Trip to the zoo :)

Today Pia, Kaufi, Nobu and I visited the zoo of Vienna. Since it was really hot, all animals were sleeping so it  was nearly impossible to get any wild animals action pics. 

Instead we decided to take some fun pics...here they are! :)

Baba Lisa

Im back :)

Ok guys, sorry for the long interruption but getting back to normal life took some time and effort (jetlag and taming Sophie Monster:)

For all who havent got to see my Canada pics up until now here is a link to my online webalbum:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ichigo3639

Im planning to introduce you to some of the dogs at Akashima Kennel with a short character description, some pics etc in the next weeks, but life is busy so be patient:)

Baba Lisa

2nd day Vancouver!

 Today was a strange day...

It started really good with a private guided tour through the brand-new convention center down at the harbour for Michael and me. Yesterday we had only asked a staffmember where the entrance is located and she just organized a guide tour for us. Canadian people really are strange (She was from Germany :) Its a really nice building, half built on the water with typical canadian plants, trees, honeybees and a racoon on the roof. Everything in this building was

 designed, created or has its origins in Canada. They even made the walls out of  canadian cedars and another kind of tree, which gives the building a nice smell of woods. Not to forget the amazing few over the water up to the mountains!! Oh I almost forgot. All big tv broadcasts about the Olympic Games will be held there!!

Afterwards Michael and I splitted up and I made my way to the BC Museum of Anthropology located at the University Campus. But I took the wrong bus and it took me mor

e than 2 hours to get there cause the Campus is located far away from the Center. Its a huge area and I got lost several times again. Its like they didnt think that somebody dares to arrive there without a car, and I had to run over the whole Campus to get there. When I finally arrived parts of the museum where closed cause of renovation, and there was only a small exhibition but the totem poles which I was able to see where impressing.

On my way back to the hostel I went off the bus to buy some crazy food (Chips with garlic and honey flavour, Marshmallowcream, Jelly Pudding) in one of these big supermarkets which you cant find in Downtown, but they hadnt anything of it.

Back at the hostel i tried to check-in for my flights via the internet but first my macbook didnt want to connect and then the printer didnt work so I have to do it again tomorrow at the airport.

Completly exhausted I went off again for shopping cause of my bursting luggage I needed another bag and something to eat, which I had totally forgotten between getting lost several times and the computer problems.

I wanted to eat something special on my last day but couldnt find any of these fabulous looking asian restaurants, which I had seen thousands before I decided to look after them. I ended up sitting in a park near the water with an tuna sandwich from subway, an extreme sweet mousse au chocolate from the supermarket and a icy but tasty tropical smoothie, resting in the last warm sunlight.

After 1 hour packing my luggage and sulking in my bed, Michael came and drag me out of the room for watching my last sunset on the beach in Vancouver. Thank you Michael! :)

I think normally I wouldt had a problem with such a day but Im at my time limit now and I relly really cant await to get home!!! :)

See ya guys tomorrow!!

Baba Lisa

Vancouver day 1

Hey guys :)

Yesterday I spent most of my time in Stanley Park. Its a huge park/forest with several hiking paths, a rosegarden, a beaver lake and many squirrels and ducks, who dont care if you come near them. This area is surrounded by the sea and so there are several beaches too.

At arouond 4 pm I met with Michael, a german guy who I had met in Victoria and we went up the Vancouver Harbour Lookout, a nearly 200m high building with a great view over the city.

Afterwards we watched the sunset on another beach, then went back to the Lookout again for seeing Vancouver at night and finally watched the new Star Trek movie in one of Vancouvers biggest movie theaters.

A great day with a great ending :)

Baba Lisa

Victoria - Vancouver

Good Morning!

Yesterday I had a great time. In the morning  I wandered around through Victoria Downtown again, ate a Bagel, sweet Potato Fries at the other side of the harbour and drank a thing called Bubble Tea (seasoned green tea with tapicoa bubbles inside - its the thing you have in your coconutmilk an Running Sushis but bigger).

At 1 pm I borded an old sailing ship and we went off to a 3 hour trip to the street of Juan the Fucca. All passengers had to help a little bit like hoisting the sails etc. It was a great experience and a chance for me to make another dream of mine come true - sailing the ocean :) I spent more than an hour in the nets at the top front of the ship, beneath me the ocean freezing in the cold wind!

In the evening I took the BC Ferry from Victoria to Vancouver comfortable sitting in a Greyhound Bus, who took my from Downtown Victoria to Downtown Vancouver without getting stressed about how I will get to the ferry and to the harbours which are quite far from the cities. I watched a marvelous sunset in all kinds of colors, saw the wild coast of Vancouver Island and the Mainland, spotted a dophin or small whale for around 3 seconds and 2 noses of sealions :)

Arriving in Vancouver at around 9:30 pm I took a taxi to my former hostel, which is in a nasty area of this city. The door was locked, check-in time was only until 6 pm, and some guys yelled and showed their fists to me and my taxidriver so we went off to a better known hostel in a better area, where I gladfully got a bed for my stay here. It was really scaring!!!

Lets see what this day may bring :)

bye Lisa

Victoria

Hey guys!

This morning I left Akashima Kennel to do some sightseeing.

First station on my trip is Vancouver Islands capital city Victoria. I arrived here at around 2 pm and managed to get all my luggage safe to the Oceanisland Hostel. It seems to be clean and the stuff is really great!! The afternoon I spent with wandering around in Downtown, Chinatown and the Inner Harbour. Downtown has a nice old victorian flare with all the brick buildings. Chinatown was a little bit disappointing. Just some asian restaurants, chinese lampposts and a chinese arcway, but perhaps I missed something. 

For dinner I bought some teryaki chicken noodles for take away and ate them in a rural park on a stone, watched by ravens who waited for their share :)

The thing i liked most was the inner harbour. There were some old ships and you could watch waterplanes during start and landing. I think I spent nearly 2 hours sitting on the steps there, watching the seagulls drawing their circles and relaxing while listening to 2 great streetmusicians. One is called Dave Harris and he has tons of different instruments around him and sings good old American Country Music. After some while another guy joined him and they played some reggae mostly Bob Marley. They had great voices, and this was the first time today when I thought: Damn Its nice to be alone!!  Cause if I would have been there with other people I had worried if they like to leave etc.  So I sat there until sun setted and then, almost freezed, went back to the hostel to write you, cause I miss you all :)

Tomorrow I will take the bus + ferry to Vancouver in the afternoon. Im not sure how I will spend the half day in Victoria but perhaps when the weather is fine I will do a whalewatching tour, but its a little bit to early for whales so its not sure if we see any. Lets see what tomorrow brings :)

Baba

Yours Lisa

7th update: It's puppy time!!!

Hey guys!

Little princess Saya gave birth to 3 healthy puppies this morning!! 1 cream male, 1 red male, 1 red sesame female. It was hard work for Saya cause at least 2 of the puppies came out with their back forward and the first puppy was very big. Unfortunately Saya is not very accustomed with beeing a mother, its her first litter and she didnt really know what to do. She didnt clean them up, but at least she let them suck now and licks them!

The puppies were sired by Kuro (bt) and since Saya also has bt genes in her, Katja wasnt totally surprised when the big cream puppy was born. But its the first cream puppy ever born in Akashima Kennel!Since Katja has only deposits for red females, the 2 boys especially the cream one are looking for a home, unless the people with deposits change their minds :)

It was the first birth of puppies Ive ever seen. It really was a great experience and I want to become a breeder definitly now!!

And now here some pics!!

Baba Lisa

6th update: Waiting for the puppies!!

Hey guys!
Saya, the little Shiba princess is going to have her first litter!!! First date of birth was the 19th of May. Since they didnt popped out, Katja now calculated from the 2nd date of breeding, and we hope it will be the 24th of May. Im really really excited about this. Seeing live the birth of puppies.. Whoooaa. I cant await it!! I hope that there arent any further delays cause Im leaving Akashima Kennel on the 26th!!

Kuris puppies are now around 5 weeks old and for one week they start to behave like real little dogs. They are jumping, groaning, fighting, and get really excited and run towards you, when you enter their puppykennel. I love to play with them now cause the first weeks they just were cute but little bit boring sleeping all the time and crawling around like worms :) Now theres more action and you can interact with them!!!

Think I will pay them another visit,
See ya :)
Lisa

5th update: great worries :(

Although training with Mura and Sachi really goes well, Im now having a hard time cause I somehow think that my stay here harms these dogs more than it brings any good.

In the last days excitement and aggression between the dogs have rosen up, when Im around. They now know what it means, when Im entering the kennel and picking out one dog. I try to constantly work with Sachi and Mura at least 1 hour per day plus 2-4 other dogs, but their training mostly consists only of half an hour walking or playing with me in the paddock. So Im just showing them a little blink of what they should experience at least 2 hours a day. And the other 8 or so arent getting any human contact except of feeding, letting them in the outlet, medication and grooming.

I just wondered if I should concentrate on lets say only 3 dogs, and let the others be aside, but I cant do such a thing. Watching them running up an down in their kennel, and jumping at the door I have to take them out even if its just for a short time. But thats not enough :(

Watching them from the house, they dont seem so unhappy, but when a human comes in their sight or only the sound of an opening door reachs them, they explode of excitement. My dog Sophie always gets excited when Im coming home, but its an excitement out of happiness and not a desperate struggle for attention.

Ok, I think Im finished...
Give your pets a kiss from me!
Lisa

4th update from Canada

Training somehow worked the last days!!!

Sachi and Mura are doing great steps with the recall training. I used different methods training them but both work well.

1st method: blowing the whistle, calling her name, tibit if she reacts/ comes
I choosed this method for Sachi cause she already had a great reaction to her name, and so Im only working on replacing her name with the sound of the whistle

2nd method: blowing the whistle, giving a tibit
It's like the Clicker-Method, Im just using a whistle instead of the Clicker and am trying to building up a positive link between the sound and the tibit. This method worked well on Mura cause she didnt reacted on her name but I was able to get her full attention just with one tibit. After giving one to her she is following me almost endless begging for more. She would be great in Obedience cause you really have her full attention!!

Today I went a step further, and used the whistle during a long on-leash walk through a wood. So we were out of the accustomed training ground and there were many distractions. For Mura it worked out well, cause the distractions were big enough to get her away from me, and she was hoggish enough to come back for the whistletibit :)

Sachi had some litte problems cause she was really very excited and not as hoggish as Mura. But she als did a great job, I just had to use her name after whistling.

One thing I've learned: You have to differ between the many kinds of sniffing cause they have different levels of distraction.

• sniffing for knowing who was there?, whats this? etc - lowest distraction lvl
• sniffing for finding the right place to marking-pissing-shitting - high distraction lvl
• sniffing a track of an animal - high distraction lvl
• sniffing on potential food - highest distraction lvl

So on our walk today I saw that their recallconnection is only on a low distraction lvl and I have to slowly highen up the lvl and espeacially be aware of their bodylanguage to catch whats going on in their minds :)

Satos Show-Training
Yesterday I began training with little Sato (Shiba puppy). I want to see if theres an alternative way for training dogs for the examination during dog shows, cause I dont like the way its done at the moment. But time runs out and rain has come back. Its not great fun training outside during heavy rain.

Training steps:

• Conditioning on the Clicker
• Sato tips with his nose on my open hand - click - tibit
• Sato tips longer with his nose on my open hand
• training on a longer duration - delay the click for little timesteps - tibit
• Sato holds contact between nose and hand even if i move my hand
• Sato allows to manipulate his feets etc for bringing him in the right position while tipping my hand
• Sato stays still with his nose on my hand, while another person (judge) is touching him on different bodyparts

General handling training with all dogs
With all dogs Im doing some general training during walking them (unfortunately I cant walk all dogs, 15 is too much)

• staying calm during I open their kennel and put them on the leash - this takes much time: every movement from my side triggers another jumping, barking, running explosion in which all dogs of the kennel join in
• waiting calm while Im opening a gate or the kennel door
• Sit and down

Yes this was my training update from Canada, you see I have lots of things to do :)

Bye, Bye yours Lisa