Life as usual

I'm keeping a blog in Finnish these days, so this one has been quite neglected. Life goes on as usual with its ups and downs.

Riva and I hit a wall in search training in July. Somewhere along the way he lost the passion for search work and then one time the exercise I had planned for him was too much. He refused to work and I lost my temper (which is quite unlike me), basically I told him to go find that victim or else... Not the best way to deal with the situation. After I cooled down I had the sense to sit down and think what and when had gone wrong in our training.

So we started fresh with a clean slate and to make a long story short, we are doing better than ever. I intentionally say WE, because the trouble we had wasn't all his fault and search work is always teamwork, both of us needed to shape up. You don't bring a dog back up from a dead end like that in a flash, but now he has his motivation back and is progressing faster than the six months before. And I am much more aware of what we are doing and where each step is taking us.

There have been some happier events, too. Riva got a girlfriend and puppies are due in late November. She is a very nice bitch, very accomplished in several venues (obedience champion, performance champion in tracking, show champion and competes in agility at the highest level), a true versatile aussie. She also has some young offspring that are also doing very well in different dog sports. I couldn't have hoped a better mate for Riva's first litter.

Right now the dogs are enjoying the first snow of the year.