02.25.10

February 25th

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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