Weddings in Finland

Most of this week we spent in Finland, Tervakoski, related to Aapo's and Leena's wedding. It was love at first sight and hopefully everything went good, so that little healthy Leena's and Aapo's will be already expected in the end of november. But after that we had the opportunity to take part in Koiruuksien kennel's usual week plans and dog events, of what I was really pleased with.

Aapo and Leena got along very good, as well did Aapo and Jaana, but they mostly liked to play tug with each other. The suipponens had such a great temperament and good character- no wonder Aapo got along with them so nicely! :)

But after that hard work, on wednesday we had the opportunity to go with Teija and Jaana to their agility practice in Riihimäki hall. All together there was 4 dogs training. In the beginning they run some baths, but at the end of the training they had some tehnique exercises for example jumping, contacts or leading.

On thursday we took a little walk in Hämenlinna and later that day we had the chance to go with Teija, Jaana and Leena to their search and resque training. It was nice to see how different level dogs (puppies or already many years taught dogs) worked. Aapo could also try it, you can see the videos of his tryings here - first, second and third. It was really interesting to do that kind of training, especially cause we hadn't done that before. This trip as in Leena Välimäki training in Estonia I noticed again how guiet I am doing dog sports with Aapo compering for example finnish. They are much louder and praise dog with high voices more.

On friday we took a walk in the forest with Suipponen Jaana, greyhound Bree, Teija and Talvi, so the dogs could run a little and play with each other.

Later that day we went to see the Riihimäki's unofficial agility competition. Interesting in there was that all the participants needed to run the same bath, eventough the level varied (some hadn't competed oficially yet, some competed in A3). Here is one video of one good run.

Teija made some really beautiful pictures, while we stayed there:

Aapo tugging

Aapo playing frisbee

We had great time meeting the Koiruuksien kennel, Aapo's pride Leena, daugther Jaana and greyhound Bree. Thank you so much Teija for your hospitality and kindness. We are keeping our thumbs up for the little ones!

My pictures of the trip here.

Obedience competition

Today we dipped our toes into the official obedience field. The obedience competition was held by IPSON dog-school in Keila. The judge was Taimi Leib.

The elements and results:

1. Accessibility - 10 p (koef 1). This time Aapo did it perfect. He sat next to me and stayed nicely and was friendly when the judge approached.

2. Heeling on leash - 6 p (koef 2). He didn’t do heelwork well. He wasn’t that contactive and perky. Also he was in a really naughty mood (women in his mind) and wanted to do tricks with my legs khmmm. Our heelwork is just too unconstant yet, but we'll keep on working the most with that.

3. Heeling without a leash - 6 p (koef 4). See the previous point.

4. Going down while heeling - 0 p (koef 2). Instead of going down he sat.

5. Recall - 9,5 p (koef 3). He was perky and run to me fast, but he made behind me too big round while coming next to me. It also could be of it that I train him with the ball and I throw it back when he approaches and don't train the coming next to me that much.

6. Stopping while heeling - 10 p (koef 2).

7. Over the fence - 8 p (koef 2). Aapo grazed the fence.

8. Down stay - 10 p (koef 3). The dogs did it twice. First time while dogs did the down stay, one dog run away and made circles around other dogs, 4 of them joined her, but Aapo and irish setter stayed – I was really pleased with that. The judge decided to gave another chance and the dogs did the down stay one more time. This time Aapo did down stay good, but he started wihneing :((

9. Impression - 8 p (koef 1).

Results: 148,5 points, II rank and 5th place. Mihkel Rikas pictures here.

In the morning I had a hunch that there isn’t going to come anything good.. Aapo was distracted and in a naughty mood (later it clicked that it could of been because our german shepard Freya (my brothers dog, who lives with us) is in a heat and it made Aapo just crazy in head) but I decided to go, give it a try and get experiences. And I don't have any regrets participating, getting the feeling and experiences. This year we won't compete in obedience any more and just keep on training with it. We'll see what the future brings us.

Meanwhile we keep on working with the obedience details, teach Aapo some new tricks to develope his mental abilities and to keep him happy, and many more things...

Training herding

This weekend we went herding at Jaani farm again, but this time there was held special herding training in association with Swedun Paimennuskoulu and the trainer was Kimmo Klossner from Finland. All together there were 8 border collies, australian cattle dog, australian shepard and Aapo participating in it.

The place where it was held is just so unbelievable beautiful and peacefull place near Pärnu-Jaagupi, in Valistre. The weather was also in our favor and didn’t rain.

Well now more about the training. Kimmo approached individually according to the dogs level and breed. Even the border collies were all so different, you could see whom of them herd in everyday life and how developed they are. Also some of them were still pretty young but you could see how talented they already were and that wasn’t actually no surprise if you see who the dogs ancestrys were and what they did for everyday’s work.

The first day started for us not that early, so that Aapo could rest a bit from the show while I watched how others did herding and how Kimmo taught them. The first ring we herded with long leash and Kimmo was with us in the ring cause he didn't know how Aapo would behave in the field. The first ring he brandished with the stick couple or more times when Aapo was too energetic, made the sheeps run too much and barked too much - but the times he brandished were maybe even too much for him, beacuse that kind of behaviour was very new for Aapo. And for the result he was affraid a bit of the stick and his interests against the sheeps went down :( But now he could herd without the leash cause he was more calm and maybe thought more. The next and the last ring I didn't use the stick, to get him confidents and energy back. Kimmo also said that maybe using the stick at first that many times was too much for his character, and I think even one time would have done the trick for him, and the next times use the stick only very calm and quietly.

The second day started early. Today I decided to take the stick with us in the ring, just to get him use to it and at the end of the day he was more confident and used with the stick more as well, so I could use it more.

A video done the very beginning of the second day:




And little video of the last herding of the training:

Kimmo said that for the second day for training Aapo was really good – he developes. Kimmo also said that as much smooth collies or at all collies he has seen, then they really varie a lot what is involved with herding. Very few that he has seen are really good (he mentioned two – but these two have done herding now for 2 years), some have had no instinct at all (they didn’t notice and give any attention to sheeps), and he was sad that the breed has been ruined with that the owners use their dogs basically only for dog-shows. One dog-owner also made this unexpected remark in the training to me when she noticed Aapo, that would also say something about the nowadays oppinion of the breed.... She said that: „wow collie, I thought collies are extincted in the herding point of view“. Khmmm..

Kimmo said that we develope and need to keep on training ;) This time we still basically concentrated to practice Aapo with the sheeps and the work. When he really gets the point then we can start with the serious trainings. For ideal I would like to go herding in Jaani farm once more this year in octobre cause I see how good it is for Aapo, but we’ll see how the times will suite for us.

Pictures done by border collie Roxy's owner.

In the end I would say that the weekend was just fabulous – good weather, company, excellent home made food (compliments to the chef!!) and activities – just like in vacation, but even better :))

Some pictures from ACD Greta's owner: Aapo herding

And meanwhile when other dogs did herding, Aapo and ACD Greta had fun on the fields.

My videos of the weekend here, and pictures here.

EE CH

Jeei :)) Aapo is now EE CH.

Today we participated in Harju national dog-show at Lauluväljaku. All together there were 5 smoothies entered (3 males, 2 females). The judge was Beata Betkevica from Latvia.

Characterization: 2 y young dog, strong bones, ex lenght of head, clean lines of head, medium dark medium size eyes, ex ears, enough underjaw, ex balance of body, ex neck, ex shoulders, g s?prings of ribs for croup, ex angul, ex tail, ex movement, free paralel with ex drive.

Our characterizations have never been so long and detailed, so it was really good to have that kind of long and good oppinion.

Pictures done by Mr. Truumure.

Results: Excellent, BM1, Sert and BOB!

VSP, Ex, Sert got lovely Allegory Godiva.
BM2, Ex Allegory Gwydion
BM3, Ex Kangasvuokon Magnum
BF2, VG Kangasvuokon Shannon

Judge, while choosing the BOB, made us run many rings before letting us know the results. And she chose Aapo to be BOB and commented that she made us run so much cause she just wanted to enjoy the view of his movement :))

It was really nice day for us, but unfortunately due to our plans we couldn't stay for group competitions and headed to Pärnu to train some herding under the finnish trainer Kimmo Klossner.

Can't go over about obedience...

Getting inspiration of one finnish blog I read one day, so I thought to write as well more detailed about our obedience trainings.

The last couple of tuesdays we have gone to special obedience practices meant to the ones who compete or soon will compete in obedience. The trainer is the 3.time Estonian Obedience Champion Anne Tammiksalu. This year she again won with her border collie Tending Eagle-Eyed "Rika" the Estonian Obedience Championship, what was held in 5th september Viimsi. So it is really nice to get some tips and feedback from her.

Illustrative picture of the hold from ACD Greta's owner.

Well the practices are mainly aimed to build the relationship and motivation, furbish the elements and practice through the compete situation. The idea is to train with as many distractions, dogs and situations as possible - then it would be easier in the competitions. Today even we could practice with heated dog (Poppy) - very good training for male dogs ;) There is no need to spoil our dogs with good conditions :)

Picture from ACD Poppy's owner.

At the very beginning of the practices Aapo got really easy distracted and had difficulties to concentrate properly, but that was no surprise, cause we hadn't trained together with so many different dogs a long time now. But Aapo has developed much and is more contactive. When at first Aapo wanted to be sure about who are the other dogs, then now he doesn't even give attention to different dogs. Every training Anne watches our doings very carefully and gives always some feedback and good tips - what and how we could train. Mainly we train with heelwork. The keyword here as well in anywhere else is - less is more. You want to achieve the result where your dog wants to please you and do whatever you want him to do just to get your attention. You don't want to make the obedience to him dull, but in the contrary - the best and fun thing ever in the world.

Picture from ACD Greta's owner.

Well as I mentioned before - now we train more the heelwork. I mainly train it at home when I feed him. I just wait when he wants to get next to me and then when he does - I praise him. Then I praise him when he keeps the contact. I at the same time try not to watch him - not to get the habbit watching him during the heelwork. The last unofficial obedience competition as you see above the theme on the video I held the contact some times with him, cause I knew it would at the moment work the best. Cause we haven't trained that much and long heelings when I don't watch him. But for ideal I won't watch him during the heelwork. Well when I get the contact and praise him then I start slowly heeling but only one step at a time - and when he keeps the contact I praise him. Then I some time again praise him when he keeps the contact on my left side. The first steps are very important and to keep the contact already the very beginning. The last practice I noticed that Aapo has an habbit to heel awry and get little ahead at me. So the element - lieing down while heeling - he mostly does as well awry and just because he then heels awry. When I got him properly heeling then he went down also perfectly straight. Actually no news. The last training he has done the lieing down while heeling correctly and hasn't just stopped, like he did at the last two unofficial competitions.

Stopping has also gone good - haven't been problems with that. At the trainings we have done really interesting group exercises where we train lieing down and stopping while heeling but little alike the elite obedience class so-called the idiote ring element. And its really useful and fun.

Last training I familiarized Aapo with the metal dumbbell. We haven't done any work with that, mainly cause I don't have it at home. But I have played and got him familiarized with spoones, keys, etc metal things - just what we have at home hehee.

Aapo with wooden dumbbell at home.

Practicle all the trainings we do the down stay and different ways. One way is you leave the dogs to down stay and then someone calls her dog to herself. But the other dogs can't come or even move at the same time, they have to stay. Well we just train with as much different ways as possible - cause at the begginning obedience class, there are usual the most distractions.

Picture from ACD Ella's owner.

Well there are a lot thoughts and good feelings about our trainings, but I leave something to the next times as well...

Tunnels competition, IV cup

Again we participated in tunnels competition, this time it was the last and IV cup. The judge was Piret Reinsalu.

We got DSQ for both of our runs and it was all my fault. First run I forgot the bath for sec and didn't take into consideration that Aapo could be too fast for me and while I thought what would be the next obstacle I showed Aapo the bath wrongly and Aapo just continued the road the way I showed him, but it was wrong tunnel entry where I leaded him - so there we got DSQ. It was all my fault. The first run was just too early in the morning and on sunday :S - these two things together doesn't mean any good to me hahaa I was too tired and wasn't properly waken up.

Video from Ester (thank you :))



The next run again I couldn't consider that Aapo could be soo fast, so just before the 3rd obstacle I leaded badly. He has gone faster now with every competition time, which is just great, but I just haven't use to handle him with such speed. So work is need to be done with that. The second run he was in such rush that he headed to the next tunnel instead the one I showed him (obviously not that good handlening from me). We lost about 5-6 sec at the run because of my two bad handlening ways.

Here is our second run video from Dagris Punder (thank you ;))



And from other point of view, video from Ester.



I was really happy with the runs, even though we got DSQ for both of the runs. But the clean runs wasn't my main aim to achieve, the most important was to get him motivated and enjoy the competition :))

All results here. Pavel Hlõstov pictures here.

All together in the tunnels cup we got 15th place out of 75 dogs.