Stampede

One frustrated dog begging to be taken on a walk, 3 owners willing to oblige. That was the recipe that led to our latest adventure.

Although the nights are now starting to draw in we set off at around 8.30pm in a decent amount of light. We chatted about which route we would take as we walked through the village. I always try to extend every walk, just love being outside. Anyway the voice of reason won out this evening, we'd take a short route around the bottom end of the village, down a lane, into woods and back up to the road through a couple of farmer's fields. I could cope with that. We stopped and chatted to a neighbour, holidays, the weather, dogs meeting and doing their thing before we headed on. Joseph got us all skipping down the road. Hope nobody else was looking at that point! Onto the country lane and dog off lead. All going well. Sally did a Sally thing and ran the wrong way into a farmer's field then got anxious until she rejoined us. She ran ahead in the woods and we noticed she was jumping up to a shadowy figure heading our way. I ran to stop her only to notice this bloke had a couple of big shot guns under each arm. A little freaky! It had fallen dusky by this time and I was glad I wasn't alone. It's amazing how the atmosphere can suddenly change. It' ok, we thought, we only have the 2 fields to get through now before we rejoin the road.

I put Sally onto her lead to go through the fields; sometimes there are sheep up there. That's when I noticed them. First I thought I saw bullocks then I realised there were bullocks, cows, sheep and about 8 horses in the second field. Oh boy! The plan was to walk calmly around the horses and head on up to the top gate. Not a bad plan you might think. It would have been a great plan, a splendorous plan if a big horse behind us hadn't decided to charge at us all the way up the field and set the others off too!! I immediately let go of the lead, as I'd heard you should do in such an event. I took hold of Joseph and frog marched him away from the horses whilst Tony picked up the lead, protecting his girl (Sally) and had a huge horse rearing up about 2 metres away from him the entire time. It would back off then charge back kind of side ways. It was a terrifying thing to behold. Other horses started to get in on the act until we got well up the field. I've never been so glad to get out of a field. Talk about hearts racing, mine could have easily broken the 4 minute mile - without legs!

Since we got back in Sally has followed Tony everywhere and obeyed his every command, has laid in her basket and is now sending out the zs by her master's feet. I think she knows he was protecting her. Just hope she doesn't hold it against me for dropping the lead.

Home with Sally

Sally is in one of her moods right now. In fact as I type she keeps on bringing me a tennis ball to throw. She's just knocked over a little basket and keeps on pulling things out to chew only to have me take them off her and put them away again. Oh no, she's just run off with something and is now barking loudly. I think I'll have to make this a short blog and take that girl out for a walk.

I wrote recently about collecting Sally from the farm. That was the easy part. Once we got her home we decided to show her around our back garden . It was around 5pm in November and the light was almost gone. The garden is entirely enclosed so it didn't seem a stupid thing to do at the time. The trouble was that she was a great deal slimmer than she looked. Sally took all of 30 seconds to notice the flock of sheep at the far end of the field next to the garden and she slipped through the picket fence as quick as Jack Flash. We were in complete shock and had no clue what to do. This dog hadn't even been in the house yet and had no understanding that she now lived with or belonged to us. What on earth was going to happen? Where would she go? Hang on what was she doing with those sheep? I could not believe my eyes. She didn't try to attack them, she circled them, got their complete attention then got them together just like that. She took them to one end of the field, then the other. She was a pro! If I hadn't been in panic mode I may have been very proud of her performance. This was impressive stuff.

Then I called to Tony. 'You've got to get her back.' 'But how?' came the swift reply. 'I don't know but you've got to do it. If not we might lose her forever.' Tony headed over the fence and started chasing Sally all over the field, calling her by her new name (she probably had no clue who he was or who he was calling). I thought it was a lost cause and then I saw a very amazing transformation. All of a sudden Tony took control. He metamorphesised before my eyes from a 5 foot 4 gentle guy to a bear like figure who boomed 'Go back NOW' and pointed to the garden. Sally took one look at him and turned tail back home, a home she would get to know, get to love. Sally was finally with us for keeps.

So much for the short blog!

Bringing Sally Home

For about 6 months I'd been looking at dogs on the web. Actually the dogs I was looking at were Jack Russells. I'd been used to one as a kid. A cool one called Rufus, a real character who belonged to my grandparents. I have many happy memories of holidays in Bridlington with my grandparents and that dog. Anyway although I wanted a dog Tony was not that keen and no amount of pictures of cute Jack Russell pups could persuade him, so that was that.

Then one day at work I heard a friend say she had 2 Border Collie pups that she hadn't managed to sell and she didn't know where she would find homes for them.

When I got home I just casually relayed this information to Tony. To my amazement he said 'OK lets have a look at them.' 'Wow', I thought, I've got to seize this opportunity.

A few evenings later Tony brought Joseph to meet me after work. Joseph knew nothing about the pup. He soon worked it out when we arrived at the farm where 2 cute 4 month old pups bounded up.

We had a good look at both and went away to think it over. Both almost identical to look at but both with very different natures. There was one quiet shy one and one bounder - probably a handful. It should have been a no brainer. Surely the quiet one would be so much easier. All of us looked at each other. We all knew it had to be the bounder. Don't quite know why but we all just knew. And we decided right there and then that this bounder would be called Sally. A quick visit to a pet store to buy the things we would need then back to the farm at the weekend to bring Sally home. The adventure had begun!

That's my Girl

Here's Sally with Halti fitted! That's because she had been offered freedom only to abuse it! She had just run straight up to a picnicing family and caused screams and shock waves then had to be chased all over before we could bring her back to our spot. That sheep in the distance was minding it's own business and we thought it was best left that way. She's looking bonny nevertheless. Bless. Maybe one day we'll be able to trust her a little more but until then...

Mission Impossible

I've mentioned that Sally's favourite method of catching our attention seems to be by chewing through the TV wires. Well here's a little poem my husband Tony wrote about one such event and how he reacted. Enjoy!

Mission Impossible

'Joseph, come and watch me,

I'm going to rescue the snowman'

Joseph scurried down the garden path

following his dad,

a man on a mission,

a mission to rescue...

The snowman.

Some time earlier...

All was silent and then...

'SALLY!'

the word was yelled,

the sound wasn't turned down

on the old decibel box.

The volume was pumped up high

'STOP CHEWING THE WIRE!'

She stopped chewing,

she stared at me

with the word GUILTY tattooed over her forehead.

It didn't take Sherlock Holmes

to investigate the crime

She had clean cut through the wire

SNAP!

No more TV

CRACKLE!

The vision on the screen

POP!

went my emotions

She brought me her toy snowman

to play 'fetch'

but asking me to play a game right now

was a bit of a stretch

'Snowman I'm going to send you into orbit'

and I did

I flung him high

I flung him far

Sally didn't get it

Sally couldn't get it

He was in the field next door!

She stood staring at the poor stranded snowman, her face pushed through the fence

and I stood there feeling like a badman

...The sun was shining in the meadows

the grass was washed clean in the dew

and I knew what I had to do

what a man's got to do

'Fetch me a chair son,

I'm going over'

One green fence to climb

one barbed wire to leap

one slippery trainer

on one slippery slat of wood

if only I could leap like a gazelle

instead of having to yell:

AAARGGH!

as I belly flopped and popped into the farmer's field

The snowman smiled at me;

'I knew you'd come for me' he said.

The Day Sally went to Town

I wonder if you have ever experienced taking a dog into town for the very first time. I wonder if your dog was calm, cool and collected. I wonder, were you calm, cool and collected?

Here's what happened when we took Sally into Kendal for the very first time.

Out of the car, no trouble there. On with the lead, ok there too. Out of the car park, no problem then we hit the main street. Oh boy!! All the new noises, sights, movements, colours, smells, crowds of shoppers of all sizes and ages. A lot to take in for a dog so young and bouncy who has only ever experienced life on a farm and then in a rural village. Sally's eyes darted all around, she didn't know what to head towards first. Thankfully she was firmly attached to the lead but her pulling power instantly trebled there and then. We headed straight to the nearest pet shop to fit her with a 'Halti'; a kind of strap that fits over the nose and round the back of the head to help give more control to the poor person on the other end of the lead. Alpha female Sally didn't like this one little bit. We cut our shopping trip short and headed to the countryside for a walk.

Once we got on a quiet dirt track we took Sally off the Halti and lead. She decided to do a strop, show us what she thought, and dashed away from us, over a wall into an orchard as far away as she could get. No shouting, blowing of dog whistle or rattling of biscuits could encourage her back. After lots of searching and quite a lot of time we spotted her. The only way to get her back was to jump over the high dry stone wall and corner her.

It took a while. Eventually Tony, my long suffering other half, returned with the trophy, a very sheepish looking sheep dog, secured once again by her lead. We would wait for a night to pass before trying again to fit the Halti!

The Day I managed to wear Sally Out - A First

Yes you read it right. I actually wore Sally out. Never thought I would see the day! We've been on big hikes all week and she's bounded everywhere, circling me in big loops. She's walked at least three times as far as I have in circles around me. We've been walking around Ravenglass, St. John in the Vale and on top of Scout Scar as well as around the beautiful fields, nature reserve and woodland around our home.

I looked at her this evening and said 'Give me your paw if you want to go for a walk.' She stared at me but offered no paw. I repeated the question for in case she just didn't get it. I then said 'give me a paw if you want a biscuit.' The paw was offered in nanoseconds. She scoffed a biscuit. I then asked if she wanted a walk to go to the door. No movement then up she got and trotted to the ... biscuit cupboard, took another biscuit and promptly padded to her basket where she lay down and looked at me as if to say ' this baby is going nowhere!' She was soon sending out the zzs and stayed put til I told her to stand and go to bed. Sally sleeps in a little cabin outside. She upped and put herself into bed. Such an amazingly clever and for once outwalked dog. That's my girl.