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!