Happy New year: Sulo health results came and are really excellent: HD B/B and E 0/0 - so nice to have a healthy young briard boy with work loving character. Now just heading to jumping course next and continuing rescue trainings as so far...

 

Sulo is 2 years old already and so not ready for open class shows....but otherwise we are progressing in other areas: Janne has started to train rescue with Sulo and I have done a bit more training in obedience with him. No hurry,no stress, but we will get there step by step :-))

 

We are celebrating the 5th birthday of Ossi today!! - I guess boys are going to get something extra + we are spending family weekend in an island in front of Inkoo, where is plenty of nice and exciting outdoor possibilities.

Happy birthday my little beardie!!

 

Sulo went to MH character description yesterday and the behaviour of Sulo was quite there what I expected. I will write down the detailed results later on but basically Sulo is recovering from everything in a blink of the eye and he didn't get any stressed during the test. And the fact we already knew he loves to play when ever it is possible and this was quite an advantage in this test.

The only difference between the normal way of going forward in the test, was maybe that he fell in love with the test officer... ;-).

 

Summary of the day strengthen my view on having a great dog and a wonderful briard living in my house :-). Maybe he is not the most beautiful  but the character is the best you can wish for the life situation we are at.

 

It seems that I write here only about the weather: this time also as maybe that is one reason that we don't have news. The summer has been hot, really hot +30 has been the common temperature and above so we have basically just been swimming as far as lakes and sea did not have any biol cyanobacteria but after those were spotted that fun stopped also.

Sulo was taken once to vet due to skin problems and he was also eating his hair. But luckily it seemed to be just an allergic reaction to medication against acarids and by washing him on daily basis for two weeks the scratching and pulling off hair stopped. Now he is growing his third coat which seems to be grey and a bit brownish....let's see if that is the final choise!!

 

Sulo will have character tested after one week in MH test. I am really eagerly waiting for results as sometimes it is quite difficult to read on Sulo's mind: hes seems to be somedays really shy and introvert and on the other day everyones best mate. What we have observed during this summer is that what he does he does with great enthusiasm, and the latest achievement is to catch the frizbee on flight. He is so proud of this new skill he has :-)

Waiting to have some time for tracking and obedience again - I am sure he will be a great dog to do things with if I just have energy to start work with him....

But next news then hopefully on dogs -not the weather.

 

Long break and no news...

The winter was long, cold and white!! Sulo loved it - Sulo is already so Finnish in heart - in Turku international in the beginning of January Sulo got Very Good and behaved a bit better than before. Only thing that freaked him off was the Dutch judge talking: dutch!!! Scary, mummy don't let them take me back :-). But as Sulo seems to develop so slowly (as all our dogs?) we will have a show break and we will concentrate on other stuff: playing ;-D, a bit of training, and again playing.

 

The winter went by quickly and we went to holidays in Spain when dogs were taken to Kennel to be taken care of. They managed the week well and Sulo didn' t seem to make a big difference beeing taken care of total strangers or home. (Sulo does not seem to stress much of anything....). Ossi was a bit upset, but after a short while he went to play truck driver with Janne again and forgave us.

 

Weather starts to get warmer and snow has melt away. Ossi is having a summer cut in his hair again and the amount of sand dropped down dramatically. Tracking season has also started and we have done few rehearsals already. Sulo remembers well what it is all about.

In obediencee it seems that Sulo is not having his best age, everything else seems to be more interesting, but anyways we will do stuff on weekly basis at least. Ossi on the other hand seems to enjoy on every piece of attention he gets, and the old saying: only untalented needs training - is valid here.

 

 

Christmas time is coming closer and the hurry at work has been terrible. I was supposed to register Sulo to two shows in January but unfortunately I only made it to Turku international - so let's see if our another appearance there would be any more succesful. At least we are going to train a lot...

 

Merry X-mas to all friends!!!

 

 

 

I travelled to Turku International Show with Sulo, Jenni, Anna and Oona. Sulo had his boogie man day and everything was terribe, the worst was the judge :-(. So next time I need to take him to ring by myself I guess in order to get Sulo trusting the situation in the ring. Also we need to practise a lot the show behaviour - when you have so many dogs you kind of trust that they know how to behave by heart, but I guess everyone does not ;-)! Otherwise the judging was ok, Sulo needs to develop more - but hey it is not a surprise if you have a year old briard boy there -it is a big difference to other juniors more than a year, might be even half a year.

Sulo is also changing his hair in rapid speed and I have just brushed him on weekly basis for hours...but the guy starts to look black again, not so brownish anymore.

Anyway the EH (very good) eventhough the boy did not co-operate with Anna in the ring and didn't want to show his perfect bite to the judge. Sulo thinks that the judge should say "please" first...

 

The day went well eventhough I defenately did not like the idea to travel with Jenni, she actually seems to like beeing in shows and watching the dogs there (of course we need to have nice snacks, toys and other enetertainment with us a lot). With Anna the trip was really pleasent in the end of the day and also we came back with Certification, this time Oona got it - so it not fully the waist of time beeing there  :-) congratulations Anna and Oona for your last certification in Finland.

 

Sulo had his first birthday ever. No cakes this time as Sulo suffered of stomach flu and got some medicine from vet (what  a birthday present - at least it was expensive :-/). But the best for him was to get a Birthday card from Bibi mom and family. Sulo feels already better and got his vaccine today (Friday the 13th). Congratulations to all Sulos sisters and brothers out there!!

 

Ossi had his 4th birthday with cake (liver, sour cream and sausages, 4 pieces). We had really happy birthday boy as the food has increased in his importance order after the operation :-). Congratulations to our clever and the cutest beardie boy!!!!

 

Our "little" Sulo won all that there was for puppy to get: he was BOB and BIS puppy of the Club Show 2009 out of 7 puppies. Not bad....now it is time to move on to junior class, but I have to say that it was not bad start for us in Show career at all.

Judgement is under translation as our German skills home are not so complete.....but overall it was good: the ancles are good, moves quite loosely but well, only minus was eyes that could be darker (that I know already) - overall summary was that all pieces have fallen in place in the dog and the character is really friendly male briard:-) (that I knew also....)

 

 

Weekend full of dog action: on Saturday we were training tracking on the field with Sulo and he did excellent job after nearly a months break. And the weather was really depressing and warm. He still consentrated on working eventhough really experienced trainer gave me advice and we were changing leash place etc. along the way, Sulo didn't mind but worked and went on step by step - nose leading his way :-))

 

Today we went to our first show to Karjaa. Judge Seamus Oaks loved our "little" Sulo and the note report sounded really good to me:

"Growing well for 8 months. Well balanced. Good stop.Nice dark eyes. Good high earset. Good bite.Nice length of neck. Level topline. Hind quarters developing slowly. Moving ok. Needs some ring training" - well who can be a champ, fist time is the first time. Anyways end result was BOB puppy.

Seamus said that remember to write to back of the first prizes: this was given by a nice Irish man :-)

Pictures from Jannes camera on the way....

 

 

 

We had a visit to a trimmer today with boys. A new experience for all of us. Ossi is now having a new look and feel... Sulo had only a wash and super dry experience. Ossi is now castrated and happy himself again, not stressing on girls anymore. To this new life we decided to have a new look too - easier to keep in shape and a lot cooler style during these warm summer days. Thanks Anna :-)!!

 

Sulo did not enjoy his bath so much, but man has to do what man has to do.

 

Finally some updates: Spring and nearly summer is here and along the active season with both of the boys. Ossi have had some hard times with the hormones (he is just thinking about the girls) but luckily we got some help from the vet - so no dog shows during the rest of the year and it might be that we have to leave those arenas to others not to risk Ossis health. Otherwise our beardie boy is as lovely as always :-)

Sulo is already over 6 months and still growing. Weight is about 33 kg and hight 60+ cm. Obedience training and tracking has been started and little fellow seems to have energy to work. He loves to play with Ossi, even Ossi is not always so happy about the play Sulo loves, pulling off the hair....He also loves to do gardening ( digging holes to our garden) and singing children songs.

I have been really lazy with the camra but luckily some friends have helped......so hopefully we will have some updates to photos page as well.

 

Sulo 12 weeks and weight 12 kg. Weather is nice: cold,sunny and there is snow also :-)

 

Turku international dog show visit wasn't such success to mention (Very good)but as the judge was quite strict and the company was nice we don't complaint. Overall the day was really nice: Ossi had a day off from the kindergarden and mummy saw friends after a long time.