Bathtime, for real!

I don’t know what it is about kennels but whenever I bring dogs back they always seem to have an oiliness to their fur and that ‘kennel smell’. It may be the disinfectant they use to keep the pens clean, who knows, but the pups were definitely suffering from kennel coat and in need of a bath. Now they may disagree, but this was a battle they weren’t going to win.

I decided to use the kitchen sink rather than the bath and do them one at a time. Brinkley is the best in water so I decided he would be first. He stood quite still in water up to his tummy and let me pour warm water over him, keeping it away from his ears and face. He stayed quite still while I soaped him up and didn’t object when I washed his ears and never moved when I rinsed him down. However good this was, I knew Brandy was going to be the exact opposite.

Having towelled Brinkley dry and settled him next to the warm kitchen radiator on a pile of dry towels, I turned my attention to Brandy, who to be fair had sat patiently by my side throughout the time I was bathing Brinkley, so at least I didn’t have to go and find him.

Brandy does not like water, he is even less keen on warm soapy water – a bubble bath is not his ideal way of relaxing. He stood in the water looking pathetic and the minute I poured the first jug of water over his back he was on his way out! We then began a ritual of me putting him back into the sink, pouring water over him and him attempting to climb out. He did seem to resign himself when I began to apply the very nice smelling puppy shampoo, which says it is soft, gentle and very mild, preparing their coat for adulthood – what? It’s shampoo, it gets them clean and makes them smell nice and not like a dog!

Having frothed up Brandy I began the process of rinsing the soap off and he began the process of climbing out of the sink. Eventually, I had finished and got him wrapped in a dry towel. I decided I would see whether either of them would let me use the hairdryer on them and make them all nice and fluffy as well as dry. They have been used to the sound of the hairdryer as they are always in the bedroom when I am drying my hair and I have turned the dryer on them on occasions without them freaking out, in an attempt to get to a stage where they would let me dry them with it, now was as good a time as any to see whether it had worked.

I took them both upstairs and sat Brandy on a towel on my lap, plugged in the dryer and turned it onto the lowest setting. I turned it so it was blowing on his back and waited, no reaction, so I carried on and he loved it even turning over so I could dry his tummy. He let me dry him all over and didn’t even flinch when I used it on his ears and it blew into his face – water he didn’t do but this he liked. He almost looked disappointed when I put him down so that I could try it on Brinkley. Brinkley wasn’t as happy to start with but after a few minutes he settled down and let me dry him and in less than an hour I had gone from having 2 kennel smelling dogs to 2 gorgeous fluffy, soft puppies who now had white fur where it had been grey and who couldn’t wait to go out into the garden and start to get grubby again.

And the floor shook ……….

I’m not sure whether it was the wardrobe doors rattling, the dogs jumping up at the bed or the sound of the rumble, but 1.00am this morning I though a lorry had run into the house. Neil, who can normally sleep through anything woke, said ‘oh, it’s an earthquake’ as if we have them all the time – how did he know? I don’t know, but he was right. It did frighten Brinkley & Brandy though. They were immediately out of bed and barking. I picked them up to reassure them while Neil went and checked that the house was still intact. I could see others looking out from their windows as well so it was obviously not just our house that was affected, so all I needed to do now was try and get the dogs to go back to their own beds and back to sleep.

Needless to say, this was not easy as they were a little spooked by what had happened and Brinkley has a particular knack of clinging on to you with his front paws, but after a little while I managed to get Brandy to settle and Brinkley wasn’t far behind him. They had been sleeping in separate beds but after the rude awakening they’d had they decided there was safety in numbers and went back to sleep together.

We now know that half of the country was affected and that an earthquake of 5.2 had hit not so far away, the largest in 25 years – it shook us all at the time but the pups are certainly not showing any signs of concern this morning, they are just the same as normal. We’ll have to see whether there are any problems getting them to bed tonight.

We’ve been in kennels and now we’re home!

Me & my bruv have spent a few days discussing what we did wrong. I said he pee’d in the wrong place, he says it wasn’t his peeing it was my pooping, I still think it was him! Where did our comfy home go, where did our scramble egg suppers go, who are all these other dogs and who are these strange people?

OK, this is what happened. We were in the car which usually means a trip to the park, but we ended up in this strange place with lots of barking. We went into this really big room and the people who we met were really friendly and gave us lots of hugs and strokes, which was nice but then we looked around and our mum and dad weren’t there anymore and these nice strangers were carrying us through to a place we didn’t like. Fair do’s, they kept us together, all the other dogs were on their own, they must have been really naughty. We had our own bed and our own toys and they gave us treats like our mum and dad do. There was a nice area for us to go outside our room, like an en-suite really and we could see the other dogs when we went out there. Every day we had strange but nice people come and take us to a nice field to walk us and play with us, they did this a couple of times each day so we were really tired at bed time. Really, it was bed-time when we missed mum and dad most. We normally all cuddle up together and watch a bit of TV and then Brandy & me are put into our bed and we cuddle up together. Here, there’s no TV but it was ok, we weren’t cold. They even have special extra heaters for you if you are a bit cold, one of the other dogs there had one. We never found out how to get back to that first big room ‘cos I think mummy & daddy were in there and if we could find out where it was we’d be able to see them again.

Anyway, I don’t know how long we were there. It was ok but we wanted to be back home so we thought if we’re really good maybe they would take us back to that big room. Then one morning when we’d only been up an hour, we were picked up and they took us back to the big room, and just as we thought, there were mummy and daddy. It was brill to see them and we all had cuddles and then 2 more dogs came to see us, one was a really big black dog, but he was nice and the other was one just like us only a bit bigger. After a bit, we were back in the car and we just wished really hard that we were going home and not to another big room where they would keep us away from mummy & daddy. When we got out of the car we knew straight away we were home and we ran round all the rooms to make sure it was all the same as when we left it.
We’ve had another chat about this and we now think it wasn’t something me or Brandy did, it was mummy or daddy that had been naughty!

It’s good to be home!

February’s Tasks

Because I lost my voice for several days, the pups have been excused from training on anything new. But today, voice working again we began with our new task – sit & stay. Both pups are unable to stay still and if you move 1 step away from them, they come too, as if they are attached to your ankle with a piece of elastic, so this is going to be a major achievement if they manage it.

I have tried several different treats as a reward for training but there is no question they both favour the pro-biotic puppy treats, so we will have to make sure we have plenty of them in the house. We have done one session of training this morning and they were surprisingly good. The first time I managed to take 4 steps away from them without them creeping forward, and they stayed still until I called them and then they came to me and sat again to have their treat. The second time I managed 6 steps backwards, they stayed where they were until I called them and then they came and sat to get their treat. This was just too good and couldn’t last – and it didn’t! The 3rd time they just kept shuffling forward, jumping up and generally dancing around my legs with no intention of sitting and staying, however – they did well twice and we can build on that.

As I sit typing this I can hear them in the other room, mainly I can hear Brandy who has learnt to growl, and does so all the time when Brinkley gets too close. Brinkley likes to spend time close to his brother and generally starts by walking on top of him, which Brandy isn’t too keen on and now lets him know. Brinkley also has a habit of trying to steal Brandy’s food, again, not anymore – he gets the growl, and so Brinkley is starting to be a bit more cautious in his approach. We are trying to stop Brandy from growling at his brother but we can’t always be around so it’s going to take some time, another task for February.

Any finally, it’s going to be a difficult week for both the puppies and us because this is the week when they have to go into kennels, we are certainly not looking forward to leaving them and I would imagine they won’t be too impressed to be left. I’ll let you know how they get on and how they are when we pick them up.

Today, we went shopping.

Now that the pups are out enjoying longer walks, one of the main problems while we are out is that they keeping walking around each other and twist their leads together which looks very pretty but is not very practical, so today we went to the pet shop to get a couple’s lead. This will hopefully train them to walk side by side better and stop me from having to untangle them all the time.

Our local pet shop allows dogs in, so I decided to take the pups with me and see how they got on. They are getting quite good in car parks and when I lift them out of the car they wait quite patiently until we are all ready to walk away. The minute we walked through the doors we had people making the usual ‘aahs’ and coming over to stroke them infact the guy at the door that was collecting for charity wanted to borrow them as I was getting more attention than he was. We wandered through the store and met a few other dogs, one of which was rather large and barked a very deep loud bark – Brinkley was immediately behind me, Brandy just stood and looked interested but didn’t go any closer.

I found the lead I wanted and then went to buy a new cushion for them for the lounge. Having chosen the one I thought would be good, I let the dogs try it out to see if they liked it. I put it down on the floor of the shop and in seconds both of them were sat on it without me saying a word. This one would obviously do very nicely!

Another new experience with different noises, crowds of people, and lots of hands coming towards them to stroke them. Brandy didn’t have any problems, but Brinkley did seem a bit overwhelmed by all the attention although he was very good with a little 2 year old who came up to say hello.

A Trip to the Country Park

We decided to take Brandy & Brinkley to the Country Park this weekend, as part of the vets recommended familiarisation program. So far they have met a couple of other dogs when we have been out walking, but this way they would see lots of ducks and geese, water, children, other dogs and maybe horses, as well as seeing lots of cars. Brandy seems to take new experiences in his stride, Brinkley is the scared one who hides behind me. We put them both in the car and drove down to Rother Valley. We knew it would be busy because it was a beautiful spring day, and this was obviously the case as we drove into the car park by the visitor centre.

Now, we know that our puppies are beautiful and cute and expected a lot of interest from people as we walked around but we had only just taken them out of the travel cage and put their leads on when the first little boy and his dad came over to speak to us and stroke the dogs. We took them down to the edge of the lake to see the ducks. The lake had a lot of ducks, swans and geese all over and the noise from them was quite incredible, but Brandy & Brinkley didn't seemed to be too upset by it. There were also lots of families feeding the ducks and they were quite happy amongst the crowd, so this was a good start.

We set off to walk along the side of the lake towards the childrens playground where we would turn around and walk back, that would take us about half an hour and was more than enough for the pups first big walk. They were into everything. They wanted to sniff every blade of grass, say hello to every dog they met, size didn't matter, and of course stop to be stroked by every one that we passed. We took them to the edge of the lake at a quiet spot and the water looked really clean so we let them have a paddle. Brinkley was straight in without a problem, Brandy showed the same dislike as when I had put them in the bath, and stood in of 1 inch of water and tried to lift as many paws out at the same time. He does not like water.

When we got back near the car park we saw a small pony walking towards us being ridden by a little girl, and her family were walking with her. This was the first time both pups showed that they were a bit frightened by what they were seeing. We stood to one side and let the group pass and then carried on to the car. We decided to call at Dad's on the way home and while we were there, Brandy & Brinkley slept the whole time - the walk had been good fun but had totally worn them out. Same again tomorrow please!

Can you believe how big we have grown?

Brandy & Brinkley are now 13 weeks old and on a daily basis, you don't notice how big they are getting. I know it's getting harder to fit them both on my knee together, and I know they can stretch up to reach new things everyday - I now have a table cloth that is missing a corner, because I hadn't realised that they have been able to reach up and nibble away at the fabric. Fotunately, it's just an everyday cloth and they haven't spoiled anything special. But this photo shows just how much they have grown in the 7 weeks we've had them. The 'experts' say they need to have 3 meals a day until they are 6 months old, goodness knows what size they will be then, although the vet did say they are going to be small dogs - I wonder how big she thinks they should grow.

They are full of energy though and their constant chasing about means they haven't got much puppy fat to get rid of, and half the time I worry they're not getting enough to eat!

We are not impressed with this weather!

Last Friday the pups were 12 weeks old and able to be taken for walks outside. They have become very used to having their harnesses and leads on and walk relatively well along the decking so we were looking forward to taking them out. Unfortunately, a combination of me having flu and the weather being atrocious led us not to take that first walk as planned. We were due to go to the vets in the evening as the pups were due to have their rabies injections, so that they can travel to and from Spain with us, so their first walk out was across the car park at the vets.

We had to wait for Saturday before we took them out for the first time. They both seemed really keen to get out of the front door, Neil took Brandy and I had Brinkley. We decided we would just walk around the block which would take them along a busy road, across a couple of estate roads and see how they reacted to the noises and the traffic.

The cars didn’t seem to cause either of them a problem, Brandy just carried on walking, Brinkley stopped and looked. When we got to cross the first road, we stopped and asked both dogs to sit prior to crossing and as they are both excellent at sitting, they did this without a problem.
The walk was fairly uneventful, we only passed one other dog, which they both said hello to and then moved on. We didn’t see any buses or lorries, so nothing that worried them and we got back home having had a positive first walk.

Yesterday, I took them out by myself, now that is a totally new experience. I went along the park which was new for them and they walk for 10 yards side by side and then both decide they want to go in different directions. Fortunately, they aren’t very heavy at the moment so they are easy to get back in the same direction. At the moment I have lost my voice due to the flu and the dogs haven’t heard me speak to them for 5 days. This makes training them incredibly difficult, you cannot tell them when they do right or when they do wrong. It’s going to come as a bit of a shock when I can talk again. It does feel as if their training has been on hold for a week, but they have been extremely good while I've been ill and they are both very good at giving cuddles, they like nothing more than curling up on the settee with me.

What do you mean, we’re not Labradors?

Whilst Brinkley & Brandy are learning some things quite quickly, one that they are struggling with is bedtime! They can be sleeping downstairs but as soon as we tell them it’s bedtime and take them up to bed – they become turbo charged and chase around the bedroom despite being put into their beds several times and told it’s bedtime.

The night before last, Neil was convinced one of them had got the idea that it was time to go to sleep. The bedroom light was off but there was the glow from the TV and he could see one of the dogs curled up on the floor at the bottom of the bed. If this was the case, the other one was making a lot of racket on his own. After a while I got up to go and sort out what was going on. Both pups were together in the changing room, having got over the barrier we had put in place to keep them out -one problem with them growing so quick, you have to keep remembering new things come into reach.

So I look around to see what Neil had been looking at when he thought one of the pups had gone to sleep, to find they had put one of their toys, which is a stuffed dog about the same size as they are, at the bottom of the bed. A good decoy! If I didn’t know better I would think they’d plotted it all –let’s put this toy where they will think we are asleep and then we can go and play all night and they’ll never know.

Well, last night, they surpassed themselves. They had got into their baskets, as they always do when they go upstairs, and they stay there for usually about 5 minutes after lights out –they remind me of the Mallory Towers books I used to read as a child, when after lights out the kids would get out of bed and have secret adventures – I have 2 puppies that do the same. I knew they had both got out of bed but they had been really quiet for some time. We had blocked the changing room off so I knew they weren’t in there but I couldn’t work out where they were. After a few minutes more I decided I needed to check what they were up to and put the bedside lamp on – now I know their registration cards say they are Cavalier Spaniel puppies, but you would have thought they were Golden Labrador puppies. They had managed to reach the end of the loo roll and had it unravelled all over the en-suite floor with both of them sat in the middle of it. How can you be cross with them? I just wish I’d had my camera!