Mollie and the Bracasaurus

All you need is love

2009-11-04T09:05:00.004Z

I've sort of abandoned this blog in favour of microblogging on Twitter in the guise of @TheSQLSquirrel, but yesterday Danielle at @Urban_Dog said something that gave me the urge to write an actual proper blog post:

It is important to love your dog more than you need your dog to love you. Selfish love causes behavioural problems.

It's such a simple concept. For me anyway - but then my spiritual beliefs are entirely founded on the concept of love, and giving love - and of intention. These two are formidable when combined. With humans, we are all naturally open to energy when we arrive in this world, but it doesn't take long for most people to gradually close themselves off. It's a natural shielding mechanism - we instinctively protect ourselves from all the negative energy we are bombarded with every day, and very few of us are lucky enough to be given the tools to allow us to remain open without coming to harm.

With animals, it's another story. They remain very open to energetic influences. Before you think I'm heading off in some New Age hippy direction (OK, I am - sort of), let me explain what I mean. Animals, using a combination of senses - sight, hearing, smell - can often tell what us humans are feeling even if we think we're masking it. According to what I've read, this is generally believed to be down to the interpretation of body language (visual cues), tone of voice, and also smell. We are all animals, and as such we emit chemicals which allow other animals to sense our state of being. Research into this ability in dogs, for example, has given us a whole variety of sniffer and assistance dogs that are trained to find contraband and detect things like the onset of epileptic fits or low/high blood sugar.

How do these amazing abilities allow us to better communicate with our animals? Well, I'm no behaviourist (I wanted to be one but when I looked into it originally you basically had to train as a vet nurse first, and I'm waaaay too squeamish), but I have had animals or had friends with animals all my life. I am also an energy healer, although it's not something I do nearly enough with.

What I have learned over the years is that if I let animals know I love them - if I clear my mind of all other feelings, especially fear and stress - animals almost invariably relax and become more receptive. It's useful with animals who are sick or panicking, although I find it hard to overcome my fear in some situations. More importantly, in every day terms it allows me to form a deep bond with my pets. I make sure that each of my pets (two cats, one dog) gets a period of my undivided attention as close to every day as I can manage, and in that period I stroke or cuddle them, or just put a hand on them, and I concentrate on how much I love them. It's important that it's unconditional love - no strings attached.

With Mollie, getting lots of love and a fair amount of cuddles from both us and next door has helped her to settle into a lovely, relatively calm dog. She starts each morning by coming up the bed for kisses (she sneaks from her crate to the bottom of our bed in the wee hours) , and gets lots of love during the day. She is open to us, when we need her to be, and if we make sure we're in the right frame of mind - open, relaxed - she is very responsive. I haven't got the behavioural knowledge to teach her tricks, but she will follow the direction of my hand if I want her to go in a particular direction, for example.

Knowing that they are loved unconditionally is, I believe, enormously empowering for pets. In the same way that people in a happy marriage, or children of loving parents have that foundation to work from, it provides an amazing baseline for our animals to work from. In my experience, it makes them more confident and more open and responsive.

An animal that is only loved when it does the right thing will always be nervous of the love being withdrawn, and so will be lacking in confidence. This in turn can lead to them making mistakes, and it can lead to a vicious circle of bad behaviour and punishment.

All it takes is five minutes every day. Sit down with your animal, at their level. If you can, touch them or make eye contact. Now say, out loud or in your head, "I love you and I will always be there for you, no matter what you do". Believe it. They will too. Make the same commitment to your pet that you would to a marriage or to a child. If you can't make that commitment to your pets, I honestly believe that you should seriously consider whether you should have any in the first place.

Poorly doggit :(

2009-04-22T17:05:00.002+01:00

Last Thursday, we came home as usual from work (we car share, which gets all the "how was your day" stuff over before we get home as well as saving petrol and parking fees) to be greeted by our neighbour who kindly looks after Mollie during the day. Mollie also came out to see us and skipped about like a puppy in her usual excessive greeting routine - but Marlene (neighbour) informed us that she'd spent the whole day curled up on her lap, and had been crying and limping and refusing to eat, drink, or (more unusual for Mollie) play.

We had a quick check of Mollie but couldn't find anything except some swelling behind her left shoulder, so decided to observe her for the evening and overnight. She ate well, which was a relief, but overnight she cried whenever she turned over and it was obvious that she was stiff on that left leg and in a lot of pain. The following morning it was no better, and we were shattered, so both took the day as holiday, and I got Mollie booked in to the vets. By this time we had both treated Mollie - Tracy with some Shiatsu and myself with some energy healing - and she seemed happier but still in pain and unwilling to move much. We were sure she'd pulled a muscle, and the vet confirmed this and prescribed painkillers and rest.

Ever tried to keep a Jack Russell calm? Sod's Law would have it that we've had the most amazing weather, and as a solar powered dog Mollie wanted to be out there playing! But for a few days you could see that she really needed the two tablets a day. Yesterday she went down to one tablet, in the evening, and Marlene reported that she behaved as normal through the day - playing with her best friend Marley for a bit and also chasing a ball in the garden; although she wasn't allowed to push herself too far. We think that she'll be fully back to her normal self by the weekend, which will be great! Having a doggit that wants to run around but can't is a nightmare, especially with such a vocal breed!

Mollie & Trixie playing

2009-04-14T13:20:00.003+01:00

I've mentioned Trixie before, she's my in-laws dog - a JRT x Yorkie. We went up to visit on Sunday and after lunch they got down to business while we sat around chatting:

At Easter, don't forget chocolate is poisonous to dogs!

2009-04-09T10:38:00.001+01:00

Dogs Trust blog post on the matter:

http://dogstrustblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-chocolate-can-lead-to-poorly.html

Sometimes, it's hard to get my feet under the desk...

2009-04-09T10:25:00.002+01:00

Watching a fly

2009-04-07T11:59:00.003+01:00

Couldn't resist taking this yesterday evening. Mollie was on the lookout for a fly. 'Scuse the boxes in the background!

Mollie says SMILE!!!

2009-04-06T16:57:00.001+01:00

Superdog rescues ball from tree!

2009-04-01T11:47:00.003+01:00

If you have a dog who is obsessed with tennis balls, they will retrieve from almost anywhere...including halfway up an old oak tree at Bradgate Park!

NZ Government introduces prohibitive internet laws

2009-02-16T08:37:00.001Z

Please consider joining the online protest at the new NZ internet laws. They don't protect individuals but are purely and simply designed to protect big companies and quite frankly, they're just insane: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/6247

(Dog Magazine.net) Outrage as healthy greyhounds put to sleep at retirement

2009-01-15T10:08:00.006Z

Local greyhound rescue workers have expressed shock and outrage after a trainer who races dogs at the Henlow track had four healthy greyhounds “put to sleep” by a Hitchin vet.
Joanne Page, who trains greyhounds at kennels near Sandy, took the ex-racers to be “put down” at Berry House Vets in Hitchin last Wednesday.

Her actions caused shock and outrage throughout the local branch of Greyhound Rescue West of England, after one of their volunteers, who was in the vets at the time, tried in vain to save the dogs.

The rest of the article can be found here:

http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/1725/outrage-as-healthy-dogs-are-put-to-sleep/

Greyhound Action are calling on the public "not to attend or bet on greyhound racing" - although I have to ask myself, wouldn't that just cause more dogs to be put down as races are cancelled and the sport declines?

Mollie's little family

2009-01-13T16:24:00.003Z

On Sunday we went to Elvaston Castle, near Derby, and met up with Mollie's previous owner and her two dogs Murphy and Deezal.

Murphy - in the middle - is the father of Mollie's pups; and Deezal is one of their pups. Aren't they a good-looking little family? Mollie got on really well with both of them, although Murph had a bit of a one track mind and kept trying to get his leg over. It was really lovely - and all three dogs were utterly shattered afterwards!!

New food

2008-12-22T15:24:00.006Z

A couple of weeks ago, I changed Mollie's food. The stuff she was on before is wholesome enough, but didn't agree with her a huge amount. And she was never very enthusiastic about it. But as you can see from the piccy above, she absolutely loves her new food and actually demands to be fed now.

She will still sometimes share with the cats as well, although she has taken to protecting her food occasionally - which normally results in it being removed sharpish by me, and only given back if she does some tricks (just giving paw etc). Charley cat (above) is Mollie's best friend and also "The Boss" so will generally box Mollie's ears if she uses bad language. I had honestly never seen it done before, but Charley sits up and literally throws punches at the sides of Mollie's head... Charley is one heck of a cat -I think she thinks she's OUR boss too!

PS The food that the wee beasties are now eating is a natural wet food - I don't want to advertise them particularly, but if you're interested in feeding any of your pets a more natural diet, join the campaign for better pet foods at www.crpf.org.uk.

It's my ball

2008-12-05T11:01:00.008Z

Broody?

2008-12-04T13:13:00.004Z

Mollie has been behaving a little strangely, on and off, for the last few days... and we're wondering if she could either be broody or going through some kind of temporary hormone imbalance. We had her spayed in January 2007, a couple of months after getting her, and I believe she had not long finished her season when we adopted her in November 2006 (yup, we've had her two years!!), so the timing would potentially fit..

She's not been doing anything which gives cause for concern, particularly, but just a few little weird things she doesn't normally do... like leg-humping. Well, actually, she doesn't get to the humping bit because she stands up, grabs your leg really tight and then looks a bit confused, as if she can't think what to do next. She has been showing some tendencies to dominant behaviour - barking when she wants something; staring etc, nothing really bad - , so it could be linked to that I suppose!

She's also been piling up her toys. Obviously she has to catch them first, as the pesky things run away ("baby sheep" nearly jumped in the fire last night) . One by one, she catches them, shakes them a bit, then gathers them together in one spot on the floor.

And she's getting quite determined in her washing of the cats, too - Charley had to box her ears last night to make her stop. Seth doesn't seem to mind too much, mostly. I suppose at least Mollie's not a slobbery dog, so when she washes the cats they don't end up soaked to the skin..

Designing a dog-walking route using Google Maps

2008-11-27T11:32:00.007Z

For a while now, I've been wanting to be able to design routes online, and google maps allows me to do that now that you can drag the route with the mouse. The main reason I wanted to be able to do it is so that I can see how far various routes are, and work out good evening bimbles for the Winter as we're pretty much restricted to on-lead road walking during the week (because it's dark).

I thought some of you might find it useful too, so here's a step by step - I'm obviously not using my house as a starting point because I'm not about to publish my full address on the internet, so I've just picked one at random from somewhere I know quite well.

1) First, go to maps.google.co.uk (or maps.google.com if you're not UK based ) and find the link towards the top left of the page that says "get directions" - click on it.

2) Enter your chosen starting point (e.g. your own address) in the A box and where it says "by car" in the drop-down underneath the boxes, click on the arrow and choose "walking". Now click on the button that says "Get Directions" and you should see a map with a green A pointing at your start point. You can drag the arrow if it's not quite in the right place.

3) In the B box, add the destination that is the apex of your walk. So, for this example, I'm using Barkby Road, Syston. Click on Get Directions again, and you should now have a blue route which takes you from point A to point B, like the example below. You can drag point B using the mouse if you want to.
4) Now click on the link where it says "Add Destination" and another box will appear. Type in the same location as your starting point, and click on "Get Directions". You will now have point C on your map, in the same place as point A. Depending on where you put point B, you may find that B to C is the same as A to B. If so, click on the blue line and drag it to where you want it, it will move under the mouse pointer and will "snap" to the nearest road (or in some places, pedestrian footpath).

Ta-Da!! You should now have your route mapped out, and on the left hand side you should see that it gives you an overall distance.

If, like me, you didn't get the starting point quite right, you can move it, and if you want the route to deviate slightly from the one Google suggests, you can just keep dragging the blue line around until you're happy - took me a while to get the hang of it but in terms of either designing a walk for the future or more usually figuring out how far we've just bimbled, I haven't found anything better yet.

Hopefully at some point they'll add in bridleways etc

Hope you find it as useful as I have!!

Doris Banham Sanctuary in trouble

2008-10-21T10:03:00.003+01:00

The Doris Banham dog charity is in serious trouble at the moment, and in need of all the financial help it can get. In the last few years they have saved the lives and alleviated the suffering of over 8000 dogs in pounds across the country, but with more people than ever abandoning their dogs there just aren't enough funds.

Please spread the word, or help if you can. Thank-you.

Doris Banham website

We're back!!

2008-08-27T11:02:00.006+01:00

Erm.. hello :)

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, it all got a bit hectic what with work, two "weddings" and a honeymoon....

While the handfasting took place, Mollie dog went to stay with a dog-sitter for a couple of days and had a whale of a time. She was so tired when we picked her up that she slept all the way home, all that night and most of the following day!! She had quite a bad belly rash again, but this time we got to it before it got infected and it's not been too bad - baby wipes are perfect for removing pollen after walks in long grass (even if we're careful the ball tends to go in the grass)! Also, we've had a really nasty flea infestation - we've sprayed the house twice, Mollie's been treated, but she just keeps picking them up from the grass and from other dogs. It's a nightmare... poor girl is so irritated!

Anyway, apart from all that, Mollie is in fine fettle, so without further ado I'll leave you with some images of her and her new friend Trixie (Tracy's parents' new pup, a JR x Yorkie) when they met for the first time at the weekend.

New Harness!! (again)

2008-06-18T10:30:00.003+01:00

Ok, so this is Mollie's fifth harness so far. To be honest, we would have stuck with the fleece one if it hadn't stretched, and if Mollie hadn't figured out how to reverse out of it - as it is, she can keep the fleece one for short walks that don't involve water. But for longer adventures, pub outings and places where she might be tempted to swim, she now has this:

The belly strap means she can't escape, and those of you with similarly adventurous terrierists will understand what an advantage that lift handle on the back is going to be: Mollie has a nasty tendency to jump over 2ft high walls and then discover they're that bit higher on the other side. Most of the time, she can jump back, as she's quite agile and bouncy - but every now and then she gets stuck.

The harness is also breathable, lightweight and can go in water without soaking a load up, so we don't have to take it off and carry it round just cos she's jumped in a lake... which is good.

She hasn't worn it out and about yet, as it only arrived yesterday, but as you can see she seems quite happy with it - we were out playing ball with her wearing it and she was happily leaping about, over the fence, over the hedge, doing her usual spectacular mid-air catches.

I'll report back on how the harness fares when we're out and about, but since it was designed with search and rescue dogs in mind I'm guessing it'll last us for a few years.

It's a Ruffwear Web Master. I got this one cheap as an end of range, but the new one has a broad chest pad, is generally a bit sturdier, and has reflective stripes and longer sleeves on the straps.

How do you dry a Mollie dog?

2008-06-12T10:30:00.003+01:00

On Monday, it was almost unbearably hot (remember, I'm a fair skinned red-head), and Mollie dog was struggling a bit in the heat. She badly wanted to play, but if I took her out in the garden and threw the ball in my coffee break (I was working from home), she watched it fly, then just looked at me and went in.

Since she was a bit itchy anyway, I gave her a bath with her lovely soothing tea tree shampoo, and after a quick rub with a towel we went out into the garden to dry off and play. Obviously I couldn't resist taking some photos of the now blindingly white dog!!

PLEASE put that camera away and throw the ball, mum!!

Tight corner - cropped from a bigger image, hence blurred; she's at the bottom of our garden!

Got it!!

Practising her cat smiles

Pointing at the ball (carefully placed by my foot)

And finally... I couldn't resist blowing up the one of her smiling, hopefully it'll make you smile too!

Adventure Dog

2008-05-12T09:18:00.004+01:00

We went to the Peak District again on Saturday.

It was lovely.

Agile dog, shame about the owner

2008-04-27T21:58:00.004+01:00

Had agility class today, it was gloriously sunny if a little muggy, and it went fairly well. Mollie was a little unfocussed compared to usual and refused a few jumps etc, but does the tunnel and A frame really well now, and I think she just disliked the jumps and weave today because she was a bit tired.

Tracy came along and wielded a camera from a safe distance, so we have a few pics - hurrah!!

For starters, here's one of Mollie dog doing the "dog walk", off lead. She actually jumped off abit further on, but jumped back on when I patted the walk. As we're a beginner class, the dogs spend a lot of time on lead for the moment, once we've got their focus towards the end of the lesson we generally start going off lead - today we only had one dog run off round the field, which was good. You can understand them - with all those other dogs around, and the wide open space, they just want to run around and play - but they're all starting to get the idea that they're there for a reason now, and they all seem to really enjoy themselves.

Our trainer, Jill, from Harlequin Fun Agility Club, is great, very encouraging, always cheerful, and the dogs seem without exception to love her. She makes sure we all get a couple of goes at each piece that we're practising, and if a dog runs off, gets a bit barky or over-excited, it's not a huge problem. In fact if, like Mollie, they miss a jump or something, it's fine to just try again until you get it right - there's no huffing and puffing.

Eventually, you get it right. Which is a great feeling. I would definitely recommend agility. Even in just a few lessons, Mollie has become a little more attentive, and we're learning more about each other. We're not doing it with competition in mind, just in lieu of formal obedience training, and as a focussing and confidence boosting exercise - for both of us. Hopefully, Mollie will come out of it a calmer, more attentive dog, and I'll come out of it a calmer, more attentive handler and owner!!

Dovedale

2008-04-25T10:00:00.002+01:00

(I know it's a bit late, but) on Sunday it was grey and drizzly, so rather than sit at home and mope, we took off up to the Peak District and went for a walk round Dovedale. It gets a bit crowded in the Summer, or on sunny days, but on Sunday it wasn't too bad.

Mollie thoroughly enjoyed it - chased her ball along the riverbank, played with a few other dogs, grinned at everyone she met and got run over by a lovely pack of whippets. We enjoyed ourselves too, it's a lovely place to walk a dog and although our knees hated it, it's such a nice place that the drizzle and rain just didn't matter.

A Beautiful Winter's Day?!

2008-04-06T20:32:00.006+01:00

yep, Winter has finally arrived in these beautiful Leicestershire hills - only 6 months too late!! Agility was cancelled today as the indoor hall was in use and the equipment would've been too slippy, so instead Tracy and I took Mollie dog for a walk in our local woods, and managed to find some small pockets of snow. As you can see from the above, Mollie also managed to find quite a bit of mud!! Oh, the joy of having a white dog...

I think you'll agree, although my photos really don't do it justice, that our local woods are quite lovely. And thanks to a dedicated group of locals called Friends Of Holly Hayes Woods, they should hopefully be cleaned up in the coming months. This wonderful group of people have managed to raise and secure enough funding to buy the woods and adjoining fields off the local quarry company so that it can be cleaned up (it's currently full of rubbish - you can see pics on their website) and returned to it's former glory. Hopefully I'll manage to get to the next cleanup session and help out, but even after just what they've done in the last couple of weeks, you can notice the difference. Brambles have been cut back, trees trimmed, paths cleared, rubbish removed - and it already has a different feel to it. Call me a sentimental old bat, but the woods are starting to feel loved. I really hope that other communities can find inspiration in what ours has achieved, and save their own little pockets of paradise from becoming off-road bike tracks and rubbish tips.

I'm back!!

2008-03-31T10:41:00.003+01:00

Sorry I've not been around, I'm not very good in the Winter and this last one has been quite busy as well. Also, when you've got a solar-powered dog there's just not a huge amount to write about over the dark months - she's mostly been asleep!!

We started dog agility yesterday with the Harlequins. It was fantastic fun! The instructors were lovely - a couple of dogs were so excited that they just ran off around the field and the instructors just weren't bothered by it; I didn't get looked down on because Mollie's not clicker trained (she ignores treats too, so I had to use a squeaky ball) or because she's never been to obedience class. In fact I was quite proud of her as her recall wasn't too bad, considering how excited she was, and she did everything really well for a beginner, except maybe the weave but that's probably more down to me as a handler than her! The other dogs and owners were all lovely too, it was great to not have to worry that Mollie wanted to say hello to everyone before she started, there just weren't any big egos there at all.

Mollie's main problem is focus, it's just something she's never really had - I'm going to try and spend more time teaching her basic tricks for treats, and maybe even try that clicker again. The agility should help, too, although next week I need to get up early, feed her and take her for a reasonable walk before we go so she's not quite so excitable and so that she's eaten - she doesn't normally eat before going in the car as she gets sick, but it's not fair to expect her to do agility on an empty stomach.

Anyway, more soon - I promise!

Goodbye my friend

2007-12-10T22:17:00.000Z

This is a picture of Tracy's parents black labrador, Zoe. She was a wonderful girl, full of love, who as a young dog was the terror of rabbits and squirrels.
More recently she was mostly just a sun worshipper and cuddle monster who, in true lab style, would run headlong at your knees before sliding down your legs and landing on your feet, legs in the air, all the while wagging and squealing fit to burst. When Zoe said hello, you knew about it.
Sadly, Tracy's parents today had to make the tough decision to let her go to a better place, where she has no arthritis, no fatty lumps, and all the rabbits she can chase. I'm sure she will have been greeted on the other side by her best friend Pippa, who died last year. Run free, old girl.

Shiatsu Puppies

2007-12-10T10:47:00.000Z

While I remember, I thought I'd just share this with you.

Tracy and I have both commented previously on our blogs about how people confuse Shiatsu and Shih-Tzu - but we'd never actually seen it in writing until a few days ago, when our local paper actually carried a small advert for Shiatsu puppies.

Oh, how we laughed...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

2007-12-10T10:43:00.000Z

Sorry I haven't had time to post much recently! I'll write a nice long post very soon about what Mollie has been up to, in the meantime here's a couple of pictures from last weekend, in the woods near our home.

Outdoor Obedience - class one

2007-11-04T21:32:00.000Z

Well, today was a big day for Mollie and me - we went to our first ever training class together. Her previous owner took her to puppy obedience once, but Mollie was booted out for being a typical JR and barking at everything.

Today's class was an outdoor class with Theresa Franklin, who is based in Hinckley. It took us around 35 minutes to get to the field, I had to go on the motorway to get there on time as we'd taken Mollie for a short walk to take the edge off. When we got there, we had to all line up and do a short walk to heel, then a sit, then a down so that Theresa could see what levels of ability there were, then she split us into four groups.

We were meant to be doing retrieve to start with, but Mollie was distracted by the other dogs, and I hadn't taken a squeaky ball, so although she fetched it she kind of dropped it and ran towards a black lab as he had a squeaky toy! Then we swapped instructors and did a recall - Mollie was perfect!! She even did a perfect stay with the instructor holding her!!

After the recall check, we moved into the agility area. I should probably mention that by this time, Mollie was very VERY excited and moaning lots, although the barking had mostly subsided. While waiting I had to give her lots of fuss and also we did loads of sits and downs for treats to try and keep her focussed.

Well. The agility. Initially, Mollie just ran off, but I got her back easily enough and into a sit. Then we did a weave through some ickle cones and straight through the tunnel, then there were some low jumps, so obviously she went under every other one! Next was a pole weave, which she did near perfect, then through the hoop at the second attempt, and then a jump with one pole about 5 inches off the ground and one about 2 inches off. We tried EVERYTHING - I jumped, I threw a treat (which is how I'd got her through the hoop), I tried to lead her - nothing worked, she just didn't want to do it. Finally though there was the platform, and she jumped up OK and went into a down stay beautifully. Whenever we've seen agility displays she's got really excited, and I think she enjoyed it as much as she thought she would .

Lastly there was a bit of walking to heel (appalling), about turns, sits etc, then home to a big bowl of chicken and tripe (for Mollie) and lasagne (for me). We both had a great time, and we are both utterly exhausted. Mollie's been asleep pretty much since we got back, and is still crashed out with heavy eyelids, and I'm just shattered, but so proud. Definitely going again next week, and if I can make the flyball classes when they start up I think I'll give that a go too. Fantastic stuff, and hopefully Mollie will soon learn to ignore what everyone else is doing and focus on me...

Congrats to the other JR Mollie, who by strange coincidence had her first try at agility yesterday and also took to it like a duck to water!!

Walk in the park

2007-10-17T11:29:00.000+01:00

On Sunday morning, while Tracy was at work, I took Mollie to Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire. It's South East of Derby, just off the A6, and has beautiful gardens which are open to the public.

We went to meet a virtual friend, Bev, from the D For Dog forum, and her beautiful whippet Katie - we'd never met face-to-face but since we only live half an hour apart it seemed daft not to get together. Bev forgot her camera completely, and I forgot that I had mine with me so didn't take any pics until we got half way round!

Here are Katie Whippet and Mollie. They didn't really want to pose. Katie was busy watching everything and trying to remove her Halti, and Mollie was just busy, as terrierists always are.

The Border Collie below is Maggie. Maggie likes to sit and watch the ducks, and herd them back into the water if they come out, apparently. We called her to get her to look at us, but if you look closely you'll see that she stuck her tongue out!!

When we were nearly back at the car park, we met up with another of Katie's friends, Ryka. He's like a whippet sized version of a Pharaoh hound, with the most amazing ears, and he took to Mollie straight away. It was mutual, and they spent quite a while chasing each other round the field and playing with the tennis ball - stealing it off each other. A couple of times, Ryka tried to mount Mollie (although he apparently doesn't quite know why he's doing it yet!!), but she just gently told him off and moved away, then rugby tackled him for the ball!

The fantastic thing about all this is that, apart from a quick woof at Katie when they first met, Mollie was fine with all the dogs. And Katie doesn't normally like strange dogs either (I witnessed her threatening a GSD pup!) but was instantly friends with Mollie - which is great news, because we fully intend to meet up again, this time with more photos!

On the way home from the castle, I dragged an exhausted Mollie into a big pet shop (well known chain store but I'm not going to give them free advertising!) in Loughborough. I'd never taken her there before as I was worried that she'd bark at everything, but she was incredibly well behaved. She didn't steal anything, even though all the interesting toys were on the bottom shelf, and didn't bark once. As a reward, I let her sniff all the different dried meats to see which she wanted. She selected dried chicken fillets, and has now become addicted to them - as have the cats!

Oh, and while I'm praising Mollie, she went straight into a sit when told to, when bikes & horses came past, and even a down once! (ah, the power of the tennis ball!) And with the help of tiny bits of chicken jerky and doggie choccie chip cookies, she's been learning paw. If you hold something out in a closed fist, fingers upwards, she will paw to get it. Next step - associate the command with the action...

Oh, nearly forgot - Mollie gained a new nickname, from Bev - "Mollie chops". She seemed to quite like it!

What did you call me??

2007-10-09T21:36:00.000+01:00

I've been tagged by Ralphie to divulge Mollie's nicknames... here goes then:

Mollie dog
Doggit
Doglet
Little dog
Reprobate
Hooligan
Rambo (seriously, Charlie next door calls her this)
Buggalugs (also next door, Marlene this time)
Dog features
Dog-thing
Furface (but I call the cats this too, so it might not count)

Can't think of any more...

Haha!! My turn. I tag the mighty QB(if he's got time, he's such a busy Wolfie) and the gorgeous and glamorous Lola.

Rubber Chicken Update

2007-10-09T14:00:00.000+01:00

When I got home yesterday, the rubber chicken was nowhere to be seen.

Apparently, Mollie had come home to fetch it (out through the door flap, over the fence). Instead of spending the day outside playing ball, Mollie and Marlene spent the day outside playing fetch with a rubber chicken.

You should try it. Especially if you have a big rubber chicken and a small dog - see previous post for correct chicken to dog proportions. It's utterly, utterly hilarious. I'll try and video it at some point...

Belvoir Castle Country and Game Show

2007-10-08T22:43:00.000+01:00

That's where we took Mollie dog on Sunday afternoon. The weather was OK - not too hot, not too cold, no wind or rain. And best of all, Mollie was a VERY good girl. There were loads of people,dogs and kids around, and she only barked a couple of times when she got really excited/frustrated (we wouldn't let her play with the clay pigeons or go in the agility ring).

Here you can see Mollie straining to get at the clay pigeons (skeets) - I reckon she thought they were little orange frisbees!

There were lots of stalls with doggie things (obviously working dogs like to have fun, too), so we bought her a new Kong Flyer frisbee; a rubber chicken and a new, soft fleece-lined harness. The new harness is much more comfy than the EzyDog, which just didn't seem to be the right shape.

Mollie saw someone else with a rubber chicken and wanted one, so we went and got one. Then she amused the crowds by running round with it in her mouth!

Here you can see her in her new harness, with her rubber chicken.

All in all, we were very impressed with her. A few months ago she would've barked and barked at all those strange dogs, but yesterday she met large and small with equanimity and a friendly, waggy tail. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, as you can see!

The Sophie Brador Interview

2007-10-07T20:51:00.000+01:00

The lovely Sophie agreed to interview Mollie. Mollie was a bit blown away by the glamour of it all, so it took me a couple of days to get her to actually answer...

1. Do you get extra attention because of the lovely spot on your eye? How do you deal with it?
Everybody thinks I'm beautiful. In fact, sometimes people offer to take me home and my peoples have to say no. I don't think I want to change home again though, especially since I have two homes and all the tennis balls I can eat. I'm not really bothered by all the attention, I just want lots of cuddles, somewhere snuggly to sleep (preferably under my mums' duvet) and lots of squeaky tennis balls and my cats.

2. How do you survive life with cats, or rather, how does your pretty face survive? Mine ends up all scratched up whenever I meet a cat. While we are talking cats, do you get free and clear access to the kitty litter?
My cats and I have an understanding. They get to clean my food bowl, I get to keep my nose. Seriously, they used to have a big problem with foreign cats in the garden, big mean ones who stole their food, peed in their house and picked fights. But I bark and bark at them and chase them away because they're not MY cats, and so my cats love me even though I'm not a cat. Sometimes they sleep next to me, although I find this a bit scary and sometimes I run away or try and make myself so small that they can't see me. And I play with my Charley cat, we run around the garden together, and sometimes she lets me wash her face which is VERY exciting!! But one thing is that they don't throw my ball for me. I gave Seth my tennis ball yesterday but he just gave me a LOOK. Cats are very confusing because they wag their tails when they're angry but as long as you don't look them in the eye they're fine. And sometimes they don't like a nose up their bottoms. The litter trays are covered over and I can only get my head in, but I don't really see the attraction. I'd much rather jump on the table and steal their biscuits! Sometimes when I'm feeling sad or poorly my Charley cat purrs at me. Now that I've figured out that she's not growling I quite like it and it helps me go to sleep.

3. Are you for or against the monarchy? If that’s too controversial a question to answer and still be able to visit the dog park, then try this one: Are you for or against Marks & Spencer? If that’s still too controversial, are you for or against Madonna in the UK?
I don't understand the question? As long as I get fed, have a snuggly bed, get walks and play and an unlimited supply of squeaky tennis balls, I don't really worry about the rest. I'm not as in-ter-lek-tew-all as Wally or General Jackson. Mum says the monarchy are outdated but serve as am-bass-a-dors (is that like a corgador?) for the nation and provide a focus for the masses with their quaint traditions and rituals. I don't know what that means. And she says that Marks and Spencers make good sandwiches but she can't really say what she thinks of them other than that in a dog blog. We don't much mind where Madonna lives as long as it's not too near us.

4. If you were going to spend a weekend in London, what would you do?
I don't know what a London is, but I think I would probably find somewhere where I could play with my frisbee or tennis balls? Oh, mum tells me it's a city, like Leicester but lots lots bigger. I think I'd try to find somewhere green, are there big parks or woods in London?

5. If you could run around off-leash anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I like places where I can play ball or frisbee, play with other dogs, and where there are lots of small furries I can pretend to chase and trees and things for me to sniff. My mums took me to somewhere called Bradgate Park, and I liked that. It had all my favourite things and we went with my big Staffy friend Stewie. I would quite like to go to Cornwall and run round on the beach with the other Mollie. I quite like swimming, too.

6. As a nudist, I feel compelled to ask one extra question. Are you for or against outfits for dogs?
I get really cold in the Winter, my mums say I have something called 'SAD' which means I don't want to get out of bed when it's dark outside. And I hate cold rain, it gets through my fur and makes me shiver, even when I have my thick Winter fur. So I have a nice red fleece-lined waterproof coat (you can see it here) which my mums say looks like a cape, and I feel so happy and warm when I'm wearing it that they call me superdog. But I don't like it when people put clothes on their dogs just to make them look cute. Dogs are cute just as they are, we only need clothes sometimes when it's cold and wet, not just to make our humans happy.

And now, the small print:

1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying, 'interview me.' Include your e-mail if you want me to e-mail the questions.
2. I will respond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Red card

2007-10-05T16:21:00.001+01:00

Mollie dog is the family referee.

If the cats fight, she runs in and uffs at them, or sometimes even barks, usually doing the terrier bounce plus waggy tail thing.

If we have an argument, Mollie jumps up and barks at us, or sits and howls until we relent; we usually start laughing: she looks so funny and cute when she howls.

If it looks, or sounds, like we MIGHT be having an argument, but she's not 100% sure, she says 'uffuffuff?' (a kind of inhaled, slightly questioning greeting) and does the wet nose thing.

There are times when a wet nose, an inquisitive stare and 'uffuffuff?' can be quite off-putting; times when we're categorically NOT arguing, but it could potentially be misconstrued as such from the perspective of an overly maternal member of the canine diplomatic corps.

At such times, we find the only option is to laugh. And possibly, briefly, wish that the dog slept in the kitchen.

Welcome, Ralph

2007-10-04T20:12:00.000+01:00

Everyone, meet Ralph. Ralph is new to the blogosphere. He was only adopted a very short time ago but Jack Russells are a tenacious breed so he's finding his feet fast. Isn't he a cutie? I get the impression he knows it, too. Anyway, as he's another JR I thought I'd be nice and introduce him to my friends.

Tennis Buddy lives to fight another day - briefly

2007-10-02T22:13:00.000+01:00

Mollie couldn't find her sheep yesterday. So when the time for her evening play session arrived (something she invented this week), Tennis Buddy Had To Die. Even though he was already missing one arm and one leg...

Again.

And again.

We found the sheep this evening and have played LOTS. But eventually I managed to persuade Mollie dog that her blog needed updating so people could see more pictures of how beautiful yet dangerous she is. If you're a cuddly toy, that is.

We made someone smile!!

2007-10-01T13:57:00.000+01:00

Graham has very kindly given me an award! How nice is that? It's great, as the whole point of this blog was to pass on the smile that Mollie puts on my face, and Graham has arguably been in need of a smile more than some this year. I shall make sure to tell Mollie dog about her award, and I'm sure she'll wag lots and demand something a little more substantial, such as a nice rawhide chew or a tennis ball.

Apparently I have to pass this award on. With apologies to my English readers, my first candidate is Helena, who coined the word 'terrierists' and whose Airedales often have me in stitches. I'm sticking with dog blogs, so the other two would have to be Wally's blog and General Jackson's blog. When I first landed in the blogosphere I wanted to see how other people had done the whole 'writing from the dog's perspective thing' (before I finally decided not to) and I spent a couple of days reading them from the beginning. The LFBP's antics frequently had me in tears of laughter, and Wally's blog is just priceless.

FOUND: Squeak

2007-09-26T09:41:00.001+01:00

Well. This morning I emptied the washing machine, putting stuff on radiators as the forecast is a bit dodgy for today. I picked Sheep 1 out (he's looking much better and definitely smells nicer) and put him on the kitchen radiator, and as I did so, guess what I spotted? Yep, the squeak that I'd 'lost'. I remember now, it was soaked through but not dirty, so I put it across the fins on the radiator to dry out. Oh dear....time to do some brain training!

On the dog front - Mollie wasn't in a morning mood today. It took some persuading to get her out of bed, and even then she just curled up and went back to sleep on the settee. So when I took her next door, I took a pouch of food with me and asked them to feed her when she wakes up...

Has anyone else got a dog that hibernates/suffers from S.A.D.?

MISSING: Squeak

2007-09-25T09:04:00.000+01:00

When I disembowelled Sheep 1 yesterday and put him in the washing machine, I put his little squeaky pouch on the side above the machine. Last night, it was gone. Thinking it might have fallen, or been accidentally put, in the bin, I dutifully rummaged underneath the leftovers from our fish & chips dinner - but I couldn't see it.

Our current working theory is that the cats have made off with it, or knocked it down and Mollie's taken it somewhere.

The curious tale of the lion, the sheep and the tennis buddy

2007-09-24T20:28:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time, there was a small cuddly Lion who lived next door, and was Mollie's daytime toy. Mollie loved her Lion, and regularly pulled all its stuffing out. Mollie's adopted grandma, Marlene, kept fixing the Lion and making it as good as new, but one day while Mollie was trying her best to pull his head off, she succeeded - and that was the end of the Lion.

Luckily, one of Mollie's mums (ME) had bought her a new toy that very day - a Dr Noy's squeaky sheep. Mollie took to it straight away and showed it all her favourite places in both her homes. Some days the sheep would snooze under the table on the patio while Mollie played ball, on colder days he might lie in front of the fire - and no matter how hard she tried, Mollie couldn't pull his stuffing out, as he didn't have any.

Meanwhile, at home, Mollie had a blue tennis buddy (a blue tennis playing dog - now discontinued I think). Sometimes, when she got excited, Mollie would try her best to pull its legs off. Then one day (yesterday), she was playing tug when a leg AND an arm came off! Luckily, one of her mums (ME!) had bought a new Dr Noy's sheep so that Mollie could have one in each house. What a spoiled girl.

Mollie was very tired after her day of killing the blue tennis buddy.

But once she'd rested she spent some time teaching her new sheep the ropes. It tried to escape into the kitchen to steal her biscuits, but she chased it and caught it. Later, she took it up to bed so that she could keep an eye on it. It is not as trustworthy as the other sheep.

Then, today, Mollie was so excited by the small piece of battered cod that she managed to scrounge, that she had to play with her new sheep again.

Did I mention that sheep number 1 seems to have suffered from a bout of depression following the acquisition of sheep 2? I found him on a garden chair on our patio this morning. In the rain. He has now been disembowelled and put in the washing machine..

Mollie versus football

2007-09-24T11:49:00.000+01:00

When we first got Mollie, she had this mad obsession with footballs. If she saw one, she not only wanted to chase it, she wanted to kill it. Walking past kids playing with one was an utter nightmare - even on a canny collar she turned into a slavering beast with remarkable similarities to the cartoon character Taz. Our solution - we bought a nice sturdy football (she popped our plastic one!) and started playing with her in the back garden. We took care not to kick the ball directly at her, and if she caught it and bit it, we said 'leave' - and she did. Now, if we play footie in the back garden, she only barks if one of us lets a goal through, and she rarely tries to catch the ball - preferring instead to run around after it with a tennis ball in her mouth, squeaking frantically if it gets too exciting or the ball goes offside..

Yesterday, we took her to a local football field so we could use the ball chucker. We walked slowly round the perimeter, chucking the ball for her as we went. As we neared the entrance, some lads started coming on the field, with a football. Initially, she paid absolutely no attention. As the numbers grew and they inevitably started shouting and kicking the ball, she lost it a bit and ran over BUT she still had her ball in her mouth and wasn't barking, so that was a major relief. Unfortunately the stupid boys (teenagers) started pretending to throw the ball at her, and carried on playing even though Trace was on her way over to get Mollie back. All the teasing wound Mollie up a bit and she dropped her ball and tried to bite theirs, we got her back just in time. I wish people would just apply some common sense in situations like that - if they'd have picked the ball up and stood still she would probably have come back to us... Anyway, I'm still impressed that she wasn't barking or angry like she used to get, even when they wound her up she was still better than she used to be!

Country dog in the city

2007-09-17T10:50:00.000+01:00

As far as I'm aware, Mollie had never been into a city before yesterday, and so I was a little nervous - my mum, sis and I had decided to go to Aylestone Meadows in Leicester which is an urban wilderness park type thing. We walked from my sister's house, across two busy main roads. At each one, Mollie sat when told to, and waited until released. The only bark, despite all the strange new smells and noises, was at an off lead GSD - Mollie was on lead at the time so decided to tell him that she was dangerous in case he came too close. He waited until he was at a safe distance before shouting back...

At one point, Mollie was mugged by the most gorgeous brindle and white Cardigan Corgi, whose owner also fell in love with Mollie - although when I said she was a Jack Russell, there was the almost inevitable discussion about Parson's versus Jack, KC breed standards versus JRGB etc etc. The corgi's owner also had a bulldog x mongrel bitch with her. She was white with a patch - in fact virtually the same colouring as Mollie - but looked just like a Staffy except for the jowls. She wasn't in the slightest interested in Mollie and just stood behind her owner looking bored and absent mindedly sniffing a bush. Mollie was completely enamoured with the corgi and even gave him her ball! He didn't want it, he just wanted to give her a good wash. It was very sweet!

We had a lovely walk all in all, although we inevitably lost the ball in some nettles, and on the way back to my sister's she was just as calm again, except for barking at an electricity box that jumped out at her.

A few months ago she would have been incredibly agitated the whole way there and back, and I would barely have trusted her off the lead. She's so much calmer, and I think the harness helps as well as she seems to feel safe with it on.

Changeling

2007-09-15T09:20:00.000+01:00

I know my dog.

My dog doesn't get up in the mornings unless you make her.

My dog refuses breakfast when she eventually does get up, and sometimes won't eat until lunchtime.

My dog gets out of our bed, comes downstairs and goes straight back to sleep.

Who is this strange dog I have today who woke me up with a cold nose and an 'uff' at 8 a.m.?

Who is this dog that demanded breakfast as soon as she got downstairs?

Oh no, hang on - after 20 mins of playing ball, she's curled up and gone to sleep. That's my dog!

Where's Tracy?

2007-09-13T10:52:00.000+01:00

Tracy has gone away for the residential part of her shiatsu course. I'm sure she'll blog about it when she gets back! In the meantime, it was kind of weird being alone last night.

I didn't get much extra space in bed either, as I let Mollie share it with me. She snores, which was actually quite comforting. Mollie quite enjoyed having half the bed. It could be interesting persuading her to go into her own bed on Sunday.

Mollie would like to tell QB that his pln for burying the TDF's car might not work. Yesterday Tracy left without taking her car. This meant that poor Mollie kept looking out of the window, seeing the car and thinking that Tracy was about to come through the front door - so she'd go and stare at the hall door for a few minutes, working herself up into a frenzy, pacing and muttering and occasionally barking at me. I couldn't help. After a while she settled down and accepted that she was stuck with just me.

We went to my sister's in the evening, after Mollie had spent most of the day playing ball. All she wanted to do when she got there was sleep, although she was very pleased to see my sis and my mum. My sister's cat, Icklepest, wasn't too sure, but she came into the living room a couple of times and all Mollie did was gaze adoringly at her so she eventually settled on my sister's lap, which was conveniently near the door. At around 9.30, Mollie just really really wanted to go home, so she jumped down from the armchair where she'd been sleeping and put her paws on my knee, gazing deep into my eyes and gently wagging. Then she said her goodbyes, giving both my sister and my mum lots of kisses (but not Icklepest!), and gave me a look. Given that I was back at work today I thought she probably had a point, so off we pootled...

Name Game

2007-09-12T11:22:00.000+01:00

I've been tagged for the name game by flowerpot. Since this is Mollie's blog, I really should do it with Mollie's name, which is quite hard!

These are the “official” rules ( cut and pasted)

Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of your first or middle name.
When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.
At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.
Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them that they have been tagged, and to read your blog.

M is for Meaty Chunks. She's not meant to have these as they send her hyperactive, but we use them as occasional treats and rewards.

O is for Outdoors. Mollie loves nothing better than to be outdoors, either running after a tennis ball or frisbee, or just rummaging around in the undergrowth.

L is for Lie-in. If she could stay in (our) bed until lunchtime every day, I think she would. Mollie just isn't a morning dog!

L is for Little dog. Sometimes, we forget how small Mollie is, and then we see her next to one of the cats, or with a 'normal' sized dog and we suddenly realise how little she really is. I guess it's a bit of a giveaway that she'll fit easily on a my lap without squashing me...

I is for Itch. She always has an itchy spot somewhere... I gather some dogs just do.

E is for Enthusiasm, excitement and exuberance. Given sunshine, a big field and a tennis ball, she has all of these in bucket loads.

Crikey, that was hard work!!

And now for the even harder bit - finding 5 other bloggers to tag who haven't already been tagged!

Here goes:

Tracy
Tony's Shiatsu Blog
Larry & Lady
Graham and Prince
Love's Leftovers

Textbook Performance

2007-09-06T17:05:00.000+01:00

When I got home from work, a few minutes ago, Mollie was in our back garden waiting for me. As always, she followed me through to the hallway as I made my way upstairs to get changed. On the way, she stopped to eat the post. We had a parcel, one of those bubble-wrap lined jiffy bags. They're good to chew, apparently.

Would you like to know what was in the jiffy bag? All right then. It was...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Victoria Stilwell's book, "It's me or the dog - how to have the perfect pet".

I don't think Mollie appreciated the irony as much as she appreciated the jiffy bag...

Spare a thought please

2007-09-05T23:35:00.000+01:00

for my friend Helena, who sadly lost her mum on Friday.

They were very close and it must feel a little like the rug has been pulled out from under her feet. Hopefully Ben and Jenny, Helena's two beautiful Airedales, will take it in turns to be teddy bears and furry handkerchiefs.

Stop! Thief!

2007-09-05T13:00:00.000+01:00

Since we got Mollie dog, I've moved the cat bowls onto the dining table so that Mollie can't get at them. The cats get fed a pouch between them twice a day, and have biscuits down the rest of the time, and Mollie LOVES the biscuits. The reason the cats only get a pouch between the three of them is that I feed them Nature's Menu, which is extremely good quality, but isn't exactly the cheapest food around. It's very tasty, apparently. I wouldn't feed them meat at all but they get very upset if we give Mollie meat and they don't get any - to the extent that they will actually steal it from under her nose. While she's eating.

You would think that a small terrier wouldn't be able to get onto a dining table with all the chairs pushed in and table cloth on. After all, even the cats find that the addition of a table cloth makes it a bit trickier.

But you'd be wrong.

Last night, with all the cats in the living room, I heard crunching from the kitchen. It sounded like the kind of crunching that comes from a small dog with a mouth crammed full of tiny cat biscuits, eating as fast as possible because they know it's only a matter of time before they get caught.

It was.

I snuck in (I'm good at sneaking), and tried to keep a straight face while shouting "Get DOWN!!". I only had to say it once. She dutifully jumped down, still crunching, and ran into the living room, tail between legs, straight to the hall door - which I opened, saying " GO TO BED" in my most authoritative voice. She ran upstairs and we heard our bed creak.

I closed the door and looked at Tracy, who had been watching from the armchair - at which point we could contain ourselves no longer, and burst out laughing. I can't explain quite what it was that was so funny - possibly it was the way that Mollie just decided that she should go to bed. Possibly it was the way she was still munching cat biscuits as she ran upstairs.

Any ideas how we can stop her getting at the biscuits? Putting them on the kitchen side isn't an option...

For the love of puppies

2007-09-04T08:58:00.000+01:00

I've just been informed of a new website, set up by a couple of D For Dog forum members to aid the campaign against puppy farming by providing information and posters.

So, what are puppy farms? Well, they are concerns run by unscrupulous 'breeders' who are just in it for the money, basically. Think battery hens, but bitches instead of chickens, and smaller sheds. Now take away the regular inspections by government vets, and imagine the bitches being mated repeatedly, as soon as one litter is almost weaned they are bred again. They have very little human contact and are not even fed and watered regularly. Eventually, if they're lucky, they'll end up in a rescue centre where they'll be rehabilitated and hopefully find a loving home to end their days in. But more likely they'll just be disposed of, or end up in a rescue centre and have to be put to sleep, while the puppies are advertised in papers or sold in pet shops. Here's what the website has to say:

Well lets see, first the farmer needs to be paid, he doesn't get much for pups so he keeps them on as little food as possible and doesn't waste his time cleaning them out .He also has to pack them into the smallest space he can so he can get as many as possible into his barn etc. He won't waste money on heat or light so dogs are mostly in the dark, he MAY visit once a day to feed but then again maybe not.

If a bitch is in pup she will be left to take care of herself, she will see no vet. If she has problems giving birth and things go wrong she and pups will be left to die. If all is well her pups will be taken away from her much earlier than they should be so they are not off to a good start. But the farmer is happy he has his cash. He will now get the bitch mated again as soon as possible so he can get more cash.

Here's where the pet shop owner comes in, he will pay to have them delivered to his pet shop near you as soon as he can, he needs to sell these pups before they grow too much. It matters not to him that so far in their young lives they haven't seen a vet to make sure they are fit. He will let you take on that problem when you have parted with your cash. Up to now these pups have had no socialisation, they are not used to everyday sounds and are probably scared stiff. Now the pet shop owner has to let everyone know he has pups for sale so he contacts newspapers and local radio to place advertisements. Now these people are happy they have their cash, it doesn't matter a jot to them where the pups came from or if they are sick or have defects, they will advertise anything for the right money

You can read more at the Puppy Love website: http://www.dogs-r-us.org/. The site does have some disturbing images.

Please have a look. If all you do with the knowledge is tell your friends and family not to buy from pet shops and to ask the right questions when answering ads in a paper, that's a start - but please do spread the word however you feel you can and help these poor animals.

If you do want a new dog, please consider a rescue, or make sure you get to see both parents of any puppy. Dogs Today magazine has a dog-finding service, "Dial-a-dog" which can help you find the right dog for you, and they also offer advice on checking out breeders and what questions to ask.

The strange case of the disappearing balloon

2007-09-02T21:30:00.000+01:00

In the drawer in the kitchen which is the miscellaneous drawer; the one with the roll of sellotape, the biros, the shed key, strange bits of leftover plumbing, the washing machine filter key - you get the picture - in this drawer, there is a packet of balloons. Until yesterday, this was Mollie's packet of balloons, for occasional treats. She is nuts about tennis balls, but when faced with a balloon, Mollie goes psycho. You can't even blow one up in peace (as Tracy found out yesterday!).

Yesterday afternoon, Tracy decided Mollie could have a balloon, as a treat. So she picked one out (it was bright pink) , and blew it up. While she was blowing it up, Mollie tried repeatedly to grab it, which somewhat hampered the operation, but eventually the deed was done, Tracy tied a knot in the top, and out into the garden they both trotted. A couple of seconds later, there was the usual bang. But then, Tracy called me outside, where Mollie was sniffing excitedly along the fence. There followed an exchange something like this:

"She ate it."
"What, all of it"
"All but this bit" (displays knot from top of balloon)
"Wow"

So, for the next few days, we'll be carefully inspecting anything that comes out of Mollie dog to see if it's pink and rubbery. Nice. And our neighbour will too. Lets hope it emerges soon. In the meantime, as you can see from the picture above, Mollie is utterly unaware that there might be a problem. In fact, there is absolutely no outward sign that she's eaten anything abnormal at all. Yet.

If it doesn't reappear soon, I guess there'll be a visit to the V.E.T. to see what happens next. I suppose there's no need to tell him how she got hold of the balloon... ?

Behave!!

2007-08-31T10:55:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to note, with reference to a previous post, that I omitted to mention that we had a behaviourist in to help with Mollie - Bev (KizKiznobite). Bev helped us enormously by giving us an insight into possible reasons for Mollie's behavioural issues, and by getting Mollie interested in treats as a reward (we couldn't get her treat-motivated before). It took a good couple of hours for Bev to fully get Mollie's attention and focus, and at one point Bev looked down to see Charley cat sitting very attentively next to Mollie in case they were cat treats, but although it still takes some effort to get Mollie's attention sometimes she has never slipped all the way back to where she was.

Hopefully, a bit more training will get Mollie even further on the road to being a well-behaved little monster :D

There are some things ...

2007-08-30T18:08:00.001+01:00

... that you can only do with a small dog!!

"Where's mum?"

Hurrah!! The last tablet!!

2007-08-29T11:00:00.000+01:00

This morning I gave Mollie her last evil antibiotic tablet. She did not want to swallow it and growled at me as I stroked her throat. But then I got a Baker's meaty chunk out of my pocket and showed her it, and she went 'Gulp!'.

Mollie is still tired from the weekend. Yesterday she went straight to bed when I took her next door, and was most upset when Marlene got up - in fact she was so upset that she went into the spare bedroom and went to sleep on the spare bed. But then in the afternoon she wanted to play ball LOTS, and she was still playing when we got home from work.

Today, she is also very tired. She didn't want any biscuits but she had to have something in her stomach because of the tablet, so I fed her some treats - although she had to sit and lie down for them. Hopefully she'll go home and eat some biscuits during the day, although she'll probably also have a nice lunch next door - yesterday she had a bit of sausage and some chicken! And for tea she had some biscuits, a bit of rice (she would have eaten more but I took it off her), some raw cauliflower stalk (which she loves) and she also tried some curried spinach but wasn't sure about it. Oh and she had a couple of slices of the Quorn fake turkey with stuffing. Yum. And a bit of carrot. OK, maybe I need to stop off and get some dog food on the way home from work tonight...

9 months ago, when we first brought Mollie dog home (above), she was a timid, clingy girl with absolutely no discipline, poor muscle tone and her only command was 'sit'. Now she does sit, stay, lie down, fetch, bring it (carry the ball while walking), wait and "get in YOUR bed". And when she's tired, she's happy to go upstairs on her own to sleep. Maybe soon we'll be able to leave her at home on her own...

A dog trainer not too far from us is thinking of starting flyball fun classes. I think Mollie might just be ready to give it a go - whaddya reckon?

Scorchio! Or - Mollie meets the sea.

2007-08-27T20:59:00.000+01:00

This weekend we both took Friday off so that we could have a long weekend, bliss! But now it's Monday evening already and I still haven't ironed any clothes for next week. We had a cunning plan this weekend - get stuff done Friday and today, and have fun in between. It worked!

Saturday morning, once we'd got ourselves ready and packed the car, we headed up to Tracy's parents in North Nottinghamshire, where we were greeted by an absolutely ridiculous amount of squeaking and wriggling on the part of their ageing black Labrador, Zoe. She and Mollie were so happy to see each other that they couldn't even say hello to start with, they just ran round each other in circles! We had a lovely afternoon and Mollie made sure Zoe's face was very clean, and she also thoroughly tested Tracy's parents' ball throwing abilities. Before tea, we headed out for a walk, up the village, through the next village, and back home down the canal. I have to say, we were hugely impressed with the local council - dotted along the canal were not only poo bins, but also poo bag dispensers full of bags! Fantastic - not only that they have done that but also that no-one's nicked all the bags and set fire to the bin...

And then yesterday. Clutching a scribbled set of instructions from Tracy's Dad, we headed East towards the coast, on the assurance that we'd find a large stretch of dog-friendly beach at Huttoft, hidden cunningly behind the golf course. Guess what? We did!! There were few amenities - just some loos and an ice-cream van, but there was a massive long stretch of sandy beach with loads of dogs running around.

Mollie was impressed. She ran around lots. Inevitably, we came away with three basic kinds of photo:

1) Mollie with the ball

2) One of us with the ball

3) Mollie waiting for the ball

In addition, there were the usual shots of Mollie's bottom.

At one point, Mollie stole someone's black lab, and the lab's ball. Despite our best efforts to retrieve Mollie, and the lab's best efforts to give her back, it took a while to separate the two who had apparently become fast friends and were happily swapping tennis balls.

During the course of the afternoon, Mollie became best friends with a number of dogs for a short time, and memorably managed to steal a big Golden Retriever and what I seem to remember as a staffie cross. Tracy bent down to pick up the ball and by the time she was upright again, she'd got three dogs and the owner of the spare two was running towards us shouting "Sorry! Sorry!".

We didn't mind. They were friendly dogs and that's two more 'breeds' for Mollie to cross off her dangerous list. In fact, I think she's now pretty much only scared of male dogs that are on leads - if their owners don't trust them, neither does she - sensible girl.

On the way home, behind her new dog guard and snuggled down on a fleecy blanket, Mollie pretty much slept the whole journey. When we stopped at a pub for a quick drink, she was so sleepy she practically fell out of the boot of the car. And today, she's spent more time asleep than awake. We took her swimming at Sence Valley this morning to wash off the salt. I think that finished her of...

The EzyDog harness, for those (Graham) who wish to know, arrived in the nick of time on Saturday morning. Mollie wore it while we were out on Saturday afternoon and also yesterday afternoon when we ventured out of the beach in search of sustenance. Even though she was covered in sand it didn't seem to chafe particularly, and whenever she's had it on so far but been off lead, she's run about as if she's not wearing it. We've not tried the seat belt attachment yet as we mostly take her out in Tracy's car which has a dog guard, but it looks nice and sturdy. So it's a thumbs up from us!

Harness update

2007-08-23T14:15:00.000+01:00

Looks like we're going to get one of these:

It's an Ezydog harness and comes with a detachable seat belt clip which means we can leave the clip in the car and the harness on the dog.

This will be Mollie's 3rd harness - first we tried the Ancol one, which is fantastic (brilliant) as a seatbelt harness, but as you can't detach the metal clip it's inadvisable to use it for walking too far - the clip bangs on the dog's spine. So that was passed on to someone else and we got an RAC harness - much much better for leaving on the dog, but not so great in the car as the belt clip can't swivel at all. Because of this, and because Mollie seems to be a bit of a Houdini, she can get out of it really quickly - so once the new one has arrived we'll give the RAC one to next door to use as it's great for walking.

I'll let you know how I get on with the EzyDog.

Edit: Just ordered it from D For Dog. Jenny kindly let me knew as soon as they were in the catalogue so I could bag one - they're very efficient so I hope to get it Saturday or failing that, Tuesday. You wouldn't think someone could get excited about a new dog harness, but I am :D

Topsy Turvy

2007-08-22T22:41:00.000+01:00

Does anyone else think there's something wrong with this picture?

Normal cat/dog house:

Owner calls dog, dog comes.
Owner calls cat, cat thinks about it, dog comes.

Our house:

I call the cats (separately or individually), the cats come.
I call the dog, the dog thinks about it, the cats come.

I think I've just highlighted a small gap in Mollie's past training. Not to mention what you can achieve with cats with the occasional, completely random, bribe of honey roast turkey off the bone...

Bad habits

2007-08-22T09:07:00.000+01:00

Well, as I suspected would happen, Mollie's learned from Sunday's experience to slip her collar at will. She slipped it on Monday when out with the neighbour, who's going to keep her away from busy roads for the time being (luckily you can get to the woods without leaving our estate).

Mollie currently wears a soft collar from Rogz - it doesn't chafe, and if she catches it on a branch or whatever when rummaging in the undergrowth, it will stretch so she can get free rather than be stuck, if that makes sense - in fact that's how come she can slip it. I don't want to get her a leather collar, as they're not ideal for a dog that swims (in fact the last one she had stained her fur pink when it got wet!). So I guess that means getting her a harness of some sort for when she's next door - which would also help our lovely neighbour to control her when she's on the lead as she's a little monster and pulls really badly.

Anyone got any recommendations? Are terriers that rummage OK with a harness on, would it be likely to catch? Ideally she'd need a harness that can be left on while she's off lead...

That was the weekend that was

2007-08-20T08:59:00.000+01:00

Well, Mollie and I really packed some excitement into the weekend this time. NOT. Saturday she was still a bit pustulant (sorry, but I really like that word) and scabby so we stuck to the garden and played ball, and then we snoozed, and wrestled a bit, and played again. Quite a boring day but for some reason I was really tired, and T was away at the Goddess Camp (more about that here) most of the day so I wasn't really motivated to do much.

Yesterday was slightly more exciting. The day started out sunny, so Mollie and I were wildly optimistic: she grabbed her ball (the last one out of the packet!) and I put some washing on. Predictably, by the time the washing had finished, it was raining! Eventually, at 5 o'clock, I managed to get Mollie out for a walk. We went up round the Forest Rock woods (you can read about them and our other local woods here - you'll need Internet Explorer). On the way back, as we approached the kissing gate, I called to Mollie to sit so I could hook her lead onto her collar - which she did, reluctantly. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but Mollie really can't understand why she has to be dragged a certain way through the gate when she can perfectly well get under the bottom bar. Well, yesterday it was worse than usual. As I tried to get her back into the gate so she could come through it with me, she reversed and slipped her collar, and ran straight across the Leicester Road. At this point of the road, as you leave Whitwick, you are approaching a 60mph limit, and most drivers at this point are accelerating. Drivers coming the other way have just come round a bend and are usually braking, and luckily, as I ran after Mollie and she stopped and cowered in the middle of the road, it was this kind of driver that was heading towards us. They braked in time and I managed to grab Mollie by the scruff and yank her onto the pavement. I carried her home. On the way she tried to lick my face a few times. I had been so scared that she would get squashed! I think she's going to have to have her harness on all the time when she's out for a short walk from home like that, now that she knows how to slip her collar.
I did eventually forgive her. She spent ages when we got home trying to suck up to me, climbing on my lap and leaning on me, and after a while I was able to relax. She really scared me though!

Goodbye Watson

2007-08-17T14:24:00.000+01:00

Another canine cancer sufferer has lost his battle - Watson has gone to join Prince in a world beyond physical pain. I can't imagine how it must feel to lose such a big part of your life, especially when you've been fighting so hard to keep it, and my heart goes out to Linda and her family.

It's easy giving tablets to dogs II

2007-08-17T08:41:00.000+01:00

Skipped straight to step 4 last night, and gave Mollie a couple of treats after the tablet, and lots and lots of praise. Her jaws are really strong from playing tug lots, so as you slightly release the lower jaw to drop the tablet in she tries to close her mouth and it does take a bit of effort to not let her!

Mollie got so excited by all the praise that she had to go and fetch a rawhide chew (or rather one end of one she'd had stashed somewhere for a few days) and tease me with it. She spent nearly the whole evening chewing it, even carrying a bit up to the office, and by bedtime nothing was left but a sticky smudge on her blanket on the settee...

I moved her office bed back onto the floor last night, after she tried to jump up on it while I was elsewhere. The chair is a normal office chair, i.e. with wheels, and the desk is very slippy, so she basically failed in her attempt but did not the keyboard and mouse off the desk! Doubly unfortunate because Tracy's treatment room is directly below the office and she was treating someone at the time...oops...

It's easy giving tablets to dogs

2007-08-16T08:21:00.000+01:00

You know this business of it being easier to get a tablet down a dog than down a cat? It’s so not true!!

Put tablet in Baker’s Meaty chunk. Hand chunk to dog. Dog eats chunk, spits out tablet.
Cut slightly slimy tablet in two, drop into food, give food to dog. Dog eats food and one half of tablet
grab tablet in one hand and dog in the other, drop tablet in dog’s mouth and hold closed. Dog swallows. Release dog. Dog spits tablet on floor.
Repeat step 3 but this time holding dog’s mouth closed for longer. Finally, the tablet is gone!!

Might just skip straight to step 4 tonight… sigh… she’s been living with cats for too long!

It's been a long day, apparently

2007-08-15T21:17:00.001+01:00

Itchy Belly - Part II

2007-08-15T19:56:00.000+01:00

As mentioned yesterday, Mollie has a rash on her belly. Well, we went to see our very nice vet, M. Drouin, who said that she has a very nice case of pustulating dermatitis (he was showing his work experience girl). It wasn't pustulating this morning, so it looks to me like she's fighting it off quite nicely and it's come to the surface, so it looks - and probably feels - incredibly like chicken pox. She had an antibiotic jab and has got some tablets to help the infection clear up. At the moment she's still quite a happy girl, especially since she now has an improved desktop perch with a pillow to lie on - but I know that will change as the antibiotics take hold.

It looks like that terrier thing of bouncing through grassy meadows isn't such a good idea in Mollie's case. Luckily most of our favourite walks have good paths though, so we'll just have to be a bit more careful about where we throw the ball...

Charley cat and the old gits

2007-08-15T09:01:00.000+01:00

I may have mentioned at some point that we also have cats. We have three, and I thought I ought to introduce you to them, so here they are:

Firstly, Samson, aka Sammy Cat, aka the Hat (likes to sleep on your head if you're sitting on the sofa and leaning back), aka Diddle Monster, aka Fangs. Founder member of the Reservoir Cats.

Age: 13 years young
Breed: Persian x tabby
Distinguishing Features: ripped ears, incredibly fluffy back legs, slight kink in tail, scar at side of mouth.
Favourite saying: "eck"

Used to be known as "incredibly bored cat" in his youth and picked fights just for fun. Ex-champion bed mice player and duvet surfer. Recovering vole addict. Bath inspector. The boss.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, Sammy's twin brother Seth, aka Teddy Bear, aka Bear. Founder member of Reservoir Cats.

Age: 13 years young
Breed: Persian x tabby
Distinguishing Features: paunch, weedy little excuse for a tail, huge pointy teeth.
Favourite Saying: "bear"

Used to bring in leaves, sticks and huge hairy spiders. Once helped rear a litter of kittens, allowing the mother to take breaks while he cleaned and played with them. Learned to miaow aged 8, now he never stops. Spends much of his time asleep or demanding ham from the neighbours.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

And finally, Charley, aka "Dat Charley Cat", aka Thug.

Age: about 4 and a half
Breed: moggie (tortoiseshell/calico and white)
Distinguishing features: piercing gaze, very short tail
Favourite saying: "meep!!"

Once caught a sparrow but fell asleep under a recliner with it between her paws. The sparrow fell asleep too and was later released, slightly damp but unharmed. Likes to stare through windows and play chase with Mollie dog. Also enjoys "bouncing" Sammy and big fat pigeons. Loves to kiss bare toes. Catnip addict.

Edit: Note to Wolfie owners - "bouncing" in this instance is similar to boofing, but smaller. ;-)

Every desk should have one

2007-08-14T18:07:00.000+01:00

Itchy belly

2007-08-14T10:02:00.000+01:00

Poor little Mollie dog is feeling a bit sorry for herself at the moment. She has a nasty rash from her inner thighs all the way up her belly and chest. She's eating fine and still wants to play ball as much as possible, but she's chewing a bit when she stops and sits down, and it's starting to look sore. She's booked into the V.E.T. tomorrow, in the meantime she's going to have some cream slathered all over her belly and chest tonight and a spell with the lampshade on while it soaks in. Not sure what cream yet - suggestions so far include:

Sudocrem
Drapolene
Aloe Vera
Neem

We currently suspect either a grass pollen or wool allergy (wool blanket in back of car) . I'll let you know what we end up using and what the V.E.T. says.

Edit: Just realised it's probably not wool as one of her favourite beds since we've had her has been a sheepskin rug. So there goes that theory! I should also mention, since Graham asked, that her diet hasn't changed for months (Nature's Menu or Nature Diet depending which pet shop I go to, and Trophy Hypoallergenic biscuits), although she does often have a little bit of whatever we eat; we've been using the same detergent for years, and the same softener for months, and she was Frontlined three weeks ago.

Whatever it is, I hope it responds quickly to whatever treatment she gets and doesn't require endless trips to the vets.

Watermead Park - piccies

2007-08-13T18:10:00.000+01:00

Here are the pictures I promised from yesterday's excursion:

King Lear's Lake:

Traditional view of Jack Russell terrier when out and about:

Swimming Dog strikes again:

In my top at the pub afterwards (the Hope and Anchor, in case you're wondering). She was shivering in the cool breeze while I enjoyed my cold beer (which is just out of shot! and is a certain Northern bottled brand particularly enjoyed by bikers - or in this case - ex-biker.) so I wrapped her up. She dripped onto my lap so it looked a bit like I'd wet myself when i stood up...

Houdini - or back seat nesting 3: the last stand

2007-08-13T08:39:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, we went to Watermead Park again. We've stopped going to Sence Valley for the moment as Mollie has some nasty spots between her back legs, across her inner thighs, and we think they're insect bites or an allergy - the water at Sence Valley doesn't move much so there are quite a few flies & midges and lots of weeds in the water; it's possible that something there might have bitten, stung or otherwise irritated her - and skidding after the ball on a grit path will have sent stone chips flying up too. Watermead is an ex-industrial site like Sence Valley, but rather than coal it is sand and gravel that used to be extracted there. In fact, there is a working sand pit just next to it still, at Wanlip.

On the way there, Mollie sat in her quietly in her harness for most of the journey. At one point, I looked over my shoulder and she was just lying down, head on paws, and I think her eyes were even shut. Seconds later, I felt a wet nose on my elbow and when I looked round she was completely free! I'm still not entirely sure how she did it, but the harness just wasn't on her any more. On Friday night she'd managed to stand on the seatbelt release (they're flush with the seat in that car). And on the way home she set herself free again. Today, Tracy's going to put the dog guard in the back so we can just chuck her in the boot on a pile of towels...

Anyway, at Watermead the swimming was going well again when the ball was unfortunately thrown a bit too far and Mollie just couldn't face going to get it - she did try, but after a few yards she just turned round and gave up. it holds the current record for the ball with the shortest life span - I think it was out of the packet for around 4 hours before it was lost! Even without a ball as an excuse, however, Mollie wanted to go in the water, and was literally checking the bank every few yards to see if she could get in. She hasn't quite got to the stage of just throwing herself in regardless, she has to make sure she can get out again as she's only ickle, but she's definitely become a water addict. I think we need to get a paddling pool for her next Summer!

We met lots of dogs again too, and she was very friendly with all but a lab pup who was on a lead and so a bit insecure - but even then all she did was bark a bit.

I have some lovely photos - but they'll have to wait until tonight.

In the meantime, congratulations to Graham on bringing home the lovely Tilly! I'm sure you'll agree that she's adorable, and join with me in wishing them all the best.

Working from home - easier said than done when there are pets involved!

2007-08-09T09:52:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, because Mollie's usual minders - our neighbours - had gone on a day trip, I worked from home. This was interpreted by Mollie as meaning that I was at home to PLAY with her. Or at least fuss her. All day. Every time I turned around, there was a tennis ball and a wet nose. She dropped it on my foot. She was behind me when I went to make a coffee. What's more, every time I sat down, Sammy cat jumped on my lap. At one point, they ganged up on me - I had Sammy on my lap, leaned forward to do some typing, and Mollie snuck in behind me on the settee!

Despite all the attempts at sabotage, I did actually manage to get some work done, eventually. But my 'lunch hour' was spent throwing a ball in the back garden... sigh...

A day in the life of a doggit (nearly)

2007-08-07T21:29:00.000+01:00

Sleeping Dog...
Well, OK, after yesterdays embarrassing foray into the murky depths of my subconscious mind, let's get back to the star of the show - Mollie dog, aka Doggit. Starting with last night. When we came to go to bed, it was occupied. Sometimes, if she's really fast asleep, we pretend she isn't there and leave her be - but with the duvet being folded back and her on top of it, that would've been a little tricky. So we whispered in her ear, "Mollie, are you going to get in your bed?" and this was her rather elegant response:

I have obviously edited the first photo slightly to preserve her modesty... for what it's worth! As you can see, she was mightily peeved by the flash on the camera! (NOT)

I eventually had to pick her up and put her in her crate...ahhhh...

This morning she was very sleepy and just wanted to go next door and get back to bed, but after a good day's ball fetching she was raring to go again. After a quick go at her Kong (you can see the video here but it's quite big, sorry), she picked up her tennis ball, dropped it at my feet, then came and sat on me. I was in a very ladylike position with one knee up and one down, she leaned on my right leg and the warmth just gradually sent her to sleep - her legs buckled under and she collapsed:
As you can see, I was utterly devastated :D

...To Swimming Dog...
We took her to Sence Valley again this evening (she did wake up, and she ran round like a headless chicken, squeaking, after we said the 'W' word!) and she led us to the swimming spot and basically begged us to throw the ball in. A few good splashes later (did you know that the terrier bounce works in water too? Quite impressive) we bimbled back to the car, where she attempted the nesting routine in spite of the harness.

..And Back Again...
All in all a very tiring day, for a little doggit. Night night!

Mental Jukebox - incidental music or revenge of the Id?

2007-08-06T14:46:00.000+01:00

This has almost nothing to do with Mollie dog, except inasmuch as she might occasionallyset it off, so to speak - but I felt the need to share.
I basically have music playing in my head most of the time. Usually it's something I've heard on the radio, or it's triggered by something I see, something that someone says, or it's just random. When I opened my A-level results, it played 'China in your hands' (T'Pau) - a particularly appropriate choice, I thought.
This morning, it was apparently randomly playing 'Valerie' by Stevie Winwood.

But by far the most bizarre subconscious choice, and one which recurs on a disturbingly regular basis, is this:

The 1973 Swedish Eurovision Entry

I saw a video of it once at a friend's house in Sweden, I think it was in 1985 or something and there was a retrospective of Swedish Eurovision entries on TV. I'm assuming that the only reason that this particular song stuck in my head is because of these rather charming lyrics:

I am blue and I long for your caress
your breasts are like swallows in nesting

I suppose I should be grateful this is pretty much the only 'schlager' it plays, with the exceptions of Abba's 'Waterloo', Katrina and the Waves 'Walking on Sunshine' and very, very occasionally, Carola Häggkvist's 'Främling' (1983).

Bradgate Park

2007-08-05T20:42:00.000+01:00

We took the doggit up to Bradgate Park today. She was panting in the car, although I think that was as much from excitement as anything - but she had some water after we'd parked up, just in case. We went in at the Woodhouse end, near the entrance for the Broombriggs Farm trail - it's not so busy as the other entrances, and there's loads of shade to park under. There's also no proper path. Anyway, we got there probably around 12.30 and it was scorching!! It's such a beautiful place, and Mollie loves it - acres of space to run and explore, usually loads of dogs to gossip with, streams and pools to jump in... what more could a hyperactive dog ask for on such a lovely day?

Of course, even though there were lots of pools, like this rather lovely one, she refused to jump in without the enticement of a thrown ball (which we left in the car - oops).

Do excuse the presence of my behind in this photo, but it shows how sceptical she was about the whole thing.. (you can lead a dog to water, etc)

Eventually, at a different pool, we came across these sweet, bouncy little spaniels - Cavaliers I think.
They wagged and squeaked at her until she ran round to say hello, then eventually she went in up to her knees. We stayed there for a good 10 minutes watching the three of them play, it was great to see, especially since Mollie has historically been fairly worried about strange dogs, even small ones. But today, she said hello to quite a few, although she did say hello to one that growled at her - she was quick to bark back though, and beat a hasty retreat.
All in all, a lovely, if very tiring walk, and Mollie of course collapsed in the shade as soon as we got home.

Did she 'eck as like!! How could we possibly expect her to waste such a glorious day?!

Jack Russell? Parson Russell? What's the difference?

2007-08-03T10:15:00.000+01:00

My original cunning plan for today was to show you a picture of Mollie Dog refusing to get out of bed, and give it a witty caption. Unfortunately, I foolishly switched the camera on after pointing it at the head and legs poking out from under the duvet, and the sound of the lens extending woke her up - and she got out of bed! I suppose now I know how to wake her up in the mornings... and next time I'll switch the camera on before I go anywhere near Mollie!

So - my backup plan is to consolidate in one place all the links to sites where I've read about the history of the JR breed. If I had more time and energy I'd write an actual article, but I'll just give you the links and let you come to your own conclusions for the moment - do let me know what you think though, as I find it all somewhat confusing.
I do find it interesting that the Jack Russell Club of Great Britain say, on their History page,

"The Jack Russell Terrier of today is still able to perform the functions it was originally bred to do. It has longer legs which enable it to run with the hounds."

If you read their breed standards, Mollie is way off - her nose is too long, her head too round, her tail probably too long plus it's not straight, her elbows stick out too far, she's far too timid. Mind you, her inherent Terrier bravery is coming out more and more - she was giving the monsters in the garden what for again last night (well, you never know - they might attack at any time!!).

Other sites with information about the breed are:

Battersea Dogs Home - breed guide
Wikipedia - quite a good entry
www.jack-russell.co.uk - an interesting site that's growing all the time - and Mollie's in the gallery of course!!
Pet Planet's Parson Russell page - they state that the Parson Russell is the long legged variety (the JR club just have two height categories for the JR)
Jack Russell Terrier Club of America - again, for them Parsons is just another name for the same thing and terriers with ickle legs are simply achondroplastic dwarfs
Another Article on JRs
D For Dog article - an owner's view of living with a JR
Jack Facts - 'fact' sheet from an Irish breeder site

The AKC and UKC recognition of Jack Russell is in general staunchly opposed by working dog clubs such as the JRTCA and JRGB:

JRTCA Stance
Confusing article on DogBreedInfo
A page illustrating different KC standards - does it make it any less confusing?
JRGB rules page - see Rule 2 para f

In my opinion, the move by the UK KC and AKC to give the two different sized variations different breed names and set a conformity driven by looks alone is proving horrendously confusing, especially since no-one quite seems to agree on the names.
Some rescue centres and breeders are now calling the long-legged variety such as Mollie a Parsons Russell, some just call her a JR, some a Russell..*shrug* Well, she's registered with her insurance and chip companies as a JR, but we just call her Mollie. I don't think she conforms to any breed standard, but she's a wonderful pet.

It's a beautiful day

2007-07-31T08:52:00.000+01:00

The sun is shining and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Finally, summer has arrived. So you'd think that Mollie would leap out of bed, grab a tennis ball and demand to play - but no, she refused to get out of bed. After being called a few times she reluctantly staggered downstairs and flumped onto the beanbag, from whence she gave me a hard stare before tucking her nose under a hind leg and muttering "hrrrrmmmmph" - remember the sound that hovercrafts make when they land and 'deflate'? It's extraordinarily similar. Obviously the cats were obliged to eat her breakfast rather than let it go to waste.

Mollie didn't shift again until it was time to go next door. When I opened our front door she had a brief moment of excitement as there was a strange dog wandering past so she obviously had to run out and chase it, which was rather worrying; luckily there was no traffic! On the way to the neighbour's she was still barking smugly to herself... but once there she went straight upstairs to bed.

Have I mentioned that Mollie doesn't do mornings?

Better to have loved and lost

2007-07-30T19:35:00.000+01:00

On the D For Dog forum, in Prince's goodbye thread, Graham says:

It's so sad in many ways, that we all seem to have some experience of the gravity of such a loss - and many of us very recently.

It got me thinking.

Loss and grief are the price we pay for opening ourselves to love, but love is it's own reward. The trick is to not close your heart because of the pain of loss, but to hold on to the memory of love and so allow it into your heart again.

To quote Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

So many people say silly things like "I'll never love again" or "there'll never be another ". They're right about the second one - there will never be another Prince, or Cleo, or Timmy, or Lady or (in my case) Duke, or Nisse - but each dog, and therefore each love is different. Some people ridicule the love that can exist between owners and their pets and think that such owners are somehow warped, and that that love could be better 'spent'. Personally, I think that the more you open your heart, the more love you find that you have to give, and the more you receive in return. In fact, pets are so good at opening people's hearts and healing their minds that Animal Assisted Therapy is becoming more and more popular and achieving amazing results.

I would turn what Graham's said around - the fact that so many of us have experienced the gravity of such a loss, although painful, shows that we can love. It shows that our hearts haven't hardened, in spite of the terrible things that are on the TV and the internet daily. That gives me hope.

How scary is this???

2007-07-30T08:39:00.001+01:00

A member of the D For Dog forum has posted this very scary link. It gives a list of 75 breeds of dog which are banned in some states of the US. It not only includes the usual suspects - Staffie, Mastiff, EBT (all of which are prone to whine and drop at your feet, paws in air, for a belly rub) - but also Fox Terrier, Airedale Terrier, Springer Spaniel, Newfoundland!!
Newfoundlands are bred to rescue humans, for goodness sake!! I've never heard of anyone being savaged by one - you're more likely to get accidentally sat on or drooled on... and as for the Fox and Airedale terriers - why them and not the JRT? Because they can be vicious too - I mean, yes at one end of the spectrum we have Mollie, who will just sit and look bemused as a small child attempts to pull her leg off, but at the other end there are JRTs who will bite you just because you looked at them funny. Or rather, because you looked at them at all. Or because you happened to walk somewhere within half a mile of them and your trouser leg looked tasty. And yes, I speak from personal experience here.
I'm sure my friend Helena will be mortified to learn that her dogs are banned in the parts of the US, possibly in the very states that she once lived in.
It's madness, utter madness - politicians scrambling to do something, anything to make it look like they've got control of the situation - a situation, incidentally which only exists in newspapers and on television. Wouldn't it be better to bring in compulsory dog licensing, chipping/tattooing and socialisation/obedience? Oh no, that would be a sensible thing to do, wouldn't it...

Abandoned

2007-07-29T15:08:00.000+01:00

We conducted an experiment this weekend - we left Mollie overnight. We rather selfishly went to Spanfest - Steeleye Span's first ever festival of their very own, at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk. There weren't any camping tickets left and anyway Tracy was on a course yesterday (Advanced Back with Dan Stretton) so we drove down both Friday and yesterday. Dogs not allowed, so we left her with the neighbour. When we got home (2.30 Friday, 3.30 this morning) we wedged the living room door open so that as soon as the neighbours let her out in the morning she could jump the fence and come and find us.
Yesterday morning she came in just as Trace was getting ready to go out - in fact she ran past her initially! We all had big cuddles and then Mollie wouldn't leave my side all day. Yesterday evening when I took her next door she snuck through their front door and ran home! I had to catch her and hand her over, she looked really pathetic as I walked away...and this morning when she came home and found us in bed she was very excited but calmed down quite quickly and snuggled down under the duvet and went to sleep.
I think, overall, it went well - certainly in terms of leaving Mollie. Because she's with the neighbours virtually every day it's a natural extension for her to stay overnight, and it sounds like she wriggles much less in their bed than she does in ours..they enjoyed having her, too (toasty feet!). My only regret of the whole weekend is really that we couldn't stay over, as the drive home from Long Melford in the dark and rain this morning was hard work - but doable, and there wasn't much in the way of traffic. The festival had a good atmosphere, the surroundings were amazing and the music was mostly great too.

Gone, but not forgotten

2007-07-28T15:54:00.000+01:00

Just read on Graham's blog that Prince was put to sleep this morning. I think when you know an animal that well you can tell when they've given up and it's time for you to give up too and I join with others in applauding Graham for all he did for Prince, and for making the right decision when the time came.
I shall miss reading about the little fella, he was a real character and I'm sure he'll be sorely missed. Thank-you, Graham, for sharing his last weeks with us.

RIP little one, and I sincerely wish Graham all the best.

Water Baby

2007-07-26T09:33:00.001+01:00

On Tuesday, we went to Sence Valley Forest Park again - and this time we took a camera. It was warm out and it's a 2 mile drive, so by the time we got there Mollie was starting to overheat slightly. We threw the ball as we walked (off and on - when produced from a pocket and squeaked it provides an excellent distraction from other dogs) and by the time we got to the first bridge, Mollie was panting hard. I walk down to the 'stream' to see if I could persuade her to have a drink, but she decided that was enough and flung herself in. We spent a few minutes chucking the ball from one bank to the other, with Mollie swimming across the current, then walked further down to where the path slopes down towards the water, and Trace threw the ball - and off went Mollie. As you can see, she really enjoys swimming now!! When we took her to Bosworth Water Park in April, it took several attempt to get her in the water and she wasn't very confident at all. Since then she's really toned up and got stronger and generally more confident and that obviously helps with the swimming as well.

There are some more photos here, in a slide show. The white gravel in some of the photos shows where the paths were eroded by the flood, and the straw across the path shows where the water was up to at the weekend.

Back in the car, Mollie (with the aid of her wet fur) managed to slip her harness and escape onto the parcel shelf. She then spent almost the entire trip from Ibstock to Loughborough (we went to visit some friends) drying herself and nesting. Here she is drying her muddy face on the shelf - her tail was wagging so hard that it's just a blur!!

The rear windscreen is now a bit filthy... and the harness is going to be adjusted somewhat before it's used again - it was new so I didn't quite tighten it enough...

Canny Collar vs Tennis Ball

2007-07-23T22:33:00.001+01:00

We took Mollie for a bimble this evening - down to the village, round the back to the castle, up to the Leisure Centre, across the playing fields, back down to the castle then home. Mollie was in naughty (very bouncy and hyper) mode so we went for the Canny Collar AND the tennis ball. It's an interesting combination, as when she has the ball in her mouth and pulls on the lead, the collar causes her mouth to close - thus squeaking the ball. Every now and then she had to put the ball down and lick her lips a bit, but if we went to pick it up she nabbed it again. As we walked across the fields, throwing it as we went, you could see her getting tired as she sometimes fetched the ball but, instead of dropping it, ran back to us and just stood there squeaking it for a bit. On the way back, she was much better behaved - much less trying to bite the lead... sigh...but at least with the collar I can control her with one finger and she doesn't pull enough to hurt herself. Still, we're considering getting a chest harness to see if that works any better. She walks better off lead than on, but she has the road sense of a pheasant... no; wait - less.

Photo courtesy of Tracy ;-)

From burbling brook to raging torrent

2007-07-23T08:54:00.000+01:00

Spare a thought for the staff of Dogs Today magazine, who had to evacuate last week as the waters rose at their offices in Chobham, Surrey. Beverley Cuddy has posted some piccies on her Cold Wet Nose blog of the waters rising. As she says, even with a couple of inches of water they'll have to replace the carpets and replaster; luckily (for us!) they put the next issue to bed with what sounds like minutes to spare.
I think more and more that we're quite lucky here in Leicestershire. We have a bit of flooding around Rothley and Sileby - but that always happens when there's heavy rain. In fact there's a stretch of road that goes under the A6 that is closed most of the Winter because it floods. Most of the flood plains are fallow fields, used for grazing in the summer but left empty in the Winter because they flood - these are flooded now but with minimal damage to crops. Other flood plains, such as Watermead park near Wanlip (and of course the lovely Sence Valley Forest Park!!), are country parks. Whitwick has flooded in the past as the normally picturesque and burbling brook has swollen to river size and broken its banks - but this summer, although it's definitely been much deeper than usual, the village has escaped largely unscathed thanks to significant work carried out on the flood defences last year. Mercifully, we live on a hill - so although our garden is absolutely sodden (clay soil = no drainage!), we won't flood. It all drains down into the valley..

Save Our SSSI

Speaking of the valley, some people local to us are trying to raise money to save our woods from developers, clean them up and turn them into a real focus for the community. I'm confident that the campaign will succeed and I look forward to helping out when the clean-up begins - at the moment we're always on the lookout for teenagers on motorbikes and broken glass, it'll be nice to get the area cleared of rubbish and shut the yobs out. The addition of poo bins would be good, too...

Where'd that bridge go?

2007-07-22T20:13:00.000+01:00

Well, yesterday we pootled off in the drizzle to Sence Valley Forest Park again. There was an open day so we thought we'd do the walk round the lakes then have a look at the open day, then head over to Ashby Farmer's Market.
The walk started OK, Mollie was soooo excited to be out and about, she does love it there. When we got to the first bridge - the one just by where she slipped and fell in the other day - the water was up to the top of the arch and had actually eroded some of the path. The path was underwater on the other side, but it was only an inch or so deep so we risked it and carried on walking. When we got to the next bridge, however (there are several streams which run into and between the lakes, and the path crosses them), there was no way to continue without waders. The path was under at least a foot of water. Mollie was all for carrying on as long as the ball went in that direction, but we turned back. The park was full of dog walkers getting just that far then turning round.
We walked back and headed for the open day stalls - but the rangers had given in to the weather and were heading home - the lake had already got to within a few feet of the big tent and was still rising in the persistant drizzle, and the only people at the park had either come to walk the dog or take photos - on which note, I have to apologise as neither of us even had a (working) cameraphone with us, so no pics I'm afraid!

Suspend NFL Quarterback Michael Vick for Dogfighting!

2007-07-20T14:09:00.000+01:00

From the Care2 petition page:

"This week, a federal grand jury indicted NFL star quarterback Michael Vick and three cohorts on felony dogfighting charges.

The abuses described in the indictment are almost beyond belief, and include a report of Vick being consulted before the execution of the losing dog "by wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting the animal."

The indictment also describes "the execution of approximately eight dogs that did not perform well in "testing" sessions ... by methods including hanging, drowning and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick should be suspended from the NFL immediately!

The NFL expressed “disappointment” and said, “We believe that all concerned should allow the legal process to determine the facts.” That’s just not good enough. The alleged acts were not petty or harmless; they were nothing short of gruesome and barbaric.

Sign the petition to the NFL today, and tell the league to suspend Michael Vick!"

Please consider signing this petition and pass on the link.

I will leave to your imagination what I think should be done to these people.

No, not Shih-Tzu - Shiatsu!!

2007-07-20T09:11:00.000+01:00

My partner Tracy is just months away from qualifying as a Shiatsu practitioner, and around the same time that she qualifies it will become regulated (which means no more 'shiatsu' massages in hairdressing salons etc - but that's another soapbox). You can read more about Tracy's exploits and experiences here. Anyway, this means that on most Thursday nights she has clients in for treatments as you have to treat so many people each year during training, plus it helps build a client base before you fully qualify. Last night one of them cancelled, so I got lucky and got a treatment.
Now, Mollie has become fairly good when there's a treatment happening, if I'm not around to distract her she'll normally sit in the hallway and moan occasionally, or she'll just go to bed. Historically, when I've had a treatment, however, she's not only had to watch but also intervene on occasion (wet nose and a moan or a strategically placed paw) if she thinks Tracy might be hurting me, which is quite sweet but does get dog hair on the futon! But last night, although she snuck in, she lay down quite nicely in the doorway for the whole treatment!! Afterwards, when we told her what a good girl she was, she just crept forwards on her belly until she was close enough to be kissed and cuddled, then she curled up between Tracy's knees and said 'hrrmph' and got a mini treatment herself. Because of how badly she used to pull on the lead, she had quite a bent spine but regular shiatsu has helped to straighten it out - it also helps enormously with her escaping kneecap ("luxating patella") and calms her down when she gets overexcited.
All this means that, when Tracy finally starts working from home more and more, Mollie will be able to cope much better and not get in the way too much. Of course, most of Tracy's current clients want Mollie cuddles after their treatments, which probably also helps her to not be so scared of strangers coming into the house.
You can read more about Shiatsu and details of practitioners in your area at the British School of Shiatsu-do website and also the British Shiatsu Society website.

I slept really well last night, incidentally - and so did Mollie dog. Shiatsu does leave you wonderfully relaxed...

Note: for a while, we did consider getting a shih-tzu. In fact we came very close to getting a cross from a rescue but the 24 hr trial really didn't go well. A lot of people, when they hear 'shiatsu', say "isn't that a small dog?" and obviously think this is really really funny. Would've been good to get the dog to walk up and down their backs if they then asked for a treatment... oh well...

Dominance

2007-07-19T09:22:00.000+01:00

Graham has been discussing dominance on his blog after I mentioned that we, too, wrestle with our dog!

When we first got Mollie, I was very worried about dominance and was all for making sure Mollie was always on the floor, not allowed on the furniture etc as a lot of people say that encouraging any kind of bossy or pseudo aggressive behaviour can cause your dog to become dominant and basically potentially dangerous. But then I read about wolves and watched that TV program where that bloke basically 'became' a wolf, and I thought, hey - among dog and wolf packs, the leader still plays with the others, and it's an integral part of the bonding process. So, Mollie gets occasional reminders about walking behind us when going upstairs, and she gets fed after the cats, and has to sit or lie down for treats etc, but we play with her as if we're dogs. To start with, she didn't know what to do - if you went down on all fours, growled and bounced her, she'd run away - but now she bounces back and plays properly!! Sometimes it looks and sounds for all the world like she's biting my hand off, but leaves nothing but a slightly damp patch - and she always stops when we stop. Ultimately, I guess it depends on the relationship you have with your dog and on your dog's character. We have to be on our guard as Mollie will occasionally push the boundaries a bit (she IS a terrier, after all!), but it's fairly easy to put her in her place ("BED!!" usually works!), and she was doing that when we first got her anyway. And a knock on effect of us playing with her like this is that she's much much happier playing with other dogs now!

Back seat nesting

2007-07-18T22:58:00.000+01:00

This evening we took Mollie to Sence Valley Forest Park near Ibstock. She loves it there: she can run around off lead, there's a gravel path so you don't have to get muddy, and there's a lake (it used to be an open cast coal mine). The trees aren't very tall yet but it'll be even more lovely when they've grown; they've done a really good job of prettifying it and there are ample dog bins... there are lots of paths that head off into the countryside so we need to go back with provisions and an O/S map one weekend - when it's not raining!!

We bimbled along the path around the lake, met a few dogs (she got chatted up by a 6 month old staffy called Dino, a brindle and white waggy boy - she seems to love staffies and I can't say I blame her! Sorry Prince...), threw the ball a bit... at one point was clearly overheating so we led her to a stream but she slipped and fell in!! Up to her neck, but still wagging. By the time we got back to the car, she was shattered, and when she's tired she nests, so on the way to the friend that we visited this evening all Tracy could see in the rear view mirror was a waggy tail as some frantic nesting went on. What had started out as a fairly tidy fleece blanket ended up very, very crinkled up and messy. We were both in stitches as she kind of got her head underneath the edge of the blanket and tossed it, then picked it up in her teeth, then went round and round, then sat and had a breather for a second and surveyed her work. And all this while wearing a harness clipped onto the seat belt!! Unfortunately, just as she'd got her nest just right, we arrived at our friends' house, but at least that meant it was ready for the trip home...

Spot the dog

2007-07-18T11:17:00.001+01:00

Gratuitous photo time: in March I was off sick for a few days and had a duvet on the sofa. Sammy and Mollie were quick to take advantage when I went into the kitchen for a few minutes...

Dublin council evicting family pets

2007-07-18T10:34:00.000+01:00

Dublin city council have decreed that all dogs belonging to 'dangerous' breeds which belong to council tenants must go...

You can read more here:

Anvil Ireland press release

Please sign the petition here.

There is also a thread with sample letters and more information on D For Dog .

This is senseless, absolutely senseless discrimination against innocent dogs and their owners. Already there are family pets in overflowing pounds which are destined to be put to sleep because the council have decided all dogs of certain breeds are dangerous. Discrimination of this kind against humans would be condemned as racism and would basically equate to, for example,everyone from a particular ethnic minority being evicted because one or two had a violent history. Seems to me it's the council who should be evicted.

The landing game

2007-07-18T08:57:00.000+01:00

Mollie, my partner Tracy and I have invented a game.

It's one of Mollie's favourites.

We keep the door through to the living room closed so that the cats can't go upstairs unless they're invited (the reason why is another story), and we have a laminate floor in the hall. Mollie likes to try to be first through the door when it's opened (from either side), so if going from the living room to the hall she does a kind of sideways cartoon scrabble on the laminate then runs up the stairs.
The game is for one of her humans to crawl up the stairs, bang both hands on the landing (dog pounce) and go 'hah!' or similar. This is Mollie's prompt to a) grab a toy/sock/slipper and b) run past taunting us with it. The landing runs across the top of the stairs, so she can run from the master bedroom to the bathroom shaking her 'toy' wildly... and whichever human is at the top of the stairs then has to try and grab the toy or the dog as she runs past... sometimes it ends up with a spot of dog-wrestling, either way it invariably leaves the (dark blue) landing carpet covered in white hair. Don't let anyone tell you that smooth-coated terriers don't moult, they definitely do!!

On a separate note, thank-you to Graham for his mention yesterday!! Mollie unfortunately took Prince's advances the wrong way and thought he was after her chew, which she promptly glued to the sheepskin rug in front of the fire. Does anyone else find their dogs do this? We have a huge fluffy beanbag in the living room and on more than one occasion we've found a partially masticated rawhide knot hanging from it... in fact, at the weekend she glued one to our bedsheet and it left little hard patches which I'm told were quite uncomfortable to sleep on... hehe, glad it wasn't on my side of the bed!!!

We have the technology...

2007-07-17T11:18:00.000+01:00

Dog breaks new ground with his metallic paw | Uk News | News | Telegraph

The wonders of modern technology, eh? We can't conclusively prove whether two innocuous family pets have savaged a couple of sheep, but we can give a dog an artificial limb. Talk about the sublime to the ridiculous!!

Mollie Blog

2007-07-17T09:56:00.000+01:00

Mollie is our 3 year old Jack Russell - she's a long legged one, which means some people will think or her as a Parsons Russell. We just call her Mollie dog and tend to think of her as JR X whippet - she runs like the wind!! We got Mollie last November after her previous owner had to rehome her (for reasons which I won't go into here).
Mollie dog is a character. She HATES mornings, would rather lie in until at least ten o'clock. She will quite happily go for long walks - the furthest so far is 8/9 miles so far - and she refuses to acknowledge when she's tired; but we can tell, and we stop and make her have a rest and a drink. She's not quite ball-obsessed, but she does have a small collection of Air Kong tennis balls - some of which no longer squeak, and many of which are "somewhere safe". When she's very excited she likes to squeak a ball to show her feelings...
As my partner and I both work full time, Mollie spends her days with our retired neighbours where she gets lots of cuddles, a cooked lunch, and played with all day if the sun is shining. It's a dog's life.

The photo above is from a sequence taken when she'd just been given a Sherley's Beef 'n' Bacon Knot. It's her favourite treat, although last night she did discover rather a liking for pancakes (made with goat milk).