“サトリの森” ～ Forever

カンガル犬のペーハは３歳と２ヶ月ちょっとになりました。 ４ヶ月頃からの成長は本当に早くて８ヶ月頃にはサトリを抜いていましたが、足が長くて痩型。   8ヶ月 ” サトリの森 ” を散歩していても、何かが動くとすぐに走って行っちゃって数時間 は戻って来ない。 こっちがちょっとよそ見をしていると、いつの間にか忍者のように消えて、これまた数時間 帰って来ない。 サトレペパパが 180cm を超える柵を作ってもそれを飛び越えて行ってしまうのを見た時は、超大型犬にしてはあまりの機敏さに口が開いたままふさがらない状態。 ホットワイヤー ( 熱線式フェンス）を勧められたけど、この広い敷地全部にそんなものをつける余裕はない。 サトレペパパとどうしたものかと頭を悩ませていた時、フト思ったのが 毎朝の ” サトリの森 ” 散歩。 そして、散歩の後に朝ごはん。散歩は終わればご飯だ！ と条件付けトレーニング。 と言うパターンを作ってみた。 勿論、オフリードで散歩するので歩く時はこちらが 「 sniff, sniff 」 ( 匂いをかいでいい）と言うコマンドを出さない限りは私たちの横か後ろを歩く・・・と言う事を心がけてみた。 ただ歩くだけでもつまらないから、時々はサトレペパパか私が隠れて 「探せ、探せ」 のゲームも入れてみた。 このゲームをやって気づいたのは、 サトリは鼻より、目 に頼ってて、 ペーハは目より鼻。 犬が犬である事を実感させるのがこの 「鼻」 。臆病な犬やブルドッグのような闘犬として作られた犬種は鼻を使う訓練をすると「犬」の心を取り戻す事が出来るそうだ。 と、話しはちょっとそれましたが、そんな事を始めて数ヶ月。 ペーハは本当に３歳を境目に変わりました。 散歩の時は、必ず見える所にいるし、私が枝をかき集めるので立ち止まると、必ずといっていいくらい自分も座って待ってるし。 「一緒に」 のコマンドで一緒に歩く事も覚えたし。 子犬の頃から、感じてはいたけれど、サトリやレイラのようなトレーニングをしなくても、人のエネルギーやサトリとレイラが私やサトレペパパのコマンドに従っている様子を見て、覚えてしまうのがすごい！ これは、カンガル犬の特徴でもあるらしいが、やはり長い間、羊飼いと共に生活をして家畜を守って来た遺伝子何だねぇ。 ３歳を目途に体つ...

Many Japanese people visit a shrine during the New Year's holiday (the first three days of January)in order to wishes for health and happiness of the year. People buy Omamori(or amulet), good luck charm and a Hamaya(or a sacred arrow which invites good fortune and wards off evil) At the same time when you visit a shrine, you usually bring those things that you bought last year with you and leave them at a shrine, which means you exchange to new ones. If you forgot to bring them with you, you can visit any shrine which is closer to your house to do it later. So I went Igusa-hachiman shrine where is near my house. In this shrine, there is a small shrine as you can see down here. People enshrine amulets, good luck charms or Hamaya there. Why do people throw them away into a trash can? NO! Japanese people think that you will have bad carma if you just throw them away because those things are associated with Shito shrines I  have some, so I decided to go to a s...

I visited my old friends in Tachikawa where I lived before. Every year, there is a big 'Matsuri' or a Festival at the end of August, which let us know the summer has gone. This is the Suwa shrine.  It's a biggest one in Tachikawa city.  When you visit there, usually you should visit the main building to pray.  But many people were queueing up to pray, so we were in hurry, skipped it. Sorry....... There are lots of shops at a festivals.  People enjoy buying snack, toys, candies or beer. Children even adults with shining eyes enjoy stopping by each shop. People become so excited most when the Mikoshi (or portable shrine) walk through the town. On our way back my friend's home, I found the Haunted House.  ??? No!   Can I say the Haunted Hut?   We went home. It was getting darker in the sky.  We had another party at my friend's house. Yeah! We bought some food at the festival...

Fortunately I have a lots of friends through Satori & Leila.  If I had no dogs, my relationship with people would have been much smaller. Some of my friends who participated in 'K9 Games' -- a spectator event featuring fast-moving, motivating, competitive games for dogs and owners, which Dr. Ian Dunbar, who is a veterinarian, dog trainer, and writer, created are special. My first team was named 'Dogs In Black'.  Nine dogs and nine owners must make a team. My first team leader was Ms.Miyuki Watarai.  She is a dog trainer. And after she left K9 Games, she competed in the "World Agility Competition in the USA" three times. Recently she knew I would leave Japan soon.  So she asked me to visit her new place with my another K9 Games friend, Natsuko. Miyuki has now 7 dogs.  I know only one of them who is OG and called Tsuki, .  Because Tsuki was a great K9 Gamer, and at the same time she was a superb athlete. Most of her dogs are a working dog beca...

Have you ever heard of 'Kekkai'? Of course, it's Japanese,   Well, then, have you ever watched TV series 'Supernatural', which is the story of a cool elder brother, Dean ;-) and his younger brother, Sam of Winchester?  They often draw 'Kekkai' with salt to protect people against evil things. It came from a word of Siimaabandha from Sanskrit. It is to limit the area to separate the sacred space and the profane space in order to maintain an orderly world.  I mean the word came from the Buddhism thought.  So why I talked about this?  I don't mean discussing about Buddhism or some religion matters. But I have draw Kekkai.   Protecting against what? Against 'Cckrch'(Sorry, I hate even spelling it.) After I saw IT flying around in my room, I bought a high quality killer and put them at every corner of the house.　 Then one of my friends told me that the doors or windows everywhere < THEY > seem to be able to ac...

These days my left leg often cramps up in the early morning.  I told Richard about this, then he said it might be caused by a lots of stress from a bunch of immigrant visa stuff.  And he advised me to go out and take a deep breath. It was a hot day yesterday as well as the day before yesterday. A scorching summer morning. But the clouds didn't seem like that in the summer to me.  I took Leila out to one of my favourite parks.  It took 15 minutes by bicycle from my house.  We stopped by the stream Satori used to jump into,  but Leila?   Nop!! She just stopped because I stopped.  That's all.  She had no feeling to hop into the water. Walking along the stream,  you will see the park!! There are boats, fountain, cafes and trees.  　You can see an old fashion Japanese style cafe with a flag which was written 'Ice' in the air . Lots of families visit here on Sunday.  Since I was a child...

It was a hot day yesterday as usual. But I expected the rain to fall, because I saw the dark cloud among the white cloud. And I felt a gentle breeze on my cheek. So I didn't put a heat-break shirt on Leila. But I was wrong.  On our way to a Home centre, it became a scorching hot day.  We changed the route to the shop and went through a park. Leila enjoyed the pond looking down the carps. Birds were resting.     Leila usually doesn't care about the heat as Satori. But she began to pant. On our way back home, I often offered  water, but she drank little.  And she became quiet and kept on walking. I took her to the park we passed by before, For a while, we stayed at the park and enjoying watching somebody's property which is one of my favourite around this area.  There are some farmers with land.  This is the one of them.   Then Leila seemed to be recovered, and her tail is up. So we wen...