Monday, December 29, 2008

Dog Behaviour

On the 27 of December I went to Educacão to the Dog Behaviour Module lecture by Dr. Gonçalo da Graça Pereira

In general was very well lecture module with a good overview of problems and possible resolution solutions.

My favorite was the overview of puppy stages and tips to best socialize and stimulate the puppies at this important stage.

Also the overview of the owners and dogs interaction, and the problems that can happen with bad communication was a good element for us worried owners.

Once again Educacão deserves a big congratulation for this training course.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Happy Holidays 2008

Friday, December 12, 2008

Herding on Snow

The owner of this video and also owner of the marvelous Australian Shepherd that you see working, enjoy so much the herding training, then even in a freezing cold she continuous to work and train her Aussies.

And if you see it closely, you can also see the concentration and straight work that this Australian Shepherd does, ignoring the cold and weather.

An example and for sure a role model to follow by me and all Aussie lovers through the world.



Video gently shared by Kelly Hughes of Punchline Aussies

Monday, December 08, 2008

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Adventure on the storm


On this weekend we had a storm in Portugal. It created snow, hail, heavy rain and big lightening.

As a natural Portuguese I decided to ignore the warnings forecasts and went to the road thinking nothing will happen. So as agreed I went to Serra-a-Velha to meat another dog lover and visit her dream farm.
Of course I didn’t know that the all mountain only had earth roads and that some forest destruction (they told it was to clean and plant again) was going on.

In a Sunny day I believe it would be a very pleasant journey, but in a storm weather, in a mountain with little cell phone coverage was an adventure.

So me, a friend, two Golden Retriever, Brad and Bri, and an Australian Shepherd, Teco, arrived to that muddy road and after some frustrating cell phone call attempts we saw a house in the end of a inclined road and thought it must be it. Not only it wasn’t, as it happens when we try to get out, our car flooded on the mud and slide to the edge of the cliff.

Ok ! At this point we decided that we need help, so we get out of the car, take the dogs and wallets out into the rain, put some stones behind the wheels and went walk in the muddy rainy road to find some help.

I can honestly say I was very upset with the thought of my car sliding out to the cliff and watching my neat dogs becoming muddy brown didn’t help a bit. Ok they were happy, but my feat, cloth and dogs were all muddy, so my thought was, if I get out of this one I will have a lot of washing and cleaning to do. I know, what a crazy thought to have at the time …

Anyway and there we went walking, catching rain, seeing my dogs take mud baths and suddenly there was a white car which I ask to stop and help and the guy said he would try to get help. Ok that was great, but we couldn’t be on the rain waiting, so we keep on walking under the rain, on the muddy road, watching my dogs taking more mud baths … until another car come by and this guy went with us to see the situation.

When we arrived to my car the first guy was there with a tractor and after analysis they decided to tide a rope and I would let my car slide until the beginning of the road and hopefully with the help of the rope it wouldn’t go off the cliff. At this moment hail, lightening started to fall and I was really worried about the cliff … but as you guessed this worked and me, my very dark brown dogs and my very wet friend get out with a big thanks to this very nice guys.

Well I arrived to my lovely Algarve town, toke the dogs to the sea and let them take most of the mud. And yes they were very happy dogs, since they run and play in the mud as dogs love to do and in the end they had a sea bath.
Me and my friend were very tired persons that hopefully learn their lesson about stormy trips.