Doggie sleepover

Our Finnish neighbours are in Finland, and so Rekku has his best buddy Urho for a 1,5 week sleepover. At first, Rekku was happy to have his friend visit, but by the next day he was sulking: Urho was, in his opinion, getting all the attention. Quite similarly, Urho was exited at first, but by the next day he was feeling blue, missing his own family. Since the first few days, things have settled. (I use eating as a way of measuring Urho's happiness, and since the first time he stayed with us at Christmas he did not really eat for two days, now it was just the first morning - after that, the bowl is empty in a matter of seconds..)

Having an extra dog around is fun, but also a bit more work. We try to make long walks, with extracurricular activities such as finding a treat from a field, climbing/jumping over obstacles and running around unleashed. Earlier today we went to the dog run for 2,5 hours - that ought to get them tired! It was fun at the park with 'old' and new friends, dogs running around enjoying themselves and us humans having a chat about them. I met an Finnish lady with two cute daschunds, such a coincidence! We Finns truly are doglovers ;)

I'm proud of Rekku, who again behaved very well (except for a little heated discussion with a Border Collie). The weekly visits to the dog run are working well to keep him from becoming a grumpy old man as he turns seven in May. Although he surely shows his age with Urho in the house. Urho tries his best to get Rekku to play, brings toys, play-bites him on the head and legs, makes fast turns.. But Rekku doesn't want to play. He will defend his bed in the living room from Urho for a certain while, but when he has enough, he runs to the guest room/office, where Urho is not allowed. Urho knows this, and obeys the rule amazingly well. Same goes luckily for the couch!





There are also some perks to taking care of Urho. Firstly, when walking him, we always get as much of the road to ourselves as we want to. Many of the people on the street just can't believe their eyes when they see us coming - sooo big, like a wolf! (But really such a teddy bear you wouldn't believe it.) Secondly, he comes with a cleaner. Yep, really..! Since Urho's owners are not home, the cleaner has been over at our home, vacuuming up 'a few' white dog hairs ;). Urho's shedding really is not bad (I'm sure he was furminated before coming over), but since Rekku's is close to zero, a few hairs can seem a lot.

It's quite cool - and very, very lady of leisure like - having someone else do the housework. Kinda like having a magic wand.. mostly because this cleaner is good, proactive and understands what I mean from the start, so I have not had to double check everything (a problem quite common with domestic help here). Next week it's back to normal - no extra dog, no cleaner..