Holiday - Valborgsmässoafton!

We are getting ready to leave for the country (to my parents house) due to it being a holiday tomorrow. But the actual celebrations will take place tonight. It is an old tradition called "valborgsmässoafton" celebrated in Sweden along with some other European countries. Now-a-days the tradition mostly means that we are celebrating the arrival of spring... we light a big bonfire and then we stand around and look at it. Hihi..sounds like lots of fun, eh?! But let's not forget, today is also the birthday of the Swedish King, so all the flags are flying high. Happy Birthday King Carl XVI Gustaf!!!! =)Anyhow, I thought I share some pics of Jay's brother Atlas today. Is he not adorable??!!!!! He's a real cutie. And very calm too ... not like crazy James at all. =)

Sharp Pics

It was Jay's obedience class tonight but it was not the best of nights, I'm afraid. Two of the female dogs were in heat, so a certain man got a bit distracted. Not out of control but just sniffing and generally unfocused. =( Oh well!!!

I think we found a training partner though. I started talking to this girl with a springer spaniel .. and it turned out she wanted a "training partner" too. So hopefully we'll get together sometime and train with the pooches.

Before heading to the obedience class I finally got a chance to use my new camera. I thought I share some samples with you. Don't they look sharp? At least I think so ... so I'm a happy camper! =)

Bye bye!
l.e.w.

Congratulations!!!

James and family would like to Congratulate kennel Stand Strong for their wonderful placements in this past weekend's Dog Show. Well done!


Above: Jay's mommy Nova. She came 3rd in her group.

Above: Diva. She won her group & received a CK (Champion quality)

Above: Izor. He won his group & received a CK (champion quality)

Graduation Gift

Nikon D40 - 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera - Black

This camera is an early Graduation gift I received from my parents. I will be done with my "Swedish" Master's Degree (ekonomiemagister) by the end of this semester if everything goes accordingly. Not to confuse anyone, I will continue studying until the end of the year to get my International Master's Degree (equivlent to a 2-year Master's Degree in the US). After that I am DONE!!!! How fabulous is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, with this camera I should be able to take some cool pics... mostly of my babies probably. hihi...

Anyhow, gotta make it short today, as it is time to watch the Cashmere Mafia ... it's instead of Sex & the City. =)

I thought I include a couple of pics from a hike we did a little over a week ago. We went with some friends of ours, and my parents came along as well. We stopped and BBQ some hotdogs midpoint.


Above: The little family minus Alih. He's too old to go on this long of a hike.

Above: My mom catching a ride with my dad, trying not to get her feet wet =)

Next weekend is a big one for us!

This is James' gorgous father; SUCH Alta Carya Chief Quanah Parker

It is time for James 2nd and 3rd Dog Show/Conformation Show on May 3rd and 4th. He will be competing in the Puppy Class for dogs between the ages of 6-9 months. For any Swedes who may be interested, the show will be held in Forshaga, Värmland. It is Värmland-Dals Terrier Club that’s celebrating 30 years, thus the show being a 2-day event. Two Spanish judges will judge/critic the Amstaffs, and we are registered for both days. I am starting to feel the excitement already. James has only been to one other show, at the age of 6 months, and it went really well at that time. He came 2nd with an “HP prize”. I do not know what it’s called in English (if there even is an equivalent) but it means that he has champion quality. My Gosh, Mr. L and I were so darn proud of our little blue one! It was James' breeder who showed him for us, and she did a wonderful job!

The handler this time around will be the owner of James dad. That extremely handsome man you can see on the above pic. The owner, Miss M. has lots of experience showing dogs so we are crossing our fingers it will go really well. Soooooooooooooooooooo exciting! James dad (Chief) will also be competing at the show... but not in James’ class of course. =) He’s a Champion and will compete against other Champions.

Yeah, so as you can hear it is going to be a big weekend for us coming up. Please cross your fingers for Mr. James. Knowing this you may also understand why we keep getting worked up when James gets scratches. He cannot come to the show looking like some undomesticated...hmmm, Dingo. (LOL) He has to be as pretty as can be!!!

I believe James' mom along with the breeder’s other dogs, are at a Dog Show this weekend as a matter of fact. They live far, far away from us. Pretty much as far north as you can come in Sweden... (ever heard of the Ice Hotel? Well, that’s their neck of the woods). Due to the distance the show is not anywhere near us but hopefully we get some updates tonight or after the weekend on how it went. We are obviously crossing our fingers for all the dogs, but a little extra for James' mommy. =)

We came back from our tracking class a while ago and it went well, at least the last 2 tracks. The first one was a little so so...Our instructor had laid tracks for all of us before we got there, and it was a track with an angle. James is not really ready for that just yet. But we did find “the end” eventually. The other 2 tracks I laid for him, he did excellent. I am very proud of my son. He’s getting better and better. =)

Anyhow, that’s it for me today.

Take care ya’ all. Ciao!

Above pic: Jay's Daddy



Above pic: Jay's mommy (Nova). A very pretty lady!

Early Bird...

06:15 A.M.

That’s the time I woke up this morning. When it’s finally weekend and one has the opportunity to sleep in...do you think I can? Nope, not tired! During the week, on the other hand, I am dead tired every morning when the alarm goes off.

By 06:30 A.M. I get out of bed after having snuggled with James for about 15 min. Yeah, he usually jumps up on the bed in the early mornings to squeeze in some snuggle time before the new day begins. My yummy little man!!!

An hour later we are already out and about. We went for a long walk at a place we go to quite often. However, we do not always take this route, a really nice and scenic route I must say. James had a blast as always – running around like a wild man. The path goes along a small river and at one point James runs down to the water front to scare off some birds. He runs in some water mud mix which makes him sink if not running fast enough... but he’s moving, mostly looking like a rabbit though the way he’s bouncing “up and down”. But all of a sudden he stops and whimpers. Precious little man... he comes back to me limping on his right front leg. I check it out but it seems fine, and after getting some assurance, he’s ready to go. No limping no more. Thank God. My baby is very sensitive in many ways; let us not forget he is still just a baby. His skin is super sensitive. He has scratches all over his body due to flying around like a whirl wind when out and about...and he gets scratches from when I go tracking with him too. ‘Cause the little man will never take things slow. It is 120% action all the time. =)

If you are wondering where my Big Baby is (a.k.a. Alih), wonder no more. He’s actually with my parents, at their house in the country, for the weekend. He goes with them almost every weekend. He gets some vacation, away from crazy James... and an old man needs some peace and quiet. And being with his grandparents he gets ALL the attention in the world.. he gets spoiled rotten... needless to say, HE LOVES IT! He should be back home tomorrow evening or early Monday morning though, when my folks are coming back to the city to work.

Anyhow, after the morning walk miss l.e.w. (that would me) is VERY tired. So when we get home I take a nap on the coach. Hehe... nice, nice! That’s what I love about weekends, being able to take a little nap when feeling like it. I cannot nap for too long though ‘cause I have errands to take care of and a lot of stores close as early as 2 P.M. on Saturdays.

We also got the patio cleaned up today. It’s looking rather nice I must say, but we still have to bring the patio furniture down (from our storage place, in the attic). We washed the whole patio so we had to let it dry before bringing the furniture out. But it will be taken care of tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, James has his tracking class at 11:30 A.M. We have not practiced that much this week but a few tracks we’ve done. And he’s getting better and better. So hopefully he’ll do even better tomorrow. I will include some pics from our morning walk, pics of James (of course =)) and some pretty scenic views.

Later. Ciao!

Checking out the water, a little scary. =)

James: "I am quite tough if I get to say so myself".

And here are some scenic pics from the walk:

It's a heart!

My little baby has a white patch on his chest, and it’s shaped like a heart. It was my cousin Miss K. who told me last weekend...

She said: “oh he’s so cute with that heart on his chest”...

And I was like: “say what??”

But sure enough, there is a heart. If one looks closely you can see it!!! Don’t you???? =)

Spring, spring, spring!

Spring has arrived in Sweden, and this is a beautiful tree right outside our patio. Nice huh! =) Tomorrow is cleaning day, yes the patio will be scrubbed down and the patio furniture will come out....

Newbie!

Well, well, well...
It was just a matter of time until I would fall for it too. Getting a blog I mean. And here I am.

I thought I write about my days, just the way they are, interesting or not. My dogs take up a lot of my time; training with James or just going for walks with the pooches, or meeting up with other dog people etc. Being that Jay is only 8 months old and having just embarked on what we hope will be a long life journey, I will be writing about him a lot. But of course I will write about my old man Alih too. Anyhow, James and I are currently taking an obedience class (held once a week) and a tracking class (also held once a week), so we are in a phase where there are lots of activities and training going on. And my baby is soooo good! We keep getting compliments from our instructor. Hihi.. By the way, if you live in Sweden I can highly recommend Hundstyrkan. It is with them that we take our classes. Check out their website: http://www.hundstyrkan.se/

This morning started with Jay and I meeting up with some friends of ours. Miss F and her dog Beenie. Beenie is a 4-year old amstaff lady. James has played with her since he was a tiny little puppy but now-a-days he is actually bigger than Beenie, and he uses it to his advantage being the wild man that he is. He was bouncing on and off poor Beenie, and she was getting really annoyed. He is going through puberty so he is testing his limits with other dogs all the time. He is not aggressive in any way, just pushing it with his rough playing. He has mostly been around Rottweilers and with them he can play rough... ‘cause they have the size to stand up to him. And when he gets too annoying, they let him know. Just this last weekend we went hiking with some friends of ours. They have a 7-year old male Rottie who finally had it with James. He got pissed and took James down hard (only with his paws though). James got scared, well mostly shocked I’d say because he really does not understand how annoying he is. He thinks they are having a blast just like him. Well, that “take down” was exactly what he needed as it calmed him down (for a while at least). Hihi..He’s a freak boy, I tell you! He is just too tough with these big and older dogs. He needs to learn how to show some respect.

Anyhow, it’s time for me to focus on some school work. I am so darn tired of writing on the theses, but we are getting closer and closer to the end. MY GOD will I jump high when this is over! I will attach some pics of James and his lady friend Beenie from this morning.

Have a fabulous day to all of you out there!
Ciao!



Beenie & James (a.k.a. Freak Boy!)


Having fun together! Who's the strongest... ?