Digging master classes, Chamonix, Grooming, and the results of Dog Yoga - Nurhan's take

Nurhan's take:

Don't they look innocent, neither one is paying any attention to the basket ball, that you can only see the top of, on what used to be a flat, green lawn! Zorro (in the foreground) has been conducting digging 'master classes' in the garden, what he lacks (by comparison to Kin) in size of digging apparatus (paws) he more than makes up for with enthusiasm. Kin merely moves the soil from the hole with his huge paws (and he likes to store plenty of it in his fur to deposit in areas where it won't be 'noticed' - such as the house...), but Zorro goes at the digging with wild abandonment; the soil arcing, gracefully up in the air, to the height of several Zorro's; this causes Kin to come over and watch as it's quite a spectacle! So when one happens to glance out of the window, it looks for all the world that Zorro is holding a Master Class and Kin is paying attention...


To give the grass a chance, I'm in the process of building a fence around the patio, so I can keep him on the patio for two weeks and let the grass grow!


Now 'every' year, we have a boy's trip to Chamonix; I've missed this trip twice since 1993, once as I was offshore, and once last year as Kin had just come to live with me and this was in his most formative age.

This year I was back. Now this is the only photo I took whilst I was there. This is a reasonably steep off piste section and my legs have melted. Over the years we've taken photos, we've taken video, and it never reflects what we actually ski, gradient, speed, feelings wise, so this year we mainly didn't bother to take pics... but we did come up with the Vole grading system; it's a well know phenomena with skiing, that when a person makes a jump they invariably think that their jump can be measured in meters, when realistic measuring the jump by the standard height of a Vole (or fraction there of) is a more realistic measure, and thus the vole grading system was invented! We had amazing weather. There was plenty of snow (which was good, as it didn't snow at all whilst we were there); but we had temperatures below freezing at night but by lunch time at 2000 m, temperature was up around 16 deg C with no wind, so t-shirts sitting outside in the sun having lunch :-) (and bragging about how many Vole's, Simon, Svein, and I were claiming).


Now Kin, although a boy, wasn't up for coming on this boy's trip. I had this conversation with per:


"Per, don't just answer this question, think about it and give me a ring back in a couple of days: You said that you wouldn't mind looking after Kin, if I go away, well I'm going to Chamonix in week 9 can you..."


'Yes'


"He's a lot of hassle, and he'll eat things."


'Yes'


"Are you sure."


'Yes'


It was with very mixed feelings that I dropped Kin off at Per's; not because I was worried about Per looking after Kin (he's had dogs before, he's known Kin from when I picked him up - Kin, not Per! And he cooked liver for Kin when I dropped him off!) But the longest I've left him before was overnight.


Per and Kin got on really well. When Svein, and I swung round on the way home from the airport, Per had moved the patio heater into the living room, so that he could have the patio door open so Kin could saunter in and out at will!


Kin had gone to bed when we dropped round:

Now Karma would jump up an be all over me when I came back from Chamonix, offshore, or elsewhere. Xo (another Newfie, that a friend, Pål had), would sulk and turn his back on Pål (which is only hilarious, if it's not your dog). Kin was somewhere in between, I think he had an internal battle over being peeved that I'd left him, but happy that I'd come back!


Really grateful to Per for looking after the little chap, and treating him so well - thanks again Per.




At the moment Kin is molting:

this pile is literary five minutes with a brush! Karma shed the whole year round. So far Kin's shed the whole year round but now he's having a major molt. He did lose his puppy coat way early (Karma got his adult coat at about the age Kin is now); so I'm wondering if this is a one off molt to do with the puppy coat coming so early, or if he will molt once or twice a year.


In February, with snow on the ground, and ice on the lakes, I took two ticks off him! Never found ticks before in such conditions. Took one off him today, so have put the tick drops on him today - this is several weeks earlier than normal.




We've also been looking at cabins, we actually bid on the one, who's roof I'm standing on - but didn't get it.

Kin has taken up dog yoga:

 Not sure if the furniture is required for this position, but judging by the snoring this is (surprisingly) a comfortable position - one he managed to hold, right up until I took this opportunity to try to groom his stomach and the inside of his back legs...




The weather has taken a turn for the better with several good weather days, which means flying. Some of the flying sites Kin can come to. This is coast hang at Reve.

 At the local clubs main flying place, Gjesdal, he's normally tied up next to the club house, most of the regular pilots know him and keep an eye on him, if not take him for walks. Here May is holding him (hat, with back to camera), Arvid (Mr President), is to her left, Dag is behind, and Per (who looked after him for a week, so he gets a special welcome, which they both enjoy) is behind Kin looking at his phone - and yes they are all standing in the middle of the road! 

Me, I'm packing my wing up... I landed close to the fence that's on the edge of the green behind them, lovely landing right next to the steps... lovely that is until Arvid took great delight in telling me how the fertilizer spreader (i.e. cow crap) had gone very slowly up the road yesterday, and that's what the lovely smell was! 

B-Person, & How to Make your Human Feel Useful - Kin's take:

Kin's take:

Now I'm definitely more of a 'B' type 'person'. Here I am trying to snooze whilst my human is trying to get me out on a trip, at some un-godly hour. Try as I might I can't convince him to go back to bed. I try strategically blocking the stairs. I snore contentedly, but all to no apparent avail, he seems dead set on this perverse activity of getting up whilst most living things are quite rightly sleeping.


However I have noticed that once I do get up, and go out, he seems to be in quite a hurry, and great entertainment can be had from randomly sniffing things every five meters. Now you might expect my human to get angry, but I've figured out a way to make him feel good. Get him to let you off the lead, and throw a ball. Run away with the ball, and hide it. He'll walk away expecting you to follow and give him the ball. Follow him and when about 200 m away from the ball, turn round, rush back to the ball's location as though your life depended on it. Now if you do this convincingly enough, your human should follow you. And now for the trick, make out that you can't find the ball and allow your human to find the ball. This not only extends the length/time of the walk, but will allow your human to feel useful, which will please them. Then when you get back you can go back to sleep un-molested by your human - unless food is being put out and then obviously one must go and investigate the offering.