On Saturday we drove again for hours and hours just to visit garages - again. I was already settled for a really, really boring day, but then all of the sudden it got lots better for a while. Of course then we sat in the car for hours and hours again to come back home. But here are some pictures of our play on the beach.

This week has been rather good, as quite a bit has been going on again. On Tuesday we had our first private obedience lesson. We spent the time mostly on getting to know each other - our teacher Kata had a little look on what we are like and what we can do. The first homework was the concentrating on the basics - kitchen training on the right position, stops with the ball and turns to the right. And stays for me. I do not like the stays.

In the evening me and Mummy drove to our tracking training. I got to do a real track with sausages in the beginning and in the end but in the middle no more in everystep. The track was about 50 meters long and we all agreed that I could have done already a lot longer one. I was praised for my calm work.

On Wednesday Tilda did some more obedience. They were practising something called ruutu. As Tilda explained to me there was a little marked area and treats in it and all she had to do was to run to that area and eat the sweeties. Sounds easy, I am sure even I could have worked that one out. In addition to this exercise they were practising on downs - how to make them really quick and nice.

On Thursday we went herding again. We both felt much more at home there now that we were there already for the second time and were not as calm and quiet as we were last week, but I would say we were still rather well behaved. We were practising an outrun and doing little fetches in between. I even got to try a bit longer outrun on the bigger field but we all agreed that was still a bit difficult for me. So we went back to the smaller field and will now continue practising it gradually making the distance longer. Although apparently this might well have been our last practise this season I have been told. And that was not good news, not good news at all.

We have mostly continued living quite relaxed life. But we finally had some action this past week. We have seen our friends Svenkka and Mustonen on several occations for a play and walk. In addition Taffy got to go to a sausage field with Mummy on Tuesday. He thought they went herding as they walked in to a big field, but to his suprise there were no sheep anywhere. What he did find on that field was a square full of meatballs and then a meatball line. And everyone was really happy that he found those. Rather strange. But what I really want to know is that why didn't I get those meatballs?

On Wednesday we did manage to find a field with sheep and we both got to herd them. And we both did well and were surprisingly calm - according to Mummy. We did some regular fetching and both got to do little outrun practises as well. It was brilliant to see some sheep again.

We have also been doing agility a couple of times. Maiccu took me one day to see if we could go and do comps some time soon. And we did very well and it looks like I get to go and show the world what a clever agility dog I am soon :)

Today in the morning we went to do agility with Eija, Ansu and Miina. We did a small practise that went well for both of us. After that we went for a run in the forest. That was really really nice.

Since we got back home we really haven't done much. Training wise that is. We have been on the agility course a couple of times but Mummy says that she is not really good enough to train on her own with us, she needs someone to tell her what and how to do stuff. What we have done a lot is walkies with our friends, and that has been really great! It has been so good to see everybody. We have mostly been out with the Svenkka and Mustis, but also with Miina, Ansa and Kimi and their guest Sawa, which I thought was really nice little girl! Then last weekend we went for a proper beardie walkies where we were 10 dogs all together. Fun!

A couple of weeks ago when it was a bit warmer we went did go for a swin a few times - and I remembered how to swim and realized that I actually quite like swimming. But now the weather has been mostly like autumn even if it is only August so no more swimming.

The bad news is that we are both on antibiotics. I had an infection in my anals and poor little Taffy has had some sort of bite in his leg, that has been quite sore and infected. Luckily now it seems to be heeling. The really bad news is that because of this antibiotics I cannot go to the agility comp with Maiccu this coming weekend - but there will be other comps...

Something did happen, one Satuday morning after a wet walk on the wineyards we were packed in the car and we drove for hours and hours, stopped for a night and then again drove for hours and ended up in Mörrum - my dream place where we have been herding every summer. And again we did a lot of herding! Our trainer was a gentleman from a place called America - Terry Workman. We were all very pleased with the camp, the progress we made and Terry's teaching methods. We got lots of good tips how to work better and Daddy was told off for using his toys and for shouting at us.

The camp eded with a little trial. The course was the AKC started one which you can see here. Daddy was very very pleased with us and we both scored 91 points out of 100 and were placed 6th and 7th out of 13 dogs. The most difficult part was the outrun which is something that we have not been practising that much yet, but we got a lot of tips from Terry and I am sure that is something we will practise next year.

Oh, one more important thing I have to mention: I had a camp romance - I fell completely head over heels in love with lovely Mia.

After the trial we drove to Stockholm and caught a ferry, spent many, many boring hours locked in a little cabin and then drove - and ende up home in Lohja! wow! We spent one day at home, and I even got to see my dear brother Svenkka and have a little run with him but then on Tuesday we went for a long drive again.

We drove to a place called Vehmersalmi. There we had another herding camp - life can be so beautiful sometimes. And boy we were in for a surprise when we first started - we got to herd with 72 sheep and goats! We both got on fine. Tilda was in her element wareing behing the flock. The first day we had a long practise where we were were walking the sheep on a forest road. We had little stops and relaxed and let the sheep eat and then continued again. On Thursday we had shorter sessions on the field. It was very interesting and a bit puzzeling. All in all we enjoyed the camp quite a bit, herding and running with our friends on a field - life does not get much better than that!