Grima - All the Way From Iceland

I was contacted by a couple who had recently lost their Icelandic Sheepdog Grima that they brought back from a trip to Iceland.  Here, slightly edited, is some of what they had to say about their life with her. Those of you who know Icelandics can easily relate to their experiences with Grima.

I think they'll be able to work on the barking and the separation anxiety for the next Icy -  Hehehe!!
Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

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Grima

You have opened the floodgates in asking about Grima.  Geoff and I are of course thrilled to talk about her and share photos and have no objection if you want to put anything about her on your blog. 

We are transplants from New York (I worked in the city; Geoff in New Rochelle). We moved to  Maine in 2005 to a rambling old farmhouse and barn and have never looked back.  (We lived in in the farmhouse until a couple of years ago when we retired and moved to a smaller house a half mile up the road.) 

Six months after making the big move to Maine we got it into our heads to get a couple of small horses to keep in that barn (small, because less distance to fall) and went to Iceland with a group of ten with the idea that we'd learn about the Icelandic horse and learn how to ride the tolt, etc. etc.  

We stayed at a farm/horse place near Hella for a week, learning and riding, and one day the wife of the couple who owned the place came home with two pups to add to her fleet of dogs and let it be known that the runt of the litter was still available.  That was Grima.  She needed an export certificate and so we needed a name and found Grima in a book of horse names.  Grima supposedly means mask and that fit her little raccoon face. 

Geoff did a quick Internet search on the breed and learned that they bark and that they are energetic and then we went to the nearest cash machine and also bought a cat carrier,  and Grima came home in the back of the plane we were on (we weren't allowed to bring her into the cabin) and we drove home to Maine from Boston with her.  The AKC didn't even recognize the breed in May of 2006.  In any case, her breeder in Iceland had put a microchip in her but we never registered her for anything here in the U.S.

 Grima did everything with us--walking, hiking, canoeing, sailing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing.  She was smarter and far better company than most people.  What we loved about her was her intelligence and enthusiasm, her incredible eye contact and expressive face, her happiness, her smile, the way she'd sit on your lap and lean into you, the way she'd come visit you every five minutes or so while you were weeding the vegetable garden and act--every time--as though she hadn't seen you in months.  

She was a barker all right and also had some odd quirks such as biting doors.  She was awful in the car--barking hysterically whenever you came to a stop somewhere, even if she'd never been there.  We tried a trainer at one point  but it was sort of too late.  We wore earplugs in the car and learned a few ways to keep her calm-ish.  Friends asked us to bring her with us to dinner at their houses, which was wonderful because we hated leaving her. 

The separation anxiety is something we wish could be solved--it was heart-breaking to leave her barking and frantic--but gather it's just hardwired into herding dogs.  She adored Geoff; he was her person.  He was the only one (besides owls and coyotes) who could get her to howl.  But she loved me, too.  I was the one she'd come to for play or protection if she was in an uncomfortable spot.