doggy DNA
Posted: November 9, 2013 Filed under: dogs, friends and family, home, miscellaneous, we love | Tags: DNA, DNA profiling, dog, dog habits, dogs, Foxhound, jack russell, jack russell terrier, JRT, Kate Humble, pets, Steve Leonard, terriers Leave a comment
wadya mean, the hammock’s not ACTUALLY for me!
We have been enjoying the Kate Humble and Steve Leonard ‘The Wonder of Dogs’ programme on BBC2 Thursday nights which explores all the amazing things that a lot of us don’t know about our best friends.
Sadly it is now finished but it covered the science of breeding, intelligence, breed traits, how humans have ‘used’ dogs in history as well as how we have welcomed them into our homes.
what?
It is done in hand with an open university course so it is scientific in it’s approach but it is executed with a huge sense of fun. If you have the slightest interest in dogs or our relationship with them, you will find it fascinating and it can’t do dog reputation any harm after some of the horrendous and tragic articles in the news about dogs lately.
love the snow (hate the coat!)
We have taken quite a lot of stick from friends and family about the parentage of our JRT Max who was supposed to be 10″ long (the last coat we bout him was 20″ long). He displays traits that you’d find in other breeds and not JRTs (he points – sort of ha ha). He isn’t mad and yappy like a lot of terriers and he isn’t very terrier like in many other ways.
they’ll never find me in here
Fox Hound, Dalmation, labrador, beagle are to name but a few of the breeds that people have wondered what he really might be. Pretty much anything other than a Jack Russell!!
how can you resist those eyes
We did everything right when we got him, we met the parents, went to the home where he was born and all of the things that the sellers told us about the others that they had from the same parents was pretty true.
ready for action
He is a great family dog, he loves kids and he does look like his mum and his dad.
Clearly there is something else going on somewhere though and the breed traits and DNA tests that were covered in the programme a couple of weeks ago got us thinking.
So JC sent for a home doggy DNA kit (is there ANYTHING that Amazon don’t sell?) and the results were emailed through to us this week.
chillaxing
So!! To all those doubters…….
He is in fact very much a Jack Russell Terrier but he also has a bit of Fox Terrier in him from grandparents and from his great grandparents there is…………………..
WHIPPET!!
fun fun fun
Posted: August 3, 2013 Filed under: dogs, friends and family, funny, Uncategorized, we love | Tags: dog, dog friendly, dog habits, dog play, dogs, jack russell terrier, JRT, Lurcher, pets, terriers Leave a comment
you won’t catch me
We had a wonderful weekend away with friends last weekend. Their luscious long legged lady, Agnes came with them.
gotcha
She and Max officially love each other to bits.
what’s that you say?
It is very sweet to watch them and they never seem to tire of the endless entertainment that is to be had from play.
no way!!!
They conk out every now and again but the spells of rest are short lived and they are off with their playfulness once more.
eeek!!
The expressions are hilarious and even though there are teeth on show during the whole game, there are moment when they really look like they are having a bit of a kiss and a cuddle.
chase me, go on!!
It is exhausting to watch but completely engrossing.
Their physical closeness and joy that they find in each other is very sweet. If they were human, you’d tell them to get a room! It is intimate and physically close and there is nothing but play and fun in that closeness. Highly recommended I’d say!!
full submission
It is also an exercise in outwitting your opponent and moving just that bit quicker than them.
Other times they look like they are just whispering the very best secret ever to one another.
lots of mouthing and fake biting
There is nibbling, fake biting and getting as much of your opponents actual head into your mouth as possible
Tantalising and incredibly funny to watch.
and relax!!
There was a LOT of sleeping on Monday with no more playful distractions.
it’s getting hot in here
Posted: July 21, 2013 Filed under: dogs, funny, miscellaneous, we love, weather and wildlife | Tags: dog, dog habits, dogs, Drinking water, Hamlet, heat wave, Ice cube, jack russell terrier, keeping cool, summer, sunshine, Water, weather Leave a comment
sleeping sitting up
This recent hot weather is really tough on dogs and it is so sad to hear that there are still people leaving their dogs in cars to die or walking them on hot tarmac until their feet burn and blister.
sunbathing
Our old boy, Hamlet has always loved the sun and used to spend hours on the lawn lapping it up. (He may have been a lizard in a previous life).
ready?
He still enjoys it but he certainly gets hot and the heat that we have been getting have seen him struggling. He has a heart murmur too so we have to be quite vigilant and not let him get over hot. he has had odd little funny turns in the past which may be related to his ticker, heat and dehydration so we do as much as we can to try to prevent repeats of these.
thirsty
In order to avoid the heat of the day I’m getting up at about 5.30 to walk them and JC has been hosing them down to cool them off when it is particularly bad. I’m not sure they actually like this ‘shower’ but it certainly makes them more comfortable as it evaporates out of their coats.
eyeing up the ice
When faced with the prospect though, they don’t seem to appreciate the benefits and they have been known to hide. Max definitely does a runner when he sees the hoes or the tin bath.
no one will see me here
They even hide after they have been drenched (although I’m not sure what they think that will achieve). Bless!
sleeping in his hiding place in the sweet woodruff
Ice cubes in their drinking water have helped and getting them to lick ice cubes instead of gulping lots of water is great for keeping them hydrated without the risk of them throwing it back up.
Max isn’t great at doing ice cubes and tolerates them in his water but Hamlet likes to have them thrown for him to catch and crunch.
catching ice cubes
He’s quite an enthusiastic little dog (read bonkers!!) whether it’s going out, chasing a ball or catching a treat so catching ice cubes brings a bit of a wild look in his old eye.
ready for another one
He would stand there waiting for them eternally I think.
As always, hugely entertaining and endlessly funny.
Feathered Rats
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: birds, countryside, dogs, funny, local interest, Uncategorized, we love, weather and wildlife | Tags: dog, dog habits, dog walking, dog walks, doves, jack russell terrier, JRT, Outdoors, pests, pigeons, terrier, terriers Leave a comment
there they are
I’m not particularly keen on pigeons.
They are pests in the city and they are pests in the countryside.
They will roost almost anywhere, eat anything and make the most smelly, dirty mess. Yuck!!
I’m not alone in my disliking; my niece is unreasonably fearful of them and there are lots of people who invest a lot of hours in the pursuit of killing them.
grrrr
Someone who illustrates his own disliking in a much more entertaining way is Max of course.
there!
He diligently guards the bird feeders (when he’s not helping his greedy little self to anything that falls to the ground!!) and goes charging into the garden to skidaddle them whenever his vigilance has faltered and they’ve had the temerity to return!
lots of barking
His pursuit of them doesn’t stop there though, there is a barn on a walk that we do over the weekends that has doves in it and he clearly doesn’t distinguish, they’re all the same as far as he is concerned.
move
The noise he makes is deafening and reverberates around the barn. Bales don’t get in his way, machinery is no deterrent and once he is on his mission, he is difficult to drag away.
still there!
Needless to say, the pigeons (or doves for that matter) don’t hang around for long with that kind of din but the sight of a raging terrier stotting about on the ground below them must be more amusing than truly terrifying.
Hamlet Hound
Posted: March 22, 2013 Filed under: dogs, we love | Tags: dog, dog food, dog habits, dog walking, dog walks, dogs, Hamlet, jack russell terrier, JRT, london, pets, terrier, terriers, walking Leave a comment
he hides his face sometimes when he sleeps
Hamlet has been with us for about 6 months now and he seems settled, always delighted to see us and he is eating really well.
His appetite has, historically been a barometer for the state of his emotional health (read bonkers!). If he is off his food, he’s not a happy little dog and it signals a decline into a state of madness.
obsessing over a ball
This madness manifests itself in serious grumpiness, cowering, loss of appetite, endless licking (like anything!!), lots of sleeping and lots of barking. I truly believe he shows all the signs of severe misery!!
Hamlet is prone to being grumpy and a grumbler at the best of times but the level increases tenfold if he is fed up. Even when he is happy, he is prone to obsessive behaviour and a ball or toy is guaranteed to bring that out in him. I don’t think some of these things will ever change.
Old age is also starting to present itself and he is slowly losing his sight. There is milkiness to be seen in his eyes now and I think he gets startled and scared easily because he can’t see properly.
He has responded positively to our routine though and I think our relatively quiet and peaceful house suits him very well.
He’s a little treasure and we love having him with us
the ears say it all
When he is happy, he is a complete joy; he can’t wait for his mealtimes and will take your fingers off for a crumb given the chance, he stands expectantly at the door for his walks, he strides out and is even happy to see other dogs (that almost never used to happen!!!).
We put him on a raw diet the same as Max’s for ease and it seems to suit him, he looks fit and happy, he is slim and full of beans (between monumentally noisy sleeps!!).
He is still fundamentally the same weird little dog he has always been and I’m not surprised my sister misses him as much as she does.
lovely rheumy old eyes
An Old Boy
Posted: January 3, 2013 Filed under: countryside, dogs, friends and family, funny, we like | Tags: border terrier, dog, dog habits, dog walking, dog walks, dogs, east anglia, Fizz, Hamlet, Heston, jack russell terrier, labradors, london, pets, terrier, terriers, walking Leave a comment
max and hamlet
I have blogged about my sister’s terrier Hamlet before. He’s been around for ever. We think he is about 12 or 13 but no one is quite sure.
His eyes have recently become a bit milky and we think it has affected his sight but he is fit and generally very well. He is, however, very, very grumpy.
having a cuddle
His grumpiness has got him into trouble in the past but it is kinda how he is and that is it. To be fair to him, he is only grumpy with other dogs, he clearly loves people and he especially loves men. His diminishing sight and overall grumpiness hasn’t been an issue really until recently when Fizz came to join his household.
Pupinksy
She’s young and has boundless energy, I think she jumps into view and scares the bejesus out of the old fella. She gets told off A LOT. Add that to the fact that Heston, who also joined this previously ‘one dog’ household is as tenacious in his attempts to annoy Hamlet as Fizz is in her attempts to annoy Heston and the end result is that no one in the household, especially Hamlet, was happy anymore.
We took him for a few weeks at the end of the summer to give everyone a holiday from each other and hoped that when he went home, order would be restored, Fizz would have settled down and the grumpiness would have subsided slightly. Unfortunately for all concerned, it was even worse.
After struggling for a couple more weeks, my sis & Kit made the very difficult decision that perhaps Hamlet really needed some peace and quite and that a new home might be the ticket for the Old Boy.
He is undoubtedly grumpy and he has nuclear rancid breath that could render you speechless from 20 paces but JC & I didn’t hesitate to offer him a home and told my sis that he could come to spend his dotage with us and Max. He wasn’t to go elsewhere under any circumstances.
Max, our 4 year old JRT, winds him up sometimes and isn’t always pleased about sharing us but we 4 all to rub along fine and have settled into a new slightly different routine but it seems to suit.
There is still enough space for a cuddle on the sofa.
There is still enough space on the back seat of the car.
And there is still enough food to go around.
settling down to an afternoon nap
We have spare leads, spare beds, spare bowls and many more things that have made the transition an easy one. Also, we know Hamlet, he used to come and stay with us for his holidays before we had Max and he absolutely LOVES London.
We are all happy with the set up and I am sure that Hamlet and Max are happy, fit and well in this new arrangement.
My sis called around over Christmas and it was the first time Hamlet had seen her and Kit in a few weeks. He was clearly DELIGHTED to see them and stood at the gate for a while after they had left which gave me a few moments cause for concern.
We subsequently went for a walk with them and a full quota of dogs and everyone had a great time. Hamlet is still spritely even though he grumbled a few times it was evident that he was enjoying himself. I did think he is probably missing his original pack and you have to ask yourself if you have done the right thing for the old fella.
there will be snoring soon
It was very clear at the end of the walk where he wanted to be and who he was going home with! He practically made a run for it!
He’s on our sofa dribbling and snoring quite loudly as I write!!
a day in norfolk
Posted: December 29, 2012 Filed under: birds, countryside, dogs, food for free, life style, local interest, we love, weather and wildlife | Tags: dog, dog habits, dogs, east anglia, norfolk, north norfolk, shooting, working dogs Leave a comment
a glorious view
It has been an incredibly busy run up to Christmas and I have finally been able to take a breath.
the guns at the ready for the first drive
Amongst the hard work and long hours in the months leading up to the Christmas break, we were able to get out and about on odd days to enjoy ourselves.
a watery track into a wet, wet field
We spent a particularly lovely day out and about in the North Norfolk Countryside and it was sunny; gloriously sunny and not a raindrop in site!!
cobwebs on the stubble
Apart from the loveliness of the North Norfolk countryside, getting such lovely watery sunshine when the rest of the country was struggling in pouring rain, was quite remarkable.
waving webs
The surroundings were completely stunning and made all the more delightful by a blanket of cobwebs on the stubble that gave the fields a strange shimmer. The photos don’t do it justice but there was a gentle breeze that kept the cobwebs moving in a gentle wave while the sun glinted off it.
the beautiful beech
The day out was a partridge shoot but as always, we were able to enjoy the company, the views, the weather and the work of the dogs as much as the skill of the guns.
baby beech
I love watching the dogs at work. Whether they are flushing out birds or picking up, the joy that they show in their pursuit is clear to see and they don’t stop until the day is firmly done when they can go home for a well earned rest and a good feed.
a good retrieve
Their enthusiasm is infectious and although they work endlessly hard whatever the weather or ground conditions, it is never more evident that they have fun than when the sun is shining.
searching for a bird in the sugar beet
The dog’s hard work is rewarded by their handlers who love them very much. They invest huge amounts of time and patience in their dogs.
the sun going down in front of a watchful gun
The dogs have good, happy and full lives which is such a lovely thing to see especially when you know there can be such cruelty handed out to these loyal and loving creatures.
walking back to the guns wagon
We finished the day with a cup of tea and a slice of cake along with some happy chatter.
a good day for the cooking pot
Everyone and all the dogs thoroughly enjoyed a superb day out and it really fuels the sole just when you need it.
happy dogs homeward bound
let sleeping dogs lie
Posted: November 4, 2012 Filed under: dogs, friends and family, funny, life style, miscellaneous, we love | Tags: Conditions and Diseases, dog, dog habits, dogs, Health, jack russell terrier, JRT, pets, terriers 2 Comments
the sleep of the innocent
I don’t think Max is any cuter than when he is tucked up with his favourite blanket and is fast asleep.
anywhere will do
He’s a very easy little dog really, it is just so sad that he suffers with his skin so much. Apart form that, he is a good eater, a good sleeper and mostly does as he is told.
a scrunched up blanket on the floor
His ability to slumber is fabulous and I am endlessly envious. I am late to bed and early to rise with light sleep between so I don’t think I am doing very well on the sleep front. Humans all seem to suffer one way or another with sleep.
a cushion
Dogs on the other hand have it sussed. They grab 40 winks when they become available, are awake in a flash should the need arise, anywhere is suitable for a kip and there is none of this tiresome tooth brushing, hair brushing or washing business to deal with first.
a cosy chin and shoulder
The sleeping sitting or standing (the standing one that makes me laugh the most though and I’ve seen all dogs do it too).
here’s fine
With a bed or without.
a hammock is a great place to sleep
Hard surface or soft.
zzzzz
They will find the warmest spot they can, be it by your foot or the fire.
the fire is just about the best place
If remotely possible, they will find a way to sleep with you or with something that smells of you.
and if my blanket is here, well!
And no matter how small the spot, if the sun comes out, that is the best place to sleep right now!
any sunny spot
There are many aspect of well cared for dog’s lives that I envy but having sleep on tap has to be the main one!
missing in action
Posted: October 24, 2012 Filed under: countryside, dogs, local interest, we love | Tags: border terrier, dog, dog habits, dog walking, dog walks, dogs, east anglia, Hector, Henry, patterdale terrier, pets, rabbit warren, rabbits, terrier, walk, walking, working dogs 4 Comments
Hector looking very pleased with himself
The farm terriers decided that staying down a rabbit hole on sunday was much more fun than coming to a call.
After 2 hours of walking, stalking, whistling and calling, Patby very reluctantly had to abandon his desperate search for Henry the Border Terrier and Hector the Patterdale Terrier to attend a very important birthday lunch for his eldest daughter and her lovely man.
gotcha
We got the call at about 11 am asking us if we could pop along to where they were last seen hoping that we might be able to find them and take them home safely.
We are pretty fond of the farm dogs (and Patby and Gaga!!) and are always willing to help out where we can because we enjoy an enormous amount of generosity from the farm and feel that we should say thank you as often as we get the chance to by our actions.
nearly home
So, not wanting to let the scent go cold, we donned our waterproofs, got the walking sticks out (expecting a bit of hard going), armed ourselves with whistles, leads and shovels (in case they really had gone down a burrow, gone to ground and needed digging out! It happens with terriers A LOT!).
We weren’t sure how long it would take us but we’d had a hearty breakfast and were happy to stay out there for as many hours as it took, Patby and Gaga needed to know that the boys were safe and were quite frantic about having to leave before they knew they were safe. It was important to get a result as soon as possible so they could relax and enjoy their special lunch.
dirty and clearly tired
We parked up in the yard near where they were last seen and planned our manoeuvres.
Imagine our surprise but complete delight when we hadn’t even stepped out of the car and 2 very dirty and very wet little terriers came cannoning around the corner looking very pleased with themselves.
a lot of the dirt transferred to the car. Quite a skill!
It was tempting to fib and say that it had taken hours of hard slog to find them and hadn’t we done well but we just knew that the most important thing was that they were safe. Patby and Gaga were distraught and really had to be told as soon as possible so they could relax and enjoy their day.
There is still a great sense of good that comes from a successful mission and finding 2 little troopers that were missing in action even if we didn’t do much more than turn up!
the sweet spot
Posted: September 21, 2012 Filed under: dogs, funny, we love | Tags: Allergy, Conditions and Diseases, dog, dog habits, dog skin, dogs, jack russell terrier, JRT, sensitive skin, sweet spot, Treatments 1 Comment
that’s it, right there
Max has itchy skin because of his allergies and often when people stroke him they think they have found that special spot that all dogs have that make them scratch involuntarily.
Unfortunately for Max it is usually just his poor overly sensitive skin reacting to the touch and immediately becoming itchy.
oooh
His skin is pretty good at the moment and his allergies aside, Max, like all dogs does actually have a sweet spot; that strange unique area that makes legs move involuntarily, faces gurn like toothless gnarls and his body squirm like a snake pit when you get onto it.
yes, go on!
Max’s sweet spot is at the base of his tail and he pulls the funniest faces when you find it.
ooh ooh
It is endlessly entertaining to see such ecstasy especially when he can suffer so much.
I swear his eyes glaze over with the sheer joy of it.
right there
If you happen to be the person he is sitting on when he is treated to this ‘massage’ of sorts, his claws start digging in, his torso goes rigid, his head goes back and he starts licking his lips.
ecstasy
It is very funny and he will stay in this position for as long as you care to keep it up.
chezlah 