Confession of a (bad) dog owner.

It has been a stressful few weeks in this particular hovie household, with Tussock being unwell, River having her first (and incredibly bloody) first season which has sent all hormones skewwhiff yet again and now last Sunday's events have certainly added to that stress.

 

It is actually quite hard to tell this tale, but hopefully in the telling, some of you will able to pat yourselves deservedly on the back since your dogs wouldn't do such a thing, or that you yourself wouldn't behave in such a manner, or perhaps some of you will recognise certain aspects within the situation and be able to avoid the farce I found myself in last Sunday.  It wasn't my finest hour. 

I went down to a friend's house where my young horse is currently staying, keeping another pony company, and allowing me access to the arena to do some more work with her.  The dogs always go with me - they help me pick up the poo in the field, chase the odd rabbit, play with a ball, take a dunk in the ditch and generally have a lot of fun.  They know to stay out of the arena whilst I am working with Mooi, and they never stray very far away, and come back to the shout.

This afternoon, however, when we had all jumped out of the car, my friend's husband was trying to get a motorbike started and asked if I could help them push it up to the road where they could take advantage of the slope.  I thought about putting the dogs in the car for a few minutes, but it was hot and didn't want them to be distressed, so they came with us - we would only be a couple of minutes. The bike was heavy and was slow to push, and the dogs ran on ahead.

First incident - a dog in a neighbouring garden - a squabble through the fence - I should have taken them back to the car at that point, but I didn't want to hold my friends up by faffing about with the dogs.  

 

We got up to the road, and gave the bike a push - no joy.  So we had to push it up the hill again.  I was so busy concentrating on pushing the bike and helping to keep it upright that I failed to notice the dogs wandering off in the direction of another neighbouring property. 

By the time we had got the bike to the top of the slope the second time, I realised there was a dog in the property they were visiting - I had forgotten there was a dog lived there and I had a sudden panic as all the girls were in season.  I hadn't worried too much about them as, historically, they have been content to hump one another and have never shown any attempts at roaming. I called them, and they did respond, but this dog was intent on being with the ladies and came with them despite his owner's calls.  I tried to catch him, but the owner called to say to just leave him and he would go back in his own time.

 

However, he was so intent on Talulah's bum, that I decided it would be better to catch him and take him back to his owner and she could hold him whilst I took my three away.  But he was none too keen on his collar being held and made moves to mouth me - deciding the safer option was to slip my jumper through his collar, I moved to do so - except he got away. 

 

I then thought I would just take all of them to the dog's own garden so is owner could take him - so we did.  Dog handed over, and I moved off.  At that point a chicken decided to put in an appearance.  Tussock decided to have a nosey - chicken wasn't happy about it - Tussock insisted - chicken ran - Tussock chased - chicken squawked  - Tussock caught - you get the drift.  By the time I got to the scene of the crime, the chicken breathed its last.  Despite my telling her off, Tussock decided to go look for another chicken, which she found - I ran after her - she dropped the now dead chicken - and went for yet another.

 

By this time I was pretty stressed, and I'm afraid that Tussock got a thumping when I finally caught her with the last chicken.  She vacated the killing fields in disgrace and at this point I realised the owner had let go of her dog and he was busy with Talulah behind me.

 

My language got worse and so did the volume.  And I probably made a non too pretty arse of myself.  I was angry at the dogs, angry at myself, angry at the world.  Once again, in helping someone else out, I put myself in a bad position and am now paying the emotional and financial cost. 

 

I have no idea why the dog's owner let him go again, or why she didn't catch him, or why she and my friend didn't make any attempt to prevent what was going on behind me.  I wish they had.

 

But the bottom line is - they are my dogs and I am responsible for them, and have to accept the consequences of anything they might do, or damage they might cause.  I let them down by putting them in that position - a bad decision on my part, and, as it would appear, not enough training for that kind of situation.  That said - all my dogs did come to me on my call to begin with - it was only once the chicken got in on the act that it all went pear shaped....

 

So, this week we have to go to the vet Monday and Tuesday to have injections for Talulah to prevent any pregnancy - if he had been a flat coat, then I would perhaps go ahead with pups, pedigrees permitting, but he wasn't.  And I have chickens to pay for somewhere down the line - at my insistence. 

 

Last Sunday I was ready to pack my bags and move to remote island to escape the real world.  I just wanted to hideaway and find some balance and calm again. 

 

The one bright moment in all of this?  River, or my little Shitbag, was perfectly behaved.  I think she saw a side of her mum she had never seen and decided it was better to stand still, observe and learn!

 

But shit happens.  And each time it does, a lesson presents itself - I have certainly learned from this one.

 

Confession over - I know some of you will be appalled at this story, and be quite sure your dogs won't do something like that.  Equally I know some of you will cringe with me, perhaps recalling a similar sort of situation where you wish some alien would come along and abduct you.