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