My dog Lisen has always been scared of heights for some reason? So she was not very excited to come to the edge of the balcony today (we live on the fifth floor) to check out a very patient kitty on the lookout for mice.
This was the patient kitty I tried to show my dog Lisen earlier today.
Who was not very eager to meet my request.
And kitty probably thought we were interrupting his/her mice stakeout.
This was as close as I could get Lisen to the edge, so I am pretty sure she did not see the cat...
But that is a very popular place for cats to hang out and wait for a mouse to appear from the nearby mouse hole, which I have seen. Not sure if any cats have ever caught a mouse there though? Either way, cats sure are patient! Because they can sit there for hours and hours.
Unlike my dog Lisen, who has very little patience when she wants something. Actually, if she really, really wants something she will bark until she gets it. Or at least until she gets my attention and can show me what she wants. She is a very good communicator that way. Lol! :p
Even though we had just come back from a long walk together yesterday, my dog Lisen and my sister's dog Diva still had enough energy to play around some in my mum's garden. Although Diva wanted to play a lot more than Lisen, Diva is 6 years old and Lisen 10. However, despite their age difference, I definitely think that Lisen kept up pretty well with her daughter. :-)
Below are some photos from the dogs play session in the garden yesterday.
First a little slow wandering...
...before the big play explosion kicks off!
Pow!
Run, run, run!!!
And then Lisen begins some slow wandering again, to calm things down a bit.
So guess who was tired when we got home yesterday? Yupp, Lisen! The only motion she did in the evening was to breathe in and out in her sleep. Lol! But I love when she gets tired like that, it always make me feel like I have done a good job of activating her then. Which is a nice feeling indeed. :-)
My dog Lisen and I went to visit my mum today, where we both got tempted by quite a few goodies. I also noticed a lovely bird house saloon in her garden, which I thought was the cutest thing ever! So below are some photos of the temptations Lisen and I encountered earlier today and my mum's bird house saloon.
The Bird House Saloon.
My dog Lisen's temptation, leftovers for birds.
My temptation, a delicious vanilla donut!
Unlike Lisen though, I gave in to my temptation... Which I guess means that Lisen is better than me at resisting temptations, hm!? But I did at least give Lisen a piece of that donut, for being such a good doggy. :-) So all in all I would definitely say that we both had a yummy visit at my mum's today, despite the fact that only one of us gave in to her temptation.
Today we celebrate the first Advent Sunday of four here in Sweden. To me this means lighting the first candle of four in my Advent candlestick, eating rice porridge for breakfast and putting up Christmas decorations. Also every year while I am decorating I bring out a special blinking lights Santa Hat that has been remade to fit my dog Lisen, who absolutely hate to wear it! Lol! But I just have to mess with her a little bit every year by forcing her to wear it at least long enough for me to take a photo of her. And this year our Santa Hat photo session took place in the very stormy weather outside on my balcony.
So without further ado I give you - Dog vs Santa Hat In Stormy Weather:
Hey, take a photo then.
I wonder if I get a treat efter this? Mmm...
Hellooo! Where is my treat!?
No treat = No more hat on my furry head!
Hah!!!
Yeah, I hope the wind blow you far, far away dumb hat!
Bye, bye.
A few minutes later...
Oh man... She brought it back in...
By the way, Lisen did get a treat when we got back in. :-) Happy 1st Advent everyone!
Luckily for me my dog Lisen is pretty calm at home, therefore I have not had to pet proof my home very much. Although she does like to stand up on the couch to look out the window from time to time. Which is why I have actually considered to get some safe window treatments there, like blinds for instance.
My dog Lisen looking out the window.
But like I said earlier, Lisen is pretty calm at home. She also usually just sleeps whenever she is home alone. However a dog who is the total opposite of Lisen is my sister's dog Diva (Lisen's daughter). Who loves to search through the apartment, and steal, for food whenever she is home alone. So whenever I look after Diva I definitely have to make sure to pet proof my home a bit more than usual.
And some pet proof precautions I make on those occasions are; to remove everything editable and/or things that I know Diva has eaten before, like ointments. To put away all sharp objects, like dirty knives or breakable stuff, because Diva will grab and lick them if there is any food on them! To make sure the door to my balcony is closed, because Diva is also a real dare devil who is not afraid of anything (except the vacuum cleaner...). So I cannot let her out alone on my balcony either.
Because this is how Diva enjoys the view on my balcony. (I live on the fifth floor...)
But despite Diva's dare devil behaviour, I can never get mad at her. She is simply too charming and too much of a sweet heart to feel anything but love for. Although she definitely makes me think twice about how to best pet proof my home. And the fact that how to pet proof ones home depends very much on the personality of ones pet. Which is why I am very glad that Lisen is as calm as she is, except for her wild couch climbing that is. Hehe. ;-)
My dog Lisen loves to eat, anywhere - anytime! She is always up for having a little snack or treat, even on our walks. And when I do not give her one, well then she tries to find something edible outside. But if she does find something to eat, she at least usually asks for my permission before she eats it. And she asks me by looking up at me with her big brown eyes and licking her mouth. However there have been a few occasions when Lisen has just gone for it and grabbed whatever she has found without asking. But those are rare occasions, and I usually manage to grab whatever she has found out of her mouth before she swallows it. Hehe.
In any case, Lisen sure seem to think quite a lot about eating during a day. At least that is the impression I get from her. :p
My dog Lisen has normal sized hanging dog ears I think, which suits her pretty face so well. However she has had some issues with her right ear throughout her life, with for instance ear infections. Although a few of those ear infections were probably caused by the fact that she loves to swim in the ocean for long periods of time. But for some reason she has always gotten, and still gets, her ear problems in her right ear...? Her left ear has always been super clean and healthy though.
Lisen shaking of some water and flapping her big ears in between one of her beloved swims in the Baltic Sea in Karlskrona in Sweden.This photo was taken on May 12th in 2009 at Verkö.
Anyway, because of these issues I do keep an extra eye on Lisens right ear and clean it frequently. More frequently than I clean her "magical" left ear. So when she started to scratch her right ear a bit too much on our walk today, I did get a bit worried.
Lisen scratching her ear today here in Lyckeby in Sweden and looking very intense.
Still scratching.
Which is why I cleaned it as soon as we got home. Surprisingly though it was pretty clean, just a bit red. Which I suspect was because she scratched it so much on the walk. So a huge relief. But also a reminder for me to keep her doggy ears under close supervision, well at least her right ear. Hehe.
My dog Lisen loves to carry things. For instance, whenever someone walks through the front door she has to fetch a shoe and carry it around for a little while. Or if I have a waterbottle with me on our walk, she wants to carry that one. She also loves to carry my mittens during winter time. So whenever I have mittens on my hands she wants me to take them off and give them to her.
Now this could be a great thing, if only Lisen did not have the habit of simply letting go of whatever she is carrying when she does not feel like carrying it anymore. Lol! Therefore I always have to pay close attention to her whenever she is carrying something to make sure she does not leave it along the way somewhere. Which she usually does.
But although Lisen loves to carry many things, at the moment she is mostly obsessed with carrying her leash. An obsession she always get after her heat period, when she thinks she is pregnant for about two months. So when we are out on walks, even when she is loose, she just has to carry her precious leash everywhere. My precious little Lisen. :-)
Below
are some photos of Lisen and her precious leash in Rödeby forest in Sweden.
Even though my dog Lisen is 10 years old I still do some obedience training with her from time to time. Mainly just to see if she remember all the tricks my sister and I have taught her through the years. But like I have mentioned before, Lisen does what she is told - IF she feels like it. Lol! In other words, she is very stubborn. Although the one thing that usually does win her over are bribes. Edible bribes that is. So she can be very good at doing what she is told. Nevertheless, I have never really been a candidate for any training your dog awards. Not that I care about that anyway. I am just glad to have Lisen in my life, stubborn and all. :-)
Below are some photos from our training session in the summer rain a few months ago.
Me: "Come on Lisen, look at me.".
Me: "In the eyes please.".
Me: "Good Dog!". Lisen: "So, do I get a treat or what?".
Me: "Give me your paw.". Lisen: "Yeye, here you go.".
Our After Training Talk. Me: "What a good girl you were today Lisen.". Lisen: "Hm, I think gave in way too easy this time...".
I love Sundays. Mainly because it feels like the most calm day of the week. But also because I think that Sunday is the best day to enjoy some different treats. Which for me means for instance;
An extra long walk in the wonderful weather with my dog Lisen. Where we today ran into these very unafraid hens and rooster! Who, instead of walking away from us when we approached them - walked right towards us with firm steps! Lol!
Sunday is also a great day for family visits I think. So after our walk today Lisen and I visited my sister, who treated us to coffee with home made banana cake. Yum!!!
These birds also had some Sunday treats on my sisters patio while we were there. :p
And because I did not let Lisen eat very much banana cake at my sisters, just a few crumbs. I instead gave her this little treat when we got home. Which she seemed pretty pleased with. :-)
Now Sunday is not over yet so I am sure I can squeeze in some more different treats during the evening here. Hehe. And I do wish you all a great Sunday too, filled with lots of different treats! :p
I wonder if my dog Lisen was house hunting on our morning walk today? Because when we passed some houses here in Lyckeby in Sweden she became suspiciously interested in one of them. Although the house she did decide to have a closer look at was more in the category of pet houses I would say. Small and cute. However, after having inspected the house, I do think Lisen quickly realized that she has it way more comfortable where she lives right now. Which is in a warm, cozy apartment with me. Plus, I would never ever let her move away from me anyway!
But these are the little houses Lisen and I passed by this morning here in Lyckeby, Sweden.
And Lisen was very curious about this little blue house.
But after a closer inspection she probably also realized that all her stuff would never fit in there. Lol!
It can be a bit tricky to wipe floors with a dog in the house. And by house I mean my apartment. So there is not a whole lot of places I can tell my dog Lisen to move to when I clean it. Which is also why I seldom get to enjoy my newly wiped floors for very long. But it is all good! Because Lisen always look so non understanding when she lies there in the middle of the wet floors. Like she is thinking:
On our walk in Rödeby in Sweden today my dog Lisen and I had an encounter with some odd stuffed people by the road. Not sure why they were there? But I think it had something to do with somebody named Stig who works at an Ica food store and recently had his 50th birthday. Because beside the stuffed people was a sign that said something like: " This is your life. ICA Stig 50 years.".
Now the best part about this encounter was to see Lisens reaction. Which was a very, very suspicious one. So finally I had to drag her away from there. But I can imagine they must have seemed extremely strange to her. I mean, even I thought they looked super odd! Lol! :p
Lisen staring at the odd stuffed people earlier today.
And Lisen was very curious about this little blue house. 
