I Wish I Hadn't

A friend told me that a mutual acquaintance was selling her "Zique" daughter to a pet home as she was now too big. The pup had been quite consistent in her wins in minor puppy classes, but now at 61cms at 9 months she was too big for the show career that they had hoped for her. 

I'm not stupid, I've watched Meerah getting taller and taller and as you can see in the photo, there is still quite a lot of bone growth in her knuckle. Oh hell, I did it, I measured her, 6 days before the day - 55cms -pushing 56cms feck! My heart sank, but really it was only confirmation of what I've observed! (but when you actually haven't measured them, well you just hope!) Meerah is now the biggest, heaviest female I've had at this age and I fear there is so much more to come. Put it this way she is now taller than Beti was at 6 months and almost as heavy as she was at the same age. Actually, she is almost the same size and weight as Orin was. What happens over this next month is crucial as bitches grow on average 2.5cms after 6 months, an adult bitch should be between 55 and 60cms .. Early indications are that we are fecked!!!!

Neighbour Noise

 Well there was upset yesterday as I received a very stroppy text from one of my neighbours. It was after 10.30am and he informed me he'd been in hospital all night and was trying to get some sleep, but the barking coming from ours had woken him up. He went on to say that I should consider people living around me when the dogs were making so much noise .... Hmmm!!!! (Let me point out he lives in a caravan not in a house, yet anyway)

Ok, these guys get up between 7.00am and 7.30am everyday, they go out in 3 small groups, then Zeus goes out alone. Any noise at that time if from Zeus and Ross who are in the house and moaning as they're waiting to go out. There is not a hope in hell of that being heard across two fields. The dogs don't then go out again till about 9am. Meerah and Loki go into the garden and Orin and Siska go in the yard and top field, discounting Ross and Zeus for the same reason as at 7am there is no noise. Next out are Ross and Beti, Beti barks and Ross screams for as long as it takes to get across the yard to the field, so seconds Siska also has a few objection barks in the pen. After their time in the field Beti goes into the small pen and Ross is joined by Loki, Sammi and Meerah ... yeah everyone barks or screams in excitement, but it's usually over in less than 30 seconds. Unless  there is reason to bark, i.e someone about, there is then no noise, if there is noise they are usually reprimanded. (Mandy my closest neighbour says she hears "Shut the fuck up" far clearer than any barking)

At around 10.30am I start the walks, yeah there will be intermittent loud barking that may go on for

minutes at a time as everyone anticipates their turn. I'm sorry, but I don't think minutes of group baking intermittently mid-morning can be considered offensive, can it? From about 2pm (usually earlier) the dogs are all in the house other than when they go out for wee breaks, those times are usually silent, unless Zeus is barking in the bedroom, again that is not a consideration. If these dogs bark, there is a reason ... if that is the postie or a delivery man then they are quickly quiet. If there are voices carrying from neighbours houses then they will continue to bark, I can't cope with that myself, so I bring them in. In my opinion, and after no complaints from neighbours in over 30 years, considering we have a group of dogs there is very little noise here. 

So what was his problem? Well he says he'd been in hospital all night and had only just gone to bed to be woken up by these. How could I have envisaged that? Surely a polite message explain the situation was all that was asked for? Was his stroppiness necessary? Ok, we will give him the benefit of the doubt that he was tired, irritable and maybe ill, so I'll let it pass over me this time; but if it happens again, I will go back all guns blazing and I will mention how annoying he was with his chainsaw after dark the other evening, (well I heard it when I was getting coal!) I will tell him how much he cost me in vets bills with Asha and Tali after they ate bits of lobster and something really disgusting he threw onto the common land behind his cottage. Oh I have a list .. funny that and nothing negative to say about anyone in either of the other 3 houses!!! I did write a spiel to send to him, it was polite starting with "hope you are better" and ended up with "Happy New Year," but a neighbour, a friend and Steve talked me out of it. I didn't ignore him, this morning, at around 7.15am I sent him, "I hope you are all better there today." I did kind of hope the text had woken him up though!!!🙈🙉🙊

What Do I Do For The Header?

Do something new like this without the Xmas theme....

..or just stick to this?

Proud Of The Ones Who Came Back - And Stayed

Simba from the "A" litter - Storm from the "D" litter 

Of course - Zeus!

K Girls

Fly, Jazz

Isla, Ginger

Just lovely to get photo of all the girls over Xmas. Jazz looking like Krizzie and Seffe and Isla looking so much like her mother, Sammi!

Rehoming

 

Since 2021 (I think) and Lucy's Law came into force, a puppy under 6 months cannot be sold on, if the home doesn't work out it must go back to the breeder. That is great, as it should be, but day in day out I see pups on social media needing to be "rehomed." Today it's a 19-week-old female whose owners couldn't cope. I'll refrain judgment of owners and breeders for the initial purchase ... but I will harshly judge any breeder who shies away from their responsibility and doesn't take a puppy back. I've only ever had one puppy back, Rocky was about 5 months, but of course I've taken back numerous adults whose lives didn't work out for the best. I don't feel I need praise for being a responsible breeder, "if you can't do the rescue, why the hell did you breed?" 

You Said What?

Last night I was checking Meerah's teeth, the jaw is looking pretty good, the canines haven't come through yet, that will also, hopefully, push things into place. That's something less to worry about. I'm still not sure on the P1's, the top ones are there, but there isn't one on one side on the bottom yet, I can feel it's there it just needs to come through the gum, but I'm still not sure if there is a double on the other side yet. Like I say if there is, well times have changed!

The second photo is of Isla's mouth. (Orin's sister) Isla has a double p1 - there should only be one of those small teeth, 4 premolars, with P1 being the smallest and p4 the largest ...(so 16 in total). As a pet owner you would think, well big deal?  For a show dog that was a disaster, not so long ago that would be considered pretty much a disqualification, well whatever you were certainly at the back of the class. Thankfully these days most judges see the bigger picture, we have so much more to worry about in this breed than a small tooth!

Anyway, I'm gentle but firm when I check teeth ... showing their bite is an important part of dog showing and puppies needs to learn to do it, but at this time mouths are sore. Last night I checked the front of Meerah's mouth, the top p1's and then the bottom ... Oh a little objection grumble .. nope that is not happening and as her mother would do, I gave an instant physical and vocal correction, "don't you speak to me like that," before carrying on. After doing it again, I praised her quietly and calmly. I looked at her teeth again before going to bed, and purely for training purposes again this morning. Hopefully she won't be as cheeky as to grumble at me again ... these are all lessons of life. Trust me, little Meerah is not the first to grumble at me, Sammi did over a bone, Kaiah did and Ross was a fecking nightmare and did more than once, how such a twat of a puppy could grow up to be such a wonderful adult is beyond me? .. Well I am kind of hoping how it was all dealt with helped. They must learn that there are consequences for their actions, timing is paramount, if you have to think about what to do you are too late to correct, it has to be instant,  timing is not something you can teach someone they have to learn it for themselves. Slapping is useless and comes from our frustration and lack of understanding of canine behaviour and language. Watch the mothers, see how they deal with the problems, and get as close as you can in your correction. Basically, more vocal than physical, call me old school, but I firmly believe you need both. 

Human Error

No doubt we have the facilities to keep dogs who don't get on, we have 2 outside pens, we have a garden to the middle room and a yard to the living room ... though currently in the garden and yard I just see mud! 

As I do every evening I had put Orin and Siska in the living room with Steve, I'd come through into the kitchen and let the pensioners and the puppy in the yard for a wee, Beti was with me and Zeus was on the bed. (yes our bed!) I was washing up and even from the kitchen I heard Steve "Get Out, Get Out, Get Out." I knew something was seriously wrong and came running into the living room to find 6 dogs instead of 2. Steve was holding on to a seething Orin on the sofa and Ross was standing in the middle of the room equally aggressive. Loki was stood by the telly considering his options and Meerah was bouncing on her mother's head! I grabbed Ross by the collar and marched him out, the girls followed, and I then realised that Sammi was out with Siska, they've never had a fight, but Siska is team Orin, and Sammi is team Ross! LOL I bought Sammi back into the living room, went to move Beti and sent Sammi into the middle room.

Through all of this, Orin was seething, but obedient and respectful of Steve who was holding his collar, he stayed on the sofa throughout. To be fair, Ross also stayed back and did not lunge forward. I came back into the living room to the realisation of what could have happened. It would have been war between Ross and Orin, and it could have been even worse if Sammi and Siska had decided to join in, or fight between themselves. Luckily it didn't happen. So what went wrong? Simple, Human error, I didn't turn the key in the door so Ross or Sammi simply opened it!  I apologised to Steve, and calmed Orin down, but Steve knows as well as I do that we, he and I are what ocassionally lets the side down. 

Double P1 (Premolars)

A GSD bitch with a double P1 

"Premolars -Used for cutting, holding, shearing and breaking food into small pieces. Puppies do not have P1 teeth. Adults have eight (8) premolars in the upper jaw and eight (8) in the lower jaw, four (4) on each side. The premolars vary in size from the smallest (P1) to the largest (P4 upper) apart from the P1 they have a serrated crown. The most common of faults is missing or additional premolar 1 in either the upper or lower jaw, it has not been scientifically proven that these are linked hereditarily, however, there are clear bloodline connections which link these faults. While additional P1 teeth are undesirable, they should not be penalised in the show ring."

Blanik Meerah

Doesn't she look fab - just slow down on the growth little lady!

Just over a week till measuring day, but she's already heavier than Sammi was at 5 months. To be honest, weight I'm not bothered about ... she's a stocky young lady .... but lets place your bets on height in a week eh ... LOL 

Boxing Day Photos

Let's Talk About Xmas

 Xmas Eve and ED, Steve son, was visiting. I swear he gets bigger every time I see him, he barely fit in the chair, but he's a great guy and we had fun. I prepared a small buffet, mostly cold food, but I made some pigs in blanket and a partly home-made ham and cheese pizza. I took the cold food into the living room and warned them to watch Jamie before going to get the hot food. Half the pizza was cooking in one side of the air-fryer, the pigs in blanket in the other .. and the other half of the pizza, cold and raw was halfway down Ross' throat! Had I not caught him I would have blamed Sammi, after all she's Asha's granddaughter!!!!

Mum was here on Xmas day, I'm not that great at a lot of things, but I can cook. It was so nice to see Steve eat a full Xmas dinner, he wasn't well enough last year or the year before, but he was first to finish this year. The day went by quite well, I was up at 7am to get the dogs sorted, then back to bed for an hour or so with a cuppa and Facebook whilst Mr S snored! I finally drank the bottle of Asti that Linda bought me last Xmas, god I'm such an alcoholic aren't I! LOL We had lots of lovely gifts and I'd like to thank everyone for gifts, cards and well wishes. I also had some very strange gifts, it makes you wonder why someone in your family would give you bath salts ... when you haven't got a bath!  

Boxing Day was just stunning, warm sunshine - just amazing. Another lazy morning, well till Ian got here and we did some hide and seek training with Meerah, it was fab. The afternoon walks were amazing, honestly I had to take my coat off!!!!

Vet's For Loki

Loki went to see his favourite vet today (Beth) .. he's had antibiotics for his swollen foot. The nails on his front right are now worn to the quick as he drags his foot, the cause of his swollen foot is probably a nail bed infection. With the worst of problem being on the front, sadly boots are not an option for Loki. He did have the librella injection, nothing to lose other than money! Beth also suggests he has paracetamol morning and evening now ... well of course he can. 

Siska went for a weigh in and has put on the 2kg she lost when she was poorly before Xmas ... and Meerah went for a weigh in because .. well just because. She was 22kg .. little fatty!!!

Xmas Day Photos

Merry Xmas

 

Look At The Coat And Colour

Birthday Photo

Beautiful Sammi on the day of her 11th birthday 💖👼💖

Advocate

I'd been using Advocate on my animals for about 20 years, but in recent years my vet had stopped supplying it. Having so many animals I worm and de-flea when necessary, I always used Drontal or Panacur just to worm them, but if I needed to de-flea I used Advocate knowing it also did worms, (With the exception of tape worm) fleas, lice and mites, so all in all well worth using a couple of times a year. These days my worming regime is the same, but if they had fleas I used "Advantage" and of course I used Stay Kill around the house 2 or 3 times a year. (whether I saw fleas or not!) 

In September Ross had got itchy, he was so itchy he could barely cope with me touching him. Now Ross had never been itchy, so I was concerned. I de-flead, just in case, and I spent hours searching through his coat and Archies (as he's a light coloured cat I can usually find the fleas on him). You may recall I took Ross to the vet, he was prescribed Apoquel to break the circle of itchiness. It worked, but within no time of the course finishing, Ross was itchy again. Having previous knowledge of the side effects of long term use of Apoquel I was not happy to put him back on it again so I decided to try other avenues. Sometime during this time I started to notice that Sammi was getting itchy, I had previously observed Loki's coat was getting thinner and that he was constantly rubbing his face. I mentioned it to the vet, then another vet ... both suggested it was side effects to the steroids! I got more flea product and a different house spray, I changed my washing powder, and consider messaging the dog food manufacturer, until I realised Meerah was getting itchy, and she was on a different make of food. At some point I asked at the vets again if they had Advocate, no sorry. I really didn't have any other ideas until a friend mentioned she got her metacam on prescription, so I looked it up, yes Advocate was available on prescription online. I asked at the vet if I could have a prescription, or if they could order it for me? Yes to both counts. I have an account with Animed and their price for Advocate was £36.95 for a box of six, the prescription price was £19.20. The price for the same product at the vets was £94.95. WHAT? I was speechless. I've now got 24 Advocates on one prescription, total cost £167, had I got it through the vet it would have cost me £379.80. Now in anyone's world, that is more than a bit nuts!

I've now started the course, one a month for three months, maybe I'm wrong, but I can only presume
this is mites ... after all, what else could it be? Well, if this doesn't work then I'm at a complete and utter loss and the vets will have to take skin scrapings ... or something!!!

Happy Birthday Sammi

Polly

 I'm really please to hear that after a week in her new home, Polly is doing well. "Settled and happy" were the words used by her new family. I really hope life now works out for Polly. 

Meerah And Liszka

Blanik Meerah and her mother Blanik Liszka looking fab. (Siska- looking more like her mother than ever💔) If only I'd been on the other side of Meerah, it could have been a fantastic photo! 

Siska is back to normal thank god, what a bloody scare! Again thanks to everyone who has asked about her. 

Meerah looks great, great coat, great colour, great attitude to life, though less fizz than her buddy Beti. I love her bone and substance, her mask and dark eye, and her straight strong hindquarters, of course there are things that could be better, and they still may get better, but they are for me to know and for the dog world to spot them ... if they can!

My Lovely Family Out Minus One

Ross and Beti

Orin and Siska 

Loki, Meerah, Sammi, Ross

No photo of Zeus as I talked to Linda on my mobile whilst I was out.

Anyway here he is after being told off  by his mother!! LOL

How Is Loki?

 I get so many people asking about Loki .. It's hard to reply, but I guess the best statement at the moment is "He's holding his own!"

Marley And Lucca Visit

Meerah was over the moon to see her brother and they had a super time. I still think Marley is of a similar build to Callan, Meerah certainly looked a pudding in his company! I'm sorry for Sam that people are upsetting her by commenting about his hind legs, this is an age when some GSD's look like a cross between a kangaroo and a hare, I'm sure the boy will be sound as a pound in a couple of months. 

Marley wasn't keen on me standing him, and he got a little upset about it all. I did carry on as I didn't want him to learn that his actions got results. Of course I was gentle with him, but I didn't stop what I was doing! Though he won't be going to any shows it's important he gets use to "hands on" from strangers, so hopefully he'll come to club a couple of times at least for a different kind of socialising. 

Siska Is Recovering

Well, despite the expression, Siska is much better. Thanks to everyone who has phoned and messaged, it really did mean a lot. After a light breakfast, this evening I gave her half a meal with fish and sweet potato to top it up, and I'll give her a similar supper I think. Tomorrow if all is well I'll give her normal meals, she will now need some building up again. 

Here's Seren

Well she's daddy's daughter isn't she.

How beautiful, I'm very proud. 

An Impromptu Walk

Following lunch out with friends, I convinced them to come for a walk with me. Gail wasn't dressed for the beach so we walked in the opposite direction and found a super new walk. With baby Meerah on the walk we couldn't go far ... I will be going back with Orin and Siska when Siska is feeling better. 

Yesterday Was The 15th

Louis died on the 15/12/12 - the date has continued to haunt me, but to celebrate life and be thankful that I was his everything, and he mine, I always put the Xmas tree up on the 15th. Though I don't always post a memory now, he's always in my thoughts on that day and many anothers during a year. To honour him, I "celebrate the love of the one I'm with." 

Siska At The Vets

Last night things got worse instead of better. Siska temperature went up to 39.5, she had diarrhoea and was so lethargic. Maybe I was glad of the diarrhoea, as at least I knew she didn't have a complete blockage. Unable to settle, I rang the vets for advice. Well let's be honest, I'd asked Sharon who was on call as I was considering giving Siska half a paracetamol to try to reduce the temperature, but self-doubt was playing on my mind again. I couldn't have had anyone better than Beth on call ... I explained everything, she was just so good at calming me down. She asked if I had metacam or paracetamol? I said I had both, but as Siska was not eating she felt the paracetamol was the best option. She told me to go to bed as we all needed to sleep, but to just check on Siska the once overnight and see her at the surgery at 8.30am. 

Siska had a very thorough examination and nothing untoward can be felt in her belly or bottom. Of course without xrays we can never be a 100%, but Beth felt that with her clinical symptoms they were not needed today. Siska was offered a biscuit, but declined, so was given an anti-sickness and Betamox a long acting antibiotic. She is to have bland food little and often for a few days ... so now I'm cautiously hopeful that the bones just upset her stomach and that she will not need further treatment. Good luck to all the raw feeders, I will never give my dogs bones again.