Strange things human's do - Kin:

Kin's take:

My human seems to be a bit slow, but after almost two weeks of trying, I persuaded him to take me to the 'dog' woods again. And I'm not sure how, but I managed to get him to go off the big paths and into the woods this time!

Met lots of dogs to play with, but it's a real hassle keeping track of your human... go off to play with some hot bitch for awhile, and your human is gone! A couple of times he'd managed to get himself stuck behind a tree and I had to sniff him out... still he seems none the worse for the experience!

I've also noticed that he doesn't seem to do so much exercise, so I've invented a new game... he fills the wood storage by the fire and then I go and take the wood piece by piece, to my bed and he has to come and take them back again. He's getting quite good at this, I'm going to have to think of new games to play with him!

I've now discovered jumping and going up on my back paws. Can't think why I didn't think of this before! It brings sooooo many new things into range. Now I can get right in my human's face... Although he doesn't seem to have quite the same pleasure in this new achievement as I have!

This appears to be just as well, as despite, I keep biting him, he hasn't noticed that I have these sharp teeth, because I am a carnivore designed to eat meat... sometimes he gives me really strange things to eat... Although this was kind of tasty, like chewy, sweet water...

We were on a walk today, and it's almost like he purposely went out of his way to meet these small, noisy people, on some form of punishment duty no doubt (at least they had two much bigger people telling them what to do). Was a bit apprehensive about meeting them all, but here's a top tip for other puppies... the more scared you pretend to be, the more ham you will get... unfortunately, I think my human twigged this as I started going up to these strange miniature humans... hopefully he'll have forgotten the next time we met such little people!

Wk8- Meaning of Life... Nurhan:

Nurhan's take:

First things first, Newfies like to be helpful (to the extent that if you ever have a break in, they will probably help to carry the stuff out - However, you really don't want to see a giant breed dog, angry. Despite Karma listening to me, if he didn't like someone who was coming towards you, he'd stand between you and them and keep an eye on them, and good luck if you think that you were going to relocate him onto the 'down-threat' side.), here’s Kin moving wood away from the fire...

 So he’s got it ½ right!!!

 He's also met his first Newfie (after leaving the breeders), at Åsen. Kin's on the ground, the Newfie here is almost seven months old and has the (unlikely) name of "Boss"... this is unlikely as 'boss' is Stavanger slang for rubbish, so I really am hoping that I heard his name wrong.

Kin likes to leave his mark...

And who say's giant breeds need a lot of room... here he is wrapped around a table leg (and above his willy is a painting of Karma on the wall... the walls in my living room have a slightly different paint scheme to that, normally found in Norwegian households).

Here's a picture of Kin (four months old) with Oscar (the second) {six months old}. Now Oscar (the first) was a similar size to Oscar (the second), but completely different temperament; every time he saw Karma, he'd be up on his back legs, straining against the lead, the very image of the dangerous pittbull, ahout to eat a child,  that people have in the back of their minds. Karma, invariably off the lead, would nonchalantly stroll by and pay no heed whatsoever. The times that they did both meet off the leads, Oscar was a wee bit more respectful of Karma's size (one of Karma's paws was the same size as Oscar!). Oscar died ~ six months before Karma, and Oscar (the second) and Kin, seem to have started their relationship significantly better!

I've just been interrupted by two Jehovis Witnesses (from Cameroon), who have just knocked on the back door... now in order to do this, they have had to go past the front door, and through two gates... you have to admire their persistence!

Kin had his first vet visit (with me). And he was remarkably unfussed. This trait he shared with Karma (my last Newfie).

The first vet he met (with me), was also the last vet that Karma met. Thinking back to that day still brings tears to my eyes.

The day after I lost my father, I had a vet call, where the vet said that, “I shouldn’t plan on buying Karma Christmas presents.” Karma outlived this prediction by seven good months. But the loss of my father and the loss of Karma are intimately linked in my mind; and time has done little to sooth the pain.

I do wonder about vets. I like Tu; and they were very good for Karma, but the above prediction did come from a vet there, and they are in Bryne (35 minute drive). The above picture is taken at Stavanger Smådyr klinikk. Jury is still out as to which vets should be Kin’s regular. Although if he is ever unlucky enough to require surgery, then Tu will rate highly in the rankings.

We are all the product of our own experiences, and (to a large extent) we control the experiences that our dogs encounter; which I am going to use as an excuse to ramble off in another direction that is only loosely associated with this blog.

Losing loved ones causes some of us (read me) to ask the basic questions that have no definitive answers: “Why are we here?” “What’s life all about?” “What’s the point?” Some folk don’t appear to ever ask these questions, the rest of us learn to make our own peace with these ideas, until an event comes about that focuses the mind on such things. Time does tend to allow these questions to dissipate into the background and lose their bitter sharpness. I suspect, that the truth is, everyone finds the point to continue, or distractions from these questions.

Dogs exist in the moment... whilst training Kin, behaviour has to be addressed at the time of occurrence, otherwise the little chap doesn’t have a squoobies why I am reacting. Past, and future, do not figure large in their lives. They doubtless remember situations and people, but they don’t dwell on such things. Now is their keyword. For better or worse, humans don’t have this option.

Life is a tenuous commodity. It doesn’t take much to snuff it out. This was exemplified recently by an event that occurred locally (that I've been dwelling on). The Thursday before last, a couple with their grand-child found a dead skier, under drifted snow. It took some time for searches to piece together the gist of what happened. Two further bodies were found within 600 m of the first. 

(Each square in the above map is 1kmX1km, the people with a circle round them are where the bodies were found, sources, map, Sirdalsheiane Turkart 1:50 000, body placement, Stavanger Aftenbladet, Saturday the 19th of Feb. Red lines on the map are summer walking routes, blue dotted lines are the winter routes were it's safe to ski over the lakes. The summer routes are marked by red "T"s painted onto rocks, the winter ones are marked {at certain times of the year} with branches placed vertically into the snow).

A fourth person is now known to be missing. These four set out from a turistforening hut {Taumevatn} (http://www.stavanger-turistforening.no/trail.php?tr_code=ryf31v) to ski into another one nearby, on the Sunday before their bodies were found. There is no record of them having arrived at the next hut (you write yourselves into the hut book). Everything, (other than were the bodies were found) is conjecture. 

It looks like they turned back at some point in the day owing to very strong winds; and tried to retrace their steps back to the cabin that they had skied out from. In order to do this they probably skied right by a private cabin. The first body was found 600 m from this cabin, and all three of the bodies found so far, were within 2 kms of the cabin that they left from. The fourth person has not been found; and it is suspected that he’s been buried under so much snow that he now won’t be found for several months until the snow melts. These four were all related in some manner and were all visitors to Norway. Now strangely for Norwegian newspapers, they have not been criticised for being ill equipped, or lacking experience. Yet some train of events led to their deaths within short distances from refuge in three different directions (three cabins on the edge of the lake that they were found on). The question in my mind is HOW did they get into such a situation that they could not reach one of these three cabins.

Conditions change rapidly in the mountains:

This picture is taken two years ago by David. Normally we don't take pictures in bad conditions as we are too focused on getting to a safe location. This is a picture of me, ~ 200 m higher than where the car is parked and within 600 m of the car. We were out skiing in good weather and noticed a solid wall of cloud coming up the valley. Within 20 minutes the weather went from clear visibility to a biting wind and visibility down to five metres (we know this area well, so were never in any real danger - added to that on my back I have a 'daysack' with stove, shelter, shovel, food, extra clothes, and other 'goodies', as has David, to ensure that survival shouldn't be an issue... could be unpleasant, but not questionable for survival).

Between Christmas and New Year we skied into Blåfjell. Little wind in the valleys, but as we topped the highest part of the route (900 m) we were being blown over. At this point we had to get head torches out, my hands (despite never taking off liner gloves), got painfully cold. We had to drop over the edge out of the wind before David, helped me warm my hands up. Even then the next 100 m of descent I skied very poorly... It doesn't take much to set the body out of whack. Between Christmas and New Year of 2005-2006, we were trying to come out of this cabin in bad weather (high winds), and after three hours (the whole route normally takes this long), we were still within two km of the cabin and it was obvious we wouldn't make it back to the road before nightfall. Given the conditions we turned around and went back to the cabin... Happy New Year!!! We found out the next day that we'd been reported missing and had a Sea King Helicopter hovering over the cabin at 22:00 hrs, they decided that we were probably okay and in the cabin, we for our part never heard the helicopter, we were told the next day!

The above stories are used to illustrate that normally you have options. But nothing destroys resolve as high winds... Forget Gortex, only walls help in that case... BUT... how could they not have got to one of the three cabins or dug themselves in (maybe they had and were trying to get to a cabin some days afterwards)? Even had they lost their map, and the GPS they had didn't have the huts programmed in, they would know they were on the lake; follow the lake around and with a compass you can tell where on the lake you are, you'd find the cabins (there are no other lakes close enough to confuse with). At what point was the decision that led to their inevitable deaths? Or did they get onto the ice and the weather ratcheted it up another level and none of us could have survived?

Yet when I am out in nature, I feel happier... thus the t-shirts that you see folk wearing, "A bad day  in the mountains/on the water, is better than a good day in the office!" (Which is undoubtedly true, only up to a point...). We are not designed to sit in offices and work on computers all day (types he ironically on his laptop)...

(

The above pic, from left to right, is me, Svein, & David, in great conditions, which is just to offset all the gloom and doom and try to illustrate why we go up...

This pic is 30 minutes after leaving the car, to ski into Tommansbu only using moonlight (we didn't need the head torches until we were in the cabin!)

This is the next day, taking an extended top tur, on the way back to the car and good luck figuring out the circumstances for this pic...

Not to mention that cross country skiing is (possibly) the best form of cardiovascular exercise and if the conditions are good, then the downhill runs are fantastic...

This pic was a top tur when I had the choice of go alone or not go at all... Despite skiing very carefully, the above pic shows a downhill run with 22 linked, continuous turns... and yes my ski tracks ARE THE ONLY ONES ON THIS HILL :-)

Some year's even road crossings are an adventure. Here we are at a road. We had to dig a ramp down on one side and here I am digging steps to get across on the other side, in between cars going by... The others are waiting on the snow on the other side along with the skis, poles, and sacks... Shouting the occasional encouragement like, "CAR!!!"

And here's Karma, when about 18 months old, enjoying a ski trip:

{Music seemed soooo appropriate. Music is D'lay, Going Wild}
)

Just to complicate things a bit more, I'll mention a book/Norwegian film, about Jan Baalstrud. The British book is called, "We Die Alone", the Norwegian film is called, "Ni Liv". He comes over on a fishing boat from the Shetlands, engaged on espionage activities. The come to Troms (North Norway, way inside the Arctic circle) in March 1943.They are betrayed and a German gun boat attacks them. He's the only survive and escapes wet, without boots. He then swims through the ice, between two islands (now any survival 'expert' will tell you that this is not possible... you would die... not to mention he should already be so hypothermic that he couldn't swim {I've tried swimming 50 m in ice water, I lost all co-ordination (and probably couldn't have swam another ten metres to land), and spent 40 minutes in a shower waiting for pulse to come down into double figures}. He walks across an island and finally finds good Norwegians to help him. He gets a pair of skis and tries fleeing to Sweden (with no map just a a vague route description). The German's are still searching for him.  The weather turns bad, he gets avalanched in a snow storm. Loses clothes, skis, poles, goggles, yet somehow doesn't die. Eventually he gets to a place where more good Norwegians (by 'good' it means not collaborators with the Germans), help him. By now he's frost bitten and blind (snow blindness). Eventually they get him up onto a high mountain plateau, where they pay Laplanders to take him to Sweden... BUT they don't come, and a storm comes in. Several days later they go up thinking he must be dead, and can't find him. In fact one of them gets disabilited because of the cold and they have to turn back. On the second attempt the find him, dig him out and he's still alive. This happens a second time, and finally the Laplanders turn up. There is some more drama and excitement and then he's in hospital in Sweden. The only permanent damage is the loss of all ten toes to frost bite (which he removes while trapped on the Arctic tundra!). 

Life can be fragile and life can be inexplicably strong...

All I can say is that I am enjoying my life now with Kin!

Wk7- Nurhan:

Nurhan's take:

First of all a 'hearty thanks' to the folk at Panda antivirus... I am writing this on my work laptop, mainly owing to the fact that my big (slow, but good screen) laptop, has a virus on it as the Panda antivirus 'decided' to up grade itself, and leave the computer un-protected whilst it didn't manage to do this, my fliptop (which I normally write this blog on), was upgraded and then wouldn't connect the internet. I've wasted several hours on this and am now right royally (insert appropriate expletive) off with Panda... Arh and the help function, it takes longer to use this then to fly to China to get a new laptop... Now in my opinion, you should not notice your antivirus protection, it should just work... you pay money, it works... This is probably the last year that I use Panda (I was also less than impressed that they ran a credit check on me when I renewed the order... more time wasted checking out who was checking me out and why... if I don't pay the bill, then they don't send me the product... how hard can this be)... so if you are looking for antivirus protection on your computer... don't pick Panda!

Right, now I've got that rant and rave out the way... our week (Kin, after being in 'terrorist mode' is now sleeping, so I have to update this weeks log...)

Firstly at the beginning of the week the little chap was 14.5 kgs.

Kin's probably a bit young to play ice Frisbee... Still he was interested...

Kin is having problems understanding that his place is floor level... we're working on this...

Even though he has a new bed cover:

Now, Kin has inherited Karma's old bed, but being a puppy his bladder doesn't last the night... and the bed gets it... Now Karma's bed is a 1/4 cut down, human adult mattress with a .made nylon cover, and a second cover was required.

There's a shop in Stavanger that sells cloth, and the woman who runs it also has her own clothing line and she tailor makes clothes for people: http://www.studiofeline.no/index.html I like creative folk, but whilst I was in there, explaining what I wanted she pointed out that she'd met Karma several times... Sometimes I'm certain I don't recognise my own reflection, but when she mentioned it, I twigged who she was. Karma and I had met her, her partner, and her two dogs quite often at Bråstein. They also lost their red setter in July last year.

(red one is the new cover, the black one is the old... both doing sterling service).

Although he still retains his terrier tendencies:

Obviously last Sunday was the weekly Bråstein trip, where we walked as far as the first cross roads (~300 m... and back...) okay it took a bit over an hour...

Then instead of his Sunday bath, he ended up being mauled by Matt's kids (Eira, & Issac):

He wasn't too helpful, when we had to clear snow from the driveway... but being a Newfie, he loves the snow.

He was curious when it first arrived.

In puppy class we practised contact exercises. Unfortunately puppy class coincided with a sleep cycle... Now the last exercise was walking around and seeing if your dog would follow you or wander off... I mentioned that I'd probably have to carry Kin, if I wanted him to 'follow' me... Still had to try... Everyone else walked 50 m away and then their puppy was released and all of them did wonderfully well. There was an German Shepard, who has this fantastic tail... that's longer than the rest of the dog!!! Anyway with Kin I walked ten metres away... he lifted his heavy, sleepy head and then went back to sleep mode... I'm sure that the class was mightily impressed at my new tactic...   I lay flat on the floor and shouted "bed time". Over Kin came and lay on my stomach! Very cute, and this class is gooooooood.

Kin, in a sleep cycle... we have sleep and we have 'terrorist without agenda' cycles... Don't be fooled by the eyes, they are about to close.

When in terrorist mode, he pulled an envelope that had got stashed away, down and I found this year's Newfie calendar and the last Newfie magazine... which had a great pic on the cover!

The pic with the dishwasher was from last year's Newfie calendar... this must have been taken by someone who was being visited, as there is no way a Newfie owner would let a puppy do this, as then the adult dog, all 75 kgs of him would expect to be able to do this...

Karma on the left, Kin on the right, three years in between, but the food is still kept on this side of the door... and look is similar! (Although the scale isn't correct... Kin is currently ~1/4 of the size that Karma was in this pic {look at the door hinge on the left to get the idea}).

Kin had has first trip to the beach:

 Here he is with two of his favourite toys, Maddie to the left and Ingvild to the right...

Now with giant breeds you have to be careful on beaches. Karma tore his cruiate ligament on the beach, he was playing with a smaller dog, (when Karma was two years old), the smaller dog was doing sharp turns, Karma extended his leg, but the sand didn't give him purchase and his ligament broke... As I now know how this happens I'm being careful with Kin, but as the sand was frozen, happily there were no worries regarding loose surface.

He was somewhat tired when we got back to the car:

But another first was that he and Maddie shared the back of the car together and she didn't eat him!

Now today (Sunday) should have been another Bråstein day, but selflessly, I left Kin at Ingvild's, with her and Madie; so that he could get used to being with other folk. It was naturally purely coincidental that today was an absolutely stunning day. Minus something or other, little wind, and glorious sunshine... so as I 'had to' be without Kin for a few hours, I went flying at Veraland (~22 min drive from SVG):

Now 'because' I don't have a tandem licence, I can't take Kin with me:

Although there are plenty of folk that do...

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2011/01/kui-the-paragliding-dog/

Not much phases a Newfie, but I don't think Kin would be impressed by this, and Karma joined me on my paragliding intro course and I am fairly certain that the look in his eyes was him trying to say, "what kind of silliness is this! There's all this great ground to sniff, and you have to go off galavanting up there... I'm just going to ignore you and go to sleep, wake me up once the silliness has ended..."

Other noteworthy thing this week is the little chap is up to being alone for four hours, as far as I can tell without any issues.

My week - Kin

Kin's take:

I try very hard to be sooooo cute that my human will spend every minute with me, but for some reason he seems impervious to my desires...

Still, he takes me to some interesting places... this place had folks to play with and lots of treats/goodies... Although after 30 minutes, I did have to keep an eye on my owner as he headed back to the car with lots of goodies that he'd got from here... this was a fun place and I can't wait to go back and visit my friends again.

( www.lagerzoo.no - good petshop, very helpful/knowledgeable staff).

Spent considerable time planning on how to defeat the dastardly gates that keep springing up in my way...

But not too much as I need to have some time to stretch out.

and play in the snow...

Also checking out property... yep, like this, think I'll take it...

Training-highs-lows-surprises... Nurhan

Nurhan's take:

On Monday, on Ingvild's recommendation, Kin and I found ourselves at Lager Zoo (Hestnesvn 8, 4043 Hafrsfjord - http://www.lagerzoo.no/). Not only were they helpful and knowledgeable in this shop, but they also had a 4 month old French bulldog, and a Portuguese water dog, running around the shop. Kin went off to play and it felt to me like how you would leave your kids in a kindergarten as the three of them went off to play, whilst the 'adults' did business.

I asked about puppy classes and they had very positive recommendations regarding: Malmins Hundekurs http://www.malminshundekurs.net/ Got in contact with Marit, and there was a course starting this Wednesday... so we joined that. Now the course is organised with a three hour theory session at Marit's house on the Wednesday, followed by a 1 on 1 hour with Marit, her husband, and her 3 year old lab bitch, and obviously Kin and I where they introduce the basics (which I'll recap lower down to help me remember them). And then joint classes with all participants and their puppies starting next Wednesday evening out at Foss Eikeland.So far I have been very impressed with the course, Marit, & her husband. Course costs 1900 kr, which includes course notes and a book '100% Positiv Hverdagslydighet' (100% Positive Everyday Obedience).

Yesterday was a low point for Kin and I... lots of battles, puppy biting, trying to climb on the sofa, stealing things, appearing to try to dominate much older dogs, growling, pushing boundaries... and generally being a little s...

I came up with the plan of taking him out to burn off some of this energy... that wasn't a complete success. I carried him to the local footy pitch, from here he normally follows me home again... but that's when it's light... the darkness freaked him out and he went and hid in the bottom of a hedgerow... hmmmmmm, that wasn't the plan! He relaxed when I picked him up again (who say's 'walking' with a Newfie puppy isn't good exercise!!! And then completely relaxed/went back into to terrorist mode when I brought him into the back garden.

Spoke to Ingvild on the phone, by now I was somewhat frustrated with the little chap. Ingvild pointed out that we were both having a bad day and pointed out a story when the Madster was younger, Ingvild came in from work to find that she'd been into the book shelve and taken down photo albums and eaten/ripped up lots of the photos, most of which were irreplaceable and some were of her father who passed away some years ago... this was a very low point... but then she noticed the three elephants that stood on the shelve... they were all in place, but the largest was missing it's face... She wondered how the dickens Maddie had managed to remove the face but the elephant was exactly where it should be, her tears turned to incredulous laughter... We all have better and worse times while we are trying to learn our animals and they us... The trick is not to take it personally.

Today Kin and I have had our 'one on one' session with Marit. This was noteworthy for several reasons, the main one of which was that Kin met a five month old Golden retriever puppy... the notable thing about this was, he's 'Fjodolf', named after Karma's father and he's Shannon's new puppy. Now Shannon and I were together when we got Karma, and she's the one person I can really talk to regarding Karma, as she shared much of his life with me. It was surprisingly emotional meeting her, but there was a completeness about it as she compared him to how Karma was when he was the same age...

What Kin and I learn't in ('one on one') puppy class today:
- don't bend down when calling your pup;
- when he looks up at you, complement him and give him a treat (idea is that he'll look up at you to see what's going on);
- have play toys that are used for training only;
- use meat as treats for training (i.e. left over meats, sausages,...);
- use the best treats outside, when the distractions are greater;
- use play and treats, not just treats, so the little chap doesn't know what's coming next and always has to keep an eye on you;
- hold the palm of your hand out, when your pup touches his nose to your hand then give him a treat, if he doesn't touch your hand straight away, then put your hand behind your back and try the exercise again;
- certain toys make better training aids. Let him chase a toy along the floor, make certain he catches it (or he'll get bored); then if he lets it go, run away, so he chases you and either swap the toy for a treat or let him get the toy again;
- don't take a toy away from him without offering him something else;
- and keep an eye on him as eventually he'll get tooooooooo tired to do anything... quit whilst you are 'ahead'.

Marit and Jan-Inge are also 'big' on using clickers... Now I have a problem with the clicker, I want my dog to react to me, not a clicker that I have to bring everywhere. Marit see the clicker as something to re-enforce what you are doing with the pup... But she won't force me to use one... but she did give me a clicker, "because it has her number on the back, if I should happen to want to call because I'm going to be late for the puppy class..." Why do I get the feeling that I'm being 'played' like a dog! I wonder... should I give it a try...

Bråstein & Baths... Nurhan

Today Kin and I were at Bråstein:

And before anyone thinks that Kin has grown, and the temperature has strayed significantly above freezing, this is Karma, & I taken (by Pål Tunge) in August 2008. Sometimes folk had difficulty passing Karma on paths... not sure why...

Kin and I stood at this corner today meeting, greeting, and socialising. Now Karma and I went regularly to Bråstein, and today Kin and I met many folk who knew Karma. Atlas's owner (he's a lovely Leonberger) made a fuss of Kin and welcomed him, (in fact most people made a fuss over him). The thing I have in common with these folk is our dogs, and there was genuine warmth as folk stopped to talk.

We met a ten year old Leonberger, who was lovely, with an older couple, I can only imagine what they are feeling as their loved one's life draws to an inevitable conclusion; they were enjoying the time they had, which is all any of us can do.

Kin and I are getting on well. Lot's of contact and this week he comes back to me. Here he is meeting two St Bernards, (he met three in all this trip... no Newfies yet...).

We even managed to walk all the way back from this corner to the car.

Back at home I'd decided it was bath time... Now the main suggestion that I'd had for making bath time better for the little chap, was, to sing to him... I was somewhat sceptical to this suggestion and opted for a tub of roast beef:

I also opted to have water in the bath, wear shorts and get in with him...

I don't think that he found the singing particularly reassuring, however he was highly appreciative of the roast beef!

This week the bath went well, he was a lot happier.

Now to see if I could use the same trick with the air dryer...

Started with the dryer, him running to get the roast beef then running away. Then to calm things down a bit we used towels:

and then we went back to the air dryer...

All in all, substantially more successful than last week's attempt.

According to my scales of dubious accuracy, Kin weighs the same this week as he did last Sunday, 11 kgs.

Shampoo used is (and I'm guessing this has to be an American brand) Griminator! The folk who run Hund1 (http://www.hund1.no/) also have Newfies. Now my breeder recommended Hund1 and the shampoo 'Emerald Black'. I rang Hund1 and they said that they tend to use Griminator as it's effect tended to be longer lasting and this is the brand they tend to sell most of to Newfie owners... Now years ago when Xo would get wet, black would run from his coat owing to the Shampoo that Pål used to use on him, and their were allegations of dog dyeing! So Griminator is what Kin and I are using (and judging by the size of the bottle, will be using for the next four years!).