Mouse Agility

I did not even know mice could be this smart. A long track and he does it on his own!

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Successful Piitu

Last Sunday I was very tired and I felt a little feverish. Piitu was going to attend to her first official agility competition. She had taken part of some competitions "for dummies" but she was dismissed every time because of too many errors. All the obstacles have to be done in a certain order and Piitu usually does not care. I decided to leave home.

This time the coach was Piitu's teacher Noora Salonen who is very experienced in dogs and teaching. Here is a video of the first competition. No mistakes but 3 seconds over the time limit and third place in the competition.

When my daughter phoned us about the success, we decided to go and see this miracle. Maybe because we were there the second track did go wrong from the second obstacle... Result: dismissed. We went back home and Piitu was left for the third competition and this time no errors, not exceeding the time limit and second place. The first step in a hopefully long career. With three similar results Piitu gets to a more advanced level.

Here is the winner with her trophies.

Gorgi Agility Camp in Kajaani

Almost two weeks ago my daughter, my dog Piitu and I spent the weekend at a corgi agility camp in Kajaani, which is about 700 km north from where we live. Since there were only the two of us and I don’t particularly like driving long distances, we decided to go there by train. That actually meant three trains in one direction. I was very nervous before the journey because Piitu is very wild and I was afraid she would get bored spending so much time just being in the same place. As usual I worried for nothing; Piitu acted like a little angel. I guess just looking around and seeing new things was enough to keep her happy.

Here the journey starts. Piitu had a ticket to stay on the floor, but she kept jumping to our laps. Pets are allowed in a certain department and with one exception the compartments in each train were almost empty.

The second part from Tampere to Oulu was a night train and we had a sleeping cabinet. Piitu is here checking what is happening outside. My daughter slept on the upper bed and Piitu would have liked to go there with her. She actually thought about trying the stairs to jump up but came to her senses and did not do it.

This is the railway station of Oulu where we spent two hours in the morning waiting for the next train. The building is a very typical railway station in Finland.

Piitu in the back seat of the VW Golf we rented; this time totally happy without even trying to get out of there.

Here my daughter is packing. Piitu wanted to make sure that she would be included in the things to come with us and placed herself in the end of the line.

This is from the last part of the trip. Piitu was totally exhausted and placed herself in the middle of the floor. Fortunately there was not much traffic…

And the best part last. Here are pictures from Piitu’s performance. These photographs were taken by Katri Soini. She had the right equipment to freeze the moment. Have you seen flying dogs before?

Agility - fun for the Dog and the Watchers

My Corgi Piitu is very energetic, as I have shown before here and here. She has experienced her first Match Show and got graded as Good. The event was outside and it was cold. It had been raining recently and all the places were wet and muddy. In some respect that was a good thing, because Piitu did not want to sit on the wet ground and we knew that standing in front of the judge the whole time would not probably succeed in normal conditions. We were so tired and cold that we left after the first part. We found out what Piitu had to practise: her contact with my daughter who was showing her was so intense that she did not like the judge interfering in the moment.

Piitu has done very well in school and the first lessons in agility are behind. Piitu is doing well because she is not afraid of anything. She did not even hesitate to go to the pipe which seems closed. The other end is not rigid and it is hangig like a curtain blocking the light. Here is a videoclip from her last time practising. Concentration must still be focused on.

I work at night until 9 pm, and usually anything that I like to watch on TV is on when I come home. I know it is not a good habit eating in front of the TV, but what can you do...
Piitu is an excellent jumper and does not want to leave me alone when I am eating. She pays attention to every bit, hoping that I would drop something:

"What are you looking at? I am just making sure mother does not mess up!"

She really does not try to steal my food, but I must admit that her gaze is somewhat disturbing. She tries to pretend she is so hungry, like she had not even seen food in days :)

Cat or Corgi?

It’s been a while since I wrote about my Welsh corgi, Piitu. Now she is 8 months old and she has finished her school but I think she would need some extra classes. Now that the gardening time is over, she has been concentrating on tearing all her soft toys to pieces. She loves to tear a small hole first and then take all the stuffing away.
I have had one Corgi before and this one has a skill I never imagined a Corgi could have. She is an amazing jumper. I have found her on the kitchen table and she jump from the sofa to the armchair and it seems there are no obstacles in her way. Here is a video showing her jumps.

Next week she will start agility. I just hope she’ll spend her energy there and just not learn more skills to reach new places. She can also relax…

The Amazing Corgi

It has been a while since I last wrote about Piitu and her second day in dog school. She is doing very well there an she started the second level this week. She has a great desire to please people and that makes her an excellent learner.

She is full of energy and does things I never thought that Corgis would do. I have had one in the past but Piitu is totally different. And I thought Ellu was wild. I actually knew nothing!

Piitu watches TV sometimes and sees herself in the mirror. I have not yet figured out what kind of programs she prefers. She does not have time to watch TV very often.

Ellu used to eat every bit of food we ever gave her and additionally she stole sandwiches which were left too near the edge of a table. Even though a Corgi has very short legs it has a long body and it can reach the table by jumping to lean on the edge of the table. Piitu is not that hungry. She does not necessarily want to eat when we offer her food. I think that is good since Corgis get overweight very easily. Piitu also doesn't eat her chewing bones when we give them to her. She hides them, either in the garden or under the furniture. She has many times come from outside with a dirty bone she has dug from it's temporary storing place.

Now she is practicing on jumping. For a long time she has been able to jump on the sofa and the bed. Two days ago I was working in the living room with my laptop and the door to the garden was open. Suddenly I heard an odd sound from the outside. When I went to see what had caused it, I found Piitu standing on a box we have for gardening tools. The box is actually very high. It's a bit higher than Piitu's own length if we don't count the tail.

Yesterday I was again working when I heard something strange, this time from the kitchen. When I went to check that one, I found Piitu on the kitchen table. She had used the chairs as her stepping stones. And I had thought they were too narrow for her to jump on! We are going to take Piitu to agility practice. I hope she will get enough jumping there to need to do that at home any more.

Piitu has obviously musical talents also. We have almost all of the Singstars for PS2 and when children come over, we take battles with each other. Piitu joins us because in her opinion the children don't visit often enough. When the song has those la-la-la, da-da-da -parts, Piitu starts barking. Otherwise she does not bark often. Maybe we are not as good in singing as we think we are.