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!

i knew it was too quiet with the pups!

Hello all

Firstly I wanted to say how sad I am to hear the result of the court case in regards to Lennox the poor pup taken from his family by people who sound like they have no idea what they are doing. It saddens me that things like this are still happening in the world. Like many people I send my love to Lennox’s family, I can’t even imagine what they are going through! 

Bullfighting in Spain has been banned. Thank god. I am under no illusion that it will still be going on in some parts and that many believe that it is part of their culture and refuse to give it up. However there is a new generation of people who are not as interested in Bullfighting. Attendance to these events was down a 3^rd which is a positive sign that people are not as interested as they were in it!

Another awesome move is that the horrific Chinese dog eating festival has been banned and stopped. A “festival” that sounds horrific..again people see it as part of their culture and are upset about it. I do however feel that times have changed a lot and not all traditions fit in with societies and cultures, as times as change people need to as well. 

I mentioned this briefly in the pervious post! So at the start of the week Darkley and Holly were having a normal play fight and were running about the garden like mad, when my mum noticed Darkley was walking funny on his front left paw. I called him in and he sits next to me on the sofa and won’t let me get near his paw. Holly is with us and starts sniffing and licking his paw like mad..then I see the blood on the cover on the sofa. (the cover put there because the dogs are mucky pups!)  One of his claws has a chunk out of it! So I clean his claw as best as he would let me and get it to stop bleeding. However Darkley would not stop licking his claw (and Holly kept wanting to clean it too!) and it was obviously getting on his nerves, so I thought a trip to the vet wouldn’t hurt. So Darkley, Holly, my mum and I go to the vets as I wanted to check on Holly’s weight (she is back up to 16kg..slowly getting there!) I take Darkley in to the vet and I hear Holly go mental in the waiting room! Yapping and whining and trying follow us in too. So the vet takes a look at Darkley’s claw and says the only way it will heal is when the nail grows out but he could damage it further waiting for it to grow out. So the best thing to do was to cut the nail right back while he was under general anaesthetic.  He asked me when Darkley last ate and said he could do it right now for me and I would be able to pick Darkley up later that evening. Next thing I know I was saying goodbye to a very upset Darkley and walking out without him! Straight in to a very upset Holly who was confused to what I had done with her brother!  We get home and Holly plays for a bit and then starts to sulk as she really starts to miss Darkley. Meanwhile I am scrambling to work out how to claim on Darkleys insurance (everyone get pet insurance!) my printer has barely any ink but just enough for the form I have to fill in. I go to pick Darkley up and that was not my boy who came out! It was a wobbly, sleepy and depressed version of him. I gave the money and form over and picked up his antibiotics and anti inflammatories before taking a nice calm walk home with him. He is now sporting a bright orange bandage and is lying around the house acting like I have cut a limb off him! Holly has been amazing though, she has respected him enough to know that he is not up for playing and she has let him sulk as much as he wants! Got some food down him finally but he isn’t his normal piggy self! When my newer laptop is fixed I shall post some photos of Darkley acting depressed about his paw! We go back tomorrow to see how his claw is doing.. I am sure Darkley is going to love that!

Darkley and I have been moved in to the collie class at our agility, lord knows if we are good enough though! Darkley tried doing jumps on a higher level on Tuesday and did really well! So I know he is good enough but am I?! Worrying! 

Holly got a Kong dummy this morning, it is for puppies but I expected it to last longer then it did. She ripped through it like it was nothing!  She has such little sharp teeth that it makes me think she is a tad younger then they think she is haha! She also dug a huge hole right by where my little geckos are buried in the garden, thankfully she missed the geckos but she looked pretty proud of the hole!  She kicks the dirt so far though that it spreads out and i have no dirt to refill the hole with, the cheeky monkey! 

So it has been a mixture of a week, lots of good and bad points. Least I can say it wasn’t boring!

its all so quiet...bit too quiet!

Good evening everyone!

So I have finally got my first module for my animal first aid course and oh my lord I have a lot to study! Looks fun though because you have to take photos to show you know how to do certain things, like wrapping bandages. They say you can either use a stuffed toy for this or a trusting animal...I am sure Darkley would be amused if I did this! Excited to get started though!

So update on Holly, she now knows "stay" and "lay down"! awesomeness! As she is still settling I haven't been doing full on training sessions but just making sure I use commands a lot in day to day activities so she slowly learns them..she is picking them up fast though as she now knows, sit, paw, down, stay, bed, go out, get down and we are nearly there on her recall. She she is better on her own on walks..with darkley it is still a nightmare (I turn up to clicker class and agility all flustered and annoyed as the walk with them two does me in a bit!) I have the weaves set up in the garden for practise and I asked Holly to come try them..she followed a treat through the weaves like a pro then she trotted off to herd her basketball! Even though the vet is saying that she hasnt put on weight I really do think she has..her ribs aren't showing as much at all. She has also gained another inch in hight and is now 22inches shoulder to paw! just one short of Darkley! All in all she is doing very well I think and I am proud of my little girl!

 
This week Darkley has become a Cranefly/ daddylonglegs eating machine! Those bugs dont stand a chance.. he leaps up in the air and nom..gone! It is impressive to watch! So I have been working on Darkley's weaving and he is making some progress.. changed the command (by accident!) and he now enters the weaves better-ish! He is responding to hand signals further away from me now too so I don't have to be right next to him. The main issue I am having though is that when I tell Holly off for something Darkley always thinks I am telling him off even if he is nowhere near me and even if I use Holly's name. He also freaks out when Holly barks and attacks the lawnmower..he ran off and hid in the kitchen for ages! (I told Holly to bugger off and she sulked back in the house and kept an eye on the lawnmower from there!) Darkley also clipped a claw in a playfight this morning and has been feeling sorry for himself about that..no idea how he did it!

Something I haven't mentioned on here is that one of my rescued geckos ( Rain) is pregnant..they are unfertilised eggs (unless drizzle has been sneaking in to their viv at night!) but she has gotten heavy and huge! It isn't even the time of year for them to be doing this..so I am on gecko egg watch at the moment!


so nothing too exciting going on with the animals but the last time I said that drama came around! 

proud and ranting!

Right so this post is going to be a mixture of things!

Firstly who saw the dog training on bbc ones “the one show”? It is on bbc iplayer and it is on about 30minutes in. I heard a lot of comments and complaints about what people had seen and had to look at it. Frankly I think it was irresponsible of the BBC to air that. They showed a small dog with food aggression and the cure to that is to stick your foot in its mouth? Really? Apparently they have had a lot of complaints concerning the segment on the show (including dogs trust and other charities!) but they have also had a lot of people asking for that man to “train” their dog.  The guy was there for 3 hours apparently and I don’t believe for a second a behaviour like that can magically be dealt with within that time.  They made it look easy and made the guy look like he could be a quick fix for their dog’s problems. When it comes to dog training there are SO many different methods out there and it can become confusing for dog owners to know what methods work best or work at all. I never rule a method out until I have done my research on it and I would never try it on my dog unless I was 100% happy with it. A lot of people are against Cesar Millan methods (an idol of the guy on “the one show”) as he uses dominance techniques such as pushing a dog down etc etc. I bought his books and I went to one of his shows and I learnt a lot. I now don’t humanise my dogs (as much!) as I used too, his books taught me the importance of keeping calm around my dogs as they will feel what I am feeling and that the best way to teach your dog boundaries is to be confident and consistent.  I don’t however use dominance on my two or pin them etc!  My main point is, do your research please and do not try things with your pups if you are unsure what you are doing. If you go to a trainer or get advice do your research there too. If it looks like an easy fix, it most likely is. End rant! Haha! 

On the subject of training and food aggression I had a tiny breakthrough today with Darkley. He still shields raw food from me and other dogs, but that is all. No snarling, biting or growling anymore and if I had to take some food away from him for some reason he would let me. (such a proud pup mum!)  So today I gave them a raw bone each for lunch, I shut Holly in the kitchen and Darkley was out in the garden eating his- giving them their own space to eat. Darkley finished up first and strolled in and lay down and the crunching stopped in the kitchen. Holly starts whining to come out, so I let her out  and she sped off to be reunited with Darkley. Darkley spots a bit of bone left in the kitchen and decided to finish it off while Holly plays in the living room -not bothered by it at all. Holly then slinks off ninja style to the kitchen and I see Darkley wander in to the living room and lay down. Holly then follows with the bone in her mouth! Darkley did not seem to care and curled up and settled down for a nap! Not a huge breakthrough but enough to make me proud of my boy.

Holly went to the vets today and they are happy with her and we are going to try and cut down her medication soon. She has lost more weight though! When we got her they said she was around 17kg when we picked her up, she dropped to 16kg two weeks later and now down to 15kg. The vet just said to feed her up more as he would like her around 18kg. I have been giving her extra food but I didn’t want to throw too much at her straight away, so I am adding in a 3^rd meal and see how it goes. 

Haven’t mentioned my terrible twosome Buddy and Buzz much, but my two little budgies have started to get night terrors bless them. There were a few rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightening the other night which gave them a fright. They are covered up and in a room with the curtains closed so I am guessing it was the noise that frightened one of them which in turn set the other one off. Since then they have been having the odd fright now and then even with a light left on for them all. Hoping they will settle down again soon the poor little guys!

Right I think I might have a cheeky nap with a pup that has fallen asleep on my knee!

busy bee...

Been busy busy! With work and going away for a few days to London I haven’t had time to update much!

Oh how I missed my trouble makers when I was away. Like a worried mum I called home to check up on everyone.  Thankfully they weren’t too naughty for my mum so I think she would look after them all again if I asked very nicely! Holly went on a pear stealing binge. We have a pear tree and the pears are ripe and falling so we have been trying to pick the pears up before a certain pup can get them. My poor mum tried to get as many as she could but Holly is sneaky! She finds the pears and collects them up in a pile and then sneaks over and nibbles at one!

Darkley was in full sulk while I was away. He refused to play much, barking at all noises and generally being an “old man”. This morning my mum told him “Mum is home today” and Darkley ran and sat at the door excitedly, he is too cute. The welcome home from him and Holly was awesome.

The only other animal to play up was Drizzle my Gecko boy. I have wedged paper in his glass to make sure a certain Holly pup cannot open the vivarium with her nose by accident when she is being nosey. This is not stopping Drizzle from trying to escape and my mum found his glass door slightly open….sneaky little thing!

I popped in to The British Museum yesterday and went on a hunt for animals in history. Took a few interesting photos which I shall have up soon. I was outside a club in Soho on Friday night, surrounded by a lot of drunken people and a guy was just standing there chatting with his old Labrador just hanging out next to him …took me by surprise! The dog did not care at all about the mass of drunkenness around him! I also saw a very preened and polished Boston terrier strolling along with a very polished a preened guy in the middle of Oxford street.

Hopefully get this blog back on track soon!