11.18.09
Posted in News, Other dogs at 01:07 by nikki
Well, I’m really busy lately with the website, Facebook accounts for our school (two different ones) and I’m happy to say that a remarkable 65 people clicked on as “fans” in one day! The surprising thing is they are almost all living in Iceland and most are not even people we know so we’re looking forward to seeing if any of these clicker fans will sign up for courses in the future. Obviously it was not a bad idea to add a fans page because as I said to Rúnar it will give us an idea of how many people in Iceland actually are interested or already use clickers or are clicker training. There are no other pages on Facebook for clicker training schools or in general here yet so it gives us a bit of an edge. I really want to try to spend the majority of my free time making that fan page interesting for people to keep coming back to visit. I think we need to take our dream a bit seriously because no one can make it come true except us!
Unfortunately this means I have pretty much stopped reading posts on all my different groups on Yahoo. Not enough hours in the day to go through all the emails that come from the lists. I really don’t know how people manage to keep up with so many lists at the same time AND do other things. If specifically asking for comments from me you’ll need to send me a note to tell me where to find the post. I’ve gone through and couldn’t find the post you talked about Val.
I’ve been encouraging Rúnar to take the online Tagteaching course because they accept his KPA CTP title as part of the course because he had to learn a bit about Tagteaching while he was doing it and was assessed for his skills while he was being judged for completion. I on the other hand although I’d love to do the course have found out that it would mean a trip to USA to a course and I really can’t do that, don’t have the health or resources to go on a trip right now. I think however that if Rúnar got his education then since he is going to be taking over the teaching anyway it would be a great addition to our school and we will then be able to teach people in the Tagteach manner more efficiently which would make our courses even more special.
I got back to my book for very short periods the last couple days and I see that I have so much more to write and I want to hurry up and finish it. I had written a couple pages as the “conclusion” a while ago (if I think of something I write it down even though it is not quite in sequence) and I read over those today and thought gee, I really shouldn’t have given up on it because even I thought it wasn’t half bad. 
So the news of the day is that after Rúnar came home today we went to my old town of Bessastadahreppur where Hófi’s beau lives and although they were showing some interest she is still not quite ready. We felt sorry for him the poor guy she was playing with him like a teenager and he kept up with her too amazingly, no doubt he’ll sleep well tonight though. We’ll be going back on Thursday and probably every second day for a while just so we don’t miss it. This also means we have no time in the evenings and poor Rúnar was exhausted tonight and went to bed early. We really have to make sure all these trips aren’t in vain, it’s alot of gas spent driving back and forth so often. I guess since we are not going to change our minds I may as well let the cat out of the bag about who the male is even though I might jinx it. Care to guess who this 12 year old gentleman is? I think most have already figured it out. You can click on the photos to enlarge slightly and don’t forget to use the back arrow to get back to the page. To be fair to both the dogs I will say that neither of them is back in coat yet, as you can see they both look really “naked” and they can look better but I’m posting the photos anyway.
That’s right, I’m linebreeding directly to the O line! Skessu Skolli is the brother of Hófi’s grandmother Skessu Salka. I’m excited about it especially after spending a bit more time with him again tonight and seeing how much of a sweet guy (I knew he was, have known him for years) he is and he still thinks he’s just a youngster. A bit like Frigg you’d never guess their age when you meet them in person. We saw how similar the temperaments of him and Hófi are and his owner and her daughter got some kisses from Hófi and fell for her, like most people do when they meet her. I had been looking at sons of his as well as other related lines that were not as close but I couldn’t find any that I could use. Unfortunately his sons are either dead, neutered or living in other countries so it makes him even more important in my mind when his offspring don’t go any further in breeding. Then I thought well a linebreeding of 8% is really not high and I think that it is the very best way to actually breed directly to the O line instead of thinning it out even more than it already is. A linebreed without the high risk that a closer inbreeding would give, I’m thinking it might just be a good way to strengthen the line. I know I’m going to get dirty looks from the “show breeding crowd” but in my honest opinion…who cares? :Þ
It was so cool when his owner got out a couple of old photo albums and Rúnar got to see the dogs at Thorvaldsstödum and especially his grandmother who I always say Hófi is the spitting image of and well, I wasn’t alone thinking that. Both Rúnar and her owner agreed. Hopefully if it works out we can then get a few good photos of Freyja frá Thorvaldsstödum to put up on the website. (There is one of her on there already on Hófi’s litter page at the bottom I believe it can be accessed through the planned litters link). I honestly thought when I looked at all the older dogs that I remember that I’m glad I decided to use a dog from the “old generation”. That generation is almost all gone already and in my opinion where such different dogs than they are today. I like the old type, I liked the old dogs, I fell in love with the breed because of all those dogs and today I find myself not as smitten by the new type of ISD. Maybe it’s just me but I’m hoping to keep the old dogs alive just a little while longer by using this old guy before he too is gone. Fingers and dewclaws (ALL of them…he is an alspori) crossed that our plans work out.
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11.15.09
Posted in News at 22:18 by nikki
Well, I think we can say that today was a day well spent. We went to meet the clicker group and it turns out that none of them except the organizer have used a clicker before. We had plans of helping them a little but as I was trying to get ahold of the owner of the dog we planned to use on Hófi and she wasn’t going to be home today but was home for the next hour we had to excuse ourselves and hurry to meet her. So we left them on their own but with an idea that if anyone was interested then we would be open to holding a course for them. On the way home we stopped to talk to the organizer and the owner of a doggy daycare center that she works at. What a great turn of fate that was. The owners of the daycare center want to come to our course along with the other people that were there today and they are really open to a working partnership with us. They said many people ask them about obedience courses and they know there would be a great market just with their own clients. They would provide the training facility and we had a look at the area. It is great, although it’s partly outside we think it will be awesome.
I have to say this doggy daycare center is just awesome! I’ve never really been a fan of that type of place but I think I changed my mind today. These people have it so spotless that I would have never believed it possible, they truly seem to care about the dogs well being too. They appear to have a very positive way of thinking, love dogs and we are so glad we met them. Seems all things happen for a reason, and without this girl that we met through our own clicker course a couple years ago we wouldn’t have met these people either. The organizer of the group (this student at one of our first clicker courses) is so enthusiastic and fun to be around with such a great attitude that it is contagious. A true clicker trainer in spirit. She has gotten everybody really excited about clicker training and showed them a bit of shaping today after we left. We are looking forward to spending much more time with this group of positive, fun dog people. A breath of fresh air, just what we need after all the negative things going on in the dog world over here.
We are hopefully going to start a course for them and their dogs right away or before Christmas, then if they like what they see and feel it will be a good thing to add to their center as a new service then we will be training for them next year. We have a little bit of business planning to work out but I am sure we can “convince” them it’s the training method for them.
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Posted in News at 02:10 by nikki
Well, I’m off to bed, long day tomorrow. Rúnar wants to go help with the clicker group that are meeting and that’s around lunchtime and probably into the day. It’s in Reykjavík so lots of driving as well.
Just wanted to say that my mind is made up…Hófi WILL be mated if fate allows to a rich red male dog that I have liked for many years and that I have used before. I hadn’t really had him on the short list because I thought that it would be too high a co-efficient but it turned out to be not too bad (8.2%) although I’d preferred it under 6% at least. He has free hips and so does she and so do both of their parents so we are feeling good about that since a few of the males I had been looking at had slight HD. It’s no guarantee but it is nicer for us in terms of trying our best to improve. Also getting quite hard to find a male dog without HD to use that is not related or out of overused lines. He may not be a show dog but we are excited about the prospect of having more puppies from him. We already have a couple waiting for puppies so hopefully that will make finding homes for the rest and for Skella’s puppies easier. We are just waiting for the time to be right.
We’re going to put off revealing the name until we’ve hopefully had a mating (just in case it doesn’t work out) and get some photos although I’m sure many might have figured it out already.
Skella and Klói are starting to play quite a bit together so no doubt she is getting closer to her time. It’s funny how calm and relaxed Klói is these days, obviously his nose is well trained from last time and he is not bothered by the house full of hormones until they smell right.
I added a link to my old “my dogs” page for those who want to see photos and write ups of my dogs that maybe are visiting and not seen them before. Pretty much all the info is still available through that link including all the litters they have had and their pedigrees. I was missing people being able to see my dogs and read about them or see what they look like. Hope this adds to the traffic however I won’t ever know because another thing I’m missing is the counter that used to tell me how many visitors we got and where they came from. Oh well, at least I have parts of my website with a workable blog.
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11.12.09
Posted in News at 00:53 by nikki
Well, just as I feared I waited too long to find the perfect male for Hófi. I had like 6 months to do that and well to be honest I had one or two (I thought) picked out and was thinking of just tossing a coin between them. But me and my change of heart all the time and to be fair the ones I had picked have not had their hips checked yet because they are not quite two. She has started her season, she is so clean so we judge by the way she acts and the interest Klói is showing her along with the fact that I saw a spot of blood on the floor before Klói had a chance to clean it up. Now that could also be from Frigg or Birta because she is also starting.
I had been so smart to make a long list (well, long in terms of what is possible here in Iceland) of possibilities of dogs like I mentioned last time and when they all turn out to be either neutered, chryptorchids, dead or not have their tests done (now we have no time to wait for those) then it’s back to the drawing board and wait for her next season I guess.
Frigg was the first to start and they are all following suit so we’re hoping that poor Klói will not be subjected to their wonderful odor for too many days and they will all be pretty much done at the same time too. Poor guy has to get used to his crate at night again and his “Joe Boxer’s” during the day.
We might have known, they started getting a bit “antsy” the past couple days and want to go outside all the time just to sit out there and smell the air and tease the neighbour’s dog. No doubt we’ll have a few strays on our street soon. None of them are really swollen that much yet so we’re not counting the days yet. Yippee, three or four weeks of fun! Why did I want to have a house full of bitches again?
Speaking of Klói he gets lots of private time and walks with us the next few weeks. It always does have it’s good points for him too. Speaking of alone time. We had been excited to see that our student with the Facebook training group is holding a get together for clicker trainers on Sunday (she talked to Rúnar on MSN and asked us if we could help ). Apparently her and a bunch of friends that want to try to train together using the clicker and/or the principles without a clicker are planning to meet regularly and we thought we might go and take one of the dogs. I had intended to take Hófi but I guess there is only one choice for a training gineau pig now and that’ll be Klói. Now whether he’ll be able to keep his mind on the training is another thing. Maybe he’ll just end up sitting alone in the car while we help other people with their dogs, wouldn’t be the first time.
Rúnar has been limping a bit with a sore foot after walking the dogs around the block yesterday, he’s not sure if he twisted or hurt it without realizing or not but he has to stand on his feet all day at work so it’s not good. I hope it will be okay tomorrow because if not he will have to go to the doctor’s to get it checked. That might mean we’ll be staying home this weekend. I hope it’s okay though.
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11.10.09
Posted in News at 18:58 by nikki
So I was going to update yesterday but I got busy writing a ton of emails, as I’m really working hard on finding the right mate for Hófi. I have at the moment two in mind, had a whole list of them that got shortened very quickly when I received info back about which ones were dead or only had one testicle and other issues like too high (in my mind but still under 6%) inbreeding co-efficients. We have a couple things in mind when picking and one important thing is that the line is not overly used, that is not always so easy to find.
Rúnar came home yesterday with some woodchip board that he had gotten from somewhere (was going to be thrown away) and he got busy right away and made Frigg a step to get up on the bed. Yay, he wants to help save my back from lifting her all the time but it seems Frigg still wants up on the bed “where” she wants up on the bed and not where the step is. Hehe We´re working on that though, could take her a few days to realize what it is and why it’s there. It’s a square box and is a bit like a table so she thought she was supposed to lie down on it. Yes, she was trained in Agility!
Speaking of Frigg I was a little upset to see that the lump by her front leg is still there and a bit bigger, not growing extremely fast though which is good and we can’t but wonder what it is since it didn’t show up on the ex-ray that was taken a couple weeks ago.
I really can’t remember anything interesting since last time except that we have started a new Facebook page. Beggers for punishment aren’t we?! It’s something we had thought about years ago when we started our courses, a discussion group for our students and for people interested in coming to our courses to see when our next course will be held and there we can advertise our private lessons as well. We are not sure how it will develop whether we will have it open to all or not…at the moment it’s a closed group and you just have to apply and we let you on but we’re thinking that it might be a good idea to keep it partially closed so that we don’t get “non-clicker trainers” giving advice and starting arguements on there. Not that we wouldn’t welcome the chance to convert people, hehe but it can get annoying when anyone and everyone can comment without any rules.
It will hopefully make things a lot easier to track and keep people that have come to our courses interested. It’s so discouraging when you learn something new and are just left to fend for yourself afterwards. We tell all our students that they can call or send us emails but there are times that writing the same email over and over again can get a bit time consuming or some people don’t want to impose writing privately but would write on a discussion board and ask. We used to keep up with all the questions on training on one of the main dog forums here but the letters could get down right nasty from some people, argueing (I didn’t take part in such things of course). Newbies to dogs got all kinds of harsh training advice and dumb comments if they wanted to do things in a positive way and all you could do was shake your head and think oh that poor dog. I used to spend HOURS writing very thoughtful articles and answers to questions but they always got cut down by the “dominance theory” people meaning the advice was useless and all the time I spent on nothing could have been used for myself. So I just gave up reading or posting letters on there and decided if people want my advice they will have to ask me for it because it’s obvious that I can’t change the world all on my own in a day.
I need to get help from the people that really want change themselves and together we can do more than I can do by giving out free advice to deaf ears. There are so many well meaning people out there that may want to help but might give the wrong advice and we’d rather our students at least be able to come straight to us and get our advice. We noticed that there are more people “clicker training” and offering courses that we didn’t know about, some no doubt are giving out advice built on things they have read or seen, just like I did way back when I started out. Some have even been holding courses on their own for awhile because we stopped holding courses. We thought no one was interested since we didn’t get anyone on our waiting list (it’s not advertised but we assumed people knew about it but noticed the other day that the HRFÍ had taken down the part where they offer clicker courses without talking to us) and so we needed a bit of a wake-up call.
I have told them that my health isn’t all that great to be holding courses and that is true and I didn’t hold any courses last year at all with them so it’s no wonder. One trainer who now has a page on Facebook is a student that came to one of our first courses a few years ago, then moved to the other side of the country for awhile and had to find a new home for her dog, moved back into the main city, is in school now (I think psychology) and got another dog or two not too long ago and has just gone nuts with the clicker training and is contagious to her friends. Enthusiastic girl, a really happy spirit and that’s what we need here, someone like I used to be. So we are glad that people are spreading the word and getting training groups together, we need that in the dog community. It’s something we always talked about and wanted to do but we don’t live in town and don’t want to make plans that I might not be able to keep due to health, so when students of ours that live in town can meet and train together then we are quite happy.
However it doesn’t look too good when we are hiding in the shadows and no one knows we are here, they might all think that I have given up and don’t teach anymore (and don’t know about Rúnar’s education) so thought we darn well better get our page up and running too since they already have pages up. Hehe Funny thing that what we’ve been putting off for so long only took a few minutes to get started. So now I’ll have lots to do thinking up things to write there. It will take our time away from the other personal pages on Facebook now but that is actually maybe a good thing. We can do something constructive instead of “spying” on our friends or playing games online. Always a bright side.
We think it will mostly be in Icelandic but those who want to can join (through a request) and no doubt some English will also be used and lots of photos from our courses when it’s up and running as we hope.
It’s always the best time of the day when they know Dad is coming home soon.
I’m putting an idea in Rúnar’s head that I just had after opening the Facebook page and seeing that our students are quickly joining up to be “fans”. I thought maybe a clicker challenge in January for our students only. I’ll be sure to update on that, if he’s up for it and how the planning is going when I have more info. We’ve held one clicker challenge before here in Selfoss as part of our first course and it was the very first time in Iceland so this time we have so many more who can actually take part and I really hope they are all excited and open for it. I think it could be really fun to get together and do something fun in the dark of winter after all the Christmas holidays are over. It would also bring some audience hopefully that we could get some new students from. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge…say no more.
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