Endo Sensei in Stockholm

Endo Sensei seminar in Stockholm has started and it feels great to be back in the epicentre, with all my dear aikido friends from all over the world. I have not seen them since in July. Three days of Yudansha seminar, and then an open weekend seminar. I will be caught up in aiki heaven during these days, therefore not much blogging. There will probably be a review after...

Winter wonderland for real...

Snow, sun, 15 below zero...

Outside my grandmothers house,

with Sankta Gertrud's church in the background

I am in Västervik now, visiting my grandmother and some other relatives. If there was a lot of snow in Malmö, then this is winter wonderland. I feel blessed to come home to a winter like this. The Swedish winter is normally as unreliable as the Swedish summer. You might get the real thing, but you might as well get grey nothingness. I honestly don't think that I have seen this much snow since I was a child. I have not made snow angels yet, but tomorrow I will put some ski pants on and go out and play in the snow! Pictures will come.

Israelis possibly experience snow if they spend army time in the Golan Heights. That's basically it, or if they go abroad of course. I hope to bring both my man and the boys to a Swedish winter like this at some point, because there is nothing like it.

My parents walking to the car,

passing the huge snow piles

Winter wonderland

My flight went smoothly. Also security. Yoram always follows me through the first security check to alleviate the interrogation. "How long have you known each other?" "Do you know anyone that your boyfriend does not know?" How do you answer that? "No, he did not let me leave the house alone for 8 months." or "Yeah, I know a bunch of Palestinians on the West Bank." I guess that they would prefer to hear the former, while the latter is more close to the truth. "Did you pack your luggage yourself?" "Did anyone ask you to bring a package on their account?" "Yeah, there was this Arab guy I met..." Duh...

In Malmö the snow keeps on falling and I feel blessed to come home to a real winter. I had to scrape the windows on the car and I skidded around on the streets. Other than that things are the same. I drank my coffee at Kaffebar and the owner Samir was so happy to see me that he almost cried. I had brought him a nice Misbaha (Islamic prayer beads) made of volcanic stone that I bought in Daliyat al-Karmel. It will be a lot of hanging at Kaffebar during my time in Malmö.

I was about to go to aikido with Stefan Stenudd tonight but it is snowing so hard that I cannot even see my car anymore, so the Shihan will have to wait for my attendance until after my visit further up North.

Thick as a brick

The kids have been here this weekend and we have also had Swedish aikido guests, so my packing could not practically start until today Sunday, and tonight Yoram will take me to the airport for a flight at 5.30 tomorrow morning. I am a list-writing person and the list for preparations and packing was prepared since a few days back, which just lets me follow it today. Last night I had a pounding pain over my right eye and I suspect a sinusitis, which of course is something of the worst to combine with a flight, but what can you do? Nasal decongestion drops in masses to relieve the pressure-induced pain and then I will have to see if I have to take more serious measures when I arrive in Sweden.

Both dogs follow me around like two curious shadows since they sense that something is about to happen. Some moments it feels more painful to leave them than to leave Yoram. Yoram can after all reason, he knows that I will be back and we will talk and chat and so on, but for the dogs, Mummy just disappears for four weeks. Maybe I will be ridiculous enough to ask to talk to them through the phone at some point. They are after all my babies...

Malmö Jews can blame themselves..?

Malmö's Social-Democratic mayor Ilmar Reepalu has again displayed his ignorance and musty views. In a local newspaper he was interviewed (in Swedish) about the galloping anti-Semitism in Malmö and the fact that the Jewish population is fleeing the city. In present situation the activities in the Malmö Synagogue needs protection by security forces and sometimes police. Jews are advised against visiting the Jewish cemetery alone, and Jews are afraid to wear Jewish symbols like Star of David and Kippah in public.

Reepalu claims to believe that these threats come exclusively from extreme rightist groups and he pretends to be completely unaware of the fact that fundamentalist Islamist groups and the extreme left are the ones that are mainly responsible for spreading anti-Semitic propaganda today.

On the question whether he has considered doing something, he answered (free translation):

We neither accept Zionism, nor anti-Semitism. They are both extremes that put themselves above other groups, considering them less worthy.

This literally means that he denies the state of Israel its right to exist, as well as defining any supporter of Israel as being a racist. These are no light accusations.

Operation Cast Lead, which was initiated after 8 years of terror attacks on Israeli civilians, created a "furuncle" according to Reepalu, of which the responsibility lays completely on Israel. He concludes by laying over the responsibility for the anti-Semitic harassments on the Malmö Jews themselves (free translation):

I wish that the Jewish congregation would publicly condemn Israel's violations on the civilians in Gaza. Instead they chose to arrange a rally on Stortorget, which can send the wrong signals.

This literally means that he suggests that every Jewish person, no matter how strong connection to Israel they have (or not), can be held personally responsible for Israeli national business, and if they don't speak up against it, they can blame themselves for being harassed.

Very strange and rotten logic - and very 30's style...

Aikido fix

It is an amazing privilege to guide people into new realms of aikido and to step on new ground together, building new confidence, but one of the compromises has been that I have not had anyone that could really throw me the way that I am used to be thrown. Luckily Jan has provided that during these couple of days and I can happily conclude that I have not lost it. During these six months I have neither had anyone who could give a full feedback to the people throwing me - it is hard to see all details yourself while in the air - but also that aspect has got some substantial attention.

Tonight is the last day with Jan here in Israel and I have this melancholic feeling already, but it soothes me a lot to know that I have 10 whole days with these guys in Stockholm during my visit in Sweden. That fix will then have to last until the summer when it is time for Lillsved again. Back in Israel we are stuffed with things to work on for the meantime...

Almost private session with Jan in Tivon

Yesterday the classes were here in Tivon, which means that most of the people from the Tel Aviv bubble will not make the effort to come, which is their loss and our gain. We do the one-hour drive four days out of five, but they cannot do it even one day out of five. Anyway, we were only 20 people on the mat, which resulted in the best practice during the whole seminar. It was almost like a private lesson where Jan focused exactly on the things where we felt that we needed some good feedback to proceed in the right direction.

Jan praised the progress that our group has made in their ability to move freely and take nice high falls and much to my humble delight he several times acknowledged my contribution to this noticeable development. The feedback we now got was that the way we throw is very care-taking and helping. It is natural that the nage carries a lot of weight when most of the people are in the initiation phase, but from now on it is time to start throwing with less aid - still supportive of course, but the uke's need to develop more independence.

After the amazing aikido we gathered at Anati's house and ate all the food people had brought. The buffet was least to say international, with typical Middle-Eastern stuff like hummous and tahina, but also Kurdish kubbeh and stuffed vine leafs, Anati's famous leek latkes, Japanese sushi, Latin-American ceviche, together with a bunch of salads, pies, bread, and of course wine, desserts, coffee and tea... We slept nicely after that. Today we are up for another few hours of aikido treats...

The most amazing ceviche

Mediterranean Hake aka Merluza

I have figured out that the white fish must be a Mediterranean Hake (Merluccius merluccius), aka Merluza or Merliza (sic). The fish was so fresh still today that it almost rattled out of the fridge and did not smell fishy at all. Now he is sliced in small pieces and marinated in lemon juice, and in in a few hours when the meat has been "cooked" and whitened (the lemon denatures the protein in the fish), I will remove the excessive juice and add salt, chopped chili and coriander to the fish. Ready.

A modest evening snack...

Bonito filet

We stopped by in the Arab town Fureidis today on the way home from the aikido seminar, to buy fish for the dinner at Anati's place tomorrow evening. I have offered to make a ceviche from white fish, and a bunch of maki rolls. In Fureidis, there is a fish shop that is famous throughout Israel. All big chefs and food critics honour this guy. The place is a hole in the wall, and all the fish lay in drawers in a closed fridge and he asks you what you are interested in. We said that we wanted a white fish for ceviche and one with red meat for sushi. In Sweden I would have bought cod and salmon for these two dishes (maybe tuna, if the price was not too high), but none of them are available here, so in my new life I enjoy getting acquainted with completely new species, with funny new names.

He quickly took two whole fish out of the fridge, told us about them and weighed them. Then he filleted them very skilfully. I already forgot the name of the white one, but the one with red meat is called Palamide, but the English name is Bonito. Bonito is a small mackerel-related species, but the meat is red and meaty, just like tuna.

This evening we did not any need dinner, since we went for a nice afternoon meal with Jan in Herzliya. However, around 21 we felt an urge for something, and we had already figured out that I will not use both big Bonito filets in the sushi tomorrow, so I added black pepper and salt and sautéed one of them quickly in olive oil. Then we ate it straight up, no accessories. That's life quality...

Aiki and poo...

Two days with Jan has passed and we are all euphoric. We realise now that our hard work has paid off. Since I moved here people are suddenly taking high ukemi just like people at home - something they never did here before they met Jan (and the rest of us Jan & Jorma nerds). Now Jan has more to work with when people can move more freely... We have three days left with him, and then I go to Sweden for some even deeper infusion.

To not let the euphoria go to our heads, Barak decided to become stomach sick. This morning Yoram walked out half asleep into the living room to get the newspaper and suddenly slipped into a pile of shit. It was not only one pile, but faeces in all different forms spread all over the floor, including the rug. Yoram cleaned it before I awoke, to my great appreciation. Around lunch we had agreed with the kids mother to come and take the dogs out to pee and poo, but in addition to that she also had to clean poo from the floor - again. When we came home in the evening, he had not pooed, but instead puked on several places. Now he is empty, and he will stay that way until he possibly gets over-cooked rice tomorrow...

Jan is here!

Today we are heading off for the first day of the aikido seminar with Jan Nevelius. Many people here have waited a whole year, but for a few of us it has been "merely" six months, which for me feels like forever, since I am used to more frequent meetings. Anyway, more about it later.

In the meantime you can enjoy the progress we have made with the feeding procedures with Barak. Seven weeks ago he launched himself at you at feeding time and you physically had to keep him off of you until the food was on the floor.

Pea brains all over the world...

What amazing ignorance and naivety makes people join conspicuously fraudulent groups on Facebook, claiming to donate money to Haiti, just to later turn in to a necrophile prank? Is it the same stupidity harboured by the Israelis that travel to the South to watch the dangerous floods, and subsequently get caught in them..? Sometimes I despair over humanity...

Life is about to accumulate in a good way

Wow, blogging has really been difficult for me the last few weeks! I don't know if it is because my life has been so boring or if I just did not feel like drowning you in too much stories about dogs. I am not too keen on writing charming anecdotes about domestic house shores either, so consider yourselves spared, rather than neglected.

Dogs

Anyway, I started a Youtube channel with the adventures of Goshen and Barak. Shortly I can say that if you panic from some occasional harsh arguments between dogs, you should probably avoid getting two big dogs. Goshen is getting more and more bitchy and controlling which has caused some quarrels between the dogs, and she is now under strict surveillance. Barak got a small bite wound on his cheek the other day, but luckily they both cool down very fast and always kiss and make up. However, we need to take the energy level down for a while to make sure that both of them understand that this behaviour is not wanted.

Aikido

The light in the end of the tunnel for me right now consists of two things. First, I have a week of Jan Nevelius aikido ahead of me! He is coming to Israel for his annual seminar and we are all very excited. I have not seen him since July, which probably is the longest break from Vanadis aikido since I started practising with them years ago. When I lived in Sweden I covered Northern Europe to practice with Jan and his dojo partner Jorma Lyly at least every other month or so, and before I met Yoram I even considered moving to Stockholm to get closer to these guys. However, destiny works in mysterious ways and I sacrificed that strong desire for other purposes.

But... The light does not stop shining there. Second reason for my excitement is that I will spend the entire February in Sweden. Meeting my family and friends is one thing, but the trip also involves almost two weeks in Stockholm, aikido seminar with Endo Sensei, Jorma and Jan fluff included. The rest of the time will be spent in Malmö, where I will try to reach a few sessions with my first aikido teacher, Stefan Stenudd, who according to (official) rumours has been appointed Shihan by Hombu dojo this year. Congratulations to Stefan! For you Swedish-speaking friends, Stefan writes a terrific blog about what occupies his brilliant mind.

Family

I have not seen my parents either for six months and that is the longest time I have been away from them. I cannot wait for Mum's food and Dad's single malt collection... We are also going to visit my Grandmother in Västervik and I am afraid to say that I cannot even remember when I was there the last time. So you see, I have a lot to look forward to, and most likely I will also blog about it.

Now I have to take the dogs out in the thundery rain. Again, Israel is during the next few days about to become flooded in more water than it is able to cope with. How come they never learn..? Build more dams for Gods sake! Do you remember the dry summer at all..? Water crisis..? Ring a bell..?

On my mind...

Before I arrived in Israel, I read the news about the tensions in the region as if there was no tomorrow, and my emotions was doomed to ride on a roller coaster in a constant loop. Yoram told me that after a while you will realise that there are not any news coming, really. Things are just repeating themselves and to keep sane it is a good idea not to drown yourself too much in the media storm. He was right. I did cool down on the news surveillance, but that is not the same thing as stop caring or becoming blasé. I have not. However, I have realised that bashing to left and right and banging your head in various walls with ingenious arguments maybe can rock an attitude here and there, if you are lucky, but it will not make a change for the day-to-day life in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

This is probably the reason for not writing so many blog posts about these things lately. That does not mean that it will never happen again. Surely it will. In the meantime I want to direct you to my two favourite writers on the Mideast subject. Michael J. Totten writes on his own English blog, as well as articles for other publications; and Roy B. Alterman, who writes on the Swedish blog Al Hamatzav. In my opinion they both provide balanced reflections of the complexities in which we live. These guys get bashed from left and right too of course and I guess that is just something that is unavoidable if you intend to express some kind of opinion. At least they both match my opinion very well and they write in a witty and bright language.

Our police dog - Deputy Goshen Shanir

Goshen is nowadays the police officer in the family. If Barak tries to get too close to us when we eat, she goes in between and nips him. If he is too rough with the kids, she nips him. If he takes off too far when he is unleashed she runs after him and nips him when she catches up. We are laughing our heads off, because it is quite entertaining, but of course we don't let it get out of hand. After all, she is not supposed to be an alpha either, and it is not her job to educate Barak - it is mainly ours. But I don't mind a little assistance. It occurs also in a wild wolf pack that the subordinates educate their younger family members.

I am pleased to see that we do not see so many strong expressions of dominance from him anymore, but to get there we had to be very consistent with controlling his access to attention, movement, food, and so on, plus an occasional alpha roll from my part now and then when he has been very bad. He is a very dominant dog and it takes quite some energy to match his behaviour, but we're slowly getting him back to where he belongs.

Their play is more balanced now and characterised by mutual confidence and they play out their gender roles amusingly well. He is like a big clumsy teddy bear who uses his big size straight forward, while she is fast and more tactic. Goshen moves like an agile Quarter Horse, while Barak's movement pattern more resembles a heavy buffalo. He thinks he is the one ruling the play, but that is just her letting him on believing that this is the case. If she wants the bone, she will end up getting it, but she also lets him take it now and then, with a priceless, lenient expression on her face.

He devours everything organic that is not attached to the ground as if there was no tomorrow, while she eats slowly and methodically, chewing her food with care. This most often puts her in a situation where he, after finishing his own food, puts all his energy into getting a bite from Goshen's share, but she regularly shows enough teeth (and gums) to deter him from even trying.

Sunny weekend

Yesterday we met up with Yoram's colleague from work, Ran, and his girlfriend Daphna. We went to Zikhron Ya'akov and had a nice lunch at Tishbi's, filled up the bottles and continued for some ice cream at the Aldo ice cream bar before we returned home and took a nice afternoon nap. In the evening we were invited to an aikidoka friend of ours, Itzhik, and his wife Tamar, and would you believe that they served us the most beautiful tournedo's made from tenderloin bought in Samir's shop! We had planned to arrange some nice meat for the weekend, but instead we found ourselves treated with both excellent meat and the most exquisite company.

The weather has been just lovely the last couple of days so it was sleeve-less top and sunglasses on the menu for our Shabbat excursion today. We drove to Shfar'am (aka Shefa-'Amr) to buy ice cream. I have mentioned Shfar'am before both concerning their special ice cream, and the town in general. We took a walk through the winding streets and came back home with not only the excellent ice cream, but also ridiculously cheap kanafeh and our bellies full of falafel. It does not matter what modest falafel joint you go in to around here, you will always get better falafel than in any falafel joint in Sweden. During my approaching visit to Sweden I have to remember that to avoid any disappointing experiences.

Concerning my last post about keffiyeh's, I know that some people probably think of me both as being naive and possibly offensive and I don't know what else, but as long as I get spanked from both directions, as I most often do, I know that I am still on the right track. I am an idealist and an incurable optimist and that is something that I am proud of. There is enough of cynicism and polarisation in this world.

Reclaim the keffiyeh!

The bus from Tivon to Nazareth takes less than 30 minutes and cost 11 ILS (about 20 SEK). The other day I went there on my own just to wander the market streets of the Old City for a while and to do some shopping. Last time I was there with Yoram I saw a keffiyeh-like shawl that I for some reason never bought, but never found anywhere else, so now I had to go back for it. I found the store with the shawls and was quickly out with a bunch of keffiyeh's in different colours.

In Sweden and in other countries of the Western world the keffiyeh has become a fashion item. However, it still has a strong symbolic value of Arab nationalism in general, but Palestinian solidarity in particular. It has also become tightly associated with the extreme left, with their notorious anti-Israeli incitements and anti-Semite tendencies. However, just because Yasser Arafat constantly wore a keffiyeh, does not make it exclusive to him and his cause. The keffiyeh has been used in the Mideast by both Arabs and Jews since ancient Mesopotamian times.

Yemenite Jew in the early 20th century

wearing keffiyeh wrapped like a turban.

Hence, I bring unique keffiyeh's home to Malmö to give to friends that I know like them. I also wear them myself. They are beautiful and cosy and deserve to be reclaimed from the people that exploit them as a symbol of hate and segregation.

Nazareth is an Arab town with mostly Muslims in spite of its Christian heritage. I walked the narrow streets listening to the adhan (call for prayer) from the nearby mosque and I was watching all the people I met. There were religious women in hijab as well as extravagant ladies swaying by on high stiletto heals and wearing very exposing clothes, and I thought to myself in how many Arab countries you would see that multifariousness and freedom of expression. Unfortunately Arabs do experience discrimination in the Israeli society, I will not deny that, but not nearly as much as Jews living in Arab countries do, and when it comes to women's rights I do not think I need to say much about the situation in many Arab countries. Why do you never hear the leftist "freedom for the people"-fighters protest against the theocratic dictatorships in Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or Gaza for that matter?

I proudly wear my keffiyeh in support for freedom and justice for all people in the Mideast, not against Israel or the Jews. Reclaim!

Beauty and the beast

Goshen and Barak cuddling

My new baby boy is the most loveable dog. He has the softest nose that I love to squeeze and kiss and play with. The kids can do pretty much anything to him without any protests. At the same time he is a powerful guardian who would not hesitate one second to defend his family, and people cross the street when they meet this intimidating beast.

He has never shown any aggressive behaviour in his attempts to dominate and we can even take raw bones out from his mouth without any fuss. There is no problem there. Nevertheless, he makes me dream wet dreams about e-collars and pinch collars when he notoriously steal and eat our socks, or when he pulls frantically on the leash and completely ignores me when we are outdoors.

His previous owners did not educate him and he was allowed to grow a strong dominance and independence. It shows most clearly when we are outdoors. He has no sense of the pack when we are on walks and if there is something I really miss, then it is my walks with unleashed dogs. Goshen never leaves my side and I never have her leashed, but with this boy unleashing only works far out in the fields, where we not go every day.

If a dog grows up and get the taste for independence it can be very tough to get him to step back in line again and stay with his group. Since he also has a cat obsession, it is pretty much impossible right now to work on having him unleashed around the houses where we live, since there are so many cats. I tried to let him go for a while last week, down in the valley below the houses, but it turned out to be too close. He ran off, up towards the houses and on the way he scared the neighbours kids who was on a walk with their two cocky Pekinese dogs, who I have mentioned previously. Barak was back with me in a matter of minutes, since he always runs back to the house. The kids made a big hustle about it and I had a visit later in the afternoon from the father and another guy who thought that he had really attacked the kids. However, I know Barak, and I know that he probably only barked at them a bit to scare them, since he is not aggressive when he is loose. His only interest is to run after cats. That is no defence though, and we have to be even more cautious in the future.

Then his sock fetish. In the beginning he only picked them up, carried them around and dropped them again. Then socks started to disappear and we realised that he also eats them. Proof came when he started to throw up partly digested socks. What comes out is not particularly yummy, but it is instead rather obvious that the content has travelled all the way down to the poop section of the tummy, and back again, concluding from the smell of it. In spite of the nasty condition of the mess, he always wants to re-eat it, so we need to be fast to remove it from him. If Goshen shows an interest, she is harshly growled at. It is his puke, and his alone.

I had forgotten how simple things were with only Goshen around. She follows me like a shadow and she reads my mind in the daily routines around the house. Barak instead needs guidance all the time. The most beautiful thing is the friendship that has developed between the dogs. It is obvious that the confidence between them is growing. We have less and less arguments over bones and toys and they allow more and more from each other in the play. They always sleep bundled up together and that is so cute that it nips my heart a bit.

Guns N' Roses five days a week

The high school that is basically just across the street from us has the intro to Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine" instead of a conventional school bell. This means that I hear this guitar riff every time a class starts and ends. I can totally sympathise with the schools initiative to become a bit "cooler", but come on... I don't get a chance to ever remove the riff from my head!

Happy New Year!

I have finished the translation, but I need to read it through once more for some last corrections. Then I just have to make sure to get paid. I have only been in touch with these guys over telephone and e-mail, so I guess that I have to take some precautions not to be hornswoggled.

Tonight we have the kids, and therefore not any wild new years celebration, but at least we will eat something nice and split a bottle of bubbles at midnight. Time to pick up the littler terrorist from kindergarten. Over and out. See you in the next decade.

Quiet days...

I am working on my translation and I have reached more than half way so far and then I did not even do much during the weekend. I will most likely finish around New Year's Day. Other than that, days are not involving much.

The dogs are developing their personalities and their relationship more and more everyday, and watching them interact is a constant source of entertainment. They both are their gender role impersonated. Goshen is sophisticated, careful and gracious, while Barak is slobby, careless and clumsy. Most of the time they take turns chewing on the bones and playing with the toys, but occasionally there is a power struggle if I am not there in time to prevent it. Goshen corrects him when he is too rude to her and I spend my entire days with steering off signs of dominance from his part. He has been bullying her around during night hours a few times, so I allow her to sleep below my bed now to spare her from that.

The other day Yoram had them in the fields where they met a Labrador who was trying to bully Barak around a bit. They ended up in a short fight from where Barak got a bite wound on his front leg. It was just above a joint and it was a small but quite deep cut, so we took him to our vet to get antibiotics against infection. The vet knows the dog from before and he was very pleased to know that we had taken him in to our family. Barak's leg is already less swollen, but he is banned from running off-leash for a few days until he has healed a bit more. Now back to work.

Merry Christmas...

... to the ones that are observing it. For me there is no Christmas feeling what so ever and I guess that I am myself to blame and not only that I live in a mainly Jewish country. However, there have been too many other things occupying my time, so not even a slight Christmas baking have happened yet.

The primary thing is that I suddenly found myself with a job! I will translate a documentary script about Israel's war history, from English to Swedish, and I get some good money for it. I already started and it is also an interesting story, so double joy!

I will be back with more serious blogging after this ordeal... ;)

My Avatar

After being inspired by the movie

I played around a little bit with my old Photoshop skills...

Première of "Avatar"

On Wednesday I went to the cinema in Tel Aviv together with Yoram to see James Cameron's "Avatar". In case you want an experience full of surprises and unpredictability, then this is nothing for you, but if you enjoy beautifully produced science fiction, then you are up for a treat.

The theme is classic, an educational story about an energy conglomerate who wants to exploit the planet Pandora for an extremely valuable mineral called unobtainium, all on the expense of its native inhabitants. Pandora is inhabited by a humanoid species, the Na'vi, who by first glance seem primitive, but who really lives in a highly evolved symbiosis with a huge planetary network which connects the spiritual consciousness of all life. The rest of the ingredients are self-evident. Protagonist meets Na'vi girl, falls in love, gets enlightened about real values and morals and ends up fighting the exploiters, who are backed up by a military force, including a fierce colonel who serves as the main antagonist in the final battle between good and evil. The message is of course of high importance, to cherish the wonders of nature instead of ruthlessly exploit limited resources, but it feels like this theme has become a bit devalued and I wonder how many people really sucked the message in and brought it home to incorporate it in their principal attitude towards life.

The strength of the movie was no doubt the animations. All Pandora creatures were very well-made and there was no evident boundary between actors and animations. What in daylight seemed like an Earth-like forest, was during the night revealing itself as a colourful fluorescing fairyland that would make any trance party organiser green with envy. The movie was filmed with newly developed stereoscopic cameras that simulate human sight, and you get the 3D effect using polarizing glasses. However, I am stereoblind from birth and therefore not able to enjoy the 3D effects. I can experience occasional sensations of depth when I watch it, but it is very limited. Yoram, though, claimed that the 3D effects were quite amazing.

For the science fiction fans this is a must, but if you want a lot out of the story it is a pretty weak movie, but no one can take away that it is amazingly beautiful!

Our aikidogs

It has been raining almost constantly during the whole weekend, which makes long walks with the dogs less attractive. The fields also become extremely muddy so we try to avoid them during wet periods. Not that I am lazy with cleaning and drying dogs, we simply do not have any convenient way to clean them from the mud outside, or inside for that matter. I guess that is the disadvantage with being apartment dogs for the time being. Therefore I have tried to arrange as much nice indoor activities as possible, like searching for hidden treats, some clicker training and nice bones to work on.

Saturday we had an aikido marathon here in Tivon, 6 hours aikido, 6 teachers, non stop. The dogs came with us since we decided that Barak is not ready yet for 6 hours alone with Goshen at home. We tied them up nicely in the gym hall and after a while both settled down. Then of course people don't use their common sense and went up and talked to Barak when he was tied. That goes well at first, but when you turn your back he might either charge at you barking or try to nibble you a bit. Yoram got frantic after Barak's first barking outburst, but I calmed him down, moved the dog to a corner and all was fine.

Unless you are well acquainted with dog psychology and behaviour it is strongly inadvisable to walk up to an unknown dog that is tied. This dog is in a very vulnerable position with nowhere to escape and if the dog is the least insecure and unstable, this can lead to defensive aggression. For the exact same reason you should avoid unfamiliar dogs greeting each other tied down or on too short leashes since this also limits the freedom of expression for the dogs. Most cases of dog aggression occurs in dogs that are on the leash.

Barak is not an aggressive dog, but he will try to dominate anyone he feels is weak. This involves nibbling, pushing and intimidating. Real aggression involves real bites, not nibbles, but of course ignorant people will not tell the difference. Barak is still not completely stable in his new pack and therefore still takes matters in his own hands sometimes, but I can see more and more that he seeks guidance in us for how to act in different situations, which is very promising.

Discipline and longing

Some disobedience is self-regulating. We don't want dogs in the kitchen when we make food, for natural reasons, and this is something Goshen has no problem with whatsoever. She just goes to her bed and rests. Barak, on the other hand, who is not even used to living indoors with a family, is very interested in what is going on in the kitchen, and very persistent about it. We have a long and narrow kitchen with the entrance door in one short end, and just by the door we have the fridge, positioned in a way that when opening the door, it blocks the entrance to the kitchen. Barak knows that he should stay at least outside the kitchen opening, but the discussion is never-ending. He tries to enter the kitchen all the time and when we open the fridge door he has to back away. The other day he really tried to stick his head past the fridge door with the consequence that he suddenly found himself with the head stuck between the fridge door and the other wall. The moment of terror of being stuck was stronger than the actual impact of the door, so without any damage done, he is now backing up rapidly when we open the fridge door. Let us see how long it will last.

I think he ate a sock this morning. It was one of the socks I wore yesterday, and I had them beside my bed during the night. This morning Yoram was up early and then the dogs come to life and run around. Goshen almost never go in to the bedroom, while Barak still tries to claim all rooms. I tried to sleep but got several wake-up calls from a big spongy Shepherd's nose (and tongue) and at that time he must have snatched one of the socks. When I got up I could not find it anywhere and I also cleaned the house today without finding any sock. Either it comes out the natural way (hopefully), or we get a case of digestive system blocking that demands surgery... *sigh*

I have started to notice that Barak can be quite a challenge for Goshen sometimes, and although she efficiently tells him off most of the time, he is after all much stronger than her and very persistent. Today he was bugging her a lot at one point which led to a small fight. I pulled him off and put him to the ground to show him that this was not acceptable behaviour. I could see than Goshen was a bit intimidated by the event, so from now on she will receive more support from us humans. I am against messing too much with the dogs social life since I believe that human interventions sometimes cause more trouble than assistance, but in this case I can see that my tolerance level needs to be adjusted.

We have a child-free weekend with a 6-hours aikido marathon here in Tivon on Saturday, so I look forward to some nice quality time with my man and my dogs, which is well needed.

Today I received a package that was sent from my parents, with some things I needed from Sweden. When I saw my Mums handwriting I got a emotional. I miss my parents most of all and occasionally it comes over me like a storm and this was such a moment. We have always been used to having each other close and spending much time together, so this is the longest stretch without them ever. I comfort myself with my newly bought tickets for my Sweden trip in February. I will be there from the 1st of February until the last and I could not care less that it will be during the worst part of the winter, because I really need to see my loved ones.

Mr Nudnik is here to stay (and grow up)

One of his cute moments, cuddled up with Goshen...

Now we have had Barak in the family for a week and it is safe to say that we also have decided to keep him. He continues getting calmer, but at the same it gets clearer to us where we have to put the most effort in the training. He gets really excited about cats, and since Goshen also has a thing with cats, we notice that there is a risk of a synergistic effect if we don't watch out. Therefore we have started to also have Goshen on a leash a bit more often to correct her when she gets excited over cats.

Barak does occasionally run away, but returns when he has had enough. When I took them to the fields the other day he followed us nicely and I called him in to me on a regular basis and he was very attentive and obedient, but as soon as we headed towards home he took a tour around our houses and the trigger was of course the cats around there. A dog that has grown up with no leadership and therefore started doing this, will be quite a challenge to stop from doing it. He knows the "come" command, but when he is distracted he simply ignores it, since he already got the taste for independence. We can only hope that he will cool down and feel more and more like a part of the pack and therefore stay with it, and during the trips to the fields we simply have to put him back on the leash further away from home and hope that this will be enough.

The other day he showed some aggression towards the neighbours male Pekingese. However, both dogs were on a leash and probably very excited and that is not a good condition for dogs to meet. Yoram realised that mistake and is now more careful. I constantly try to snap Barak out of his unhealthy excitements when we are outdoors, but it is very difficult with his extremely strong mind. I will start taking him out alone more often to remove Goshen as a distraction.

The two dogs get along very well. If he is trying to bully her around, she will tell him off and we also correct him when he is too rude against her. She is still in charge though and she is the one that decides what bone to chew on and when it is time to exchange bones and so on. Many times I see them laying wrapped up together or kissing each other and that really makes my heart soften up and for a moment I forget the times when I want to dump him on route 6 for being a complete Nudnik...

Sherut full of baklava

In Israel there are several ways to travel if you don't have your own car. There are a few train lines, but as far as I have been told, they are neither reliable, nor cheap. Buses are the main form of public transportation and the network is well-covering. There are several bus companies that operate around the country, of which Egged is the largest one. As an alternative to the bus lines there are also share taxis, or sheruts, which are mini buses that can take up to 10 passengers. These sherut companies drive the same routes as the large buses, and apply the same route numbers, but are much more flexible when it comes to picking you up and dropping you off, and the flexibility often makes the journey faster that with the regular buses. The prices are about the same as on the big buses (a bit lower in my experience) and they also have more extended operating hours. Sherut taxis usually don't have fixed timetables and will normally leave when they fill up with passengers, but that never drew me late.

Friday afternoon I headed to Tel Aviv to have a work weekend with Miles and Deborah about "Aikido without borders" and I took a sherut from Tivon to Tel Aviv. We were only four passengers since the rest of the car was filled up with baklava and during the whole trip I had the amazing fragrance of the pastries in my nose.

I went to Miles dojo, which is in the middle of renovation and we hang out there, talked and drank some wine. When Deborah arrived we went out for some food. All of us were exhausted so we slept early to be fresh for the following day. We celebrated the new kitchen by making the first breakfast there and I could really get a feel for how the aikido community there is going to develop into something great.

Before we started working we went to an exhibition at the Cinematheque (Hebrew only link) organised by the Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace. The exhibition "Neighbors - Women Creating Reconciliation", presented circles of discussions, listening and dialogue, as well as sale of homemade foods and personal handcraft works created by the women of the Forum. The talks were mostly given in Hebrew and Arabic and were therefore not yet accessible for me, but I bought some nice things and drank excellent coffee in the sales section. Talking to some of these women and hearing Jewish and Arab women calling each other sisters gave a sensation of hope in this for the most part cynic society.

In the afternoon we planned some promotional material for Miles when he is going to the US in a few weeks. He is going to make a few fund-raising events for "Aikido without borders" and we hope that we will get some nice contributions that would help us develop already existing projects, but also actualise new ideas. Of course we only reached half of what we needed to do, since we lack resources both when it comes to time and money, but hey, who said that philanthropic quests are fancy...

I had to go home, again with a sherut. When you travel away from Tel Aviv it is even more advisable to take a sherut since you do not have to enter the actual bus station building, through security checks and then also finding the right gate in this huge ugly complex. Instead all the sheruts gather on one side of the building and you just need to find the right car right on the street. In case you seem confused there are always a whole bunch of drivers who enthusiastically see to that you end up on the right bus. I know what an ice-breaker language courtesy is, so I used the little Arabic I know. Because of this, I ended up chit-chatting with the driver all the way home, who of course knew someone in Malmö (every other Arab knows someone or has a relative in Malmö). Considering the over-representation of Arabs among the sherut drivers, I can safely conclude that there must be a fair amount of (Arabophobic) Israeli citizens who never set their foot in a sherut. It's their loss.

When I came to the house I was greeted with more love from the kids than I have received in weeks altogether and I told Yoram that this thing with going away for a few days really has its benefits. However, he did not look like he agreed...

More doggy stuff

Our big baby is getting used to his new life. In only two days we have succeeded to remove a lot of his rude pushiness. He is still not as refined in his contact with humans as Goshen is, and he probably never will be. He is after all a male, and regardless of the age difference, the two gender-roles are so evident in these two dogs. Nevertheless, Goshen corrects him, like a true mother would do with her own pups.

On the first day he peed inside three times, of which two times was on the carpet. Luckily we have carpet cleaner, since Gal still pees in bed, so the carpet was saved. The dog, in contrary to the boy, quickly learned his lesson and has not peed inside after those initial mistakes.

He likes to pick up things like socks, shoes and other small things that are misplaced, so now we got an excellent opportunity to teach the kids that if they just drop their socks anywhere, the risk that they will end up ripped in pieces is major. Of course not everything can be secured in a house you live in, so we are constantly running around reclaiming things he has grabbed. This far, he has not yet ripped anything.

The command for "sit" he knew, but did not respect much. His previous owners were probably not consistent and possibly also tried to train it in very busy environments before he was ready for it. All new things need to be introduced in a quiet environment before moving to more distractions. Anything else is not fair to the dog, since he is bound to fail. That only creates frustration and bad energy in both dog and handler and should be avoided. I started already yesterday with some exercises in the living-room, where I used clicker and treats and he is taking it very well. I started asking him to come to me and sit down facing me and already he sits down basically every time we are standing face-to-face. The commando for "down" I could notice that he did not understand at all, so that needed to come completely from scratch. However, it took no more than 10 minutes with clicker and treat before he also did that, including having added the command. Of course we repeat continuously...

He does not walk well on a leash and is, mildly said, very strong! I use a regular chain collar that came with him, and still he is a challenge to walk. I really don't want to have a battle of strength and I try to lure him a lot and make turns as much as possible, but still there are moments where he is really pulling. I don't want to have to use a pinch collar to make him listen, so I have to figure out some good strategy with the walk on leash.

Yoram let him loose in the valley for a short moment this morning and it went well. A bit later I had him loose and at first all went well. I called him a few times, he came, and I let him go again, to make him realise that a recall does not always mean back to the leash. However, all of a sudden he took a tour, ran away up through the neighbours backyard and up on front side of the houses. I heard the small dogs around the house bark and then I understood where he was at. Goshen actually understood what had happened and spontaneously started to track him with her nose. What a dog she is! All and all, it was over in two minutes and he returned to me, and as you know it was really hard not being angry with him when he were back with us. Recall is a big challenge for us. Leaving the house is much better. He is still a bit excited, but does not jump and we are actually able to take ourselves and Goshen out before him. Goshen also gets her food before him. She sits down quietly by her self as I pour the food up in the bowls, while the boy is a bit anxious. After she is fed I ask him to sit, which he does, and that is perfectly sufficient in this stage. He is a great kisser and we are all falling for him...

The first day of the rest of his life

For those of you who are not that interested in dogs, I am afraid to say that I think that the near future will involve a lot of dog talk on the blog, since my life now primarily surrounds rehabilitating Barak. Anyhow, I will try to dilute it with some other subjects too now and then. But not now.

Barak behaved well during his first night in our house. He wandered about a bit a few times, but no peeing or pooing and no eating up non-edible or edible things. Yoram took both dogs for a pee pee ride first thing in the morning and then I got a chance to go out and hang the laundry in peace and quiet before Yoram and the kids left the house.

The first problem we had to start addressing is his extreme excitation when he expects to go out. As soon as we prepare for a walk, put on shoes, grab the collar and leash, he goes bananas and bounces at the door, runs around our legs and tries to push himself out before us. It is not at all nice having a 45 kg baby doing that and correcting him with the same energy only made him escalate. Yoram has less patience than me (and time), so this had to be my thing to fix. I decided to wait him out for the right state of mind.

I had treats available and I started by grabbing the collar from the shelf. When the chain rattled he started gearing up, upon which I just sat down again in the sofa with my computer. After he laid down and relaxed I tried to approach him, but if he rose in energy I went back to the sofa. After a while I could go to him while he was still laying down and play with the chain in my hand while rewarding him for staying calm. After I was able to put the chain on him while he was in a calm state, I did the same with the leash. Every moment of calm took him one step closer to the walk, while every moment of stress took him one step back.

This boy is not stupid and he soon understood the game. After almost two hours we could walk up to the door in a calm state. From that moment and on, I had another 45 minutes of asking him to sit down while I opened the door. If he rose and tried to get out, I closed the door in front of his nose.

The evidence! Barak laying down in front of the open door!

The picture shows him laying down with the door open, somewhat tense, but gizillion times better than before. I was now able to let Goshen out first (she was of course enthusiastically involved in the whole process), then me, and Barak last. He even walked out, and not bursted. This was one victory, but the whole process will most likely have to be repeated several times before he owns it.

The reward for being calm - The Walk!

During the long walk I continuously worked on having him walk nicely by my side and sitting down frequently, and by letting him out on the long training leash, I could train some recall. The recall will be one of the biggest challenges. He does not take much notice of his name since he is not used to any consistency, besides that he suffers from the typical 2-years-old inattentiveness. The walk was followed by some grooming. I applied anti-tick drops on both of them and then I cut Baraks claws. He is totally OK with being touched everywhere - only thing is a slight lack of patience, typical for a young dog. Anyhow, I rapidly finished all the front feet claws, since they are always the longest. The hind feet claws I save until tomorrow.

Barak has realised that in his new home he is not the one in charge and the effect this realisation has on him is enormous. It feels like he is getting calmer and calmer every hour and the sighs he lets out when he stretches out on the floor can be heard all the way to Haifa. When he hears sounds outside he is very attentive, but he looks at me for guidance and when I stay calm he lets it go and relaxes again. He is surrendered and happy, but still there is a long way to go to teach him good social manners.

Welcome Barak

Barak looking a bit confused in his new home,

while Goshen is sharing her calm energy

Today we welcomed a new member to our pack. Barak is a 2,5-years old German Shepherd male, who I anonymously mentioned in an earlier blog post. During his life he has not received the confident guidance a young dog like him needs, and therefore he has ended up in some unfortunate situations. I have met him briefly a few times before and he is generally quite rude in his approach to people, all out of lack of education. He also ran away from his former owner a few times, so we will have to work a lot on the recall, using a long training leash. He then recently happened to bite a neighbour, but the neighbour was trespassing on the property so Barak's action only mirrored a territorial behaviour, which is something that is bred into this dog. However, this behaviour has to be controlled and fine-tuned, as any character trait and in this case young Barak took decisions into his own hands, which is not fair to a dog.

He was brought to our house and I met him up outside. We started our relationship by taking a long walk, only him and me. He was more attentive than I expected and we did some contact exercises and I immediately started to expect him to listen to me and respect me. I noticed that he still has a lot of puppy behaviour, among other things he often sits down when he pees. He does not seem to have an issue with other dogs in general, which is a good sign. We passed some barking dogs, but he did not take notice or got provoked. We also met Lucy, a neighbours Pitbull, who always run around loose below the houses and Barak showed normal social behaviour with her. I am thinking about some appropriate well-behaved male to introduce him to when the time comes. However, he has a slight cat issue. A cat happened to just show up in a bush he passed and he charged at it, but I was fast enough to be able to correct him and he also took the correction well. The cat thing we will have to work on.

When we came home again I let Goshen out and we spent some greeting time outside before I took everybody inside. I let Barak enter last to show him that he is not the owner of the place. Goshen acted flawlessly and I was so proud of her. Barak was a bit confused and restless, but we just showed him how the pack can rest together by just being calm. He wandered about for a while but soon started to quiet down and find some rest. He peed on the floor once and then later on the carpet, but it was not out of defiance, but merely because he is not at all used to being indoor. Goshen even shared one of her bones with him, but it was still clear that she acted out of patience rather than submission. Her alpha role over him was never even questioned. It came natural and was self-evident. He tried to mount the sofa a few times, but took the correction well, as well as when we asked him to stay away from the table when me and Ziv had lunch.

Yoram came home a bit earlier from work and took both of the dogs for a longer run in the fields. It was clear when they came back that Goshen is in a much better shape, because it took forever before Barak stopped panting. Generally speaking, I represent most of the obedience training, while Yoram provides most of the serious exercise, but we both possess the calm-assertive energy and that is the most important thing of them all... Lucky Barak!

Both dogs tired after the run