Bertha and Bumble are both Brittany cross Cavaliers. No, we are not digging another hole in the lawn.No, there are no holes here.How did that get there?Just got home from milking to find birthday greetings from Harvey's (who I blogged about earlier) litter sister Mollie. She is from Smudge and Reggie's litter of Cavapoos born today back in 2014 Its six Thanks Rhian and Russ for keeping in touch over the last three years.
Lovely update in my inbox this morning for Harvey, who is now 3 years old today. He is from Smudge and Reggie's litter of Cavapoos born today back in 2014 Its six So a Happy 3rd Birthday to Harvey and his five litter siblings Kayla, Mollie, Flora, Chester and Jake. Hope you, and your families are all well. "Hi Jane & family I hope you have been keeping well. Apologies for not being in touch sooner. I can't believe Harvey is 3 ! It's been an amazing few years and he is as gorgeous as ever. Such a gentle and happy soul. He is so loved. He comes to work, and has many friends on his journey in to and in the office. I am always being stopped as he is so sociable . He loves his food like Smudge and spends most of the day trotting back and forth to the kitchen in the hope one of his human pack will give him scraps. He is totally ball obsessed and his preference is chuckit balls. Yesterday he dived in the smelliest of streams and stuck his head in to the silt/clay bottom-the attached is him at 7.30am ...much to my horror having to bath him 3 times to get it out. He has a reputation and is the blame for being a stinky dog despite a bath every 2 weeks .. the price to pay for such a handsome beard! His health has been good, except he has a sensitive stomach and sadly has been hospitalised with a few bouts of HGE ... triggered by eating certain food , any dog treats, and we think anxiety if I leave him overnight with a friend so I am super cautious about this and rarely do anything to aggravate it. He is on probiotics and raw goats milk which is full of good bacteria and this has really helped to stabilise his stomach and prevent major episodes. Apart from that he is doing really well and I adore him. I hope all his brothers and sisters are doing well too. No holidays planned yet but will be the lakes and France money permitting Take care Liza & Harvey xxx" ""Good to hear from you and "Happy 3rd Birthday" to Harvey. That photo of him muddy made me laugh. Sorry to hear about the HGE. My mum's little Cavalier Cleo who is now coming 8 years old, had a couple bouts of that. She has been kept on her dog food, and nothing rich, as fatty stuff seems to set it off, and I can't remember the last time she had a bout, must be a couple years ago now. The problem now is remembering she has it, and forgetting yourself with her, and giving her something which could set it off. Like Harvey, she will follow you around hoping for any scraps.
I had to think when you said he was "3" and looked at the paper work. Yes, it is 3 years ago. His mum Smudge is nearly 7 now, and his dad Reggie will be 7 the end of this year. Both of them are well. Thanks for keeping in touch, and I hope money permits, and you have a lovely holiday again with Harvey in France this summer. Love from us all at Poundlane Jane x" Storm Doris might be still with us, and took off part off the roof of one of our sheds over night, but at least the sun has returned. Last year I experienced my first ever puppy being born with the condition Hydrocephalus and it was decided when he was around 3 weeks old to put him to sleep Tiddler was not an angel.
Our son Alfie had become attached to his little "Garry Baldy", as he called him, but understood that he was not a well puppy. When the vet came, he went to the shed, and I could here hammering. Alfie, I thought was dealing with it in his own way. He then emerged when the vet had left. He had made a wooden sign for the graves of the dogs we have buried here, and had left a space for his "Garry Baldy." He did not realize that I was letting the vets have "Garry Baldy" for medical science. He was okay about it, when I explained why. The space though is a reminder of "Garry Baldy" more than if his name was hammered in to the sign. Received a lovely update for Harley a couple days ago from Sarah. Harley is from our Brittany/cavalier litter born last year in July One day under their little belts
I'm really pleased with how gundog training is going. I've attached a few photos from this weeks lesson. He's doing so well, I've noticed the difference in him already. He's so much more focused which is great. It's encouraging to see progress & I'm really enjoying the training. I can't believe Harley's 7mths old now. He's grown so much from that little pup I picked up in September! I've asked Heather (who has Albey) to do some paintings of Harley as he's been growing up. She's doing an amazing one of Harley when he was 9wks old at the moment. I thought it would be nice to have the paintings done by another Poundlane owner! Best wishes Sarah (& a very sleepy Harley)" "Good to hear that you are both enjoying the Gundog training. Gundog training is about focus, and giving purpose. If you really enjoy it, unfortunately crossbreeds cannot compete in Official Field Trials and Gundog Working Tests in the UK, but you might like to find a local shoot, and see if he enjoys working in the field. Starting with a bit of beating. Game shoots depending on what they are shooting run from anywhere between August to February. You get a few prats, as you do with a lot of things, but generally, you get a pretty nice crew of people beating, and you will be surprised by the cross section of life they come from. The smaller shoots of around 6 to 10 guns a day at the most, that are run for a day out enjoying shooting, than being concerned with turn over and bagging high numbers of birds, are the best places to start off. Your trainer might know of a good shoot to start at, if interested in getting Harley out in to the field.
Nice that you have contacted Heather at Munchkinmay | Custom pet portraits . They are a lovely family, and Heather a budding artist. Would love to see what she comes up with for you. Kind regards Jane x" A couple weeks ago I took Dolly to the vets, to take a look at a lump I had found in her neck, and I wrote about it in the blog We may be playing out the endgame. In August last year Dolly had a Squamous Cell Carcinoma removed from her throat, which I talked about in the blogs Dolly in the wars and Dolly and the big "C" On visiting the vet, the lump was not sore or painful, and with Dolly's history, and her age, it was decided that it most probably was a resurgence of the previous tumour type, and she was put on a course of steroids. Dolly's nearly 10 years old and she has had a really healthy life until now, and really did not want to make this about keeping Dolly alive as long as possible, it's about quality of life. and this morning I popped her to the vets again for another check on how the lump was doing. The lump in the last couple days had suddenly got bigger again, more proud, being about the size now of half a golf ball, which had slightly been compressed, which was a bit worrying, but Dolly was still not showing any discomfort or distress with it. The vet on looking at it this morning, was under the same opinion as me, that it was bigger, and we discussed options. I had decided before seeing the vet this morning, that without an response to the steroids, it might be good to get a biopsy, so to be sure what we were dealing with, as there was a possibility that it was involving the lymph node. The vet then said, "The next step would be referring me to a specialist, which would then possible be chemo, but I will talk to a vet I know, and ask them if we could use a tablet form of chemo." This would an attempt to contain for as long as possible. So the vet took Dolly off to take a biopsy from the lump, whilst I waited in the waiting room. Someone I know in passing, who breeds and shows sheep, came in with a lamb with Entropion (Inverted Eyelid) and I stopped talking to him, and found out that the little fella was a couple day old pure Texel with impeccable breeding, and he was hoping he would make a good stock ram. See it ain't only Show dog people who are mad. The lamb has a very painful inheritable eye condition. Madness in my mind to breed from such an animal. Anyway, around 10 minutes later the vet walked in to the waiting room with Dolly, with a big smile on her face. She said, "I'm going to look a total idiot now, but you are going to be happy that I am though." When she took Dolly off to take the biopsy, so not to cause to much disturbance to the lump, she had opted to use a needle and syringe to extract cells, and as she went to pull the syringe back, what surged in to the syringe was puss. The lump seems to be an abscess. I told her, "If you look like an idiot, so do I then." The lump is now about half the size, and she has a course of antibiotics to take. The main reason for the misdiagnoses, is Dolly's history of Squamous Cell Carcinoma, along with her showing no signs of pain, heat to the area, or any change in her general demeanor. She's just an old girl, who gets on with life, and hopefully she has a few more games to play on me yet.
Henry loves a good cuddle and rub when I come in. One thing he does love as much as his "buttocks" being scratched, is his front legs being stroked. Hence why he keeps pawing me. The one nice thing about Henry (and all my male dogs), is that for all the cuddling and scratching I give him, he is not a male dog that gets sexually aroused by this kind of contact with a human. Often male dogs, can get over excited by this kind of intimate contact with humans, and again this comes down to imprinting and conditioning of a dog from an early age. I don't have issues with my male adult dogs interacting sexually with humans, this is probably down to having enough contact with their own species, so they are more species sexually orientated than most domestic dogs, and that from a pup, any time they show sexual arousal when interacting with a human, it is discouraged. Any behaviour as a pup may seem funny, but as an adult dog can become a nightmare.
So when your pup does something funny, before encouraging that behaviour, by laughing, and trying to make them do it again. Think would you want them behaving like that when an adult dog? Doing that behaviour every time they get the cue for it. Like they dry hump the legs of every visitor to your home, they bark and circle frantically every time the door bell rings, hang off your trouser leg when you try to walk across the room, or go ballistic every time you want to go out the door. Those are all things that people have thought cute as a puppy, but then they have turned in to a nightmare as the puppy becomes an adult. So think before you laugh, before you encourage and reward something funny that your pup does. Will you be laughing at them doing that 12 months down the line? Received an email a couple days from Hayley for Bella. Bella is from Primrose and Toby's Cavalier litter born June 2015 Primrose's Cavalier pups nearly two days old
She's having few issues with behaviour before taking her out on a walk, she goes mental and a bit silly and noisy which can be embarrassing !!! Obviously she's over excited! But it is taking the joy out of it!! She is so loving and a joy at home, caring gentle and obedient. Hope you're ok love reading your blogs!! Like reading a book!!! Hayley, Bella and boys x " "Sorry to hear about Bella's accident, and the issue with getting over excited when going out. You can find lots of methods to help with this behaviour on the internet, or you could get some hands on help from an animal behaviorist, which can be expensive, but can be worth the money, to sort the issue out. They can come to your home, and show you how to deal with the behaviour in the environment she displays the behaviour, which can be far more helpful than watching or reading about training methods.
One method we use to stop the dogs behaving over excited and barking is a simple cheap method. We have an old spray bottle, which used to house a non toxic surface cleaner. We have it full of water, and we keep it by the back door, a quick spray in the face of an over excited dog is often enough to calm them. Only when the dog gets the idea that the excited behaviour will not get what it desires, will the behaviour cease. It will take time and patience on your side, because every time you let her out the door or car and she is behaving over excited, you are rewarding that behaviour. So she has learnt that she behaves like that, and she then gets let out, you have to retrain this process in her mind. Petplan may be one of the more expensive pet insurances, but it is one of the most comprehensive, and one of the few that insure for certain conditions for the lifetime of your dog, and they will also pay prescriptive medicines for life with a dog, most only pay for 1 to 2 years. Hope this helps. Thanks for photos, and good to here from you. Kind regards Jane x"
A lot is spoken about alpha, but it is not about being overly aggressive or top dog with everything, it can be very subtle in a pack. An overly aggressive dog will find it very hard to maintain alpha status in a group, they will eventually be caste out by the group. Alpha status is best maintained by cohesion within the group, and an alpha that understands this and builds strong bonds with it's pack members, stands a better chance of holding on to that status. Reggie I feel demonstrates in the video that bond making process, that keeps his position in the group.
This is our home last night. The dogs don't seem to understand that they don't like being hugged Apparently, dogs don't like hugging, but as dog-cognition scientist Dr. Alexandra Horowitz says, "They deal with it, you know?" Looks like they are dealing with it pretty well.
Laura sent me this photo of her daughter huggled up with Daisy and Harry, after I wrote the blog Apparently, dogs don't like hugging. Someone forgot to tell Sasha yesterday. Daisy and Harry are litter siblings from our first ever litter of Brittany/Cavaliers born Spring 2015. The blog Super Mum tells of their arrival along with their seven other litter siblings. "Thanks for the photo, Laura. Dolly is doing well. She has been on steroids for just over a week, no noticeable change in the size of the lump in her neck. Would be nice to see some reduction starting to happen, but at least it has not got any bigger. Thankfully it is on the outside of her larynx, so does not effect her breathing like the lump we had removed from her throat six months ago. Hope you are all doing well. Daisy and Harry look very settled. Kind regards Jane x Received an update for Albey who is from our F1b litter born Spring last year, being 3/4 Cavalier, 1/4 Poodle. His mum is Treacle and Dad is Toby. The blog Thankfully all is safe tells of his arrival.
Albey and the cats will now sleep on the sofa together but he's still confused as to why they don't want to play with him. He'll chase strange cats out of the garden though, which our cats seem to like! Here's a little video of Albey playing with sticks under some bare trees and a video of him having fun with dog safe bubbles yesterday
Albey has his paws crossed for Grandma Dolly, Love from Heather, Albey and family xxx" "Good to hear from you. I'm afraid things can go a little off road, when they hit their juvenile stage. Looks and sounds like he is enjoying life to the full.
Dolly is doing well. We've yet to see any reduction in the lump, but it has stopped getting bigger for now. Thankfully it is on the outside of her larynx, so does not effect her breathing like the lump we had removed from her throat six months ago. Thanks for yet more lovely photos of Albey. Love from us all at Poundlane Jane x" |
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you,but he will make a fool of himself, too.”
― Samuel Butler Me (Jane) with Puddin' and Teagol, waiting patiently to flush a patch of kale, December 2019
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