Happy Birthday, Jodi!

Today is Mr. L's niece's birthday, Miss Jodi. She's the cutest little girl in the whole world..

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Happy 6th Birthday, Jodi!

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Sending you lots of hugs & kisses all the way to NYC from Sweden.

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ps. She's having her b-day party tomorrow, and she's gonna have a princess-pirate cake..hihi...

A summary

As I mentioned before, this week is, and will continue to be horrible.. including the weekend since I have so much school work to do. I will get a break during Saturday though, considering we have a Dog Show to attend. I'm really excited about it, it's been a while since Jay was shown. Please cross your fingers for the Baby Blue. :) Oh and not this weekend but the following, Gabbi and I are going to attend a handler class.. should be fun!

The results for the exam I took last Friday came out today, and I did really well. I cannot believe it considering I thought I totally failed it. I don't want to honk my own horns, but I've done great in school ...I'm a VG-student (honor student) but OMG I'm so tired of it now. So to be honest, I can't describe how shocked and happy I am for passing this test with flying colors when all "the school energy" has been drained out of me.

Right now we are working on a research paper (Ulrika & I), we did an interview with the CEO of a company last Tuesday. The paper is due this Tuesday coming up ... and another paper/analysis is due on Sunday in the other class I am taking.. so as you can hear, my weekend is screwed except for when I get a break to go to the Dog Show. I so long for Tuesday to come along, I will jump high when both these papers have been sent in.

We had WP training last night. It was fun as usual. Did "chain training" and "cart training". I had bought a new tug-of-war toy for James which he hadn't seen before and he went totally crazy for it. When pulling a little heavier, his technique was no longer any good because he was so focused on trying to get to his toy. He even started bouncing in order to get the cart rollin' ... Next time I will go back to using treats during the pull, and not until he has finished the pull will he get his beloved toy.

We were supposed to meet Anna & Aston tonight for obedience training but it was cancelled. Anna had forgotten she was going home to visit her family for the weekend and had to leave straight after work today. But we'll see each other next week ...

Anyhow, that's about it. Back to school work. :(

Busy "school" bee

I'm a busy bee when it comes to school work. I have so much going on right now.. aaaaahhhhh. Tired of it, but I have to suck it up! Anyhow, I'm about to call it quits for tonight.. Time to watch some TV.

The rain stopped

In the late afternoon the rain actually stopped and even the sun came out. :) Jamie and I immediately jumped in the car and sped off to the park/forest we so often go to (Mr. L is sick with a cold and Baby Alih is in the country this weekend thus it being just the 2 of us) . We did obedience and search in the park, and we were all by ourselves... nice! Jay was really, really alert. His heel was great and his search was even better. He found the items I hid for him in no time. :)

After that we went for a walk in the forest. I had (and always have) James off leash when we take this route... He may be a wild baby with an ADD disorder (damp/ADHD), but he has soooo many good traits too. For example, having him off leash. When we meet other dogs or people or horses (yeah lots of horses in this area), he immediately comes back to me when I call him. Such a good baby - just wanna kiss and kiss and kiss him. :) And I have to say, with age the ADD characteristics have become so much better. He was such a wild puppy but I believe along with him getting older and with maturity an amazing dog has appeared. Obviously all the work and training put in to him has helped a great deal! Me LOVE Jamie. :)

Bored!

Yeah, I'm bored today. The weather sucks (rain, rain and more rain). I should take the opportunity to get some school work done 'cause the next week and a half will be miserable. I'm gonna be crazy busy with school stuff. :( But the problem is, I don't feel like it. All I ever do is study or train with James. Now, don't get me wrong. Training with James is great fun but it would be nice to do something else too.... Mmmm, what to do??!!!

Jay and I have practiced some stacking today. We have a show coming up next weekend. I'm really looking forward to that since he hasn't been shown since August when he brought home the C.A.C (CERT). I'm crossing my fingers he will do great this time too. Not necessarily another C.A.C but sure, that would be nice. :) The thing with dog shows though, is that you never know how it will end ... All judges are different, so it can end ANY which way. One must never assume anything. It's going to be a Finish judge at this dog show and what I've been told, a lot of Finish judges like the AmStaffs quite small which may not be great news for James. At the same time, this judge may not look for that... All we can do is cross our fingers (& toes) and wish for the best. :)

I have also practiced on trying to get Jay to understand that he can move his hind quarters (bakdel) separately. 'Cause trust me, he suck at that. That's obviously my fault for not having practiced that earlier, but some dogs just seem to get it on their own almost. However, Jay is not one of them. :) He knows "back up" and I'm trying to get him to learn to back around corners so he can learn to "control" his hind quarters better, that way. Well, well...we'll see how that goes.

Nice Pitbull

I really liked this guy thanks to his beautiful and massive head. And check out those muscles. :) It's painful to know that so many people hate this breed. Nothing wrong with the breed, the problem is that they often attract the wrong type of people due to their "tough" exterior. Laws need to be passed against idiotic dog owners, not laws against specific breeds.

WP this morning

We had WP training this morning and it was great fun... A lot of people showed up, and the weather was actually nice (believe it or not!). Half the group took their dogs (with chains) on a walk while the other half stayed on the track. I had just walked Jay in the area before training started, so we stayed on the track instead. After a few laps with a chain, it was time to start pulling the cart. Since the other group was still out and about, the 4 of us who had stayed, our dogs got a chance to pull several times. Jayness did really good! Well except for that he has started having problems standing still the few seconds between getting him hooked to the cart and while I get in to position. He almost spins around, so I have to keep re-setting him. I don't know what that is all about, but hopefully it will go away on it's own as he gets more and more experienced. Other than that, the boy can pull. While most dogs pull slowly (i.e. walk) James pulls fast (i.e. runs almost). Everything has to go fast when it comes to Mr. Jesse James. :)

I can tell all the training (WP, obedience etc.) has paid off when it comes to his whining. It has become soooo much better! :) Anyhow, a trip to IKEA might be on the schedule... Ciao.

Here's a clip of how WP can look like during winter time.

5 hours later...

5 hours of examination and I feel both "empty" and dizzy. It's hard to describe how exhausting it is to sit for 5 full hours... and seriously, the time goes so fast that it just as well could have been a matter of 1 hour only. But once the exam is finished & sent in, that's when you "feel" the 5 hours. My back and neck are killing me... and my head is just ....hm, I have no words for how it feels like. The best thing about this day - the damn exam is over!

How did my agenda look like today?

- As always - walked the dogs!! Sometimes it feels like that's all I do.

- Vacuumed & did some "picking up".. How damn boring is that!!! I so would prefer to pay a cleaning service (that's the American in me). Seriously! But I'm a freakn' student and this is Sweden....so all I can do is continue to DREAM! Back to LaLa Land. :)

- Studied (should I scream now or later????)

- Mom made lunch for us :)

- Studied (Ok, I'm screaming right now!!)

- Met with Anna & Aston at the local Dog Club. Wow, Jay thought it was exciting with so many dogs... Lots of Rotties, he might have thought there were "Alihs" everywhere. :) He was really well behaved though and very good when it came to not whining ... VERY HAPPY ABOUT THAT! Did pretty good during training too, a little bit unfocused but that's ok. It was his first time there and lots of excitement everywhere around him. We practiced recall, down-stay (for 2 min), and heel mostly. Until next Thursday, we will continue the heel training but we'll also start working on stand/stay during walk.

- Ate an omelet Mr. L made .. Yum!

- Studied... aaaaaand.... Now, I'm blogging. But it's definitely time for some TV.

Tomorrow is that nasty exam - between 3pm and 8pm. Can barley wait, so exciting... NOT! :)

Anyhow, that's it for the sarcastic me. Hopefully I will wake up like my normal self tomorrow, like the little Angel I usually am. Would Mr. L read this he would laugh his pants off, considering I'm a blond, blue-eyed devil as far as he's concerned. :)

I'm up

I was forced up around 8:15 this morning, even though I was up really late studying last night. I have started staying up too late, I am an evening/night person but I don't like it when it starts getting too late all the time 'cause that just messes up the whole day... I still like getting up at a descent time in the morning. For awhile now, I have been going to bed around 2 am and getting up around 9 am. A bit too late as far as I am concerned. At the same time - what the heck... I only got another few months left, after that, this kind of life is sooooo over!

Anyhow, I'm about to eat my porridge and hit the road with the dogs... Later!