Our 2nd WP session

Today, we had weight pull training in the morning and Jay actually got to pull the cart. But we started the session by taking the dogs for a walk while pulling some chains. James was so eager he would not have minded going for a run while pulling the chain. :) After this, it was time for the cart . We started out pulling the cart without any weight, however, the cart itself weights about 50kg (110 pounds) but it has wheels so once they get it going it's not heavy.

After that we added 50kg, still no problems but we let James pull this weight a couple of times before adding an additional 50 kg (total of 100kg = 220 pounds + cart). It was not as easy as before but he still did great. We stayed at this weight for a while until actually adding another 50kg. This time he had to work hard, and it took him a while before he got the cart going, but he pulled it off.

By the way, the dogs get a break between pulls while waiting on the other dogs' turn. I cannot even remember how many times he pulled all together, but let me tell you this much... this is the first time ever, that he went to sleep straight after coming home. Well, first he got a late breakfast which he ate with a great appetite and then straight to bed.. hihihi.. It's not too often I see James tired... as a matter of fact, it may be the first time ever. :)

Bye Bye

The limping trick I was going to teach James, hmmmm not gonna happen ... :) Not now at least. I read more about it in the book, and it says it can take months before mastering it, and we only have one week on us. Instead, I chose a much easier trick. Jayness will need to learn to wave "bye bye". Yup, we have been working on it and we are already on our way. He already knew "give me five" so it was just a matter of adding on to that...

Tomorrow, we have WP (weight pulling) on the schedule...our 2nd time. Looking forward... Ciao!

A real pimp slap

Talk about jumping from one thing to another (referring to my previous blog post). But this shit is gooood people..lol. America is so damn fabulous....check it out, man... check it out!

Unless..

..you are blind & deaf and have lived in a cave for the last few years, I doubt anyone has missed that there is an election in the US this year...

It is quite an amazing time in the US history and there’s a big chance this election really will make history. Had I gotten my way, we would be making history by getting the first female president, but since that is not going to happen (this election at least) I truly, truly hope that by next year a black man will be the commander-in chief of the most fabulous country in the world. It’s about damn time, if you ask me. It’s time for a change in what many feel is a white man’s world... who better than Obama can represent the United States of America, being the diversified country that it is.

Anyhow, I have been working on the translation work... my head is spinning. Trust me, it's not easy trying to translate electrical terminology from English to Swedish, especially when you don't know what it means in any freakn' language. :) Gotta go, I have an important meeting to attend in front of the TV... I can hear Al Bundy calling my name. :)

My Thursday

What have I done today? Well, the day started with James and I going for a nice, long walk. When we came home it was time for me to shower and go to my dad's job. I have been temporarily hired as a translator so I had to go pick up the work I am to translate. I will be able to work from home though, so that's great! After that I made a trip to the university (had to return a book) thereafter I met Ulrika at a coffee shop for some tea. And we got stuck there for quite some time, chatting our butts away... :)

Tonight, James and I had the obedience class to attend again. Jay is going through a rough phase (I believe I've mentioned that before too), he's getting older and has started to realize he's a man and that there are lots of girls/women to impress. :) However, he's very good around male dogs, so no dog aggression at all. He has concentration problems, but when breaking with tug-of-war between short training sessions he does focus, so his tug-of-war toy is an important tool for me. Now, the baby is tired and curled up on his bed. SOOO DAMN CUTE!!!! :)

In the class, we are currently working on hand signals (so they can sit and lay down by hand signals only), backing/reversing and a few other things... Obviously, we will keep practicing this during the week (on our own) until we meet next time. But we also have to teach our dogs a trick until next week (hmm, boring) and perform this trick in front of the class. I was like "shit, a trick".. and it can't be one of the regular/simple tricks. My imagination sucks, but I actually found a book in my bookshelf about dog tricks (don't ask me when I bought it) ...so I think I have decided on the trick I will attempt to teach James. I will teach him to LIMP. lol. Yup, you heard me right. The dog needs to learn to hold one leg up while walking, acting as if his leg is injured and that he's unable to put it down. This should be interesting.. we'll see if it works... updates to come. :)

Weight Pull Training

We just came home from our (or Jay's) first weight pull training. You know what that is, right? If not, click here.

Anyhow, not that it came as a major surprise, but James did really well. He enjoyed it and was working hard the entire time. There was no cart-pulling today, only chain pulling and we also practiced starts.

Jay started out pulling a smaller chain but after a while we changed it to a heavier one... and no problems. The boy has energy like there's no tomorrow and he really was born to work - and that he does! The club here in the city has just started meeting a the dog racing track so we remained on the track the whole time. Everybody was really nice and the girl who's in charge of it, was very helpful... so we had a great first-time experience with this dog sport, and we will definitely continue with this. They are meeting on Wednesdays and Sundays, and as long as we are not going to the country this weekend, we will be back by Sunday already. :)

Oh, and please know that all breeds can train weight pulling, it's not just for pit bulls ... There were a couple of dalmatians, a boxer, a doberman, a rottweiler and some other breeds at the training today, so it was a nice mix.

If someone in Sweden is interested and would like more info about local clubs, click on the link to to the right (The Swedish Weight Pull Club) or click here.

Below is a short video to give you an idea what weight pulling is all about...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

24 Aug 2008

- 1 year

James is turning 1 today!!! My little man is getting big... We had a cake for him (hm, or maybe it was for us :)) and some treats, and a little wrapped gift he opened himself. To no surprise, it only took him a few minutes to demolish the toy. :)

James & family sends Birthday Wishes to all 4 brothers - Atlas, Gurra, Lucas & Nemo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL THE "STAND STRONG" BOYS...

A New Day

Other than course literature, I have not read any books since I started school, and that's weird considering I LOVE to read. But late last night, after I more or less had finished my last class I went to my large bookshelf. I have several unread books by now, and after browsing around I grabbed this book - Lone Survivor (click on the book title and you can read more about it). I bought it on one of my many trips to LA last year after seeing the author on the morning news. The book got me captivated immediately and it was first in the wee-hours that I managed to put the book down and go to sleep. By then, both Mr. L and Jay were deep asleep (Old Man is still in the country).

This morning I finished those last things I had to do in order to complete this last summer class. What a relief... it feels amazing! During our morning walk with James we continued the passivity training, we stopped in one of the parks where there was lots of activity... Jay and I trained "contact" and he did great (I had the clicker with me). After that we continued on up to the city where we sat down on a bench, also at a busy spot, where Jay had to lay down and chill. Unfortunately, no dogs passed by but lots of people, so it was still good training for the wild child. And he did really well.

As we had finished this exercise we started heading home via city, but all of a sudden I heard someone say my name. I looked around and could not immediately see any familiar faces, well for the first few seconds and then I was like: "heeey". It was Anna, a girl I met last spring on one of the obedience classes. She and I have talked about getting together and train our pooches but the summer came around and both of us have been busy with other things. I thought I was gonna meet them at the obedience class last Thursday but they were a no-show. Fortunately, it seems they will join the class with start next week. And we are going to meet up next week and go to the local Dog Club to train... sounds great. It should be really good for both James and I to have Anna & Aston to train with (Aston is a Springer Spaniel by the way, and what I have seen of him, he's a very obedient young man so James and I will have to work hard in order to keep up with them). Finally, Jay and I seem to have found ourselves a couple of training partners!!!! :) And actually, while speaking to Anna it was great training for James too, since he wasn't allowed to say hi and he had to sit down and wait. Normally he gets so happy he jumps around and does not know what to do with himself, but he behaved really well I must say. We have a long rode a head of us, but at least the motivation is there.

Anyhow, the book "Lone Survivor" is calling my name... :)

Ciao,
l.e.w.

Almost Done

I'm done with the paper... all I have left to do is to comment/critic 3 other papers which should go fast. I will do that tomorrow though. When that's done, I'm taking a week's vacation. Ahhhhhh, how good does that feel???... Freakn' FABULOUS!!!!! I've got to muster up some energy for the last semester, which I believe can become a tough one. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...mmm, almost there! :)

Do I have to?

Do I have to write this last paper????? I don't want to, I don't want to... I don't want to. I rather just screeeeeeeeeammmm.........

School start

It was school start for James last night, his intermediate obedience class started. It went well, but this week we will seriously focus on passivity training. Jay is so good when actually working/training but in-between when the instructor is speaking and the dogs have to sit still and wait, he whines almost the whole time... it's a pain in the butt. He wants a 100% action all the time or he is bored. But like I said, from now on we will work HARD on passivity training. Started this morning already by sitting down in the park, just chillin' while Jay had to lay down and keep his mouth shut. We sat there for quite some time and he was actually really good today. But from now on, passivity training will be my middle name. :) Passivity -who? what? me? huh? lol

ps. Pics of the babies are from yesterday.

Play Day

The babies had lots of fun yesterday before we went back to the city... Even though Alih doesn't mean to, sometimes he is too rough and bites Jay too hard IF he gets a hold of him.. Usually that's not the case though, Jay runs in circles around the old man..hihihi... but we had an incident where Alih left a serious mark on Jay's back... not fun. :( But as long as we keep an eye on them when playing it's fine 'cause Alih listens when he's being told to be gentle. These old farts - they are very wise...

Atlas

I got some new pics of Atlas, James' gorgeous brother. He is soooo beautiful ... he's a yummy man just like my wild baby. :)

Training Day

Today, James has had to work for a living. hihihi... The day started with swimming for the pooches. However, on our way to the lake we stopped and laid 4 tracks (2 tracks for each dog) so the tracks could settle for awhile.

I’m sure everybody knows about Michael Phelps, the 23-year old American swimmer who beat the Olympic record by winning a total of 8 gold medals. I recently learned that he has the ADD-disorder, and I was like… Holy Moly, James has ADD too and he loves to swim. Too bad there are no Olympic Games for dogs though! hihihi

On our way back from the lake we stopped and did the tracks. James started and this was his first track in months. He lost the track a few times but got back on it pretty fast. After this it was Alih’s turn, and he was not on target either, which he usually is…He stopped a few times and sniffed around in smaller circles before hitting the track again.

The 2nd track for James went excellent though (I’m very happy!!) As always, Jay tracks very fast which usually makes him a bit careless, but this track was both fast and on target. My Cute Baby … yum! The 2nd track went better for Alih as well, but he was not as good as he normally is. Alih, compared to James, is slow but a very meticulous and thorough tracker. Oh well, next time he’ll do better.

Back at home the dogs were tired after all the swimming and tracking. In the afternoon Jay and I did some obedience inside as I was not in the mood to go outside (crappy weather). Took both dogs for a walk in the evening and when we came back, Jay and I went for a bicycle ride. This was the first time that I took him for a real ride… still not very far.. but far enough to have the boy work. I could tell he wanted to run fast as heck, like the mad boy he is, and I let him a couple of times. I think he liked it a lot… still, gotta take it easy until the hips and elbows are X-rayed. Now, I have 2 content dogs that are passed out with their tummies full of food. :)

Below: Jay is starting his track and on the 2nd pic he's coming back happy as can be with the sock in his mouth.


Below: Another pic of the baby rushing back to show his bro and Dad how good he was. And he is not ready to give me the sock just yet. :)


Below: Alih is beginning his track, and coming back with a sock in his mouth too. He cannot wait to tear it apart in order to get to the yummy hot dog that's hiding inside. :)



ps. You like my outfit? LOL. Some serious rain boots, man ... Mr L. was like - "you really fit in here in the country when you look like that". :)

Watching Lassie

My Blue Baby and my Old Baby have been busy watching Lassie this morning... :)

Anyhow, we are heading to the country in a few (for a couple of days).. It is Mr. L's last week off (well, only week off) and I need to get back in to training with James before our next obedience class starts on Thursday. It's easier to train there since there's a huge yard, and I thought we'll do some tracking too (the forrest is right around the corner). And not to be forgotten, I have LOTS of studying to do, have to finish my Business International class by Sunday and I have 2 papers to do until then. :(

Öresundsbron

Above: A pic of the bridge between Sweden & Denmark in the background...

Above: Here's a pic actually on the bridge, when taking the train over to Denmark.

Relax - take it easy

This song will forever be associated with Denmark from now on (A&H and Mr L know why :)). The chorus is so good...one just wants to shake the booty when hearing it, especially when the sound is AWESOME...

Our Weekend Trip...

...was great fun! We stayed at the Hilton Malmö City and kept ourselves busy walking around the city, ate fabulous food and made a trip to the casino. On Saturday, we took the train over to Copenhagen, Denmark where we went on a guided tour of the city, made a visit to Christiania (shit, Venice Beach is nothing compared to these damn tree huggers :)), had fun at the famous Tivoli (an amusement park in the middle of the city), ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe... mm, I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff but let's put it this way - we kept ourselves busy the entire weekend. My feet were barking after all the walking. We were so lucky as we had BEAUTIFUL weather the whole time... well, as we were driving home the rain came but that was ok.

Below: Just made it to Malmö. We stopped at the West Harbour where we strolled around and enjoyed some breakfast.


Below: Some cool house boats and the famous Turning Torso


Below: The old part of Malmö City at a square called Lilla Torget.


Below: Fabulous Dinner


Below: Beer time & a performance (it was a festival in Malmö at the same time as we were there, so it was crazy busy with LOTS of people everywhere).


Below: In Denmark, entering Christiania. This was an experience, for sure...


Below: Having a good time at the Tivoli, Miss Hazel & I went on some rides... :)



Below: The beautiful scenery of the Copenhagen Harbour. Walked the famous street called Ströget to Nyhavn.



Below: H is acting silly (as always) as we are trying to pack up the car and head home.


I can add that my dad managed to stay out of the ER while we were away (thank god) and the dogs behaved. We had a great & wonderful weekend trip but I always miss my furry babies a lot, so it is nice being back home with them again. :)

For more pics from our trip click here.