Farewell 2011

One morning I was up earlier than my boyfriend and Pandora of course, she never gets out of bed if anyone is still in it.
After half an hour, my boyfriend came toddling out of the bedroom with sleepy eyes, yawning.
Right behind him, almost snout to his leg came Pandora toddling with sleepy eyes. Yawning.
I couldn’t help laughing at them.

Writing
Soon we have Christmas holidays, and one of these days are reserved for writing a book.
Bethina (I usually call her Pandoras friend, though she is a dear friend of the house) and I, have begun a project and it seams to grow almost by itself.
We have decided to use a day to get hold of all our notes, and now I have no doubt that a book is coming to life.
What it is about?
Well, something called a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, ya ‘c.

The reason I wanted to do this project was – and is – that there is so little literature about this breed. And there is ZERO literature in Danish. And over the years, mainly this year, it seams like the interest in the breed has increased.
That’s not necessarily bad, I would just like to inform people who has put their eyes on this kind of dog, what they can expect.
I suggested to Bethina that we wrote a book together, and she didn’t even hesitate a minute.
So here we are. Planning this book in Danish to come out in the first half part of next year (2012).
In the near future, I’ll make a poll on this site and ask if you think, that a book about a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog is needed in other languages.

Status
Since the beginning, May 19th 2009 until today December 19th 2011, this blog has reached:
26.365 visitors
This year alone:
17.658 visitors

The reason I mention this, is because I see there is a need of information on this relatively rare breed. And the interest seams to be increasing.
The number of visitors also encourage me to continue writing about the Wolfdog and share my experiences with you.
Write me if you have questions. As always, I’ll try to help and share whenever I can.

Thank you all for comments, e-mails and support until now.
It’s so nice to get to know so many great people.

Leaving the year
Our new years eve is dog’s night this year.
Two of Pandora’s friends, Bandit and Susy, are coming to spend the day and as Pandora doesn’t have any fear for fireworks, we hope she can show the others her confidence.

Weather you have a Wolfdog or another breed as your companion, remember to treat it with dignity and respect.
Take good care of it New Years Night, and remember, if you show fear, your dog will read your fear and become fearful itself. Therefor you have to show all the confidence you have in your bone.
Be a good leader, show strength  and by no means let you dog alone.

Also remember: love does not come in the form of unhealthy food, not even at Christmas. But a raw bone or a small slice of Turkey is fine.

For now:
Have a great Christmas and a happy new year.

With all the love and good wishes from, Pandora and family.

NB! Remember: A tired CsW is a happy CsW

The Christmas Pandora Sleeping Collage

WARNING! DO NOT BUY FROM THIS GUY

I need your help!

To buyers of Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs from Denmark.

Without going into details, I had an argument with at Danish wolfdog owner this weekend.

I have known of him for while, but late Saturday he really pissed me off.

I normally don’t talk ill about other people, and especially not on the Internet, but this guy really crossed my line of decent behaviour.

We met at an exhibition and he asked if I would help changing the rules for breeders in Denmark.

In Denmark, your dog have to have certain certificates at exhibitons, in order to mate and get the puppies registered legally.

This guy wanted to mate a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog he has with a bad, bad temper and he wanted my acknowledgement to do so.

I told him I could not agree less, and that he was the worst representative for wolfdogs that I ever met.

• His aggressive dogs are the reason that our breed are now on the observation list, in danger to be illegal in Denmark.
• His dogs has got viewable hotspots (skin condition) and lousy fur with clear signs of neglect and bad nutrition
• He has earlier been bragging about using electrical dog collars. They are not just forbidden in DK, they are the worst kind of abuse.
• Everything he does he does for money, and he admits it.
• He threatened me saying he would make illegal dogs and sell them in the capital to gang members.
  He actually said that!

Therefore:
If you hear of anyone buying a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog from Denmark, please don’t hesitate to contact me, and I’ll provide you with the need informations about this breeder.
He lives in the North of Jutlan (Nordjylland).

Spread the word to other wolfdog owners so we can ban and stop him from ruining our breed.

Seasons ending

Deciding what to do

I still love my wolfdog. Regarding my last post.
But it has made me rethink our situation, and as it is almost the end of the season, we are considering not to attend obedience training next year. Agility on the other hand, we will definitely join, because the last two times we were there, Pandora did so well. Didn’t run away and did the rehearsals perfectly.

Now I consider trying to train Rally, which doesn’t demand a perfect obedience, but more intelligence and fun. Actually, I think Pandora would find Heelwork to Music funny, but I can’t find any courses near us. And somehow a wolfdog dancing sounds a little silly, but if she has fun, who am I to judge?
I still dream of building an action park for dogs.

Natural born leader

Two weekends ago we went to meet two Tamaskan dogs (Matsi and Sølve) and our Saarloos Wolfhound friend Loup (former mentioned here when he was a puppy) in the dog park in Odense.
Last year, Pandora would have submitted to any dog trying to dominate her. She doesn’t any more.
Among these dogs, no one else claimed the leading position, so Pandora took it her own very gentle way.

It was like she wanted the only male, Loup (the Saarloos) to join her in an alpha role, but he refused. He is young and still a little insecure.
Pandora seemed to really enjoy Matsi (the Tamaskan puppy) following her everywhere.
Oh, if Pandora and Matsi was together every day, Matsi could learn soooo many dirty trick from Pandora. Be aware, Hellan [Matsi's daddy].

Twice that day I saw Pandora go between first Matsi and another dog, then Loup and another dog. Like she was saying: This girl/guy is a part of my pack, don’t hurt them.
The other dogs respected that, and there were never any controversies of any kind.

I must say, I was very proud of Pandora’s ability to keep track of her own little pack and her gentle way to let the other dogs know, she was in charge.
If anything she is the smartest leader I’ve ever met. Dog or human.

It was a great day, I hope we get a lot more of those.

Here you can see a film from our trip.
Enjoy!

Czechoslovakian wolfdog, Tamaskan dog and Saarloos wolfhound in dog park

When you life is changed …

Dear blog reader
I actually had a completely different agenda for this blog, but it changed yesterday. Sometimes you need a special experience to open your eyes and really learn something.

Training season
Yesterday, Sunday morning we went to the weekly obedience training.
It’s the first time this season we go Sunday morning instead of Monday evening.
Things went ok.
Pandora didn’t do the ‘free search’ too well, but she actually managed to pick up the object a return it to me.
The ‘retrieve’ wasn’t perfect either, but I tried with 5 different objects and she did pick them up reluctantly, and as I trained her to keep it in her mouth for two-three seconds, and then fed her a goodie, she started to understand the mechanic’s of the session.

We did the ‘jumping’ exercise. On the command ‘jump’ Pandora jumps across the so called A-board. On command ‘Return’, she should jump back.
This is a risky exercise, as she is acting on her own. I send her forward, and she has to turn around on the other side, without me to stop or guide her.
Sometimes she runs away. Yesterday she did one good, one bad and one where I could call her back.

In two weeks there’ll be a competition in our club.
You compete with the other attendants, but you also collect points to move to Rank B. We are Rank C.
Pandora is 2 1/2 year old. If she had been a German Shepherd, she would have been at Rank B heading Rank A by now. I know it because I have had a GS before and we got quite far. But y’know Pandora …

Disaster waits here
There are 4 things Pandora does very well:
Walking in leash. And on command she can ‘lay down’, ‘sit’ and ‘stand’ and I can walk away from her for a minute or so.
These four exercises are also a part of the competition program, and on that day, she will have to do these four things almost perfectly, and at least one or two other exercises perfect, to get enough points.
So after a 50/50 jump, a 50/50 apport and a not so fantastic ‘free search’, I was very confident in the leash and command exercise.

But I forgot some thing.
The perfect walk in leash is based on me carrying a goodie in my hand. Not allowed at the competition.
So the walking was less beautiful, but I could perhaps refine i within the next 14 days.
Then we prepared for the ‘sit’ command.

The exact exercise is this:

• You start at a mark. The dog sits next to you
• You take of the leash.
• Without the leash you walk to the next mark.
• At this mark you say ‘sit’, let the dog sit and walk on to mark three.
• Here you wait until the judge shows that you can go back to the dog and put the leash back on.

For ‘sit’ lay down’ and ‘stand’ the rehearsal is almost the same.

Pandora and I prepared.
We walked to the first mark. Pandora sat by my side and I took off her leash.
That’s all we ever did.
With the tiny ‘click’ from the hook in the leash, Pandora went off and she never came back.
I called and called, I got angry at my husband, at Pandora and at the trainer and his assistant.
‘Be interesting’ they recommended. Jump, run, scream to get her attetion’.
I told them that it wouldn’t work. I have uncountable times been lying on hands and knees in the meadow next to our house. I have been screaming, ignoring, jumping, dancing, growling, whining, whimpering, lying flat on my back, on my stomach, with legs in the air, with my head in a hole.
You name it, I tried it.
It doesn’t work anymore. Pandora ignores me, and she doesn’t take the bait. I am not interesting. That’s it.
But for their sake I ran around a little in an obscene mix of shouting and luring I waved my arms and looked like a complete idiot.
I don’t mean to be rude, but have you ever seen a dog give you the finger?
I swear you could have seen it yesterday.

On shear luck, one of the others at the area grabbed Pandora by the collar, and I could finally get her.
I didn’t praise her, as she wasn’t the one coming to me, I brought her directly down to the car and put her in the cage.
I was blowing steam out of my ears.
And I put her on sale on Twitter when the trainer said: ‘You are right. I don’t think she is ready to join the competition.’
I got hurt. I knew it, but it hurt me anyway.
I cried all the way home in the car. For hours I refused to talk to Pandora, turning my back to her.
I was so disappointed with her. Thinking that if I wanted a dog that could do NOTHING, I might as well buy a toydog.
Still. Writing this, I’m disappointed. No longer in her, but in me.

 

Pandora bathing in the local gravel pit

Revolution

On the way home from training I analysed the situation.
If we trained every day, we could eventually reach Rank B. But we would never get any further.
For several reasons.
I do believe that some day I can trust her without a leash 90 % of the time. But never 100 %. Never.
Even if she could do all the exercises as requested, it would never be perfect in the way the program subscribes. She will never have her eyes fixed at my face unless we are in a small white room with no sounds, no smells and no distractions at all.
She will never enjoy obeying me for one entire hour if my intentions are as boring as regular training is for a wolfdog.
She will never respect obedience training as a smart thing, as it is too easy and to meaningless to her.
And as goodies are not that important to her, she won’t keep obeying me based solely of them.
At Rank B one of the exercises is ‘tracking’. Pandora is so fantastic at using her nose, but … she doesn’t react to the items on the track or the goodies at the end of the track, as they are not interesting to her.  The track is the interesting thing.
So question is, would she even be able to do a good track?

Thinking all this on the way home, I had to conclude that the main reason we do obedience training is me wanting to prove that a Czechoslovakian wolfdog can obey me. But I am wrong.
Wolfs don’t obey, the follow the interesting leader, and I am loosing the grip.
I am no longer interesting, I am boring, egoistic and apart from bringing her to see other dogs that she can’t even play with, I don’t do much to her satisfaction and stimulation.
A Czechoslovakian wolfdog needs to do three things:

• use the nose
• use the head
• use the body.

And now I have begun thinking something else:
This is like the misunderstood autistic girl in the class. Pandora needs stimulation, but not based on rules. More like based on this breeds capability.
Where can you find working areas for intelligent dogs?

I’m thinking if I could make a sort of ‘pakour area’ for smart dogs. Somewhere to dig holes, hide objects to search for, challenge the snout, challenge the head, exercise the dog in all different ways.
If I had something like the meadow next to our house …
This is just the start. But our experience from yesterday certainly taught me something.
I’m not done thinking, and I’ll let you know what it ends up with.

This was my sharing for today, please send a comment if you fell like it.

NB! Pandora is no longer for sale.

Pandora with friends

Moviestar in Copenhagen

Just a very short post to tell that the beautiful girl is now the movie star with the leading role in the art movie KILL, which can be seen in the gallery Gl. Strand (Gammel Strand) in Copenhagen.

The movie is very cool, and the other leading role is a truck, so Pandora is very much in the spotlight.

This is the movie I wrote about a 16. june called ‘Going to Hollywood.’

Pandora in the art movie KILL

If you get near Copenhagen, do go see the movie. It’s very short, like 7 minutes but is’t so well made.

You can see Gl. Strand webpage here. The exhibiton is called: FILM/KUNST (Film/art) and the artist behind it is my farvorite artist Ingvar Cronhammar and the super talented fim director Christoffer Boe.

Poster from the FILM/KUNST artmovie: KILL

 

Pandoras blog by Pandora III

Oops I did it again
Found this completely gorgeous dead fish on the river bank.
It smelled soooo delizious that I just had to roll me delicate body in it … to make it even more delicate.
Mum tried to stop me, but I refuzed. I rolled intenzely, all the way down the small hill where I fell into the stream.
I totally ignored the barking sound me mummy made.

Her crazy grinning stopped as she petted me and her fingerz got glued together with me sticky perfume. I’ve got the feeling she didn’t love me too much on the way home.

Then I had a bath.

Mud bathing
Me mummy and daddy took me to a nice area where we often come. There’z a small bridge crozzing a minor stream. I usually bath in it. It’s refreshing, cool and zmells devine.

This day, the water was very dark. Black, ya could even zay.
So, I left the bridge to dip me delicate feet in the water, and well, ehem … I … eh … fell in mud to me neck.
I mean, me hind legs were still on the bridge but me front legs were GONE!
First mummy looked very frightened, but then she started the barking sound again. When she does that, I know I should be happy ‘coz she is.

I used all me strength to get out of the mud and climb to the shore.
Mum laughed even more, and then she offended me big time:

All me beautiful legs, black to me very stomach … and then she said:
– Pandora, you look like a fox.

A FOX! Really! I do no such thing.

What does she look like? A naked monkey? Huh?

Back home I had  bath.

I miss winter
Seriously. Snow I tell ya, ya can do all sorts of thingz in it. Dig, dig, and dig even more.
So I figured: Why not make snow me self?

The characteristics ’bout snow is: White, fluffy, light.
Light as a feather, actually. Light as me mummy’s pillow.
See what I mean?

So, left alone in the house I decided to let it snow.
It took to minutes to spread them!
Mum claims it took her an hour to get all the feathers away from the bedroom. Yeah right!

And then she had a bath.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I am a herding dog, got it?
Ev’ry time we have to leave home, before we walk out of the door, I do me usual round into daddy’s workshop.
Ev’ry time he calls me back.
– Pandora, get back here!

When we come back to the house, I do me round again.
And again daddy calls me back.
– Pandora, get back here. What is it with you, are you developing an OCD?

OCD? Humanz! *sigh*

Until one day I did me round and I caught the neighbours enormouz, big, dangerouz, red cat below daddy’s working table. The cat hissed like a idjet and ran off. Frightened to death seeing me.

After that mum said I should alwayz be allowed to do me rounds whenever I want.
Finally she got it.

I have to do my rounds, not coz I got OCD, but ‘coz I have to herd the catz back into the house. Get it?

I have to know where ev’rybody is. That’s me job. I’m a herding dog, y’zee?

Me dad thinkz I've got OCD!

Ce ya zoon,

hot licks from Pandora

Pandora goes to Hollywood

There’s actually a lot to tell since the last time, but I’ll stick to one subject.

Model casting
Four weeks ago, I was called by a woman, Melanie, who was casting animals for films.
She asked me if Pandora could act as a wolf in an art movie.
I was very honest and didn’t promise much about Pandora’s skills. After a little talk back and forth, Melanie decided to come and meet Pandora, and see if we could persuade her – Pandora – to do different things, such as barking on command.
Melanie also wanted Pandora to ‘stand’ on a command made from a distance.
Good luck with that, I thought.
Two weeks ago, Melanie came by and we worked with Pandora for a couple of hours.
Honestly? Not too promising. She couldn’t stand when asked, she couldn’t even do that at our training hours so why should she this day?
Barking on command was hopeless. Actually the film folks wanted her to howl like a wolf, but although she often howls, it’s always little ‘give me attention’ howls and not the humongous ‘give me the moon’ kinda thing.
Anyway, Melanie prepared the film crew that they would NOT get a Labrador, they would get a wolf, with all the difficulties included.
And they accepted that.

Surprise
Two days after Melanie had visited us, Pandora barked on command for the first time. I tell you, I was sooo proud. Hell, I still am.
And two days before we went to record the film, she was able to ‘stand’ on command with the order given from a distance.

‘Hollywood‘
Last Monday we, Pandora and I, went to Melanie’s home on Zealand (Sjælland). Here we met her dogs, and Pandora had a very weird reaction to a bearded collie.  I’ll write about that in the next blog.
We stayed overnight, and went to the film set early the next morning. We got out of bed at 6 o’clock in the morning. At 9 o’clock we met the film folks at a small filming area near an old air base.
Pandora was let free and she went from one person to the next to say hello. She like and accepted every one, and they were all very kind to her. Several of them said: Wow it crazy how much she looks like a wolf. They were really impressed with her looks.

Pandora watching the camera crew and their equipment

Treadmill and green screen
And then we started filming. Pandora’s first task was to walk and run on a treadmill. I had thought she could do that easily, as she tried that last summer. The difference was that last year it was a treadmill specifically made for dogs. This was an old conveyor belt, probably one of those used at the check-out in the supermarket. And it was painted green. Actually a lot of the recordings were made with green screen, and the treadmill had to fall into the background.
It took perhaps 30 minutes. Then Pandora could use the treadmill alone with no no one helping her or holding her (me or Melanie). She could walk and she could run. The recording was made.
Luckily the film people, especially the producer, was very patient with us, so I never felt any rush or stress.
After that, Pandora had to run through the green screen area. No problem. Then she had to jump in the green screen area. First she jumped about 60 cm. Her own height. Then she jumped 1 meter and they were very impressed with the height she could jump. Watching the jump in slowmotion afterwards was actually pretty impressing.

Pandora on the set

Blood
On our way to meet the film crew, we went by a butcher and picked up 15 litres of lams blood.
After the green screen recordings, Pandora was going to be recorded in a natural environment. We moved the location to some high grass. Melanie laid out a blood trail in the hope that Pandora would follow it. The crew wanted to film Pandora form the behind, running. I don’t think they ever got the good shot; she was far gone every time she was let loose.
Then she had to eat an animal.
The crew had got three minks. The first was soaked in blood and looked very dramatic. Pandora took one look at it and said: Predators don’t eat predators (Carnivore carnivore), and she never gained any interest in the mink. Clever enough, I had brought a lot of her food with me from home, so the raw turkey neck and the tripe was then soaked in blood to make her interested and make it look dramatic. (Thank god she’s a BARF dog).
At that time she hadn’t eaten in 48 hours.
I knew I had to starve her to be able to control her just a little during the recordings. It had worked so far.
She ate all right, but not too enthusiastic. Melanie took blood in her hands and put it on Pandora’s snout to make her look dangerous and evil. At first Pandora accepted it, in the end she hated the blood. I could see that she felt dirty and wanted to clean herself. But she accepted our mistreating of her in a way that almost made me feel guilty.
This red-faced wolfdog being unable to clean herself, unable to get away from the cameras that she saw as five huge, black aliens, staring at her with their one eyed faces.
But in the end, she also resigned to that, laid down and ate her food with cameras up her nose.

Blood blood and more blood

The final shots was Pandora staring into the camera, no problem.
Pandora running towards the camera, no problem.
Pandora looking evil. Problem! Pandora isn’t evil.
But the camera man had some good ideas and made her look fabulous.
Final shot was Pandora walking through water to record her paw and footsteps through the water. It  looked amazing.

The movie
The movie, well I don’t know what it’ll be about exactly. It will be previewed the 3rd of September at an art gallery called Gl. Strand on Zealand (Sjælland).
I expect to get access to the final film, which will probably also be put on YouTube, and I’ll post it as soon as possible.
There were also camera people from hour national TV attending the film set. They were making a ‘movie behind the movie’. And perhaps they will air the result in September, too.

Pandora van Goverwelle

Experience
But so far, my girl is a movie star. She has always been a star in my life, so that changes nothing, but I learned a lot.
We usually train obedience for 1 ½ hours and agility 1 ½ hour every week. This Tuesday Pandora was working approximately 7 hours. We were on the set from 9 am to 5 pm with only one break.
Tricking her, luring her, I could make her do stuff I’d never thought she’d accept.
She worked so hard, and though she left the set a few times, it was ok. She came back and did the job.
Training intensively had paid off. I’ll never again say that she cannot learn fast, ‘cos she can.
I have even gained hope that we will attend some competitions this autumn.
Pandora is fantastic. She’s a constant surprise and my expectations are often too low.
Sorry Pandora, you are fabulous!

A poem and a goodbye

As told in a former entry on this blog, we lost our dear friend and play mate Cember in January
I got this poem which brought tears into my eyes.
There’s not much to say except:
Dear M.
I hope you’ll one day consider getting a new wolfdog. Not as a replacement for Cember but as an heir to your love.
I my opinion (and here I might offend some, sorry), but there are very few capable Wolfdog owners out there, but you’re one of them, and there are a lot of wolfdog puppies who need a good human.
My best and kindest regards,
Kim

Cember †

By M.J.
“My dearly beloved Cember”

Before I am able really to let you go,
there are a few things, I need you to know,
you taught me so much, now I can see,
I hope it will still grow deep inside of me.
You taught me a special kind of love,
the one, that is known in heaven above,
you showed me trust, joy and play,
everything you did was in your own way.

I will never forget the look in your eye,
when I left that day without a goodbye,
I´m deeply sorry, I hurt you, I wish I never did,
I hope you forgave me – maybe just a little bit.
I wonder, if you understood from the tone of my voice,
when later I told you, leaving was not my choice,
and I prayed, that the sound would reach your ear,
all the times at night, I whispered: “Baby, I´m right here!”.

However, I was grateful more than ever felt before,
for our last time together, and I loved you even more,
a welcome as yours will be nowhere else to find,
I even loved the blue marks your happiness left behind.
I enjoyed every minute, every step and every mile,
I was proud and save around you – you gave me reason to laugh and smile,
I remember your sound, your fur, smell and your touch
when you lay your head towards me – I will miss it all so much.

The lost of you only time can heal,
but life must go on – it´s a damn spinning wheel,
so, now you rule in the sky, sure as happy as can be,
“the king of doggy-heaven” – baby, run wild and free.
I am so blessed to have known you – and now I let you go,
but when my time comes, I will stop by you to say “hello”.
Forever you are printed in my heart, soul and mind,
my dearly beloved Cember – you were really one of a kind!

Thank you so much for this great homepage, written with humour, honesty and humility, but most of all love.
That beautiful Pandora, she is obviously a lucky girl!

Tweenager

Pandora: 63 cm, 32 kg, 23 month old

My girl has grown up
She is sneaky and smart and funny and crazy … and very neat.
Just by coincidence did I see her discreetly licking the floor and then herself. By luck I found out that she was in heat!
My little puppy is no longer a little puppy.
Now I have to protect her from all the big, bad, ugly boys out there.
She hasn’t seen uncomfortable up to her heat or anything. I mean, Pandora always act a little silly and unpredictable. So it has not affected her much.
If you think I’m a little crazy here, I can tell with my old dog I always knew when she was getting in heat. She seemed in pain and unhappy a couple of weeks before.

Big, bad boy kissing my girl!

BARF
As Pandora is weighing a little too much, we talked to our BARF advisor in the barf shop about it. He suggested that we tried to feed Pandora every other day instead of every day. She would then have to have the double amount of food, but chances were that she would start to burn off fat from her body.
It didn’t work very well and the change in her everyday life made her uncomfortable. That was when she took another bite of the new sofa.
She seems to be a little autistic when it comes to major changes in her life.
So we went back to the old way. She is just getting an even smaller amount of food every day. Unfortunately she also gets a lot of goodies as we train so much, but I’ve found my bike in the back of the barn, we train obedience and agility now, so perhaps we can get her (and our self) more fit.

Insecure or deaf
A change was actually five steps backward.
During the winter she got so good at the call back commands. It felt almost like an ordinary dog, y’know Labradors and Shepherds. The breeds that stick around and find their human interesting.
Now it’s spring. The snow is finally gone and all the great smells are back, birds are twittering and nature is calling. Calling a lot louder than me, ‘cos it gets harder and harder to call Pandora back when we are out for a walk. For half a year we have been training with other dogs and her ‘escape when you can attitude’ was almost gone. Well, now it’s back.
She chases birds, deer, hares and catches mice, worms and what-have you. And she give a … whether we call or not.
And then I had an experience.
Last time we went training she had to do a ‘search’ for a man.
The guy stood in the rim of a small forest and I send Pandora forward with a ‘search’.
The goal is to make her bark, and I don’t have to tell you that barking is not a wolfdog’s preferred language, so she didn’t bark.
He tried to tease her with some goodies, but didn’t give her any. I stood ten meters away, and then Pandora turned her head looking at me as if she needed help. I wasn’t fast enough so she looked at me again. Insecure of what this strange man wanted from her. Too late I walked towards her. She gave up on me and on him, like she was thinking: I can’t trust my mom, she won’t help. I leave!
And that was exactly what she did.
Ran off. It took half an hour to get her back. All the time she was like five meters away from us, but didn’t react to me offering goodies, smacking my lips, turning my back to her, fiddling with toys, trying to look like I just caught a rabbit. Nothing. She stared at me like I was an idiot.
We got hold of her because she wanted to play with another dog and the owner grabbed her.
Was she disappointed in me?! Lousy leader, I was, letting her down like that.
And I learned that though she is a tough little one, she’s not that tough at all.
I know it from when I get angry at her in the house. I point my mouth and open my eyes wide and stare at her. Not a sound is uttered, and she gets very submissive. I just never thought of her insecurity out in the field.

Agility
But she has good days too. And there are more of them than bad once.
Remember in the beginning when she was coming 20-30 % of the time? Now she’s coming 85-90 % of the time.
Last week we started at agility again.
Pandora wasn’t at all as crazy when we met with the other dogs as she was last autumn.
A small dog , about half of Pandora’s size, quite cute, is a little aggressive. Emma, her name is, would very much like to be the queen of the team. And she was last autumn. Last autumn, Pandora would have laid herself flat on the grass in submissive attitude. But not this spring.
Pandora took a look at Emma, sticking her nose to Emma’s nose and said: Yeah, you might wanna be in control, but you won’t control me.
No aggressiveness, no growling, snarling or anything. Just Pandora’s self-awareness and self-confident attitude. Then Pandora turned her back to Emma, and the ‘never spoke again’.
The trainer looked at Pandora and said: Wauw has she matured since last autumn.
And she has, of course.

To the story comes, that last summer, our wonderful breeders, van Goverwelle, warned us that a mature female wolfdog, can change temper severely. A wolfdog who’s been kind and sweet can become a very aggressive grown up female.
We have feared Pandora changing her gentle disposition, but now I don’t think it’ll happen. She must be in her most vulnerable stage right now been in heat.
The agility field wasn’t very difficult, and too easy means too boring, to Pandora.
She did the first run perfectly, the next she skipped a few jumps. Then we tried to run from the other end. Twice she skipped a few things. But I knew she could do the field, so it was okay.
And yes she did it without a leash. And yes she ran away once, and hey! I could call her back! With goodies and a luring voice she came back within a minute.
– Wauw has she matured, the trainer said again.
Pandora will never be a fast agility runner, but when it comes to intelligence, she might be the cleverest.
The challenges in the agility sport is very much her style.
—

I promised pictures of the toothpaste sessions. Here they are.

Hey man, can I join ya?

This taste good, dad, real good!

Spring is back, friends!

This is just a short notice to say thank you to firends who sends links and pictures from all over the world.

That’s so great.

Rose send the below pictures of her Ricu.

He’s adorable.

I have also added two more links, one to a wolfdog site in Sweden, and a Youtube site with wolfdog recordings.

Go ahead and enjoy.

My next blog will be about agility, our training and last but not least: Pandoras 2 years birthday which is coming up the 3rd May.

 

Ricu

Ricu

Ricu