Dinner, Bed & Breakfast

The past 2 weekends have involved husband and I driving great distances over the UK involving both socialising and work.  Leelu would not have liked it - 4-5 hours in the van each way on each trip.  As a dog, it must feel like a bit of a travelling / time machine - you get in and have no idea what view the door will open onto - will it be friendly, like my parents? Or will it be scary - will there be other dogs there, or will it be a great new place to explore?



Leelu has been treated to 2 weekends at my parents - a great big garden lots of fuss, a cat that he ignores but who gingerly steps past him (she is as antisocial as he is!), lovely walks through the woods with my Dad, rabbits to chase in the field and - if he's lucky - double dinner (because both I and my mum have fed him!), or double breakfast when the cat doesn't eat it quick enough and the door might have been left open a crack!


Pets at Home have started sending Leelu mail which made me laugh a lot.  Even better than that, as he turns 8 sometime around now, they have sent a voucher for free birthday dog treats, which is brilliant (although I hope they do cake for the owners too!).



In the photo below you can see that Leelu has discovered sitting on the step on the boat - it makes him almost as tall as us although he was sitting up looking very handsome until i took the photo so now it looks like he is sitting on the naughty step (there is no naughty step)!

In the garden at my parents having a lovely game of catch

Happy walking everyone, I hope you are enjoying the sunshine.

V & L

Spring turning into Summer

Well I say Spring turning into Summer...Summer is definitely here, you can tell.  It's the first of June and hammering down with rain outside,the fire is lit and we are expecting 42mph gusts of winds later - great fun on a canal boat, I think not!

In complete contrast to that, a local walk I did on Saturday was so beautiful and full of nature that this blog is just dedicated to the photos I took.  Enjoy!

 Bee collecting nectar:

 Lots of damsel flies were around, presumably just hatched and drying in the sun;

 Ferns uncurling:

 Dog with frisbee amongst ferns....

 Hawthorn blossom:

 Ferns unfurling:

 Oh and we have some new baby calves in the field.  They are grouping together whilst they learn their place amongst the other heifers in the field:

Well, that's a bit of sunshine - I'm off to walk the dog in the rain...!

Canal walks, Camping and Mountains

We’ve been on a few walking adventures over the past few months – with varied rates of success.  It’s been an exercise in pushing myself and trying to get some walking fitness back into my life, plus seeing how Leelu copes with the different types of walking …oh hang on…dog…walk….!

The first decent sized walk we did was Long Mynd in Shropshire – 11 miles of up, along, down, then up then down again (the last down hurt!!).  It was a beautiful hot and sunny day but I made the mistake of letting Leelu  have the ball to carry and to be fair to him he did – the whole way!!  He was also brave enough to get into some small streams to drink, not into fast flowing ones though, but I felt like it was some kind of breakthrough as he generally doesn’t drink much water, let alone go near any moving water.

We then went to the Lake District for my second mountain since my back op.  We were aiming to go up Bowfell  through Eskdale.  It was the first time we had been camping in the Yellow Bus of Fun (ex-AA VW T4 camper / multipurpose van).  Oh Leelu thought it was great that he was so close to us and he could sit up and put his head on the bed in the morning ‘Are we going out yet…?’  The disadvantage to The Lake District in April is lambing season.  Having been non-dog owners for a while and therefore able to go where we want, the lambing season hadn’t affected us before.  So on the lead he went although husband cunningly secured him via a karabiner to his rucksack so he could still go a little way on the retractable lead. 

All in all it wasn’t the most successful day ever.  Despite lots of flat walking, you need different muscles for mountains and mine had deserted me that day.  On top of that, higher up was rain, then sleet.  The dog was also not having the best time either – cold, wet, sleet, wind, on the lead - so we bailed…to the pub for restorative tea and nachos.  We then went and parked ourselves in the Old Dungeon Ghyll carpark and had a fine evening of great food, beer and chatting (with much admiring of dog by fellow pub goers) and retired to the campervan and listened to the beat of the rain on the roof.  As predicted the next day was a complete washout – Leelu’s face was a picture when we opened the door in the morning and we were in one enormous puddle of water.  We went home.

Two weekends ago, whilst husband was on a course in Audlem, Leelu and I did an 11.5 mile walk down the towpath and back from Audlem to just short of Market Drayton.  Another flat walk but good to get the miles in.  We had a bonus on the way too as we bumped into a volunteer lock keeper that we know and he bought me cake (it’s ok I had treats with me for Leelu, he didn’t miss out!).

Last week was half term so we had a few days in Wales based out of Llanberis.  Unfortunately our plans went awry a little when husband got very poorly sick so I took Leelu and Step-daughter no. 2 , who was staying with us for the week, up to the top of Snowdon via the Llanberis path as neither of them had done it before. 

They were both excellent, despite the steepness (s/d), the boring path, the people and the other dogs (Leelu) and slept lots afterwards.  Actually both s/d and I slept lots because we then went to Bounce Below as a half term treat – its’ a series of big nets in a huge cave that you bound around on and climb up and slide down, great fun and completely exhausting – like a human size version of a snakes and ladders board!  Thursday was a more gentle day.  Fortunately husband got better and took daughter climbing on Idwal Slabs whilst I introduced Leelu to the concept of steep steps with a bit of scrambling.  He didn’t like it.  To make it up to him I then had to stand and play ball with him for ages!

Next on the list of Leelu’s adventures – spending the weekend away at my parents (He won’t like the drive to Wiltshire!). 

Pooey.....

He slunk past the window looking very guilty...and quite dark in colour. 'Oh poor dog,' thought my husband, 'he must have fallen in the canal (again).'

Did I mention that since the 1st April the young stock (cows) are back in the field next to us and all that is separating us from them is a thin 12 volt fence, so it is easy for a collie dog to get underneath it and roll in the fresh green cow pats, though to be honest he could have actually been stood under the back end of said cow:

I have also previously mentioned that Leelu doesn't like water.  he especially doesn't like being bathed and he had cold water as punishment, rather than the tepid water of previously.  Oh he was not happy, but he was cleaner, with only a slight whiff of countryside (cow!) and he was very fluffy when he was dry!

He hasn't been back near any fresh cow pats!!

Learning, trusting & finding out

These first few weeks of owning a new dog, when not having had one for years,  have been all about getting into a routine, working out our limitations and gaining trust on both sides.

We've learnt that he is a very trusting dog and, whilst obviously a bit bewildered about his sudden change of surroundings,  is coping well.  Whilst he was part of a pack of 3 dogs, we believe ever since a puppy, it must seem strange to him that the other 2 aren't there anymore, although he does seem to be enjoying the quieter life with 2 humans giving him attention, love, walks and tennis balls!

So what else have we learnt so far?
- He is extremely well trained on most commands except 'find' which he can't work out for the life of him, we lost 2 tennis balls in one day, apparently i should have magically had them back in my hand ready for throwing again!
- He was really obstinate about getting in the car. Doing a bit of dog psychology i think this was possibly down to him arriving in a car to us and then that car leaving without him. However, we have done lots of 'good' car journeys where we have driven somewhere then got out for a nice walk. The one longer journey we did to the Peak District, we had him on the floor in the passenger footwell of the T4 camper (with a doggie harness on!) but it meant he could see us and be fussed.
- He really doesn't like other dogs. Unfortunately I found this out when i was walking him in Marbury country park, just after we had lost a tennis ball!  We met 2 large labradors, the female was fine but the male was really aggressive towards Leelu whilst Leelu  was trying to hide behind me and sink himself into the ground at the same time.  The next couple of dogs we met, he did a big loop around through the undergrowth and then waited on the path ahead until i caught up.  Fortunately since then we have met a couple of other placid dogs who haven't been interested in him sufficiently, just as well as he has been hiding behind our legs.  However, we have found that if he has the tennis ball, he is a bit braver as he can focus on that rather than the other dog.  Again a bit of doggie psychology and i reckon that he has never really been in an 'only dog' situation before as previously he would have been in a pack of 3 or with other dogs he knows so would have been / felt protected. Something to work on.
- Water. He really doesn't like it! He actively goes around puddles, if we are in the field he lies on the high ground. The twice he has fallen in the canal off the boat (fortunately at the mooring!) He was terrified and clung to me like  small child, although he can swim! Sarah did manage to entice him into the sea when we went to Red Rocks beach on  the Wirral - a fantastically huge flat beach with lots of room for running around - only because she too was paddling and was in charge of ball throwing!

The next blog will be about the experience of putting him in kennels.  Yes i feel really bad when he is so new to us!