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The online diary
started life as a blog of my strange 'other life' with the dog. I
wanted to record some of the experiences that I had as a first-time dog
owner. To access the archive, click on the appropriate month.
The most recent articles are listed
separately.
You are most
welcome to send comments about any of the articles. Record your
comments via the Contact Me page.
SPAYED!
Tue 01 Jul 2008
The vet was
keen to spay Beattie after her first
season. ‘Think of the risks by delaying’, he said. ‘Increased risk of
cancer , for one.’
After
consulting AT, we had decided that
Beattie was too young.
AT’s advice was that she should have at
least two seasons. She had read a lot of the latest research, which
suggested that dogs should be fully mature before spaying. My instincts
agreed with her.
She had to be
delivered to the vet by 8.30, so we were up early today. Before we left, I
gave her a good groom, as she would not feel like it for a few days. The
nurse saw her and I had to sign the ‘consent’ form as well as answering one
or two questions. ‘When did she eat last? When did her last season end?
Is she insured?’ (They always ask that one!)
It was strange
to walk out without her. ‘Give us a ring at two o’ clock’, said the nurse,
with a cheery wave as she led Beattie away
…
… I spent the
morning painting the gates. It was a good time to complete this task when
Beattie wasn’t around to poke her nose into
everything! I had to leave both gates open to dry, so that was another good
reason to do this work today. Dead on two o’clock I rang. ‘She’s fine and
you can collect her at five’, I was told by the receptionist. That was a
relief! She had survived! I am sure they do dozens of these ops. Why was
I worrying so much? When I was waiting to see the nurse in the morning, I
had picked up a little book about pet bereavement! Just the sort of book I
should be reading before she went under the knife.! ‘You may feel very
angry’, I read, ‘and blame the person responsible. This could be your vet!’
… No! I did not want to read any more.
I was back in
the waiting room before five and I was amazed how normal she looked as she
trotted out on the end of her lead. Had a list of instructions, of course,
all concerned with post-op care. The main one seemed to be, ‘Don’t let
Beattie jump up at people or on to the
furniture.’ Well, that would be difficult. She did that all the time!
Getting her
home, she was still rather groggy despite my first impressions and spent the
afternoon curled up on a duvet that A put
on the floor for her.
So far, so
good … Back
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Comment from Tracey
Lilly
No unwanted
teenage pregnancy now then?
I am glad she is OK
RECOVERY
Tue 08 Jul 2008
The past week
has been one of slow recovery for Beattie.
She did not have a good day on Wednesday when she must have still been
recovering from the anaesthetic. Unfortunately, she was incontinent! Not
her fault, of course. I had two lots of clearing up to do and
Beattie actually looked most apologetic.
Perhaps she thought she would be in trouble!
She was very
quiet for a few days and only went out in the garden for exercise – not that
she did a lot of that. On Friday, I took her back to the vet for a post-op
check. When I explained about her ‘problem’ she was taken through to the
vet, who gave her the ‘once over’ and pronounced her to be fine. I took
away something to settle her stomach and was told she did not have to return
unless there were any other concerns.
On Saturday,
she was meant to be taking her
Good Citizen Bronze
Award training day, but I telephoned AT
to say that she was not really up to a day’s work. She will have to take
part the next time this course is run.
Beattie did not really start to return to
normal until Sunday. On that day she started to play with her toys in a
gentle kind of way. We certainly did not encourage her to run around
chasing things just yet. It was better for her to build up gradually. I
had been told not to do too much with her for the first ten days. That
day, she also went on her first walk down to the pound and back and
yesterday, we did the walk twice in the day.
Today I will
take her further afield, but still only on the lead and not too far. I
don’t want to rush things, as she must build up to long walks steadily.
That is the best way to ensure a successful recovery! Back
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Comment from
sablonneuse
So pleased to hear
Beattie is recovering. It is very worrying when you have to leave a
pet at the vets isn't it? It might be easier if you could explain
things to them but I always feel anxious in case they feel you have
deserted them.
KILLER!
Thu 10 Jul 2008
Regular
readers of my diary will be shocked and saddened when they read the
following entry.
Last evening,
I was preparing dinner when Beattie
appeared in the kitchen to stand by the back door. There is nothing unusual
in this behaviour as this is her way of telling us that she wants to go
outside. I had no reason to suppose it was for anything else than a toilet
break or to stretch her legs as she has been rather short of exercise
lately. (See Recovery)
I opened the
door and she fairly shot our and ran down the garden path towards a
flowerbed next to the shed. As soon as she arrived there, she jumped into
the midst of the foliage, something I had never seen her do before.
Naturally, I was intrigued by this strange behaviour and stood to watch what
might happen next.
Beattie was very excited by something in
the border and I thought it might be a rat the way she was jumping around.
She was definitely after something, that much was clear. Suddenly, she
leapt out of the undergrowth and ran around in front of the shed. Whatever
it was, the creature was trying to escape, but it was not quick enough for
Beattie! She had the animal trapped and
then I saw it. The creature was a bird and it was already lying lifeless on
the path whilst Beattie sniffed at it
curiously. At no time had she seized the bird in her mouth. The poor thing
must have died of shock or fright!
All this had
happened in less than thirty seconds, and I was very swiftly out of the door
to rescue the bird from Beattie’s
clutches. It was a young blackbird that I held in my hand.
The saddest
thing was to see the blackbird’s mother frantically searching for the
missing youngster a short while later. She seemed very agitated that her
baby had disappeared and flapped about the area where she must have last
seen her offspring.
I don’t like
to think that Beattie had deliberately set
out to kill the bird. She must have seen it fluttering in the border from
her vantage point in the conservatory. It was her chasing instinct that
prompted her actions. In no way did she savage the bird at any time.
It’s normally
cats that wreak carnage on the local bird population. I didn’t expect that
sort of behaviour from Beattie.
Back
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Comment from
AT
Dogs will be dogs!! Seems like she's
recovered then!!?
Comment from
sablonneuse
It's upsetting when pets kill birds - even
if they didn't mean to. Many times I have rescued birds from the
cats' clutches and even administered brandy in water or Bach Rescue
Remedy (both of which buck them up) but can't claim more than about
a 30% success rate. Fortunately the small birds here seem to
have the good sense to keep out of our garden and the cats seem
rather frightened of the big ones.
AGILITY TRAINING
Wed 16 Jul 2008
As an
end-of-term treat, AT set up a small
agility course for the dogs to try out during the evening. I went over
early with Beattie to help set it all up.
The course consisted of three jumps interspersed with a series of weaving
poles and a short tunnel. The idea was to give the dogs a taster in the
world of ‘dog agility’.
I must say
that after one or two false starts, Beattie
did rather well. Could it be that she has a natural aptitude for this
activity? Bedlingtons are certainly agile and
Beattie can put up a rare turn of speed when she wants to.
Her first
attempts were on the lead, as she needed to be shown what to do. The first
time I did this with her, I managed to knock over the jump sending the
plastic poles cascading everywhere including over
Beattie. Not a good start, as she can be
easily spooked by such unexpected events! She cringed, visibly, and shrank
to the floor.
She mastered
the idea of the weaving poles quite quickly as she is used to following my
hand in heelwork. It was rather slow, but at least she cleared the
obstacle. The tunnel proved to be problematic as she was most unwilling to
enter. But AT had a number of strategies
up her sleeve for solving that particular problem. ‘I’ll hold her while you
call her through from the other end’, was one of her ploys. Another was for
me to throw a treat through the tunnel for her to chase! She soon got the
hang of it, but the lead was a constriction as it trailed behind her in the
tunnel.
After a few
dry runs, I took off the lead and was amazed when she completed the course
without any major hiccups! She still needed pointing through the tunnel,
but she was getting the idea quite nicely. I think
AT was quite impressed with her. I
certainly was!
Of course,
this was only a mini-course. The tunnel is much longer and there are other
obstacles as well, such as the see-saw. AT
said she would send me details of a local club dedicated to training dog
agility.
It’s something
to think about, anyway.
Back
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Comment from
AT
Yes, I thought this sport really suited Beattie; with those long
legs the obstacles are of no difficulty and of course she is an
obedient clicker trained dog!
FLYBALL
Wed 16 Jul 2008
There was
another ‘event’ at Dog Club last night, a demonstration of Flyball.
Flyball racing is a race between two
teams of dogs. There are two parallel lanes for two teams of dogs to race
each other. Each lane has 4 low hurdles at the far end a spring loaded wedge
shaped 'box' holding a tennis ball.
Each
team has its own lane where four dogs at a time run in each race, relay
fashion over the 4 hurdles, trigger the box containing the tennis ball,
catch the ball and return to the start. The handlers remain behind the start
line. They release their dogs in turn and collect them at the end of their
run.
Flyball started in America in the 1970's and has become an International
event with competitions in the UK, N. America, Canada, Europe, Japan &
Australia. It is the fastest growing dog sport, with the UK leading the way
In Europe.
The
top teams in the UK can complete the course in 16.4 seconds!
The
course was set up on the field and after the demonstration by two Border
collies, we were invited to bring our dogs to have a go. The first skill to
master was taking the tennis ball out of the ‘box’.
Beattie had never picked up a tennis ball
before, but she loves her football and by throwing the ball a short
distance, she soon got the idea of retrieving the ball! After a few tries
using a dummy box, she entered the ‘run’.
After last week, she had no trouble with the four jumps, but had no idea how
to trigger the ball in the box. It is the weight of the dog putting their
paws on the ‘box’ that triggers the spring-loaded ball. It can be triggered
by the demonstrator and when he did, the ball came flying at
Beattie! This action startled her, and
being the sort of dog she is, Beattie
decided that she had had enough of this strange ‘entertainment and was off
back down the run!
I
took her back for a second attempt a little while later, but the memory of
flying balls was too much and she totally refused to cooperate.
Ah
well, she can’t be good at everything!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
I don't blame
Beattie for avoiding flying balls. She must have thought they were
attacking her.
OVERINDULGENCE
Sat 26 Jul 2008
A and I had arranged to meet
AT at Dunwich to take all the dogs for a
walk along the beach. It was a beautiful day, warm, with enough of a sea
breeze to make it feel very pleasant. As we were unloading all of
AT’s dogs from her new van, a lady with
four deer hounds came by. AT knew her and
started to chat. I had never seen deerhounds before: they really are lovely
dogs; very gentle and calm, but must eat K
out of house and home. She was amazed that we only had
Beattie. The concept of only having one
dog seemed completely alien to her.
As we walked
the dogs up the beach, Beattie drank a fair
quantity of seawater. I am always quite surprised that dogs drink seawater,
apparently, with impunity. But not on this occasion as
Beattie suddenly stood still retching and
after a short while deposited her breakfast on the sand! Had she
overindulged herself on all that salty water today?
We had cod and
chips for lunch, served at the beach café. They do a roaring trade in the
summer, even coping with coach parties. There were three coach loads that
day! We sat at tables outside, as it was so pleasant.
Beattie was under the table, but we had to
keep an eye on her as at one point after we had finished our meal, the fish
skin on A’s plate suddenly began to move. Beattie
had spotted a chance to scavenge when we were distracted!
A saw her just in time to thwart her ideas
of table theft!
There was
obviously nothing wrong with her stomach. Except, of course it was now
empty!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
Goodness, I didn't
know dogs could drink seawater (usually) without ill effect. Poor
Beattie: she must have felt pretty miserable but if she was well
enough to attempt to grab some fish it was a good sign her tummy
felt better.
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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900
Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2008 Derek Cockell All Rights
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