back to homepage
back to DOVITA

Dovita's Diary

We collected DOVITA in Randers on 11 May 2010  - she was 8 weeks old - this is a Diary about her life with us! 

21 August 2011
Dovita has been in her first ever Rally/Obedience trial today. She was disqualified in both of the two trials, but I really don’t care because she was a proper little star.  She was happy in the rings, very attentive and so willing to work, and it was a really good experience.  We’ve got plenty of time to perfect the things she needs to learn and I was genuinely happy to see how well we worked together.  I pulled her out of the first trial because I could feel her getting confused and I so wanted the day to be a good experience for her, the second trial she completed quite happily but with loads of mistakes so I expected to be disqualified.  We just need to spend some time perfecting things and we’ll give it another go.   

It's been quite an eventful month as last week we were on a 3 hour HTM/Freestyle course.  I had both dogs with me so I could alternate between them.  It was three hours of fun and both dogs did extremely well.  
It as Dovitas first experience with HTM/Freestyle and she did really well and you could see she was enjoying it.  Bianca loves the fun and games of it.  It was a very wet 3 hours for me as the rain never stopped, but luckily for the dogs they could be in their boxes in a tent when it wasn't their turn to perform.

6 August 2011 
We have just come back from two very different holidays.  Bianca and Dovita were with us on both trips, and in both instances they adapted to their new environments without a problem.
 
 The first holiday was up in the far north of Jutland where we stayed at a lovely country inn for 4 days.  They were fantastic at the hotel and got lots of praise for their good behaviour. We were right on the coast, and even though the weather wasn’t the best the dogs thoroughly enjoyed exploring the beach and swimming in the sea, especially Dovita who really is a “water” dog.  See more under “ Summer Holiday 2011”.  There was a lovely big lawn at the back of the Inn so I was able to do some training with both dogs every day, and they both learnt a couple of new things and refined some of our less elegant positions.  I even managed to teach Dovita to “stay” – something that I have been struggling with for months (she suffers greatly from “ants in her pants”!!).  I’m also getting the hang of training both dogs at the same time by using their name before giving the command. It seems to be working most of the time, although the best option is to train them individually.       

The second trip was with our son, daughter-in-law and our two “bonus” grandchildren (2 and 5 years old).  We went to Legoland and Lalandia (an aquadome) for 6 days, and here we had rented a holiday home.   At the holiday home they were often left alone, and it didn’t bother them at all. It makes a world of difference that they have each other of course, and we always make sure there is plenty of time to activate and exercise them.  The children love playing with the dogs, and we have a series of tricks that they “perform” together to the great enjoyment of all 4!   Read more about our holiday this year by clicking here:  “Summer Holiday 2011”    

DOVITA has had a lot going on in her life over the past months.  The puppies took up a lot of my time, so since the puppies left us, I have tried to spend more time with Dovita.  She has a tendency to bark at other dogs and generally stress up a bit so I have been working on this, and I must say with a lot of success.  Her confidence seems to be boosted a lot. She is such a clever little dog, extremely alert and very active, and absolutely fantastic with children. She adores playing with balls, and a game of fetch, in or out of the lake/sea, is the best thing in the world for her. 



5 June 2011 Our adventure is over this time around, and we have sent our 8 wonderful little Super Stars out in the world to new experiences and new loving families. I'm a bit heavy hearted, but also very proud of our achievement. It was plain sailing from the start and everything has been in our favour. Bianca whelped with no difficulties, 8 healthy puppies came into the world, Dovita was the most fantastic "auntie" from the very beginning and the weather was fantastic so they were outside in the garden from 4 weeks old for hours every day. We've been inundated with visitors, both those who were our "puppy families" and friends and neighbours and children in the neighbourhood. If I had taken admittance, I could have made a fortune!!! It's been the most positive and wonderful experience and I have learnt so much. I've seen new sides of Bianca and Dovita and it's all been positive, and believe me I haven't been looking through rose coloured glasses. My life has been on hold for 8 weeks, no problem there, I have enjoyed every minute of it including the early mornings and all the washing of floors. I'll do it again at a drop of a hat.......................just watch this space. I am so proud of my girls, Bianca and Dovita have been fantastic, thanks team SUPER STARS, I love you all to bits. This may sound awfully cocky but I'll write it anyway, I'm proud of the 8 pups we've sent out in the world, they've been socialised well and had a lot of love for the first 8 weeks, and we couldn't have done a better job. So pat on the paw to all of us!

Bianca has been a bit sad for the last couple of days, and has been looking for the puppies, which surprised me a bit because she was quite tired of them at times. Whilst Dovita has gone back to playing with herself (or me if she's lucky!). I had thought that it would have been the other way around because Dovita played with the puppies all the time and it should have been her who missed the action, so to speak. But in retrospect, realising the kind of dog Dovita is, I should have realised that it would be Bianca who would be looking for them. (Bianca is the sensitive one, Dovita is the more "what's in it for me" type).

We took them over to the lake today for a good walk and a swim which they both throughly enjoyed, and in a way it was good to get back to a more normal routine. However, routines are there to be broken, so I really hope we can have another litter of pups with Bianca some time next year.


8 April 2011

Bianca gave birth to her puppies 2 days ago (see Puppies and Bianca's Diary) and Dovita was a bit confused as to what was going on and why she was not allowed near the whelping room. I have showed her the puppies (while Bianca was in the garden for a minute or two) and she was obviously confused as to what they were!  Today,she is allowed to come and sit with me on the sofa in the vicinity of the whelping box, Bianca is not concerned at all but Dovita is naturally not allowed to be anywhere near them without my presence.  When they get older it will be great for the pups to have an extra auntie as a playmate!

I have started to go to an advanced Rally class with Dovita now on Saturday mornings, and will start soft agility with her on Thursday afternoons, so she doesn't get forgotten or neglected while we have the puppies.

Dovita is a small kooiker so I have reservations as to whether we can breed her, but she is a lovely little dog, very lively and extremely intelligent, slightly reserved as kooikers tend to be, but also very aware of her own importance.       

7 February 2011
Too much time has elapsed since writing about Dovita, and she is now 10 months old and nearly all grown-up. I can honestly say that Dovita is the easiest puppy we have ever had (we've had 6 others!) she is a sheer joy to have.
Part of the reason I'm sure is the fact that we also have Bianca, but Dovita is such a happy little dog and if nobody wants to play with her (Bianca or me!) then she starts to play by herself.  She is very quick to learn, quicker
I think than Bianca.  It might just be that I am more routined  in handling and training dogs now so it seems easier, but no matter the reason my husband and I agree that the best thing we ever did was to get that second dog.
Dovita and Bianca get on so well together and it's obvious that they love each other, but they are not completely dependent on each other, which  is good.
 
We have just come home from a 3 day trip with Bianca (she was mated with Essie and we expect pups in April!!)  It's the first time they have been separated and the first time that Dovita has slept away from home.  She stayed with my friend Merete and her Kooiker Bindi, whom she knows well.   I need not have worried about her missing us, within minutes she had moved in with Merete and Bindi and made herself completely at home, not so much as a whimper or even a look in the direction of the door to see if we were coming back(which is something Bianca always does).  She wasn't even that overwhelmed when we came to pick her up again.   It makes it so much easier to have good friends to look after your dogs when you can't take them with you.  


5 September 2010
Dovita and Bianca were both entered into the Dog Show in Silkeborg at the weekend, their critiques can be seen under their individual "show results". It was a good day and both dogs did well. Dovita was reserved and shy towards the judge, but it went better than I had anticipated, and I'll just have to help her along the way so we can eliminate this in the future.    


August 2010
Dovita is now 5 months old and it's hard to comprehend that we have "only" had her in our life for 3 months.  She is a happy naughty little puppy, although somewhat reserved towards strangers (kooiker trait) but not towards children.
Seeing Dovita and Bianca together always brings a smile to our faces, they spend hours playing together. 
It was lovely to see her with some of her siblings at  the Kooikerday last Saturday, she certainly enjoyed being with the other dogs. 
We continue to go to puppy obedience classes, and Dovita is eager to learn. We have  started ring training in order to "get ready" for the Dog Show in Silkeborg at the beginning of September, but this hasn't gone so well, so we have a lot of work ahead of us.   



15 June 2010
Dovita is now 3 months old, weighs only 4 kgs, but is a heavy weight when is comes to determination, charm and confidence.  She is absolutely lovely !!  Thus said, she is still a "terrorist", is far from being house trained and is extremely cheeky especially to Bianca.  We have been going to puppy training for the past 4weeks, and I am amazed at how attentive she is and how easy she is to teach. We have been given so much praise because she is so clever, and Dovita has just won her first little prize at training. 
With a view to socialising Dovita in the best possible way we have, over the past weeks, endeavoured to expose her to  a range of new experiences.  She has been on a train ride, been to shopping centres, exposed to was heavy traffic, met loads of different people, kids dogs etc .  Last weekend we took both dogs on a "weekend away" at a hotel.  I was a little apprehensive as to how Dovita would behave, I knew that Bianca wouldn't be a problem, but Dovita is only 3 months old.  We had hoped that the weather would be warm so we could have dinner on the terrace, where the dogs could be with us. BUT NO.......it was very cold and wet and there was no chance of having dinner outside so we had to leave the dogs in the room.  They were fine, we had taken the "dog play pen" with us, and had plastic underneath in case of accidents.  The dogs were put up in their "play pen", given a bone each and some doggie treats and we left them.  They were absolutely fine not a wine or bark and when we got back to our room they were both fast asleep in each other's "paws".     Obviously it is an advantage that they were together.  Whilst on that note, I would add that Dovita is left at home on her own several times a week, just so that she does not become too dependent on Bianca.    


May 22nd 2010
Dovita is our little terrorist!  She is absolutely adorable, naughty, stubborn, curious, and funny!
Over the past 10 days we have tried to gently expose her to different situations, she has met numerous other dogs and various friends and members of our family and not once has she show signs of distress, she takes everything in her stride.
There are loads of dogs in our neighbourhood, and luckily we know the vast majority of them, and know there is no danger of Dovita having a "bad experience", so she has "talked" to lots of dogs this week.   
 
Bianca and Dovita have started to play together a lot.  We think it important that Dovita doesn't rely too much on Bianca so today we took Dovita out, leaving Bianca at home. We went to an outdoor shopping centre where on a Saturday afternoon it was obviously very busy. Loads of people and lots of traffic. Dovita got a lot of attention, something she utterly enjoys, and she was also exposed to a lot of noise from cars etc. It did not bother her at all.  When we got back home it was lovely to see how pleased Bianca was to see ALL of us .......the two dogs started playing immediately even though I am sure that Dovita was exhausted from all her experiences.       

 

Sunday 16th May 2010

We've had Dovita for 4 days now, we love her to bits already.  She has settled in very quickly, has shown no signs of distress at being taken away from her siblings and mother, and is a very confident and content little puppy. Bianca had been a little apprehensive towards Dovita, I say "had" because all that changed last night when they started to play together for the first time.  Today..........well let's say that it sounds as though we have a herd of elephants chasing through the house.............they have been having great fun, and so have we. Dovita has a very healthy appetite, and suddenly Bianca has developed a taste for cod roe, fish balls and bananas, something that has never interested her before!!  Dovita has also slept through the night for the last 2 nights which is brilliant.
Dovita started her puppy training classes today, she was the youngest and the smallest dog on the course, and it went really well.  She takes everything in her stride, we can really see how well balanced and  confident she is.  We didn't stay for the whole hour, as I felt it best to stop before she got too tired and cold.  Later on we took her over to the grass area close to our house and it was lovely to see her charging along with Bianca.  She also met a couple of other dogs and their owners.

Just before dinner time we had a surprise visit from our son and his girlfriend and it was fun and games again for the two dogs.  Again, Dovita astounds me with how she adjusts to all these new situations, she is an assertive little lady who is very sure of herself. Mind you she comes from good stock, and has had the best possible start in life with Vibeke Torben and Anna at Kennel Vitovani's so it's to be expected!!!!!     

I have this strange feeling that I have my work cut out for me with Dovita, she is absolutely adorable to look at, but I think there is a bit of a monster lurking behind those beautiful eyes.  Time will tell, but I am up for the challenge