After our excellent walk on Sunday, Buddy had a delicate problem in the evening. How can I put this? Aromas of a most unpleasant nature emanated from his vicinity. Poisonous miasmas if you will. Wind. Gas. Call it what you want, it had us running for cover, wafting it away with a magazine, and opening windows. Yes, it was pretty horrible.
We went for a walk on Cannock Chase today, and Buddy and Star found some friends to play with. The child in the photo detected a child-friendly Lab and came straight over. From then on Buddy lay on his back to have his tummy rubbed by the child. All would have gone on peacefully, were it not for the presence of an enthusiastic German Shepherd Dog puppy and Star, because all of a sudden they both wanted in on the action. The child was happy to fuss all three, and Buddy was happy to lie on his back in the middle of it all!
Buddy, Star and friends have fun!
Stockholm University research has shown that dogs are getting "dumber". Researchers found that current pedigree dogs are "disinterested, shy and less responsive to commands than their ancestors." They also found that show-quality and "handbag" dogs are the most likely to be affected by this lower intelligence.
We had a rare Saturday with nothing
already arranged. The weather was good, so we decided to ignore the various chores waiting to be done at home, and go out for the day. We are members of English Heritage, and we consulted the guidebook for a suitable venue. We were members of another similar organisation, but defected to English Heritage as they welcome dogs. When I say they welcome dogs, I really mean they welcome dogs, as opposed to just tolerating them. The organisation we left has some site which claim to welcome dogs, but that translates to permitting them in the car park on a lead. Which is absolutely no good to me or most dog owners. With rising crime it's asking for trouble to leave your dog in a car in a distant car park, apart from the dangers of overheating.
We had a great day at Goodrich Castle, and really appreciate English Heritage for allowing dogs.
When I went to Good Citizen training classes with Buddy we met a lot of new people and dogs. Which was great for us both. Except that I'm not very good at recalling names, and suddenly I had lots to remember. The other problem I had was that many of the owners I met had given their dog a traditionally human name, which just added to my confusion. So I had not only to memorise Tara and Katie, Ellie and Sally, Nick and Harvey, and Connie and Sally, but I also had to remember which was the dog and which the person.
Tim Glass, author of Just This Side of Heaven sent me a link to a cartoon depicting what it can be like being an author with a dog at a book signing. I told him not to take it personally if people want to meet one of his lovely Beagles with more enthusiasm than they do him. Apart from the fact that dogs are usually cuter than their accompanying people, they are just more approachable too. You don't feel at all self conscious when greeting a dog, even a celebrity one.
I was listening to the British comedian Alan Davies telling a story about his Alsatian dog, and I noticed that he spoke of the dog as referring to him as Alan rather than Dad. This is something that becomes apparent about dog owners once you've been around them a while - some refer to themselves as their dog's mom or dad, others imagine the dog using their Christian name. I don't think there's anything wrong with either one, but I don't actually think that's how our dogs relate to us.
We had our day at the beach yesterday, and it was marvelous after the winter we've been having. The dogs had a great time; as soon as I opened the boot and let Buddy out, he was leaping about, quivering in excitement that he was going to get a run on the beach. Star takes it all a bit more in her stride, and her passion is digging. What was really enjoyable was that the beach was not crowded, so although we had the leads with us, we didn't have to attach them once. Bliss!