing I can think of at the moment so I'm going to go write a bit of my book while the dogs sleep. Just felt I should update for those who were curious. :-)

Crossing our fingers and maybe we still have a day or two left, we got a couple matings today that looked to be on the right track but no tie. Klói is pretty much exhausted but we´ll see how it goes tomorrow or before we go to bed tonight. He seemed to just all of a sudden around 9 p.m. last night have a lot of interest in Skella and has been the same all day today, I had to put her in her cage for a while today so he could rest and sleep a little. Yesterday he didn't eat but today he ate most his food. I'm thinking we have one of those genius dogs that just knows the correct time so doesn't even attempt anything before then. Lucky us! :-) One of my pet peeves is male dogs that will hump everything they see or pee all over the house, whine or bark. He hasn't been like that and he knock on wood is not marking indoors at all and never has, he has grown up with a house full of females that go into heat regularly so I guess with his sensitive nose it's been easy for him to figure out the cycle. We've never even had to tell him off for peeing in the house, he just never does it. We were starting to worry that he was just not interested in that type of thing at all, thought he might just be an innocent little guy that would need a long time to figure this out if he ever did. We decided that if nothing happened this heat we would find a new male for her next time. Of course we were relieved last night and especially today since we have gotten a couple intense but gentle matings, didn't get to them in time to hold Skella still so he had to wait a few minutes feeling a bit embarrassed afterwards. Took a photo of him today "resting" in between attempts, thought he was pretty funny and cute too. He's got character and is a bit of a romantic. Good thing Skella is a big strong girl...lean on me when you're not strong...lalalala. Hehe

Here is a photo we took of him when we went into town the other day. Didn't get many photos because he was running around being a nut but this one turned out okay.

Called my mom last night and she was going to the doctors today, she is feeling much better and apart from some problems with her legs from drugs her doctor prescribed to her AGAIN that she is allergic too and they don't listen, she is in pretty good shape she said. She even wants to come to Iceland to visit us when she found out how cheap the fairs are these days. I don't know if that's the best idea but I can understand her wanting to, she lived here for about 8 years herself and often misses it. I'm going to call her again tomorrow to see how it went at the doctors today.

I was officially asked to judge 4 obedience trials this summer for the Doberman club. One a month starting in June, the last one is in September and the best dogs from the other three are eligible to compete in that trial for the title of club champion. It should be fun and will keep me busy one Saturday a month. I might not be able to judge the one in July because Rúnar will not be at home and I can't leave a pregnant (fingers crossed) bitch and the other dogs all alone the whole day. We´ll see though if they can maybe move it to a date when he is back. Another very good turn of events is that if the mating was successful today it means that the puppies shouldn't be born until he is back home and gets a few days to rest up from his trip. Talk about good timing. Like I say I have some smart dogs! :-)

We´ve had great weather and now it's raining again, not much new to report at least nothing I can remember right off the top of my head.

I'm thinking of and sending warm healing thoughts to my dear aunt Janeen who is in hospital. My cousin Marilyn's mother who lives so many provinces away from her so I really and truly am thinking of Marilyn as well.

Rúnar took the car to get checked on Friday and didn't pass so he had to spend all day yesterday fixing what needed to be fixed so he can take it back before the deadline. It took him from morning to evening and Klói and I walked over for a few minutes to check on him and to get out of the house. Today he is getting back to studying and feeling better than he did, he had a horrible headache yesterday, no doubt it was the sun shining on him all day and not eating anything. I'm really proud of Rúnar he has taken I believe 4 tests so far and has 100% on all of them. Great job Rúnar!!!! Not even sure I could do that well. ;-) Little Klói is getting some special training sessions now because he's not eating these days but he will always eat hotdogs after a click. :-) He loves training. Rúnar says it might not be such a good idea to train him though he is a bit unlike his normal self, hopefully it's just the girls being in heat that is causing it.

He is quite worried about and has been telling us again of something going on with Frigg, he'll lick and lick her head and the one side of her face and low and behold the problem presented itself as it usually does, Klói is really never wrong in his "diagnosis". Poor Frigg has an abscess on her cheek again right under her eye, it started to be quite noticeable yesterday and is bigger today. No doubt it's because of the broken tooth again so we will have to go and get her checked. She fell off the bed the day before yesterday in the middle of the night but I checked her and she seemed okay, I am sure she just got too close to the edge while she was asleep and then couldn't stop herself from falling when she rolled over.

She is starting to be extremely stressed and scared to be at home alone all of a sudden and I'm wondering if she is starting to hear badly. She can hear the click of course because it's a loud sound that is in a range most dogs can hear but she doesn't seem to hear much when I am talking to her outside or trying to wake her up to come into the bedroom at night. There appear to be times when she can hear a little but I'm not sure if she actually is hearing or is watching the other dogs and copying or sees something from my facial expression. She can be right beside me on the floor or with her back to me and I'll call to her and she won't show any sign of hearing me, doesn't even twitch her ears which she would have in the past. If I touch her she'll look so I'm using my hands when I call her now so she sees the movement. She has a great appetite still and no other problems that we are aware of so no doubt she's just insecure when left alone but we always have Hofi with her in the cage so she doesn't have to be alone. However the worst thing is that Hofi is starting to bark too because Frigg barks and Hofi wasn't a barker before. She never really barks otherwise except in play sometimes but leave her alone in the cage with Frigg she'll bark, leave her alone in her cage and nothing. We are wondering how to fix this problem since we can't always take Frigg along with us and she'll shake like a leaf if she's all alone. It's not a great thing getting old it seems. She does scare me sometimes, she will fall asleep with her eyes wide open (never used to do that) and I'll try to wake her up and even start poking and pushing her but she is so sound asleep that it takes awhile. Strange and spooky.

One of my best friends just lost her 13 year old English Setter on Friday. Rest in Peace Shiva. I remember when she got her not too long before Frigg was born, Frigg's mother Hofi and Freyja grew up visiting her all the time and were good friends. She was born to a breeder friend of ours who lived on the same street as us. It seems there are very few dogs left anymore from the old generation and it is quite sad to see them all leave us one by one. My friend is moving to Norway so she felt that her dog was too old to make the trip I believe she was allowed to sleep the big sleep in their own home, she had talked about having to let her go soon but I didn't want to ask for sure when she said she died in the night. She was buried at the family summer home yesterday. I remember so well the tough decision to leave Hofi in Norway at the same age so I totally understand her thinking and no doubt it was the kindest thing. I was talking to an Icelandic sheepdog friend the other day who has one of the bitches that was born in the same generation as Freyja and Frigg and we were trying to remember which dogs are still alive and we couldn't come up with very many at all. Could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Another friend lost her Tibetan spaniel the other day again the same generation, I never realize how old Frigg is until I hear these things. In my mind she is always the little puppy who never grows old.

So not too much new, we've had awesome summer weather. It's totally unbelievable and we have been in the house and out in the yard off and on the past few days. Yesterday however I managed to get pissed off, since all the girls are in heat we make sure we take a good look out before we let the dogs out. Klói is not showing too much interest yet, at the moment mostly his mother so we've had a bit of musical dogs when we don't have them under our feet. I had been outside cleaning up the yard yesterday and then we came in for a few minutes and I sat down at the computer. Well, all of a sudden the dogs went totally bonkers at the window and I asked them to be quiet but there was no way, they sounded upset and angry at something. I got up and looked out and what do I see but a black long legged Labrador (either a mixed breed or a field trial type) sniffing and enjoying the scents in the yard. He had obviously jumped the fence and I put Klói away in the room and snuck out and was going to spray the dog with the hose. Just as I picked up the hose and aimed it at him I look to the side and what do I see, another dog in between the fences (we have two fences with a meter or so between) that obviously hadn't managed to jump the second fence AND two no so young boys standing on the fence watching them. Well, I'm sorry I couldn't help myself I exploded. I know it's not becoming of a clicker trainer but boy was I angry that I can't even have my fenced yard in peace. Bad enough the stray dogs are jumping the fence but when the owners are with the dogs and they do it, that's just way over the line. I told them to take their dogs out of my yard they had no right to be here and that if I saw those dogs around my yard again I would call the police, they said well they got away from us and I said that's why they should be on a leash. I came back in the house steam coming out of my ears.

Anyway, apart from that not much. Rúnar has been so busy that he hasn't hardly caught his breath the past few days. Mowing the lawn after work and we went to the store in Selfoss yesterday and got some stuff to put on the barbeque. Yesterday we had lamb chops, today we had Bratwurst and tomorrow we'll have hamburgers. Gotta love this weather and make the best of it when it's here. Luckily it was a holiday today and he trained a bit this morning, I got to sleep in because I'm writing at night again, it's about the only time I don't get interrupted by the phone, the neighbours, the dogs etc. He went out (with the supposedly happy couple with him into the yard but they are still not doing anything much) and cleaned out the car. Then when I was up around 9:30-10 (didn't get too many hours but the weather was nice so it was okay) he filled up the car with junk and took it to the junkyard. So our yard is nice and clean and he's removed the round rock bed out of the middle, one of Klói's favourite play areas but the dogs are getting used to the new flatter wider space so hopefully the grass will come in nicely this summer, it'll make the care of the yard much easier.

Tomorrow we have to go into Reykjavík after he's finished work, to get some food for the dogs and visit his mom and grandparents while we're at it. No doubt Klói will get to come with us so he can get away for a little bit. Rúnar has been sitting watching his lessons (over an hour of video) since supper and I thought it was pretty cute to see that the dogs would rather be in there than with me in the living room. You see that is their training room and they all enjoyed their lessons today so no doubt were hoping they might get a few more before the night is over. It kind of makes you wonder if you are as popular as you thought. :-)

Have had a couple phone calls the past few days and one was to tell me the news, it appears the mating was successful and Töfra Goose Stalker Hera is pregnant. She hasn't had an ultrasound or anything but the owner is quite sure that given how much she has gained that there have to at least be a couple in there. So we're excited about that and she has a few weeks left yet, is due June 17th which is Iceland's Independence day. This will be her first litter and a decision her owner didn't take lightly and given he had tried before thought he'd try one last time before giving up. I did warn that she is quite old to be having a litter. This is the problem when you have bitches that have longer cycles between heats. I've had this problem myself sometimes with females who cycle every 9 months or so. In any case I've had litters with older females before and when all is said and done, if nature is on your side and the line is important it's something you don't regret if the outcome brings healthy puppies. The owner is hoping to keep back a puppy himself for hunting and she will no doubt be a good teacher. She's looking pretty round already as you can see by the photos I took when she was being mated (right photo...need I mention)!

Wow, what a great evening last night. We watched the Eurovision song contest like we do every year and this year Iceland was competing, they got into the finals earlier this week so they got to compete last night. More than three quarters of the country was sitting by their television sets in Iceland last night! Awesome outcome, my favourite song and singer was from Norway and he won the contest with a huge amount of votes from most countries. Iceland was in second place. We really couldn't afford to win so second place was the best possible outcome. What a day of celebration today downtown and in many places around the country. The winner country has to host the next one and long story short we just don't have a building large enough and no money to build something for that. :-) Just figured it out today where I knew this girl who sang from and I remembered when I saw her with her dog on the news this evening that I was an assistant teacher when she was young with her puppy at the kennel club school puppy course. It wasn't a clicker course, I was just helping out a friend who was the teacher. Small world the last singer who did this well in Eurovision was Beggi's cousin so it definitely is a small country we live in.

The weather the past couple days has been crazy...in a good way. It hasn't been this warm this time of year for who knows how long maybe never. hehehe Not that it's necessarily really hot compared to other places but the sun was out and it felt like summer so we are happy. The dogs loved being outside laying around, Rúnar spend some of yesterday staining the deck and then finished it this morning. Klói and Skella are totally smitten with each other off and on, not that anything has actually happened but they are at least showing us that they are interested. They have been "dancing" today and yesterday, so cute to see how much they like each other these days. On the negative note is his mother is also in heat and Frigg and Hofi will no doubt start very soon by the looks of it. I am relieved though that they all are in season at the same time rather than stretching it out over many months. Only problem is that I don't know about other people but my girls get more barky and stressed when they are in heat and so Birta and Skella are getting on my last nerve with their barking when Rúnar isn't at home. Little angels of course when he is at home, they just tend to think that every car driving past the house is him and get overly excited thinking he is coming and run to the door barking. Oh I long for the quiet again, hopefully the next few weeks will go by quickly.

Wow, we noticed Hofi has actually gained a bunch of weight lately. She never used to put on weight no matter how we tried to fatten her but since she had the puppies and changed to the raw food she's looking a little chubby. We figured out that since Klói is getting a bit thin that maybe it would be better to give her less and him more. Duh! She's been getting the same amount of the raw food as the other dogs.

Klói looks like his grandma on this photo. I have continued to train him a few minutes a day and he's getting his treat thrown to him here for aligning himself so well.

Rúnar has been really busy and done a ton of training this weekend with all the dogs. He's taking each one through different exercises and he now has Birta sticking her tongue out by request, Hofi going to her bed, Skella pushing an "easy button", Frigg doing a head dip and Klói climbing in a box and sitting. It's so fun to see how happy Rúnar is to see progress and so quickly, he is getting a bit worried about the time he has to finish in. I think he's doing great!

Now he is at his sisters fixing the muffler of the car so we can take the car in to get it's annual check so we don't end up paying fines for not going at the right time.

Speaking of a small world, a fun coincidence I heard a couple days ago is the cousin of a friend of mine is the new owner of Isrima Birna my favourite puppy from the litter and the one I wanted to take. It'll be fun to be able to hear updates on her in future.

Trying to think what is new. We had no hot water yesterday all day so I was a bit pissed off because I had not washed my hair the night before and there was a meeting last night so when the water finally came back on around 4 pm I hurried and had a bath. Made me think of how we never miss things until we don't have them for a while. :-) I had heated up the kettle to wash the dishes and then Rúnar got home and said why didn't you just use the dishwasher? Silly me, I didn't realize it heated up the water, thought it took in both hot and cold. We live and learn. Hehe

Went to the annual general meeting of the HRFI last night (Icelandic kennel club), it was packed 293 people and possibly more non-voting persons as well. Don't remember such a turnout for years. It was a very interesting meeting to say the least and lots of interesting speeches. Very differing opinions about certain things but the meeting was quite civil and everyone was professional and got their points across without any problems. Not that there are problems at these meetings but you never know when so many people are together in one place with two totally opposite ideas. The board members were re-elected but the new people that were up for election got quite a few votes which was nice to see so much interest in club matters. The great thing is that the meeting gave many the chance to voice their opinions so it gives people a year to ponder over the thoughts brought up and it will be interesting to see what develops during the next year. We got to see a lot of people we don't see too often, we sat for example with the late Hektor's owner and she was so happy to hear how everything was going with the puppies, she was very proud of Kelikátur´s show career and asked that Rúnar take some photos for her when he sees him. She's also quite excited to see what we get out of Klói and Skella, she like me knows most the Icelandic sheepdogs and their bloodlines so thought it was an exciting combination since it hasn't been done before. Fingers crossed fate will be open to our plans! ;-)

That's about all that's going on, Rúnar hasn't been feeling too well all week, he hurt his back at work on Monday. He's been going to work but needs to rest well when he gets home and he's been going to bed early. So not much training but he has been trying to keep up with the reading. Rúnar being in school has given me inspiration to actually do something constructive again. I always talk about how I want to do this and that but never get around to doing it. I've started training Klói and am trying to take a short session each day when Rúnar gets home, he is coming home around 4 again which is great so hopefully he will feel better next week so he can train more. I'm taking Klói through the obedience heel exercise and some of the other things for the test. We´re going to try to get him ready for a trial, but I will not take him until he is good enough to compete so we´ll see how it goes. Sadly we are not able to train with other dogs because I refuse to use other methods than clicker and my way of training is so different. Besides that I'd rather train the exercises without distractions first. I don't want to walk around in a circle and correct mistakes made because the dog has no idea what is being asked, I'd rather get each part correct and then put them all together later.

I'm in no hurry to compete, I'd rather just train him and have fun doing it, Lord knows he needs structured training though. He is a bit bored and now that we have the females going into heat he needs something to keep his mind off of it, or at least give him something else to think about for a few minutes each day. I haven't spent any time training him since he was small and felt pretty bad about it so the push I needed was Rúnar training in the other room. ;-) Yes Klói is good at what he knows like helping around the house with the mail, the VCR, the laundry, changing the sheets (well okay his job with that is to pull the old sheet off the bed), picking up stuff I drop and stuff like that but real obedience exercises he has no clue because I never bothered to teach him. So I'm pretty happy with myself and him at how our lessons are going. I'm sure no one that trains dogs in the other clubs would understand our training sessions hehehe, no doubt it probably looks like he is getting away with all kinds of "misbehaving" because I ignore everything I don't want. We´re of course clicker training and cutting the exercises down to minute parts and pretty much starting backwards. He is so good at the straight sit beside me now, we've done that. We used the step to shape that move a little while ago as I talked about, he's really good at fixing himself now and moving his butt so it's really neat. Now I walk around in a square, one step at a time and stop, then wait for him to come to heel and fix himself to sit straight beside my left leg. He is doing it so fast and well already and today I really had his attention quickly after each "break". He was rewarded enthusiastically for wanting to continue training. (Give me a break game in the Control Unleashed book by Leslie McDevitt). We are hoping we can move into some distractions soon.

We are up to the point that when he sits crooked he doesn't get a click but when he does it right he gets a click so we are already past the shaping and onto him correcting himself for a click. Very simple but I tell you it's hard to break bad habits and not want to take control. People might think I'm crazy only concentrating on one little piece at a time but to me it's an important part of the exercise, I want the position itself to be default if he is not sure what to do I'd rather have him sitting at my left side than wondering around out of control. I also want him to have that down pat before I start asking for long distances of heeling. As most know the dog is supposed to sit down each time you stop and that is actually what we are doing. I sometimes take a step backwards or forwards, to one side or the other and stop and he will get into position and sit. I'm quite happy with his progress over a couple days, I had forgotten how quickly he learns if you actually take the time to teach him.

We were also training the movement part as a different exercise, he is so good at being at my left side and walking around the house in a heel without leash so I felt it was time to take it outside. He is so used to running around like a maniac in the yard barking so it was a bit strange to him to be practicing the heel in his "play area". Soon we will be moving him to a new place and different types of ground. Right now we are doing grass and concrete. I've added the leash for some of it so he gets used to it too. Lots of little bits and pieces that I can't wait to put together and hopefully get the "perfect" (or as near as possible) heel exercise.

So if you didn't get my hint in the last paragraph....Skella has started her heat!!! So we wait to see if we will get a mating in a couple weeks. We haven't actually seen any blood yet, but she is swollen and licking herself and Klói is following her around, she's been trying to play with him too but I have to make sure Birta is not with them because she always feels she has to tell them off because we don't like them playing around so much in the house. This means that the timing is of course such that Rúnar will probably be in Seattle when she is due. Maybe if she puts off for a couple weeks in accepting Klói then maybe just maybe Rúnar will be back for the delivery if she gets pregnant. Boy time is flying and Rúnar is getting nervous about the workshops, but he is so looking forward to the different things that he has in store, like chicken camp and also a seminar on aggression.

Took Klói to the eye test on Saturday, as most know it's a nerve wracking time so we were anxious while he was studying Klói. After the vet was finished he turned on the lights, looked at us and said, "absolutely perfect", can't find a thing wrong and we sighed in relief and smiled. So Klói is up-to-date and now we have another year until we have to go back. Klói was well behaved he was last time too, made us proud. After the test we went to visit Rúnar's father and grandparents and he was such a good boy there too. Rúnar's father was surprised at how good he was because when his father has come home to see us Klói has run around like a maniac jumping on his lap and making a nuisance of himself but of course he feeds off his mother's attention seeking behaviour and when he is alone he doesn't have to compete to be noticed. :-) I tell you it's quite funny with my dogs, everybody wants to be the center of attention when they are in their own house, just like kids I guess. LOL He was still his typical smart self finding toys in the toybox in the other room and bringing them into the living room to show us what he'd found. He brought a silly yellow duck that squawked when squeazed and he had a great time with it. He threw it up in the air, ran after it, let people throw it for him and other times just laid down with it and licked it. Then he found a big teddy bear in the corner and afi (grandpa) went and got it and gave it to him, spoiled doggy. He figured out who the best person to sneak food from was and followed Rúnar's grandmother all over the house, he got quite a few pieces of cheese and a couple little pieces of plain cookie. We could tell his eyes were a bit strange from the drops and strong lights from the vet and he squinted a bit and looked wide eyed too at times. We had a great visit and I think it was something Klói needed for a change. Rúnar's dad is leaving next Saturday so hopefully we will get a chance to go say goodbye before he leaves.

Took a few photos the other day when Frigg and Hofi were out with us. They love water and didn't take long until Hofi was wet and Frigg soon after.

Rúnar has been studying every chance he gets and the other dogs are envying Birta for being the guinea pig. Hehehe He said he is able to use the other ones soon for some of the lessons, I'm sure they will be quite happy with that. "Daddy's girl" is just adoring her daddy these days as always.

Finally the new government is going to start work next week. It's about time, I'm just worried the country has been so bombarded with pro-Euro advertising that they might just vote to join the EU. I hope not, it's kind of funny I saw the news yesterday that Ireland actually wants to give up the Euro and go back to their currency, I just think we could do so much as an independent country if only people could open their eyes to the potential instead of following blind the notion that the EU is a magic solution to everything. Saw a cool show on TV the other day showing how Norway is doing on their project of a hydro energy highway. And even cooler was the cars being made by the French project MDI - cars that run on air! http://www.mdi.lu/english/ I want one of those. :-) I think Iceland should invest in that company and change our country to a total air car nation. Wow, big dreams I know but with our small population means it would be a neat thing to do. It makes me think too with all the Icelanders that have higher education in this country can't we find some cool projects to put Iceland on the map? There have been a few very neat things invented, discovered (like genetics research) or produced by Icelanders so we just need a push in the right direction. I think that's what the government should be doing, NOT wasting all the time they could be using to fix our own country trying to make us a part of EU so we have to follow everyone else's rules. Speaking of inventions and what we should be investing in. I don't like the idea of ethanol or bio-diesel fuels because those bring about more hunger in the world...the fields used for fuels cannot produce food anymore. We don't have endless space for crops and besides that it adds to the genetically modified crops that can cause contamination to non-GM crops. I know I'm a lot like my late grandfather when it comes to wanting the world to be a better place and I want all food to be organic.

As usual on weekends I like to lounge around the house when we don't have anything planned and sometimes don't bother getting dressed, my hair a mess and looking as if I just woke up all day. I enjoy being a "hermit" on weekends. Hehehe. Much to my surprise the doorbell rang today and I jumped up from the computer totally shocked and ran into the bedroom to get dressed, had no idea who it was so Rúnar came to the bedroom door and said, "it's Árni". Wow, how weird is that I had just thought last night before going to bed that I'd love to visit Árni and get to meet his girlfriend Hjördis. I guess I sent out vibes...I do that sometimes, don't know how but I swear so often I just think things and they appear. They were going out for a mother's day supper at a restaurant not too far from here and decided to just drop in and introduce us. What a great surprise and I also found out that his girlfriend is friends with an Icelandic sheepdog breeder in USA who I know a little through emails. Small world. I was glad to see Árni he is such a big part of my life I've known him since I was a teenager but hardly ever see him since my sister's divorce. Hopefully we will see more of them in future, he met Rúnar today for the first time too! I also got a really nice phone call today and I'd like to thank Val for thinking of me. It's been an unexpected day of fun moments, our neighbour asked us in for a tea as well and we had a nice visit with them and their dog Gosi. Tonight I'm going to call my mom so I look forward to that too! But the weekend is over again, it always goes by way too fast.

I guess there is not much to write about, my tooth is still bothering me but since acupressure works pretty much I think it's more stress than a real problem with the tooth although it is an old mercury filling (I hate having those but the last time I went to the dentist she refused to change them because she said my teeth were in very good shape "for my age" LOL) and I do have a little chip on the side of my tooth from the other day so I do have to get it fixed when I can. For now I'm eating lots of garlic, honey and cinnamon as antibacterial, bathing in Himalayan salts and doing acupressure before I go to bed. So far so good, just occasionally have toothache when I eat or drink something cold or when I talk too much or get overtired, but it is actually getting much better and less often during the day. Usually I just "think" it away so the power of the mind is a good thing for us people who refuse to take painkillers or drugs of any kind. :-)

Speaking of drugs I read an article with some scientific findings about vaccinations in dogs. I've read articles before but this one stuck a bit because it talked about proof of the incidence of allergies and cancer in vaccinated dogs versus non-vaccinated. Given our breed was very inbred there is reason to believe our dogs are lacking a bit in terms of a healthy immune system. It also talked about a new theory about inflammation and how it's generally been thought to be a part of the healing process but the new theory is that it is actually "helping and hiding" the bad cells so they can't be removed. I'm thinking that I'm glad I've cut down on vaccinations for my dogs the past few years and I'm also glad we don't have to use all the different vaccines that other countries do. Sometimes I don't envy people living with dogs in other countries where there is so much more that they can catch. I now only vaccinate every 2-3 years pretty much (sometimes I do it more frequently like in puppies of course) and wonder if poor Freyja was possibly the victim of too many vaccinations in her lifetime. I thought that too at the time she was so sick with anaemia and the vet had mentioned it to me.

Some of the findings are shocking and the fact that the vets and drug companies don't tell people of the risks is sad. However I will say my vet has been good like that, they were the ones that said dogs don't need to be vaccinated yearly and they also don't advocate de-worming unless the dogs show signs of worms. I read an article about de-worming in the NKK magazine where they talked about the fact that de-worming too often make the drugs stop working as they should. I know a few breeders that do very limited vaccinations and many years ago a breeder friend of mine in UK told me about it but in Iceland as well as Norway at the time there were strict rules in place that didn't allow dogs to take part in any events unless their vaccinations were up-to-date, that is yearly shots. You used to have to show the vaccination papers at the door when entering a dog show and if they were older than a year you couldn't enter. So at the time I decided not to worry myself about something I couldn't do anything about, if I wanted to show my dogs or take part in trials or other training, or even put my dog in a kennel while on holiday (they still have pretty strict rules in those places but some kennels here have many cases of Parvo anyway) then I'd have to go by the rules. Luckily it is getting a little bit better and people are now allowed to almost make their own decisions when it comes to that, after all it's not always the unvaccinated dogs who spread the disease. Here in Iceland it seems that in most cases the dogs with Parvo are vaccinated dogs. Of course you don't want your dog to get sick or die from a stupid preventable disease but they do say that the puppy vaccinations should be sufficient for the life of the dog if they are not done too early. I just thought it was interesting and gave me more food for thought so I'm going to be asking my friend how often and how she vaccinates her dogs that are on the raw diet. Now I gave you some time to prepare an answer Laura, expect an email. ;-)

We had a lovely visit yesterday from a German lady who owns an Icelandic, she is staying in the next town and it was so nice to meet her and put a face to the person I have been talking to via email. Problem was however that I'm sure my dogs made a horrible first impression unfortunately I think they often do that when guests meet them for the first time, lalala. Obviously I have to get more serious about training them. I always seem to put off training because it's so much harder to have many dogs in a very small place where when you take one to train the others get upset. When I had two dogs or even three they were very well behaved but as each new dog joins the household they get less and less training. It's a vicious circle and I'm sorry to say it's like the shoemaker´s children that have worn out shoes, if you know what I mean. We don't mind them being lively and happy but when you get guests and the dogs keep jumping up on the couch and making a nuisance of themselves (it's their couch and so normal to them) and are so happy to see another human being that they run in and out getting toys to play with it makes you feel a bit embarrassed given that we are supposed to be dog trainers. Hehehe That said we seldom have guests so it's hard to train how to behave around guests. It was much less of a problem when I lived in a bigger place but when you live in a "small box" then it's much more obvious that you have 5 dogs!!! ;-) I do admit that it's about 3 too many sometimes.

Of course the "good dogs" Frigg and Hófi as usual were well behaved but the three musketeers really went to town trying to be noticed and had to be put outside off and on just to have some peace. When Klói is alone he is much calmer, I just think the three of them are too alike and feed off of each other's excitement. How silly we were to bring Skella home knowing she had a few similar problems that Birta had, the owner did mention them to us but that said she is a sweet dog and we´ll just have to start training her alone. I still believe she was meant to come to us for some reason.

Anyway, Klói especially loved the lady yesterday and well to tell you the truth I enjoyed watching him jump all over her...hehehe (I'm sorry that doesn't sound nice at all) because he is not always open to strangers and this just made me think that maybe it's not that he is not open to strangers, maybe he is just a good judge of character and in that case I'm okay with his way of picking who to talk to. Hopefully the people he does like don't mind being the center of the universe for a while when they visit. I hope this lovely lady was not too put off, as I did tell her that I was happy to see Klói so happy to see her but I'm not sure she believed me that he isn't always like that. My bad too was that since I started training him to stand on the step for rear awareness he now thinks that he is also being very smart by putting his front legs up on the coffee table, he is so proud of himself for that. Ooops, he obviously has to extinguish that behaviour in a hurry.

She is a dog trainer herself (I don't think she's a clicker trainer although I really don't know) so it made it more embarrassing but on the other hand she was good at ignoring their bad behaviour so no doubt it was a lesson for them. We will hopefully be meeting her again before she goes home but then maybe we'll go on a walk so the dogs have more room to run around and think about other things.

I'm sure Skella will soon be in heat and no doubt Klói is a bit more over the top because of that, he has been showing her alot of attention lately and she is not so happy about it but they are playing together too more at times. Klói is going for his eye test tomorrow so it's a trip into Reykjavík for us and no doubt not much school work will be done this weekend but I'm going to try to keep Rúnar busy with training and school work however I suppose he'll want to go see his father while we're in town. Then again on Wednesday we have the annual general meeting of the Icelandic kennel club to go to. He's been doing well with what he's been able to do. This week he has been working so late that he is not up to doing much when he gets home, I'm hoping they will not work so late for long because he needs the time to work with Birta.

I haven't spent much time writing either because I always get busy doing something else but I have to change that, it's getting ridiculous how long this book is taking me to write. My memory is getting bad and if I don't get at it I'm afraid I'll forget alot of the things I was going to write about. The weather has been keeping us inside lately, no lack of sunshine, it's been beautiful and so promising to look out the window. But it's definitely what we call "window weather" because the walls of the house are shaking from the high gusts of wind and when you open the door you practically blow away and sand is flying all over and when you're out for a few minutes although it's not cold in terms of temperature you really almost freeze from the wind. Thank goodness the tremors have been fewer the past week so there is at least something positive. Boy my dogs are good when they are sleeping, they are all sprawled out around me as I'm writing and I love these guys even though they have a bit of spunk sometimes. I wish people could meet them and see them the way I do. :-) I really do have to take a good photo of the five of them together now that the snow is gone so I can change the photo on the index page I wanted to have something sommery so for the moment I put Freyja and Birta up and Hófi Sr and Freyja in Norway. I love that photo!

My brother David had a birthday on the 1st of May and I talked to him on the phone...I was just too busy to update and wish him a happy birthday here but he knows I thought of him. :-) He was working all weekend and didn't take the day off like the rest of the country. I think he's like me, quite happy to let the birthdays pass without making a fuss out of them, after all don't want to draw attention to how old we're getting. Hehe

Rúnar has fixed the computer so now I can get online more often even though he is doing his school work. I'm a bit jealous of him doing all the training and stuff, he's bound and bent that I'm not allowed to help him at all so I've been stuck sitting in the living room and "listening" to him train. Birta is having great fun and she is so tired sometimes. Still don't know if she has cancer or not but she is sure enjoying the training sessions and all the extra time with Rúnar. The other dogs are a bit disappointed that they don't get to do all the exercises so I try to give them a few things to do while Rúnar is training. Klói is getting really good at laying still and I can walk around and disappear into the next room without him breaking his stay. Skella on the other hand we´ll have to start at the beginning with so she's been getting a treat just for laying down but she doesn't have to stay yet. It is helping having Rúnar training in the other room because it means I actually do something too instead of just putting it off all the time like I used to. Problem is I have to work on four dogs at a time and he only has one. :-)

We´ve been home all weekend and he's been studying and training, it's been raining outside most the time but it's so strange how quickly the days pass. It was a long weekend even but already it's Sunday and I feel like the weekend should be just beginning. I've been able to write a bit more of my book but I must admit I haven't been very busy with that the past little while, again I usually do that after everyone has gone to bed and I have a few minutes of peace and quiet.

The last week or so we've had so many small tremors again it's a bit scary, at least I think it is. It reminds me of last year, it's been pretty quiet now for the longest time and then all of a sudden a few days ago there was an earthquake almost 4 on Richter around the same area that it was last year. I know I'm a wimp, most people don't let these things bother them. It's not as if we can do anything about it anyway.

All kinds of things going on at the moment in the dog breeding part of our life. We aren't very pushy towards our puppy buyers and don't make any demands of them going to trials or shows however we do enjoy the limelight when it decides to shine on our dogs and are quite proud like anyone would be. When we get good news from those areas it is just so great. I will admit that sometimes I forget to mention them here but I try to do it when I think of it. On the 25th of April one of our puppies Töfra Hekla I'm Still Standing got a 2nd prize and was the winning dog in the trial held in Akureyri (up north). This weekend another trial was held and one of our grandpuppies got a 1.prize in Open class and was best in trial yesterday and then competed in the Winner's class today and was in 1st place there winning the trial today. It was her first time in the Winner's class because to compete in that class they need a 1.prize in the open class. Her name is Esjugrundar Spyrna. Her brother Esjugrundar Stígur has also been doing incredibly well, he got a 1.prize Open class on the 17th April and then was the best dog in trial with a 3rd prize on the 18th of April. They are out of Töfra Grouse Look Out Hetta. Congratulations to their breeder and owners.

Another dog related happening was that the conformation arrived from CKC that Töfra Hrói Grettir (Max) was the #2 Icelandic sheepdog in Canada 2008. Our grandpuppy Greenstone Black Pearl was #1 and our co-own Solhundur Fríða Töfradís' mother Belglen Röskva (Soley) #3. Congratulations to all!

Max is expecting his second litter of puppies soon at Solhundur kennels with Belglen Röskva and we are excited about that, watching the news all the time. Greenstone kennel had a couple born cream puppies out of Töfra Dalla Hektorsdottir. This is the first time they got that colour out of Dalla so it was a bit of a surprise for them and me as well since she has had quite a few puppies already. It just makes me more certain that the cream has come through Frigg and that's where I got it as well in my last litter. Frigg's mother was a known cream carrier because of her father Baldur frá Ólafsvöllum so lucky for us Frigg seems to have inherited it as well, too bad we didn't breed her to any males from colourful backgrounds however it does mean it can be in more of her offspring and we just don't know about it yet. That can be interesting in future to see just how many of Frigg's offspring in second or third generation will carry cream. It's a colour gene that has to come from both parents so sometimes the puppies can be carriers and you never know because the mates didn't have the gene to contribute in the puppies.

Rúnar is going to his sisters now to fix the brakes on the car. He was going to be really smart and gave the dogs their food and then left quietly so they wouldn't realize he wasn't home. Birta finished her food and then ran around the house looking for him and when she didn't find him she got a bit upset. She is so attached to him...one of the bad points about him using her for training, she's always been his little "girl" and she is just getting more so. I guess I have to try to win her over before he goes away to Seattle for a few weeks in the end of June.

Today is the international day of laughter and I didn't know that until right now so I guess I better go have a laugh or two if I know what's good for me. Hehe

Elections are over and we've had a few busy days to say the least. We've been to see Hekla's puppies, Rúnar's father and grandparents, picked up more raw food for the freezer while we were in Reykjavík, talked to a couple people about a possible seminar or clicker course for their club, all on Saturday. Yesterday we were invited for a wonderful meal at Rúnar's sisters house and got to have a nice evening with her family and Rúnar's father again which was great. Now in the midst of all this Rúnar's school work has of course been put on hold for a couple days although he tries to get a few minutes of training in each day. It's funny how when he was bound on using the whole weekend for studying we weren't hardly at home at all so nothing was done. Just normal when we go to Reykjavík, everything always takes so long and a couple hour outing turns into a whole day.

Birta hurt her one leg somehow and has been limping on and off for a couple days now. We think she either did it while playing with Klói outside or she twisted it while acting like a maniac offering behaviours during a training session, she is such a silly goon. Hopefully it'll be better soon, she is a bit better today already and it is not swollen at all.

The computer has almost crashed the past couple days so Rúnar had to spend the rest of the weekend when we were at home trying to save all our stuff onto an external hard drive. Then his brother was nice enough to put together a computer for us from spare parts that he had. A bit of Rúnar's precious studying time went to going to pick that up and then he needed one extra part so that had to be bought. It's not up and running quite yet but luckily the laptop is still working for now. It was a bit scary though when it was acting up at it's worst and I thought of all the photos, videos, years of database research and my book all in the computer so luckily it's all safe now in case it decides to crash before the other one is up and running. We´re hoping that now things will get back to normal at least for a few days.

The first thing we thought too was CRAP, Rúnar just started school, the online course that he needs the computer for. So on top of that the TV has decided it really is too old and wants to give up. The third thing that decided to break down happened last night, the CD player Rúnar listens to his Karen Pryor tapes on conked out totally. My friend said well things always come in threes so at least that should be it for now! It just makes you wonder why as soon as Rúnar decides to throw himself out in the deep end and finish many months of school work in just a couple months that everything breaks down. Not to mention now the stupid swine flew is threatening his trip to USA. Can we wake up and everything will be honky dory again? Please! :-)

The elections were as most suspected but not quite what we wanted although we are hoping that the Left Green movement will be able to stop the Social Democratic Alliance from forcing us to apply to join the European Union and take the Euro as our currency. We´ll see I guess but we are not very optimistic and it would seem if Iceland gives up it's independence we will loose all our countries best assets and treasures. We have a country full of organic meat and farming and clean clear water, why can we not work on exporting more and getting more people to want to take up farming by making it profitable for them instead of all the farmers giving up and quitting leaving us often with hardly enough to feed our own country. Why can't we build more green houses powered by hot springs instead of building Aluminum plants all over the country and spoiling our natural beauty, all owned and run by foreign companies, there is no money in that for us or our economy. It doesn't do much for our own unemployment because most Icelanders don't want to work at Aluminum plants anyway. Think of how much cheaper our fruits and vegetables would be if we could finally stop importing them from other countries with green houses. We pay an arm and a leg for rotten non organic food every day because it's imported and shipping takes so long, all the extra money that goes to doing that can't we invest it in our own farmers?

I tell you I don't know what the world is coming to, one of the stories from the election here was a youtube video that got posted and I don't know if any or how many of the foreign newspapers have picked up on it. It was removed luckily and I never saw it which I'm glad of. Some stupid "protester" (for lack of a better word...I wouldn't call it a model citizen in any case) defecated in a voting booth in Reykjavík and wiped himself with the voting ballet. He folded it and put it in the ballet box and it was of course found when they were counting. How can any person be that sick and why can't they respect the right of people to vote without making a mockery of it. All I can wonder is are parents not spending time raising their children with values anymore?

Well, just makes me upset sometimes to think of what could be done and all people think about is being greedy, money, money, money...banking, aluminum plants, drilling for oil (which will never give us a profit the first couple years anyway). They harp on the fact that if we drill for the oil Iceland will be stinking rich!!! A couple of the parties (the ones I was leaning towards) had warned that voting at this time would mean that precious time for fixing the economy would be lost to the voting and the time spent putting together a new government. They were right it seems, now the people have voted everything changes. The Prime Minister says that we need to take up the Euro right away, no time to lose it will save the country....excuse me?! It takes time to be accepted and besides that the whole world is in a depression. How will the Euro in itself save us? We have to give up so much or our own resources to be accepted. Why can they not go the way that was suggested by one party and knock 20% off the home mortgages of everyone, it's about the amount that has been added to everyone's loans since the inflation started to soar, it's not like we'd be paying any less in the end, our mortgages always go up with the inflation anyway. The banks got some right offs and are going to use the profits for themselves instead of letting the homes in the country benefit from them by readjusting the loans and taking a small right off themselves. Now they are talking about letting all the other decisions that need to be made in Parliament wait, all the ideas to save companies and families from bankruptcy or for creating jobs for the many 1000 that are already unemployed, just to talk about and get the bill passed to join EU. The miracle Euro. Common' people, look around you, can't you see the other possibilities for a greener more profitable future that we could be one of the first countries to find new ways you do good things with what we have. Can we not use the time effort and money for better things?

Anyway, enough of my harping for now. Just wanted to write a short update since it's been a few days. Rúnar needs to get back on the computer so that's all for now.

91 yrs old today!!! She always said she'd live to be 100 and by gosh I'm counting on her keeping her word! Wish I could be in Canada to visit but I wish even more that she would recognize us if we did visit. I miss the good old days when all the family was together.

I thought I should jump on the computer before I go to bed, not really in the mood to write much at all. I´ve had a bad toothache for a few days, it's bothering me so much that I don't feel like doing anything especially if it means concentrating or thinking at all because then I keep thinking of the pain. I'm hoping it will just clear up and that it's just a stress toothache, I'm deathly scared of dentists and their bill. It comes and goes I didn't want to say anything to Rúnar the last couple days so he wouldn't give up on the school. The plans and hopes came through and he was accepted yesterday. YIPPEE, I was so happy for him and he was over the moon but stressed out at the same time. He got his lessons today and sat at the computer working on them for 6 hours right after work until he went to bed. I had to watch TV all by myself for a change. By the time he took the first test he was seeing double and tired but he had set a goal for himself to finish the first lesson tonight, not knowing how much reading was involved when he started, he just didn't quit until he reached the goal. It's not like him to stay awake so late after a long day at work, he didn't even have a nap! I hope he gets a few extra zzzzz's in the morning since it's a holiday.

He did great on the test after he caught a few of the trick questions. He has a little bit of trouble with the long scientific words in English and how sentences are worded but with a little practice and reading them over and over again I'm sure his rusty English will be nice and polished. :-) So he went to bed totally wiped out from studying and I grabbed the computer to write this. I thought some might be wondering if he actually applied or not and he did the same night I wrote the last news. Oddly enough the info on the website about the course changed only hours after he applied and now the next course doesn't start until 2010 so we thought that was amazing that he should just get his foot in the door and how strange fate moved him to reply at the time he did. It was nail biting waiting to see if he was accepted and now it's just nail biting because he's nervous he won't do well enough. I tell you my nails are up to my knuckles by now! LOL I have to keep reminding him to think positive he knows most this stuff (although in Icelandic wording which makes it a bit different) so he just needs to stop worrying and it will go great.

Found out the trip is going to be really expensive because the direct flights to Seattle don't start until the end of July so he's about a month too early for that. But we´ll cross that bridge when we get to it...although we don't have much time to figure out a plan only 2 months!!! I told him to just think "Icelandic" as the whole population usually does in difficult situations, "Það reddast" or in other words, it'll work out. As was so wonderfully worded once "don't worry, be happy!" He has to finish all his lessons by then too so that's why he's nervous, many of the other people in the school have been enrolled and working since January. Here's hoping we win the lottery, or should I say (as the Secret would suggest) that we WILL win the lottery. Hehehe

Quite funny though that his workshop is the same weekend the dog show in Reykjavík will be and I was a bit relieved to tell the truth because it meant that I don't have to go to the dog show. I'd been wanting to show Klói, Birta and possibly Skella but knew we couldn't afford it and this gives me the perfect excuse to not enter them.

So for the next couple months it looks like the dogs will be in pretty much the same position most of the time when Rúnar is home, they always have to spend time with him when he gets home, they miss him all day you know. So other than when he does hands-on assignments, which I'm sure they are going to love and I will be filming for him they will probably be close by chilling. They are such good puppies, we can't complain. Here they are taking care of "daddy" tonight while he was reading the lessons. Gee those two look alike. Birta at the far left of the first photo with her head on his chair (like the photo on right) and little Klói with his head squashed against the desk. Speaking of Klói I sent a couple videos of him to the Icelandic version of funniest home videos, I wonder if they will be picked to air or not.

Skella is pretty much showing a new side of herself and has started to enjoy playing a lot which she was a bit leery of at first when she got here. I just think she is getting used to her new life and feeling more comfortable. She managed to find the old ball out in the yard and ran around with it in her mouth trying to get Klói to chase her. She was snorting like a little piggy, it was so funny we burst out laughing but unfortunately didn't get any video of the actual snorting and playing but got a photo of her with the ball. Happy as all get out. Boy does she ever remind me of Deeza (Solhundur Fríða Töfradís) when she has a ball in her mouth as there are countless photos of Deeza carrying balls around, seems to be something they have in common besides the colouring and coat. ;-) I'm really wondering though, Klói is very intent on sniffing her butt lately and she has been so overly angry (only the last few days) so it might well be that she is coming into heat, the owner said they believed it would be soon. If that's the case I just might be home very busy while Rúnar is in Seattle.

Looks like we won't be going to see the puppies tomorrow as planned because Rúnar wants to use all day to study since it's the first day of summer here and a holiday. I had thought of going to watch the Bronz obedience trial just for fun (it seems the timing was a bit better and a few are entered) but I'd rather Rúnar have every extra minute he can to hit the books (or should I say computer). We´ll be going to see his father on the weekend and his grandfather on his mother's side since we found out he is in hospital again. We´ll check out the puppies then while we are in town. However sadly we had to make a big decision that since Skella joined our lives so unexpectedly, which is definitely not a bad thing, it means we cannot take a puppy. We had thought of getting the new puppy anyway but with Rúnar in school now we have more than enough dogs for the moment. We just want him to succeed and so decided not to take a puppy. That and if we are going to have a litter ourselves soon we have to be prepared to have puppies until they all find homes. Hopefully we can tap into the bloodline through one of the male dogs out of Hekla in the near future instead preferably on Hófi since they are also the rich red colour from the rare bloodline. We have to wait until they are old enough though and have had their tests done. Not to mention that Frigg is doing so well lately, we had actually been thinking that she might not have long left and the puppy was to replace her in a sense...needless to say, we're happy that she has proven us wrong and we will enjoy having her around for quite a while yet I believe. So in part we are happy but it is at the same time disappointing of course not to be able to add a new puppy. Hopefully they will find great homes where they will be used for breeding to carry on the rare O line and Hekla and Grímur's awesome colourings. Anyone looking for a nice red puppy you know where to find one Isrima kennels. :-)

I should be in bed by now but what else is new, it's the middle of the night and everyone is snoring but me. :-)

Frigg and Hófi have had a good weekend, Friday and today we took them with us in the car to give them a day out and they really enjoyed the extra attention. They only went to the store and back on Friday but got to run on the way home. Loved it! Frigg really is acting 5 years younger these days it's wonderful to see. The weather hasn't been all that great but none the less it's getting warmer and spring is here.

Today we went to Reykjavík to visit Rúnar's father and grandparents and the puppies of Hekla while we were in town. The puppies are so cute and growing leaps and bounds, time goes so quickly, what I found so wonderful is that these are little "Töfra puppy descendants" for sure, they have certain traits that most of my litters have had earlier than most. Total miniatures of Icelandics growing very evenly at least for the moment. Little ears already up or almost up on most of them and their tails already curled so much they are touching their backs. Can't wait to see them next weekend again. They were all very playful and I think they know us from our last visit. How cute can puppies be? Birna the one on the far right on the photos really reminds me of Frigg when she was small, I think that's why she gets most the attention while we visit but they are all so cute, look at the two girls on the bed.

So we took Frigg and Hófi into the home for the blind (Blindraheimilið) where his grandparents live, his Dad is staying with them, and the two girls acted quite proud of themselves, so privileged to be with us for a visit for a change instead of cooped up at home by themselves. It's so hard to gives the dogs alot of extra attention when you have so many, we see they really enjoy visiting relatives especially the ones who are just as happy to see them! Rúnar's grandfather thought he'd try to make them howl by playing his mouth harp (harmonica) but it didn't work they went to check out what he was doing, looked at him for a second or two and then went back to their business of trying to talk everyone into letting a little piece of cheese fall to the floor. We never let them beg at home but you know how "grandparents" are, you have to let them spoil them a little bit. Hófi the lap dog of course decided to jump down just as I was taking photos, she thought she was a real smarty being smaller has it's advantages.

Found out today that Rúnar is seriously contemplating school (Karen Pryor Academy) and I'm so excited I so want him to go, he's been assisting me for years now but can't get a degree here in Iceland. They have started having an international course that is taken in part here and in part in USA. Sadly it's so expensive and the price doubled from last year when he first looked into it because of the bad state of the kroner these days. I thought he had just dismissed it totally as he has always done when there is something he is interested in doing, it makes me sad that he puts all his wishes and dreams aside just so he can provide for me and the dogs. However it seems he hasn't stopped thinking about it since the first time he told me he wanted to go. I have had to stop holding classes because of my health so I've been saying how I wish he could hold them instead it was nice to have the extra money coming in. He had a lot of fun with all the different dog breeds when we were teaching. We did a lot of thinking today on the way to town and I told him that taking a loan for school is worth a sacrifice or two. Not that there are many we can make given our present lifestyle but where there's a will there's a way. There is no chance of getting a student loan for a training course like that so it would have to be a loan from a normal bank. It's money we don't have but when he is finished no one can ever take away what he's learned and he can then use what he learned to try to pay back the loan. It's an investment into himself and his future.

There is a chance he doesn't have work much longer either (they only have one house left to finish and no new jobs in sight, fingers crossed something will turn up soon) and it would be good for him to actually use his time learning if he ends up unemployed (like a large percentage of the country) rather than sitting at home depressed and we will just have to figure out a way to get by. It's partly like there is something saying he should go now rather than putting it off again. Not going at all would mean he might always regret it and time goes so fast that years can go by before we actually have money for him to go otherwise meaning that the market might not be as open by then and time he could have already been using to start a business will have gone into wishing he'd done it "back then". There is so much he can do with an education, it might even help him to be able to educate himself more in other fields as well later on. Education of any kind often adds to the desire to learn more and gets a person prepared mentally to learn more.

We're thinking it over but I really hope that he will do it, it will be good for him and may open doors in future including it might just open a window for us to move to Canada in a couple years time since he will be able to open his own training business and is then an asset rather than taking jobs from Canadians. So far it seems that there are not so many Karen Pryor accredited teachers in Canada so it's an big market there as well for the time being. My sister already told us many times that she feels there is a great need for a dog training school in her area and has told us we should seriously consider trying to do something like that. It would be great if Rúnar can do it on his own and I can help out when I feel up to it, even if it will just be a second job for him for awhile I think it's very exciting. He stumbled onto the website today out of the blue and saw that it starts in the beginning of May and that's why he spent the day pondering and trying to think of solutions. Obviously it's a decision he doesn't have much time to make but often those are the decisions that prove to be the right ones. The ones taken on the spur of the moment when your brain doesn't have enough time to talk your mind or heart out of it...intuition plays a role. Take Skella for example or the time I moved to Norway for a few years and totally changed my life. Like I always say, when fate knocks at the door, open up! If he decides to go I'll surely post more about it in future. ;-)

I totally forgot some awesome news my Mom told me the other day, she was in for some tests at the hospital the other day and miracle of all miracles, her ejection factor is up to 20%. In December it was down to only 7 % and after they made some adjustments to the pacemaker it seems to have helped alot. I knew my Freyja was watching over her! She was able to go to my niece Gyda's conformation on the weekend and I know she was so happy about that, in the past she has usually been so sick that she hasn't made it to half the things she's wanted to be able to go to. I'm waiting to get some photos of the conformation. I heard Mandy made the dress so I can't wait to see it.

Other than that nothing much for the moment. Rúnar's father is in Iceland for a few weeks so we will be going into Reykjavík to visit him this weekend. I might look in on the puppies as well while we're there. Rúnar has been busy cutting the hedges and we've been able to clean up the yard in the wonderful spring weather we've had. It actually went up to 12 degrees celcius yesterday, it was awesome. But it's going to rain again tomorrow and for the next week I think so we had to enjoy it while it lasted. The yard looks horrible not much grass, mostly earth from all the wet weather this winter and from the dogs running around playing and their ripping it up by accident chasing each other. You gotta let the dogs be dogs sometime and since they all get along so well we're just so happy! Oh my goodness I can't tell you what a difference there is in the dogs since they started to get the raw diet, their poop is so small you really have to look to find it, LOL and they seem calmer in general as well as Frigg is really in a sense coming back to life. We had been so worried about her for a while but she is really getting back to the old Frigg again, looking better and feeling better. I have thought for years how much I'd like to give my dogs a raw diet and now I wonder how Freyja would have been had she been on a better diet. Don't get me wrong we have ALWAYS used high quality dog food but I know you cannot compare the two diets in terms of better for the dogs.

I've been trying to get myself up and about training the dogs a bit more now that the weather is getting nicer. The nights are already getting lighter and that can only mean I'm not going to be sleeping much. I've been writing quite a bit and tried to keep my mind on the book as much as I can. Hopefully I can keep going but my hands are getting sore again from all the typing, it always seems to happen, if I get into the writing and am on a roll then my hands give out on me. Then it's hard to get back to writing again when I'm better. Typical. Wish I had a "secretary" to take dictation and type for me. LOL

Klói is such a smarty pants and I finally was able to find and buy one of the plastic steps I have been looking for for quite awhile. It's so funny that something that simple has been so hard to find, ridiculous actually since I know you can pretty much get them anywhere in Canada. I'm sure they have them all over the place in Reykjavík though I just haven't been able to go to any stores in Reykjavík in I don't know how long, probably almost a year. We always go into town when the stores are closed. Anyway, Klói is learning back leg awareness and I think he is doing quite well. He has always been good at being at heel also walking at heel but I have felt that he doesn't use his back legs enough to maneuver. I noticed it so clearly when trying to heel backwards that the use of the back legs was something we should have started on but I couldn't find a step. I've tried to use a plastic box outside as many may remember I posted photos of that last year sometime and then I tried a book inside but I found they would give way more and tip over or the dogs would lose their footing so they lost interest and didn't figure out quite what I was trying to get from them. He relies more on his front and when he comes to heel he always shimmies really fast from the front in a 180 degree turn from the left, it's really cool to watch and he does use his back legs when doing that, He's always been good at that but as soon as I move away to the right he leaves his back legs behind and leads with his front so I wanted to try to fix that. I'm seeing how much calmer he has become with age (maybe it's the new food! ;-) ) and he is so quick to learn that if I put my mind to it I could take him to a trial in future if I wanted to. I always intended to but then got busy with other things and didn't feel like training or didn't feel up to it health wise Here are a few photos from his session yesterday (I was shaping feet on step and a slight movement of the back feet yesterday) and today I started moving around with the step at heel. There's a video up on my channel on Youtube for those who can watch videos, we posted it because he looks so cute and he looks like he is really "thinking".

We had loads of fun, it's always great when the dogs have an aha moment and things "click" into place. I guess they have fun too when I actually have the patience and get up and go to teach them stuff, it's contagious. Hófi got to try too and she loves training as well, the problem is that when you have so many dogs you really can't dedicate as much time to each dog so there are a couple that get more attention and I'm thinking Klói should get as much as I can give him because he's the youngest and also because he is the only boy. Hehehe Actually I will have to start training Skella soon, it seems she is not good on the lead. She doesn't bark but she loves to pull and she is really strong. She doesn't know what we want as she has to learn our particular language, all owners and trainers are different so it's going to be a bit of a clicker starter course for her with me at the other end of the clicker. When the weather is nice enough again to spend more time outside we'll probably go more into leash training and heel. I've started eye contact with her at least and she isn't scared of the clicker at all. I remember when she came with her owner to the clicker course a couple years ago she seemed terrified of the clicker but after a few minutes with me she was fine with the sound of it and she obviously still remembers the concept. She is learning from observation as most dogs (and all clicker trained dogs I've seen) and is already walking at heel inside to be just like Klói and the other dogs. Klói will walk at heel all day around the house just because it's one of his favourite things to do and to be honest it's become a default behaviour that I don't want to lose so I will treat him now and again for doing it so it's being very strongly reinforced. ;-) Oh, of course we mustn't forget Klói's other signature behaviour and I keep telling Rúnar that I have to get him on video. He loves to go in between our legs and walk at "inside heel", it's like a dance move, he will go forward backward in circles all in between our legs. He's actually better at that than the actual left side heel. Silly guy, he's just so fun to have around.

Birta didn't get to play with the step so when I took her outside with the rest of the dogs just to sit in the sun for a few minutes (didn't feel like training more) after she had been watching Klói through the glass door get clicked and treated, she decided that she would figure out something interesting to do and immediately saw my water bottle on the chair. Now what can I do with that to get attention and a click? Swat it?! Grab it? I love her mischievous look just before she swats it. She looks so funny these days without all that coat, the spitting image of her mom. Took this one photo of her by the fence and I swear I want to hug her and call her Freyja sometimes. She's also been sitting in the same places in the yard that Freyja used to love to sit and watch the world go by.

Rúnar told me off yesterday when I was calling Klói to go outside to train. He said you called him Freyja...I said no I didn't I called him Mazan (just a silly nick name we have for him) and Rúnar said oh no you didn't. You clearly said Freyja! I think I'm getting "sometimers", sometimes I lose my mind and memory temporarily. Hehehe But seriously though I remind myself of Nana at times, remember that Marilyn when she would say everybody's name except the person she actually wanted to call or talk to...well that's ME now with my dogs! Good thing I don't have kids they would have an identity crisis.

Busy, busy past few days for sure. Among the happens Rúnar came home on Friday with a nice used dishwasher that his grandmother had given him as an extra bonus for helping with their apartment. The few days of holidays I missed not having him at home were obviously worth it. Hehe He used Friday evening and Saturday to connect it and that was a whole days work ripping out a cupboard, putting in new piping and electricity but he did it and it's working great so we have had a really nice clean kitchen all Easter!

He stayed true to tradition and insisted that he totally cooked the Easter turkey and meal from start to finish (cleaned up too!) and I was waited on hand and foot this weekend, even got crepes (glutenfree of course) and hot chocolate as a treat around coffee time on Sunday. We had a really busy day yesterday despite not having to judge the obedience trial that I had been looking forward to but no one had entered (bad timing obviously and here we thought we were doing people a favour having it on a holiday). We went to Reykjavík instead to look at Hekla's litter of puppies. Sweet little puppies but they were small since I still have such a vivid memory in my mind of Hofi's huge puppies a few months ago. Here are a few photos of them, they were really agile on their feet already (they are 3 1/2 weeks) and since there are 6 of them they are starting to get a bit of puppy porridge, it's a bit of a load for an almost 7 year old bitch. I went there with one puppy on my mind but there was a different puppy who took to me straight away and just wouldn't stay away, she is such a sweetie so I'm a little torn now as to who to pick.

Here are the two girls I'm thinking of...as you can see Birna is the one snuggling up while Harpa wasn't really bothered with me. I'm a firm believer that the puppies often (when given the chance) pick their owners so I'm pondering over this since I did tend to like aspects of Harpa better. First photo is Birna, second photo is Harpa and the photo with me you can no doubt see which is which and who likes ME better. :-)

They all fell asleep and we went out into the living room and talked for a while and then as we were going to leave I went in to check if they were awake and then called out to the others that no they were all sound asleep. With that one particular puppy woke up when she heard my voice, it was Birna, a second puppy stirred as well and it was the sweet little one name Snædis who has the one white ear and the stripe by her eye...she is just a sweet little character, very loving and loved the attention too.

So from there we were headed home when I got a call to see if I could give some advice about a mating that I knew was underway. So we drove over there and took a look at how they were acting and gave some advice. I got some photos of the two and this will be an exciting litter to watch. When we know if it has been successful we will put it up on our puppies page. The female is one of my favourite puppies from my first litter and it was a kind of last chance thing, since this will be her first litter and she is getting on in years we are quite nervous but feel hopeful everything will go well and we might get a couple puppies to carry on the bloodline. Temperament is such a big part of our breeding program and I feel confident these two are wonderful representatives.

Then it was time to go home and we had talked to a friend of ours who just started a new business in Iceland. She is producing raw food for dogs, the first ever available in Iceland and the government was smart enough to see the potential there and she got a new business grant to start. It's looking quite promising for her, their business is called Hundahreysti (which means dog´s health). So the very first production was ready for sale just before Easter and we have wanted to try raw food for so many years that we decided to grab a 20 kg box for our freezer while we were in town. So the dogs will get their first meal of it tonight. It's made according to the Swedish recipe Nordic färskfoder and in future they are hoping to have more variety but so far they only have the one type. We are excited to see how our dogs will take to this new diet, it's not as expensive as it would have been for us to make up our own with stuff bought from the grocery store so we're quite happy, it is similar to dried dog food in cost and if it remains that way then it will be great to be able to feed them a good fresh diet with Icelandic meat.

Took Skella with us to Reykjavik we still haven't figured out what to do with her if we go places (the other ones are in their cages when we aren't home but we need a new cage for Skella or have to take a couple of the other dogs with us to leave her in their cage. We´ll work it out but anyway, she found a great pile of snow that still isn't melted up in the mountain and enjoyed rolling around in it. Put up a few photos of her on the mountain. Here are a couple.

Well today I put a bunch of photos up. Added a new page for dogs walks and it's under the photogallery of our dogs the past year. I also finished the pedigree for the hopeful future litter and put a link to it.

We went for a nice (a little bit cold and yuck the stink of something we don't know what) walk today and took all five so it was loads of fun. We honestly don't feel much different with five than we did with four but I believe that's because we used to have Freyja and so are a bit used to it, we had kind of felt there was one missing after she left us. Beautiful weather and hopefully similar tomorrow as well. Here is a nice photo without dogs in it for a change. :-) Skella showed us one of her favourite things...roll around like crazy in the sand, how fun, NOT! Here is a link to a video we took. Actually she was horribly dirty and we decided that we were going to see how good her coat is and yes, she is white as snow again after drying off and no bath. That is great to know since we have heard of some dogs not having a self cleaning coat. I often wonder if people maybe don't give it a chance to find out, of course I had to sweep a pile of sand up off the floor but it was no problem. Frigg was the only one that didn't run around in the water so she was lucky and got to sit in the backseat instead of the cage (it's a bit small for all of them anyway, Skella is so big) which she just thought was awesome.

Frigg decided these guys are nuts, they have no idea what they are doing. She was right they all got washed up in the wave and came out feeling foolish. Hehehe

Here are a few photos of our sweet boy IntCh Töfra Kelikátur (Tenzing) and his equally as sweet owner taken at the shows last month. He was Reserve Best in Show on the first photo and Best in Show on the second photo, the third and fourth photos show what a great job his owner did training him. Clicker trained of course. ;-) Go Scotti and Tenzing!

A couple cute photos of Raggi and Rún, can't resist. They are getting so big but such sweet puppies. The first 4 photos are Run around 11-12 weeks and then Raggi with his sweet "pick me up" face and other photos at similar age. There are updates and photos regularly on their owners websites (links on our links page)

Skella has got a cute habit of playing around with her food dish and she gathers all the dishes together in one spot. We found it quite funny to watch but it can be a bit annoying with 5 steel dishes all gathered in one spot in the middle of the kitchen floor. Hehehe Here she is telling us she's hungry (she is on a diet).

Oh and we took this photo last night since many have said it's already spring, even the weather men on TV...we beg to differ and so do the dogs.

Mustn't forget to say that Karma Gullbrá in Sweden has been to a mentality test MH (no pass or fail just an evaluation of the mentality of a dog). She has a very good score in many areas where others are not so good and in most is average for the breed so we are happy with that. Her owner is very happy with her working ability, she has been to a herding trial and did well there too. She has gotten her eyes checked and is free of all hereditary eye disease. So those things I've added to the litter page along with the tests of the other puppies that have been done. Kolla in Canada also has clear eyes and Kelikátur so that makes 4 puppies that have been checked so far.

We wish everyone a Blessed Easter! Enjoy the weekend, we intend to. ;-) Going to visit puppies on Monday!

I just figured out there are a bunch of photos I wanted to post but haven't gotten around to it. Kelikátur at the show when he went Best in Show, I will definitely post those since I'm SO proud of him...just need some extra time. A wanted to put a couple newer photos of Raggi and Rún as well as so much more I want to write about. However the whole day has gone into updating and making a pedigree for Skella and our planned litter so please take a look at those and I'll get back with some news soon. :-) The hours have just flown and I haven't done anything else...JIKE!

Just a couple cute photos taken today! We had awesome weather and Rúnar wasn't home, he took Birta with him and these two just looked so cute together so I took a slew of photos. Poor Klói looks a bit small but keep in mind she is a long hair and she is quite chubby at the moment but she is definitely a bigger girl and that is what we are quite happy about since most the population (including some of our dogs) are a bit too small these days.

So much for the nice spring weather (I was outside in my short sleeve taking the photos) it just started SNOWING again!!!

Well, I guess I can let the cat (or dog in this case) out of the bag and say that we have a visitor for a few days and hopefully if all goes well she will stay with us! It's a beautiful bitch we have always liked from the time we saw her a few years ago but we didn't know what had happened to her. It seems she has been the victim of circumstances beyond her owner's control and long story short has been in a couple homes now and suddenly the day before yesterday out of the blue I got an email from her first owner (who has been keeping an eye on her through her ex-husband) asking me if I would be interested in taking her so she wouldn't have to be put to sleep, she suddenly lost the home she was in and was "homeless" and so a decision had to be made quickly.

She said she didn't trust just anyone for her and she had met Birta when I first got her and new the work I put into her as she was there watching when we were training Birta with the decoy dog Kersins Orri who her good friend owns and we actually met this girl through Linda (Orri's owner). She knows that I care for my dogs like part of the family. She was the first person to ask for a clicker course for herself and a few friends, she had puppies at the time. Unfortunately my first course was in my opinion not a good one, I figured out much better methods to use at the next one because of the first one but such is life. Funny how people come into our lives unexpectedly and then disappear only to later cross our paths again in a way that must have been predetermined by some higher power. Wow, it was just too much of a temptation and how much fate could be involved in this particular thing I could give you a long list but I won't! I've learnt in the past that we should listen to intuition and when fate knocks you should open the door. Her name is Kersins Skella and she is out of a less used family here in Iceland (not a rare family per se) and I had been thinking of using her brother for that very reason but couldn't make up my mind between him, HER son, and one other dog.

I was going to go to bed a little while ago. I've got a bad headache and am tired from the stress today of making this huge decision but I just felt I had to update as some have already seen the news on Facebook. :-) She is so sweet, so lovable and oh so beautiful. The dogs are all very fond of her from the moment they met her which I found quite strange, they have never met before and Icelandics are often known for not getting along with same sex dogs of their own kind. Of course Klói thinks she is really cute! :-) I think the two of them look so good together, she has a smiley face just like Birta. She is laid back not overly submissive and she just doesn't mind other dogs, has confidence and would rather play than cause trouble, she had lots of socialization with other dogs as a puppy, her owner was wonderful and really did a lot with her. But socialization or not she seems to have the temperament that I like to see. I'm a bit proud to say that my dogs also seem to have the right stuff given she came into their home, a 5 1/2 yr old bitch, and they all accepted her without any trouble and we live in a very small place. The only thing I see is that she doesn't like the other dogs around if she is getting attention (wants to climb in your lap and then doesn't want the other ones to do it too) but she is used to being an only dog so I'm sure she will get used to being part of the group.

Here are a few photos from this evening just after she got here and I'll update with her own page when we know if she'll be staying with us, I am quite confident though she has been so good all evening. Fingers and dewclaws crossed she doesn't turn into a Tasmanian devil in a few days time. Hehehe. Looks like I finally got my black tri again, I've been missing having one in my group, it's always been a favourite colour of mine because of my first dog Hófi. I would have NEVER thought I'd be taking a "rescue" Icelandic, I figured I'd be keeping back a black tri puppy sometime in future and I've been trying to breed towards it.

Well, there's one thing for sure Skella loves Rúnar and in general is a real happy people and dog loving soul from what we've seen of her. Maybe she remembers him from the clicker course because she really liked him then too! He was the one who when we heard she needed a home said, oh it's HER we have to take her, she's so cute. :-) She got to meet our neighbour and their dog Gosi as soon as she arrived while she was meeting our dogs so it was quite the welcoming committee and she handled it well.

It's so nice to see the correct size of Icelandic still exists, she is about the same height as Freyja was and as Frigg is so that is the standard 42 cm. She might just be a cm more but she has so much coat and is really big and round (she was definitely well looked after and spoiled in her last home ;-) I doubt we'll be able to spoil her like that) so looks much bigger. Poor little Klói actually looks small now in comparison.

I'm off to bed now, Rúnar is working in Reykjavík at his mother's/grandparent's house all weekend (he was in town today too and brought Skella home with him!) and will be getting up early. He has promised to take her with him to work at least so we can have a little less stress while he is not home since they only met this evening. I'm just not up to having all the dogs at the same time right away, just in case, my nerves aren't all that strong. I need to get a bit used to her first and Rúnar is off all next week (will also be working in town for parts of the day) and promised to spend at least a couple days of the Easter holiday at home with me and the dogs before he has to go back to his job. I'll be going with him to town on Monday since the DIF annual meeting is Monday evening.

Oh my gosh does Birta ever look like her mother on these photos taken a couple days ago! She always looks more like her when she's out of coat since she looks short haired with half her coat missing.

Strange things are just happening around here one after the other, nothing bad, fate just knocking and poking us making it hard to figure out what to do. We may have received a "request to help a doggy soul in need" that we don't want to refuse but we will find out in a few days or so. I definitely think both Rúnar and I need a hole in the head, but that's all I'm going to say for now.

I have been on a genetics dog list for a few years now and at the moment an interesting conversation has been going on. It really started after Crufts and there are so often heated discussions between those wanting to keep breeds diverse and healthy and those who want to breed show dogs. It seems to be in every breed. I have myself often had discussions with people who don't understand why I would sacrifice the "looks" of the dog to bring in new blood or preserve a line that is dying out. Some say well it's no wonder the line is dying out the dogs are not show quality so why would you want their genes to carry on? It is very hard to explain some times why I am on what I consider to be a crusade of sorts and have although wanting to keep the correct structure and type as much as possible have also taken chances on that when I feel a combination or bloodline is worth it.

This discussion on the genetics list brought a wonderful explanation from a man who I have loved reading all the comments from in the past. So I sent him an email and asked if I could have permission to post this particular answer to the list on my website and he readily gave permission which I am very thankful for.

I asked Dr. Hellmuth Wachtel for a brief description of himself: "I am 84, Austrian from Vienna, studied agriculture at Vienna agricultural University including animal breeding and genetics. Was fascinated with what wrote the population genetic pioneers Prof. W. Schleger and Prof. I. Sommerfeld-Stur in Austria, Per-Erik Sundgren in Sweden whom I know very well, and late John Armstrong, Canada, the founder of this forum, especially the first two who wrote the first book (German) on dog breeding dealing extensively with population genetics...

I wrote a German book on population genetics in dog breeding, two other dog books and a lot of articles etc., held seminars on it and worked now over 20 years voluntarily at the Austrian KC (ÖKV), and at the Vienna Schönbrunn Zoo."

Here is his quote that is in answer to a thread called: What is the evidence that inbreeding in dogs is really bad?

<<Isn't it most astonishing that many years of discussions on that topic after John Armstrong such a question is still asked?.

First of all, we must distinguish: bad for dog breeding?

and bad for the dogs?

Let's start with the dogs. No doubt it is bad for them. Genetic variability (diversity) means high heterozygosity i.e. two different alleles (genes) on every gene site (locus). Alleles are recipes for proteins (up to three per allele). Many different alleles means many tools for the development and the upkeep of the organism in the environment..

Inbreeding reduces the number of different alleles thus of necessary tools. That makes it harder for the individual to thrive under conditions of decreased heterozygosity. The faculty to survive hardships and dangers and thrive is called homeostasis. Inbreeding impairs that capacity.

Recent genome-wise studies have shown that inbreeding is _"developmental stress"_ impairing homeostasis comparable to other stresses such like aging. This is the real nature of inbreeding.

In other words, inbreeding acts like a chronic disease, hampering vitality etc. As the deleterious effects depend on the environmental conditions, inbred dogs may still thrive when pampered and cared for. But since all physiological faculties are subject to impairment including e.g. intelligence, inbreeding is apt to make dogs less satisfactory companions in many respects. And of course often in working capacity.

Bad for breeding? Dog breeds owe their existence to the changes that were obtained, preserved and enhanced by inbreeding. This drive is still going on, Dog breeds are continuously changed even extreme shapes that produce suffering. The late Swiss cynologists Hans Räber said "inbreeding is like a razor in the hands of a monkey" but he meant it is a valuable but dangerous instrument. Indeed, he was right, humans use this weapon far too much leading to the general decline of the purebred (show) dog.

Of course it is a most dangerous thing if inbreeding, like a chronic disease is still used in a massive way and apologetically justified. And its sickness-like effects are multiplied by using favorite sires that both increase the inbreeding coefficient and the rise and prelevance of more and more inherited diseases.

So today, to a great extent inbreeding makes more damage than good.>>

I thought this was one of the most easily understandable explanations I've ever read as to why we should be keeping coefficients low and not inbreeding or linebreeding heavily. I just wanted to share it here. Thank you Dr. Wachtel! What a small world, how lucky we are that Per-Erik Sundgren has devoted so much time to our breed!

I hope Rúnar doesn't mind me saying this but I can't help thinking of Beggi in Norway today. It was 26 years ago today we got married. Although we have been divorced now for almost 5 years (wow time flies) I still have fond feelings towards him as he was a very big part of my life and I have the dogs today because of him.

I'm still waiting to hear if anyone will be entered for the obedience trial I'm supposed to judge on the 13th of April, the registration closes on the 4th so hopefully I'll know then. I really don't know if anyone will be coming there was just a test last month and another one a couple weeks after this one but in Reykjavík, I'm supposed to judge in Selfoss and there may not be many in this town that want to compete since we don't have a dog club around here for them to practice. It's a bit expensive to take part in the trials and people are spending lots of money on Easter and Confirmations in families these days so I wouldn't be surprised if few if any show up. Speaking of Confirmation, my niece Gyða Bríet (GB as she likes to be called) is getting confirmed on the 13th. I wish I could be there it's so disappointing to have to always miss out on the girls lives and my whole family for that matter.

So many people are losing their jobs, people we know as well as very old companies have been going bankrupt lately it is so sad. The country is just going to crap in more ways than one. We had NO idea the extent of things going on but there have been a whole bunch of raids where police have found cannabis plants growing, even in brand new houses (never lived in, seem to just been built as a cover up) as well as all kinds of other unsuspicious places. There is even an online school run in Iceland where you can learn how to grow cannabis, it's just ridiculous how these things go without being noticed. They are really on a roll now, I wonder how much violence will break out amongst the users over the next little while when they can't get their fix.

Over 5,000 plants so far this year most just in the past few weeks. The Joke Room had their last show of the season on Saturday and they did a joke about the Government putting good use to the plants and adding them to the "help the homes survival kits" so that the population would be so stoned that they didn't realize how bad the situation is. There was a great cartoon drawing about it on Mbl.is as well and here is a link to it. It is as if the cops are so busy with the small criminals that they forget all the big guys that are enjoying all their tax free accounts in the Tortola Islands. No one has been put in jail yet for the state of the country. The Prime Minister proudly announced the other day that now they have made sure that no more large bonuses or big pay outs would be tolerated, then she precedes to say that a foreign advisor (I won't mention names) has been hired and she is going to fix this crisis. Her paycheck will ONLY cost Iceland 70 million kroner a year!!! Umm, HELLOOOO, wouldn't it be better to figure out solutions ourselves and use that money (which is probably the loan from IMF anyway) for our own health care instead of closing down health care facilities all over the country and causing anxiety amongst the population about what happens if they get sick or lose their jobs.

A 21 year old Belgian man was arrested at the airport today suspected of carrying drugs internally and as they took him to the health care center in Keflavík he somehow managed to get away and escape, he was supposedly handcuffed at the time so I guess he's running around with them on?! They wouldn't say how he got away on the news, maybe the health care center was empty since the government is closing them all down and no one there to help them LOL. He must be some quick runner for sure, they LOST him and haven't found him yet. They even had a blood hound on the job. This is Iceland, how can he get so far away in such a short time? It baffles the mind, really, the environment around the airport is so barren and open, we have no trees or forests, not so many places one can hide and the weather, well you don't get too far in our rainy winter weather. Oh well, we'll see if they find him tomorrow they had his picture posted on the news tonight. They've been checking every car on the road (yes, we only have one road from Keflavík) so if he managed to find someone to hitch a ride with before they started looking (I wonder if they were on a coffee break and that's what took them so long to start looking LOL) then maybe if some people drove a guy with hand cuffs they will see the news and call the cops. You'd think someone would figure out that a hand cuffed person is not your average tourist. Oh well, I guess the government has already distributed some of those "help the home survival kits" and people are just not bothered with small details anymore. ;-)