Pingy

Pingy is the name we give to the extending lead that we used when walking the dog when we don't want to let him run free but we want him to be able to sniff and explore things nearby. We use it when we are in parks, or out on long walks where we might come across other people or other dogs, or where we might go close to a road. It's a solid, professional standard lead, that extends to about 10 metres, but can quickly be pulled back in when we need to.

It's not that the dog doesn't understand 'come', and most of the time he is very obedient and does just that when called. It's just that he is a little wilful and if he is doing something interesting he will hesitate before returning. He also has a very high prey drive, and if he sees something fluffy or fast, such as deer or a sheep, a red mist descends and he becomes deaf and blind to anything else other than the chase. He will take off instantly and chase whatever it is he has seen until he has calmed down or lost the scent or until he remembers himself. This can take anything from two to thirty minutes.

Today we went for our evening walk and I noticed that our neighbours sheep were in our field, so we ventured out with pingy. For a while he didn't notice the sheep, but then he got a scent and got exited. He still didn't see them, but then as we came over the hill they were there. I thought I had the lead locked short but it must have slipped, so he took off at full pelt. Realising that when he got to the end of the lead I was either going to dislocate my shoulder or he was going to strangle himself I had no option but to let go.

I watched the stinky dog charge 100 or so metres with the extending lead flying behind him. I watched the sheep run through the hole in the fence from whence they came, and I watched him jump over the fence trailing pingy behind him, getting it caught in the fence for a while and then pulling it free. Dog and sheep disappeared.

I ran over quickly calling him all the time, worried that he had gone down into the woods with the lead trailing behind him; imaging him hanging from a branch or tree, with the sheep gloating in glee at the bottom.

I got round the corner and saw him wandering back, lead still there, looking annoyed that he had been hampered in his sheep chasing activities. Panic over!

Walking the dog

Spring is still slow but there are early signs! We have had a few warmer days but interspersed with days of rain and cooler spells. However, signs of life are emerging; the grass is growing and wild flowers are springing up in the meadows.

As usual I didn't have my decent camera with me when I took the dog for a walk. I only had my mobile phone, and because the sun was shining on the screen I couldn't really see what I was doing. Bearing those things in mind, I was quite pleased with the results.

First flowers

Walking the dog

Deer

There are quite a few deer around at the moment. I took this picture yesterday morning, just before we took the dog for a walk. There were five stopping off for a bite to eat in the field.

Yesterday, on my way to the shops, I had to brake suddenly to avoid hitting three that ran out in front of the car and this morning I was walking the dog in the bottom field and he suddenly caught sight of something in the distance. Before I could say "Gremlin come here you little sh*t" he had gone. In a flash he had crossed over the stream, through the field the other side and up into the woods. I saw his tail bobbing up and down a bit and then he disappeared from view. He has done this before but normally once the deer have run off he comes back. This time I was calling for 20 minutes, unable to cross the stream myself. Ian left his work to come and look for him the other side of the river. After about half an hour we caught sight of him following a scent home. He approached Ian, turned to look at him as if to say 'it's this way' and then carried on, appearing by my side 5 minutes later, exited, wet but rather tired. By this time Ian and I were soaked and not it in the best of moods. It was good to see that he came back eventually but worrying as once he catches sight of a deer no amount of recall training will break his focus and he can cover some distance in a matter of seconds!

Last night we ate venison casserole. The venison was a gift from the local hunt as we allow them to hunt on the land. It's arrival was not for the squeamish. The chairman of the hunt knocked on the door, plastic bag dripping in blood with a deer foot sticking out the top in one hand, and a fag in the other!  Ian cut it up and we kept some and gave some away. Normally we have been given a front leg, but this year we got a hind leg. The meat was beautifully tender.

Before I came to France I was determined to stop  hunting on the land as soon as possible, but after living here a while you see that there is a balance here that is perhaps best to accept. The deer have no natural predators and left alone the numbers would soon rise and they would become a pest, eating many of the crops. The hunt are allowed to kill a certain number each year. It is quite carefully controlled. (I say quite carefully because there are always one or two that will poach the odd one or two). Furthermore, as the hunting population is generally fairly elderly hunting day looks like an Age Concern outing with rifles, so I am not even sure whether they manage to get their targets every year. So, if we ever get llamas and horses on the land we will have to restrict it, but while it is prairie we don't rock the boat.

Drunk dog loses boll*cks

It's been an eventful month for the dog. After he disgraced himself at the dog show by being completey disobediant we decided that his breeding potential was limited!  I was going to wait until I returned from my latest trip to UK before getting him castrated, but in the end thought it would be better to do it as soon as possible. So, three weeks ago he checked into the vets. He was not a happy dog and ended up biting the vet nurse in his terror, but in the end his b*llocks were removed! I have to say I was a little shocked at the size of the surgery, made worse by the fact that he tried to lick it all day. He was obviously in pain, so the following day I returned to the vet and got some painkillers and one of those lampshade collars. He was suprisingly tolerant of it and seemed to quite enjoy banging it into my legs. He was pretty shakey for a day or two but then by the time I had to go back to the UK he was getting better and not paticularly bothered by the wound.

Gremlin with the lampshade

I was away a week and when I returned we took him to have the stitches removed, where it took three of us to hold him still while the vet snipped the stitches. We then decided to get his vaccinations done at the same time. By this point he was in a really bad mood and snarled, growled and snapped at the vet. As we left the surgery the other dog owners looked on with a pitying and slightly scared look! It's hard to explain that this whirling dervish of a dog can actually be a good boy sometimes!

As a treat we took him to Ian's sister's house so he could run around like a mad thing in the garden. This he did, while I picked apples from the tree. The ground was covered with windfalls and Gremlin happily tucked in while I picked away. He had another mad run around and then quietened down and then disappeared. I called him and eventually he staggerred over looking rather sorry for himself. He definately looked ill, seemed unable or unwilling to stand and very sleepy. After a process of elimination we concluded that he must have eaten too many apples and they started fermenting in his stomach, giving him a severe bellyache and making him drunk. He seeemed perfectly willing to do things but unable to work out what to do! This was confirmed by his demeanor over the following 24 hours, where he slowly 'sobered up' but looked like he had one hell of a hangover!

Life goes on

It feels strange to continue blogging with mentions of more mundane everyday things, but that is exactly what we have been doing.

One thing about dogs is that they don't have time for what happened yesterday and are concerned totally with now. So, my rather sad and contemplative mood was quickly interpreted as weakness by the stinky dog and he saw it as his chance to take over! On our daily walks all thoughts of sadness had to be put to one side while I concentrated on trying to be a strong confident pack leader! On some occasions it works but it doesn't stop the little sh*t from testing the water every morning! Never mind, I will have the last word on this as he has an appointment at the vets next week to have his b*llocks removed! We decided that there can only ever be one 'Gremlin'.

It has been unseasonably hot and dry here, with temperatures in the 30s and no rain. Everywhere looks parched and bare. It is a bit cooler at night, which at least gives us the chance to cool down and get some sleep, but dog walks need to be done early and late, when the harvest mites seem to be at their worst. These little larvae get under your skin (literally) around the sweaty areas of clothing, such armpits, groin and under your bra. They inject you with something to dissolve your skin, feed off it, drop off and leave you with the most annoying itch that lasts for days!

As I seem to be doing an animal blog, I will conclude with mention of the cat, who seems to be getting more and more demented! He is now quite deaf, miaows loudly and is hyper affectionate for the first time in his life, wanting to sleep as close to me as he can. I fear his kidney's and thyroid are on the way out, but as he is old I don't want to go through the ordeal of vets and tests and tablets and more tests that will eventually end in him getting to the end of his life anyway, so I just keep and eye on him, let him eat what he wants and worry about how many more boxes of cat food I will need to stock up on!

Ticked off

I didn't take this photo myself. It comes from here and is a deer tick. We have a lot of ticks here and they seem to like Gremlin a lot! Of course we are trying the flea and tick treatments, which seem to make no difference at all to the nasty little b*ggers, and in the end we have to remove them as we find them. They make me feel pretty itchy, especially as Ian found one just about to take hold of his leg the other day. Here they transmit nasty things like Lyme disease in humans and some nasty dog tick disease that has already killed two dogs this way..so we don't like them at all!

Zero tolerance

After a good session at the dog class last week where Gremlin misbehaved again and Ian and I were put in our places for not being strict enough, we have started to adopt a zero tolerance approach to Gremlin. That means he doesn't get anything unless he does as he is told first time. We are trying our best to be good pack leaders. It does seem to be working although I am cautious as Gremlin does seem to have a habit of working out our latest tactic pretty quickly and then either ignoring it completely or finding a way to disobey!!

The dog whisperer

Thursday saw us heading North to the Corrèze, about a two hour drive from our house. The purpose was to meet some other cattle-dog and kelpie owners and give Gremlin his first try out with sheep. We found the farm using sat.nav., perched on a hillside surrounded by fields and other farms. The Correze is one of the least densely populated departements in France and the farm consisted of an old stone cottage, lived in by the grandmother, a slightly bigger house belonging to the mother and father and big farmhouse, that seemed to be occupied by various siblings and their families. We were greeted by a barking cattle dog and a yard full of border collies.

We were the first to arrive, shortly followed by Pascal (the dog whisperer), Gremlin's breeder and her Dutch friend, and an English woman from Brittainy who had driven for 9 hours in a small car with her teenage daughter and 7 dogs!

As I said earlier, the idea was to see if Gremlin and the other dogs had a natural herding instinct, and to see some of the other dogs. I was immediately struck by how much bigger Gremlin was compared to the other cattle dogs. Each dog got a chance to meet the sheep, starting by running round the ring while the owner and Pascal were inside. When Pascal felt the dog was ready he let him in and then watched what he did with the sheep, encouraging him to be interested in them. I say Pascal is a dog whisperer but he would never call himself that. He just has a natural instinct with dogs and watching him communicate with them and work with them was amazing to see. He frowned at my use of treats and said 'the way to train a dog is with the leash'; producing a 2 metre piece of fine line and demostrating how he used this to get the dogs to follow him. His 'hobby' is to rescue border collies from frustrated owners and dog pounds and train them up to be sheep dogs, selling them on at the end for no doubt less money than he spent on them.

So was gremlin any good with sheep? Well, the first time in the 'ring' he ran round like a mad thing, chased the other dogs, and then as soon as the sheep moved he got scared and jumped out of the ring! He got another chance when he was a bit calmer and then proceeded to be mostly interested in eating sheep poo rather than herding sheep. The breeder thought that all was not lost and he may improve as he ages. She managed to take this picture of him looking half interested!

Gremlin, sheep and Ian

Responsibilites

I suppose owning a puppy is the closest I will ever come to parental responsibility! I am getting used to balancing the puppy's needs of firm, fair treatment, our needs for a life and the demands of our continued project. For the first time in my life I am up at 6.30 and by 7.00 have walked for a mile or so. By 7.15 the dog has been fed and we have had tea and by 8.30 we are usually up and ready to go, having done all our morning jobs. Gremlin, in the meantime, is growing up faster than we can keep up with and is certainly living up to all the breed characteristic of being intelligent, strong willed, energetic and loving human company, especially ours. Ian is also warming to him as well although the walking is definitely my responsibility!

The dry summer has been particularly bad for the vegetable garden as even with watering, the high temperatures have burnt a lot of the leaves. Also, as it is the first year of growing on my patch and I did not have much time to cultivate the soil I was not holding out any high hopes. So, it was too hot for the spinach, the peppers are tiny, the aubergines have not flowered and the potoes have produces a minimal crop. However, for some reason the pumpkins are enormous and will be ready for harvesting soon.

Locally the farmers are pessimistic about the sunflower crop this year, which is way below what it should be. With the cost of fertiliser, seeds and the labour to sew and harvest they need a good yield just to break even.

 I am still going to the nursing home on a volunteer basis. It takes quite a bit of energy but it helps with my French and I love the engagement with the residents. We will see how it progresses over the summer!

Ian is off to see a friend over the weekend so I have a few days here to myself to catch up with some writing, admin and do my tax return!

The Gremlin

So the pool is in, connected and finished as much as it can be before winter, as we need to wait for the earth to settle before we lay the slabs around. The temperature has been increasing and we have been glad of somewhere to cool off.

In the end we had just a couple of days to finish the outside dog area before we had to collect Gremlin. It was a boiling hot afternoon as we drove to Bordeaux and our morning shopping trip was stressful and unrewarding. We finished with our usual meatball lunch in Ikea and then drove out to the breeders home, a little later than we hoped. Gremlin was out playing with his brothers and sisters when we arrived. After a while the others were put back in the puppy pen and Gremlin stayed out. He came in to the house, we sorted out the paperwork and then took him with us.

His first voyage was in the crate that we used to bring the cat down with us. It was more than big enough and after a few minutes of high pitched barkng he settled down the the journey, uttering the occasional whimper as Neil's cornering caused him to slide across the cage!

On the whole he has been pretty easy for a high energy, intelligent puppy. He sleeps okay in the night in his crate, he has only had the occasional accident, he now tolerates a lead and he will do anything tp please, but what I have learnt the most is that with a puppy you have to spend time getting to know each other and finding out what works and what doesn't. There is no one way of doing it; only a few principals and a lot of trial and error. What I hadn't realised before is how forgiving dogs are and that you don't have to get it right first time. I have a lot to learn.

Gremlin at 9 weeks

Miscellaneous

Another week flies by... This post is really a mixture of the weeks'events with no particular theme. Today it has rained most of the day, which is a real relief, as the ground was begining to look like it does in August, and water restrictions are in force.

Last Friday we delivered 95 bales of hay to someone about 60 km away. It was a long, hard day. Ian loaded the trailer the night before with the first load, we got up, drove over, unloaded, drove back, loaded again, drove over again, unloaded and then came back again. It was a long day but our second day of feeling like proper farmers.

Yesterday Ian started digging the swimming pool. We got down to the required depth fairly easily, but the logistics of digging a fairly large hole with a pretty small digger are still to be worked out completely.

I remember last year saying to Ian that you would have to work hard to starve here and it is never truer than now, when people's trees are brimming with cherries and things in the garden are starting ripen. In our field we have a mirabelle tree which is rather like a cross between a wild plum and a nectarine. We noticed yesterday that they had ripened and now I have a big bowl of the things waiting to be used! I must go searching for recipes!

I have also put in an order for my second lot of dog supplies. Ridgey Didge Green and Gold aka Gremlin is now 5 weeks old, growing fast and will be with us soon.

On a sadder note, one of our not so near neighbours has just lost his dog to what they think was poisoning. The vet thinks that some of the farmers are using illegal chemicals on their land and has asked for all the fields around to be tested, as this was not the only dog affected. The worries of being a dog owner!

Introducing Gremlin

The puppies arrived yesterday. Not a big litter, so we didn't get a girl, but we have reserved a red boy. We have decided to call him Gremlin, although he will also have an official name that is a bit longer. We will pick him up in two months, but in the meantime here is a picture of him at a day old. (He will develop a red coat as he gets older). (Not that he is a child subsitute or anthing!)

Realisations

Just back from a few days in Bordeaux. This was partly for work and partly for pleasure! I had two days of teaching but had accidently booked the wrong night in the hotel, and as I had paid for it on-line I was unable to cancel, so in the end Ian and I decided to spend a rare evening off in Bordeaux together. It was a nice evening; the weather was mild and sunny, the bars were crowded and full of young trendy people. Bordeaux centre is definately a place for young people! I also enjoyed my teaching. It had been about 6 weeks since my last visit and so I had forgotten what it was like and how much I benefit from the intellectual stimulation, even if it is only on an occasional basis. So the first realisation was that as much as I love the country life I do need the occasional trips into something more lively to keep me up to date and current and, that somewhere is only 2 hours away.

On Saturday we spent the morning trying to buy a bath and in the afternoon we paid a visit to the very pregnant Australian Cattle dog, so that we could get a feel for the breed and an idea of what we will need to do. I was not dissapointed. The dogs were smaller than I thought (a little smaller than a border collie) inquisitive, very dingo like and with personality. We did realise however, that we will need to build a secure dog pen before we get the puppy, as we will not be able to fence in the whole garden at this point. This year, all pedigree dogs must have names starting with 'G', which put paid to our plans to call it Carla. We thought about it some more and I am quite keen on the name 'Gaga' as in Lady Gaga. Ian likes the idea of teaching it to howl along to 'Bad Romance'!

We are expecting!

 I bet that got you going! No, a miracle has not happened, but it has been confirmed that doggy dad did his stuff and there is a litter of approximately 5 pups due in May. So, all being well I may get my first dog in the summer and we have time to puppy proof the house! At times I wonder if we have done the right thing by considering such an active dog, but then last night our neighbour had his lawnmower stolen from his garden and the thought of having a dog on stand by was a little reassuring, especially if Ian is away. See, even in the heart of rural France there are still thieves.

Today we are going to the Salle de Fetes in nearby Thenac for a Chasse lunch. Five courses of meat, meat, meat, cheese, coffee and red wine all for 15 euros and an appointment at the doctors for gout the following day!

It's a dog's life

One of the things I am really looking forward to when we eventually get to France is to have a couple of dogs. I have always loved the idea but never been in the position where I could give one a fair life. There are plenty of abandoned dogs and puppies in France so I am sure when we were there we will have no difficulties in finding one suitable. However, Ian has always had a soft spot for Jack Russells and he has had part ownership of one before and knows their little foibles quite well. Jack Russells are quite rare in France but in the UK they are common and often find their way into animal rescue centres as they can be more of a handful to manage than people expect. I think we would make quite good dog owners. We will have the space, we are fit and energetic and would enjoy a dog that needs a little more than a bowl of food and its tummy rubbed once a day.

So, with that in mind I started looking on various websites for Jack Russells in need of rescue. There were quite a few but in all cases Ian and I would not qualify as prospective doggy parents because we both work full time and all agencies have a policy about not allowing dogs to go to homes under these circumstances. Also, they will not allow us to take a dog out of the country. In addition we have never actually owned a dog before which means they will not let us take on any dog that may be more challenging. (The fact that we have chosen not to have a dog before because we did not feel that we could offer one a good home is not taken into account and we are placed in the same category as someone who has never owned a dog and is not interested in them).

I do understand the thinking behind this but it is just an interesting reflection that if you have two children then you are positively encouraged to go out to work full time and leave your children in day care!

Ian's neighbour Chaverley has two children and has just acquired a large dog as 'a favour to a mate'. The dog is very good natured which is just as well as although she doesn't work at all she still leaves him shut in the house all day while she goes out!

Carter the Maremma

This is Carter the Maremma.

He is my brother's dog and was in his element while we on holiday as he likes nothing better than having his flock around him! Carter is gentle indoors and will come and see you to have his neck and head stroked. However, his instinct to protect is well ingrained and if he doesn't like the feel of someone he will make his unease known (including pissing all over an American's shopping when he didn't like the look of them and growling at someone who shouted at us).

He was a challenge to train by all accounts as he has a slightly unpredictable streak and when he gets an idea about something (such as chasing a dog or hunting a rabbit) he will take off with no warning! Last time we were away (and he was younger) he headed off downhill after a small dog with my sister lying on her back on the ice, gripping his lead for dear life and being pulled down the hill! Pain does not deter him. Another year, in the summer, he poked his nose in a rock and got bitten by a viper! His nose swelled to twice the size and he was pretty unwell for a few days but that has not stopped him trying to do it again!

Doggy agility

After a break due to winter, the cold, a bout of kennel cough and being busy I returned to my job of taking Bambi the hearing dog, to agility classes. Bambi's owner is now well enough to join us so we all piled into the front of my old Ford Fiesta and drove off into the freezing cold to the class. The one thing that always strikes me about dog agility classes is the noise. There are usually over 30 dogs, from naughty terriers and poodles to collies and even papillions! The excitement is overwhelming, the dogs are faster than the owners and mostly the handlers and dogs forget where they are going and end up going the wrong way over the fences, missing poles in 'the weave' and opting out of the see-saw! My favourite dog is Barney the bastard, a rescue Jack Russell who in the past has attacked several of the other owners and a few of the other dogs. Given the chance for a minute he would like to do it again but now he is mostly under control and tears around the course in a frenzy. When he has finished he plays 'tug' with a long rope and his owner. He has one of those looks that lets you know that he is so nearly in charge and he knows it! I would love to have a go at it myself but need to find a dog first!