christmas is coming!

The doggie advent calendars are up and ready,their stockings are on their way and their presents have started to be bought! I don't have a big family or children to spoil at Christmas...but i do have my furkids! Some people may think I am mad....naaah!

staffies, collies and hounds! Oh my!

So by now you may have guessed I love collies. This has happened totally by accident! There are so many wonderful breeds out there and there isn’t one I wouldn’t consider being a proud parent of. We all have our own ways of looking at dogs and how much the breed matters, this is just my way of looking at it and I welcome other people’s thoughts on this.

First of all they are a dog. They bark, sniff, pee, poop, investigate, love you amongst other doggie kind of things. Whatever dog you get you will get this but it is down to the dog’s individual personality to how these doggie things show themselves. For example Darkley will bark when our gate is opened or at the bin men coming and Holly wont (yet!), yet Holly will howl in excitement when she sees you and I don’t think Darkley has ever howled.  Then there are other factors that will influence their personality which is where breed and environment come in to play. Collies can be a very nervous breed and I know many who are, Holly included. Then you get Darkley who is cautious but not a nervous boy at all. So the breed CAN be an influence on your pup but this definitely is not always the case! Then there is environment which I feel can have a factor in your pup much more than anything else.  When I say environment I mean things that the dog has experienced and is currently experiencing. Over the past few weeks Holly has gone totally mad and barked at a MALE delivery driver and our MALE next door neighbour. She doesn’t bark as much as gobby Darkley so when she does you know something has annoyed her or upset her some way.  Has something in her past environment made her wary of males? I have introduced her to male friends of mine with no problems so maybe it is just males with really deep voices? No idea and sadly I won’t find out what has caused this or what it is that is exactly setting her off but I can help her in this new environment to deal with whatever issues she has. My point is that no two dogs will be exactly alike. Even litter mates bought up in the same house will have their differences, one might trip over a wire one day and develop a fear of wires and the other might get in a fight with a larger dog and develop a disliking for larger dogs. No dog can be judged easily which is why when dogs are judged just by breed it saddens me so much. Ask me my opinion on staffies? I can only tell you about the ones I have met, all of which have been so friendly and smothered me with kisses! My opinions on greyhounds? All that I have met have been sweet natured and friendly. I do know however there are going to be dogs within these breed types that are not going to be like that..which is what a lot of people seem to not think about (thankfully a lot of people also do think like that!). I am sure there is going to be a staffie which doesn’t want to give you tons of kisses but instead will bark in excitement to see you or will roll about on the floor to say hello. For me part of the fun of owning (and rescuing!) a dog is discovering their ways, quirks and naughty habits! Every day I get to watch my two grow and learn new things (from learning commands to learning how to get that toy that mum has hidden because the squeaker is driving her mad!) Holly is still coming out of her shell and nothing makes me smile like when I see a little bit of her cheeky self shine through. She play bowed at me for the first time the other day which may not seem much too some people but I got excited! Darkley is learning to “Talk” now when we play, which makes me laugh so much!

So I have just gone on about how not to judge on breed, yet I have two collie crosses. Firstly note the crosses part to that..they are not the stereotypical sheepdog by any means! Holly has been called a Labrador, whippet, greyhound, spaniel cross collie and I have no idea what Darkley is crossed with! I grew up with a border collie and having one around makes me feel safe in a weird way. Their smart arseness makes me laugh and their madness goes well with mine!  However all three dogs I have owned/part owned are so very different! My life just feels weird without some sort of collie in it!

Not a normal blog post I know, but I get judged on the dogs I own because of their breed and I know for sure I am not alone! (a boy once jumped a fence because of seeing Darkley, who was busy looking for squirrels anyways!) Comments like “you must have to walk loads with your collies” and “They are too hyper, Collies would drive me mad! How do you cope?!” make me grin more than anything now as my two are as lazy as I am…as I type this Darkley is asleep across both dog beds and Holly is dreaming next to me (and kicking me as she dreams!) Darkley gets bored of walks after a while and wants to just go home and play and Holly is happy to plod/drag me along wherever even if it is just round the block. Also they can’t drive me mad as I think I already am. A lot of people only get to see my pups for a short time and usually they are just excited to meet someone, not a lot get to see them relaxing and snoozing about the house.

I read a story the other day about a collie that was taken back to a rescue because it had “snapped” at someone. That someone apparently had blown air in the dogs face and it snapped back at them…would you like that? Think I would snap at someone doing that to me! The dog was then labelled as a temperamental sensitive collie. Gah!

So if I meet you and your pups know that I am will always be secretly geeking out about how awesome they are! Big dogs, small ones, scruffy ones, older ones..ones that are supposed to be big scary child eating machines…none of this matters to me! Dogs are wonderful companions and awesome animals to me… I will just be happy with a few cuddles from them really!

Ps sorry for spelling and punctuation..maybe 2am is not the right time to be writing up things!

a quick hello!

Hello all sorry for the lack of posting!

So I will start with a positive note, Holly has is unsure of fireworks but isn’t bothered as much as she was at all. She snoozed most of bon fire night and there have been some going off (STILL!) all this week and she hasn’t been bothered by them. However since the fireworks have started to go off (3 weeks agoish!) Holly has been acting a bit off. Not sure what is up but as I said in my last post Holly had decided to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night and wake my mum up to let her out. I have been making sure she goes out to pee as late as I can (2am sometimes!) but she was still sneaking downstairs. Then she stopped asking to go out and just ran downstairs and went for a pee. A few days ago we had the back door open all day so the dogs could wander in and out as the pleased. I went upstairs for a quick nap before work and was joined by the pups who would wander downstairs now and then. My mum shut the door and 20 minutes later Holly ran down the stairs and just ran to the back door and went for a pee before my mum could even see what she was doing! Nightmare. So I have made a new “plan of action” with her which involves lots of praise and jumping about excitedly over pee!

Had a lovely start to last week though, Holly won 2^nd best pumpkin and they both won photo of the week in their Halloween outfits from another site! A bag with two toys turned up Tuesday and a pretty orange Halloween rosette turned up for holly a few days later. Proud of my cuties!

The lizards are the ones who are having issues right now. Mojo is trying her hardest to hibernate (she is too small to do this really, but she is damn determined!) She is also trying to shed her skin still which is a major issue with her since I got her, lord knows what the “breeder” did with her. She just got all her lights replaced and I have made her tank more exciting but she isn’t bothered! Thunder the gecko seems to have an issue with her eye, it is very swollen and isn’t as clear as it should be. She has just shed her skin so she could have done it with that or it could be dust in her eye or she could just be clumsy and did it some other way! The thing with Thunder that she was not hand tamed at all when I got her, she is however a lot better and loves chin tickles now but not being held too long! (gotten a few nips from her!) So I just tried to put an eye drop in her eye to clean it out without being nipped…somehow I managed to get away with all fingers intact. She calmed down a bit actually after the gel stuff when in, so maybe it has soothed her eye. She can still see out of it as she chased after a worm when I put her back in the tank! So I will be keeping an close watch on her…there is always one animal having issues! She will be having a bath tomorrow (all my rescue geckos have no idea about going in to a moist hide to shed…its very strange so they have issues with shedding.) Thunder has some skin stuck on her toes so she will get a nice warm bath and I will wash her eye then too. I am expecting her to rebel by trying to poop on me…again!

Darkley is also having issues bless him, had an upset tummy since the end of last week. He had some rice and chicken which has seemed to help him today. He has been extra cuddly which automatically alerted me to him feeling a bit rubbish. He is eating, drinking and playing as normal though so might just be a doggie bug going about.

So my cockatiel Louie is a bit of an antisocial bird. He will chat happily too you through the bars of his cage but touch his cage and you will get a cat like hiss out of him…then he will run for it! He however will bite you like he was 18 months old and not 18 years, I saw him go for the vet once and I couldn’t help but secretly be rooting for him to land a good bite on the vet who wasn’t the nicest of people! Seeing as he is so old I would only take him to the vets in an emergency, it would be too much for him to having to travel there and be handled by strangers outside of his cage. He does however need his claws cut soon.. something I am dreading! Last time I did it, it didn’t go too badly but he managed to get a couple of impressive bites on my hand.. he doesn’t like to let go either. The other birds move about a lot more which helps keep their claws short but with Louie’s age and his arthritis he isn’t hopping about much these days, just climbs around when he can be bothered too. It sucks watching him get old; I have had him since he was 13 weeks old and can’t even imagine him not being in my living room hurling abuse at someone or another bird. Even thinking about it makes me chest ache.

Sorry for the quick update and it isn’t very cheerful either! Hopefully the next one will be a tad more happier!

my angel who is still looking after me

dont mention the W.A.L.K word!

Evening all!

Only few things going on with us! Holly is finally telling us when she needs to go out to pee! Haha! It has taken her a while to work out that she can do certain things to get our attention. However she is choosing to do this in the middle of the night now! She sneaks off my bed and downstairs to where my mum sleeps. She sneaks up to my mum and “talks” quietly next to her and then goes and sits by the door..my mum is unimpressed that she is letting me sleep and not her! We have had a few toilet accidents with Holly over the past few days as she does not want to go out and pee because of fireworks. I can get her out there a few times over the evening but I don’t want to push her to go out there too much. She is getting better at dealing with the fireworks though, she sulks more than anything else when they are going off instead of bolting. Slow progress but progress never the less!

On Saturday I met up with a few lovely people and their dogs for a group walkies. Darkley is struggling with being separated from Holly, so I left him back home to learn that there will be times that they will be separated. (My mum said he barked and whined for a while then went in to a major sulk!) So Holly and I set off for her first long walk without confident Darkley by her side. Our pup friends that were joining us was a lovely staffie girl called Dixie who gives amazing kisses! She has had issues in the past where she hasn’t liked certain other dogs (I don’t blame her really, lots of humans I don’t like too much!) However Dixie has come far and is so so tolerant of other dogs these days. She is a lovely pup who adores her cuddles and kisses! We were also joined by Nemo, a fluffy older boy who is adorable. He has done SO well in the past few months and has become more tolerant of my two hyper pups. When I first met him 6 months or so ago he liked to tell the world about how annoying these younger brats of dogs are but I did not hear one grumble from him on the walk! I am so lucky to know some lovely owners with some awesome dogs to help me with socialising miss Holly. Holly was far more quiet than normal on the walk, she was happy though. She was on the new harness again which seemed to be helping to control her full on pulling and I think in time she will learn how to walk without trying to go a million miles an hour in front of me! She got to see lots of exciting things like squirrels, birds and murky smelly pools of water. She was super excited and her chase instinct kicked in with the birds and squirrels! She got to see a horse pass by and had a look and sniff but wasn’t too fussed. An electric wheelchair passed by us at one point too and she didn’t respond to it at all which was great. Was a lovey walkies!

 I decided to take Darkley on the same walk the next day as it is right by where our agility classes are…oh and how it was a different walk! As soon as we left the house the next morning Darkley was on a mission. No idea what that mission as but it was clear it meant he needed to pull as hard as he could on the lead and ignore me as much as possible! He was acting up at class (playing and putting his nose in other people’s business was FAR more interesting!) he did however show some improvement with his jumping skills. So after class I chucked a longer lead on him and went on the walk, even though he was being naughty. Even with his pulling he seemed to love sniffing and exploring the hedges and trees! He followed trails and hunted down squirrels! He then disappeared down a bank and dragged me behind him…next thing I know he is splashing about in a murky muddy mashup of a pond! Nice! We carry on walking for a bit and Darkley suddenly plops down to the floor with his back leg in the air looking concerned and licking it. The words “now what has he done” pop in to my head! I then pull out of his paw a thorn the length of my thumb! Ouch much?! Soon as it was out and I gave him a cuddle he went off to explore some more. 

I get paid this week and some of that money is going to be spent on a new headcollar and harness for him. He has reverted too far back for me to deal with on just a collar and lead. He is going to hurt himself and me if he carries on being like the steam train he is!

(I just emptied a bag of dog food in to the dog food tub in the kitchen…holly ran in shoved her face in the tub grabbed a mouthful and ran for it! She is a cheeky one tonight!)

So a year ago my mum won a giant stuffed toy of a dog. We had no idea where to put it and just shoved it in the corner where Darkley took an interest in it. He erm tried to “romance” it. Horrified I had to move it..we had no room though so for some random reason I threw it up our tree in the garden! It stayed there till the other day when a creature must have knocked it down and half of the bird feeders down with it. Holly thought that this was most awesome. Darkley joined in to destroy the toy and my garden looked like we had, had a freak snow storm. You know it is bad when you have to sweep your lawn!

I am also a proud mum because Holly actually stayed in the room when I used the hairdryer on Darkley Sunday night (after the bath to rid him of mud!) She hid on my bed and peered over at what we were doing now and then…but she didn’t run! Hurrah!

So today has been one of the THEM days, nothing has gone right. I got home and I finally sat down to relax..but not for long. I was sitting outside watching the pups hunt down the birds that were up the pear tree (not a chance they can ever get anywhere near the birds!) The pups then start zooming about and pouncing on each other as per normal when I notice there is something on Darkley’s face. It had to be one of three things- Mud, poop or blood…and hopefully not all of them. Turns out holly has taken a chunk out his face. Great. I clean the wound which isn’t too deep (Darkley was unimpressed with being cleaned up!) and it isn’t bothering him..he may however get a scar out of it. This my friends is another reason to add to the growing list of reasons why I am doing my animal first aid course!

Think that is enough chit chatting from me! If anyone knows of good harnesses and head collars that would help Darkley do let me know! (he got the gentle leader off somehow!) I just heard it is looking like it is going to rain a lot this week..no more fireworks hopefully!

how to make your cute pets cuter!

So a few months back I went to the dogs trust open day. Twas such a hot day so we left Darkley to snooze at home as he would just get hot and over excited! I got to see my Holly as she was still in kennels at that point -I sat by the glass trying to say hello to her and proudly telling anyone who would listen that I was adopting her soon! (haha proud mum already!) While we were there I was, as always, on the hunt for presents and treats for Darkley and now Holly. I came across a stall selling handmade Bandanas..they were SO cute! There was a little dog next to me who had just been bought one and he was sitting there proudly wearing it! they are little company called puppylove (click the link you will not be disappointed!) I was greeted with smiley helpful faces and more importantly dog lovers! I showed them photos of Darkley and said about how I was hoping to adopt Holly and all the issues we were having with that...anyone who is willing to listen to me rattle on about my dogs is an awesome person in my books! I ummed and ahhed about what size to get Darkley and I had no idea if Holly would even wear one, so I took their card and bookmarked their website when I got home.

So with Holly home and more than happy to be dressed up I wanted to get some made for Holly and Darkley. The awesome thing is that if you want a particular colour or something extra snazzy for your pup they will try and do it if they can...I of course wanted purple and green..and in certain shades! I own diva dogs! As they are handmade they can be made exactly how you want for your pups and best of all at such a reasonable price- because dogs will be dogs and I knew full well that mud and all sorts will end up on them! I dont want to be paying a lot for something I know my pups may abuse! 

Darkley has worn his to agility and on walks...oh the comments from people! A sweet group of older ladies gathered around him saying how cute and handsome he looked..that he was so smart! They can happily play in them too, they don't bother them in the slightest! My two were chasing each other about the garden in them! (see the photo above!)They are also made with Velcro at the back so if the bandana gets caught it wont hurt them at all as it will just undo (which is good to know with my clumsy pups...but i haven't had any problems!)







They do other stuff for your pampered pooches too! plus it is so nice to buy handmade things and not the same old stuff from pets at home! I will most likely be getting another one for them both for Christmas..because why not? 




So have a look at http://www.puppylovepets.co.uk/ there is a blog on there which is an awesome read AND see if you can spot the photo of Darkley on there! happy shopping people!

ickle update!

so a little fireworks update!


It was diwali last night and in this part of London it is celebrated just as much as bonfire night...actually sounded like bombs going off! my neighbors were setting them off so close our house shook!


So at around 4pm it was still light out so the pups were wandering in and out playing. A huge squeal and bang goes off! Holly Freaks out and Darkley jumps in front of her and barks like mad AT the firework. He looked so pissed that the firework DARE to scare Holly! Holly went and hid in my bed as per normal while I started to shut up the house and make it as soundproofed as possible. 


Holly came down for her dinner and hung about..the constant fireworks going off didnt seem AS scary as the odd bang now and then. I got her to curl up next to me and snooze there for most of the evening..her head bopped up now and then when a huge one went off but apart from some fast breathing and concerned looks she seemed better than expected! So now Darkley was asking to go out to pee...which is fine but it made me realise holly will need to too...and she has a weak bladder so its more important that she does. So off Darkley  goes to pee and explore the garden (ignoring the fireworks!) and i put holly on a leash and gradually walk to the door with her..she takes a step outside and then thinks "screw this!" and runs back to her bed! I dont force her so I go outside with Darkley who is trying to get me to play tuggie with him! Holly comes up to the door a few times to see what we are doing then runs back to her bed...we praise her for coming to the door to which we get a happy wag but we dont push it any further than that. An hour or so later we try again...this time we have a plan. Darkley and me are outside playing and my mum throws a ball out for Darkley...Holly automatically forgets there is fireworks as there is a ball being thrown! She runs outside and grabs her ball and runs about looking all pleased with herself! We tell her she is brave and a good girl over and over! We throw the ball again and she runs to get it ignoring the fireworks now. She strolls over for the longest pee in history before collecting her toys up to take them in...from then on wards she seems way more relaxed about the fireworks! yay! 


So every animal dealt with the fireworks okay, even holly was better then expected. Now we just have actual bon fire night to look forward too ugh!


in other non firework related news.. Holly tried a new harness today and she wasnt as much as a monster on her walk! My arm didnt hurt, I didnt get stressed and she got to have a good sniff about! 


hope everyone else's pets are coping okay!

Bam! Pow! Bang!

Hello world!

So anything new in my little animal world? Hm not really which is okay by me really! Bon fire night is fast approaching and so is the amount of fireworks being let off which annoys me let alone the animals ( I don’t mind fireworks, just fireworks let off by fools who don’t know what they are doing aka everyone who lives around here!). Luckily Darkley is not too bothered by them unless they are loud and aimed at our house (like my lovely neighbours like to do, that’s when I can’t tell who is more freaked out me or the animals?!) most of the time when he hears a bang he will run to the door to go investigate! Last year I sat with him at the back door (with the door shut so he couldn’t make a run for it if he got spooked!) and we watched the fireworks for a while. Holly could not be more opposite! One bang and she is in her “safe places”, which are the dog bed downstairs or my bed. I am going to make the dog bed in to a den for her by next weekend hopefully to help her and my room has blackout curtains so she can hide in there away from the flashes if need be. Some of you may have seen on my facebook ( I had a “I need to tell everyone about my awesome dogs” moment on there! ) about Darkley being a good big brother to her last night. Holly was camped out in her bed refusing to move and just looking scared by every bang. Darkley came over to see if she was okay, he gave a sniff and a nudge then licked her face. He then trotted back and forth offering her toys to play with until she couldn’t resist any more and started to play with him and forgot to be scared. He actually made me go “awwww” outloud.. he is such a big softie. 

It’s been raining here tonight and pretty quiet on the fireworks front so I let the pups out for their evening pee. Suddenly there was a huge bang really close by, luckily Holly was right by me as it happened so she just ran behind me and then in the house…Darkley carried on sniffing! Looking panicked Holly headed upstairs (taking her ball with her of course) and I could hear her jump on to my bed. I left her up there a while then went to find her with Darkley. She didn’t seem too shaken, happy but on guard. We played for a while (with the collection of dog toys appearing on my bed somehow!) and she was happy enough to follow us downstairs. Thankfully all has been quiet since! I don’t mind people buying fireworks in general but I mind that a lot of places around here sell them to underage kids who just let them off randomly and dangerously.

So I got woken up this morning the usual way- Darkley and Holly sitting on the bed pawing at each other and “talking” at each other. As I open my eyes all I see is Holly stand up and flip upside down on to the floor landing on her head! She then bops back up waging her tail looking at me as if to say  “woah mum did you see that?! I totally did a flip!” and bounced back on the bed! She also managed to head-butt my laptop and walk in to a table today… this my friends is why I have pet insurance and I am doing a first aid course for pets!

Mojo the dragon has been looking a tad miserable lately. She struggles with shedding due to the bad breeding so I think that is making her a sad lizard right now. A lot of people say that lizards cant show emotions, which in part is true. Most, but not all, don’t want cuddles or even to be handled much really but like any pet you can tell when they are content or “happy”. I feel that as a pet owner you know your animals best and you know when something is wrong or right. So I moved all the rocks and things about her vivarium, I hadn’t done this much before because of her eyesight issues and I didn’t want to confuse her. She totally loved it though, leaping about, hiding in corners and dangling of branches! (had to rescue her though as she got stuck down the side of a rock and all I could see were her tiny legs waving about in the air! Haha luckily I was sitting next to her when she did it the fool!) Even with rubbish eyesight she can do so much, proud of the little lizard we didn’t think would live past last summer!

I also witnessed yesterday what I would call and temper tantrum from Holly. It was hilarious! She was chewing some toy for ages and it was getting to the stage that it was no longer a toy just a mass of rope and dog drool. She started to get bored with it so I took it off her and hid it behind my chair (if I put it in the bin I know full well where she would break in too when I weren’t looking!). Holly’s eyes widened and she started stomping/pacing past me going “roo roo roooooo”, then she thumped down and sat staring right at me! She repeated this a few times before stomping off to find something else to destroy! I spoke on a forum about this and someone else told me that the rooing noise is common in collie type lurchers (Colliexsighthound) dogs! She has starting to turn these “roos” in to howls when she is excited as well!

So as I was avoiding doing work on the computer today I ended up playing angry birds (as you do) my phone rang so I wandered off and left the laptop on the floor with and angry bird making angry bird noises as it was waiting for me to play. When I get back it sounds like there is some sort of budgie riot going on! The noise must have triggered them off to start bickering and shouting, which in turn set the rest of them off. High pitched chirps and toys being thrown about, I actually had my own flock of angry birds in my living room! Note to self: mute the computer from now on.

So enough of my babbling on, I have two snoring pups on my bed (Darkley is kicking me in his sleep!) and I can hear a gecko exploring their vivarium and seeing as they are nocturnal I should be asleep! For those with dogs afraid of fireworks http://www.dogsandfireworks.com is a good source of information to help you all and it is all free! 

Thankyou for all those that read this, you are all automatically now awesome for doing so!

dress rehearsal!

I should start by saying that my two LOVE the attention of getting brushed and dressed up! They prance about all excitedly (making it hard to take photos!) such spoiled vain pups eh? hehe! So I was in town in our local "everything is £1 shop" looking about and I saw some cheap children Halloween outfits..so I picked two up for the pups for a giggle! Dont worry I wont be making them wear them for long..Just long enough to take some cute photos of them!


So we had a little dress rehearsal today..just to see if they would even fit! meet skeledog and pumpkin pup!

sulking...

Hello everyone!

I am all tucked up in bed with two pups sprawled out snoozing. The poor things are feeling sorry for themselves right now.

I will start with Holly pup, who is not herself at all this evening. Friday morning we lowered her medication. (she is on medication to control her incontinence, her lady parts aren’t as strong as they should be) All seemed to be going well until I had to leave her and Darkley yesterday as I had to accompany my mum to a long hospital appointment. We were gone for quite a while and I said to my mum that I expected to see a puddle when we got in and I was right. I was greeted with a very excited but upset looking Holly who was doing her little excited dance to see me then realising there was pee there and backing off- Darkley was looking guilty in his bed too. I totally ignored the pee and greeted them both as usual and let them out to play. To be honest I needed to clean the kitchen floor anyways it was covered in muddy paw prints! This evening I was tidying up my room when Holly wandered up to see what I was up too and she jumped up on my bed to watch me. I suddenly see her turn and lick her back end…a move I have seen Darkley do many times with his gland issues. Instantly I knew what was going on and let her finish licking herself before I went downstairs and she followed me out in to the garden to play. I came back up and she had “leaked” a little.. thankfully I keep towels and extra covers on the bed because of this exact reason. With Holly’s “issue” and Darkley’s “issue” it is better to be safe than sorry!

 People might say “why don’t you just not let them on the bed?”, good point but these accidents don’t happen often at all really (twice a month at most) plus I don’t want them to miss out on snuggles because of something they can’t help doing. I feel safer with them by me at night and they like to sprawl out on a warm double bed, so everyone wins. So anyways since then Holly has been very quiet and looking a bit nervous really. No idea how her previous owners dealt with her issue (they didn’t know it was a medical problem till they got her to the rescue centre here in London) but I don’t think they dealt with it well. So my bed is currently covered in towels and blankets and all sorts, I don’t want to change her routine just for one accident as I am upping her meds again in the morning and hopefully all will return to normal. I just feel for her right now, it really knocked the confidence out of her and stole the wag from her tail.

Darkley is having issues, sibling issues! Darkley is a soft touch and Holly has really become the dog in charge. This is something Darkley is still dealing with, as well as sharing his mum with another dog. Most of the time they just try and barge each other out the way (they knock each other out the way with their bums which is pretty amusing to watch!) when they do this I tend to ignore both of them but it hasn’t stopped them jumping about for my attention any less. The past few nights Darkley has gone off in a sulk and slept at the bottom of the bed and not on the bed as if to be making a point! I kept calling him up and he just gave me his stubborn look and flumped down on the floor like a bratty teenager. Been getting a lot of teenage tantrums from him and a lot of ignoring me when I ask him to do something- I have a little rebel on my hands! He isn’t that good at rebelling though as he usually gives in and does what he is told! It has spilled over in to agility as well, with him deciding that playing is way more fun than jumping and running about. We have just started to practise with a new class with the jumps up high, both of which seemed to have annoyed him! I am sure it is just him adjusting and getting used to everything, some days he is the same old pup and others he is a grumpy teen!

Talking of the new agility class, my lord was I nervous! I felt like it was my first day at school! Darkley did really well for his second go at jumping with the jumps up high and trying to resist the new dogs to go look at. He gave me the “but it is easier to go under the jumps mum!” look quite a few times and on our last run we crashed through most of the jumps BUT we did the course..kinda! We have SO much to learn still (still can’t get him to snake through them bloomin jumps! I am all over the place!) I also need to teach him his left and right now (any agility people with tips on teaching this PLEASE drop me a message!) but on the plus side Darkley is doing very well with his weaves finally!

One of the reasons I don’t get to update this as much is that when I am at my computer I am either too tired to do much or I am working on my animal first aid course. Today I needed to show that I could improvise some equipment in an emergency. So I chose to make a little muzzle out of a bandage so if the animal is scared they can’t snap out in fear and to lay the animal on a towel to make them easy to move. Darkley was my model and he loved it! Such a good boy!

Nothing too exciting going on with the other animals really, they are all doing okay. Casper the canary has taught himself to speak like the budgies! If two budgies weren’t loud enough it now sounds like I have four or five in the room sometimes, something my mother is not impressed by! One of my fishes must have had an accident as she has a bend in her body now, no idea what she did but I turned the filter off for a few hours so she could have some space to recover and not have to fight the water current. She perked up and is back to normal…just a little more bendy! I have a few other fishies that were born deformed and they all adapt really well so I am not too worried about her! Guppies are tough little fish!

Right time to snuggle up with the pups and get some sleep as I have nightshifts the next few days, oh the joy! I think the only downside to getting a second pup has been that there is that extra set of “don’t leave me mum!!” eyes at the door when I have to go to work!