Quality time!

Time to get back to "work" from our summer holiday! We have enjoyed a whole summer of freedom with the whole family without any big plans; we have been swimming, training agility, taking bike trips and long walks in the forest. For my part all the training has been a bit different than normal as I was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my left femur in the beginning of summer. All the running is still forbidden for a few weeks so it's a good thing that I can still do yoga, some strength training, take bike rides and swim. My personal goal for this summer was to learn to prioritize a good nights sleep and I have to say I have done a pretty good job with that. It will be interesting to see how I manage to continue with my sleeping routine when our new every day life starts in a few weeks, but I will do my best! I can see the big difference it makes on so many levels. 

I will write more about this subject later, but I want to start with some dog things first. My first text during the spring about controlling our dogs got very good feedback and as I have a lot to say about the subject, here's some more on that!

Our favourite place this summer: Dog beach!

We have a pack of five dogs and very often we go around with at least three of them at the time. In other words we have to control a pack of dogs most of the time. In my first blog post about control I wrote about some basic rules that we have and how those rules help us to have an "easy" life with our pack. But that's just the outcome of loads of work. In order to control five dogs at the time we must first be able to control them individually. That's because our pack of five dogs consists of five individuals, five really different dogs, who all have their strengths and weaknesses. When we go around with all five dogs the situation easily goes literally to controlling the PACK. Don't get me wrong, when I say "controlling" I don't mean constant negative "no-no-no-don't do that-now wait there!-no-no-no!!!" -speech and correcting dogs' behavior all the time, but to be honest there's no room for individual exceptions.

Behind the scenes. Swimming with this gang means that you have to tolerate some chaos...

            

If we always go around with a pack (or at least a pair) of dogs it is easy to slip into seeing all our dogs just as a member of our pack. But here comes the important part: how they are in the pack is not how they are as an individual. One big responsibility as an owner of many dogs is that we are able to see all our dogs as individuals, know their weaknesses and especially their strengths and that we have a good relationship with all of them separately. And that's why I can't highlight enough the meaning of one-on-one time with each dog separately.

For us the meaning of one on one -time is that we spend time with our dog individually, have fun and enjoy ourselves WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING SPECIAL. This can mean a trip to the city, a walk in the forest or going to aunt's birthday party, but most important thing is that the dog gets to feel that she or he is the special one in that moment. That it's us two spending quality time together. Of course you can do some tricks at the town square or you can play with your dog by a football field if that's just for fun, but if you are there mainly to train, leave it to your next training session.

I picked up raspberries, Amo blueberries. My berries are in the bucket, Amo's in her stomach.

Then someone says: "But I go to many competitions and training with just one dog so we get loads of quality time together!" Or do you? For us this individual one on one -time never means training or competitions. That's because then there's always those expectations and therefore possibilities for disappointment (even if you say otherwise, they are still there). And most importantly, if your one-on-one -time means going to training or competition with just one dog, that means that during his "own" time with you this dog always has to be something more than just your companion.

You have two special girls, especially when you are eating waffles, right?

One-on-one time is something people often do with their young puppies but when the socialization phase is over people tend to end that. There's no time etc. But the starting point for a working pack is to have working individuals. And to have working individuals you need to have a good relationship with each of them. And not just as sport dogs but also as companions. When they are just being a dog. Your best friend. <3

Training and kids and training with kids

As you all probably know, our family consist of me and Thomas, five dogs and two kids. Two lovely, sensitive, lively and energetic boys aged nine and five. Naturally we wish they learn to enjoy the healthy and sporty lifestyle. We want them to learn to love some kind of exercising; it doesn't need to be running or skiing or any other of the sports we do or anything goal-orientated, but we want them to find their own way of staying active.

Heia Norge! And Finland too!

The current hobbies for the boys are more cultural than sporty. L, 9 years, plays piano and sings in Cantores Minores, a world famous boy choir, and has choir rehearsal three times a week in Helsinki, 32 km away from our home. Both hobbies take so much of his free time that there just isn't time for any regular sport hobby, despite how much we and L himself would like him to have one. He loves especially skiing, cycling and handball, so we try to be able to cycle and ski with him as much as possible. Tiny-A, 5 years, goes to a music school once a week and would like to start with dance lessons next fall. REAL street dance lesson, not any kids' dance, this is very important! He LOVES dancing, running, jumping on a trampoline, doing all kinds of stunt tricks and cycling, and would like to do these all day long. He is also really competitive and not the best when it comes to dealing with losing, so you can imagine what happens when he wants to compete in everything with his four years older big brother. And this happens like fifty-nine times per day. 😬

As boys' music lessons and rehearsals take three to four evenings of our week and in addition to those there are all the concerts during the weekends, it is pretty often when we have to be a little bit creative to get all the training fitted into our calendar. I have ran numerous runs in the central park of Helsinki with a dog or two or three while L has been taking his singing lesson. I have trained verbal cues and mat training at a football field during his piano lesson. We have done socializing with puppies in Helsinki city center with some metro and tram rides and shopping mall visits during an orchestra rehearsal of st Matthew Passion. We have picked up A from kindergarten 10 km away from home so that Thomas drives to the kindergarten by car and I run there with some of the dogs, and then I take the car and continue with A to his music school and Thomas runs home with other dogs. And not to even mention all those cross-trainer, yoga and strength training sessions at our training room after boys have gone to bed.

Don't need to train alone even at the late evening yoga-session!

But absolutely the most we like to train together. If we are training during the daytime when boys are still awake they most likely want to join us. It's really great that both of them are nowadays cycling so fast (thanks to the fact that A was able to change into 20 inch kids bike with gears, no jogger trolley to bring with us anymore) that we can run our shorter tempo runs (up to 10 km) and warm ups for intervals while they cycle. When we are running intervals (hills or short intervals, up to 500 meters) boys normally run their own "interval training" with shorter distance and at their own speed. And sometimes they just want to sit by the road and cheer to us while we pass them. Strength training is boys' absolute favorite, then they join us almost every time. Naturally they don't do anything with weights but they learn to do some simple exercises using their own body weight. Or they just goof around with dogs' balance balls. Doesn't really matter, they are being active anyway.

One of our favorite sports to do together is swimming. When we go to the swimming hall or to the lake during the summer, we normally swim and play for a while together and then one of us adults swims his own swimming training and then we change, so that both of us get to swim at least half an hour on our own. And the we finish up with some more time together. We also love to take long walks in the forest so that we have plenty of time to climb up all the rocks and hills we possibly can and play kuuro-gömman, as A calls hide-and-seek. We would love to do some more climbing together and are really looking forward to all the climbing centers to open soon. One of us actually eve more than others...

So what's my message? Active lifestyle and training is possible also during the busy family life. Yes, it won't always be optimal or how you would like your training to be, but the most important thing is to do something. Scheduling, flexibility and compromising is necessary, but worth it. It actually helps you to go out and take the run or whatever kind of training you want to do when it says so in your family's weekly schedule or your own calendar.

I hope that our effort to introduce training and being active as a lifestyle would be something that kids would grow into and it would be a natural part of their life also in adulthood. But at the same time we want them to see those days when we feel too tired for a run and choose to take a long walk in the forest instead. Or change strength training to some yoga. It is really important to be able to tell apart the days when you just feel lazy regarding the training and taking the run anyway would help you to feel better, and when it's necessary to have an extra day with just a long walk. We want them to be able to be compassionate towards themselves and listen to their bodies, and not to do the training "because I have to." Training should always be something you do for yourself, to feel good. It's not something you have to perform to yourself or to others or to look good on social media. Good training doesn't mean biggest muscles or longest runs, it is about taking care of your body and mind.

Being active has been scientifically proven to help people in so many ways when it comes to physical and mental health, so I really feel it is important to keep that as a priority. When it comes to training yourself I feel like it is totally ok to be a bit selfish here (often hard for us mums, I know) and that will in the long run pay off for the whole family. If it helps, think what kind of example you want to show to your kids. Take care of yourself, you are worth it!

Control, control, control

We are sharing our household with five dogs. That can feel like a lot of dogs, I can tell you that, and neither me nor Thomas is very good with tolerating chaos. In order to live a nice life with five active dogs without things turning into turmoil, control is the key thing.

Waiting for your turn

Everything is under control. We really needed that hole right there.

Don't get me wrong, our dogs fool around a lot. Army carries things around in her mouth inside the house and in the garden (the weirder treasure she finds, the better), the dogs play with each other and Amo still tends to bite and hang on my woolen socks growling when ever I'm wearing them. We love to watch our dogs goof around and we have so many good laughs with them. But the key things are that we never allow them to go "over-the-top" and that they have been taught to want to listen to us no matter what. This basically means that it requires only one of us to verbally control our dogs, all of them, at the same time.

Who wins?

How do we make it work then? We have some basic rules which stand in all situations. These rules are something we start to build up the moment the puppy comes home and the work continues throughout the dog's life. First rule, the base for everything else, is that our dogs listen to our recall command in every situation. It doesn't matter if the one being called is playing with a friend or running after a ball, we want our recalls to be so effective that our dogs want to listen no matter what. Our job is to make sure that they never fail with this one, so that their motivation to listen stays high and they don't realize that not-listening is even possible. And this is where we need to be the experts on our own dogs! Working recalls is one of my favorite subjects and I promise to write more about this later on!

"You called?"

Second rule is that our dogs are not allowed to go through any doors or gates that are opened without permission. Same rule applies also to our garden; dogs are not allowed to go out from our gates without our permission. Even if they are with us, if we go through an open gate and keep walking, dogs are expected to stay inside. Third one is that our dogs are not allowed to chase anything. Not birds, not rabbits and not our boys when they are playing (except if the boys ask the dogs to run with them). Naturally our dogs run after each other when they are playing together but neither then they are allowed to bring each other too high up. This means no barking (especially hard for Hipi!), no snapping (Amo struggles with this one) and no benefiting of your bigger size and tackling others (Aaarmyyyy....). Fourth rule actually includes three different commands which all are about "leave it" and calming down and make our life much easier. First one is that the dogs need to stop whatever they are doing when told to (playing, digging, barking etc.). Also"go away" and "lay down" are used quite a bit.

"We know! No chasing a kitty-cat!"

"We left it! In many pieces!"

When all the above mentioned works, life is pretty easy. But none of this comes for free. We have worked countless hours to make things work, and this work actually never ends. We of course still reward our dogs when they are doing good so that their motivation to listen to us would stay as high as it currently is. We always bring some treats (and toys) with us when we are going outside the house with the dogs, and we always try to do short training sessions with them in different places, with different distractions. There's always room for improvement and there's always weak spots to work with, but in the end, what could be more motivating than improving your relationship with your dog and then succeeding together?

Having a break during a horse race

Life with a MALINOIS

Earlier in my life I had never imagined that I would share my home with a malinois. To be honest I have never wanted to share my home with a malinois. I have thought that they are just... too much everything for me. And then I met Thomas. Who had always wanted to have a malinois. And got one.

A little bit over a year ago Thomas flew to Italy to pick up Army. She came to us on quite short notice and earlier than we had originally planned. We also knew that a small sheltie puppy would be joining our family one week later, so one can say we were officially out of our minds. Taking two puppies at the same time is crazy, but taking two puppies with such a bit size difference is just... insane.

Army has landed to Finland

We have probably been super lucky, but the year with two puppies has been really easy. Mostly it has been because of the puppies' characters: Amo is a tough little girl who probably thinks she's the malinois in the household, and Army is not the roughest and toughest maligator in the world. Even I have changed my opinion about the breed: she's so kind, loving and goofy in everyday life that it makes it impossible NOT to like her. But what have I learned about malinois so far?

Amo and Army, BFF's from the start

1. Endless amount of energy
Border collies and shelties are said to be very active dogs and I've also been told that Giggs is exceptionally energetic and lively being a kooiker. All in all, one could say that I have some experience of energetic dogs and I have never experienced that any of my dogs have had too much energy for me. But not one of them have been anything compared to a malinois.

Army has some kind of a project going on all the time. Don't understand me wrong, Army is not nervous, restless or not capable to relax, but she is just like that Duracell bunny. Just keeps going and going and going. She hardly ever walks but runs (preferably full speed) everywhere. She wants to play with her sisters also when they are not in the mood and if not told to knock it off she can be preeetty demanding with her "I WANNA PLAY!!!" -invitations. When being outside she can play with one single cone for ages and ages just by herself, including of course running full speed around with it. And the tail! It never ever stops wagging! Phew! And I have been told that Army isn't even especially energetic to be a malinois. Holy S**T.

When normal digging just is not enough

2. Malinois have a never ending mouthing period
Army LOVES to carry things. When she is excited, bored or just for no reason she takes whatever she finds in her mouth and carries it around. Inside and outside. Shoes, shampoo bottles, socks, sheltie... Anything goes! And naturally every time she needs to be praised on how wonderful a treasure she has found! When we are on a walk she is always carrying a stick or a cone or some trash in her mouth. Yesterday she brought home a football she found in a ditch 4 km away. And talking about sticks...

This wouldn't be the same without the help of a malinois!

3. The BIGGER the BETTER
Don't think that a normal stick is enough for a malinois. She prefers a huge log or even better, a whole tree! If the tree's roots are still partly stuck in the ground and the tree needs to be pulled up using loads of force it makes things PERFECT. That's what the malinois calls a real treasure. And then it's important to run around (full speed!) carrying that 3,5 meter long tree (with a couple of bird nests and the squirrel's nut hidden in it) in your mouth wiping shelties, kooikers and five-year-old kids from their feet with it. Oops.

My precious!

4. Oops!
The weirdest accidents happen around a malinois. A hole can just appear on a wall or a dog bed can explode without the malinois knowing anything about it. She can pick up a soda bottle from a bag of groceries and before you manage to say "no!" she has punctured a hole in the bottle with her teeth. "Whoops, this broke!" And what does the malinois? Drops it on the floor because the soda is spraying right into her mouth? NO! She thinks she has come up with a great new game and runs around with the bottle spreading soda all over the kitchen and living room. One of my favorite moments... Another one happened two days ago when she was without continuous supervision for two minutes and during that she had taken my phone and chewed the cover and the screen from it. Thank god I had a protective glass on top of the screen so just the casing and the cover needed to be replaced. 50 euros, thank you! And let's not even start with all the kids' toys she has destroyed...

Malinois is stuck. Surprise.

5. Limitless amount of love, cuddles and kisses
Right before when I'm about to snap because Army can be... well, a handful, she comes to me, climbs on my lap and places her head on my shoulder and sighs deeply. She might be the clown in the family but she is also the best comforter. If someone is feeling sad you can be sure that Army is there trying to make the sad one feel better. She loves us so unconditionally that I have never experienced anything like that with any other dog I've owned. For Army family is everything, and she shows that to all of us every day. She LOVES to be close, kiss and cuddle, especially with the boys. She's absolutely the best malinois in the world.

Feeling loved.

Our basic principals for working every day life

Let's face it: our every day life is pretty full of things to do. In addition to L's schoolwork he has piano practice, musical theory and choir practice once a week (of which theory and choir practice are held in Helsinki, 35 km from where we live). He has to practice both singing and playing every day at home and spend a little bit over an hour a week to finish his theory home work. Little A doesn't have that many hobbies yet, he has choir music school once a week (in Helsinki, of course), but he would like to start dance lessons from next autumn. And of course they have their friends and other normal kid things they want to do. Oh yes, and it is nice to spend some family time too! Then we have these five dogs, their agility training, walks, exercising, their individual needs etc. And our own training. And eating. And sleeping. And chores. And work. Whoa.

There's always time for a train ride! At least when the driver is this cute.

In order to be able to tackle all this we have some basic principals we try to follow:

1. Take care of yourself and each other

When it feels like everything is falling apart listen to yourself and do what ever your body and mind needs in that exact moment. Go for a walk, play board game with boys, take a long run alone, take a nap, lay on the sofa... Don't mind about laundry or dishes or preparing dinner. Do only the things that are absolutely mandatory, others can wait. You need to rest. When one of us feels like crap the other one steps up and takes charge in the family so that first one gets to rest. If we notice from ourselves or each other that this point is approaching we are not afraid to say it out loud. And it is perfectly fine to be tired. Or need some "own" time. This is the most important thing to make things work in a long run.

Sisters from another misters

2. Plan but be flexible

Every Sunday we sit down and go through next week's calendar. First we write down kids' hobbies, doctor's appointments, dogs' physiotherapy, seminars, competitions, work related things (if they are outside business hours) and other mandatory, pre-scheduled things. And family time for each day (if possible) for board games, playing outside, bike ride, jumping on a trampoline etc. Then we fill in our own agility training at the hall/outdoor ring and after that our own training (running, skiing, strength training, yoga etc.). We have a weekly plan for all our own training; what runs we are going to take, what kind of strength training we are going to do etc. but we normally try not to plan the training calendar on a daily basis as the type of the training also depends on how we feel on that day. Sometimes when our bodies feel tired we change strength training to gentle yoga session and interval training to longer baseline run. But on a weekly level we get all our runs and strength training done. In addition to these we try to do a little bit (or a little bit more) of home training with the dogs every other day.

When malinois needs her cuddles, malinois NEEDS her cuddles.

In addition to all this we plan our dinners on a weekly basis, shopping lists and also when we are going to shop or are we placing an order online. This takes a lot off stress away from our (or actually my) every day life, saves money and helps us to make healthy choices.

My assistant cooks have their own, hairy assistants

3. Bear in mind that this is a lifestyle we have chosen

We have chosen this lifestyle ourselves and it comes with a certain cost, as there is only 24 hours in our days too. For us the main thing is to remember that we have chosen this lifestyle ourselves. I choose out many things that I would LOVE to do but under these circumstances I just don't have time for those. I don't have time to play piano almost at all, we don't go on weekly dates just the two of us or go to theater to see that new play. I don't have time to follow the latest interior trends, read books or bake buns every weekend. When I feel annoyed or disappointed of missing out something I try to remember what I get instead. I can't compare my life to someone else's as they probably have made different choices in their life. The fact that this is a choice brings along the possibility to choose again or adjust our choices. Just for one day or in a longer run. Until now the one-day adjustments have been enough.

And I have two pairs of high heels. Two.

4. Have fun!

We don't want any of our training to be too serious. We love to goof around and have fun together as a family. Yesterday evening our strength training session changed into improvised acrobatic lesson. We had so much fun training the handstand and yoga poses all together! Boys love to join our runs with their bikes as they are always competing against us in Tour de Talma and they ALWAYS manage to win in the end. Darn.

We are both very competitive and really goal orientated in our training but that can't make training too serious. Most important thing for us is to love what we do and the way we live our life.

Trained bordercollie is a happy bordercollie

...and of course we don't always manage to follow our own principals. Sometimes we go for a run even if we are both dead tired, argue about the most ridiculous things and end up running in opposite directions. Sometimes I realize on Wednesday evening that we don't have anything planned for dinner (luckily we have a big freezer) AND we have run out of milk. And sometimes finding the joy of training running contacts can be a bit... challenging. You know the feeling? But the truth is that dogs, agility and training are the things that keep me (and Thomas) going. They are our ways to clean our heads and get our thoughts back together. They are our passion and we would feel much worse without them. And that's the reason we take the dogs to the training room also tonight after the boys have gone to bed and train a little bit.

Welcome to my blog!

I have wanted to start a blog for a while now but haven't been quite sure what I exactly want to write about. I love dogs and agility, but also training, especially running and skiing, are my passion. And then there's of course million other things I would love to write about. :D I have had URL-address for this blog ready for a while already but I have been stuck with deciding the theme for the blog.

Lately I have received some questions of how we make all this work. Five dogs, goal orientated agility training, two kids and their hobbies, healthy eating and training ourselves. Plus all the normal every day stuff. So I realized that I don't have to choose what I'm writing about. This blog is about our life and how we make this cirkus (we call life) to work. Mostly I write about agility, other dog stuff and training but other topics will also be covered. Welcome along!