Canine communication - practical
0 Comments Published by Gussie on Friday, October 31, 2008 at 10/31/2008 11:55:00 AM.
What is Jake trying to tell us?
And without reference to Turid Rugaas, I deduce:
Get on with it! It's perishing up here! My ears are blowing off! etc etc
(Taken on Blackford Hill, view over Edinburgh towards Arthur's Seat).
And without reference to Turid Rugaas, I deduce:
Get on with it! It's perishing up here! My ears are blowing off! etc etc
(Taken on Blackford Hill, view over Edinburgh towards Arthur's Seat).
Lack of camera sorted
0 Comments Published by Gussie on Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 10/12/2008 09:03:00 PM.
What a relief to have a camera again!
This pic's from Saturday's walk up our "local" hill. (Edinburgh has seven hills). In the background the clouds gather over the Pentlands ...
This pic's from Saturday's walk up our "local" hill. (Edinburgh has seven hills). In the background the clouds gather over the Pentlands ...
Labels: Scotland
Auchindoir: romanesque arch. Dog: whatever.
2 Comments Published by Gussie on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 at 8/06/2008 11:34:00 PM.
Beware the jabberwock tree, my son
5 Comments Published by Gussie on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 7/30/2008 08:12:00 PM.
57 degrees north, 28 degrees celsius
2 Comments Published by Gussie on Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 7/27/2008 08:27:00 PM.
Drive for three and a half hours north of Edinburgh and one of the places you end up in might be Aberdeenshire, home of Rod's ancestors. We sooo needed a holiday. This one was a great mix of agility shows, family history research and stone circles. It was also outrageously hot. We're not used to it!
We stayed in the very dog friendly Drumdelgie holiday cottages - every morning and evening I walked Jake off-lead through the forest on our doorstep. Dogs were allowed off lead as long as they were under control. Fortunately on the morning we saw deer, I had put Jake on lead in good time because I thought that the shapes in the distance were two large dogs. Where is their owner? I thought, waiting for someone to follow them out of the trees. H'm, those dogs walk a bit funny. Then I realised that dogs don't step quite so daintily, and I was very glad of the lead. Chasing deer is a shooting offence.
Did I mention we found a lot of stone circles?
Of course there were castles too - this is Huntly Castle, note the headless deerhound on the crest over the door...
We stayed in the very dog friendly Drumdelgie holiday cottages - every morning and evening I walked Jake off-lead through the forest on our doorstep. Dogs were allowed off lead as long as they were under control. Fortunately on the morning we saw deer, I had put Jake on lead in good time because I thought that the shapes in the distance were two large dogs. Where is their owner? I thought, waiting for someone to follow them out of the trees. H'm, those dogs walk a bit funny. Then I realised that dogs don't step quite so daintily, and I was very glad of the lead. Chasing deer is a shooting offence.
Did I mention we found a lot of stone circles?
Of course there were castles too - this is Huntly Castle, note the headless deerhound on the crest over the door...
Labels: Scotland
Kelso - the day out
0 Comments Published by Gussie on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 6/24/2008 02:15:00 PM.
We like the Borders. So we decided that even though the Tweedbank agility show is reachable from Edinburgh with an early start, we would splash out on a B&B near Kelso. Instead of the usual frenzied start to the day, we drove down on Friday afternoon, had a picnic looking at the rather lovely Leaderfoot Viaduct ; pottered round the ruins of Kelso Abbey, and found our B&B, the Garden House B&B in Whitmuir. It was as dog friendly as you could hope for - having been found on Dog Friendly Britain. We were in the garden flat, and I think Jake was non-plussed to see pheasants strolling past his bedroom window. But he loved the garden and particularly the walk round the loch. Unfortunately my camera phone didn't cope very well with the twilight in the woods - what should have been a lovely pic of Jake on a stile hasn't come out very well at all. ;-(
Three hearty cheers for the Buccleuch Arms, which allowed dogs in the bar as well as the garden with absolutely no fuss - and we can see why they won Scottish Inn of the Year 2008! One of the best cooked steaks any of us has had in a very long time, which provoked an outbreak of Crufts quality sits and pointed re-sits from Jake.
So come Saturday morning, we were rested and only had a 20 minute drive to the agility show - thanks to our hosts, who kindly gave us coffee and toast ahead of the other guests so we could get to the Borders showground in time to walk the courses.
King of (Crichton) Castle
6 Comments Published by Gussie on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 5/28/2008 08:31:00 PM.
We visited Crichton Castle on Saturday.
Who would have thought Jake would have so much fun in a ruined castle? He liked it more than we did! Scrambling up and down the spiral staircases ...
... sticking his head thru the gun loops ...
... until we reached the very top, where Jake came over all fearty on the wooden slatted bridge. I thought his dislike of bridges was down to rushing water underneath but it turns out it's the slats, or to be more precise, the gaps between the slats.
All in all, it was a very dog friendly spot - the custodian refilled the water bowl specially for Jake, and said (without us having to ask) Jake could go off lead as he was the only dog. Though the lead went on PDQ when a grey-muzzled Patterdale Terrier poked its nose round the entrance a little later.
He looks very pleased with himself. I suppose greyhounds would have lived there when it was inhabited in the 1500s, no doubt being surreptitiously bred with the locals' sheepdogs. The original lurchers!
Who would have thought Jake would have so much fun in a ruined castle? He liked it more than we did! Scrambling up and down the spiral staircases ...
... sticking his head thru the gun loops ...
... until we reached the very top, where Jake came over all fearty on the wooden slatted bridge. I thought his dislike of bridges was down to rushing water underneath but it turns out it's the slats, or to be more precise, the gaps between the slats.
All in all, it was a very dog friendly spot - the custodian refilled the water bowl specially for Jake, and said (without us having to ask) Jake could go off lead as he was the only dog. Though the lead went on PDQ when a grey-muzzled Patterdale Terrier poked its nose round the entrance a little later.
He looks very pleased with himself. I suppose greyhounds would have lived there when it was inhabited in the 1500s, no doubt being surreptitiously bred with the locals' sheepdogs. The original lurchers!
We are back from a holiday in Skye! In which we met hardly any other dogs at all. Perhaps it is because in the Highlands dog owners are expected to intercept dog crap before it hits the ground.
It was so beautiful! And so full of sheep and lambs. Even so we had a some great walks without incident, and Jake made the best of the one properly sandy beach we found. (Thanks to a tip from work chum to head to Glen Brittle). There were some fine shingle beaches and some fine seaweed-sludge traps (on day one, walk one, both Gus and Jake arrived back in the holiday cottage plastered in stinky BLACK oom-ska).
However there's a lot to be said for Portree -
The cute harbour ...
... the fine dining ...
... the opportunities to practice recall in heart-stopping situations, er scenery ...
And with one exception, every pub we went into was happy to have Jake in, even where food was being served, making the smooth transfer of left-overs to dog much easier. Particular kudos to the Stein Inn, the oldest pub on Skye to allow Jake to sit at our feet.
It was so beautiful! And so full of sheep and lambs. Even so we had a some great walks without incident, and Jake made the best of the one properly sandy beach we found. (Thanks to a tip from work chum to head to Glen Brittle). There were some fine shingle beaches and some fine seaweed-sludge traps (on day one, walk one, both Gus and Jake arrived back in the holiday cottage plastered in stinky BLACK oom-ska).
However there's a lot to be said for Portree -
The cute harbour ...
... the fine dining ...
... the opportunities to practice recall in heart-stopping situations, er scenery ...
And with one exception, every pub we went into was happy to have Jake in, even where food was being served, making the smooth transfer of left-overs to dog much easier. Particular kudos to the Stein Inn, the oldest pub on Skye to allow Jake to sit at our feet.
We left Jakey at home while we popped out to vote. Other dogs in our neighbourhood did trot to the polling station with their people: Oscar the shih tzu, collie father-&-son Blue and Fram (sp?). Who would the dogs vote for? The Collie Borg party? (Because all collies would vote alike – with great accuracy). Scottish Shih-Tzus for Independence?
Meanwhile the hot topic at agility (apart from trauma because a fellow human has injured herself quite badly, but we’ll not dwell on that) is – choosing a suitably three-part name for the assorted mutts and rescues to register on the Kennel Club Activity Register. This allows us to engage in displacement activity – why fret that our teacher thinks we’re nearly ready to compete when we can be having a laugh choosing poncy names? We have to submit three options in case some other hound already has snaffled the first or second choice.
I quite like Jake’s the King of the Castle, or Little Lord Fauntledog, or [Our suburb name]’s Fawnface.
Meanwhile the hot topic at agility (apart from trauma because a fellow human has injured herself quite badly, but we’ll not dwell on that) is – choosing a suitably three-part name for the assorted mutts and rescues to register on the Kennel Club Activity Register. This allows us to engage in displacement activity – why fret that our teacher thinks we’re nearly ready to compete when we can be having a laugh choosing poncy names? We have to submit three options in case some other hound already has snaffled the first or second choice.
I quite like Jake’s the King of the Castle, or Little Lord Fauntledog, or [Our suburb name]’s Fawnface.
Back from a relaxing weekend in Catterline. Or as Jake probably saw it, PreyWorld. Rabbits, pheasants (one morning, 16 pheasants flitted past the caravan window…) Lots of lounging, eating. Getting back to Roderick’s roots in Inverurie. Walks in the pine forest at Creeth Castle. A pint in Stonehaven Harbour. A smattering of stone circles and Restenneth Priory. Where we happened on 4 guinea fowl. So plump! So chase-able! So frustrating to be on the lead.
Labels: Scotland
Jake loved Wester Ross. We stayed on a croft in Inverasdale, on the edge of Loch Ewe. His early morning stroll was on the pebbled beach five minutes from the croft. Best of all was a daily visit to one of the many nearby beaches, so well appointed with seaweed to shake and run around with. Plus sea and sand ... we've all come back rather fitter than before.
None of us were very amused by the storms, however, which led to some sharp contrasts in human/canine outerwear...
