Appeal for help please? Lost Golden Retriever!
October 26, 2010
I received this appeal for help this morning!:
“Just incase someone you know or you may think of someone else they could notify, a friend of mine’s Golden retriever Bitch (Roxanne, or Roxy) went missing on her walk last Friday, the person lives on the Old London Road, which runs alongside the A12 with A120 and the Liverpool Street railway line also in the vicinity, she went through the hedge with the others on their normal morning walk the others came back but Roxy didn’t, the fields are at the back of the house so not actually on the A12, , she has notified all vets dog wardens, dog lost, BBC Suffolk apparently BBC Essex no longer put out appeals etc, they are searching all day and most the night too, the bitch is nervous of people, she is chipped but not tattooed, and Not Wearing a Collar mores the pity!
Jacquie Smallcombe”
Sadly I heard back from Jacquie and Roxy was found dead on the railway line by a man working there 😦 the only consolation is that her owner’s do know where she is now.
Betty’s sister Megan!
October 22, 2010
Many thanks to Sue for sending me the photo’s of Megan, Betty’s sister, who looks like a red and white version of Betty! How cute is Megan? !!
Betty has a swim!
October 19, 2010
The one advantage to summer ending is the glorious colour of the leaves changing! My favourite walk always includes going round the lake in front of Barbary Cottage, it is always a different picture every day, even every time, as the light changes and the reflections vary in the water. The leaves now sometimes lying on the top of the lake, fooled Betty into thinking she could walk on water earlier in the week :), I didn’t have my camera to hand of course, but I saw the way she was looking at the leaves and I could see what she was thinking 🙂 rather than call her away I waited, preferring for her to go in while I was watching and could help her out if she got into difficulties, and in she went! Betty swam straight to shore and hauled herself out unaided, her legs are so long now the bank was no challenge to her:)! She shook herself off and carried on as if she intended to go for a swim:). The next day, I did have the camera and you can see that she is keeping well away from the edge of the lake! It will be sometime before she is fooled again! Her coat very fluffy from her unexpected bath!
Pie is older and wiser and rarely even gets his toes wet, showing off walking along the wall at the edge! I practiced some new settings on the camera, some seemed to work better than others, though I am not sure now which settings produced the best shots 🙂 ! I have put them all in the slide show to demonstrate my camera skills, even though accidental!! Plus a not so good shot of a Muntjac deer, taken from inside my kitchen window, not so bad considering! Pie was barking at the deer in the paddock, who took no notice of him, so was either very young or very blase about dogs, and simply carried on eating the last of the blackberries!
Listen to Avril on BBC Essex Radio!
October 16, 2010
Friday afternoon was BBC Essex Radio with Steve Scruton, what a busy afternoon we had! Steve had a lot to fit into the show so we decided that if I answered people quickly we would get more questions covered, so I really went for it! I love having to think that quickly, I spend most of my working time making sure I have got the right picture of the dog, checking out the facts and considering my responses to be sure I am on the right track! It may mean that the quality of my answers was not as thorough as I would like, but we got through a lot of calls, emails and texts, more people got some sort of answer and I had great fun :)! It would have been even better if Rod Stewart had been in the building for the interview, but he is a super star! Steve confessed to me that he was really nervous when he interviewed the icon, but you would never know it, listening to his interview! Steve is such a professional, so smooth at his job 🙂 what a thrill for him to get to meet Rod!
Click the link below if you haven’t heard the show yet, though when I looked this morning the Friday show wasn’t available yet, I am sure it will be on the web soon, and will be available for 7 days!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00bh9qq/Steve_Scruton_15_10_2010/
Sad news……
October 7, 2010
My dear friend Annie lost her darling puppy Bronte yesterday in a traffic accident. My heart aches to see my friend in such pain as well as the loss of such a dear little dog, just 4 months old! Bronte was a long-awaited for puppy, and combined the best of Annie’s collie line and mine. Her Mum Buffy took until she was six to reproduce and then only one girl puppy, which Annie and I sat up one night waiting for, Buffy made us wait all night for Bronte to arrive. She was named Bronte after the town in Australia that Annie and I stayed in at the beginning of the year, a reminder of a great holiday.
Annie had given Bronte a great time, in her short life, taking her along to agility shows, dog club, puppy party’s with Maggie and me, taking it all in her stride and already showing a great temperament and joy for life! Bronte saw more of life in her short time than most puppy’s!
I am sure you all join me in sending Annie your deepest sympathy and love!
Death leaves a heartache
No one can heal;
Love leaves a memory
No one can steal
Betty has very long legs now!
September 29, 2010
I wonder how many of you have puppies at the stage where they are tall enough to reach the work tops and tables in the kitchen? I have been living with dogs all my life and have been fortunate to live a with a lot of puppies and still I forget how much damage they can do once tall enough to get up on surfaces! The first warning came when Betty started pulled magazines and papers off of the kitchen table, mostly they were of no real value and I didn’t take much notice, thinking I had left a chair out or left them too near the edge! One Monday I was busy going from appointment to appointment and had planned a visit home at lunch time that for one reason and another didn’t come off and poor Betty was in her crate most of the day, I felt bad, but she seemed to cope. The next day she was a complete demon, all that pent-up energy from the day before came out (easy to forget for us owners that the next day the puppy will have more energy than normal)! At one point on returning to the kitchen Betty was on top of the table, having thrown everything off on the floor, having first torn up anything tearable! The look of her face was so full of mischief I had to turn away before she saw my smile! The day went from bad to worse, she ate one DVD, a tea towel got shredded, anything she could move got moved and all this despite me training and walking her a lot that day!
The work tops have come in reach over the last week or two, at first it was just stuff near the edge but now it is anything and I have at last noticed and remembered to be a dog trainer! I am not the tidiest person on the planet, but now I must be or Betty will learn to explore work tops and high surfaces. The best way to stop this behaviour is not to leave the room with anything in reach! Betty has already realised that it isn’t a good idea to go up on the work tops when I am in the room, at least mostly, I wouldn’t test this theory by leaving delicious food near the edge :)! For those of you whose pups still jump at work tops when you are in the room here is the way to stop them:
Do
Those legs are getting longer!
not:
- speak or shout if they jump up
- do not use your hands to pull them off
- do not look at them directly
the above are all interpreted by the dog as attention and will encourage the behaviour!
Do:
- push them down with the side of your leg or hip
- do brush their back feet out from under them by sweeping your foot along the ground
- either of these without speaking or looking directly at them
I look forward to your comments and hearing your experiences and do send in photo’s of your puppy’s please?
Betty goes out to play!
September 24, 2010
Maggie and Dennis!
Betty, Pie and I had a fun time yesterday with our friends!! I met up with Maggie and Annie and their dogs for some fun training Maggie style, which meant Annie and I and our dogs learning some fun tricks!! Maggie and Annie are also dog trainers, we don’t often manage to get together to train our own dogs, though after yesterday I think we will be making more effort to get together!
Maggie has Dennis a brother of Betty’s by a previous litter and of course Smarty her full brother of the same age, Annie has Bronte, the long-awaited puppy of Buffy and a month younger than Smarty and Betty. Annie also brought along Mel (nearly all black) another relative to Betty, though a little more distant.
Maggie has a great set up for her training and loads of agility equipment and other toys for tricks! Betty showed off her skate boarding and Maggie gave me some tips to progress her on some. Bronte began her skateboarding experience and did jolly good, I think Annie will be buying her a skate board :)! Dennis showed us his tricks, old and new, he is such a great dog and Maggie is such a fun trainer, no wonder they both enjoy themselves so much!
It was so lovely to see the pups together. The big advantage of having Betty out with other dog trainers puppy’s was being able to practice recalling her when they were playing and as they all live with grown up dogs, who won’t let them be rude, the play was at a calm level where recalling was relatively easy, the puppy’s had a good lesson together all off lead and playing with their respective owners! Well most of the time:)
I have come home with a lot of new tricks to teach you at the trick training session in October:) give me a ring if you are interested!
I have been a bit slack with the blog for a week or two, I was just not in the mood to write after I heard that an old and dear friend had died suddenly! His name was Michael Sharply, better known in the horse world. Michael was my first mentor for horses from when I was 13, I worked my weekends and school holidays, through to leaving school and going full-time with him until I married. He was the greatest teacher and a complete encyclopedia on horses and their training. I know he will be much missed by all who knew him. There is memorial service for him in Bocking next week which I know will be attended by hundreds of people who had the good fortune to know him!
Betty goes out for the day!! Twice!
September 6, 2010
Scruffs!
Scruffs and family!
Sooo Cute!!
Betty has had a busy week with me:) bank holiday monday we had an outing to the Countess of Warwick show at Little Easton. A great place for a puppy, well one with a confidant approach to life at least! There was everything there from the morris dancers to animals of every shape and size and it seemed everyone took their dog too! I felt sorry for one or two dogs that were obviously a bit overwhelmed by the experience, mature dogs that havent been out in the world enough. I felt even more sorry for some of the people that must have thought it would be a great place to take their dog, and were suffering from the lack of dog training, these people were being towed round, the owners arms must have grown a foot by the time they went home!
I managed to lose my car in the car park! I had to leave my sister Lesley and niece Lottie to hold Betty (she was pooped!) while I searched the car park, of course it was at the furthest end, where I hadn’t looked the first time!
Betty did her first client training session with Phil and his Labradoodle Scruffs on Thursday, we both had puppies out of control from playing with each other at the start! By the end of the session we started to be able to recall them, reasonably successfully! Though tiredness was kicking in and they were showing their tiredness by getting grumpy with each other! A work in progress for both of us:)
Saturday and I took Betty with me to Burleigh horse trials near Stamford! Another busy event for Betty, again everyone seemed to have taken their dog with them! The dog creche sounded over subscribed, a great idea, though the noise from the tent was best missed by humans at least, and for owners who don’t want their dog to learn to bark more!
It was great to be in such a beautiful setting, if you haven’t been the grounds and house are worth the visit, even if you don’t like horses:)! The trade stands are just amazing, full of the most lavish clothing and furniture, dog and horse gear. I brought some new leads for my clients, I actually found some good four foot leads in a great range of colours!! If you want a preview click the link below!
Betty was a sweety the whole day, making a lot of new friends and making sure I did by making eyes at anyone who had the time to stop! She is inclined to follow the nearest pair of legs at the moment, she hasn’t learnt to work out which are mine, which meant she managed to trip a few people up when she was scooting away from some of the larger dogs :)! Luckily no bones broken! Though she was completely bowled over by one very important looking man in a suit, he was on the phone and in a hurry and barely noticed that he had bowled poor Betty over in the dust, she is used to being bowled over by the Pie and seemed to take it in her stride, more or less :)!
Betty was as grateful as me to find the car at the first attempt this time:) by the time we got home she had a new lease of life and roared round the garden, delighted to be back on home turf! Sadly I forgot the camera! I promise to do better next time:)
Avril Munson's Blog 