Wake up Call

For the last few weeks Other Half has been getting up at 5am for work. This means he lets the dogs out around that time for the first pee of the day.

This is not good. Dogs like a routine and if you impose one on them they soon get right into it and adopt it into their 24hr internal clock.

So, as I said, Monday to Friday they are out at just after 5am. On Saturday they aren't. But they want to go out at 5am as that's what they've been doing all week. In a misguided effort to try and let them know it was the weekend, Other Half ignored their whining from downstairs whilst I remained asleep.

At 8am he went down for a cup of coffee and on coming back up the stairs mentioned to me that 'my dog' had pee'd on the hoover.

He didn't actually do anything to the hoover, just cleaned the pee up around it and left the hoover.

Now, the 'my dog' in question here is of course Henry. And the hoover is not just any old hoover, its a rather expensive Roomba robotic hoover which works all on it's own, no human required. It's like having a lady who does come and do for you without having to leave a key or pay her. The robot hoover is my very best friend and a superb investment, how on earth could Other Half just let it sit there with the pee seaping into it? Worse still, Other Half told me that it was making funny noises and wirring a bit!

Aggggghhhhh! Out of bed I sprang and came downstairs, growled at Henry who did that funny little tail wag and sloped off to his bed. I got the screwdrivers out and stripped the hoover, cleaning it up with a collection of baby wipes and toilet paper. It's now in pieces drying out completely before I put it back together again.

If it dosen't work I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm not sure if I can claim for a new one on the house insurance or if I should raid the credit card for a new one. One things for sure, I'm not living life without a robot hoover!

Nice Quiet Routine

For the last few weeks I've been going out in the morning, either to work or the shops or on various errands that need to be done.

Because Molly and Badger are both car sick (something I need to get sorted out very badly) it's a complete nightmare to take the dogs out and about with me. Henry is fab in the car, if he's in the boot he usually stands looking out of the window and the world going by and if very occasionally he is on the back seat he actually sits bolt upright in the corner and looks down his nose out of the window, it's very funny as he looks as though he is being chauffered.

Anyway today I am in all morning, doing all those housework jobs that need to be done before the weekend and I've noticed that the dogs are all very calm and just lazing around. It's total bliss, just like it used to be when I had Ferg and Bon, the most laid back dogs in the world who basically laid around all day and night with the odd burst of mad running in between.

So am I hoping for too much to think that a sense of canine calm may be coming over our small pack? That they have all finally settled into life with each other and us and have reached that serene state of being able to lay on a dog bed or sofa and just watch whats going on instead of frantically all jumping up to follow me every time I move around the place?

I'm probably hoping for too much, I think this calm is from the recent routine of my being out every morning lately and this is what they do while they wait for me to come back, but I can dream can't I?

Right, I must get back to to doing the washing and cleaning....

Snoopy

This one is for MBNAD Woman, I couldn't catch Badger upside down on his cage but this is the next best thing!

And I forgot to say in my weather report for Catherine Holman that the pee-wits and curlews are flying all around us now which is so lovely, especially at night, perfect!

Pictures!

Ok I think some long overdue pictures are called for.

This one is what is left of my back garden after a winter of being 'Henryised'! Can you see the track that he has carved into whats left of the lawn, it's more visible down by the oil tank but runs right round the lawn.

Here is Henry looking so good compared to this time last year. He is now literally twice the dog he was after putting on all the weight he lost. He's really confident and I hope very happy and enjoying his life with us here in the hills.

Here's the lovely Molly, I think she could be hinting that it's about time I cleared last years flowers out of the tubs.

Here is an attempt to get all three in the picture at the same time! Goodness knows what Henry is doing!

Spring Clean

I only realised the aptness of the title of this post when I wrote it, I've spent the day cleaning and tidying the house and it's spring (well just about) so I guess that means I've been spring cleaning!

To be honest, this was inspired by the carpet Badger the other day. I just had a feeling that everything had a faint whiff of dog eminating from it. This was confirmed when I put on my trusty 'round-the-house -and-comfy-and-don't-care-what-it-looks-like-fleece and it really smelt of dogs. It actually smelt more of dogs than the dogs do so into the washing machine it went and off to the cleaning cupboard went me.

To begin with I stripped Badgers cage out, put the contents into the washing machine and washed down the cage, luckily it's foldable so I popped it into the bath and sprayed it with bathroom cleaner and then hosed it with the shower.

I then went all over the carpet rubbing it again to remove another Badger and got the end of the hoover pipe and went all round the edges and under things. I also dismantled the sofas and hoovered under the big cushions, something I haven't done in a while, along with cleaning the windows. Along with all of this I dusted absolutely everywhere so now the living room is looking very spik and span.

And the washing machine is straining under the pressure, it's been washing dog beds, blankets and coats since mid morning and I still have loads more dogs stuff to do, all those fabric dogs toys that they all chew must be very stinky (I'm not going to sniff them..) along with towels and big wipe down things that i got in Tescos the other day. I'm also going to wash all the covers on the sofas to freshen them up too.

Once I've finished that I then have all the other washing to do but that's small fry compared to this marathon!

So now that I've done a days work I now have an evening shift at my real job, work as a dog owner is never finished is it?

Quiet Week

As I said in the previous post I've been catching up on some training with Henry and it's going really well.

The biggest thing is to get him to come back if he is off the lead (which he isn't unless he has escaped), so every single time he's been out in the garden and sometimes on a walk (am still forgetting to take the treats with me grrr!) I'm calling him and instantly giving him a treat.

Well, it's working. It's a bit of a pain to remember the treat every time he comes in from the garden but what made me realise it was working was when I said his name out on a walk to try and stop him from pulling and he instantly turned round and ran the length of his vast expanding lead back to me, brilliant!

All I need to do is keep it up and really condition him to come to me every single time.

On the Badger front, things have been getting big. He has completely outgrown his bed. This is the bed which when I bought it made him look like a small potato lying in the middle of a kingsized bed. Now I think he out grew the bed a couple of weeks ago but Other Half insisted that it was still ok, until yesterday morning he was in his cage digging and moaning allot and when he stopped he let out a huge sigh. I looked over and there he was laying half on and half over his bed while looking at me with a complaining expression.

This was a bit of a pain as I really didn't have the cash to buy a new bed this week, so I carefully folded a spare duvet into the exact size of the cage and wrapped it in a lovely fleece blanket and now we can't keep Badge out of his cage. He's in there all the time perfecting the art of dog relaxation in every position he can manage!

I've also had an attack on the living room carpet. It was looking decidedly grubby but I really couldn't work out why until I tried to remove a small coffee stain from it and while rubbing away I noticed that about half a million dog (Badger) hairs came up. So I got a carpet cleaning spray for freshening carpets up, sprayed it over the carpet and got down on my hands and knees and rubbed the carpet all over in circular motion and I reckon I got a whole Badger out of it. I think the carpet probably enjoyed it too!

We now have a lovely fresh smellying and new looking carpet again. All I hope is that this was Badgers fluffy puppy hair coming out and that it's not a permanent shedding thing as we'll have to buy a new hoover that beats the carpet.