Updates....

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote to this diary. On Wednesday I got sick; I got a stomach flu :-( and was out of action for 4 days. On Sunday we had the last round of our presidential elections and our sitting president Tarja Halonen was elected for another 6 year term !!! Jippee !!! Also on Sunday: I had to go to train agility because Jonni has a competition on next Saturday and he has not trained in weeks !!! So I took both dogs with me and did something "small". Both of them did fine, which was nice. Bella is improving with big leaps and I am so happy about that !! :-) She and Jonni are having a "battle of wills", who is the top dog in our house. Jonni is being a gentleman and lets Bella get away with a lot of things. But occationally he gets pissed about her and lets her have it. But very rarely !! Bella is trying to climb up the hiearchy but I am trying to keep her feet on the ground. She has developed into a quite confident young LADY and she is a very loving companion !!! A real gem !!! I am soo happy to own her !!!

Warmer again !

The weather changed rapidly today. From the brisk -26 in the morning to barely -7 in the evening !!! The wind is hard now and it snows a lot !

Bella is happy because she HATED the cold !!! On the right you can what she thought about the weather we were having this past week or so !

Hopefully this "warm" weather lasts 'till weekend. It would be nice to be able to train agility again....

COLD !!!

Today we hit this winter's record low temperature (lowest here in Joensuu) !!! Our thermometer showed -29 degrees Celsius !!! This is the coldest day this winter (so far !) in here, although Joensuu is NOT the coldest place in Finland: they had measured just below -42 degrees Celsius in Lappland just the other day........!!!!!!
Jonni thrives in the cold: he rolls on the ice/snow and is very lively. Bella, on the other hand, is NOT at all happy about the coldness !!!! She lifts her feet up one at a time and makes these funny bunny-hops when she trots forward. She was VERY glad to come inside from the cold just now, when we returned from our brisk morning outing. I HOPE this cold, cold weather won't last too long ! There is NO way we can train agility in this weather and we SHOULD be having our first competition in just little over 2 weeks...! :-(

Agility training...

Me and Jonni have now two training sessions in agility behind us. All has gone more than well. Jonni has been very excited and he is much faster now in the course. AND he allowes more sideway distance between me and him while he is jumping. He used to be a "velcro"-dog but NOT ANYMORE !!! :-) Maybe the training course of Janita Leinonen helped us. She made us work towards more independent work from the dog during the course.
I have entered Jonni to two agility competitions already. My aim is to get those 3 "missing" clear rounds as soon as possible. When we get them we have no pressure to compete much. I CAN but I don't have to !!! I can do other things and/or concentrate on training. I have also entered both dogs to a Group 5 show in Tuusniemi, about 70 kms from us. I am doing these smaller shows so I can let Bella get used to indoor shows before she has to go to a bigger one. She has only done one indoor show here in Finland. If she had any in Sweden I am not sure. She has grown somewhat during these past few months and she looks good now ! I am hoping she has gained enough confidence to be able to show herself to her best in shows. I am not expecting her to be a show star but I AM aiming for the CH title... One day perhaps !?

New year has started...

New year has started with a good note. Bella has proven to be totally unaffected by shooting and fireworks. When our neighbours were firing fireworks and there were loud noises everywhere BOTH my dogs were snoring in the sofa and/or in my bed !!! So I need not have worried about how Bella might react !!! :-D

Today was my first day at work. I am a bit tired but it was nice to go back. Today was also a bit stressful for Bella, since she had gotten used for me being home all the time. Now when I was gone most of the day she was feeling a bit down, but when I got home she gave me a heck of a welcome ! There was one VERY extremely happy little Vall !!!

Soon our competition and show season will start. Our first competition is scheduled on February the 4th. We have an agility competition in Varkaus and I have planned to enter Jonni there. And on the 18th and 19th of February we have two group shows where both dogs are to be entered. So soon our "lazy days" are over !!! Now it time for training and waiting and preparing for things to come...