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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.
NEW YEAR
Fri 02 Jan 2009
Beattie spent most of yesterday
afternoon shut in her crate. This is not a place she likes to be when there
are visitors and she certainly let us know her disapproval of the
arrangements with angry barking for about ten minutes before she settled
down philosophically to wait for release.
The ‘visitors’
in question were JG and
AJB, both with very young families, and
even a small dog like Beattie can appear intimidating to very young
children. Of course, Beattie is just curious, and even more so when the
youngster screams in terror!
But we had a
very pleasant afternoon with family after making a point of not seeing in
the New Year. Personally, I think it’s a rather overrated event.
Eventually,
the youngsters departed for their beds and Beattie was released to enjoy the
rest of the evening. AB gave
Beattie her customary Christmas present, a pendant bearing the word ‘cute’
spelt out in letters of made up of fake diamond chips! How ghastly!
Beattie had to
endure being dressed up in her other past ‘gifts’ but she bore it all very
stoically. After all, freedom from her crate was a price well worth paying!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
Poor Beattie. She
must have felt very hard done by shut in her crate when you had
visitors.
I think even Beattie
knows it's not for long, though! derek
SCRAGGED
Sun 04 Jan 2009
Off her lead,
Beattie just cannot be
trusted. It’s a downside of her character that just takes the edge off dog
walks in the countryside or on the fells. It would be lovely if I could
walk her off lead without having to wonder what she might do next or how she
will react to any other living creature that we might meet.
Yesterday, for
instance, I took her over the fields at the back of our bungalow. I decided
she could walk off her lead as the field looked empty and had not yet been
ploughed and sown, so we could wander at will. She had a fine time, running
all over the place at top speed.
When I spotted
the two horses in a private field some distance away, I steered her well
away from them and I thought that all was well. Unfortunately, I had not
seen the chickens! We were heading for a gap in the hedge when Beattie must
have spotted the movement from a distance of about 100 metres. The first
thing I was aware of was Beattie sprinting across the field away from me
towards a number of black shapes that resolved into chickens running and
squawking for their lives!
I yelled at
Beattie to stop, but it was already hopeless. Her blood was up and she was
nearly on them. The hens waddled across a private garden and tried
desperately to squeeze through a thick privet hedge before the dog caught up
with them.
Too late for
one poor hapless individual. It was down and Beattie had leapt upon it
scragging the creature, tearing out clumps of feathers. I reached Beattie
at the same time as a very distraught lady peered over the hedge uttering
angry words aimed exclusively at me!
I pulled
Beattie off the bird expecting it to be mortally wounded or already dead.
Amazingly, it had survived the attack and I waited whilst the husband
climbed over the fence lower down the garden and advanced towards me calling
out, ‘Is it dead?’
As he arrived on the scene, the hen stood up and
waddled off. Naturally, I was mortified at the turn of events and offered
my sincere apologies for the unprovoked attack, saying that I would pay for
the bird if it died!! He did not seem too concerned, as it appeared that
the hen had only lost a few feathers.
Mind you,
delayed shock might yet set in!! Apologising again, I took myself off from
the scene and whisked Beattie off home as soon as possible.
I will be very
careful about setting foot in that field any time soon! And that goes for
Beattie, as well! Back
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Comment from Tracey Lilly
Thank goodness it
wasn't a farmer with a gun.
Must be Beattie's hunting instinct.
Happy New Year to you and Alison.
We'll have to have an OWLS lunch before you go gadding off to the
Lakes again.
And a Happy New Year to
you and your family. Re. OWLS - spoke to Lizzie today.
Will let you know when! derek
Comment from AT
Please bring a
chicken with you for training tomorrow. We'll get her moving around
the hall for sure. Failing that, bring the football.
Will do! derek
Comment from
Gary
Derek - Tim (our
collie) did exactly the same thing a few weeks after we got him from
the rescue centre, only he got several including the cockerel.
The local farmer wasn't best pleased! We spoke to the dog
trainer at the centre and he advised us that a dog will always chase
something you can't stop them, the only thing you can do is make
yourself more interesting than the thing they want to case by having
one of their favourite toys with you! It did work with Tim, he
is always off his lead now on the moors and mountains, it was lots
of hard work though!
HUNTING DOG
Thu 08 Jan 2009
Ever since the
‘chicken incident’,
Beattie has been trying to
convince me (and herself) that she is a proper hunting dog. Unfortunately,
she has not quite convinced anyone yet that she could be classified as a
genuine hunter/scavenger.
Tuesday was a
glorious day, very cold but with cloudless blue skies after a light dusting
of snow the previous night. I decided to take Beattie along the Waveney on
one of our favourite walks. Last time we were here, she was chasing deer.
Today she was snuffling in holes for smaller fry – voles and moles!
Despite her
frantic efforts to dislodge some poor creature from a winter burrow, she
failed completely and caught precisely nothing! You can see the results of
her labours here.
For
photographs of the whole walk, click
here. Back
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Comment from Anonymous
What lovely photos.
I particularly like the one of the swans flying in the winter sun.
You obviously love your walks- What a different life to full time
teaching and all its inherent stresses.
Thank you for your kind comments. You are right -
it's a totally different life that I lead now. I still do a
bit of supply teaching, but it's just for fun, nowadays! derek
FROST
Sat 10 Jan 2009
Today has been
one of the coldest days of this extended cold snap with sub-zero
temperatures all day; at least, that is how it has felt in the keen
north-easterly that has been blowing down from the Baltic! Today, the trees
were still rimed with frost at 2.30 in the afternoon despite a weak winter
sun emerging from yellowing clouds for a short while.
Not that
Beattie was affected by the
cold as she skipped across the frozen ground of a favourite field walk. She
playfully tossed clods of rock hard earth around or tore at the ends of
polythene bags trapped in the freezer of frozen field!
Yes, she had a
fine time today as I plodded behind her, the ground so iron hard that the
mud from yesterday was shaken from my boots as I tracked over the uneven
surface. A few days ago, this same field had attracted the sticky mud to my
boots. Today, it was repelled.
All around us
were the sounds of battle as shotguns were discharged with alarming
frequency at the defenceless creatures that were their prey. We met one of
these battle-hardened ‘soldiers’, dressed in a khaki-green camouflage kit,
his shotgun laid across his chest, casually, as he surveyed an empty field
through a convenient gap in the hedge. Beattie went up to him in her usual
friendly manner, but I called her away. I did not want her mistaken for the
huntsmen’s quarry!
It was mighty
cold, and I was glad to escape back into the warmth of the kitchen when we
arrived back home. But Beattie just skipped off down the garden to play
when I let her off her lead.
Clearly, she
had not had enough of the winter weather! Back
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Comment from
sablonneuse
You and Beattie
are brave to out in this weather. It hasn't been above freezing here
for ages. It has been as low as -14 at night but Givet, in the
northern tip of the Ardennes went down to -19!
Hopefully you're due for a thaw in a few days time so it will be
back to the muddy paws and boots.
Comment from
Gary
Derek - does
Beattie suffer from 'ice balls' in between the pads on her paws???
Tim does awfully, when its snowy and icy he keeps stopping to chew
them off his pads. We were given a tip by one of the SARDA team
members we met in the Lakes about putting Vaseline on his pads!
Gary ...
I haven't noticed she
has this problem, but then we so little snow in Suffolk. She
did have a problem last summer when she played with her football on
the field next to the Ullswater Steamer jetty. The grass had
not been mown and she ended up with tiny seeds trapped between her
pads. It took ages to clear them away and I was not very
popular with her as the only solution was to pull them out and she
kept trying to bite me (not in anger, you understand but I think it
was painful!) derek
SCISSORS
Fri
16 Jan 2009
In careless
hands, scissors can cause harm and accidents will happen.
Grooming a dog
is a skilful task, which needs to be learned from an experienced groomer if
the dog is not to be harmed. Like hairdressers, young groomers need dogs to
practise their skills under the watchful eye of their tutor.
Beattie is fortunate to be in
the hands of V, who grooms her
every six to eight weeks. Usually, I drive Beattie over to
AT who has a grooming parlour
set up in her garage. V meets us here and attends to Beattie whilst I have
a natter to AT over a cup of coffee. The arrangement works very well for
everyone, especially Beattie who is not keen on the grooming process, but,
at least she knows and trusts V and she bears it as stoically as she is able
– not that V would stand for any nonsense from her!
V’s day job is
working as an instructor in dog grooming at a local college and,
occasionally, will take Beattie with her for the students to groom.
Yesterday was such an occasion as AT was concerned that it was too cold in
her garage for bathing the dogs and would I mind if V took Beattie into
college with her.
Everything was
arranged and at 7 a.m. yesterday morning, V came and collected Beattie for
the day. I had just taken Beattie for her early morning walk and she rushed
excitedly up to V, going off quite happily secured in a crate in the back of
the van. It’s quite a long day for her (and V) as she does not return until
seven in the evening.
Bedlington’s
have a rather quirky ‘show cut’ as you can see from this
photograph. Neither A nor
I have ever been keen on it and, anyway, we did not have Beattie intending
to show her. She is a pet and walking companion, primarily. V always gives
her a ‘pet poodle cut’, which I think looks very smart and as nature
intended!
When she
arrived home, she looked just great – the students had done a good job …
… except that
V told us that the scissors had caught her ear taking out a little nick, but
not to worry as the wound had been cauterised and there was nothing to see.
It was alarming news, but Beattie was perfectly well, bounding about in her
usual excitement and it took us a while to even find the site of the
injury. All that was visible was a small black mark of dried blood.
Accidents
happen and Beattie was none the worse for her experience. I bet the poor
student did not feel that way about it, though! Back
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Comment from
sablonneuse
Poor Beattie. I
wonder if she felt it at the time. Does this mean you won't let her
go to be practised on again?
It's just one of those
things, Sandy. She hasn't suffered any permanent damage and
she seemed quite happy when she returned. derek
PUMPING STATION
Thu 22 Jan 2009
Who
would have thought that a dog could be excited by technology?
We
were out on one of our regular walks yesterday alongside Breydon
Water. Our usual practice is to walk up to the red brick pumping
station, before retracing our steps back to the car. It is a walk
of about 70 minutes and gives
Beattie a good chance to run about off-lead and explore the area
at the water’s edge where she usually manages to find something
disgusting to pick up and eat or roll in to her heart’s content!
It was
a bright, cold, windy day and we met nobody else on our travels.
There is no stock on the marshes at this time of year, only flocks
of white swans and other wading birds. It’s an ideal time to walk
Beattie along here, as she has no distractions!
Approaching the pumping station, it was clear that things were
happening. Water was being pumped into the river through a large
drain, which ran underneath the bank we were walking along. From
the red brick building came the sound of machinery – obviously the
pump working overtime. The whole arrangement is automatic and must
work by a system of sensors in the drainage ditch next to the pump
house. Walking along the bank it was easy to see that there was an
excess of water on the marshes as it was lying in pools on the
sodden fields.
I
stood there for a short while watching the operation when, suddenly,
a flashing blue light and warning siren alerted me that something
was about to happen. A silver coloured metal open cage began to
drop vertically into the drainage ditch beside the building and
emerged from the watery depths a short while later with reeds and
other vegetation in the cage, which was now closed. Reaching the
highest point, the cage moved horizontally along a steel frame and
dropped the contents of the cage on to a growing pile of detritus.
Then the whole operation was repeated. Like the pumping
operation, this was an automatic system of clearing blockages.
It was
fascinating to watch, but more remarkable was Beattie’s reaction.
She barked excitedly at the moving cage and waited expectantly
whilst the cage was submerged before recommencing her barking as the
cage was lifted high out of the water!
Obviously, she was as spellbound as I was by the whole operation.
Once it was clear that the excitement had ended for the day, she
went off quite happily to her snuffling!
The
whole walk had been a very satisfying experience for her!
To see
photographs of the pumping station, click
here. Back
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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900
Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2009 Derek Cockell All Rights
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