Cold Days Are Here!

This year Iris is luckie twice: he meets the autumn for the second time!!!

It's been almost 3 weeks since Iris is home. This time was not the time I'd call perfect puppy start. The reason to it is that we had guests in a house which stole lots of my time,as well as opportunity to do some of the staff I planned. Good training was  not regular and bad training was too often. We are at our "proper training" startline. For now I have an absoulutely amazing dog! My French Bulldog - Maya - had a great carisma from the day I first met her (19 July 2008), IRIS IS JOY! He tought me what does it feel like when your heart sings. And now mine does EVERY SINGLE DAY! Isn't that awesome?
Our meeting each other reminds me of J.R. Ackerly and his German Shepherd Queenie, known better as Tulip, who just were compleatly different one from another... Same here: I am slow and reflective, Iris is fast and reactive; I never shout - Iris likes to bark; I am fan of French Bulldog irresistable mollosoid qualities (farting apart) packed in a roundish ridicular body - little liviero is oh how differrent! So probably He & I had little chance to meet, but for my great luck and happiness - we did. I love him totally: each his little everything! I really love him very much...
Said all this, he is supposed to sleep in his crate, interract with other dogs on leash and get all  the good things from me and in controlled qualities (see "Ruff Love" by Susan Garrett) - good training. He sleeps in bed and sofà in the noon hours and self-reinforces himself whenever he wants - very bad training. For those, who new to all this, I'd like to remind that dog learnes every second of his life by pairing events or stimuli to consequences. So I must admit that in last three weeks I taught my puppy to sleep in bed, shadow me, not to control his impulses and occasionally pee in the house. Well done, Anna! Okay its good to be honest intellectually, but little "good staff" we done should not pass unspoken. We did very nice quality walkies, working first of all on Classical Conditioned (see Pavlov experiments) recalls. I only saying I_R_I_S!!!!! once and he is flying  to me. Still he is only 2,5 months and there will be done much more training on this. Loose -leash walking is very good too, seems like Mr Fox figured out whats the RZ (reinforcment zone) is and I R+ every single time  he is in. For my big surprise and pleasure he loves tugging and retrieve. Thou if he knows I have the food - he quits tugging. Today we worked on it! I'd love to transfer the value the food to the fantastic Clean Run Tugs. More details on it in my future posts

The Day Before Tomorrow

It's here. Only one day left! And I feel excited and not ready.... This may seem too much for someone, but arrival of a new pup is like an arrival of a new baby to the house. Life will change radically for every member of our family. Personally for me the biggest challange is keeping up with a timetable. I still must work it out.

First day at home will be very short for Iris. He is  arriving at 21.30 in the evening to Malpensa Airport of Milan. So we will drive home, do a house check. eat some supper (if little Mister is willing) and than we'll go off to bed. Iris will be sleeping in a crate close to my bed. Hope he wouldn't mind that too much! Seems perfect, only thing that makes me worried is while I am caring for the guy, who will take my "MAMMMA!"'s role?!? If there is anyone up for this, don't hesitate to contact me!

Feelings

Two more weeks to go.

 I love this waiting time because it is so tender. My husband says some dreams should never come true (hope he doesn't mean my arrival to his life), so we always feel the pleasure to dream them. Its nice to think about little red guy somewhere out there. Open my laptop and see his picture, and think how absoulutely nice and sweet he is. And how much I'd love to cuddle him! 100% positive. Just think, no mess, no barking, no "poopee" around .... HE IS MY PERFECT DOG! ♥
Tanya posted new pictures yesterday. Russian autumn brings fun to him and his littermates.

 
It happends to me often to think about how my life changed since my first dog entered into my life years ago.I remember when I went to pick her up how happy I was, how happy I was through all her puppyhood, how happy I was through many more years to come. It was unconditioned and simple relationship. There were no expectations or judging. Love to dog shows ruins that special magic people have with their dogs... From the time I became dog sports person it all went sort of wrong. Those pure feelings never came back to me. Because I look at dogs through "the standard" glasses, I think what the experts and others will say..... ufffff! I am happy that Iris is not a bouledogue and that I have no idea about rabbit hunting! May be the magic will return!

Lets Get It Started!

My name is Anna Denisova. I am from Russia. I live in Italy (on a beautiful Lake of Varese almost on a border with Switzerland). I am an R+ dog trainer and a French Bulldog breeder. Thou this blog is not about me, but my new dog Colistos Iris, who is Cirneco dell'Etna puppy.

 So, who is Iris?

First time I heard of a breed about a year ago from my husband, Carlo. I saw those pictures in Google of elegant red dogs with big ears. They did and still remind me my mom's Abyssinian cat - Knopka.

As a dog trainer and a breeder I give equaly big importance to both Nature and Nurture. That's why, when I had a pleasure to get to know Mrs. Butt, the owner of Colistos Kennel, I knew my cirneco would be Colisto's. Mrs Butt is not only a knowledgeble breeder with a unique ability to combine the grace and the power in her dogs, but she is a wonderful puppy nanny too. Choosing the puppy from her I feel I have a guarantee for both puppy's mental and phisical health as well as a wise mentor who would be there for us through out the dog's life. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, TATIANA, FOR THIS WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY.

So, kennel decision was made and very soon I wrote Tatiana that I would be much honored to buy a female puppy with show potential from her. She had two litter's at the moment. One out of Verna del Gelso Bianco (pictured above), who is my most favorite cirneco, because exactly her foto made me fall in love with a breed months ago. Verna had only males. Other litter was out of Iside and Pablo  - two wonderful dogs of her. There were 2 girls availiable, so we agreed to wait and see how they grow. Time was passing by,  regulary Tatiana would put new pictures of the litter on her Facebook profile, and one day I saw him. I said to myself : " No no no no, male is not good for me. I need a female."
I knew I was already in love.
Today Iris is 6 weeks old and he is still in Moscow with his mom & littermates. He will be arriving home on 3d of October. Needless to say I can't wait to see him and all the house is getting ready for the red fox arrival. I'd love Iris to become a real "trainer's dog" and may be one day agility champion. So this time of waiting is dedicated to thinking, planning, writing training plans and preparing all the equipment. But more on this in my next post!