Vacation

It's fall, the weather is nice, the woods are wonderful and there will be no school nor work for either of us the coming week. Elbereth will get her share of hiking and playing.

A day of sun and fun

Instead of hiking in the woods today, Elbereth, Tom and I rode in the car for 30-40 minutes to reach a "dog field" near Sem Gjestegård in Asker. It's a fairly large fenced field that borders on Semsvannet (Sem lake) where dogs are allowed to run loose.

The weather turned beatiful after the foggy morning and we enjoyed running and playing dogs for more than two hours. Elbereth was thrilled. She hardly ever paused, but once in a while the dog pack ran down to the lake to drink and then she went in for a quick swim before entering the race again.
Dogs and owners came and went while we stayed there, and there seemed to be a majority of young dogs Elbereth's age or a few months older. It was perfect - we humans enjoyed it as much as the dogs. We will go back soon - maybe even give up our traditional Sunday hike tomorrow to go there again.

It was a grey, foggy morning...

The woman and the young dog left the sleeping house quietly. After 20 metres they encountered the oldest cat, who didn't budge when the dog went up to him. The dog realized there would be no hunt and went willingly with the woman towards the road with all the exciting smells.

The couple proceeded towards the forest and managed to pass all the houses without meeting a single moving car. The woman sighed with relief as they entered the woods. The dog was let loose and they started the climb towards higher ground.

Suddenly the woman became aware of a small black and white head appearing over a rock ahead. She spun around and realized that the dog hadn't seen anything yet. The leash was put on again and they proceeded towards the strange cat who was not happy to see the dog. As the cat ran, the dog tried to follow, but soon behaved well again and heeded the woman's commands. The woman sent a friendly thought to her husband and their dog trainer who had been working hard the last couple of weeks trying to get better manners into the young dog.

The rest of the walk was uneventful. The light was growing, but they didn't rest at the highest point to admire the view as they usually did. The pile of horse manure was passed without trouble this morning, it had obviously become to old to be tasty and the dog preferred a snack from the woman's hand instead. Back on the road it was still too early for people to be moving around in their cars, so the woman and the dog trained sitting and staying and then walking heel for a few steps before going indoors to eat breakfast and wake the rest of the family.

Weekend hiking

Elbereth proved to us earlier this week that she can't be trusted to run free when we go for a hike in the woods. She ran off to meet some other dogs and didn't heed our calling at all. One might wonder what she uses her big ears for - she's got very selective hearing, that's for sure. We've learned our lesson and now she has to pull a long line in the woods.

We've had two wonderful hikes this weekend and made some unsuccessful attempts at making her follow a track. At other times she is more than happy to put her nose to the ground and follow the scent of another dog long passing, but when one of her humans go into hiding, she runs around with her head held high sniffing the air - and of course she find us anyway.

On Saturday we climbed over rocky ground and dead branches,
around wet marshes and through bracken. We rested on this hill top.

Today we managed to get Sebastian to come along and we went for a long walk to this lovely lake.

The September sun warmed the air today and Elbereth enjoyed
the water and chased the dragonflies that hunted over the lake.

Hot dogs were definitely not the right Sunday snack for Elbereth - although we humans
enjoyed them. Here she makes sure one of the pieces she was given is well buried.

Three eventful weeks

I discovered today that it's been three weeks since my last blog entry. It's also been three weeks since I started working after a wonderfully long vacation. Coincidence? I think not.

The weekdays are busy - Elbereth and I start the day at six o'clock with a 30-60 minutes walk in the woods. Since Sebastian started school again ten days ago, she has been alone four to six hours a day. That seems to go very well, no accidents, no refurnishing needed - she is just very happy when we come home. Sebastian takes her out in the yard to play when he comes home at two p.m. Then Tom and I take her for a walk or training session at night. Last week we started training class again, this time we go on Mondays. Then Thursdays we go to the local dog club where Elbereth has befriended Frost, a German Shepherd who is her junior by only two weeks. Those two can't really see why they should have to sit nicely and behave well around the other dogs when they could have played all night. :-)

Two weeks ago we had overnight visitors and Elbereth behaved well towards little Martha as long as she stayed put on the floor. When we all thought that this would work very well, Martha crawled over to the window to pound at it, and Elbereth started barking. This is one of our present challenges - Elbereth barks at people, cars and of course at scary objects like garbage cans, plastic bags etc.

9 days ago Elbereth went to the vet's to have her upper two baby canine teeth pulled out as the permanent ones didn't push them out. I really didn't appreciate that experience, but it went very well and her teeth are now in the places they should be. A day without food also helped us getting her feeding under control. We used to leave her food out for long periods as she never ate much. Now she cleans her bowl immediately and gets fed twice a day.

The only food challenge left is to find the one food that will keep her attention at all times and under all conditions when training. For a while I thought that sticky cat food with gravy was the answer, but last week proved me wrong - maybe I'll have to go to training with stinking tuna fish in my pockets?

Sebastian and Elbereth are still best friends and playmates.

A beautiful day at the coast

Yesterday we spent at the coast. It has been five weeks since Elbereth last went on the boat and it was considerably more difficult for Tom Ivar to carry her on board this time as she is both a lot heavier and larger.

She enjoyed being on the boat and this time we went on shore on a small island and spent most of the day there, bathing and exploring. Elbereth was allowed to run free until a family with small children arrived. They were carrying huge, scary stuff - bathing toys - and Elbereth ran up to them and barked her displeasure. This resulted in her being on the leash for the rest of the day.

My camera is working again and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

August and blueberries

What a wonderful day. The morning bore tidings of fall with its low temperatures, but the sky was clear and the sun soon warmed the air. It turned into a glorious summer day, much appreciated after all the rain the last weeks.

Tom, Elbereth and I went on a hike in the woods at eleven and it turned out to be Elbereth's longest walk so far. We were out for more than three hours. Most of the time she was allowed to run free without a leash. She enjoys running from the path into tall grasses and heather, but at the end she was obviously tired - more from lack of sleep than anything else.

The blueberries are ripe now and as Tom and I pick and eat, Elbereth shows an interest. She has been offered berries and has taken them, but I can't tell if she swallows or just looses them.

As my camera has stopped working, there will be no new pictures for a while, the picture below is from July 17th