Monday, 24th of July - 25th Manuel went with me to Sturup airport to pick up my god-soon Olof from Stockholm. Before we arrived at Sturup we made a short stop in the woods. "Funny" is that Manuel is more used to the machines, and vehicles in the city than the sounds of mother nature. We need to train on that - "normal sounds. At the airport, with all the cars, noise up in the air, he was completely calm. The tree of us went to the market, Olof with me, and Manuel watching us from the car. In the afternoon we went to Ribban(the dog-bathing-spot). Manuel went out with me, and started swimming when I supported him under his belly. Then he was off the leash, and managed to stick around. Back at home he had a shower to get rid of the salt, and then he went bananas - running around like crazy. Tuesday was morning-walk, siesta under a table in Bjärred, alone at home for 40 minutes and then an Italian restaurant in the evening. Then full speed towards the park with Mikael behind him. Manuel was in a hurry, home to the yard, where he feels safe for "delivering". You can here him growing and he is in a very nice condition currently. ONE puddle is the result of today, made on a magazine and honestly we are not sure when that happened. If allowed to I guess he would have slept on the balcony all night, but it isn't 100% OK since he doesn't like men in blue overalls. He barked a lot at the garbage men today, and it took some time before he had the guts to approach them. The man was really really great and followed my orders, just "being" not approaching or anything. He is not very interesting in children, nor playing with them. I find that good. Young dogs can easily be over-excited when children start playing with them. The children like it from the start, but then, when they want to stop, the dog doesn't understand why... The children through the ball, wanting Manuel to rush around like a fool, and he just looks at them; "why?" "with you?". Manuel likes to play with me though. /Charlotte
Wednesday 26th of July Micke here again. The reason for Manuel spending the day with me at work was that Lotta and Olof wanted to go swimming where dogs aren't allowed. Manuel said very briefly hello to my boss for five seconds, and the barked at him like a maniac (like I have taught him to). Seriously, he was very curious and the copier was very interesting. After having checked out the place, he fell a sleep in my room and slept nearly all the time. Now he has been doing what the majority of the university-students in Lund have done, been taking a piss in Lundagård.
In the evening we went to the park - Magistratsparken for some playing and some tracking. I have no experience in tracking but I understand that Manuel has understood what it is all about. When done, (after 3 minutes) a Flatcoated Retriever approached with his woman-human. His name was Gimmick and he was seven months old. The play went very very fine. After a while we stopped them since it started to be a bit too rough. Manuel is a puppy, even though he is a very capable one, we shouldn't forget that. Thursday, 27th of July Nothing special happened during the day. In the evening Manuel came with us to one of Mikaels brothers who has become a father. Daniel with Annie and baby Izabella. Manuel behaved very well, no accidents and inside he was calm and cool. Friday, 28th of July Manuel's stomach wasn't OK, so he had to drop a huge pile in the living-room. We can not remember feeding him anything new or strange, but a puppy picks up a lot of this and that, whilst outside so even if we find and remove 90% of it, one or two things slides down the throat. Well, that made him exhausted, so he slept for a long while. We had some rain today, two-three drops.
In the evening we went to "Ribban" where we met Ingela, Björn with Golda and Nina. Golda and Manuel plays well together. Golda truly understands that Manuel is a puppy and he respects her. Manuel showed that he can run like a maniac, which they never had seen before. He far from cool all the time! The best thing is that he passed us in high speed (with his unbalanced gallop) , but turned around when he was done, and came back to us. After a lot of dog-playing we ended up in the harbor area - "Västra hamnen" and we were so lucky! Just no a concert with opera was to start. "Picknick med klassisk efterrätt med Studio Bel Canto och gäster". Mårten came and joined us and we enjoyed a mix of easy opera classics. Such an evening! We on one side and the singers on the other side of the water. They arrived on a boat, singing. There was no wind, we had ordered pizza, which was delivered and I really loved that eveneing. Manuel behave very very well. At first I put cotton-wool in his ears, and he let them stay - for 30 seconds. Then he shook his head so that the cotton-wool "exploded" - which was very appreciated by the audience. After the concert we went to Nina's and Mårten's for some coffe. Mikael got our car so that we could drive there, it had been enough with walking for today for Manuel. At there place, Manuel slept in his cage with wide-open gate. He is such a clever little boy. I take him to a minimal spot of grass, and asks him to do his thing. And he does, no matter if he needs to or just can deliver two dashes. Manuel's problem is his looks. He looks like a teddy-bear and everyone want to pet him, starting to speak in the most strange way (baby-talk) and Manuel just stares at them thinking they behave very odd. I say "walk on" to Manuel in a loud clear voice so they get that there will be no hugs from this stranger. I wonder what they would say if he starts rushing towards strangers for a "hug" when he is over 65cm tall and more than 35 kg??? /Charlotte Saturay, 29th of July Jag jobbade i dag och Micke och Manuel tog det lugnt. Promenad och den vanliga omvårdnaden, samt siesta i badrummet. (Manuel då...) På kvällen var vi hos Ingela och Björn och Golda i Bjärred. Dom lekte och Manuel körde lite valprundor. Manuel håller sig inom tomten fastän dom ej har staket. Vi lekte lite sök med lammbitar och då är Manuel med på noterna. Golda fick huta till honom några gånger för han var så ivrig och trodde allt var lek, inklusive åthutningarna, men det går fint annars och dom kan vara inomhus tillsammans. Framåt midnatt fick han ligga i sin hage men han ville inte sova. Nu ligger han på balkongen, innan det är dags att lägga sig för natten. Sunday, 30th of July A day of cuddling and taking it easy. In the evening me and Manuel went to Torup (area with woods) and went for a mini-walk. Manuel was off leash all the time, or more accurate, in a harness with a long rope attached dragging after him. We are training "in front of" and "wait". There was a lot of interesting things for a small City-Akita-puppy. We met a couple, and he had to let go of at least some brawling, but calmed down very quickly. Half way I dropped his treats (pieces of cucumber by the way- which he loves) and had only some of his dry food, which he didn't appreciate. On our way home he lay down peeking at me all the time. I can not put him in his Atlas cage by my self, since it is too heavy. So I let him lie on the floor in front of the front-seat which not is a good idea. As soon as possible I will get some grill for the trunk and make sure he is as safe as possible. Manuel tracks raspberries and wild strawberries and eats them. When we came back, Manuel was very social and spent the evening with us by the TV, which he normally doesn't do. I guess he was really really satisfied with our trip. I need to tell you something. So, every night Manuel sleeps in his playpen. Every evening, when tired, he enters the den without me asking him to, and falls a sleep there, so I just shut the gate when it is time for me to go to bed. It is good he feels safe, and relaxed there.
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