Breakfast
Do you enjoy your breakfast? I used to be able to read the paper while I ate my bowl of cereal and had a couple of cups of tea. Then along came Poppy.
Lady was a very laid back dog in the mornings; even during the puppy years. Her morning greeting was a waggy tail delivered from the prone position in her bed. We'd have breakfast then paddle out for a walk and Lady would have her breakfast when we got back. Pops, the new girl on the block is so much a different dog. The morning greeting is delivered half way up the stairs as I come down and includes much wagging of her whole body really. She then wants to go out for a wee and a pooh in the garden with me in tow whatever the weather (mental note made of where the latter has been deposited). Breakfast follows - going down the little red lane in about 30 seconds flat. If I get distracted from my duties as number one slave delivering food I get nudged, bumped and bored; sometimes including her bringing her bowl.
Peace at last to have breakfast. No! I get about half way through my bowl of cereal when a succession of toys are presented and are dumped in my lap. That's generally followed by my wellington boot socks. Then the bumping and boring starts! Aaargh! Paw, nose bump, growl, more nose bumping getting quite hard until I give up, shout up the stairs to OH that I'm being bullied and have given up - I'll meet her in the field. I'm then supervised while I get all the gear on and out we go.
She's lovely really but the bullying is a bit trying and showing a quite different character to Lady. When we'd paid for her and the transfer from Surrey Police was complete I was able to get a copy of her pedigree from the Kennel Club. She's actually got a good gundog background with the majority of her ancestors being FTCs. I think this may go some distance in explaining her very high drive - certainly much more pronounced than Lady. Lady was pretty easy to train but Poppy is much more difficult - not because she's thick, but more a factor of her interest in everything else that's going on. I'm looking for a good gundog training outfit at the moment with a view to getting a bit more organised in that area in the new year when Pops is a bit more mature.
Pheasants
This morning we discovered pheasants for the first time. Poppy has already discovered rabbits, but when we've been walking the hedgerows she hasn't been able to track down the other interesting scent until this morning. She picked up a scent and this time worked her way into the hedge and out popped a big cock pheasant. She's very quick and pretty much kept up with him right across the large field we were in and then came back at top speed and sat looking for a treat! Hillarious really. From then on she was flushing pheasants left right and centre with huge amounts of excitment.
So on the plus side I can now do a bit of dogging-in on our local shoot. On the down side she's really out of control at the moment in that area so very much a work in progress.
Oh! Did I mention I've lost a lot of weight recently?
Do you enjoy your breakfast? I used to be able to read the paper while I ate my bowl of cereal and had a couple of cups of tea. Then along came Poppy.
Lady was a very laid back dog in the mornings; even during the puppy years. Her morning greeting was a waggy tail delivered from the prone position in her bed. We'd have breakfast then paddle out for a walk and Lady would have her breakfast when we got back. Pops, the new girl on the block is so much a different dog. The morning greeting is delivered half way up the stairs as I come down and includes much wagging of her whole body really. She then wants to go out for a wee and a pooh in the garden with me in tow whatever the weather (mental note made of where the latter has been deposited). Breakfast follows - going down the little red lane in about 30 seconds flat. If I get distracted from my duties as number one slave delivering food I get nudged, bumped and bored; sometimes including her bringing her bowl.
Peace at last to have breakfast. No! I get about half way through my bowl of cereal when a succession of toys are presented and are dumped in my lap. That's generally followed by my wellington boot socks. Then the bumping and boring starts! Aaargh! Paw, nose bump, growl, more nose bumping getting quite hard until I give up, shout up the stairs to OH that I'm being bullied and have given up - I'll meet her in the field. I'm then supervised while I get all the gear on and out we go.
She's lovely really but the bullying is a bit trying and showing a quite different character to Lady. When we'd paid for her and the transfer from Surrey Police was complete I was able to get a copy of her pedigree from the Kennel Club. She's actually got a good gundog background with the majority of her ancestors being FTCs. I think this may go some distance in explaining her very high drive - certainly much more pronounced than Lady. Lady was pretty easy to train but Poppy is much more difficult - not because she's thick, but more a factor of her interest in everything else that's going on. I'm looking for a good gundog training outfit at the moment with a view to getting a bit more organised in that area in the new year when Pops is a bit more mature.
Pheasants
This morning we discovered pheasants for the first time. Poppy has already discovered rabbits, but when we've been walking the hedgerows she hasn't been able to track down the other interesting scent until this morning. She picked up a scent and this time worked her way into the hedge and out popped a big cock pheasant. She's very quick and pretty much kept up with him right across the large field we were in and then came back at top speed and sat looking for a treat! Hillarious really. From then on she was flushing pheasants left right and centre with huge amounts of excitment.
So on the plus side I can now do a bit of dogging-in on our local shoot. On the down side she's really out of control at the moment in that area so very much a work in progress.
Oh! Did I mention I've lost a lot of weight recently?
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