Fountains in Fryslân

Last week Workum, this week Stavoren or in my language Starum

This fountain is called "De Visfontein" de fish fountain, 

Well this one is huge!!!!! really huge.

The water from this huge animal is making a lot of noise, and there is water coming out of all places.

The waterflow looks like the teeth of the fish.

Leia has watched the water flow for a few moments and then she was not really interested, there where birds, and she loves birds so much.

I think you can even go in this big fish, but it was too cold, also I don't know about dogs. And then I think it could be slippery and I don't want Leia to get injured, so we took the pictures in front of this giant animal.

I hope you like the trips we take to the fountains, and maybe if you are in Fryslân you want to visit them also.

Next week another one.

checking out the huge fish of Stavoren

Tricks on tuesday, Emmy has her novice title

Emmy and I have been training, and having fun

And we did it.

Emmy is Novice trickdog!!

As you could see in one of my friday posts, Emmy is a weirdo and she did so many tricks and in the middle of the trick

she would lie down on her back.

So the final video I had to send in for her title is far from perfect, but she did it.

And as long there is no camera, she will really do a great job.

I'm proud of Emmy and I love her so much 

And here is a little video of Emmy jumping over a bar

Fountains in Fryslân

Last week was Harlingen, this week is Workum

This one is called "de Woeste Leeuwen van Workum" 

Personally, from the pictures I found this one not really pretty, to be honoust I tought he is hideous.

But in real life, well ok, not my favourite, but not that ugly as I thought from the pictures

It is really a high one and the water will come out at different speeds, from their paws.

Workum is a coast city so like Harlingen it was very very windy, and that made the water of fountain blowing on our backs.

I don't think Leia was impressed by this huge masterpiece, she was more interested in her cookies.

shake hands 

What to put in your Kong or Lickiemat

So this week I tried to think of something for the Lickie mat and Kong.

I also bought some other nice toys wich you can stuff from outward hound, 

I had some of their daily food allowence and mixed in a few treats, I have so many treats so I just put them there and I had a nice sausage from Rodi.

That is pretty easy because it is soft and sticky, so dry kibble will stick to it, and the food doens't come too easy out of the toys.

So next thing I did is I got a paper towel, covered the kibble and with a hamer I smooshed all dry food until it was a powder like substance! You should cover it, otherwise kibble will fly everywhere.

I put the powdered kibble in all my toys and lickymats. I spread out some of the sausage and the dogs where very happy!!!

They liked this way better then the plain kibble with the official Kong stuffing.

On the Move

I wanted to revisit the on the move topic again.

I'm super happy we had some nice video's of shows.

Here you see Dita in july 2018 in Luik Belgium

She became 3rth best veteran in show

That year she was a few times on the podium

in Luik, Den Bosch, Goes and Hazerswoude dorp

In this video clip Dita is 8,5 years and I think that it is a real nice "on the move" clip 

Fountains in Fryslân

Last week, we went to Bolsward and to Harns (Harlingen) to take a picture with Leia

and a fountain that was placed for the capital city of Europe 2018

Leeuwarden was capital city and all 11 cities in our Province got a fountain.

The fountain in Harlingen is a huge whale, and it will blow water every now and then.

I was told it will blow water at rhithem of the breathing of a whale.

We could not get really close to it. 

But we could get a nice shot of the fountain with Leia and me.

It was superwindy and really cold with the water.

When we took our picture the fountain started to blow water, and it is pretty cool it sounds like a whale too.

Super super windy

Posing with a buoy @ harbour in Harlingen

Fit dog friday square challenge

Here is a nice challenge for both you and your dog.

I'm always looking for fun stuff to do.

So last year I came across fitness with Fido.

Emmy has done a lot of challenges with me, 

doing fitness with your dog is really fun.

And doing fitness with Emmy is double fun

The square challenge was a nice challenge where the person needed to do a jump squat

and then jump in a square patten.

Then later you had to make sure your dog did a sidestep and backing up, in a square pattern.

Emmy has this weird behaviour of getting on her back to get cuddled in the middle of all kinds of sessions

She can do this is training, or in recall, and she does it also when we do fitness.

Here is the video of the square challenge, try it yourselve, it is a pretty nice workout for both.

Tricks on tuesday Roll over.

Still no dogshows, but always active!!!!

This week I like to show you how I teach a roll over.
I did post this video as an instructional video for my trick training group, but I really

like to share it here on the website.

I'm still not a great speaker to a camera, it feels really awkward, but I will get better.

So If I'm not explaining it super, I'm sorry.

Enjoy the video I made with Vivien,  and maybe you will even try to do a roll over yourselve!

Fountains in Fryslân

No dogshows................
Leia is in junior class now, and it looks not like there will be any dogshow soon.
We sure hope she will be in the ring when she is still young enough to compeat for a junior title

She was also in the competition "Mooiste hond van Nederland" that competition is also postponed and we don't know if the actual Animal Event will be held.

Leia is now a Novice trick dog, that is the only thing we can do from our home.

But in 2018 Ljouwert was capital city of Europe! And because of that there where placed 11 fountains in our Province Fryslân.
So to show of Leia a little bit, I try to take a picture of Leia with the fountains.

This one is "de Vleermuis" in Boalsert (Bolsward) Vleermuis is dutch for Bat
It is also the closest to where we live

We took pictures with this fountain last year also, when Leia was just a tiny baby puppy and her brother Asterix was still living with us.

Kong recipe with banana

So I'm probably the latest person on this earth to buy a Kong for the furkids.

Don't ask me why, I have no idea.

But last week I decided it was time to buy one. (I do have lickimatz for a long while now)

I really love it when my dogs are having succes so I bought the original Kong stuffer also, 

So first try was with the stuffer and kibble, that was a huge succes, just put in the kibble a little bit of stuffing and there you go.

I came across some recipes and so I gave it a try.

There where a few bananas left, and they already begin to get brown ( I like my bananas green)

So I cut them into small pieces and put them in the Kong.

Just to make sure my dogs would start with it, I put a little bit of stuffing in it also, it has Liver flavour so that makes it a bit 

more succesfull.

Well my conclusion.

Mehhh, my dogs love banana, if I'm eating a banana they always run to me to get a piece.

When you put it in a Kong, well that it is not interesting enough.

Lucky and Emmy found it ok.

And so was it with Star, Judy and Vivien, they found it ok, but not that they really enjoyed it.

Scarlett, Leia and Anna didn't even finish it. They just licked out the liver taste and then left the rest.

So banana recipe is a bit of a fail, but maybe your dog is enjoying it. 

(Anna really hated a smashed banana on her lickimat aswell)

I will probably try and post more Kong and Lickimat recipes because it is pretty easy to make, and with the right ingredients dogs do like it!!!

Kong with Banana

Kong with Banana 

Fit dog friday Paws up Disc

Here is again a nice Fit dog friday post.

Scarlett was my demo dog for level 1 and here is a level 1 video for you

Frontpaws on disc Use your imagination I used a fitbone because I do have multiple items, but you can use an inflatable disc you can buy in a lot of cheap stores. And you can use a sofa cushion Make sure to use positive reinforcement and lots of treats and praise

And as you can see in this video I used the fitpaws fitbone

This is a real great exercise for limb awaress and works muscles in both front and rear.

The inflation of the disc or bone makes the exercise more difficult

Tricks on tuesday, with Vivien

Another tuesday, we are still at home, without any dogshows or events........

I must say it is getting weird, I do get payed but it does not feel ok.

But we do spent our times very well, and I started to train Vivien a bit.

I knew she would jump through a hoop, and she would probably do a sit and a stay and such.

And I could just take the novice tricks I did with the other dogs, but I tried to do something else.

Yes ofcourse we have our sit and down, only I now added a send to pedestal to my list.

Years ago I went to a real dogschool and they made me get my dog to a mark, and not even a real target mark, but I needed to send my dog

out to a place where I left my leash.

Ofcourse the dog I was training with, did not get it. And with force (yes omg with force) we had to made her go over to her leash.

And that is the reason I just stopped with such exercises as sending my dog away.

In the trick list of do more with your dog, you must send your dog to a pedestal, and the distance can be a little less then 1 meter.

So how I did this was, encourage Vivien to get onto the pedestal and treat her a lot of cookies.

With only a few cookies she was enthousiastic enough to go on it.

So she now knew the pedestal and I gave my cue word. ( I use my frisian cue word but it is like hop it up or something)

I stood next to the pedestal, said my cue word Viv jumped up, and I treated on the pedestal, (never treat when they get of)

That went pretty well with a few cookies also, then I increased the distance from the pedestal.

I made sure that every time Vivien went up on the platform I would reward with a lot of treats.

With in a few repetitions Vivien knew the drill and I teached her a trick I haven't been doing for 15 years because of the bad ways they where teaching.

I'm pretty proud we did this in a positive way

I hope you like this little educational story, I'm sure happy we can do something with our dogs in those weird times