Inko's second show

Inko had a very good day at her second show today. It was the Maidenhead and District Canine Society open show in Reading. We weren't sure what time the AVNSC Pastoral classes would start so made a rough guess based on the numbers in earlier classes but we ended up having quite a long wait before we had our turn. While waiting we didn't bother setting up her crate and just let Inko watch what was going on. She seemed really calm right from the start and just watched people and dogs go by without showing much interest at all. It was a great socialisation opportunity for her to spend such a long time with so much going on around her.


To keep her focus while waiting I did some training with her such as sits, downs and stands, and also some of her other tricks that she enjoys doing, like spin, wave and high five. This way she was very much focused on me (or on the liver muffin at least!) this time, rather than on everything else. I think it helped not having sand all over the floor like her first show - much less interesting to be in a sports hall!!


We were entered into the Junior AVNSC Pastoral class. She was up against just one other dog, an Australian Shepherd. She stood pretty well for the judge and then did a fairly good walk round the ring, mostly focusing on me and not trying to jump up at all this time which was a fantastic improvement on last time so I was really pleased. I was over the moon when the judge picked her to take first place!! So another rosette to add to the second place the other week...this time a lovely red one!! When the judge was making the notes about Inko she commented that she show good potential, but also said that I should work on training Inko so that she knows that the ring is for being very still and calm and not for playing at all so that she stands rock solid and walks perfectly.


After winning that first place Inko was then able to go into the ring again for the AVNSC pastoral best of breed selection. As the last remaining puppy, she got awarded best puppy in breed (AVNSC) here so rosette number two!!


Having got this, we were then able to stay around for the Pastoral Group judging where all the winners from each of the Pastoral breeds came together to be judged for best in Pastoral. We were eligible to be judged in the Pastoral Puppy Group. The same judge who we'd had for the AVNSC judged this group. As she had already 'seen' us we waited at the side with three others in the same position while six other dogs got checked over by the judge. Then we got to do another walk round the ring so that the judge could see Inko moving again. She walked her best this time and I was very pleased that she was still being focused after so much hanging around. However, she did 'find her voice' during this session of judging and was somewhat vocal!! She stood very nicely (though loudly!!) while the judge did her final look over of everyone and then I was really pleased to be shortlisted with three other dogs. We ended up being placed 3rd!! Rosette number three!!


Brilliant day!! Very tiring as we were there nearly four hours or so, but well worth it!! Here is Inko with her three rosettes!!

She is now having a well deserved snooze!!

When we got home we checked the post and found out that we won second place in the competition we entered at Pets at Home back in December where Inko had her photo taken by the Dog Portrait Company!! We won a £20 voucher to spend either towards a copy of the winning photo or to go towards a photo at another session when it is next run at Pets at Home.

So all in all a very good day for the Inky Dink!!

SFLS Hankley Common Walk

Nothing tires a Lapphund out like a walk with other Lapphunds...


Today was the second monthly SFLS walk of the year, hosted by Liz Mowatt (of Tabanyaruu fame). The location is a "little used" army training area, although as we were to find out a sunny, but snowy Sunday in February is an ideal time for the Army to use it! About five minutes into the walk we were greeted by the sound of gun-fire in the distance! We came across a group of "soldiers" on their training, I say soldiers in inverted commas as they barely looked old enough to take their GCSEs!! Although that didn't stop some of the ladies amongst us getting a little hot under the collar!!! Luckily they don't use live rounds in that area so we were able to continue on our way. Think the soldiers were a little surprised to see so many people and so many dogs interrupting their exercise!!


As always Inko had a fantastic time with the other Lappies and on this occasion x1 Akita Inu, x3 German Spitz Kleins and x1 Lappie x German Spitz Klein.

After a great walk across the common, which still had plenty of snow, we were all invited back to Liz and Rory's new house for tea and cakes, followed by a lovely short walk through their woods :)

A very nice way to spend a Sunday...and means we've had a very nice and sleepy Inko all evening!

Adam

Inko's first show

Inko went to her first show today! She was a bit wary of what was happening when we first got there with all the people, dogs and smells everywhere but she seemed to settle down pretty quickly.

First the good performance...

Our first go in the ring was AVNSC puppy - Inko went up against a PMD and a Sammy. She came second, with the PMD in first and the Sammy in third. Was pretty pleased with that...nice to get her first rosette!!Not bad for her first attempt - she was pretty good when being handled by the judge and stood very nicely. She was a bit 'wobbly' on her first run round the ring so the judge suggested we go round again and she was much better that time, and then she stood nicely when the judge looked at them all again. But that wasn't to continue!

And then the not so good (also known as terrible!) performance...

We then went straight into AV puppy stakes being judged by Toni. It would appear that Inko had used up all her 'calm' and 'goodbehaviour' or had left it in the other ring because Toni definitely didn't see her at her best!! I really struggled to get her attentionin the ring this time, even with liver cake a plenty! I think she was more distracted this time as there were lots more dogs in the ring with her, and I think she was also getting tired by this point. Being a novice myself didn't really help as I wasn't too sure what I was doing either so didn't know any tricks to try and get her focused again!! She wiggled all over the place while Toni tried to check her over and then looked like a complete nutter while I did my best to try and get her to do a triangle round the ring - she jumped up trying to chew at my coat the whole way...not exactly a controlled performance by any stretch of thge imagination...not a chance in hell of Toni being able to make any sort of judgement about her gait etc!! Needless to say there was not another rosette won in this class!!

So one good result, and our first rosette...and also lots of stuff to work on for next time so that I don't have to look like I have NO control over my dog again!! LOL

Now have two weeks to prepare for the next one we've entered!

Snow!

We. like most of the south east, had lots of snow when we woke up this morning!! Inko had great fun out in it and is only now reluctantly lying inside because I had to bring her in to have her breakfast! Once her breakfast has gone down she can go out again!!

She was in her element out in the snow - you can tell it's where lappies are meant to be!! She seemed to be genetically programmed to like snow!!

Managed to get a few pics of her having fun playing!!

I'm sure my biscuit is around here somewhere!

Yay! I've found my monkey toy!!

I seem to have snow on my dog tag and bell!!

I've found my biscuit!!!!

I've lost monkey again - I'm sure he's somewhere close!

Flower pots are fun when they have frozen mud in them!!

You've gotta run to keep warm in this weather don't you know!

I'm sure my sand pit is under here somewhere!!

First bath

Inko had her first bath last weekend!! Thought we'd best take some before, during and after picks to mark the occasion!!


She wasn't too sure what to make of it I don't think!! She decided it was probably safest to sit the whole time whilst in this weird white bowl thing and she whined most of the time too!! She didn't seem too worried about it though and enjoyed it when I let her drink the water out of the shower hose!!

Before the bath - nice and dirty after a walk in the woods!

Straight after the bath - 'punk lapphund!'

And now nice, clean, and fluffy again!!

Time I did a new post!!

Time seems to be flying at the moment - just realised how long it had been since my last post so thought it was about time I added a new one!!

Grown up teeth
Inko has now lost all of her baby teeth as far as we can tell - it is a very big relief to no longer have those needle sharp puppy teeth when she tries to chew us...I say us, it is mostly me she tries to chew...Adam gets licks!! Need to work on that!! She is definitely better than she was with chewing, but it is still happening enough to require visits to the naughty crate several times a week. The barking is much better though and visits the the naughty crate for barking seem to be required much less which is good.

Naughty crate
Speaking of the naughty crate, we have noticed recently that this has become a frequent place of choice for sleeping by Inko! We often look round to see where she is if we can't hear her (to check she's not doing something she shouldn't!) and find her curled up asleep in there - she must like it!!

Fear!
For the last couple of weeks Inko seems to have been going through a very slight fear period. She has always been pretty bomb proof and hasn't been the littlest bit phased by any noise etc, but recently she has been a little more jumpy. She was very spooked one evening when she went out for a wee in the dark in the garden and could hear a cat frantically scrambling to get over the fence. I think it freaked her out a bit because she couldn't see what was making the sound. It would probably have been less of an issue if the poor cat had managed to get over the fence on its first attempt but after failing to make it the first time it had to scramble up again to make it out of the garden. Inko shot into the house like a bullet and then rather cautiously returned barking at whatever scary thing had made the noise!! After that, for the next few visits into the garden Inko barked towards that corner just to warn anything else that might be lurking that she was ready to attack if necessary!! She also got slightly spooked by the lights on an aeroplane flying over head one evening and by a particularly scary stationary motorbike covered in a silver blanket type thing while we were out on a walk one evening. She seems to be slightly better with all this now, and hopefully no permanent fears have been left!!

Water
Inko seems to be developing more of an interest in water when out on walks suddenly. After never wanting to get wet in puddles, and definitely no interest in following her pals Sammy and Bobby in the lake (luckily!), this last weekend she decided to wade through all puddles along the way and even paddled in the shallow part of the lake that has a gently sloping shore! She did, however also manage to nearly take a full nose dive into the lake when her new found interest in water lead her to lean a little to far into the lake where there was an edge, rather than a gentle slope - I turned round to find her with her head and front legs under, frantically struggling to pull herself out before she completely fell in! By the time I got there to rescue her she'd already got herself out and luckily other than looking somewhat damper at the front than at the back, she didn't seem to be too badly effected by the experience - will have to see how she reacts to water when we're next at the woods with the lake!!

Chasing
One issue we have started to notice on walks is that Inko has started chasing people! She has always been keen on running up to dogs on walks as she loves being chased, but she never really did much with people, other than to wander over to say hi, and would come away when called. It seemed to start when we went on the lappy walk down to Devon at the start of January when she decided to chase a poor surfer all the way across the beach, up the stairs and into the carpark!! That incident led to her spending most of the rest of the walk on her lead!! We've now noticed that when out on a walk on her lead if someone passes, rather than largely ignoring them like she used to, she now tugs towards them quite a lot, which has nearly tripped us up on a number of occasions. When off lead in the woods this weekend she chased after two joggers and it took us ages to get her to come back. I felt quite sorry for them, out for a quiet jog on a Sunday morning, and they've got a lappy after them!! (although to be honest, choosing to job through a wood that is extremely popular with dog walkers, it was very likely that they'd be chased by at least one of the dogs!!). This is something we really need to work on - if anyone has any advice on how to stop this let me know!!

Teething, training. digging, and the naughty crate!!

Sorry, I've been lazy with my updating again!! Here's a bit of an update on the last few weeks! In many areas Inko is doing very well - some, we're working on!!

She is looking very cute at the moment (ok I may be a little biased, but I'm a proud mum and think she's beautiful!). We had some professional photos taken at Pets at Home the other week and entered one of them into a competition they were running - we should find out in a few weeks whether she's won. I scanned them onto the computer at work but forgot to send them to myself so have just taken photos of the photos (!) so that I can post them on here - so they aren't as clear as they are in the originals but it was the only way of getting copies.

'Good 'down', Inko!'






'Look mummy and daddy, I'm smiling :)'

Such a cutie! This is the one we've entered into the competition

Teething

Inko is full swing with her teething now and has quite a mix of baby teeth, gaps and new teeth!! Not the neatest of mouths right now but at least there are far fewer of those needle like baby teeth now!! Inko is still doing a lot of chewing (not of furniture....of us!) - not as painful as it was with a full mouth of baby teeth but her jaw is getting very strong now and she has quite a grip which can be painful if one of her teeth manages to dig in!!

Zero tolerance!

This chewing/biting was starting to become a bit of a problem, as was her barking for attention, so we have got a new crate.....a naughty crate!! We are trying to be very good with a new zero tolerance regime, whereby any barking for attention or biting is followed by a firm 'No!' and her being taken into the naughty crate for some time out!! Overall I think this is starting to have a positive effect, although we're not there entirely yet! I think she's definitely got to the stage where she is settled enough here to start seeing how far she can push things and what she can get away with!! We're hoping that by being firm with her will make her realise that barking for attention and biting is not acceptable. Some days she is great (which is a good improvement on this behaviour every day) but as is to be expected there are also some days where she still tries it on quite a bit and there are a few trips to the naughty crate!!

Training

We had our last Heelwork to Music class before Christmas last Sunday. Inko is progressing really well...even if \I'm still getting confused by what way to spin myself etc!! She has now doing (still lured by treats at the moment):

• heel (her walking next to my left hand side)
• close (her walking next to my right hand side)
• spin (her spinning round on my left hand side)
• twist (her spinning round on my right hand side)
• bow
• dart through (her next to me then me twisting round and stepping over her as I do)
• back track (walking backwards)
• over (only going over my legs while I'm sat flat on the floor as she's still too young to do big jumping)
• under
• crawl
• stick around (walking round my legs close to me)
• weave

I must make sure we keep up the training on these over Christmas, not least so that me and Adam don't forget what they all are!! We're also been trying to keep up the stuff we did in obedience class. I've been really working on 'down' with her as she has always been good at this when there is a lure and when I'm putting my hand on the floor in front of her but as it's such a useful command for politeness around people I wanted to make her respond more just to a verbal command. She will now do this which is good (although I'm not sure whether this has actually now just become her default first response to a command for 'something' or whether she genuinely knows the word?). I've also been working on getting her to stay in a down position for more than just a split second by delaying any treating and using the 'wait' comm and which she is quite good at now.

Pulling

An area we've not noticed much improvement in is her loose lease walking, probably due to laziness from us rather than anything else. She is walked on a lead in the mornings before work, but off lead in the evenings. As the morning is a time when we are shorter of time, and we want to ensure she has a decent bit of exercise before we leave her for a bit, we have got lazy and have not been correcting her pulling as consistently has we should have been. This is becoming more noticeable as she gets stronger and stronger! We have ordered a Lupi harness to try so will give that a go and we'll also have to try and get better at doing all the necessary things to try and get her walking better loosely on the lead. Not expecting full 'to heel' walking necessarily, but looser would be nice. She's good when we have a treat in hand, but other than that there are far more interesting things ahead to try and get to!!

Digging

We've also found that her digging has just started up again - we went out the other day to discover a really rather large hole!! Because of the bad weather we can't use her sand pit at the moment....mostly because it turns out the lid is not very water proof and it is now more of a sandy bottomed swimming pool and Inko is not particularly keen on water!! So, after several weeks of no digging and us thinking she'd grown out of that, she has proved us wrong with the big hole! Maybe she thought the flowerbed looked bare and should have a large shrub planted - she's definitely given us a hole big enough to put one in with ease!! Lol. Unfortunately another side effect of her re-learned love of digging is that she is using her 'need to go to the loo' bell as a 'can I go out and dig' bell. We're having to ignore the bell when she first rings and see if she persistently stays there. If she comes away after a bit it seems to be that she wants to dig, and finally gives in, but if she is staying there it tends to mean she needs to loo and we let her out!

But she's still lovely despite all that!

Despite the few ongoing challenges in some areas with her she is such a lovely little thing to have round the house! We are loving all the walks with her (especially the weekend ones where we walk with our friends who also have dogs where she gets really tired out and is sleepy all afternoon afterwards! Lol!). We are also really enjoying the challenge of doing the training with her (the obedience, heelwork and general good behaviour training) as that was one of the reasons for getting a lappy that we knew we'd have to work hard with for the first two years - we wanted a dog that would make us put the effort in!

Can't believe it's only just over a month until she's 6 months old!! Time has flown, although also feels like she's been here so much longer than she has! We must start doing more work on the ringcraft side of things while the classes aren't running over Christmas so that we're getting ourself ready for show number one - that will be the Slough and District open show at the start of February. We're hoping to pick up a show lead for Inky Dink at the Guildford show that we're going to pop over to this afternoon!