Changing Seasons

Autumn is my favourite season of the four, I find it picturesque and somewhat relaxing – the crunching of the leaves beneath your feet as you walk and the brisk and refreshing air which is cold, but not freezing.

Then again whilst the scenery and fresh air is all well and good, there are a couple of things which let Autumn down, Halloween and Bonfire Night. Actually thinking about it now, having Harry in our lives is going to make me despite Autumn!

I was out taking his lordship for a walk the other morning and wasn’t really thinking about the season and how it affects Harry. 

He was ignoring the spread of brown and orange leaves and trotting along browsing treebook (the social network for dogs), until a gust of wind blew up a solitary leaf (think the silver and gold tokens in The Crystal Maze/ Crystal Dome) – Harry spotted this and darted after it. That’d be fine if he was on a free run in the garden, but for anyone who’s actually following this properly, he was on the lead and almost pulled my shoulder out of its socket – think an amateur water-ski person.  

So that’s reason one to hate Autumn, reason two is Halloween which is just around the corner. When I was in my teenage years (god I feel OLD writing that!) “trick or treat”-ing wasn’t massive – alright we’d go around for the free mini-mars bars and think we we’re going to get rich collecting 5ps, but it was nothing special. 

A few might dab in some ketchup or an old cut up white bed sheet (to be a ghost, come on use your imagination!), one lad even had a scream mask (he was Six Foot Six aged 14 so it WAS quite intimidated, well until he spoke as his voice hadn’t broke!) – but again it wasn’t on the scale it is nowadays.

All the supermarkets deck out the isles with decorations, spooky treats and more such as pumpkins, fake blood and spiders webs – in fact according to a new supermarket study, Halloween is now the third biggest event behind Christmas and Easter, overtaking Valentines – Romance is officially dead.

Anyway I digress, with the UK now all American over Halloween, I fear that all the local kids will ignore the COMPLETE LACK of Halloween themed decorations and band on the door, thus causing Harry to go MENTAL – both barking/ jumping up and, more importantly, letting the little cherubs know someone’s home.

Reason three to dislike autumn has to be bonfire night, which I’ve always hated. When you think about it, it’s actually a legal day for arsonists to set things on fire (providing the stick it in a pile and put some old rags with a drawn on face on top!). Fireworks I’ll grant you are pretty but, aside from the constant dangers, are a nightmare if you are a dog owner.

It’s not too bad if it’s just ONE DAY/NIGHT, you know like it’s supposed to be, but it’s not – it never bloody is! Mind you “remember, remember the 5^th of November and three weeks either side of it” doesn’t have the same ring does it!

Jaz, my old dog now sleeping in doggy heaven, was petrified of fireworks. She was the calmest dog on earth but as soon as a firework exploded in the sky, she’d dart of to the darkest and quietest place she could find – usually under my desk. She wouldn’t move for ages, she’d lie there, often through the night, shaking. I was telling Em some stories the other day and she was telling me her Bessy was the same.

So far Harry has been OK, although last night he went out for a wee and heard one explode – he was howling for ages, so we’ll have to keep an eye on him and see how he goes. Maybe it’s a female thing – knowing Harry he probably just wants to chase them!

It’s half term this week and so I’ve got the week off which means I’m at home and in sole charge of Harry. I decided a few days ago to try and use the time to my advantage and try and take some authority and train him. I ordered a dog whistle and a clicker from Amazon and a seller called CLIX. 

I haven’t used the whistle yet, to be honest I feel a little silly in using it, the clicker however is having some positive effect, especially when he’s on his mad half-hour! The trouble is you have to reward with a treat – I don’t know what is too much or make him become self-reliant on treats, that’s just negative surely? He’d just get to the stage of “well I ain’t doing that unless you give me a treat” – it’d be a stand-off!

I’m still waiting on the delivery of his collar-cam, although yesterday I did make a mock up video of him jumping in one of the living room chairs – mainly out of boredom. This morning I’ve also tidied up his area downstairs to attempt to stop the chewing of carpet and blankets (and to make it a bit warmer for him) – after I’d finished, I had some errands to do up here and so left him downstairs for a bit. I “hid” a camera in the mail-catcher basket to record what he did, if anything – I’m to go through the footage soon and maybe repeat the process for a few days, if anything interesting pops up I’ll share it with you next week.

That’s it for this week, he’s nodding at the moment on my feet as he has been for most of the afternoon to be fair. Before I do sign off though, I want to leave you with a bit of advice about Autumn, especially for anyone who likes collecting leaves. Whether it be for school projects or scrap books – if other dogs are like Harry, there’s a 90% change the leaves you collect have dog wee on!

Until next time…

PS An added footnote, I thought I’d finished so nipped to the loo, when I came back Harry had moved from the end of the bed to my pillow to read the blog! I hope it doesn’t get a woof review, sorry paw joke! 

Doctor Harry Will See You Now

I’ve always said that Dogs have a stronger instinct than other animals, for example there have been many stories from across the years about various dogs instinct, whether it be saving a life, finding an air-loom or even discovering lost property.

Over the last few days I think that me and Em have started to see Harry’s instincts come to life a little more, I’ve been struck down by the worst thing imaginable – yup, I’ve got man flu!

To be honest I’m surprised he’s come anywhere near me over the past few days, I’m a grumpy git most of the time but when I’m infected by man flu, grumpy git becomes uber grumpy bastard!

Despite this, he has sensed I’ve been ill and in his usual way has turned into Doctor Harry – not allowing me to sleep all day, which with man flu isn’t recommended, not leaving my side when he’s inside and prescribing me with a dose of licking my face!

During the worst of the man flu, I couldn’t really manage a grunt of “lie down harry”, but to his credit, he sensed he was being annoying and just lied down at my feet and allowed me the prescribed half-hour shut eye. Bless.

He is usually a star at night, he is settled into a nice routine of coming into our room and chilling either on our bed, on the floor or if he’s really tired, on his own bed which Em brought him a week or so ago. He’ll then go downstairs and out for a call of nature before slumping in his cage, or hotel, for the evening – barking only once he’s heard us awake the next morning.

Last night though, it took him ages to go downstairs and after doing his business (twice) he wouldn’t settle. Thinking back now, I was coughing a lot so I wonder now if he was doing his attention grabbing bark just to come up here and do a bit of doctor patient observation.

It’s not just Illness that he observes, he is good at knowing when someone is coming, before the rest of us even realise. He’ll just stop whatever it is he’s doing, sit up sharp and just stare – eventually he’ll turn around and look at us and then keep glancing back and forth, within two minutes, a family member turns up! Scary.

Also when we are out at football he’ll stay at the farm and run around the front lawn, we can see him chasing himself around or playing with a toy from the end of the drive, as soon as he hears the car he stops, sits and waits. If you dare walk past him without going to give him some fuss, you will get barked out, loudly – he loves his attention!

Being bunged up with man flu I’m struggling to recall his other acts of instincts, no doubt Em will tell me loads when she gets home from work! 

As much as I enjoy writing, I do find it tough sometimes to explain what goes on in his head and describe what the little cherub has been upto. I’ve ordered a collar camera which should be here soon, it clips onto his collar and basically gives you a “dogs eye view” – I’m also going to rig up some secret cameras too so we can all see what Harry gets up to. 

Hopefully somewhere in the footage will be some gems to share with you all, and if I’ve still got man flu, I promise not to share any footage of him licking my face!

Must Dash, he’s been downstairs for half an hour and usually I’d be inclined to leave him until he shouted “next patient please” (or woof) but Em shared this thing on facebook the other day which is SO true it has me scared.  

Silence is golden, unless you have a puppy – then silence is suspicious, VERY VERY suspicious. With Doctor Harry, there’s never been a truer quote!   

Harryisums

Dogs in my opinion are the most intelligent animals on the planet. I’m not saying they’d be victorious on University Challenge or Pointless, mind you if they COULD speak they’d give it a fair shot, I just think they all have certain traits and quirks which makes them almost human!

I guess that’s why growing up I always looked at Jaz like a sister rather than a pet, I know Em looked at her Bessy (also a border collie like Harry) in the same way. Jaz was very good at sensing moods, for example after I’d come home from football on a Saturday afternoon, she’d know the result by the way I’d put the key in the door and then act accordingly – win and she’d bound towards me for maximum fuss, draw she’d sort of lurk half way and wait to be called, lose and she’d retreat to her bed and keep her head down. Following Mansfield Town, she did a LOT of this!

Harry is growing up fast and is starting to develop his own traits, something we’re calling Harryisums – moments where he just stops looks round like he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on!

I think my favourite has to be when he’s playing with his toys – he’s like a spoilt kid in a sweet shop and just wants every single one, at once! Let’s say for example he has a tennis ball, a rope and a football. If you kick the football he’ll charge off after it but as soon as you make the slightest of movements towards the tennis ball, he’s there grabbing it – whilst simultaneously keeping a firm grip on the football. You then make a dash for the rope and he’s there, a paw on the football, tennis ball in mouth and then dives on the rope!

He’ll then stand guarding all three but giving you the stare of death almost saying “well throw one then mate”. Well I would Harry but you need to give me one of them first pal!

When he comes inside he’s got a tennis ball he likes playing with, he’ll sit on the bed with the tennis ball right under his nose and barks constantly until you pick it up and show it him. You then put it down and the same happens again – he looks at the ball like “oh yeah”. Goldfish. Castle, what Castle?

On the subject of being like a child, sometimes you see Dads walking around with their offspring on their shoulders. 

Harry likes doing that too, not walking around on my shoulders obviously, that’d be beyond daft, but if I’m sitting on a chair or on the edge of the bed, he’ll jump up onto my shoulders, a paw on each and wrestle me down with consistent licking.  

Looking on the Brightside, it’s not just me he “attacks” – in a morning he’s taken quite a fancy to Ems hairbrush. He’ll be fast asleep on the bed, although he’ll open one eye to check Laura Tobin’s GMB weather report, and Em will sneak away like a ninja to do her hair before work. No matter how quiet Em is, Harry is up like a shot trying to get the hairbrush – something we both find strange as when we last tried brushing him, well let’s just say it took a search party to get him back.

He might have his moments at being outrageously silly, but he can be quiet bright too. We both have our ways of trying to get him to respond, mainly at night when he’d been fast asleep at our feet for hours and needs to go to bed in his cage (which is more like a five star hotel room with the way Em has arranged it!).

He’ll slowly go downstairs and, if he hasn’t flopped back to sleep mode, will go out on the garden for a wee. As soon as the air hits him, cute tired harry becomes Harry the whippet, storming around the garden thinking its playtime! He’ll do a wee and then starts roaming around – we’ll either try rustling his treat bag which IS working at the moment* or opening the door to the stairs and heading back up, but sitting half way to catch him and put him to bed. He won’t even come in if he can see us sitting there anymore, and on the rare occasions he DOES come in, as soon as you reach for his collar, he’s off and it’s game over!

Sometimes words aren’t enough to describe properly about Harry’s moments. So we’re going to put up some secret cameras, including what actually happens in the life of Harry!

*I just hope the dog social networking site “lamppostbook” doesn’t share this blog and Harry somehow cottons on!

In The Life of PawFace - Introducing Harry

Dogs V Cats is an old battle and preference which has stemmed generations, a bit like Tea V Coffee or White Bread V Wholemeal. For me, I’m certainly on “team dog” and with every day that unfolds, find myself wondering what on earth goes through the mind of mine. 

Rather than drive myself insane by talking to myself about it, I thought I’d blog about it and maybe see if other dog owners think or see the same patterns of behaviour from their four-legged companions. 

I’m currently on dog number three in my life, Harry – a pure Border Collie puppy who is around six months old. To be honest, I was apprehensive about welcoming him into our (myself and my partner Em) lives, I adored my previous dog Jaz, a Labrador Golden Retriever Cross with a hint of Collie in her (her mum got about a bit!), I was GUTTED when we (myself and my dad) had to have her put to sleep due to ill health in September 2012.

Jaz <3 R.I.P

I could write a book about her alone, but in a nutshell she was my childhood best friend and got me through a LOT of dog-poo (metaphorically) – more like a loving sister than a pet. I vowed the day she fell asleep, with my eyes being the last she saw, that I would never get another dog.

So why am I here writing about Dog number three Harry? Em saw him for sale on Facebook (apparently it’s the new way to get a puppy!) and sent me a picture of him saying “please?” – I didn’t realise she was joking*, and neither did she when I replied “ok”! 

Wires had been crossed and before we knew it, cash had been exchanged and we had a new addition to our lives. 

That was back in June and now as we canter into October, we have embraced this dog into our lives and he is very much part of the family, currently the annoying baby whose FAR TO BLOODY HYPER! 

Dog One for me was called Lady, inventive I know. I was too young to remember her and I think we sold her or gave her away after she ate my brother’s braces. Dog Two, my Jaz, we had from a puppy and again, I was young during her pup stages so can’t really remember how she was – which means now, our Harry is something I haven’t experienced properly. Not Fun.

He IS getting a lot calmer than what he was when he first arrived, however he LOVES chewing mail and so you have to be like Usain Bolt when Postman Pat arrives! He spends most of his time (or at least has done until the rain started pouring) outside, either on our back garden or on the large front garden of the Farm – yep you guessed it, he LOVES digging. I swear down he’s either plotting his escape or communicating with Australians.   

Socks aren’t safe either, he’s lying at the bottom of my feet as I type gnawing away! Although he doesn’t chew them as frequently anymore!

For all of his annoyances, his eyes suck you in and you can’t help but love him! Don’t tell anyone though. I’d openly admit it if he was chilled a little more – basically if he left my socks alone, didn’t chew our mail, dig to the middle of the earth or wee inside when he gets overly excited! 

What I (we, but someone doesn’t want to admit to that yet) need is some help. This is why I’m writing this, to reach out to other dog owners to get their advice and hear their stories. 

We’ve ordered a mail catcher and staged a sock intervention, the wee situation isn’t too frequent but with rain (which equals soft soil and easier access to Oz) upon us, he’s going to be spending more time indoors. So if you have any tips or advice on that, please get in touch.

He’s now realised that I’m writing about him and is attacking me by licking my face! He is a clever lad and has “cottoned on” to a few of our attempts to be the boss – but that’s another blog for another night, along with how he interacts with other dogs, enjoys recreating “The Great Escape” and much more.

Welcome, to the life of Harry. Oh and for the record, it’s Tea and Wholemeal! 

*She wasn’t joking and neither was I, it just seemed more interesting to put that – hey ho.