Where the Wild Things Are

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

I have an eight month old Border Collie called Meg. She is far from perfect (and so am I).
Today she has been about 60/40 good. The 40 included chewing up my camera memory card which DH is sure he put safely on the mantelpiece. Every time I look down at this screen she takes a quick munch of the coffee table with her eyes on mine. This despite a 2 hour walk which included much in and out of streams.

School run for us too today and nipped to Tesco as well. Eric greeted me like I had abandoned him for days rather than the hour I was gone. Brought me his harness so we went for a walk around the pond and a run in the fields close by, he's fast asleep now, tired himself out I think. I'd say it was great to have them back only am fielding multiple texts from ds3 who informs me he has told me several times that" he can't cope in an autistic environment" (independent specialist school) I'd text back "me neither" but the irony would be lost on him.

Back into usual routine here too. Walk to school with DS2 then home through woods, just me and my boy. He is a wonderful sight bounding through the undergrowth to reach the stream or even better tearing towards me and screeching to a halt in front of me for a sit and sausage reward. I truly love his fluffy paws, ears, rump, the whole of him!

His settling back into home only really took the Sunday afternoon - by early evening he was flaked out and difficult to rouse then slept all night and none of the usual 7am crying when I was moving in and out the bathroom upstairs.

Dog training tomorrow evening and I'm hoping the trainer will be pleased with his haircut - 2 weeks ago she told me off as she thought it was too long! She said it was going to get all matted and the hair over his eyes was preventing him seeing me. She was probably right but then part of this breed is long hair so it can't be all that constraining for them?

Not sure this pic will be large enough to read but I thought I'd try on our thread before creating a thread about him.

Seamus is an 8 month old OES and was happily pottering in his garden one minute, next time his owners looked he had gone. He lives in Derbyshire.

Owners must be worried sick. Poor boy.

Oh poor Seamus and his owners. I'm local to there so will keep a look out especially when walking Eric.

I've realised quite how wonky dogs' sense of time is ... This morning I left the house to take dd to school early for a rehearsal - fortuitously one of our neighbours works at dd's school, was leaving at the same time and offered to take dd :)

So I walked back into the house about 3 minutes after I'd left to be greeted by the same wiggly, giggly weaving in and out of my legs that happens when I've been out for a couple of hours

Poor Seamus' owners - have they tried dogs lost as well?

No news of Seamus - in a whole week. The owners have him on dogslost, police involved, lots of posters up, they had a pointer dog come to house to try and track him and found the route he'd taken out the garden but the scent went cold after a while. At least they could tell the direction he'd gone in but after a week that must be small hope.

I leave minty in our garden while I get jobs done upstairs but have started turning the radio off so I can hear the gate squeak. He's so friendly, I don't think he'd bark at all if someone leant down and offered a stroke.

BB - it is lovely to be so loved isn't it? I love how free a dogs affection is - unconstrained by mood or hormones!

Poor Seamus - and his poor owners.

We have 6ft closeboard fencing, atop 1.5ft gravel boards and the back gate has several heavy duty bolts, some of which are always padlocked. You can't get to our house from the back either. Oldgirl used to spend all day out there and would choose to lie on the lawn in all weathers, even if we left the back-door open.

I might need to look at our side gate. When we put it in a while ago I was determined to have an open wrought iron fence that you could see through. I like to see out from the garden so I can see how's there.

Really bad decision now we have a dog as people walking up our road can just about peer round the bins and see into garden. We do live in a quiet area with low crime rates but then there are often odd people calling at the house offering to cut trees or clean drive and they seem dodgy to me. E also have an old fashioned tinker in a flat bed lorry that rings a bell as he drives around and collects anything you've left on pavement. Handy for recycling stuff but the lads in The van look dodgy.

I know of Seamus through an OES Internet forum - lots of people looking for him.

Our back garden is autism proofed so Eric couldn't get out but I suspect if someone wanted to get in then they could. Luckily we aren't visible from the road but it doesn't mean there aren't people lurking.

mint, hate to say this, but my mum had a gate like that and that was how my first lurcher got out of her garden and ended up hit by a car.

Mum was dog-sitting and left her in the dining room with the patio door slightly ajar while she popped upstairs. She squeezed herself out, climbed over and was missing for 48 hours before being hit by a car right outside a veterinary surgery - she was dead before they could get her inside. She'd crossed the M42 at some point to get to where she was found. It was devastating.

Eric has a new trick which made me laugh so much I nearly wet myself. Dd has taught him "Eric, wanna race?" he barks "Marks" he lies down "Set" bum in air front paws down "Go!" he runs like the clappers

That made me laugh so much insanity!!

Toby has decided to look like a meerkat. Imagine a fox red Labrador balancing on back legs and sort of mimicking a meerkat even with his front paws together! Silly puppy.

Aww dd would love a meerkat dog Eric does a lot of dancing on his hind legs, we thought it was because he is half poodle, not as clever as a meerkat impression though.

Insanity, Eric sounds such a character!

Pip has disgraced himself today by sucking my dsis's hair when she was sitting on the floor to put her shoes on to leave. She's not really a dog person, but tolerates my two - as long as they leave her alone. She was seriously unimpressed. Whoops!

Insanity - that's fabulous, remember to get that on film! sounds very advanced type training you do in your family.

Moose - we have chicken wire over our fence since minty arrived. Ruins the look of the gate but hey oh it's only a gate. That must have been so distressing for you.

It was heartbreaking mint, dh went into shock when the phonecall came to tell us she'd been found/hit. She really was his baby, as we rescued her from the pound as a wee scrap of a thing when he had just finished uni and was unemployed. They spent every minute of every day together and he adored the very bones of her. I was out having posters printed when the call came. He called, I rushed back and found him sitting on the kerb outside the house in his PJs unable to speak.

Mintys no not advanced training at all just a little dog who is so clever he picks up anything with hardly any effort so long as there's a piece of ham or chicken in it for him. Dd taught him in less than a week whilst they were playing on the back garden. If he's learning something new he's not using the living room as an assault course

Oh Moose thats awful. It is something that worries me at my mums as she is on a main road and house is in in centre of a 1/3 acre plot so you don't always know where Maz is and she has couriers coming in days she has him. He sits at the gate too and people have got used to petting him through the gate and it has crossed my mind how easy it would be for someone to take him.

She moves on friday though and new house has a seperate back garden which she is going to padlock. He has his final fling in her garden for the next 2 days whilst I help her pack up.

Ah Moose that's really sad. Your poor DH.

Just thought - we haven't heard from barbarian in ages. I hope she's ok. She recommended a wonderful looking kennels to me but they were full over Easter. I hadn't appreciated quite how much difference there would be in the quality of kennels.

Funny Moose - you suggested a home/dog sitter, well today at the After School club my son goes to he had to be escorted to the schoolgate as I had the dog with me who isn't allowed in school - so a helper came with son so I could sign the checking out book. She adored minty and as well as offering babysitting she provides dog and house sitting! She is DSs favourite and I really like her though she's only young. But worth thinking about.

That sounds more promising mint - worth looking into

I'm on to do a bit of bragging. dd did really well with ANgus at training last night. He has a dreadful recall when other pups are around. dd & ds take it in turns with the recall excercise and usually it's the one who goes 2nd who has a worse time. ds managed to recall ANgus with a lot of difficulty - trainer had to intervene to chase him away from the other pups and pay attention to ds. When dd's turn came she managed to distract him fairly easily (dancing about and really shouting - this is a child who barely opens her mouth out of the house!) and Angus ran to her and she got a sit and a proper finish! Went on to do heelwork with him off lead. SO pleased - dd is very dyslexic/dyscalculic and a bit dyspraxic - struggles at school and with most sport. It is good for her to accomplish something. She puts a lot of effort in with Angus (unlike ds) and it is beginning to show.

That's so lovely to hear haggis. Well done her for putting in the effort and reaping the rewards.

Had a lovely walk this afternoon. Only the local park, but it was beautifully sunny and the place was completely empty, so I hung around for an hour with both dogs off lead loving the chance to enjoy it without being accosted by rude dogs for once. (I usually vacate that park after about half an hour, as it has a tendency for badly behaved off-lead dogs aplenty.)

My legs are killing me though. I've had a big improvement in my health recently - finally! So I've decided to try and get back into healthy eating and exercise, in the hope of staving off another relapse. Two years ago I was doing daily circuit training and walking miles every day as well and was really fit (and a lot thinner) but I'd say it's been at least 18 months since I could do anything other than walk the dogs at a fairly slow pace and I've gained three and half stone. Started the 30 Day Shred yesterday and boy do I know it. It's not as bad as it was the first time I ever did it, but my muscles still have rather a lot to say, none of it polite, about it.

Well done your dd haggis!

And big well done Moose for starting the 30 day shred. I'm impressed, I've heard it's really hard going. I trained for and ran a half marathon a couple of years ago but not sure I could cope with the intensity of the shred! Let us know how it goes, I love hearing about things like that. I do my daily walks with minty and a once a week high intensity class with a personal trainer and a friend so the hour cost is shared. Works out really well as a way of sticking to it as I can never not turn up as my friend would have the pay the full hourly rate so it means I've had 100% attendance in 18months! However we talk throughout the whole thing (except stomachs) so not sure how 'high' high really is! Stick at it moose as it sounds like a winner fitness and weight wise.

Thanks mint. It is killer, but I'm keeping myself going by reminding myself how it got me fit really quickly last time around and how good it felt to be strong, fit and healthy. Feels like a very long time ago.

The dcs are laughing at me groaning every time I move. Worst is lowering yourself onto the toilet - it's agony. I understand that's a common problem due to all the squats and lunges.

I can manage the intensity, because it's only last 20 minutes - then you can collapse! Just when you think you can't possibly go on, it's over. If it was any longer I think I'd keel over, don't think I could manage an hour long class like you do.