Stanley at IKEA

Since we live in Sweden, Stanley came with us to IKEA - not all the way into the store though, but he got a nice walk with my friend Kent, while me and my nephew and dad checked some stuff for the new appartement. Check out this cute video (excuse the quality):

Stanley's diploma

First of all, I will update you about the contact and obedience course that we took at Hundens hus. We finished it last week. The course eventually was really good for us. As you understand, I am the one that needs to learn new things. Stanley followed the course very good indeed, and I was so surprised to see him zig-zag among the other dogs without interference (it just doesn't happen in the park, you see ;)
We also got a lot's of good advices and good exercises to continue to train on. Finally, our teatcher gave Stanley and me a task to continue to work on after the course: Playing.
She really put her finger on a week spot there. I find it very hard to play with Stanley and that he is hard to get going. It's probably me that is the problem here. Every time I try to play with him, he sort of quits after just a little while and looks bothered. I've tried balls, rope, toys, etc. but I am just not as fun to play with as the dogs in the park.. So - if anyone has any advice when it comes to playing, please write!

Stanleys diploma:

Life sign

Hi there all Stanley's friends!

...sorry for not updating the blog so often - but, hey, I have a dog to take care of ;)

I do have some material to publish, though, so just hang on.

Last weekend both me and Stanley were a bit snotty-nosed and took it easy. At the pictures Stanley rests with one of his favourite toys; the pig. It's a dirty pig. However, happily we soon were well again :)

Contact and Obedience Course 1:1

Today me and Stanley went to the first lesson in the first level of the course "Contact and everyday obedience" by "Hundens hus" ("dog house") in Stockholm.

The emphasis for the first lesson was on the contact making and the teacher showed us 3 different exercises for this. Unfortunately two of them was confusingly alike the way we trained the word "no". But the third exercise was good and one could develope it to become more difficult as well.

It was raining and Stanley thought it was strange that he couldn't say hello to the other dogs until after the lesson. The enviroment didn't help his concentration, so to say.

Actually I am not sure if this course is going to be very helpful to us, but at least it's an experience...

bridge training

Today me and Stanley took a stroll to the Marina. I wanted to see how he would react if we went out on the bridge. It went very well, he wasn't scared at all :) I hope it will be possible to take him on our boat some day.

to lift the paw

Training Stanley to lift his paw like shaking hands... he takes the wrong paw, though... The floor is very slippery to him, so that is why he doesn't sit correctly

Stanley making publicity

Suddenly I found a picture of Stanley when I surfed on Drogheda Animal Rescues website, where they talk about the Swedish coopertion. It's the same picture that caught my heart on the Swedish Hundar utan hem's website earlier this summer, and my mother reminded me that I had said to her "this is the dog I want". At that time he was still on Ireland. How lucky I am that I finally got him :)

mommys cellphone art

Stanley is sitting nicely

We quite early starded to train basic commends like "no", "come", "sit" and "lay down", and "let go" etc... but we still have some work to do...

Outing on the mountain

The last day in Jämtland my parents took us out to Ansättern, a mountain. It was a very wet day and probably it was the first time Stanley went on a bog. We let him lose after a while, and he kept his path right with us and perhaps it depended on the very wet ground:

Live agility:
Begging for snacks and sitting nicely: On the way back: Seen from the car:

weird sleeping positions

Stanley loves sleeping (not always in this pose; though)

Inhale
exhale

Playing in Jämtland

Stanley plays outdoors and indoors in Jämtland (excuse the bad quality, its from my cellphone)

Cuddeling

Gudrun said that it would be normal for a dog to bite in his own arm when he is very happy. I don't know, but this is what he does...

Stanley and Emilia

Stanley loves snuggeling, this is while still in Jämtland and the person is Emilia, Gudruns lodger and Stanleys favourite person in Jämtland

Stanley and the kittie

Eventually Stanley and this kittie became good friends and he would kiss her on the belly when she was on her back. The kittie was totally in love with Stanley from the start while Stanley... well this is how it was:

Stanley and Pepparkaka, the rabbit

In Jämtland in the garden lives Pepparkaka (it means "ginger bread") a cute and bold little rabbit. At first Stanley thought Pepparkaka was a very dangerous beeing, but after a while his curiosity took over. Later he became perhaps a bit too curious.

Stanley renovates

We are now back in Stockholm, living in one of two rooms that are not totally in a mess because of renovation. Both of us are very happy to be back in Stockholm, though Jämtland was great too. One thing we missed in Jämtland was special exercise yards for dogs, but here we go out and play with other dogs nearly every day.

Stanley is a very social dog and he always seems to look for new friends. If he sees a person walking he stops to see if there is any dog coming along as well. If there is, he immediately invites to play.

The exercise yard that we have visited the most is in the park Vanadislunden and recently we realised that the park Humlegården that also have an exercise yard is quite nearby. It is great to see Stanley finally getting to run lose and bouncing around. I think he is not only a greyhound mix but also a cangaroo mix.

Stanley don't seem as bothered by the renovation as I am. He gets very happy when our friends the builders come at seven each morning

Greetings from Jämtland

Here comes a note from me and my handsome and excellent dog, Stanley! It was on the 29th of August when I picked him up at his Swedish "transfer keeper", Lia. From there we went to Jämtland, a county in the middle of Sweden, 600 km away.

The reason why we went there was mainly because they are renovating my appartement in Stockholm and also because it would be nice to get to know Stanley better in a calm place. The idéa was that we would stay two weeks, but the renovation has kept dragging on and eventually we stayed a month.

My dads family descends from Jämtland, from the tiny village Föllinge in which I still have som relatives. But our host was this time was a good friend of my mother, Gudrun. Gudruns house was also populated by two cats that we hardly even saw and a six year old Golden Retriever, Siska. Upstairs lived Gudruns lodger Emilia, and she kept her cat there and three adorable kittens. With Stanley and me I counted to 38 legs!

During the days we took long walks in the beautiful landscape and I can proudly tell that we now know every road in Föllinge. I also tried to bike with Stanley and it went quite well on the small paths in the forest where there were not so many distractions.

I am very happy and proud of this wonderful puppy!

Me and Stanley in Föllinge...

View over the village... Stanley and Siska...
Stanley at Näsaforsen (in the background you can imagine the high mountains)