Skip to main content

It’s a dogs life



Just when some things get easier, e.g Abi deciding that actually she should wait until she’s 12 before having a pony (who knew she was so sensible?!?), other things become a pain. This week I have mainly been worried about the dogs... that is when I’m not stressing about Abi wanting to know exactly how many days it is until she’s 12,  whether I’ve worked out where she will keep this pony if it transpires, as well as what we should feed it and what colour blankets it should have...

Anyway, back to the dogs. After our altercation with another dog I arranged for a dog trainer to come out and visit us, with the hope she might shed some light on what we can do. I didn’t expect a quick fix but I was hoping that it would be a case of “just do a, b and c and you’ll be on your way”. Instead we discussed both dogs at length (while Freya sat and watched us with a sad face) and then we went to do some ground training (which I’m supposed to repeat multiple times a day), designed to get her to think more about her feet and keep her head down. Apparently ‘reactive dogs’ are even more prone to over stimulation because they have their heads up which increases the cortisol which in turn increases adrenaline and so it gets worse. Great given Freya spends her entire walk with her head in the air hoping a squirrel will drop out of the sky into her mouth (you never know!).  Also it’s clear (I didn’t need an expert to tell me this) that she takes her cue from Bertie and when he goes off after a dog so does she, only he knows to not get stuck in, she doesn’t. Having now read ALOT, I think he is what the dog people call a ‘frustrated greeter’. He gets so over excited when he first meets another dog, but then calms down if allowed the space to do so. Brilliant, I have the perfect combination of 2 dogs with different antisocial handicaps! 

In addition to dog obstacle courses 3 times a day there are the rewards. Now Freya was all for high value rewards at home when we practiced, but when we went out she really wasn’t bothered. Bertie on the other hand thought it was brilliant that I had a pocket full of cheese and followed me like a shadow in the hope of having it all. I’m not sure I’m cut out to have perfect dogs. I think I will fail even the basic training if this is what it’s like. The trainer said that I need to make the walk “all about them and as exciting as possible”. Huh! I didn’t have the energy to say there are very few moments in the day that are actually about me and dog walking is one of them. I think I may just accept that when I walk them at a time we might meet others I’ll just keep one of them on the lead. Between that and a pocket full of Bertie cheese we might make some progress in time.

In other news this weekend we have had a mini ‘beast from the East’ which was most unexpected and dumped another 4” of snow on us. Who knew that was coming? No-one was very pleased this time. It meant Abi couldn’t ride (cue tears as she had prepared a million questions for Sandra on livery, all of which needed to be asked NOW), and the rest of us were somewhat house bound. Actually Glenn went out on his motorbike (off road) and fell off a million times, while Abi and I ended up going for a lovely walk to look for fields which could be private or livery yards - it's a theme as you can tell. At least we didn't take the dogs otherwise it would definitely not have been a walk with my sanity in mind! Hopefully the snow is melting now rather than making for a logistically difficult last week of term. This time next week we will have had our first day of skiing - eek!




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...

More frustrations!

An old one to remind myself how cute they were! Sunday evening, back to school after half term and the normal shouting match ensues as we ask where all Abi's kit is and she shrugs and says "it's not my fault..." There are a number of aspects that drive us nuts here - first that her immediate response is denial and abdication of all responsibility, the second that she genuinely doesn't care and the third that it still doesn't help is with where her (mostly new) sports kit is! While this is going on we have Izzy sorting her kit out while weeping quietly because she has decided (18 months after we said goodbye to him) that she misses Scooby! We decided it was just easier to suggest everyone gets an early night and packed them off to their rooms - there really isn't an answer for some of this I think! This week has been a mix of school testing - the kids went of to St Gabriel's for their tests on Wednesday, Abi riding, Izzy doing her gym practice and...

Lockdown - month 3

Bertie hoping to be allowed to move into Abi's shed As we pass the mark of 2 months in lockdown it has become all very normal - in fact as I walked Bertie yesterday I was resentful of the cars whizzing past me when it's been so peaceful for so long. We have now moved from 'Stay at Home' to 'Stay Alert' (England anyway, the wee Krankie up North refuses to do anything remotely aligned to the rest of the UK on principal). Apparently the majority of the country finds the new message very confusing - " what does it mean?" they ask themselves. This is what the media would have us believe anyway, because what else is there to do in lockdown but shit stir and create confusion when there is no need. We have definitely now  moved past the point of being in this together and gone back to the normal blame game. So much for solidarity. Friday also marked the end of the first half of term, although half term has never felt so much like school, or more accurate...