Long time no see

Its been a while since the last entry. Nothing extraordinary has happened, we had a third meeting with Salme and Riva is still progressing nicely in the excercises, I have done a few tracks for Riva, a few search trainings and we train a bit of basic obedience every day but that's it.

One of the few issues we have had with Riva is handling & grooming. He does not appreciate being restrained and in the beginning just picking him up resulted in squirming and mouthing and, if that didn't work, screaming bloody murder. We have been working on this. Clipping nails has actually been the easiest thing and he is getting better with brushing and combing. He is also learning to relax while being held, in the beginning he would barely stay calmly when held sitting in my lap, now he will relax quite well when held on his side and will even accept (though not relax yet) being held on his back. Its funny, because he accepted quite easily being restrained with safety harness but a person holding him is a totally different thing and a lot harder for him. Its a lesson he has to learn though, sometimes there just are situations where you have to be able to restrain or hold your dog (like at the vet's) and you don't want a dog fighting you then.