Poor Syyti, he's sick. He threw up a few times in the afternoon and I thought it was just because of the warm weather. But in the evening it was apparent that he might get dehydrated because of recurring vomiting after drinking. He wouldn't even play with Hirmu, who came to visit us, together with Miia and Retku.

Hopefully it's nothing serious but I'm a bit over-cautious after the knickers-eating-bowel-blocking incident that happened to another Muttaburra border collie some time ago. We are very lucky as we have a vet living in a neighbouring farm. She injected liquid under Syyti's skin.

Our patient is now tired...


...very, very tired...

Family is like fudge...
mostly sweet with a few nuts.

We had a lovely time last weekend when we met Syyti's siblings in Helsinki. The annual Specialty Show of the Finnish Border Collie Club was held in Tuomarinkylä Greyhound Stadium and Syyti's breeder Miia had arranged a lovely picnic meeting for all of us.

It was great to see the brothers and sisters to play with each other. Even if the little sister Iina was a bit shy to join the rough game, Syyti (on the left) and Nappi surely had great time.



Later, Syyti got a chance to play again, this time with his sister Kinna. They were alike in temperament and looks, too.


Kinna also did Syyti a great favour by "removing" his lip wart by accidentally biting it. The vein was damaged and a couple of days later, the wart fell off without leaving a trace. Now we don't have to take Syyti to the vet and have him anaesthetized. Thank you Kinna!


I took some portraits of the siblings as well, here are the head shots of Iina, Kinna, Nappi and Syyti. The wind was blowing hard and therefore some of the pups have their ears up.

Our little puppy is not so tiny any more. Syyti and his siblings turn 5 months today. Syyti weighs now 14 kg and his withers height is ca. 45 cm.

Syyti has been testing our nerves lately, by getting himself into trouble such as crawling under the house to do some digging work. As our house is a traditional log house, there's a gap in the stone foundation wide enough for a man, not to mention a dog. The problem is, that there's no one big space under the house but a number of maze-like tunnels. And naturally, Syyti has to go in the far end and bark there, pretending that he cannot find his way out. Until now, he has come out by himself every time, but I'm afraid that one day he will get stuck somewhere and we have to take apart a piece of the foundation to get him out. I'm now planning on building a not-too-ugly net to cover the gap.


Syyti has had also other new experiences. We travelled to my brothers wedding and stayed a couple of nights in a shed which was the only puppy-proof room at the manor's estate. Or, so we thought. Syyti managed to chew chips out of the floor and scratch the door when he decided to be bored enough.

We have continued our herding classes. Minna the coach has been satisfied with Syyti's performance, with mine, not so much... After tonights class, Minna will decide whether we should continue, or have a few weeks break. I still look forward to see the similar reaction in him we witnessed during our first class. With the permission of the Zi's owner Jarmo, here are the photos. The time difference between the first and the last photo is only 1,5 minutes. In the beginning, the tail and head are held high, in the last, they are lowered and the 4-weeks-old puppy controls the sheep with her stare.

Yesterday, Syyti saw sheep for the first time when we participated the herding class for young wannabe-sheepdogs. I was gladly surprised when he was more interested in sheep than their poop. In truth, he ate some poop, too.


First, I took Syyti around the pen in a leash, after the sheep. I took Syyti out as soon as he showed the first signs of tiredness. He's still so very young and his span of attention is extremely short.



As Syyti didn't show any fear or aggression towards the sheep, I could let him free for a couple of times when he attempted to go around the flock. During the second session, Minna held Syyti while I walked in front of the sheep. As for the handling, I need at least as much practise as Syyti does.



There were four other young border collies training herding, too. It was instructive to watch them, but it was sheer magic to see a puppy, younger than Syyti, running with her tail high and a minute later finding her herding instinct and starting to eye the sheep in a traditional BC pose. If I get a permission from the owner, I'll post the photos of the magical moments here.

On Thursday I took Syyti for his first "official" obedience class. A half-an-hour session was fun for both of us. Afterwards, Syyti played with one of his "classmate", an eight months old Border Terrier.

Syyti has grown fast. During the last four weeks he has gained 3 kg and now he weighs already 10 kg. Luckily, Sepe still outweighs him easily and there's no hierarchy problem in sight, yet. I surely do hope that Syyti won't grow up too fast and too strong-minded as then there will be trouble ahead, for sure.

But, for the time being, the two are living happily together. It's wonderful to see how Sepe enjoys playing with Syyti. He's acting like a young dog, running around and teething the little fellow.


And I'm so very happy that we now have a real garden for the dogs. A year ago we still lived in the one-bedroom apartment with a tiny backyard. But then, we found our home. I disagree with a Finnish proverb "Kell' onni on, se onnen kätkeköön" which means that one should not show her happiness. I'm happy and so are the dogs, apparently...

I finally added information on the individual pages of our three dogs, including Silva, who passed away in 2008. It was lovely to go trough old photos of her and this one is definitely one of my favourites.

Silva was as much a couch potato as a border collie can be. If it was a rainy day, she just yawned on the couch and didn't bother to come out for a walk. I dig in to the archives and post more memory-filled photos later.

It has been wonderful four days, even if both us and the dogs thought that the weather has been a bit too warm. Sepe has been crawling in our stream cooling himself and catching bubbles. Syyti has mostly just kept eye on him, except once, when he reached a bit too far and fell into the water. As water is very shallow, he climbed up fast, and has stayed on the shore ever since.


Today, Syyti started his training for a tracking dog when Pasi made a first "sausage square" for him. Syyti ate about half of the sausage pieces before Pasi took him away. Sepe got to eat the rest of the treats.

Sepe and Syyti are getting better and better along every day. For a couple of days now, Sepe has played with Syyti even indoors, not just outside. We are truly greatful that he takes care of Syyti's morning and evening hullabaloos, and thus saves our nerves.



From time to time, Sepe seems to treat Syyti quite roughly but, occasionally, the little one gets on the top, too.

Syyti had a lot of new experiences during the Mayday weekend. On Saturday we first met his "granny" Pirkko and "aunt" Maija at Haukipudas market place. There were a crowd and log of noise but gradually Syyti got used to them. Later, when we went to Muhos to see the motorcycle parade, he was not at all frightened by the roar of the bikes, nor the crowd.


On Sunday, we were visited by Noppa the Finnish Lapphund and her family. Syyti and Noppa rallied around the yard and the house for a couple of hours, and besides playing, Syyti got a chance to practise big boys games ;) Noppa got tired first, but after she left, Syyti slept through the afternoon and night. More visitors like this, please.