Oluf on tour

Being away for two months is'nt just easy, when you have a big dog who needs a place to stay. Oluf is our beloved fairytalemix of Labrador, German Sheperd and Border Collie. The best buff buddy in the world!

When I worked as a dog trainer, a got Luff from a dog shelter in Trondheim when he was three years old. Having a relocated dog can be a blessing and a curse, and with Oluf, I found out he had a few behavioral problems. One of them was that his brain just went all syntax error if he was stressed out, and then he would go biting his leash, or even worse, take å hold at my arm. For a breed like the Lab', holding something when their stressed out is a natural response. But Luff is so big, that it's too much to handle. So we worked on this for about a year, and finally the behavioral seemed to have been almost extincted.
Now, Oluf is a superhappy, clickertrained dog, doing anything for food and play!

Still, he will always be a huge, whimsical bear, and we are always concerned when others are babysitting him. So the question was; who can take care of him for two months, when the Pierats are travelling? We could'nt ask any of our friends to have ham that long, and placing a relocated dog in a shelter can cause severe stress. After a couple of brainstormings, I looked up an old friend of mine, Hanne. I rode her horses long a go, when she was breeding the Lipizzan. Now, she breeds Borzoi and Norwegian Forest cats at her lovely home in Furnes. She also manages a dog shelter, and I know shes good regarding dog behavior. Yesterday we went there with Luff, to see if he liked it there and if he cooperated with her Borzoi. The wonderful two Borzoi girls, Harita and Bashira, became best buddies with Luff at once. Of course, he loves the ladies too, and the only drawback is, they're running WAY too much and HILARIOUSLY fast!He was so exhausted when we came home, he was snoring before his head reached the floor :)

Hannes place was really nice! The only things we have to work on in advance, is to train Oluf to lie in a cage at night. He's using a cage in the car, but I'm not sure if he's comfortable sleeping in it. So that we have to check out. Another thing is that Hanne don't want the dogs to bark or be noisy. That CAN be a problem with Luff, he has a lot of guardian instinct, and he can also complain if he thinks you're making food in another room. The solution we came up with was to let him have a sleepover a couple nights before the trip, so we can see if he adapts nicely. He usually does, but if it does'nt work out, we'll be too far away to fix it :)
I'm really happy that Hanne is following these rules, because that means she's taking care of the dogs in a good way. I bet Luff will be really happy to be able to play with the girls all day anyway ;)






Paw-pie from Silje