Jake aka Little Brian pays us a visit and his sister Kayla visits Land's End

Ollie and Jake

Bank Holiday Monday saw us having a visit from Jake and his family, Sarah, Richard and their son Ollie. Jake was known as Little Brian for a while and although to us he was a bright star in the litter, as often can be, he was the last to be picked of the litter. Jake is from Smudge's litter born this year on the 24th February with Reggie being the Dad.

Jake left us nearly three months ago and he was a little unsure as he jumped out of the car to meet me, but once he saw the children as he went to the front door, I think some recollection was coming back. He meet his Mum, who at first woofed at him, but soon excepted him in the home and then Granny, Millie and Dad, Reggie introduced themselves to Jake. Dogs remember each other by scent and the scent memory of dogs is thought around a couple months and as three months had passed, from the behaviour displayed on meeting again, the dogs did not have any scent memory of each other, but soon excepted the presence of each other. We got a couple photo's of Jake with Ollie and then noticed the similar hair colour, which Ollie told us others had already commented about.

Jake is now a six months old male and in our home with a plethora of dog smells, especially as recently three have been on heat, the invitable happened and Jake done a couple little cocks of the leg to leave his calling card. Sarah was a little embarressed by this, but she need not worry, as over the years practically every dog that has come in our home, even bitches have embarressed their owners and decided to do a marking wee.
 
Now to understand this behaviour of a housetrained dog embarressing it's owner like this, we have to give ourselves a dog brain. When your dog is housetrained, it does not think, "I must not pee or poo in a house", you train it to not toilet in your home, to them is your living area, so when it comes into my home which is not their living area, your dog just thinks, "lots of dog smells here, I better add mine." Marking wees also are just that, the dog leaving information about themselves, a bit like a business flyer in the post box, spam email or basically any advertising, it's not the same as a dog doing a big puddle of wee in the middle of the room.

 Penny 1, a Cavalier I had many years ago, who I blogged about and posted photos of on the 02/12/2013 "A rather long walk down memory lane"  Penny 1 in our home, was housetrained and a very clean dog and she though, once did more than just a marking wee as an introduction. Lol.

Years ago I rented stables just up the road from where we live now. I rented the stables from an old couple who owned and lived in the bungalow next to the stables. They decided to sell the property and very kindly told me, "they would sell the bungalow with the hope that I could carry on renting the stables," which was very kind of them and they stayed true to their word and they moved out and in moved a family from Surrey, who came from a farming background and had owned and run a on farm produce shop and were happy for me to keep renting the stables from them.

The day they were moving in, I was up the stables and noticed them arrive with a furniture lorry and was about to go up and introduce myself, but could not find Penny 1, who always came with me when at the stables. I could not find her and wondered whether she had made her way up to meet the family moving into the bungalow, so thought I would kill two birds with one stone, by going up to introduce myself to the new arrivals and inquire to if, they had seen Penny 1. 

I approached the bungalow to say, "Hello !", to see Penny 1, and the new neighbours laughing, thankfully.  Penny 1, had beaten me to it on the introducing themselves department, as the bungalow doors were all open, she had made her way into one of the bedrooms and had found a bed, jumped up on it and pooped on it. Luckily it was of a solid nature, the poo, that is and the bed had a cover on it. It certainly was an icebreaker and I'm still friendly with the family to this day. So if your housetrained dog cocks it's leg when in someone else's home, be thankful they did not squat. Lol

Thanks Sarah for getting in contact with me whilst in the area and your family and you taking time out of your time off to let us see how Jake is growing up. He's a beautiful young dog and you are doing a great job with him.

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Ollie and Jake

Keeping it in the same family tonight with next an update from Jake's litter sister, Kayla and she was the first to be picked of the litter. Thanks Lynne for letting me know how she enjoyed her first holiday with you all. Land's End in Cornwall looks lovely as usual, we do have some stuuning countryside and coastline in the UK.

Kayla on holiday at Land's End

Hi Jane,
She thoroughly enjoyed her first experience of being on the sand and playing by the sea - as did we watching her!  The sea coming towards her frightened her at first, then she just charged down the beach into the sea and swam back out.  She then thought it would be a good idea to dive head first into the sand and roll around in it to dry herself!  She got sand everywhere, including in her eyes, so she had a shower when we got back in the evening.

Best wishes

Lynne

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Finish on a funny bit of video our oldest son, Bert took of Henry and Treacle play fighting. I was sat at the computer when Henry was making the funny noise he makes and I think he sounds like a whale. Treacle makes me laugh, as although smaller than Henry, she gives no quarter to him.