Siru Unleashed
Sighthounds need plenty of exercise and ours are no exceptions. While on a particularly rainy day Hippu and Siru will do nicely with only brief excursions outdoors they prefer to spend at least an hour there every day.
Typically, the morning walk takes between fifteen and twenty minutes. We walk in the little woods next to our house, then along the road and finish up with a tennis-ball retrieving session in the common yard, during which Siru often dashes about, speeding around bushes and trees, jumping over the kids' sandbox in the process. A particular favorite of hers is to run at break-neck speed straight to our backyard, make a physics-defying U-turn and to return to the common yard again at full velocity. The evening walk takes only about ten to fifteen minutes and there is no tennis-ball throwing.
The afternoon walk is the day's main attraction and takes between thirty minutes and two hours, depending on how busy we are. Siru is usually off-leash whenever there is no danger of being overrun by traffic. Many of these pictures were taken at a 360 by 180 meter field which is within five minutes' walking distance from our house and is a great place for high-speed frolicing by the dogs. There are no fences around the field which is bordered by a cultivated field, a bicycle path, a paved road and a railway line so we really have to trust our dogs to not go where we do not want them to.
On many a hot day Hippu and Siru will simply make a token effort at running before deciding the weather is too warm. Then they will just walk about the field, sampling the smells left there by other dogs. But often the dogs will engage in playful teasing of the other, followed by a full-speed pursuit up and down the field. The order is always the same, Siru runs away, chased by Hippu who is barking constantly, playing a furious Killer Whippet. I have never seen Hippu run like that, one dog owner gasped, watching our sighthounds at full tilt. We think Hippu has lost at least two years of age since Siru arrived, so she is back to being eight years old.
After running for a while the dogs will settle down and return to us, panting and looking exhausted but happy. It is time to move on. Being an independent-minded dog, Siru will sometimes stop and remain standing, watching us walk away with Hippu. I'm not following you, look ! We just happen to be going in the same direction ! I'll just stand here and go about my own business. However once we are in danger of disappearing from view she, having made her point, will often begin jogging after us. At other times, especially when we are nearing home, she will stand there, knowing she will be called.
Siru running with one of her best friends, Lotta the Doberman. For us one of the most frustrating things about Siru is the way she often greets other dogs with a dangerous-sounding growl. She is not at all aggressive but meeting other dogs is so exciting and Siru feels rather unsure of herself so she will growl while wagging her tail, sometimes making other dog owners think she is an uncontrollable, vicious animal when nothing could be farther from the truth. We have made some progress in training her but still the results are far from perfect. It must be emphasized that this is Siru's very own characteristic and/or our failure as trainers and should not be thought of as typical behavior by Silkens - for instance her brother Teal'c has much better manners.
But once she gets really close to the other dog Siru will become herself again, a somewhat timid but politely interested sighthound who would not dream of growling at other dogs. She examines the stranger with keen interest and nose, retreating from the new acquaintance if he/she is too nosey, only to rebound back to continue the meeting as soon as the other turns away. After a few meetings Siru learns to recognize the other dog from a distance and the growling goes away, replaced by smiling, more tail-wagging and high-stepping.
Other friends Siru meets off-leash include Emily the Rottweiler, Lissu the Boxer, Saku the Golden Retriever, Ali the Silken Windhound and Nougat the Cat. Siru's first encounter with Nougat took place at a range of about one meter. The cat was sunbathing, hidden in a patch of tall grass as Siru walked by... the dog bounded into the air surprised and shocked, took two running steps and turned very very quickly and approached the cat... at this point Eero thought someone was going to get hurt but was way too far away to help. But Siru stopped, seeing that Nougat was not going anywhere. We think he lives with dogs and is not afraid of them. Siru sniffed at the cat Oh, it's one of them - just different color. Nougat meowed, purred and rubbed his sides against Eero's ankles while Siru at first watched fascinated but then lost interest and begun munching at the tall grass.
The presence of even minute quantities of water will instantly transform Siru into a Silken Swamphound, a foul creature approximately as uncommon as the Silken Windhound. No pond is too dirty, no ditch too filthy for these unbelievably smelly carnivores who can usually be detected by their stench from up to two hundred meters away. Though often seen in the wild, Swamphounds are rarely domesticated because they always wind up in the shower immediately upon returning home.
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