Mirrors, & population control: Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Kin & I have had company for some of our recent trips, with Ingunn & Zorro. Zorro is a nine month old pup who has an inexhaustible supply of cute poses (I strongly suspect that he practices these in the mirror, when Ingunn is at work), and most of the time Zorro & Kin get on well.


For a Newfie, Kin is surprisingly agile, and generally foregoes the Newfie habit of going through things, as opposed to go around them. Ingunn's theory is that he's following Zorro, who generally doesn't have the option of going through things.


After having the two 'boys' in the back garden, my back garden resembles a miniature re-enactment of the battle of the Somme, not helped by the snow, followed by heavy rain. Not even when Xo & Karma (two Newfies) used to play in the back garden did the lawn ever get in this bad state! Will be interesting to see how this turns out next spring/summer.


Having the two of them running around in 'Kin's' house does mean that he doesn't truly relax, and once (the dastardly) Zorro leaves, Kin has to gather his favorite toys before he can then go to sleep: 

(I know that this looks like a staged photo but it really isn't, he really did put his toy and bone in this position and until I got the camera out his big head was on top of them!).


New Year's Eve (NYE) in Norway is generally used as a form of population control. There are only ~ 5 million people in Norway, and NYE is traditionally celebrated by drunk folk letting off pyrotechnics, often by placing large rockets in 2 mm of snow and wondering why they fall sideways, causing much merriment as they ricochet off bystanders. Last year the government decided that the population density across the whole of Norway was too low to survive a really harsh winter and took the monumental step to ban rockets, but all other form of fireworks are still fair game for New Year's Eve. Thus when I got Kin, I bought:

To try to get him used to the sounds. Karma would go and sit on the back lawn and eat a pigs ear when the fireworks were going off, I'd like Kin to be the same; thus I've been playing this CD at a volume that made the neighbours curtains twitch and I found disturbing, whereas Kin's reaction wasn't really noticable:

(Intention was to put a video clip in so the firework noises could be heard, and his reaction gauged... but he didn't react, not even when I put a mirror in front of his nose to check he was still breathing!) So either playing with Zorro really tired him out, or I have good reason to be quietly optimistic for New Year's Eve.

Balls, & Dalsnuten: Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Above you can see a classic problem with the long haired breeds, the snow balling behind the paws is irritating for the dog, but whilst he can still bend his legs, it remains mealy irritating; 

more seriously they can get snow melting between the pads of the feet, and then freezing again as ice, this can cut them between the pads and can be quite a problem. For a short trip in snowy weather, you normally just need to keep an eye on them, for a longer trip you can buy a form of paraffin wax that can be put on the paws and up the legs, to prevent balling (Karma once came on a ski trip and on two hours afterwards he still had balls of snow on the backs of his legs and under his stomach!!!).

 Kin took about 30 minutes to nibble off all the balls.

When it comes into bringing snow into the house, these chaps are quite accomplished.


And then the weather changes, temperature jumps up by six degrees C (i.e. over freezing), it begins to rain, and all the snow melts and we get flooding! Which Newfie's don't mind either!


In between two storms, today we managed to sneak off and fly from one of the hills over town. Can't see from vid clip but all the hills further back have snow cover on them. Friends have asked what is it like to fly a paraglider, so here is a high speed clip (slowed in places, but most of it is played at a faster speed, and then most folk will still find it boring, kind of thing that's best to do, with a tandem trip if you've never tried it (all the fun, with none of the training). Per & I took off from Dalsnuten and landed in Dale. Marginal conditions at take off, just enough to inflate the glider backwards, but you had to be quick to get airborne. Oh and if anyone can figures what falls off the glider, please let me know(played it back and took out four still frames, haven't got a clue what it is, and didn't notice it whilst I was flying, only afterwards looking on the vid, wing, risers, harness, & cockpit are all fine, so I'm a wee bit baffled.

Then it was into the car, picked up Kin an off to Oberstad to try our luck with coast hang. Way too windy, so didn't get to fly, but Kin did get to make friends with three folk on a Christmas walk, sadly I didn't manage to get a pic of them making a fuss over him.

The comfy seats, lucky escape, cats & dogs: Nurhan's take

Nurhan's take:

Now a friend, Allan, has suggested that Kin should be allowed to sit in the seats as the boot is 'un-sprung' and my car has fairly stiff suspension (there are foam mats under the boot liner to make it more comfy in there); what I didn't realise is that he has been tutoring Kin... 

Whilst I'm putting the ski-box on the roof, Kin's installed and ready to go! 

This he's not allowed to do, he travels in the boot... but he did look cute enough for me to take a couple of pics before removing him and finishing putting on the ski-box.

He tried out the drivers seat too, but didn't seem to get the idea that he should be looking forward (this could have something to do with him spending most of his time in the boot looking out the back window?!).

Ski-box was put on for a trip to Hovden at the weekend, on the (long but quickest) way up to Hovden we pass Røldal:

which according to the local paper (and more believably http://www.skiinfo.no/ ) has had the most snow of any ski resort in the world, in the last seven days. Sadly my friend who I was travelling with (and who's cabin we were staying at), is laid up in bed with flu. This means that Kin has had a lucky escape, as I had him booked into (his/our first experience in) a kennel from today until Sunday; skiing will be day trips closer, so no need to put him in  kennel.

Lastly, dogs and cats. Most dogs and cats go fine together, when they get used to each other. I was somewhat skeptical when a friend of mine with a Rhodesian Ridgeback (at the time) puppy, said that she was going to get a kitten (bearing in mind that puppies tend to be turbo charged and RR were used to hunt lions!)... several years later:

 not only is my friend pinned to the sofa by her animals, but she now has two cats (and no, the Madster hasn't eaten the other one, it's actually the two cats that fight, not the cat and the dog!).

Kin's main experience with cats is having them hiss at him, and to be honest a Newfie is more likely to lose an eye, by being curious to a cat, so I'm careful with him as I consider the cats more dangerous. Karma was friends with a number of cats, Chicken (believe it or not that's the name of the cat in the above picture), was nose to nose with Karma a few times. And he and Xo (another Newfie) used to have Pål's cats sleep on top of them, when he stayed over at Pål's. This led to an incident when arriving at Pål's house, Karma jumped out of the car, saw a cat and ran towards it. Now Karma was used to cats running away from him and chasing them is always a fun game; the cat just sat and waited for Karma (as the cat knew him, so wasn't scared of him), it's quite funny to see a grown Newfie executing an emergency stop! Front paws locked, the ground rippled in front of him and he just about managed to stop. All this time the cat just watched him. Then Karma lent down and with his tongue (that was about as long as the cat was high) give the cat a big lick, which is what knocked the cat over!

Wilson, Kennels, ski-season, old friends, being followed: - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Right now I'm umming and arhing about kennels. I'm looking forward to the ski season, by the weekend there will be enough snow in the local hills for some fantastic top touring/skiing into STF (Stavanger Turistforening) huts, and a friend has invited me to his cabin at one of the bigger 'local' ski centers (Hovden). Friends who made it to Røldal at the weekend talked about 'drømmer forhold' (dream conditions) fresh powder, and lots of it... Now Kin is lying by my feet, he was lying under the table whilst I was sitting at the table, but when I moved he moved; I'm wondering how he will take to being put into a kennel. I've only heard good things regarding this kennel (from both Newfie owners and owners of other dogs). I do have the option of asking friends (which is the preferred option), but at some point I will (probably) have to put him in a kennel and it's probably better to do it whilst he's younger then when he gets older... (Despite the proverb, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but some 'tricks' are easier when they are younger, and if I get him used to the idea it should work out fine).

Above pic is taken by:

Anu, who (along with her husband) are directly responsible for me being in Norway... long story and has nothing to do with Newfie's.

 Now 'sadly' I have to report that 'Wilson' who arrived at the castaway's party, after a surprisingly charmed life, has succumbed to inevitable...


Weather in Stavanger has reverted to the 'normal' winter weather, just above freezing with everything from the occasional glimpse of the sun (which we were very happy for earlier on a walk today), to rain, hail, sleet, & snow. Gulf Stream runs along the coast here which despite the Northern latitude, normally moderates the temperature. Go inland a few Km and the temperature normally drops. With the notable exception of the last two years Stavanger generally gets snow followed by rain, followed by snow, followed by... which leads to 'interesting' driving conditions. Last week's snow has mainly gone at low (coastal) locations and the ice that had/was forming on the lakes has receded again:

(This pic was taken a couple of years ago http://www.aftenbladet.no/lokalt/stavanger/Bil-gjennom-isen-p-Vannassen-2016784.html but couldn't resist including it, it's such a good picture {taken by Signe Christine Urdal}, the way the headlights and the flashing orange lights are still lit! The kommune tests the thickness of the ice, before opening the lakes for ice skating, here they were ploughing the lake for ice skating and the lake wasn't quite as thick as they had thought... two folk in the pickup got out okay).


This means that Kin still gets to do one of his favorite things:

'rescuing' balls (incidentally this ball really is a Wilson!).

Which is more than he got to do at the local river at the weekend, which is probably at the highest I've seen it (I might have seen it higher one year in the ten that I've been walking my dogs down there); Figgio elve was in flood, and as I white water paddle I'm fairly good at spotting dangerous things and here there's lots of opportunities for him to get washed into strainers (low trees across the river, branches/items that are stuck in the flow and these quickly become lethal (pinning is less of a hazard as the water level is so high, that his paws will generally be clear of any pin hazards-but is still a risk). I let him swim but only in a place where there was plenty of time for him to get out/me to get him out before he came to anything really dangerous... was a lot happier when he was out of the water; Karma I just didn't let him near the water on days like this, Kin I'm trying to let him see the power in the flow so if he did get off the lead his choice for swimming locations might be more prudent.

Kin & I have had some very good times recently, I'm just wondering how a kennel might affect him.

Birthday pressies, those difficult teenage years, and drawbacks of snow - Nurhan's Take:

Nurhan's take:

Anu & Scott where the only ones to make a fuss over Kin's first birthday, they bought him a box of dog treats... unfortunately Kin doesn't seem so fussed by treats as Karma used to be. Indeed often pigs ears and other treats get pushed around the floor with his nose:

In fact Kin is getting downright opinionated as a teenager. Most of his behaviour is funny, sometimes it's irritating, and occasionally I have to intervene.

The other evening, Monica,Matt, and their kids paid us a visit. Now Eira is the youngest, and she knows no fear. I think Kin decided to sort out the pecking order:

Video stops when he tried to climb on top. Now despite Kin weighing about three times as much as Eira, she didn't go down... but Kin did, by my hand as although this was rather funny, and Eira was laughing it's not behaviour that I want him to get into the habit of! Shortly after this Eira was pulling Kin back from jumping on the other two kids. It's quite entertaining watching Kin playing with them, as generally he's exemplary gentle, this is the first time he's tried anything like hopping up. Suspect that as this is something he'd do with his litter mates/other dogs he didn't realise that he's not allowed to do this with these small folk. I'd be very surprised if he tries this gag again! (I got him when he was still on his back legs, Eira was still laughing, it's quite hard to gently put a Newfie on his back {and you have to be somewhat careful as you don't want to hurt/injure him}, growled a bit and then let him up. He didn't try this again but he did run when I got near him five minutes later and I suspect that he was thinking that his human had 'lost his marbles'. Our dogs generally trust us, but we do walk a thin line not to abuse the trust).

Now we've had snow, which means that Kin's quite happy bringing as much of it into the house as he can!

Other drawbacks with snow are:

depending on the consistency of the snow and the temperature, it tends to form balls in dogs fur, the furrier the dog the more this tends to be a problem. Here you see the little chap stopped, and he's using his teeth to clear the snow from behind his right leg/paw.  A bigger problem is ice forming between the toes. This is when the snow melts and freezes between his pads, this can cause cuts, and is doubtlessly very painful for the animal. For longer trips I put on a special paraffin product for dogs that stops balling/ice between the pads, for shorter trips I just clear it off when it becomes too bad.

Jury is still out on this last picture:

 With the snow it's easy to figure out where he's been, wondering if this is an attempt to disguise his foot prints... will have to watch this potential development in canine cunning!


Going back to the idea of disciplining your dog; when he runs away he risks all sorts of hazards, he's not used to the human world's hazards, he smells another dog and wants to go say 'hi', not understanding that the road in between could prove fatal as could the farmer with his shot gun. Therefore owners have to modify this behaviour. But when you can't wait for your dog to come back and have to chase him, he then has no clue when he's greeting another dog why you roll him onto his back and growl at him, again he thinks you've gone a wee bit loopy... hmmmm what to do...

Cool lightning storm whilst out this evening, got in just before it let rip with painfully sized hail stones :-)


Lastly I'm umming and arhing with kennels at the mo. Karma was never in a kennel, but then my ex generally took him if I couldn't. A couple of my friends helped out at other times. Kin will be more of an issue. If I go away and I can't relax because of Kin then it's questionable if there is any point in going away. I will have to address these issues shortly as the ski season is about to kick off and I love skiing. I discovered that one of the kennels that I was considering had a dog die the day a friend of mine went to pick up her mother's dog, (twisting of the stomach), of course this can happen at any time, but lots of dogs get stressed when in such environments and thus it's more likely to happen. On the other side of things the younger the dog is when he experiences it the less fussed he should be about it. I can ask a couple of friends who have offered or I can bite the bullet and try a kennel. Two overnight ski trips planned for the next few weeks, will have a think what to do.

First Birthday, Party, Optermism, Domestic Chores:-Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's Take:

Kin is now one year old (as you can see all the partying has tired him out).

Gone are the days when he could sleep under the sofa:

Now he can barely get his nose under there!

He's a bit over 65 kgs (144 lbs). Scale is kind of hard to see from this pic, but when folk see us out they generally say, 'look at that big dog' (most of the time they are referring to Kin).

As with Karma, when he reached one year old he had his first dominance argument. Rudolf was sitting on his head and Rudolf is an Irish Terrier < 20 kgs (44 lbs). Kin decided that he really should stand up, and sort this out... and so started his first dominance 'fight'. No harm done on either side. Rudolf is 11 years old and is used to Kin knowing his place (and surprisingly this was the first time Rudolf has staked this claim!). Karma's first time was defending his pal Xo when Xo provoked a fight with a Huskie/German Shepard mix in Bergen; Karma for the first time of many stepped in as a 'policeman' to stop any further shanangins. Now I'm really hoping that this is how Kin will develop. Having a huge dog who has a tendency towards dominance is not conducive to a relaxing life, so now he's in his 'teens' I'm going to have to watch his development carefully.

On his birthday he was allowed to go in any water he wanted to, which meant that a trip via the local lake was  required to rinse the muck off again!

And obviously now he's sooooooo grown up, he wants a say in where we go on our trips:

Here he's quite happy as he has the illusion of control. (Who's taking who for a walk?!)

 Kin wasn't so convinced with the idea of a party. He did come in and wonder about a bit, but was happiest when the back door was open and he could watch the goings on from this location:

You can just about make out his tongue framed in the door. Party had a theme, which was castaways. Idea is that this theme is easy to do and it breaks the ice between different groups of friends. Some did, many didn't.

Back stories were deemed important. One of the best back stories was by someone who definitely wasn't dressed as a castaway, her's was, "yes, we've just moored the yacht offshore and I had James, bring me across in the launch!"

Now Karma was four years old when I had the last party. He's in most of the pics an he didn't stop socialising until the last person had left (okay Svein slept over, but Karma was used to Svein). When the door closed Karma's job was done, and he went straight to sleep!

It's surprising how different Karma and Kin are. Then again Karma & I lived together for nine years, and Karma had obviously calmed right down in his old age. How much of what he did when he was younger have I forgotten and how much will Kin change as he reaches maturity. He seemed a bit spooked by having so many folk in the house, and really not comfortable; Karma in the same circumstances was completely comfortable but Karma was three years older than Kin and doubtlessly more secure because of those years. Still it's hard not to compare the two.

But like Karma before him,  Kin remains very interested in wood, and this picture demonstrates how optimistic I can be (when I have no choice as the places out of his reach are now filled to capacity). You can probably tell from his expression that he's unlikely to leave this wood alone and so far he hasn't. I need to add substantial amounts of wood (birch) here if I am to have enough for next winter, also need to build a roof over it, if it is to dry out.

Now Karma was highly skeptical of the hoover - and how you see Kin above would not have happened with Karma. Retrospectively thinking I may be partly to blame for this. One day I was hoovering, and my thoughts went along these lines:
-I need to hoover so often because of Karma,
-why don't I just hoover Karma, and save hoovering the rest of the house...
and thus a phobia was born! When the hoover came out, Karma was straight to the back door (I spent many-er hour trying to reverse that bit of high jinx with Karma, pigs ears on the running hoover, all to no avail!).

Kin I have been much more careful of and I'm not sure which is better, as with Kin hoovering can be quite a challenge:

Indeed, he's so blase regarding the hoover that you can even do this:

Sadly you still have to hoover the floors so this didn't prove the labour saving device that I'd dreamt of!

And don't even get me started on how difficult it is to shake out a rug when he's about:

Idiosyncrasies:-Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Picture is from an aborted paragliding trip - too much wind to fly. Kin is lying in the corner of the room whilst I type this and he's snoring soooooooo loudly that I've had to turn the stereo up or I can't hear it! How come when dogs snore it's cute, but the same doesn't apply to humans!

The large hounds (Great Danes, Irish Wolf Hounds, Scottish Deer Hounds,...) lean. They come up to you and then kind of flop sideways onto you; as they have a high center of gravity and can be up in the 70 kgs region this can have quite an effect on your balance if you're not expecting it. Maybe lots of dogs lean, but you wouldn't really notice it with a terrier! Kin pushes his bum into you, this is owing to the fact that he wants you to scratch it and this seems to be the most direct way to get humans to do his tidings! This facet he shared with Karma.

What he doesn't share is nose butting!

When he wants something he butts it with his nose. He's taken to getting your attention by butting you in the leg/bum and then going up to his leads and butting them. He repeats this cycle until you either tell him to stop or take him out. Now if you think about this a bit, he's 65 kgs (145 lbs) and his nose is in line with his body, so he can get a lot of weight behind it (think police using a battering ram down at waist height, and you are on the right lines!). Lots of folk think that the bigger the dog the harder the job of looking after them. This is mainly a myth but one area where this is undoubtedly true is ignoring them! If a terrier did this to you, you'd just  lift your legs, but it's not so easy with a giant breed with attitude (Kin really does know his own mind but he's a big softy and getting more and more obedient - strange the more we train the more obedient he gets, it's almost like there is a connection here!).

The back door gets this treatment when he wants to go out, s does the front door when he wants to go for a trip. His food bowl gets the same treatment! If it's been left on the floor then he chases it around the floor with his nose, if it's in the rack then the rack gets a 'good' nose butting! And treats in your pockets are by no means exempt from this behaviour!

Doubtless I could get him to stop this if I tried, but it's endearing so I don't want to.

And whilst on the subject of idiosyncrasies, here's a picture of Mel, Rob (of the Eagle flying with Jostein's HG, fame - see earlier post), & Kin. We were checking out the conditions to see if it was possible to fly, notice the large amount of gortex in this picture, wind is oscillating over 7 m/s and the temperature is a balmy 4 degrees C (23 feet/second, 39 deg F). Now Norwegians are famous for wearing sandals and socks... (Mel's Canadian).


Post script note:
To be fair to Rob, it's not unusual in Norway to wear socks and sandals (especially in the office) as it's more comfortable and often you think that you are just nipping out the car for twenty metres or so an find yourself  an hour later still walking through boggy ground... But the full on gortex look, with sandals was just too good an invite not to make fun of!!!

Stair-Master, More Wood, Winter? - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Winter paid a visit. Temperature down below freezing, frost on the ground, puddles frozen over, lakes above 100 m (over sea level) with a layer of thin ice, some of the ski centers were looking at starting the snow machines (they did on the other side of the country and three of the centers are opening this weekend). Today the temperature went up by seven degrees centigrade, the wind kicked in and the rain returned. As most of our electricity in this area is generated by hydro-electric power, it means that the electricity should be cheap when there is a lot of rain, sadly this isn't the case as Norway is part of a European energy agreement which means that they sell the electricity abroad, and then when the lakes are  low (mid winter) they then buy back electricity at a high price that is then passed onto the consumers, added to that they increased the 'base rate' for having electricity dramatically.

Thus:

Wood for the winter (next winter, needs one year to dry and has to be cut before Easter, to be used that winter). This and the wood piled alongside the garage is what one ten meter high ash tree looks like when split the traditional way (with an axe). And did my forearms, and shoulders realise something was different! But there is something very satisfying about splitting wood the old fashioned way.

Now ideally Kin should have been sitting out of the way:

But being a Newfie, he likes to be helpful:

And he had his own special way of 'assisting' with the wood stacking:

I think his theory is that if he spreads the wood over the largest area possible then surely it will dry quicker!

All this shifting wood makes him tired, especially when returning to the house, so he likes to have  lie down, and it's quite difficult getting a 65 kg pup moving again. Here you get to see his reflexive jacket, and one of the two bicycle lights (red to port, & green to starboard). He managed to go swimming with them on last night and they still worked afterwards! They were completely immersed in water and have suffered no ill effects... Just to put this in perspective these lights cost 79 NOK for two, my Petzl head torch cost 890 NOK and it would not have survived that treatment!

This is the high point reached on the stairs; Kin's got quite good at getting to this point. He then performs a 37 point turn on the narrowest part of the stairs.

before heading back down the stairs (incidentally if you look at the stairs, the brown strip is sealant, after varnishing the stairs, I made a groove in them, put masking tape either side of the grove, put sealant in the grove, scraped the sealant flat, and then removed the masking tape, this gives a resistance strip so you don't slip on the varnished stairs and was originally done so Karma (my last Newfie) would have purchase when going down the stairs).

Today Kin got further:

And with a treat on the upstairs landing:

He then spent the next fifteen minutes in this position (as obviously turning around on the landing is scary, where as doing a 37 point turn on the stairs is easy...).

Finally he came all the way up. I have clothes drying in one room, a paragliding drying in another, so these doors were closed, so he only had the bathroom and my bedroom to inspect... oh how I've missed muddy face prints on my white sheets! Apparently my bed smells of me!

I tried to show him how to come down the stairs by 'walking' down on hands and knees. Try this, in this orientation the stairs really do seem steep, and blimey is it sore on the knees! I waited 30 minutes before he attempted the arduous journey down... but he did eventually come down! We were on the way out on a walk before this all happened, but I had to go upstairs again before leaving; not only did he follow me up, but he followed me down as well, with hardly any hesitation. Progress :-)