03.09.10
Posted in News at 17:09 by nikki
Guess I better write a few lines, I’ve been lazy at updating. I’ve updated photos off and on without putting any comments so I hope people realize that they can go to the photo albums and see new photos now and then without me commenting on the blog. I do miss the “update” section of the website where I could just put a link to what I’d done.
Anyway, what’s going on? Rúnar started another course on the weekend, unfortunately it wasn’t full and also a few didn’t show up who were registered so it was nice for those attending they got more one on one time…that’s never a bad thing. 
He came home exhausted after having a migraine on the first day and we had some wonderful people coming to pick out their puppy. I spent the whole day on high gear cleaning up since we didn’t expect anyone until after the weekend but it’s always nice when the place is clean and when you’re finished cleaning you feel better although exhausted. hehe Problem is it’s all dirty again an hour or two later!
The weather has been horrible, rain and wind every day and the pups are at a stage that they need to be out a portion of the day and need to be dried off each time they come in. They don’t like being outside too much in the cold and rain but Rúnar got a briliant idea and put the table in their play area so now they can hide from the rain a bit. They are so cute.
They can always have fun, silly goons! Me on the other hand am getting a bit pissed off at the weather. The grass is a mud pit…grrrr
So here is a photo of Tinni with his wonderful new owners! We are so happy that they picked him or should I say he picked them. It was quite strange not that I’m not used to my dogs intuition. They came to pick between Tryggur or Tinni and the family was split, the boys wanted Tryggur and the girls wanted Tinni. Well, I introduced them to both dogs and I kid you not Tinni went to the little girl and stayed with her all cuddling the whole time while Tryggur just thought he’d explore the house and really couldn’t care less there were people here to talk to him. I tried to explain to them the different temperaments and why I thought Tinni was a better fit for their family and I think Tinni did his part to convince them too because they ended up picking him. I was glad because I always say that if the puppy belongs to you there will be no doubt on the part of the puppy! I just love these two photos, I’m going to cherish them and look forward to seeing how Tinni’s life will be with this wonderful family.
What a beautiful contagious smile…warms the heart! Too bad Tinni was soooo tired, he’d just fallen asleep when we decided to pick him up to take the photos.
We have been talking to someone who is interested in Tryggur but it depended on if he was chosen or not and the fact that they came a couple days early to chose and picked Tinni meant that on Sunday we got a surprise visit from Brynhildur before Rúnar had to go to Reykjavík. She was asked by this friend of ours to come and take some photos of Tryggur if he was still available. Again the strangest thing, Tryggur was a different dog. He wouldn’t leave poor Brynhildur alone to take photos, climbing up on her arms and then deciding it might be neat to climb up on her back and legs since she was laying on the floor. She managed to get a photo or two but most were probably blurry because he was always in her face checking her out. Hehe This was funny to see after the way he had acted the day before. I never underestimate the sixth sense of a dog.
We won’t know right away if he has a home or not but we’re not worried, we know that he will find the right home if we are open to the energy he portrays when the right owner arrives or the energy we sense in emails or phone calls from those inquiring.
The fact that Rúnar was away ALL weekend is really playing a toll on my health though. I totally didn’t think this through. So much work and my disability is not really making this all easy to do on my own.
My hands are raw and itchy from the eczema and with the rain every day all day long it means my hands are never dry for long, I’m using creams at night but it’s not helping at all. I know it has to be the puppies, the soap and water (I only use hypoallergenic soap) or the pee soaked papers because I haven’t been cheating on gluten these days. Stress of course always a factor but I’m pretty sure my skin is just not meant to be cleaned so much.
I lost my balance last week and fell on top of the puppy pen right on my ribcage and it pushed in a couple before I managed to touch the ground with my feet again and stand up. Well, it wasn’t all that painful except right when it happened so I knew nothing was broken but the next few days I was having pains in my abdomen, shortness of breath and some pain in my chest area as well. I couldn’t not keep on working, lifting the puppies up from their playpen to let them out and then back in many times a day x 5 they are now around 3-4 kg. No weight lifting feat per se but it adds up and the bending is putting my back out. Again lacking sleep and this morning Rúnar had to start work an hour early which meant I was up at 5:30 cleaning, letting the pups out, feeding them, then again the whole thing at 8:00 which is their usual time. They thought the new time was just a bonus play session. They are such lively little guys, never a dull moment. I love their love of life but oh man it’s hard work for someone who isn’t fit for “work”, I think a job would be less work than this. I am feeling much like I did while Rúnar was in Seattle for a month except I’m ever so thankful when he comes home from work in the evenings!
I’m thinking that I’m going to have to rest well before I have the next litter. No doubt I won’t have too many more litters which is sad but at the same time I try to have well thought out litters and do my best with the puppies upbringing so not being able to do my best is making me feel like I’m doing a half hazard job, I’d like to be able to do so much more for them. Maybe I’ll be feeling better when Hófi has her litter and I’ll be less willing to throw in the towel by then because she does have to have a litter soon whether I’m up for it or not.
But all that said, I just thought I’d let my family keep up with the happenings. On the more positive note the pups are thriving and they are a load of fun when we have a few minutes to spend training them. We’ve done a few things already and a couple of them got to run on the wet grass yesterday tonight we will take the rest out to see how they like it. I’ve taken stack photos of them last night and will put them into the new album.
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03.03.10
Posted in News at 00:07 by nikki
My Mom didn’t have a birthday this year but I called her yesterday to wish her a happy pretend birthday. It’s always nice to hear her voice and she sounds like she is doing really well.
I know I should have updated more often but things have been quite busy around here and just keep getting busier with these little guys getting into more mischief every day. As far as we know the puppies might be sold, possibly there is one male left but we’ll know that pretty soon. I’ve gotten a bunch of calls lately and emails and I hate to say that I’m getting really picky and I don’t want my puppies just going anywhere, not that I ever have but I’m finding myself thinking that each call is not the right owner. They should get the homes that fate has picked out for them but I’m sure that fate expects me to do some investigations and make some choices none the less. I’m hoping that I get a “feeling” when the right ones come along and I think that has happened for the ones that are already promised.
Birta’s face looks horrible these days, she keeps scratching the sores and they open up again and bleed. There is skin missing now that will probably take a while to heal and no doubt she will have scars. It appears to be the same as a friend of mine’s dogs got once (each at a different time) and she said it was due to bacteria and happened when there were stressful changes going on in her home. Her one bitch who had it on her muzzle had scars for the rest of her life and the other one only had the blood blisters on her ears and so didn’t get scarred. The only thing we can think is that perhaps at the moment Birta’s immune system was a little bit weakened from stress or something, there is quite a bit of stress in the house when there are newborn puppies whether we like to believe it or not. A drop in immunity for short periods can happen with all humans and dogs and no doubt the bacteria got in there when the pups were scratching and biting her with their dirty little sharp nails, despite me trying to keep their feet clean they are always walking in their own excrement on the papers, no matter how spotless the playpen is most of the time there are the times during the night or day that I get there too late to clean up the mess. Birta started scratching and made it worse and so it spread quickly. None of the other dogs likes the pups scratching at them but Birta seemed to enjoy the attention. It’s just so sad now because we have to try to keep her away from the puppies, poor Birta so wants to play with them, we let them follow her around but don’t allow them to play around her face these days. She is taking some antibiotics and they seem to be helping a little (if she could stop opening the scabs when they are just about to be better), she seems to scratch more when Rúnar cleans the wounds, the stuff we bought to clean is not supposed to sting or anything but no doubt just the fact that Rúnar is touching the sores makes them a bit itchy.
I think I know the feeling, my eczema is not so good these days either and once you start scratching it’s hard to stop!
Puppies now get to go outside a few times a day. Rúnar set up their fencing yesterday after work and hopefully it will make cleaning a little bit easier and also help teach them at the same time to let us know when they need out. We are starting to put them out to do their business as often as we can. Poor babies came in tonight from the freezing rain, they were not amused with that but they were only out for a few minutes and got to come in when they were finished, and were dried off when they came back in. The problem with being an Icelandic sheepdog in Iceland is you have to get used to every possible type of weather in the same day. Frost and cold this morning, then 6 celcius for parts of the day, freezing rain in the evening and then back to big huge snowflakes for their last outing before bed.
Here’s a few photos from the past few days and I will put some in a new album as well, possibly tomorrow if I can get around to it.
We had a wonderful visit from Rúnar’s sister and her whole family. The puppies had some great socialization with great kids and although they slept through most of it they did get to chew on the boys fingers for a little bit. Tumi seemed to think he belonged to the two boys it was so cute.
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02.25.10
Posted in News at 23:04 by nikki
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOLLA SYSTIR AND KOLLA AMMA!!!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY JOHN! (you did get a phone call on the day )
I’m getting so much behind in updating and can’t remember half of what’s been going on as usual.
Well, my Dad’s tests came back, his heart cannot be repaired and 30% of the muscle is damaged. He’s chipper as he usually is and is making light of it. My step-father turned 80 years old a couple days ago and that is good to know that he is fighting a good fight with his cancer. My Mom sounds like she is doing pretty good. It is so upsetting to know that time cannot be turned back, I so want to spend time with my family and time goes so fast, circumstances are always out of our control. I am praying they will all have many good years and that I may get over to see them and the rest of my loved ones sometime over the next couple years.
Well, the puppies are so smart and doing really well, they are learning so much or should I say they are getting alot of reinforcement for their good behaviour. They have a very solid default of sit, they are following a hand target extremely well, but they already learned to follow the hand target as tiny ones because then we let them follow the smell. They are offering alot of high fives and handshakes which we of course reward every time we can (just a pet or a chance to be picked up and cuddled). Tumi is a really smart guy and he has alot of patience which is good, he will sit still for the longest time and wait for his turn, the others will often give up and walk away to do something else but Tumi most of the time will just sit there and wait until it’s time for him to either get a bottle or some cuddles. He is the sweetest of the bunch of them I think and so cute because he is smaller than the others. They all have awesome eye contact and always have, I’m thinking there are perks to having a bottle fed litter! 
We have put them in the tub already for a foot bath, they found that quite strange and some were calmer than others.
We’ve also had a chair overturned that they walked under, it was interesting to see which ones were more open to that silly looking thing.
We have introduced a crate and they go in there on their own to sleep already when they feel like it. All of them have investigated it and were quick to do so.
They went outside for a few minutes today for the first time in the snow. We got a huge amount of snow last night and today and Rúnar even had trouble getting home from work because the road at his work is not plowed. Rúnar is making fun of me because when I woke up this morning the only way to open the door for the dogs to go outside was to use the grill spatula to dig my way out. I thought it was a good idea but apparently the shovel was there right beside the door outside and I couldn’t see it for all the snow. Hehe Not that it would have made a difference anyway because I couldn’t open the door without the help of the spatula to start with.
We’ve introduced the agility seesaw to Vina tonight and the rest will get their chance over the next day or two. I’m so glad Rúnar will be home this weekend because I think we should try to get alot of new training done, it’s easier if there are two of us. Unfortunately although we managed to get a couple not so good photos of Vina we didn’t get any video because we only have two hands each. Hehe But here are her photos from tonight. She targeted my hand and much to my surprise followed my hand all the way over, even when it smashed down and her little butt and foot fell off the other side she wasn’t scared and targeted right away again from the other side. We thought that was more than enough for her first try and so she got cuddles and that was all for tonight.
We are getting a bit discouraged at how the market is right now, not too many inquiries and the ones we do get don’t work out. We are really happy that Tásla’s owner in Denmark is very excited about her and we have another family trying to pick from Tinni or Tryggur. The home we thought we had for Vina in Denmark didn’t work out and we are actually quite happy with that because that means we can try to find a good home or co-own here in Iceland. She is such a great little puppy although we can see she is going to be a handful, too smart for her own good as you can see. She loves to run around the house as if she lives here and Rúnar keeps saying well she’s just making herself right at home. We really can’t keep her!!! Personally my favourite has always been Tásla for her calm temperament and sweet sweet face and her amazing dewclaws, but we knew from the start that we can’t keep a puppy. I think she is going to have a great life with some Icelandic horses.
We really are hoping that we find the right homes for the rest of the puppies and that we find them soon so that the puppies will get to bond a little with their new owners. There are so many litters available at the moment and it seems that many just send inquiries to ask the price and then we don’t hear from them again, I fear they are just writing to everyone on the list and not really caring what is included in the price. I know some are selling much higher and I suspect those with older puppies are selling at lower than the going rate. I really and truly think that fate will play a role in where our puppies go like it always has. We include a clicker course and the first years insurance for those who stay in Iceland so hopefully some will find that appealing.
It is very interesting how many litters lately are tightly linebred to Töfra Stjarna. I always find it a little bit flattering that litters linebred to her are so popular. The funny thing is though that she was not the best puppy in that first litter of mine, she was just the only one that went into breeding. It never ceases to amaze me though that the dogs that do well at shows are always tightly linebred to her so I’m happy that she did have such an influence.
These are the two that are looking for homes at the moment Tumi and Tígla Vina along with either Tinni or Tryggur but we won’t know that right away.
I’m a little worried about Birta at the moment, she’s got some swelling in her face around her muzzle. It appears that what has happened is that the puppies have either scratched her or bitten her during play and because their feet aren’t all that clean she might have gotten a little bacteria in a wound because of it. We try to keep their feet clean but it’s not always possible all hours of the day and Birta loves to go in and play with them and she always shoves her face at them so they swat her and climb all over her head. She seems to love that so it’s hard to not let her play with her grandpuppies. I hope it will not get infected, we will keep an eye on it and if needed she’ll have to have some antibiotics.
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02.21.10
Posted in News at 18:32 by nikki
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIGG!!!
My sweet Frigg is 13 years old today. Strange enough she is the one that stayed at home while the others all went for a nice run this morning with Rúnar. Frigg wanted to stay with me, she always does. So I got up and cleaned the house for the arrival of guests. I didn’t sleep much at all last night, I’m such a dork. I always have to stress myself to no end if anything is going on. We were expecting hopeful puppy owners around lunchtime so of course I didn’t sleep for worry. Would the dogs behave, would I sleep in, would they like the puppies or not? Anything and everything I can find to worry about…that’s me!
As far as we know they did like the puppies and are trying to make their mind up which of two males they want. Both have their special features and I’d have a hard time picking myself. The dogs were so so behaved, would have appreciated them being a little bit more relaxed but Klói kept running in and stealing the puppies toys because he knows he’s not supposed to have them and Skella had to tell Klói off, then Birta brought toys to let the guests throw (as she always does) and that meant Skella brought one too and well it’s not a good idea to throw toys around when both of them are in the mood to go fetch. Frigg was her well behaved perfect little self but Klói decided every few minutes that he had to remind us that she has a bad tooth and he gets so antsy when he is trying to make sure we “get it” so poor Frigg got frustrated at him for that. Hófi didn’t know what she was supposed to do, try to get the toys from the other ones or try to get to the puppies making Skella a little bit uneasy so Hófi got a bone in the other room and you could hear her little grrrr any time one of the other dogs walked past the gate. Hófi has always been a bit of a “my food/my bone” type so has to be in a cage or other room by herself. Now if you think that sounds like an interesting show… I was of course a zombie and probably made a less than great first impression. Hehe We totally forgot to offer them coffee and I spent half the time in the kitchen trying to make puppy bottles and couldn’t for the life of me remember anything I was going to talk to them about. I walked back and forth between the rooms shaking bottles full of formula probably stressing them just as much as I was. Oh well, I guess people soon find out they have to take me as I am, faults and all. As Rúnar and my Mom say, never a dull moment around me!
The pups refused to drink of course while they were here and did nothing but sleep! We couldn’t hardly wake them up for a few minutes to hold them and see what they looked like. I tell you they were totally having the time of their life just minutes before they got here and minutes after they left, yup they were well rested and ready to play. What a day! In any case they are wonderful people and I think either of the boys will have a great home with them. Let’s hope the pups can impress people themselves because Lord knows I’m a mess and don’t do a good job at all. LOL
The two girls will most likely go to Denmark so that will be great for them too. Both will be working with horses and I often think that would be the best thing for Skella, she has so much energy and is such a good working dog so no doubt her puppies will enjoy that life.
Poor Birta is limping from her walk this morning, she often aggravates an old injury in her front leg because she doesn’t get much exercise (we are horrible owners) and when she does she overdoes it and isn’t the most careful one when running a mile a minute having the time of her life. She LOVES running but she tends to think she can keep up with the youngsters, which she really can’t. Hard to believe she’ll be 7 years old next month.
Rúnar’s been in Reykjavík half the day holding the last class for the clicker course he’s had for the last 5 weeks, the next one will start in March. Yay, I get one weekend with him at home on a Sunday. He had some great students and everyone had a lot of fun from what I hear on the grapevine.
Well, we decided it was high time we took some half decent photos of the pups yesterday so I’m going to post the best ones here and when I get the chance put a few on the photos page as well.
Starting with Tásla Birta Björg
Tígla Vina pretending she is camera shy
Tryggur Aron (this guy is a real goof!)
Tumi Arnór
Tinni Alexander thought it was much more elegant to lay down and I have to agree it’s a good photo of him.
Speaking of Vina and being camera shy…now does this look like the same little lady? Love the little “vampire” teeth.
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02.18.10
Posted in News at 17:37 by nikki
Well, I’ve been thinking maybe it’s better to just put the date as the title, I don’t know. It’s sometimes too hard to figure out what to call an update because I mix all kinds of things together. Hehehe We’ll see how this works anyway.
The pups are growing and starting to be lots of fun. Training has began (it did a long time ago actually) and they are getting really good at their default sit behaviour. They surprise me how quickly they learnt that but I think it is in part because we got such a head start because of the bottle feedings.
I took a load of photos as usual and am going to add them to the album on the right. Besides all the fun they are also getting to be so much extra work in terms of cleaning up after them but it’s all a part of the process. We just quickly forget the work when they give so much of themselves.
Getting a bunch of inquiries and we might have a few of them sold already which would be nice. However we haven’t let anyone pick yet because the person that’s first on the list lives in Iceland and of course wants to come to see them to pick their puppy which of course is very important. Just having trouble trying to figure out when it’s best to have visitors, we’ll figure out a time when one of us is not busy soon. It’s also much more fun to come when they are a little bit more of their own character and can actually interact more with visitors. Right now they are still slip sliding around a bit when trying to walk on the slippery floor, they are great on rugs and stuff but the stupid artificial wood floor is tricky for those little legs.
Well, best get those photos uploaded. My shoulders are not good on the computer much these days and my eczema is bothering me on my hands. Cleaning is really not the best thing for sensitive skin, Rúnar is helping me out every evening and on Saturdays so that’s wonderful to get some time off.
Birthday was pretty uneventful, Rúnar was working but I got a call each from both my parents which is always the best thing I know of. My Mom sang the birthday song for me and it made me remember that my step-father always sang it to me in Swedish so it made me quite happy. I don’t like celebrating my birthday because let’s face it who likes being a year older, if it sneaks up on you then there is little you can do about it but you’re only as old as you feel and if you don’t celebrate then there is no evidence. hehehe
My Dad is in for some tests and will find out which type of surgery he will need for his heart. I’ve been thinking of him today and hope to hear from him soon with some good news. My Mom sounds like she is doing well these days although John is not doing so well. I think his cancer is back but we don’t get so much news of what’s going on. Sometimes I really feel so far away from home. : (
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