DOG DAY AFTERNOON

Whilst sitting in my back garden enjoying some rare sunshine, I thought I would relax further by taking off my boots and socks and putting my sandals on. I call them my slippers because I wear them around the house. So there I was reading a good book, "How dogs Learn". by Mary Burch and John Bailey. Sitting on my decking in front of the summer house. I had just got back from work and the dogs were milling around the garden. I live in a corner property with a substantial back and side garden, which I have made completely dog proof. i.e. they cannot escape. I had taught Ben my Black Lab a few tricks and one of which was "Fetch my slippers". Labs love to "find" things, and teaching him to suss out where they were and bring them to me was a great game. I cant for sure say I know what he's thinking when he's playing this game, but you can tell from the enthusiasm he shows when I give him the cue that he is enjoying himself. But then if he didn't wan...

Dog training was no doubt first taught when the cavemen took wolf cubs into their caves. Initially to serve as companions, and as guard dogs. There is evidence of early cave drawings showing how important animals were to our earliest human ancestors. For centuries dogs have been trained by humans for a variety of reasons. The Romans trained their pups for herding. In the 1700 and 1800's the dog world in the UK showed sporting breeds that were trained to walk round the ring. Training dog to win obedience competitions didn’t really come about until the 1930’s in America. A lady called Helen Whitehouse Walker, who bred Standard Poodles, decided to show the dog world that her dog was more than just a pretty face. The dog training club was born, at least in the US. Dogs were trained for war, they were trained to be actors. Remember Rin Tin Tin? And who could forget Lassie? Many of the early trainers came form military or Police backgrounds. The methods used by these early trainer...

Are you aware of what it is your feeding your dog when you feed it branded dog food? The commercial production of canning meat and cereal food for dogs began in the 1930’s by the Chappel brothers. Since then a lot has changed and legislation has been introduced to regulate and provide rules and guidance to the industry to help them fulfill their obligations to make safe pet food. www.pfma.org According to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association the Pet Food Industry is “responsible, efficient and at the forefront of Technology.” The key statement in this article for me however is, “This means that it can minimize the use of resources whilst maximizing the safety standards.” If you look at the PFMA web site it is worth noting that it has many articles about Legislation, Sourcing of Raw Materials and Animal By Product Regulations. On the face of it the industry does seem to be a responsible industry. However the devil is in the detail and just like human foods there is good...

Do you put your buddy into kennels when you are away? This weekend saw my son get married down in Berwick Upon Tweed. We had to stay over in the hotel Friday and Saturday night. As the whole family were going to be there it gave me a dilemma as to who was going to look after my five dogs. There was nothing for it but to put them into commercial kennels for a couple of days. For some of you, you may already put your buddies into kennels on a yearly basis as you head off to sunnier climes, and who could blame you what with the great British weather and everything. But I take my holidays in the UK, mostly because I couldn't take to put my dogs into kennels every year. But it is also expensive. for me, it was £150 for three days for five dogs. That's not cheap. But then I wouldn't take a chance on putting them somewhere I thought might be a bit dodgy. This is the second time they have been in these particular kennels. The last time was 2010, when we went to Crufts and could...

House training is a stage that every puppy has to go through. But just like other learned behaviours some puppies pick it up much faster than others. The trick is not to despair as they all eventually learn.There are a couple of important tips that the owner/handler can learn when housetraining their puppy. That is to anticipate and watch for the signs. Wright and Morten have written that; “ As ageneral rule, puppies need to go to the loo at the following times : immediately after waking. after eating or drinking. when excited. after playing and sometimes during a wild game if he did not have a chance to go out before the game started. At least every waking hour!” http://www.maccvets.co.uk/fact_sheets/fact_sheets_puppies_house_training.htm In anticipation of your puppy needing the toilet there are a couple of signs that tell you your puppy is about to do the toilet. Sniffing the ground in a focused way,circling in one spot, tail held high. These are all s...

I decided to go on a hiking trip yesterday. Ben, Miya and myself had been up to Glen Kinglas earlier in the year when strong winds were battering the west coast of Scotland causing the met office to issue a severe weather alert for the country. We had gone up the day after. Snow was on the ground and the winds were still pretty strong, maybe 50 – 60 miles an hour. Yesterday however was some what different. The sun was out, albeit it was cold at least up until around 11 o’clock. To get to Glen Kinglas you head up the A82 along the west side of Loch Lomond all the way up to Tarbet, then follow round to the left on the A83 to Arrochar. Keep going on the A83 round the top of Loch Long round to Ardgarten then the road swings west away from the Loch and starts to climb up towards the Rest and be Thankful. This used to be the Old Military road, now called the A83. The road winds up all the way to the summit and then swings right and starts to head down passing Loch Restil on the righ...

"Is that a Pugil Stick you bought for the wedding?" So there I was last month walking round Crufts, when I came upon a stall run by a couple of sculptors. On the stall were some ornate figures of Dogs funnily enough, and some walking sticks with sculpted heads of dogs at the top of them. I had always wanted my own walking staff ever since I used to go walking in the hills with my late Father in law with both our dogs. He had this walking staff with a deer's horn on top of it. I thought to myself, "I'll have one of those one day". It looked hand made and knowing my Father in law it probably was. He was always making things, he was quite good at those kind of things. So when I saw these staffs at the stall in Crufts I immediately engaged the stall holder, who turned out to be the sculptor, in conversation about the various staffs on show. They were all sizes and had every manner of dogs heads on them. The one that drew my attention was a Yellow Lab. Having t...