Dogs and puppies

 

Dogs and puppies

Roxy with her ball, Gilbert waiting.

Roxy and Gilbert met a puppy the other day, a yellow Labrador called Max, thirteen weeks old, and very new to the experience of walking in the Great Outdoors. Well brought-up puppies know that they should be submissive to their elders and so they roll onto their backs, exposing the most vulnerable part of their anatomies to the seniors. Frequently, an inadvertent release of a small amount of puppy pee will occur, to further placate the adults.

When the older dogs sniff the puppy, it will squirm with delight, sometimes squeaking. Some dogs remain submissive all their lives. Our senior Jack Russell, Biddy, had an endearing habit of submitting to people in her ‘pack’ all her life.

Roxy is never happier than when she is carrying a ball, and if she can manage to fit two in her mouth, she is even more delighted. She will not relinquish her prize to another dog, only to a human. While Gilbert may sometimes be distracted from the task of retrieval, Roxy is fully engaged and always knows where a flung ball has landed, often pointing it out to Gilbert.

However, when she met Max, she dropped her ball and allowed him to play with it. Well-bred, properly-socialised adult dogs recognise and understand the needs of puppies. We have been fortunate to have had a number of puppies, and it is heart-warming to see an adult dog gently playing with a young puppy.

Gus playing with puppy Bertie.

To the inexperienced it may look and sound dangerous. There is a lot of play growling and mouthing, huge adult jaws enveloping tiny snouts, the puppy being allowed liberties no adult dog could enjoy.

Frodo playing with puppy Jenna.

Should the puppy become too boisterous, the adult will discipline it, firmly and so quickly that a human may miss the reprimand. Nonetheless, just as humans need a break and a rest from the insistent demands of toddlers, so should dogs be respected and the puppy removed to a safe place for a nap after a period of play.

Bertie sleeping with his big friend, Gus.

Young puppies miss the warmth and security of their litter-mates. Adult dogs don’t often sleep together, but will tolerate a puppy snuggling up to them.

Puppy Gilbert with Roxy and Herschel on his first night in his new home.

The Entropy Gang’s May 2023 blog

 

The Entropy Gang’s May 2023 blog

Herschel: We haven’t blogged since August 2018 – that’s nearly 5 years ago. A lot has happened!

Jellicoe: There used to be three of us then, but now there are just two. Our brother Isambard travelled on four years ago. He caught an illness from the THINKER.

Herschel: Everyone was very sad, especially Frankie, because Isambard always cuddled up with him. Frankie was only a small Servant when he first came to live here but now he’s a big boy.

Isambard and Jellicoe

Jellicoe: Actually, he’s the same age as Herschel and me – we’re all ten years old.

Herschel: Anyway, Susannah and Frankie found a home of their own a couple of years ago and moved out with Lenny and Solomon and Zula.

Jellicoe: Jenna the DOG travelled on more than a year ago. She was very old (for a DOG) and she’d had a good life, but we all missed her.  

    Jenna on her 15th birthday. She died 4 days after her 16th birthday.

Herschel: Then Bertie, my favourite DOG, was ill and the THINKER and the MAID were very worried. The VETS did everything they could to help him but he just kept getting thinner.

                                             Bertie and Herschel

Jellicoe: Gus, Jenna’s brother, was getting old and stiff, too, but still kept going and enjoying his walks until one day he couldn’t stand at all and that was his last day with us.

                                               Bertie and Gus

Herschel: The HUMANS were so upset, we had to keep sitting on them and purring. I think that helped.

Jellicoe: A couple of months later, Bertie died. Now Roxy was all on her own and she was so very sad. We cuddled up with her but she couldn’t understand where her DOG friends had gone, three of them, gone in eleven months.

Bertie and Jellicoe

Herschel: For a long time, the HUMANS couldn’t have another puppy because my brother, Jellicoe, was very ill and they thought a puppy would be too stressful for him and make him ill again.

Jellicoe: Finally, once I was well again (cross claws) the HUMANS were shown a puppy they couldn’t resist and Gilbert came to live with us.

Herschel: He’s a nice boy, but we’re still educating him. Jellicoe does the downstairs sleep training and I go up to bed with the MAID to continue the guidance.

Herschel and Gilbert

Jellicoe: Then the THINKER goes to bed. Sometimes I go up with him and curl up next to the MAID, but other times I stay downstairs and enjoy the peace and quiet. (Herschel and Roxy snore!)

Herschel: There have been lots of other things happening but we’ll tell you about them another time.

Jellicoe: We won’t leave it for another five years, though.

TTFN

Lovely day for a dip

 

Lovely day for a dip

Labradors, particularly of the working variety, love water.

Lakes, ponds, even puddles, attract them like iron filings to a magnet.

We had decided to give Gilbert a gentle introduction to water, remembering Roxy’s first venture. Following her friends, she dashed into a large pond and was soon out of her depth. Probably she would have been alright, but I panicked and hauled her in on the end of her retractable lead, like a furry chocolate fish. I didn’t worry about her after that.

 For many months, she doggy paddled in an upright position, looking for all the world as though she didn’t want to get her hair wet.

 Splash!

Retrieving

 Bertie showing Roxy how to do it

Today was a beautiful day for a walk and we went to an area of the forest very familiar to Barry, who used to run there before the advent of the chrome alloy knees. The well-defined paths had disappeared and we followed an animal trail, probably made by roe deer. to where we thought there was a small pond.

A few minutes beforehand I had commented that I thought Gilbert would be quite cautious, as he seems to be a rather careful puppy. How wrong I was! We were upon it before we realised. There was a loud splash and Roxy and Gilbert were in it immediately.

 They loved it and splashed to their and our great delight, galloping in and out and around in the tussocky grass.

Gilbert's flying pig impression

They are both sleeping soundly now, dreaming sweet dreams of sniffs and sights and sounds – and water!

For all the dogs of our lives

 

For all the dogs of our lives

Frodo the Faller

When the American playwright, Eugene O’Neill, and his third wife lived in Paris in the 1930s, they had a Dalmatian called Blemie (Silverdene Emblem) He travelled to the USA with them, eventually dying on 17^th December, 1940. His headstone reads, ‘Sleep in peace, faithful friend.’ 

O’Neill wrote ‘The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog’ a few days later and his words will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost a dog. The following extracts contain the essence of the whole document.

‘There is nothing of value I have to bequeath except my love and my faith. These I leave to all those who have loved me. I ask my Master and Mistress to remember me always, but not to grieve for me too long. 

One last request I earnestly make. Now I ask, for love of me, to have another. It would be a poor tribute to my memory never to have a dog again.’

The will in its entirety can be found here.

Gus, Bertie and Jenna

Jenna

Frodo the Faller

Fetch! (and try not to fall over)

Splooting

 

Splooting

Roxy splooting 

Most of our dogs have adopted the hearth rug position, limbs stretched out fore and aft, from little Jack Russell, Busy Biddy to big Dalmatian, Frodo the Faller. Watching Roxy relaxing today and demonstrating her hearth rug technique, I dimly recalled hearing or reading something to the effect that this pose was not good for dogs, could damage their hips, or some such thinking. I felt this could not be right, as so many of our dogs have done it with no lasting damage, or, indeed, any damage at all.

Puppy Bertie splooting 

There is potential for damage, if passing humans are not looking where they’re going. A dog is a trip hazard at the best of times. For the dog, being mistaken for an actual hearth rug could be perilous!

I looked it up and discovered there is a name for ‘hearth rug dog’. Apparently, ‘splooting’ has long been associated with Welsh Corgis, but many other breeds also do it, as do cats, rabbits and other four-legged animals, like squirrels and lizards.

One explanation suggests that animals sploot to stretch their joints. Another thought is that they do it to cool down when the weather is very hot. Dogs can only sweat through their pads and so stretch out to expose as much as possible of their skin to cool surfaces.

Anyway, splooting is my new word of the day, but there will be limited opportunities to use it.

A Life Full of Animals - part two

 

 

A Life Full of Animals – part two

 

Dominie and Jenna. Jenna could barely step over the threshold!

We have always been available to look after our adult children’s dogs. Taking care of Foxy, Gillian’s fox-red working Labrador puppy, made us realise how much we liked and missed Labradors, and so Jenna came into our lives from Shropshire. We asked for the biggest black bitch in the litter, as she would be living with Dalmatians, which are quite big dogs. Well, she had big paws and that’s as far as it went. She remained a little dog with big paws throughout her sixteen years.

 Playtime with Frodo

We didn’t know there were pheasant in the forest where we walk, until Jenna flushed them. She also chased deer and would disappear into the distance, so we put a cow bell on her, to hear when she was near and an electronic tracker, so that we could discover where she’d been. We think it was because she had Dalmatian companions, who don’t generally retrieve, although they can, and are built for long distance running, which she wasn’t. Once she had Labrador friends and relations she never disappeared again.

 Jenna with tracker 

Jenna was a very sociable dog. Whenever we were out walking and saw people in the distance she would always go to greet them, even if she had never seen them before. Once she had done that, she would be content to come back to us. She maintained that endearing habit almost to the end of her life.

Jenna and Gus

Her half-brother, Gus, four years her junior, pointed out to us the difference between dogs and bitches. We had always assumed that bitches were easier, even though we had had dogs as well as bitches. They are smaller than dogs, generally, Dominie being something of an exception. The Jack Russell and Dalmatian bitches were biddable and faithful, but Jenna, our first Labrador for nearly forty years, reminded us that this particular breed is different.

Gus

We had forgotten how independent they are. Jenna was friendly and loyal but inclined to follow her own path, which was actually never far from ours. Gus stayed close to heel and like Buddy Liver-Spots before him, spent much time and energy trying to keep his pack together. His most worrying times came when we had an extended family walk with several dogs. As the line of people lengthened, so he rushed back and forth from end to end, trying, so we thought, to chivvy the laggards to increase their pace, and the leaders to slow down.

Buster, left, and Bertie 

An exception to this rule was Buster, Bertie’s brother, who went to live with Gillian and her family in Dorset. They were beautiful fox-red working Labradors. While Bertie was a sensible, sober dog who never wanted to be found wanting in the behaviour stakes, or anywhere else, Buster was capricious. He enjoyed charging off in all directions. Bertie enjoyed greeting other dogs, but once introductions had been made, he was happy to return to us. He was a perfect gentleman with a wonderful smile. Gus’s smile showed just his front teeth but Bertie’s was full and wide and accompanied by snorts of pleasure.

Roxy 

Three days after Frodo died, Roxy was born in Shropshire, (all our Labradors have come from the same kennels in Shropshire, where the dogs are bred for temperament first and foremost) and it’s fanciful to think that some of his spirit was reborn in her, mainly because she is a counter-surfer, the only Labrador we’ve known to do this, although Gilbert is showing signs of following in her paw-steps. In every other respect, she’s her own dog, friend to all, human, canine or feline.

Jenna, Gus and Bertie all died within eleven months, which was heart-breaking. Gus and Bertie died in August and October last year so Roxy rapidly went from being the youngest to the only dog and she was really depressed. She had never known life without another dog and although the cats were company it wasn’t the same. So, in January this year, Gilbert came to live with us.

Gilbert soon after he arrived. He was smaller - that is, shorter than the cats

Now he is thirteen weeks old and growing apace. Herschel is gaining the ascendant, as cats do

At the time of writing, both cats have taken refuge from Gilbert inside the fire guard and are about to start taking lumps out of each other. A stern ‘No squabbling’ from me usually stops them in their tracks. Although they’re litter brothers, they are very different. Herschel is a standard Ocicat, spotted and striped and a third bigger than Jellicoe. Jellicoe is a classic tabby-patterned Ocicat, now known, bizarrely to my ears, as an Aztec. They are extremely affectionate and always in our company. Their brother, Isambard, died when he was seven.

Isambard, Jellicoe and Herschel

Our first two Ocicats, Winston and Monty, also died young. Monty was only three and Winston was six. Our vets did their best, but were puzzled. As one set of medications sorted out one problem it revealed another and it became a roundabout of symptoms and decline. They were stunning animals.

Winston and Monty  

We then had a couple of years without any cats until one day we were startled by a house mouse. I like mice, the pet variety, but didn’t want to encourage wild mice, so we did our research and acquired the three brothers ten years ago. Barry says they were his best ever birthday present.

Herschel

Cat in a basket - Jellicoe

We haven’t had house mice since and Herschel regularly patrols the integral garage. I don’t think they’ve ever caught anything indoors but have certainly captured rats and mice in the garden. A foolhardy young squirrel met its end from Herschel and Jellicoe has killed a wood pigeon, which he dragged through the cat flap and deposited at the foot of the stairs. Happily, birds do not figure largely in the death statistics and, unlike the Burmese, they don’t trap frogs. They are not avid hunters and prefer to spend their time in the garden lounging in high places and looking beautiful.

 

Where does the time go?

Gilbert is nearly twelve weeks old now and enormous – for a puppy. We think he’s going to be a big dog, as tall as Bertie

 and as broad as Gus.

I believe that it’s preferable to have a summer puppy, rather than a winter puppy, but over the years we’ve had a mixture of both. The main differences are in the hours of darkness and the weather. Summer tends to be warmer and the daylight hours are longer, though many days can be quite chilly, and very wet. It’s not unheard of for us to light a fire in June!

We had a couple of rainy days when Gilbert was first with us but now it’s dry and very cold, -7° Celsius yesterday morning with a sparkling hard frost, but taking him out to relieve himself has not been particularly arduous. He quickly does what he has to, then, depending on the time, goes back to bed or has breakfast. This morning he woke us at 6:00, but a few days ago he wanted to go out at 1:00 a.m. and then again at 6:00. Some mornings he has woken us at 3:45. In general, though, he has slept through the night, and starts his day between 5:00 and 6:00!

Roxy plays with him now. 

He’s very respectful of her and easily put in his place and that’s just as it should be. Susannah’s little dog, Arthur, is far too accommodating and doesn’t discipline Gilbert. His long spaniel ears and the plentiful feathers on his tail and legs are just too inviting for a pup to ignore. We are very vigilant and separate them when they get too excited. Playing together when one of the pair is in the pen is much safer!

Frankie is growing up fast. He has started making video clips, using his ‘phone. He adds music and text and uses different voices for the characters. It’s a good and imaginative way to express himself and he’s exploring relationships and feelings, though he doesn’t realise it.

On Friday, he went with his class to ‘The Living Rainforest’. Before he left for school he said that he wanted to hold a tarantula if he was given the opportunity. ‘I’m scared of spiders,’ he said, ‘but I’ve got to get over it.’ With a positive attitude like that he should go far.

Though still cold, the weather has improved. Last night’s temperature was -2° and at 6:00 this morning it was zero.  It feels quite balmy and this afternoon’s predicted temperature of 5° sounds almost tropical. There’s no wind, which makes a huge difference. No matter what the weather, the birds and squirrels are busily preparing to procreate, apart from the wood pigeons, which are active all year round.

A pair of magpies is nesting in a nearby oak. Watching them yesterday, I concluded they were refurbishing their nest, as they pulled out leaves and twigs. They keep a lookout for the red kite which roosts near them and will attempt to steal any chicks, though they will vigorously  defend their offspring and chase it away.

red kite being pursued by crow

A visit to the vet

 

A visit to the vet

On Thursday, Gilbert was 10 weeks old and ready for his next vaccinations.

He wasn’t very happy in the car. The last time he was in a car he had a long journey from Shropshire to Berkshire but this time it was a five minute drive to our vet, not long  enough to unsettle his stomach!

               

Vet Patrycja greeted us at the car and carried Gilbert in to the consulting room. She had seen the sadness of Gus and Bertie’s final days, so was delighted to see a young, healthy puppy.

Gilbert, of course, was excited to meet another new human. He’s very excited about everything and particularly if treats are involved. 

Back home, he settled down for a snooze before Arthur came to play.

Roxy and the cats watched tolerantly as the two youngsters mauled each other, then they went to sleep. 

Jellicoe doesn't stand any nonsense from Gilbert and tells him off with a hiss and a cuff if he becomes too boisterous.

Herschel adores the dogs and understands that Gilbert is young. Therefore, his discipline is firm but less harsh than his brother's. 

Jellicoe takes the meaning of 'dog bed' to a new dimension. Roxy doesn't seem to mind.

Herschel likes to sleep in the Master's chair, cosy on the faux fur cover.

He's quite well camouflaged!

In four weeks' time we will repeat the exercise. By then, Gilbert will be quite big and heavy. At nine weeks he weighed 6.5 kg. This week he was 7.8 kg. 

Will he have put on another 5 kg by then? I suspect it will be more! Carrying him up and down stairs will become more and more of a weight-lifting exercise. Will it improve my core strength, I wonder?