The Eagle Very Nearly Landed

Such a lot seems to have been going on - not sure where to start!  Maybe work backwards.  This morning has been eventful in itself.......

I realised the dogs were due to be wormed.  Simple enough task in theory, but the reality has taken me over half an hour.  I needed to weigh River first - that wasn't hard as she is still light enough to pick up easily.  The first difficulty was having to weigh myself first.... oops a few kilos gone on there again!  River is weighing in at 17kg - basically one kilo for every week of her life.  She is actually starting to look more like a juvenile dog rather than a puppy.

Moving with purpose

Then I decided I really ought to weigh the other dogs.  Tussock, although she is the heaviest, is actually easy to pick up as she is a great size and shape to collect into your arms - she is also very compliant with this action as I did this a lot when she was young.  She weighed in at 32 kilos.  Talulah next.  Ah, Talulah.  This is when I realised the benefits of picking up puppies regularly - I don't think I kept the same tabs on her growing weight as I did Tussock's, so she is not quite so comfortable being picked up - add to that the fact that she is virtually unable to keep still!  The first attempt failed, so I had the bright idea to get her to stand on my desk chair so I didn't have to bend to lift her.  I encouraged her to jump onto the chair, and in true Talulah style, her enthusiasm was.............excessive.  From standing, she cleared the chair and landed on the desk, took off again and cleared the armchair and back to ground.  In her wake was my full cup of hot drink all over my paperwork, and everything in even more of a mess than it normally is.  It's amazing how far a full mug of liquid can go.  Anyway, they're wormed now.

The scene of the crime

The play in the house is generally getting wilder as River is growing.  If it were summer, or even just drier, I could chuck them out in the garden, but it is so wet, that they just slither around and chew up what is left of my lawn.  River has discovered the joys of jumping on the furniture and dive bombing Talulah from above - or anyone else who is passing.  The word "enough" is being used more and more - and she is learning some self control, but at the end of the day, they need to let off steam.  Mind you, I do have a area opposite the house at the other side of the road and now that the bracken has died back, I can take them over there to allow the explosion of energy accumulated through the night.

Earlier this morning, I let them out for a wee (puppy play usually means needing a wee half way through!) and when I called them in, there was no sign of River.  I ended up putting my wellies on (yes, the garden is that wet) and going looking for her - I eventually found her in next door's garden.  I have no idea how she got in there as I checked round the fence for places she could get through or under.  So that remains a mystery and it means I will have to make sure I keep an eye on her from now on - now she has been in there, she'll want to go again.  I know my neighbour won't mind, and he does shut his gate so she can't go on the road, but she is obviously quite resourceful.......

...........as I found out a few days ago.  I had given the dogs their food - three big ones outside and River in the kitchen.  I shot off to the loo, and as I was sat there, I heard a thump.  Hmmmmm.  By the time I got back through I found the dish containing the chicken breast I had just taken off the chicken on the floor and very empty.  I think you call it counter-surfing.  Nothing is safe anymore.  But she is so damned clever - I rigged up a booby trap for her - lots of lightweight stuff to come down on her that will make a noise - no way is she falling for that one.  Any ideas welcome folks!!!  I don't think I have ever had such a blatant thief.  I guess the first answer is to make sure I put stuff away before leaving the room.

Last week we had a very interesting experience at work.  I had stopped to have a cup of tea, sitting on the flagstones, enjoying the view, and scratching Tussock's back.  River was laid in the middle of the lawn behind us chewing on a stick.  I heard a high pitched sound half way through a wheeeeeeeee and a  whoooooooooooooo, and I wondered what kind of bird it was - I couldn't recall hearing that before.  Then it came again, but before the sound had finished, Tussock and Talulah were on their feet and running, barking with huge alarm towards River.  I turned round just in time to see a sea eagle lifting itself higher into the air out of the way of leaping dogs.  Whether it had come for a serious look or an idle one, I don't know, but she'd better grow a bit!  It flew off down the shore track and there must have been over 60 gulls lifted off the water in alarm at its passing.  Amazing.  But a bit scary.  I know there have been reports over the years about eagles taking small dogs, but I would have thought she is getting a bit big now.  The noise, incidently was the air moving through the tag on its back.

One thing she learned to do the other day was dig.  There is a sand pit in one of the cottage gardens, and Talulah would dig, sit back and look at River, then dig a bit more and so on until the two of them were digging their way out!

Nearly there!

Just outside the same garden is a small burn which goes down a series of waterfalls and pools.  When I open the gate, Talulah is straight there.....

Will you play with me?

While Tussock watches on .....

I have to be serious as supervisor....

In preparation for my long awaited wood-burner, I am now starting to collect firewood in earnest.  Because my garden is pretty small, I really have to cut each collection and stack it before I go to find more.  Talulah and River sit and wait for the logs to fall, then run off with them.  Great for teething puppies!

Going back a bit further - many of you, I'm sure, are watching Frozen Planet withe David Attenborough.  Wow!  The episode with the wolf cubs had River transfixed by the television.  She sat in the middle of the floor, head on one side, then the other, watching the screen.  She continued to watch for quite some time before losing interest.  I did try replaying the episode to see if I could take some photographs of her, but she didn't oblige!  Never work with children and animals they say.

You may remember the tale of the eaten earring?  Well, she still does love to snuggle ears, so I haven't worn earrings since that evening!  It's like a cross between an ear wash and someone whispering sweet nothings in your ear.  At the risk of sound really weird (!) it's really quite nice!

Tussock has finally decided that River is worthy of being played with - except that Tussock style play is still a bit rough for River, and she took refuge behind me.  From there she discovered a new game of run up behind me and don't stop!  Walking down a stony track with a 17 kilo pup half way up your back is no joke, and hopefully I have managed to nip that one in the bud quickly enough.  I remember Tussock was much the same although she used to ambush me from the front.  One time, having been up to the field to feed horses before dinner time at the hotel, I was running (I was in a hurry) down a stony track, when Tussock suddenly leaped at me from the long grass at the side of the track - I flew over the top of her, landing on the stones and skinned my hands and knees - haven't done that since I was a kid!

With that, I had better go - and I'll try to get some more photographs now that we have some better weather again.  One of the problems of rotten weather is that the camera has a harder job of capturing images when the subjects are moving so quickly.  That's my excuse, anyway.

 
I'll leave you with the photograph I took the other day as I was packing up my tools at work.

The end of another day.

Return of the Slipper, Thieving and Escapology

I think the title says it all!  Yes the slipper has returned unharmed.  I decided to move the furniture about to try to make the living room a bit bigger, and there it was hiding under one of the couches.  I guess I didn't look hard enough fot it, but I'll bet the girls put it there to begin with!  So now my feet are toasty again which is just as well as it has dropped a bit colder up here, and I'm still waiting for my stove to be put in.  Not long to go hopefully, and having peered into my oil tank this morning, I might just be able to put the heating on for a few hours in the evenings.

Slippers reunited but still in play!  Note also how River is catching up with Talulah in size! 

If you look back to one of the first entries, there is a picture of her laid beside the water bowl - honestly, it's the same bowl!

Now, my hands are not the smallest.....

And the thieving?  River is a consumate thief.  No, THIEF!!!  She has obviously been taking lessons from Talulah in the art of stealing slippers, socks, and such like, but I also think Uncle Sisko has been telling her some tales of his younger day exploits.  She is now big enough to reach up the kitchen top and anything that may be lurking up there, so she is certainly teaching me to tidy up a bit quicker.  I am trying to teach her not to, but it is slow going - she did get a shock when a spoon fell on top of her, so perhaps I should build on that and arrange something that will make a lot of noise as it falls, but not hurt her.

And don't drop any food on the floor - she is as quick as a cat!  I haven't yet found anything she doesn't like to eat - I even found her eating the apple chaff we give to the horses.  The mice had eaten through the bottom of the bag, and whilst Talulah was on the hunt for that particular culprit, River was munching away at the spoils.  That'll be an interesting poo tomorrow!

Mooi obliges by bringing her head out of the bucket and dropping morsels on the ground for the dogs.
Note the bits on River's back

Talking to River's breeder the other day, it seems the little black pup that I was originally going to bring home doesn't like eating particularly!  She struggles to get her to eat enough -  quite the opposite to my little tyke who I think would eat until she burst given the chance. 

As for the escaping, well, let's just say she can find gaps in and under fences.  At work the other day, as I was gardening, I had to keep breaking off from the job to block off the latest route.  Anyone would think she was in Colditz - she had all the company she needed in the garden, but the lure of the great outside was too much.  She's quite a brave pup!  Mind you, there was a shoot going on around us that day, with lots of other dogs coming and going from the Castle grounds.  She did get a bit of a fright when two flatties came round the corner!  She ran back to the garden in front of me, whilst Talulah was scaling the fence at the other end to go and see "the boys"!  Times like that you hope no one saw the chaos and thought "she needs to get control of those dogs"!  That day was a great opportunity to see how she reacted to loud bangs - no worries there.  For a while, the guns were quite close, and she was neither up nor down about it - the advantage of learning from older dogs I guess.

We went along to see our neighbour-who-is-scared-of-dogs the other afternoon.  River was tired from the morning's activities, so I knew she would settle down quickly.  At one point we went upstairs so I could look through and borrow some DVD's, and River wandered off.  Suddenly we heard barking and we wondered if she has smelled a mouse or something in the eaves.  No mouse.  She had discovered another hovawart puppy!  She would rush up to it barking and it would run towards her.  Then she backed off, and it would back off.  She went closer, and so did it.  She raised a paw to play, and it did likewise.  Yes, you guessed - she found a mirror!  That was a fun few minutes whilst she got closer and closer and finally licked its nose!  Then she went behind the mirror - nope nothing there.  She quickly lost interest then and I was left to wipe the dog snot off the mirror.

She is also discovering her voice - and likes to use it.  I guess that will be another challenge to add to the list!  Mind you, the training is going fairly well.  I do try to make a bit of a game of it - and she makes up her own bit of game as she goes along.  She is pretty quick with sit, down, roll over (as in to be dried) shake hands, high five.  She has decided that to lie down, she first needs to jump on one of the chairs!  And roll over means laying on her back with her legs in the air rather than on her side - taking lessons from the horses on that one.  And a variation of sit is to sit but give a paw to make sure I can't withdraw the food!  I really ought to get the clicker out and play with that.  Trouble is, as soon as anyone else hears the clicker, there is an instant pool of drool on the floor, such is the association.

The last couple of days we have been gardening - and although today was a bit cloudy and dull, yesterday was a fantastic autumn day.

Sisko and Tussock working flat out!

Sisko taking a break from working so hard

Even Talulah was tired today.

Tired puppy.

Bored Tussock!

Picture of concentration.

On the horse side of things - well, I do wish they would stop feeling the need to assert their positions in the herd whilst I am in the midst of them.  The worst culprits are the Eriskays, Jinty and Cuinneag.  Mainly Jinty - Cuinneag is like the school bully's sidekick - normally he wouldn't behave like this, but with Aunty Jinty there, he can get away with it.  Ullises seems to have taken top position when it comes to food - he muscles in and everyone else moves.  Mooi is at the bottom of the pecking order in that sense, I think, and I do have to stand by her whilst she eats, otherwise someone else will chase her away.  Again, Jinty is the worst offender and just will not take no for an answer.  From now on I shall take a stick with me to explain that I mean "NO".  It's quite hard to put out four buckets between six of them and make sure they get the correct ones without too much carry on.  I have to up my game in the assertiveness stakes and lay down some ground rules and ask for a few manners.  With my own three, we had the bucket routine off to a tee, but with the other three, it has gone a bit awry....

On the ridge before galloping down for the buckets.

It used to just be Jinty rolled with her head in the bucket, but now Toffee and Cuinneag are doing the same.

Just after this, I took his rug off whilst the weather is nice, and he rolled again
and now he is filthy!!!

So here we are at the end of another day - Little One is fast asleep, but there are six other eyes on me as it comes up to supper time.....

The Missing Slipper and Midnight Cravings

I got very excited just now when I found my missing slipper.  Trouble is, where did I hide the one that I had?  Or have I just found that one having forgotten where I put it?  I can't blame River for running off with it - Talulah has long since been a thief of things like that - but it was last seen being tugged between them.  However, River IS responsible for the missing hair gel - I last saw the little tub in her mouth and that was about 2 weeks ago.  So now I am sitting here looking a dreadful mess with one cosy foot and one cold one.  And more and more things are being put away in ever higher places out of reach including my knitting.  Still, good old Tussock is under the desk so I can tuck my unslippered foot underneath her.

This is the last time I saw my slipper alive.  Note that the girls are learning to knit.....

We've had a busy few days this week.  More excitingly, we have had a couple of days of nice weather.  We actually saw the sun.  We spent one whole day outside, building a new log store.  It was a day of learning for River -

The first job for me was to dismantle my pile of reclaimed wood whilst Talulah taught River how to hunt for the mice that were obviously living in there - they didn't catch any.  Then she learned that you can't chase the saw when it is moving backwards and forwards.  Once she had heard the word "no" several times, she sat back to watch, but downwind of the sawdust - she ended up a delicate shade of sneezing beige before she realised if she moved slightly, it wouldn't go up her nose.  Then there was the bang, bang, bang of me hammering in the nails - that should have help with the fireworks, especially as I added the occasional "whoooooooeee" when I hit my fingers......

Sadly I took no photos of the day's activities - having limited resources, limited skill, limited time and only two hands meant that the camera was somewhat forgotten.

Another lesson she learned was that bird feeders usually have dropped food underneath them, and she remembered this lesson at 3.00 this morning......  I got up to go to the loo, and she followed me downstairs.  I let her out so she could go too.  Normally she comes straight back in, but not this time.  I called.  No response.  Called a little louder (not wanting to shout due to the time) and still no answer.  So there was I in t-shirt and wellies wandering round the garden with the torch.  I was just beginning to get worried when I caught movement in the torchlight - she was digging in the pot of carrots underneath the bird feeder for the dropped morsels.  I think her love of food might even exceed that of Sisko.  One day I might tell you the tale of his midnight raid on my parents' compost heap.....

The other day, after working in the morning, we managed a walk up to see the horses in the sunshine, and spent a bit longer up there than we have done of late.  The dogs spent quite some time playing in a little stream - this game got wilder and wilder until Talulah could no longer resist a swim and leaped into a deeper part - closely followed by River who had no idea what she was letting herself in for.  She got out again pretty quickly, looking at and licking herself as if not really understanding what had just happened and what was this wet stuff!

Come here! I can't reach you when you are in there!

Note the wild eyes.

Spladoosh!

You can do it!

Yeay!

I'm wet.....

The other thing that always makes me laugh is the way she goes head over heels.  She watches Talulah bounding and bouncing through the dead bracken and the rushes, and tries to do the same - I don't know if any of you have watched Total Wipeout with the huge red bouncy balls that contestants have to negotiate.  They generally make the first one, just manage the second, then they totally mess up the third and in the water they go.  River bounces the first step, stumbles on the second bound, then total looses it on the third, splatting down on the ground and somersaulting with the momentum.  She obviously isn't hurt, nor embarrassed, as she goes off and does the same again!

Now, that raises a question - do dogs get embarrassed?  Or am I being anthropomorphic?  I remember years ago my Dad refused to believe that dogs got embarrassed, until Leroy stumbled going up some steps and jabbed his nose.  My dad laughed at him telling him to be more careful, and when they got in the car, Leroy turned his back on my Dad and refused to look at him whilst ever my Dad was laughing.  I do believe that dogs have a sense of humour, too.  I know many will disagree with me, but......

She has developed a healthy respect for the horses, especially as they are jostling around at bucket time.  Their normal placid characters are replaced by mean, nasty and greedy ones.  No one is happy with the bucket they are given - the ponies always believe that the bigger ones have much nicer stuff in their buckets - actually, they're right!!  It doesn't help that they are still all sorting themselves out into some kind of hierarchy, although even when that is sorted, they'll still be unruly at feed time.  Jinty is probably the worst offender.  Toffee seems to be able to raid anyone's bucket on account of she does it so subtly.  She kind of eases her way in without seeming to even move.

Jinty heading off to be mean to Ullises

Just look at that body language.

Ulli now thinking about standing up for himself

And doing just that.

It's been lovely to have something other than rain this last few days - today, I even managed to come home with clean and dry dogs - that is definitely unusual.  Sadly, the winds we have had seem to have stripped many of the leaves off the tress without giving us the autumnal colour schemes.  I had hoped to have some lovely photographs of colourful trees, but there are none!  This is my best offering:

Well, another day goes by and I still haven't finished this post - back to rain this morning, sadly, but a good opportunity for a rest day for little one.  She's had a few busy days so it will do her good to just sleep.  Oh! She did a brief session as a Therapy Pet yesterday - we called on some neighbours.  He would like a dog, she is scared of them, though she wants to not be scared!  The innocence of a puppy, plus the eyes, the soft coat, the nurturing instinct in brings out in so many of us, plus her endearing way of laying on her back with her legs in the air - well, it all helped to get this particular lady along on her journey!

And finally - the promised video of River coming down the stairs.  Now that she is getting bigger, she wants to go up and down, but I am trying to limit the journeys to one up and one down per day.  Trouble is, they find they can do things, they get more adventurous, then they go hurt themselves! Anyway, the video isn't that great, but..... it's also on it's side as I forgot to rotate the original and I'm too technologically challenged to work out how to do that now I have loaded it.

And definitely finally, here's a video of Talulah and River playing - I apologise for the wind which was a bit brisk on that particular day, but I like this particular video which shows River ambushing from the safety of a clump of rushes!

And no, the slipper still hasn't turned up.....

Descent of the Wooden Hill

Hmmm - where did the last week go?  Well, in some ways it's been very busy, and in others a bit lazy.  The weather hasn't helped in any way.  Rain, rain, more rain and to add insult to injury, even more rain.  Yes, we do live on the west coast of Scotland, but for October this is just crazy.  And there is snow down to 1000ft on the mountains, so it is getting colder, too.

River continues to grow and her character is showing more and more.  She is very affectionate and quite gentle even in her puppy ways - at least with humans.  Playing with Talulah she is quite a ruffian, and it's good that she has the outlet for a bit of rough and tumble.  I always thought that Talulah would have been a rubbish mother as she is so dippy and as mad as a hatter, but she is proving to be a fantastic nanny. 

I'llllllll get ya!

Leapfrog

One thing I have realised, though, is that I haven't really played with River enough - for play she goes to Talulah.  She sees me as a source of affection and FOOD!  Yes, food is definitely first on her list of likes.  And interestingly, when she wants to go to sleep, she comes to me and lies close by.  Tussock has always slept under the desk whilst I work, and now River seems to be copying her.

Taking up Hovawart position

 Talulah seems a more complex dog than I ever gave her credit for - she is showing me more about her own character in her interactions with River - teaching her how to play in different ways, teaching bite inhibition - for the latter, I think I can honestly say that River hasn't yet nipped me, which for a puppy is pretty good going.    And yesterday, she was teaching River how to dig......just as long as they don't do it in this garden!!  But she is also quite jealous - if the little one goes off to speak to Sisko or plays a little with Tussock she gets quite uppity.  And it seems that to play with her myself, I must first exclude Talulah from the room.

Now, you do it like this.....

Now you try.....

That's it - you've got it!

 We had a lovely walk in the sunshine yesterday (a brief appearance!).  We went to take buckets to the ponies, and stood for ages waiting for them to come down off the hill.  In that time Sisko sunbathed, and the others played around.  River took a cue from Talulah and did a mad run round - except she hit a bump in the ground and went rolling down the hill. 

Who are you watching?

Ah, you want entertainment?!

She hides in the rushes and likes to ambush the others when she thinks they aren't watching.

Waiting for a victim

Ambush!

Another curious behaviour of Talulah's is her diving onto the ground. She learned long ago that it is easier to dive and roll when Tussock comes in for a body slam, and she is already doing that with River - rather like a playful parent "falling to the ground" after an attack from a toddler.

You bump into me........

............and I'll pretend to fall over.........

..........and roll right over...........

Ha ha ha - wasn't that fun?!

The stairs are something that have made me chuckle - I have been carrying her up and down every morning and night to protect her joints, and also just because they are quite steep and she was so small.  However, I can now give her a shove up - hand under her bum and push whilst she runs with her front legs - she looks like one of those wind up toys!  Coming down is even funnier.  The first time she stood at the top of the stairs she backed off barking at them - she was frightened of the wooden hill - and quite rightly, they are steep enough to make me hold on to the banister when I go down!  She would wait until I picked her up, but now she has discovered she can get down on her own - in a fashion.  You know those barking toy dogs that jump up and down on all four legs?  She's like one of them - she bounces her way down with a bark of defiance at each and every step.  I'll have to see if I can catch it on video to put up for you.

Anyway, it'll soon be time to climb that same wooden hill and she will go through her latest routine -take up residence on Sisko's bed, be turfed off so Sisko can go in, get back on there with him, then when the lights go out, come and settle down on the bed next to my bed.  She has elected to sleep there now, rather than on the bed - for the most part anyway.

Sisko makes a good hot water bottle

But mummy tucks me in!