Pancho had his operation yesterday. I took him to the vet and we had to wait in the waiting room a bit. Few people came to talk to me and ask about Pancho :) He was very nicely in the waiting room, no barks to anyone. Then in the vets room she gave him that sleeping shot and left me alone with him. Like a minute Pancho was walking around the office sniffing and then I noticed that his back legs didn't really work anymore.. He came to my lap and fell asleep. They took him to the operation and I left to pick up Pauli. We came back and Panchos operation was already done and he was sleeping it off in the back room. He was totally out of it for a long time.

Pancho trying to wake up at vet

They didn't allow us to leave before Pancho could walk out himself. Eventually he did and we went home. He slept the whole day! Today he seems almost normal Pancho. He has some pain medicine and antibiotics and of course big bandage in his leg. It's amazing how animals know when the otherone is not totally well. Chili didn't go and bug pancho at all the whole yesterday. Actually for some reason he didn't even want to come to sofa for the first hour..

-johanna

Quick update: Pancho still has that bumb in the leg. The medicine hasn't helped him so we have booked a surgery time for him for Thursday. I took Friday off from work so that I can be then home with them.

I will keep you updated with this when I will know more. Ou, and Chili is doing perfectly fine :) -Jozanna

Past week the weather has been on plus Celsius and it has been raining every day, so snow is melting fast.  There is still a lot of snow but what is most important is that roads are ice-free.  For more than a week we have already enjoyed our walks in the snowless paths. Boys are enjoying it as much as we are. Right now we are in Jyväskylä. We have Easter holidays and then our winter vacation. Tomorrow we are continuing from here to Haapavesi and then Oulu. Let’s see how much snow there still is in the north.

Pancho showing his sad face. Note his weird tanning line. On his left sholder there is this white line which most likely comes from him sitting in the same place all day long in front of the window keeping guard so the sun tans him so that his head shadows that part from the sholder.

Chili showing his funny tanning also. His head is almost black but his body is still pretty fair

Chili and I have gone to 2 agility classes already. It’s still cold outside so it’s also cold inside the hall where the classes are. The indoor arena is not fully heated. One pet shop was moving so they had sales and we bought Chili this Hurtta fleece overall as a training clothes. That overall has a membrane called houdtex in it and it makes the overall water and windproof. We need to buy one of Pancho also but this pet shop didn’t have Panchos size anymore. 

The first class was a bit uncomfortable since it was new for both of us. When we were waiting for the class to start Chili was afraid of the other dogs. He was trembling behind my legs but looking at the other dogs with interest. Then they divided us to two different groups: we were put into the big dogs group. Then I thought it was a bad thing since Chili was afraid especially those big hyperactive dogs, but now that I think about it was actually a good thing. Now that Chili is a bit wary of those big dogs he stays easily with me and doesn’t even try to flee to meet the other dogs. On the first class I kept Chili mostly on the leash and that’s why it was a bit hard to practice those obstacles. First obstacle that we were learning was a normal jump  (HERE you can find more info about the different agility obstacles). Chili didn’t want to jump the basic jump barrier so I had to jump with him. But when he understood what it was all about he was jumping pretty well. We also practiced weave poles. Chili understood them right away. I saw that some of the other dogs had difficulties with this one, but Chili went them perfectly. I knew that agility is physically rough also for the owner, but didn’t know it was that rough :) I went there totally overdressed:  First I had to take of my gloves, then scarf and then even jacket. Next day I was feeling the pain of that class in my back. My back didn’t like me bending down for that whole hour giving Chili treats from good performance.

I’m not going to lie, I was not eager to go to the second class. I thought the first class didn’t go that well since I was comparing us to the other big dogs that were doing more different types of obstacles that we did and they were doing them fast. All the other owners seemed to be very enthusiastic and knowing much about agility and all those other dogs seemed to be this hyperactive type that they seemed like there is nothing better than to be there doing those obstacles. Chili was there very calm, cool and thinking. I kind of felt like I wouldn’t have joined to a beginners class but for some class where everyone else knew what they were doing.  But then when the class actually started everything changed. I took the leash of from Chili and I let him be loose. First we practiced weave poles again. Chili was so excited of those poles that he started making this excited noise. I have heard some dogs do that same noise when we have been in the running competitions when some dogs are excited to go on the tract and they just can’t wait that it’s their turn.  This time the poles didn’t go that well that they did on the first time; I think now Chili was a bit too excited that he didn’t concentrate enough. Then we practiced the pause table: dog is meant to jump on the table and stay there for 5 seconds. First Chili didn’t want to jump there at all. He was just standing against the table and looking at me like saying: “give me a push please”. We lowered the table and after that Chili jumped there every time and stayed on the table easily for those 5 seconds. Then we started to learn a rigid tunnel. That was a bit tricky at first since Chili didn’t want to go into the tunnel. After some tricks I finally got him walk through the tunnel. The first time he walked through the tunnel,  I understood why people get hooked on this hobby: the joy that you feel when you get your dog to do it correctly after a long struggle is amazing. Then we tried tire jump, but this obstacle was a bit too high for Chili since he doesn’t accelerate much. He just jumped against the tire so that the bottom of the tire opened and Chili was spooked by it. Later we tried that same tire jump but just lower he did it very well, actually he jumped before I even told him to :)We also tried dogwalk where Chili had to walk up this ramp and then walk up on the center plank and then descend down again from a ramp. He would have done this well (we practiced first on a smaller one) but he was afraid of the trainer so he was trying to avoid her as much as possible. Then the last thing I was practicing with Chili was jumping two jumps in a row. It took some tries and failures but then he got it and did those two jumps in a row very nicely. Again when he did them correctly for the first time I was so excited. Now that we are here in Jyväskylä we missed one class today, but I can’t wait now for next weeks class.

Sadly Panchos bump in his leg has not decreased in size so I think we need to book appointment for the vet so that they will operate him and cut the histiocytoma off. He still has to take the medicine for a week so there still is change that it will start diminishing by itself, but frankly I don’t think it will start doing that since it hasn’t changed at all for 3 weeks now.

Panchos lump in the leg. Pretty dark picture but you see the size. It is my thumb there as a comparison.

 Here are some pictures of boys playing today after a long walk. It's funny how they need to go into rambage after coming in from a long walk. This time I think that it was because of the good smells outside that made boys play so intensively.. Or mostly Pancho; Chili was just mostly laying on the floor and Pancho tried all his tricks to get Chili up and playing.

Pancho gnawing Chilis legs to get him up

Chili exhausted on the floor looking where will Pancho "attack" next

Pancho and Chili having their biting games

-Jozanna

Results from the vet visit: Chili got cortisone cure because of his back leg. He had these marks there which he was biting and now that he has this cortisone he hasn't been biting them at all. They already look much better!

Pancho had two things. One was his weird splotches near his ears. They were because he had yeast infection in those. He got some medicine for those and a shampoo that we need to wash him with. The other thing was that lump in his leg. It was as we suspected histiocytoma.. Hopefully a benign one. Doctor said that there is two options how to deal with this: one is that they would cut if off in surgery or then there is this medicine that we can try first. She recommended those medicine drops first and if they don't help within 4 weeks, then it needs to be cut off. The bad thing is that apparently if a dog has had a histiocytoma it might be that they will get them more. And apparently these histiocytomas can also be bad. I don't know how often that could happen, but obviously I'm hoping that there wouldnt be a third histiocytoma!

Well..I will keep you updated. Enjoy the spring and the sun :) -Johanna

So last summer went...Last autumn went..and now this winter (cold cold winter) is almost gone. Wipii! Finally we see the sun and can feel how it's warming. We can see the effects of the sun on our boys: they have already started tanning again. It’s funny how differently they tan. Pancho starts tanning much sooner and first his head starts turning black and paws (well, they are the parts that are mostly in the sun since they are wearing clothes outside). Then he starts tanning from his chest so that it looks blotchy. Chilis’ muzzle turns black first, then whole head and paws. Now he has started to get color to his back; starting from the tail end.

Chili in his winter color

Pancho in his winter color

Yesterday we went for a one day trip to city called Pori. We left from home in the morning and arrived back home just after midnight. It was a long but lovely day! Boys enjoyed it too since we spend whole day walking in the city and geocaching.

Pancho and Chili playing at home before the trip.. Or actually Pancho tried to sleep but Chili decided that it was playtime.

Boys in Reposaari Linnakepuisto

It was a very nice day at Pori: sun was shining but it wasn't too hot. We were stopped by some woman who had Chinese crestle dogs and she had been dreaming about bigger naked dogs. She was asking all kinds of questions about Pancho and Chili. Chili showed his best side and went streight to that woman, usually he doesn't go near anyone he doesn't know. 

We found out from internet that in Yyteri there is a huge beach for dogs. We had to go and check it out. It was beautiful. Hundrets of meters sanded beach and dogs were allowed to run free there. Beautiful! We noticed a small problem with sanded beaches for dogs. when Pancho and Chili was running there their eyes were full of sand. But anyway it looked that they really enjoyed theirselves. They were in the sea and chasing birds on the beach. Really good times!

"koirien uimaranta" = beach for dogs

Straight away after arriving to the beach it was game on

Chili and Pancho on the dog beach

"you can't catch me"

Boys and me in the sea

Chili posing

Bear fight

Gread day and we will surely go back one day! -Jozanna

We are back at Haapavesi. Just came back in from the lake. Chili was actually swimming for the first time. His paws didn't touch the bottom. Pauli throw a stick into the water and it went a bit deep. Chili went to get it but he had to swim a bit to reach it. Then when he got the stick into his mouth he tried to go backwards his head went under water. He didn't realize that when you are swimming you always go forward and not backwards.

Chili on the lake chewing water gras

Pancho on the lake hunting air bubbles

We were standing on the lake when boys run a bit further away and suddenly Chili jumped down on his back and started rolling on the ground. He stud up and then back down wallowing. When he had been doing that for some time Pauli went to see if there is something on the ground... and yep.. there was disgusting rotten fish. Why oh why do dogs feel the need to wallow on smelly sick stuff? Pancho has never ever done that and this was the first for Chili too, but I've heard from my friends that their dogs do that. Why? We tried to wash that stink off in the lake, but with no luck. So Chili got nice warm shampoo...lots of shampoo...shower :)

Here are some pics we have taken:

Both boys ran into the water and then there was something interesting in the water.. They both leaned down to see it very close and then *SPLASH* Chili hit the water with his paw so that it splashed on Pancho.. He was not happy

This is Chili hunting and catching his prey..

..And here he drags his prey: bulrush to the land to be destroyed

Here is Pancho posing in front of our "new" Saab

Boys running and running and running..

Boys playing, Here are few clickable pictures

I hope you all have had great summer! Not that it would be over yet. We are at the moment in Oulu. We are staying in Paulis dads apartment almost in the center of Oulu. All boys (including Pauli) are taking a nap right now. We just came back “home” so they are tired.

Beginning of July didn’t feel like summer at all since it was raining a lot and it was pretty cold. But hey, I don’t mind rain as long as there is no snow :) . It's so funny how our boys don't like the rain at all. If Pancho will see from the window that it's raining he has no hurry to go out. Normally if we go to the front door they run there to go out, but if it's raining... then you have to tell them to come. Sometimes if curtains are closed and Pancho doesn't know it's raining and then we are going out and I open the door he goes as far away from the door than possible like impression on his face "are you kidding me, there is no way I'm going out" :) Thankfully then when our holiday started the weather got better. Now for more than a week it has been really hot. When we came to Oulu inside this apartment it was more than +30.. We had to open all possible windows, all 2 of them, and put a fan to full speed. Now it’s much bearable, +26... Pancho and Chili has been mostly sleeping inside, maybe it’s so hot for them too. Or then it’s the lack of toys in here :) At home they have full basket of toys.. Some people have said that their kids don’t have that many toys than our Xolos do.

We have been now 2 weeks on holidays and still 2 weeks to go; or maybe I should not say still but only 2 weeks to go. Both of our boys are doing well. Chili has matured and he is already acting more like adult sometimes; usually he still behaves himself (meaning jumping, running, biting, teasing, playing, annoying Pancho, being cute). Now if I'm sitting on the sofa Chili might come next to me to be pet or even come to my lap. Before he didn't like affection so much and he never came to our lap himself, he is way too mobile to sit still. Sometimes I have wondered if he has ADHD or something :) He and Pancho are totally different natures. Similar is that both are very reserved for strange people, but otherwise.. At home Pancho mostly looks out from the window like guarding our house and Chili is running where ever playing with whatever he can find. Which reminds me of Chilis new obsession.. If there is a pen left somewhere on the table or somewhere.. It's for sure that when you come home from work that pen has been destroyed into million small pieces. I don't know why he loves pens so much. Is it the ink smell? Once I fell asleep while doing some crosswords and when I woke up my pen was gone.. Next day it was sadly found destroyed. So now days if you come to our house and need a pen: There is none :)

Chili taking sun inside and outside the house :)

When our holiday started we stayed home for few days and then we went to Jyväskylä. My mom turned 50 so she had a party. Boys were behaving very well although house was full of strange people. Only when my uncles came with their small children we took boys upstairs to our room. They are not used to small children and didn’t want to stress them when there were already so many new people. We also build them a fence around part of the yard in Jyväskylä so that they can run free there. They really loved that :) My moms flowerbeds are in the middle of the yard so it was fun to jump and run over it.. Moms flowers didn’t think it was good idea. On the last day in Jyväskylä we took boys to the lake where they were chasing after ducks and loving it. Both boys enjoyed the lake but Chili loved it. He was chasing waves and drank so much water that when we were driving to Haapavesi he only whined few times and then peed inside the car, like 2 liters.. Well, poor guy drank so much water that he just couldn’t hold it in :)

Pancho looking at the ducks and wondering if he could catch them :)

Pancho and Chili at the lake

At Haapavesi we spend almost a week. We (well Pauli mostly) build there a deck to the yard. It’s very nice place to sit and barbeque something and watch the sunset behind the lake. One day boys were outside with us for many hours. Pancho was helping when he noticed that Pauli was digging a hole to the ground. Pancho was enjoying himself when he finally got to dig a hole and with a permission. There are lots of horseflies and I had to kill them all the time when they were biting Pancho and Chili. I think I killed more than 20 during those hours. Then suddenly I saw that Panchos face looked a bit red. I took him inside straight away and saw that it was full of weird looking rash. I gave him allergy medicine. And then very quickly the rash went worse and his face started to swallow. He was obviously bitten by too many horseflies. If you have been reading this blog for a long time, you might remember that last summer Pancho had anaphylactic shock reaction when horseflies bite him. He is allergic to them also.  So I just hold a cold wet towel on his face for some time and watched that it didn’t go worse. Then slowly it went away. I just can’t stand for those damn horseflies.. They are hurting my baby :(

Pancho is at the moment eating antibiotics. He has infection in his skin. He had few of these small, maybe 1cmx1cm rashes in his skin. They just looked like dry spots. It might have been caused by us. We have been washing them with shampoo that has oil in it to grease their skin. Doctor said that it might be bad to them since it leaves the bacteria to their skin. Now we bought a different kind of dog shampoo which should be good for their skin. 

Pancho and Chili chilling in the sun

At Haapavesi Paulis mom lives on a lake so we were with boys on the lake every day. Chili has discovered that he loves being in the water. Pancho also goes into the water if you throw a stick there, but Chili goes there even without a stick. He hasn’t actually been swimming but he is walking as deep as his paws are still reaching the bottom. He loves being on the lake so much that sometimes it’s hard to get him away from the lake. Just before we came to Oulu he discovered that when we are on the yard he can just run away and go to the lake..Even if I was telling him not to go he just ran to the water.. Teenage rebel? :)

Other thing that he has discovered that is fun is chasing after cats.. Paulis mom has 2 cats and we are trying our best to keep them separated but sometimes they happen to be outside at the same time. Good thing is that those cats are fast :) Last Friday Chili was barking in the window and we went to see what he was barking at. The older cat was lying on the yard behind the window. Then Chili ran to the corridor and pushed one door open and the back door was left a bit open so he pushed that one also open and run outside to bark to the cat. Bad thing is that this older cat is used to dogs so he didn’t run away immediately but stayed to defend himself. Chili was barking to him and he was there with his hair up. Good thing was that I ran there before the cat got to scratch Chili. This is the same cat that scratched Panchos eye when he was puppy.

Our Pancho-xolo and hairlessearlessmexicandog-Chili :)

Pancho became an uncle week ago. Panchos sister Adela got puppies. :)

We will try to update after holidays how the rest of our holiday went! Enjoy your summer! -Jozanna

We have not been writing for a looong time. Nothing really has been happening. Boys are getting older and wiser.

We did have a accident on our car. Not our fault but we were lucky boys were not in the car. No one got hurt in this accident but just imagine if boys had been in their place in the back..

A few pics of the boys also. These are from last week. Midsummer fest.

We have had a long "peacefull" period. Nothing dramatic happening Pancho being Pancho and Chili getting more and more adult. Pancho and Chili were dewormed on the weekend Chili probably needed it.. Pancho has never eaten much anything on our forest trips etc. Chili is very different in this. Chili loves to find those really well "cooked" mouse and other ex-animals. If chili gets one of these in his mouth and you try to go and take it away all you hear is this soung "GULP" as he swallows as quicly as possible.

Pancho has been much better now that he has desinsitizing treatment for his allergies. We have to visti the vet soon again because we need more of those shots we give him.