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

Bracing morning aikido

In Israel it is very hot when it is hot, as well as it is very cold when it is cold. Our house is not insulated and during this season it is way colder indoors than outdoors, so I shuffle around in my sheep-skin shoes, big jumpers and shawls. You can probably imagine how getting up from the warm bed to visit the toilet in the middle of the night is no easy ride. Today we had an aikido date with Anati at 7.45 and on the way over to her house we measured 11 degrees, which is probably the lowest temperature I have experienced here so far. The night was clear which brings on very cool air. I told Yoram that I thought that we would probably practice inside, upon which he answered "Don't be so sure...". As we arrived, I realised that he was right and Anati had already placed the tatamis in front of the porch. I had not been out of bed for more than 10 minutes, and therefore still a bit shivery, but I did not complain for long. After some frisk warm-up (with socks on) the socks came off and we had the loveliest practice. The sun came up and the air was high and clean. That's life quality!

Your dog is a wolf on the inside

Goshen working on a raw recreational bone

Sorry for neglecting the blog for as much as three days. We have had the nicest weekend together, without the kids, which meant more real life and less cyberspace. On the Friday we went to Samir's butcher shop to fill up our stash of meat. We also brought a few recreational bones for Goshen and in the evening when the humans devoured entrecôte, Goshen got a raw bone.

As we enjoyed our meat, we were watching the deeply focused Goshen working on her bone and we started to discuss the diet of a dog. A dog is a sub-species of the wolf and the digestive system in a dog has not changed noticeably from its wild ancestor. A wolf is a predator, who eats muscle meat, some internal organs and bone, and it eats it raw. So, why do we not feed our dogs like that? Well, as with so many other things it is all about convenience and money. Convenience, because it is easier to scoop up a bowl of dry kibble to the dog every day and you don't have to handle fresh products. You don't need to think much. Money on the other hand, is not, as you might think, primarily about kibble being more cheap. As long as you develop a good relation to a butcher, you can feed your dog raw food to less than the price of any kibble. The money aspect is instead about the multi-billion dollar dog-food industry, which in many ways can be compared to the pharmaceutical industry - with its sometimes questionable objectives.

Commercial dog food primarily consists of grains and vegetable products, while the protein source might be animal by-products from what is referred to as 4D-meat, or dead, dying, diseased and disabled. I presume that I do not have to develop that further to get my point through. I will not argue that all commercial dog food is made from the lowest quality animal protein, but anything far away from a chunk of meat with a bone inside, cannot be considered natural food for a predator. Not only do the pet food industry seduce you with misleading advertising, they also take help from the one person most pet owners trust the most, their vet. Just as physicians are corrupted by the pharmaceutical industry, in the same way dog-food producers "buy off" the vets to promote their feed. And what would the vets do if all dogs were healthy enough to reduce the visits to the vet to merely going there to get a microchip when it is a puppy? See the pattern?

If you look at the poo from a dog that is kept on kibble, they drop huge piles, while a dog kept on raw animal food will leave tiny, dry pieces that most closely resembles dry fox poo. One who can do the math then realises that the bioavailability of many of the ingredients in the kibble leaves more to wish for.

Anyhow, we started to search for some information about raw dog food, and first we stumbled over BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food or Bones And Raw Food). BARF promotes 60-80% raw meat and bones and 20-40% fruits and vegetables. They claim that dogs are omnivores and that they therefore need the vegetables and other supplements. This is based on the early domesticated dogs who scavenged whatever was available around the human camp, but according to me, this says more about the presence (or lack) of proper food than the dogs preferences. The BARF people also commonly mash the meat together with the vegetables and other supplements and serve the dog these "burgers", and as far as I know there is no one that grinds the meat for the wolfs in the wild. I realised that this strategy is more of a compromise than a complete return to basics and since I did not feel satisfied enough, I had to move on.

Then I discovered the prey model diet. Now things started to become interesting because this model actually tries to mimic the diet of a wild dog, including the proportions of the different parts of the prey animal, i.e. organs, muscle meat, bone, skin and blood, but also whole eggs and small amounts of fur, scales and feathers. In short-hand this means whole (or parts) of animals that the dog has to work on with its teeth, and the effect that this has on the teeth hygiene is self-evident. To get a balanced diet these raw-feeders try to supply a wide variety of prey animals to their dogs, and to feed fish on a regular basis to compensate for the reduced amount of omega-3 fatty acid in commercially raised grain-fed livestock. According to this theory, the only vegetable source a dog needs is a fresh lawn of green grass for the dog to take a few straws now and then to help remove indigestible bone fragments from the gastrointestinal tract. I found a few useful information sources about raw feeding, as well as some fascinating myth-busting and a very active mail group, so besides educating us more, we are about to see what kind of deal we can make with Samir. He breeds the animals himself, so with him there is an unbroken line from the live animal to the customer, which is very satisfying. He breeds beef cattle, lamb and chicken and if he agrees to provide us with both meaty bones and organs from the different animals, then we have everything covered except a fish of some kind once a week. Will we get from theory to practice..?

And just for your information, this post might appear very contradictory to the last post in where I presented a picture of Goshen chewing on a carrot. That whole thing was more of a joke than actual practice. We do not feed her vegetables (other than the vegetables in the commercial kibble she unfortunately still is on). She is after all a dog and not a rabbit.

Green is not mean

My green soup from yesterday,

with soup almonds and sprouts

I made the most delicious soup yesterday. Lots of different vegetables and big green beans boiled in a chicken broth, and the broccoli and parsley added in a late stage not to kill the chlorophyll. When it came to the kids, Yoram told me that I could be pretty bold with ingredients as long as the soup was homogenised properly, so that no signs of vegetables could be detected. This reminded me of all lost city-kids without any attachments to the natural sources of foods, who think that milk comes from the milk factory or that fish sticks are swimming around as fish sticks, and in this case, a soup that probably comes straight out from a machine.

However, I swallowed that thought and ran the soup through the blender to a thick and beautiful green soup and I added some cream towards the end to enhance the flavours (alas not a kosher soup ;). In Israel, it is common to eat soup with something called soup almonds, which are tiny mini-croutons that you sprinkle on top of the soup. The regular ones are of course made from white flour and hardly nutritious, but we found organic full-grain soup almonds that we served with the soup. Yoram and I also sprinkled broccoli and radish sprouts on our bowls.

We hoped that the soup almonds would be a good encourager for the kids to eat the soup. However, the kids promptly decided that a green soup is not edible, although it did not taste dominantly of any of the ingredients, rather not any different from any other mixed vegetable soup. The reason was simply the colour, which convinced me that these kids never ate a green vegetable in their whole life, which is very sad, since green vegetables contain many important phytochemicals.

White soup almonds are almost like candy, and after the meal Yoram said to me that he did not think that the full-grain ones were as tasty as the white ones, upon which I had to disagree. I loved these more natural ones. It also made me realise that taste preference is all about customs and routine, and that I have today shifted my own perception of taste into enjoying full and natural foods more than processed and refined foods. This also goes for children. If a child is brought up on natural and healthy foods, that is also what they will prefer. Kids normally eat what the parents eat. Simple as that. This does not mean that I promote strict absence of the other stuff. That would only make it more desirable, so it is important to allow a certain amount of indulgence. I rather promote a lot of education for the kids about the importance of a good diet. That is what I am slowly trying to implement on the ones I have at home, but it is a slow and bumpy road.

In the end, the kids refusal to eat the soup rendered me leftovers for today's lunch, but that is a small reward...

A curiosity worth mentioning is that the carnivore in the family is better at eating her vegetables than the omnivore kids. Goshen happily cleaned the soup pot after dinner.

Goshen chewing on a carrot

Our K9 friends are potential weapons

This is how it should look!

What is it with all these dog owners who think that you can just get a dog and let it grow up without attending doggy school? I frequently stress that also small dogs need leadership and obedience, but the importance become so much more obvious when we deal with larger breeds of working-type. Keeping an adult German Shepherd uneducated is like handling a Qassam rocket. You have no control over where it hits and it might just blow up in your own face. The education of the dog is equivalent to the control mechanisms of a high-precision weapon.

In our proximity someone owns an adult German Shepherd male, who has also been used as a stud. He is not the aggressive type, but he is very dominant, which of course has been strengthened by them letting him breed females. Unfortunately, human ignorance has deprived him of a true leader, which obliged him to take on this role himself. Consequently, his territorial behaviour has developed uncontrolled, which sadly enough caused him to bite a neighbour the other day. He had got his rabies shots, but after these kinds of incidences precaution indicates quarantine to secure absence of infection, so now he spends one week in a compound. The owner considers getting rid of the dog because he feels that he cannot handle him. No wonder, he is a strong 45-50 kg male that pushes and pulls you around with no respect whatsoever. With knowledge, patience and consistency I think he would be an easy fix, but through one poor decision, he can end up with some "dog trainer" who will try to fix him in a disrespectful way, by abuse and cruel methods. That will either break his spirit or make him worse. I pray that he will end up getting a fair chance to rehabilitate.

Returning to the smaller dogs, this whole neighbourhood is full of small, to mid-sized dogs (but also big ones) that show all kinds of undesirable behaviour, such as uncontrolled territorial aggression, but also general aggression towards both humans and other dogs. These dogs all run around loose and the owners neither care nor excuse themselves after incidents. Only in our house we have two trouble children. One Pekinese female, who is both dominant aggressive and extremely territorial. She has repeatedly attacked Goshen and tried to bite her hind legs, but her size fortunately prevents her from causing any greater damage, as well as Goshen nowadays is more cautious around this dog and deters her with determination. She is standing at their balcony all day long barking and I can tell you that a Pekinese territorial barking is not particularly pleasant in the ears after a long day. The owners are toothless in their authority and they could not control her if they ever wanted to. I just cannot understand how they stand living like that. Our next neighbours bought a male Chihuahua puppy some months ago, and of course they did all the mistakes in the book. He has grown into a confused and very stressed boy who has way too many duties around the house. Since the owners did not provide him with any clear guidelines, he is today (or at least he think he is) head responsible of both surveillance, house alarm and protection, as well as general organisation of the activities in their family. He is never off the leash and often in the arms of his owner which have prevented him from even becoming socialised with other dogs, but his dominant character is palpable. He is barking in canon with the Pekinese bitch and we live right in between. Imagine that.

I am so lucky to have a quiet, harmonious and kind dog. Or... maybe it does not have that much to do with luck at all, but instead something completely different and not at all by chance.

A small step...

Spaghetti Bolognese - Normal kids favourite

This Shabbat afternoon we drove to Karmiel to eat lunch with Yoram's mother, something we do almost every Shabbat when we have the kids. Karmiel is situated on the Northern edge of the Lower Galilee, and the climb up to Karmiel, to about 330 m above sea level, is a breath-taking ride. Every time we go there I am thinking that I would like to show you, but an image could never catch the scenery in an honourable way. See this as a prodding to come and visit.

We made Spaghetti Bolognese. I have never previously met any child that does not like Spaghetti Bolognese, until I came to the Shanir family. Until now we never tried serving it. Yoram simply told me that they won't eat, but today, for some reason, we were obviously ready for the new challenge, and to my surprise Yoram stayed firm not to make any substitute to the meat sauce for the kids. Gal promptly refused, but Ziv actually ate, after some serious encouragement from me, Yoram and Grandmother. In the end he actually took big spoons of the sauce, and hallelujah, he liked it! (Duh!) There were meat, carrots, pepper and tomatoes in it, all things he normally eat, so there was nothing to argue about. But... even the union pieces went down and then we had a big party of cheering and hugging and kissing him in reward. Gal only ate his dry spaghetti, and according to our preconditions, there were no dessert for him when the rest of us enjoyed it. The consistency lasted until we were supposed to leave, when Grandmother stuck a piece of chocolate to each kid. Yoram looked at me in resignation, while I thought to myself "If he was my kid..."

The sunset over Haifa bay on the way down was amazing. Another thing that cannot be caught on camera. The sun is huge and so much more majestic than further up North on the globe. This is were I belong.

Food - a child's best weapon

Cranberries - a real super food

I have dealt with the kids food preferences previously on this blog (or the lack thereof) and the struggle is ongoing, slow, but progressing. Ziv is no longer examining every piece of tomato, sweet pepper or carrot minutely before he takes a bite, and today he takes normal-sized bites from the sticks I cut for them, from initially spending 20 minutes getting a carrot stick down in millimetre bites. He has also taken our talks about the importance of nutrition when you are a growing boy to his heart, and many are the family meals spent discussing what is healthy and what is less healthy to eat. However, tomato/pepper/carrot is as far as it goes so far, and to get him to try other new things is equivalent to achieving world peace.

While Ziv actually eats the things he likes without too much encouragement, Gal is still often not even eating the things he do like, however, it is easier to get Gal to try new things. Several days we learned that Gal did not eat his lunch at the kindergarten, or he only ate the couscous, and not the chicken and the soup or whatever was served. If he was mine, I would never tolerate that from a kindergarten that is supposed to care for my kid, but honestly, if he was mine, I don't think they would have that problem anyway. Some days he did not eat the pita we sent with him for the morning meal either, later claiming that he does not like full-grain pita. That is complete crap and merely a power trip, since he has no problem eating full-grain pita during our evening meals together. The parents have surrendered once more and started sending him away with the terrible white buns that contains less nutrients that the paper they are wrapped in. And I count to 10...

However, the other day we enjoyed a small victory when we got him to taste the dried cranberries, claiming it is candy. He liked them a lot, and he also really likes walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, so from now on, he gets a small bag of nuts, seeds and cranberries with him for the morning meal in the kindergarten, and he actually eats it. I guess his small body is in total shock from the overflow of nutrients and antioxidants...

This and that...

ERG custom-made guitars

Yoram bought an acoustic 12-string Eko guitar from the late 60s through Yad2 a while ago. The guitar was not in mint condition, but needed some freshening up and adjustments, but he paid almost nothing when he bought it, so it was really a catch anyway. He went to a guy he knows who renovates guitars, but who also build custom-made ones. Today it was time to pick up the 12-string after its time spent in rehab and I joined him since we later were also buying wine in Zikhron Ya'akov. Ruslan (Mordechai) runs together with Eddie (Eduard) ERG Custom Guitars in Or Akiva, where they have their factory and showroom. Anyone who is a guitar freak should take a look at these guys work.

Ruslan showed off by playing on the 12-string and not only is it a great guitar, Ruslan is also a brilliant guitar player. Later he took us to the showroom and played a little on his favourite of their custom-made electric guitars, and walla, even an ignorant as me could sense the quality. The primary idea for Yoram was to fix and sell, but Ruslan told him that this guitar is too good to sell. They don't make them like this anymore, and although new guitars of today cost a fortune, the quality is not even near to this old gem, and people have not sense enough to pay for it. So... We now have a beautiful 40-years old 12-stringed lady joining the family.

Speaking of family, cats come and go in the neighbourhood and most of them are feral and very shy, and often plain aggressive. I love cats, and so does Yoram, which means that one of these days we will have a house cat that belongs to the family. The last few weeks one cat has spent much time just outside our house, which means that Goshen on several occasions has run after it immediately as she comes out of the house. Goshen is a good and obedient dog, but she has one weak spot that I have not completely succeeded to fix, and it is chasing cats, and if there is something that occasionally makes me crazy enough to consider both electronic shock collars and other terrible tools, then this is it. (You who know me well, also know that this would never happen.) We can basically pass any cat in the street or on the sidewalk without her charging after it, but when the cats show up very suddenly just in front of her nose, then I guess that the instincts just take over, which has been the case here. She would not know what to do with the cat if she came close enough to grab it and most of the time it is rather the cats that ambushes, chases and attacks the dog. Anyway, this cat is not completely wild, a bit careful, but curious, and above all extremely talkative. I really love cats that talk a lot, so we have had a few chats, the cat and me, and Yoram has talked to her too. Today we decided to try to bond a little bit more with her, in spite of Goshen's unfriendly behaviour, so we gave her some of Goshen's dog food. Let us see how far we can push it. I think that clearing Goshen's neurotic relation to cats would be easiest fixed if she would have to live with a young kitten, or an older cat that is used to dogs.

Not only am I trying to learn my Hebrew. The Arabic is also there poking for my attention and I guess that I will learn a lot from both languages ahead if I am lucky and hard-working, but now one of my most important Hebrew guinea pigs is lost. Ziv is 9 years old and has started to speak English to me instead of Hebrew, with a very funny Israeli accent and of course more enthusiasm than detail, which makes communication even harder than when we had only Hebrew. Inspiring though...

Sneaking under the wall

SOS Children's Village, Bethlehem

I have patiently waited for this day to come for almost five months now. Tonnes of other things came in between, our schedules did not fit and there were religious holidays to consider, but finally the day arrived, for me to join Miles to the West Bank for the first time. Aikido without borders, has its hands on several aikido projects in both Israel and in the Palestinian territories; in Yafo, Bir Nabala, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem. My first trip went to the kids in the SOS Children's Village in Bethlehem.

We started off the day in the Old City of Jerusalem, where we walked the narrow alleys to check up on the aikidoka friends we have there. One we found in Hummus Abu Shukri on Via Dolorosa, one worked in his fathers souvenir shop and a third one has a gold shop. We started up with a big hummus meal followed by a cavalcade of Arab coffee and tea and baklava, back and forth, upside down and in all shapes. Although I asked for my coffee and tea without sugar most of the time, the amounts of sugar and caffeine in the end left me in a state of vibrating about 10 cm above the ground. These guys are all Arabs with blue ID cards, which enables them to move freely between the territories and they are therefore important linkage persons, just like me and Miles. I am merely in the cradle of understanding the complex rules and regulations, but we basically connect the Israeli citizens with the West Bank citizens, who are not allowed to visit each others territories.

After all the socialising and bonding in the shouk, we were picked up outside of the Jaffa Gate by Deborah and Amir, who drove us towards Bethlehem. Deborah has worked with Palestinian and Israeli human rights for many years now and she lives in Bethlehem. She is fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic and truly burns for her cause. We drove through the Tunnel Checkpoint and in that direction there are no controls so we just passed through. After the checkpoint we needed to cross the separation wall, and up until now, both Israeli and Palestinian traffic has been allowed on the main road. However, suddenly we exited this road and went down on a small dirt road and Deborah explained that there has been dug a tunnel under the wall, for Palestinian traffic, and that it now looked like that passage was finally open. I never understood if this was a legal construction or not, but even if it is, the resources had not been generous. We wobbled down on a slope and slipped under the wall in a hole that was merely large enough to let one vehicle pass and Deborah explained that now when this passage is open they can shut off Palestinian traffic from the main road.

We drove through the Dheisheh Refugee Camp and arrived in Bethlehem through the "back door". Amir knew the narrow streets of the old city as the back of his palm and all of a sudden we exited on Manger Square, where the Church of the Nativity stands, marking the birth place of Jesus. We came on a Sunday, which is a badly chosen day if you are an anxious Christian pilgrim. There were about 50 gizillion tourists there, safely funnelled by busses into this central Christian site. We entered the church, but saved the grotto for my next visit. If I will come on a Monday or a Tuesday, there will be no queue at all to go down and see the famous silver star. Not that I care much, really.

I was more enchanted by leaving the tourist bubble on the Manger Square and walk up the streets to the shouk. The first two blocks from the square still sold souvenirs, but deeper inside, it turned into the most vibrant food market. We bought some fruits and coffee and the coffee guy mixed different coffee beans with cardamon and grinded it as we waited. From this point our bags and everything in them smelled of coffee and cardamon all the way back to home.

We left the centre of Bethlehem and drove to the kids village. When we drove up in front of the main building all the kids surrounded the car. We all got out and the first thing Miles said to me was "Don't fall in love!". This turned out to be impossible. These kids come from under-privileged conditions and have quite diverse backgrounds, including poverty, abuse and loss of relatives, but in spite of their difficult lives it was clear to me what a great impact their new lives in the village has had on them. They are all loving, open and well-behaved children and had it not been for the fact that they live in the Palestinian territories, I could have written them a bright future.

The village consists of separate houses, with 7-10 boys and girls up to the age of 14. Every house has a house mother, an unmarried woman who has dedicated her life to these kids. Every house mother gets her own monthly stipend which enables her to put a personal touch on her "family". The kids invited us to one of the houses, where we had coffee (again!) and talked. One of the girls, 10-years old Rania, showed us her room, which she shared with one roommate, and she explained in brilliant English that she loved aikido, football and dancing and that she had had the privilege to go to Norway for a dancing event. Then she played some violin for us and after merely one months practice the repertoire was minimal, while the enthusiasm was greater.

We later gave an aikido practice with about 20 kids and we mixed playing games with actual aikido training and we had so much fun. There are a few grownup aikidokas, including Deborah, who give the kids aikido classes on a regular basis, but of course it is more fun when the "real" black-belt sensei's visit. We took turn teaching and made sure to connect to all the kids and we also had them showing off their skills two-and-two in front of everybody else. Me and Miles threw the kids around and they threw us. Some of them even took high ukemi, and as they threw us high ukemi one could really tell in realtime how they grew on the inside.

I drowned in attention, but I had two special girls hanging in my hakama constantly, Rania and Rend. As the class finished, Miles giggled and said that I probably had to bring them with me home, while he would bring his own favourite, Adam. We finished the class and after a long ceremony of goodbyes and promises to return soon we went for a meal at a restaurant close-by, where we shared a huge pizza of a quality that exceeded many of the fanciest pizza places I have ever visited. We dropped Deborah at her house and then drove back to Jerusalem. Now we passed the Tunnel Checkpoint once again and in this direction the control is more rigourous, however not one of the more high-security ones. We had Israeli plates on the car, and after a few questions about where we came from, the checkpoint guard asked to see our passports. When Miles said that he had his passport in the trunk of the car, I guess that the boy standing there with his gun felt that he had enough so he just waved us ahead without looking us showing him anything.

We arrived in Jerusalem and took the bus back to Tel Aviv. One the way back we contemplated the day and the fact that merely a few tens of kilometres apart, you have two completely different worlds, although these two worlds still have much more in common than their inhabitants think. At the same time as I felt extremely filled up with positive energies from the meetings I had had, coming back to Tel Aviv also involves laying aside the heavy emotional burden of being exposed to the whole situation in which people on the West Bank live. Also in Jerusalem the impact of the complicated situation is palpable, but in the Tel Aviv bubble people get on with their lives pretty much indifferent to what's going on just a short drive away. I felt aware and emotionally open to the situation already before I went, but now I came in personal touch with new perspectives, which widened my awareness even more, but I cannot say that things are getting easier to understand. On the contrary, the more I see and the more I learn, the more I realise that the answers are far-fetched.

One thing is clear, personal meetings on grass-root level, that nurtures friendships across community borders is an effective way to create bonds between people that will make them more motivated to strive for peace and unity, rather than resistance and segregation. Aikido has this effect on people, while at the same time it empowers the practitioners with self-confidence and inner harmony, and in a population where around 50% of the population is under 18 years old, one can understand the importance of focusing on the new generation, like we do in the children's village. Next aikido project we are discussing for Bethlehem is a women's group for the house mothers at the village, with me as the teacher, and I hope that we can set that idea off sailing as soon as possible.

I brought my camera and I planned to take tonnes of pictures, but when I arrived to Bethlehem I felt like an exploiting tourist schmuck to take up the camera, so unfortunately there are not much pictures from this trip. Maybe next time. We are planning to take some more pictures, as well as video clips, for making promotional material, since Aikido without borders is a fund-based organisation, whose future projects depend on willing benefactors. A website is under construction and it will be launched shortly.

Today I have contemplated over a comparison between the Bethlehem kids and the two spoilt Israeli brats I have at home, who takes everything for granted and never thank us for anything. At the same time as bad conditions can bring forward good things, good conditions can bring out very bad attitudes, and even though we live privileged lives, it is important to stay appreciative of the wonders of life, as well as educating our kids to do the same. Only that way, we can have compassion with the less fortunate.