Only Two

Zeus did go out too but it pissed it down so no photo today!

Callan's Crufts Critique

Hughes & Swtan -Blanik Lancelot. 

2 yr black and gold male with excellent head, correct front and rear angulation, firm backline and well moulded croup, moved well with good reach and drive.

Crufts Critiques

 

At Home

With a cancer clinic appointment for Steve late morning, the troops had to lump it and just go to the fields today. Good news at the hospital and Steve has been discharged from cancer care and handed back over to the urology department. I guess it was the best news possible, I just hope he continues to heal now as he's really finding everything a bit much at the moment. (Good thing he can't find this bog eh!)

Super Spring Day

Not a sign of a limp since the nail came off, the boy looks well.

Loki was better today and it worked to park the van up hill and put him into the back on the way home, It was really only a large step for him.

The naughty bunch! LOL 

I started off in my big coat with gloves and hat, but as the breeze dropped, the temperature climbed and I found myself a tad over dressed! 

Loki

Whilst I would say that Loki is well, he's still not quite as he was. I'm making the same observations as I did last week, he's lacking spark, getting tired quickly and the last couple of days he's struggled to get into the van at the end of the walk. I think I'll have to reconsider where to park and how everyone travels. If I reverse slightly uphill to park and swap him over with Ross for coming home then he should get in easier. We are not at the stage of needing a ramp and I would not consider going without him, but I do feel that again changes which affect a group walk have to be made to suite an individual. Sadly that's life!

Photo taken last April in Tremadog. 

Moulting And Neutering

Coat changes in bitches after spaying is normal, the coat usually becomes through thicker and there is no predictable time to pinpoint moulting as there is in entire females. Sammi currently looks like an explosion. 

Now, I've no experience of a neutered normal coated male, but I think I'm about to learn about it from first-hand experience. Ross has been moulting for weeks, it's a never ending explosion of hair. He now looks almost as bad as he did in his junior moult. What coat he has left is thin, coarse and dry. So what happens next? Will his new coat be thicker than his previous coats, well I honestly haven't got a clue. I just hope he soon stops moulting or he'll be naked! If I'd have known there would only be coat changes, I still wouldn't have changed my mind re neutering.

So, staying with the change of mind statement, as the weeks go on yes there are some regrets, it's not that Ross had a change in personality, it's like he's returned to his juvenile delinquent self. Ross has always been "loud and annoying" but now he's loud and more annoying than ever. He has always been jealous and possessive of his things, now that is more intense and where previously he was respectful he now seems oblivious of his place within the pack with the girls. Luckily for him there is no Tali to take offence, though Kaiah has considered her options on occasions. Siska is happy to take him on but they are only playing, and Sammi, well she's as tolerant as ever of him. Yes it was wonderful to not have to separate him from Siska when she was in season and he and Orin are getting on Ok, but with the information I have now and the digs I'm getting from Steve regarding his behaviour, would I do it again? ... Hmm I'm not quite sure.  I have a lot of experience of spayed female, bitches neutered at 5 - 6 years old really don't seem to change except for the better as they do not become hormonal, but Ross, well he has changed and sadly not necessarily for the better in all ways!

Typical Sunday

Walkers, runners, dogs, bikes, motorbikes, they were all there today!

Visibility Is Restored

Handsome Hairy

When I told him to sit for his photo it wasn't quite what I had in mind, 

Oh hell, he tried! 

Ok that'll do then!