Wednesday 22 April 2009

First Swim of the Year, Back to School and a Sleepover

Is it my imagination but are our dogs better behaved when the sun is shining? Do you think their spirits are lifted and they get more cheerful as we do? Well Hamish certainly seems to be in a better mood this week and today he decided it was time for his first swim in the canal for 2009. It was totally his idea but it did take him some time to finally take the plunge and a small crowd had gathered to cheer him along.
You may already know, but Hamish is back at school at the moment with the helping hand of renowned Clicker Gundog trainer Helen Philips. The first lesson we had to learn was to calm everything down and work on Hamish's ability to focus on me and therefore the job in hand. With a bit of imagination I have incorporated a 'trick' borrowed from Anna and Ziggi to help him relax.Ruby has been back at school with us too but last weekend they got to have some fun when she came over to stay. Actually Hamish stayed at Ruby's on Friday and Ruby came to stay with us on Saturday so they had a whole weekend together.They get on so very well together and were as good as gold....the reform school is obviously doing them good.Hamish is having to get used to being in his crate all over again. It's our first small step towards getting him over his Separation Anxiety and the first time we've had the crate up since he was 10months old. As you can see Ruby is trying to help him out.

Monday 13 April 2009

A very Snoozy Easter weekend in Fawsley Hall

What happens when you've been working too hard and take some time off to relax.....? You sleep and sleep and feel more tired than ever. Well that's what we did this weekend at Fawsley Hall, another dog 'friendly' hotel in Northamptonshire. I say 'friendly' because they weren't nearly as enthusiastic about Hamish as they had been in Stapleford Park, but that would have been very hard to beat, after all there he had his own check-in, bed and dog biscuits on his pillow at night too. In Fawsley Hall the dogs are ONLY allowed in the bedrooms but not in any of the public places - that's not dog friendly to our standards that's barely dog 'tolerant'. But this isn't Trip Advisor so I won't go on.Close to the hotel were Badby Woods, which are home to the most concentrated population of bluebells I have ever, ever seen. Unfortunately we were a few weeks too early. A local lady in the Windmill pub in Badby told us 'Bluebell Sunday' is traditionally the first Sunday in May. That would be a beautiful sight to behold and might just bring out the odd fairy or two.
The surrounding countryside was really marvelous but there were many lambs in the fields so we had to be extremely cautious. Still there was the occasional opportunity to explore off the leash.
The bed was super comfy and absolutely HUGE!
Didn't have much luck with the weather though, not a glimpse of the sun unfortunately.
The woods were H's favourite and plenty muddy too.
They say a dog should sleep 17hrs a day...well the humans weren't far behind on this occasion.