down to three smooths again

  We finally got the raport from the dog trainer about Ville's little unofficial mental test from last Saturday, so I'll copypaste it and write something about it only in Finnish for starters. A bit more English and link to today's photo gallery below the Finnish part of this entry.

  Suomen kielellä näin vaihteen vuoksi. Käytiin siis viime lauantaina eräässä pääkaupunkilaisessa koirakoulussa vähän juttelemassa Villen menneisyydestä ja sen nykytilanteesta, jossa tekivät sille pienen epävirallisen luonnetestin ja josta lupasivat raportin myöhemmin, joka olisi nyt sitten tässä alla kopioituna mailista kaikille luettavaksi. Olin ohjaamassa Villeä koko käynnin ajan, joten lukeudun kirjoitetussa tiivistelmässä/raportissa Villen omistajaksi (onhan se tavallaan kuin oma, ollut meillä jo niin pitkään). Pidemmittä puheitta, tässä koirakoulussa olleen testintekijän kirjoittama tiivistelmä lauantain tapahtumista:

"Ville kävi omistajansa kanssa la 09.04.2011 neuvolatunnilla, jossa koiran kanssa tehtiin ensiksi pieni lenkki, jonka aikana nähtiin kuinka koira käyttäytyy omistajansa kanssa ja kuinka se suhtautui vastaan tuleviin koiriin, ihmisiin jne. Ville käyttäytyi aivan kuten normaali koira. Ohitustilanteissa ei ilmennyt epävarmuutta ym. Kun kättelin omistajaa, niin Ville oli hieman epävarma, mutta hetken päästä tuli minua kuitenkin haistelemaan. Lenkin jälkeen teimme pienimuotoisen luonnetestin, jossa kävi ilmi, että Ville on kovahko koira ja sillä on hyvä hermorakenne ja se näin ollen palautui testin kaikista osioita hyvin.

Testin ensimmäisessä osiossa testinä oli "pikkunukke" (pieni uhka), johon Ville reagoi hieman epävarmasti eli hieman pakitti ja nosteli selkäkarvojaan, mutta katsoi kuitenkin omistajaa ja tuli om. pyynnöstä haistelemaan samaa kohtaa, jonka om. koiralle osoitti eli luotti omistajaansa.
Testin toisessa osiossa oli "isonukke", joka kuvasti aikuista uhkaa ja siinä Ville oli selkeästi epävarmempi ja veti hännän koipien väliin, mutta palautui ja tuli haistelemaan samaa kohtaa, jonka om. osoitti koiralle.
Viimeiseksi tein "kolinapurkkitestin" eli siinä nähdään kuinka koira reagoi kovaan ääneen ja kuinka siitä palautuu. Ville on ääniherkkä, mutta palautui testistä hyvin.

Yhteenvetona testistä tulee selkeästi ilmi, että koiraa on pahoinpidelty ja sille on siitä jäänyt trauma, jonka johdosta koira käyttäytyy epävarmasti.

Villelle annettiin mukaan tippakuuri, jonka avulla yritetään hoitaa traumaa ja tarvittaessa kuuria voidaan jatkaa. Ville on vaihtanut kotia jo niin usein, että en enää suosittele tämän jälkeen kodin vaihtoa. Tulevan omistajan tulee olla johdonmukainen ja suosittelen lukemaan Pertti Vilanderin koirankorjauskirjan, jossa puhutaan laumahierarkiasta ja kuinka ihmisen tulisi käyttäytyä koiran kanssa. Villeä ei tule rauhoitella tilanteissa, joissa se on epävarma eikä pakottaa tutustumaan ihmisiin jos se ei sitä omatahtoisesti halua.
Toivotan Villelle ja uudelle omistajalle hyvää jatkoa ja ennen kaikkea kärsivällisyyttä, jotta Villellä olisi parempi loppuelämä."

Että sellaista. Itse en kyllä ihan täysin ole Vilanderin laumahierarkia-opin kannalla, jota ko. koirakoulu tukee, mutta kohtuu asiallista tekstiä. Vähän ehkä osviittaa mahdollisille kotiehdokkaille (joita tällä hetkellä on yhäkin se yksi lupaava).
Pieni nukke oli käytännössä virallisen luonnetestin kelkka, joskin vetomatka lyhyempi. Iso nukke oli kuin lt:n puolustus (omistajan kanssa), joskin tässä ei kirjaimellisen hyökkäävä vaan ainoastaan uhkaavasti lähestyvä. Kolinapurkki heitettiin maahan normaalin kävelyn yhteydessä koiran aavistamatta minkään asian tapahtumista. Ville reagoi jokaiseen väistäen, mutta haisteli jokaista uutuutta kohtuu nopeasti.

15.08.2011 kirjoitettu lisämaininta:
Testin tehneen ja raportin antaneen henkilön (+koirakoulun) nimi poistettu pyynnöstä.
Toivon, ettei raportin itsensä pitäminen blogissa tuota suurempaa haittaa, sekin on poistettavissa.
Pahoitteluni jos sanamuotoni tässä blogissa tuottivat/tuottavat mielipahaa, puhun vain omien mielipiteitteni kautta eikä kaikesta voi olla aina täysin samaa mieltä. En teilaa tätä koirakoulua heidän tavoistaan tai metodeistaan missään nimessä - on kunnioitettavaa, että on olemassa aktiivisia koirakoulukeskuksia auttamaan omistajia koiriensa kanssa.

  So.. other than that, we were at beach today with the whole pack since people won't be going there yet (still snow on the ground and too cold weather). Found a small corner without snow and stayed there for almost two hours, I had a camera with me so I took some photos. After that we got back inside and chilled for an hour till Riikka-Liisa called that they're coming back home. I took all the dogs with me again and headed to walk to their place. Tuike seemed really happy to meet her owners again after a week and a half staying with me. We walked together with their 3 Roughs and my 3 Smooths (girls+Ville) for a while before they went to get some rest after their trip. Myself I returned home with my pack.
Check today's photo gallery: Tuike, Ville, Veila and Titja

Finally edited these photos aswell, from the 1st day of this month. The very last walk that I had with Nadja. Kinda hurts to watch into those eyes again and again, browsing through the photos.. Forever friend.

Tuike, female Rough Collie who stayed with us for a week and half.

too much cute

Everyone's been asking how am I and how is my life after what happened to Nadja.
Now to tell you, first of all I'm perfectly fine. Just like I wrote in my previous blog entry, I actually calmed down when I saw her to fall asleep for the very last time. Sure the last week was probably the most awful one that I've ever had in my entire life and I cried really a lot. And I cried when I got home.. but that was it. Her behavior took my energy more than I actually wanted to admit and there are so many habits I learned to do just to keep our daily life safe from her. When have I last heard a doorbell without a dog's wild bark? When's the last time I've kept my whole pack outside without leashes during the daytime? When's the last time I've seen dogs to share treats from the same bowl without fights? Bloody hell, I don't know.

One dog breeder from abroad contacted Riikka after reading my long blog entry about Nadja and told that she knew Nadja's grandmother who acted the same way as Nadja and even killed a smaller dog from the same family. The dog that this breeder took back from this family had her head full of marks from other dog's attacks.. what to say more about this. Blood lines? I'm surprised that Ville is so sweet compared to what his sister ever was.

Anyhow, we have found an extremely nice person who is interested in Ville, which is good. Now we're waiting for hers and her husband's decision about him. She's from Lahti so if they're gonna take Ville, he wouldn't go so far and we would have higher possibilities to see him quite often still.
On Saturday me and Riikka brought Ville to the dog trainer (Koirakoulu Kiti), to where we actually had time reserved for Nadja before, and talked his past life situations through. They made a little mental test for him and it appears to be that Ville afterall is somewhat a hard dog. The trainer was upset about my decision to not keep him seeing how good relationship I have with the dog. They promised to write us a short summary about the whole meeting so we're waiting for that, I'll probably post it on my blog when we get it (in Finnish only though).

Yesterday I had quite a busy day. Early in the morning I went to see MH-character test with Johanna (almost-neighbour with 2 Smooths). We watched together Pete's (Clingstone's Got To Be) turn and I must say how positively surprised I got seeing how he was. Really impressive, too bad the only thing he reacted to were the gun shots.. Once Pete was done, Johanna's sable dog Walle (Timonan White Whistler) started his own turn. Walle's a really soft dog so it didn't go so well - his test got unfortunately cancelled. Since the owner cancelled the test, they have a chance to try again sometime but Johanna's pretty sure that one time was enough already. Walle got a reserved place for a normal mental test too, so we'll see.
Photos: http://korvakoirat.kuvat.fi/kuvat/MH+character+test/

After Walle's MH-test Johanna drove us back to Lahti and we went to her place. She got there just a week old Smooth Collie puppies along with their dam, Helmi (Timonan Tawny Taylor), and since the litter will be registered under Timonan kennel name as a Z-litter, I promised to take a few photos of the puppies for their actual breeder Tuula (lives in Pekola, close to Hämeenlinna). I can't express how damn cute the puppies actually were, but I guess I'll head weekly to take new photos of them so they'll bring back my puppy lust - I want one now! Good thing all the females should be reserved already so I can't even dream about them, males aren't my thing. One female puppy called Minni with a lot of white in her face and a brown spot in the middle of her white collar made my heart melt. I can't wait to see these cuties again!
Photos: http://korvakoirat.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Timonan+Z-litter%2C+1+week/

We went outside with Johanna and her dogs Walle and Paavo (Timonan Yamas Yannick, Veila's brother) and met their neighbour who owns Walle's sister Enni (Timonan Whitney Whopper). So we headed to the forest and I had the chance to take photos of all those three.
Photos: http://korvakoirat.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Enni%2C+Walle+and+Paavo/

Finally Johanna gave me a drive back home, but of course since I had started photographing, I couldn't stop. Riikka came over with all of her Collies: sable smooths Pate (Papaya Whip Van Shaka's Royal Kraal), Sampo (Dandinas Quite A Show), Viivi (Calibra's Dream Veawer) and a tricolor rough Kati (Faerie's Fortunate). We took posing photos of her dogs and I tried a bit of obedience aloen with Pate and Viivi. Pate felt really weird since I've only been doing show stuff with him and he's SO BIG compared to any other Collies that I've used to handle. Viivi stayed a week with me last summer just to train obedience so I was glad to see how she still remembered what I taught her last year.
Photos: http://korvakoirat.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Tiggerwoods+Collie-pack/

That's pretty much all about it. :) I've had four Collies again in my apartment for a week by now. My own girls, Ville and my friend's Rough Collie bitch called Tuike (Silimen Tähti Olen Minä). She'll stay with us till next Thursday because her owners are visiting abroad - don't remember where, but last time I got a message from them they were having 28ºC sunny weather! Hopefully they'll bring the same into Finland, I'm sick of all the remaining snow.

Helmi with her seven sable puppies.

fear no more

In loving memoriam Ineed You of Meadows "Nadja", 19.03.2009 - 01.04.2011
Photo is the last one taken at home, leaving for her final journey beyond this reality.

Everything happened quite fast. Waiting was probably the worst time in my life, I wanted it to be over already and in the other hand I never wanted it to happen. The last night I spent together just with her, my other dogs were elsewhere, and she seemed to sense that everything's not right. She was all the time there for me, listened to me and licked my tears away like saying I shouldn't be sad.

I've cried. A lot. Mostly the past few days and this morning before we went to the vet. My best friend Anni walked with us to the bus stop, there were no words needed anymore between us.

I travelled alone with her. At the vet I was alone. As I saw her fall asleep for the last time I told her how much I've always loved her and how sorry I was for this decision, but that it was for her own sake. I had imagined the situation countless times already and every time it had made me cry.
For real it didn't. As much as I knew I'm going to miss Nadja and as much as it actually hurted me, watching her being unconscious made me feel peaceful. I actually got the feeling that I was doing something right, and everything's going to be alright. She wouldn't have to stress and fear anymore.

The vet was kind and explained all the time what he was doing. At 3:54pm he told me that Nadja's heart had stopped beating. That brought the first tears in my eyes at the vet station. He let me stay with Nadja for around ten minutes more, I kept petting her and thinking about everything we've gone through.
We even had a small conversation with the vet's assistant before I left. I told her the reason for my decision and she was understanding. When she told she needs to take Nadja's body away I touched Nadja's heart-shaped black mark on her right side and let her go. Real tears came when I picked up her leash from the bench and walked outside. In the waiting room I stopped to change fast words with an old woman who had brought her 17-year-old dog for its final journey aswell.

But now I know, you're somewhere without hurt, without stress, without fear. Somewhere where you can be happy again. We'll never forget you and someday we'll meet again across the rainbow bridge.

If tears could build a stairway and thoughts a memory lane
I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again.
Linda Toivonen made this beautiful video of Nadja, thank you. ♥


Why did this happen though? See the blog post from yesterday:
  korvaamaton ystäväni
  my invaluable friend