Doggy routines..

The dogs after a quick run.

Wake up in the morning - meaty soup... Go for a walk, pee, s**t, back in the kennel and bye bye... When I came home today I took the dogs for a spin in front of the bike. There has come a sprinkle of snow, so the local road is less slippery. Short distance - around 5 kms at a good pace. Phoebe RUNS and Luke PULLS when he doesn't stop to mark his spot...

Luke is getting more and more relaxed with us - he is a really sweet dude - calm and happy :-)

He seems to adapt really well also to Nexus - they even layed down on the floor together - Luke cleaning Nexus' fur and Nexus licking Luke on the nose just like he does with Phoebe!

Luke has spent his long life as a kennel dog - he has, shall we say, acquired a.....an odour?! On Saturday we took him into the shower and washed him - NO PROBLEMS! He was calm and accepting, even seemed to enjoy it! Gooood boy, Luke :-) We love him!

Doubling the number of dogs...!

Oh dear....here we go... We were warned about the Siberian husky sickness.... After finally moving into a house, we have had a chance to build a mini-kennel.... So now we had space for more than one dog...!

Our good friend, Johanne let us inherit her trusted wheel dog Luke. He is now close to nine years young and has raced in many long-distance races such as Finnmarksløpet - lots of experience to match Phoebe's youthful enthusiasm!

They are alreday best of friends except that Phoebe tries to steal all the food...heehe! Oh - and they didn't even need the new house I had built - they moved into Phoebe's "two beedroom house"!

The one thing that Johanne has warned us about with Luke, is his previous history of eating a pet rabbit! Our chubby boy cat Nexus may be at risk, since he is used to running around with Phoebe in safety, whilst Luke might decide to hunt him for real! Well, so far everything is fine! Luke takes direction well - he breaks away when we correct him, and it seems more and more that he ignores Nexus :-) Although Phoebe and Luke sleep outside and spend the day in the kennel, they are inside the house with us in the evening in order to integrate with us :-)

At least now we have two dogs to pull bikes or our sled.... A little slow perhaps, so perhaps we need a couple more....!?

Quo vadis?

The last weekend before we moved away from the apartment a couple of friends became parents - in the hectic rush to the hospital they had to leave the dog behind, so we took pity on the "little black sausage", Hugo and let him spend the weekend with us :-) It was really nice to have a visitor - Phoebe clearly appreciated the company of another dog! But Nexus....? Well - he decided that Hugo was an object suitable for his "hunting game"....heheheh. He would jump out from behind or from the top of the cardboard boxes that were everywhere and "kill" the poor little Hugo! Of course, Hugo was only mildly curious about Nexus, and showed no fear or anxiousness as a result. What was even more interesting was Phoebe's reaction - if Nexus and Hugo got too "hot" in their encounters, Phoebe would run up to them and "push them aside", just like I imagine a mum will do with her kids or a bitch with her puppies....! :-)

Now that we are installed in the house we will hopefully have a chance to finish the building of our kennel space - perhaps we can then adopt or borrow a couple of dogs....hopefully to make a better sled team than with the little black sausage!? :-)

Home.....at last....!

After a long silence on the blogging front....we are back! Rather, "we have moved on"! Since Thursday Thursday last week, we have been living in our new house in the forest southeast of Oslo. The location is perfect for those of us who enjoy the "great outdoors". There are paths and tracks in the nearby forest, including an active group of dog sledders maintaining a small network of trails... Down the road from us, there are several kennels, and we are ourselves preparing a corner of our land for a small run-around kennel area. Nearby is a lake called "The Long One" (Langen) - this is a shallow, narrow lake that stretches for more than 10 kms North-South direction. During summer, we have our own small place to tie up a boat or our canoe (no engines allowed), and during autumn and winter, the lake can be used for ice skating and even pre-snowseason dog sledding! We hope to park our canoe there - Phoebe likes to come along - after an impatient 10 minutes she will in and swim for a bit before we drag her inside again...

We already feel quite at home in our new house, even if we are surround by cardboard boxes and outdated facilities (we will replace the kitchen). In the morning of Friday and Saturday we had visitors in the front garden - a group of two roe deer and a lone roebuck....! Nice to see them, but they tend to eat the flowers.... L8R :-)

Change of status....

In the lazy days of summer, there have been several possible life-changing events in the MjauDoggyWoggy household.... First of all, our "little boy" Nexus has had a trip "to buy ice cream" (also known as - going to the vet)....! He is now 15 months of age and has had ample time to "go through the change" of puberty.... To avoid any potential for unwanted kittens the vet removed his "crown jewels" the other day - is there no other discreet way to say that he has lost his balls!? Nexus is still the same however - after a groggy, spaced-out evening he is back to his good old self; "Prrrrr, prrrrrr - food? Prrrrr, prrrrr - scratch me under my chin, behind my ears; Prrrrr prrrrr - "trot trot" - let me chase my sister (Phoebe) and kill mummy's (Priscila's) foot under the carpet....!!" :-)

The other piece of news worth mentioning is that the household will move from the very nice apartment into an even nicer house! Our new adress will be "enter the forest and turn right by the 2nd big pine tree"..... We will have a house bigger than we need, but the bonus is that there is a big piece of land (2500 sqm) with a corner perfect for constructing a small run-around kennel area....! It is soon about time for Phoebe to "move out" and perhaps establish herself with a much older man.....!? Actually - we are hoping to adopt a mature, experienced sled dog that can teach Phoebe so much more than we humans ever could - who knows, maybe there might be puppies in her future too!?

The good thing with our new location is that there are several other dog mushers in the neighbourhood, including people we know, and that there are prepared sled tracks in the forest next door... We might even have a chance to take up some rock climbing too, since a great cliff is located within walking distance from the house (Fjell - where some of the hard routes and boulders were put up in the good old sport climbing pioneering days...)

Days are already colder, so we hope that Phoebe can get some proper autumn training this year...

Summer days....

In the "off season", it is important to keep our 4-legged friends activated....

Our little boy Nexus is easy....give him his food, a nice pillow or blanket to sleep on....let him chase the red dot of the laser pointer(!) and he is happy as can be :-)

Phoebe needs more variety and challenge if she is not to get bored and start chewing up parts of the house.... This week when I was away in Germany for a conference, she destroyed my sunglasses!! So - some of the "games" we can do in the summer heat - interval training on the lawn pulling a toboggan (akebrett) loaded with some weights! A really good way to build muscles without risking overheating when running longer distances.. Se the video here:

http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/86/Phoebe_pulling_weights_-_part_2

Priscila and I are going on our annual summer holiday next weekend - 2 weeks in Spain driving around and enjoying everything from good food, wine, to old castles, beaches...

We had to go downtown to buy a guidebook today (Saturday) - Phoebe came along with her "backpack" on and helped us carry some small things - to cool off we let her jump into one of the fountains on the harbour front - she enjoys water! Dips her head under, snaps her jaws at the spurting water, jumping around....and cools down in the process!

I hope you all have a nice few summer weeks!

Phoebe at the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club exhibition

Last weekend we went to the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club exhibition to show Phoebe in front of a judge - entering the "junior class" since our girl is just one year old :-) Ahead of time, we had practiced a bit of trotting around in a circuit, but this seems to be a something that we need to work on *a lot* more...... She tends to jump around, turn to look at the dog behind, or start to gallop - her favourite "full speed ahead mode"! However, on the day she behaved reasonably, and after the judgement was awarded a 2nd prize blue ribbon - this means she is a "good example of the breed", but that she has some "imperfections"..... Generally, she was deemed to lack maturity in build and musculation, and that she was still very "puppy-like" - Yup! That's our little girl! All in a all, we really enjoyed the weekend - weather was a balmy 24 deg C.... Luckily she enjoys swimming as an activity and was able to cool down in the local lake - see the video of her being lead into the water by one of the attending "junior mushers": http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/83/Phoebe_swimming

For those whom are interested, here is a loose translation of Phoebe's "judgement":
"54 cm. Good type, feminine head. Good nose and bite. Good neck and back. Still somewhat undeveloped chest. Should be better angled cross(?), hip and knee as well as upper arm. Moves with a short front reach - adequate posterior movement. Good fur quality. Good temperament. Still very puppyish."