About Please

Please is a lovely little dog who has truly worked her way into my heart. So far, she has shown several qualities that I value deeply and hope to develop and manage in the right way.

In everyday life, she is easy, uncomplicated, and very obedient, and she has become my preferred demo dog when I teach classes. From a very young age she has had an outstanding work ethic, and we have called her “the class star,” as she has always preferred training over playing with other dogs. As an adult, she is very focused on always doing things correctly—both a strength and a challenge. Once she has learned how something is done, she will always do it exactly that way. At the same time, this means she needs to be completely certain before being sent on a directional retrieve, so that is where our current focus lies. She shows a very strong willingness to cooperate, so I was lucky that she chose to live up to her pedigree name!

In front of a ski or bike, she is a powerhouse. Even though we are fortunate that all our dogs pull well, none are as enthusiastic or as consistent in the harness as Please—she absolutely loves it!

Please has also proven to be an excellent puppy aunt when the Elkhound Tillit was a puppy, a trait I greatly appreciate. With so many dogs in the household and a new puppy roughly every other year on average, these qualities are very important. I wish she were a little more cuddly, but that is improving. She will happily climb into my lap, which she can just about fit into given her small size. I should also admit that Please is the only dog in the pack who sleeps in the bedroom with us, and she usually sleeps pressed against my legs all night.

Her hunting training has gone very smoothly so far, and in her first season she competed in two official and two unofficial working tests. She performed beautifully in all of them, including becoming Young Dog Champion at the Norwegian Flatcoat Championship, and I have received very positive feedback from several judges. She has also taken part in her first pigeon shoots, where she showed many excellent qualities.

In 2025, she made her debut in BK (beginner class) at a hunt test, where she received an Excellent, and the next milestone is now to qualify for open class. I am very much looking forward to continuing the journey with her. Her great-grandfather Swim was my dream dog who no one can quite compare to, but Please is starting to come surprisingly close.

Fun Facts

• Please happily climbs into my lap when we sit at the dining table. From there, she has discovered that she can sit on her own chair. She is the only one of our dogs who does this—and the only one allowed to. She never touches the food on the table.

• Please is most strongly bonded to me, so when Kristian is home, she often does not respond to him unless I “give permission.” When I am not home, however, she listens to Kristian as well.

• She is friendly towards everyone she meets, but often not particularly interested in greeting either people or dogs. A bit untypical for a Flatcoat, and quite different from her mother and grandmother.