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!