Dog eat dog...
There have been occasions, mainly when I have returned from a long dog walk, and the two fuzzballs are gently snoring at my feet, that I mention the possibility of having a third dog to the husband. He is far less emotional about puppies than me, and tends to give me a stern look accompanied by a firm 'No'.
This will never happen again...
Yesterday, I looked after Mrs S's Labradoodle puppy Ralph for the afternoon. He is an adorable ball of fluff, as are Percy and Reg, but put the three of them together, and the fur flies. I thought it would be a great idea to take the three of them for a long walk when I got back home having collected Ralph, in the hope that a combination of heat and exercise would encourage a nap. It works for me, so I just assumed that they would be the same.
I managed to get the leads on the three of them, and then spent a frustrating five minutes at our gate trying to untangle them. Macrame was never my strongest achievement at primary school, and in the end, I had to un-clip each of them and start again.
We made it over to the rabbit field in one piece, and I let them all off. Have you ever heard the saying about 'what goes around, comes around'? Well Reg, who has quite possibly been the bane of Percy's life over the last year, found himself at the abuse end of the walk this time. The trouble is, although Ralph is much younger, he is also much bigger than Reg, and took great delight in jumping over him. Reg didn't get a minute's peace, and Percy sauntered round slowly with me, giggling softly
behind his paw in a 'serves you right' sort of way.
After an hour's walking, we fell back through the gate and After some more detangling they were ready for drinks and snacks, and what I hoped would be a mammoth sleep. How wrong I was, Here's the thing. When you have several dogs, they never all fall asleep at once. There's always one picking a fight on another, and to be honest, I think they managed around four minutes of sleep between them.
In the end, I had to resort to a very dirty trick. Grabbing a small handful of Reg's puppy food, I launched it up the garden. As it sank down into the almost too long grass ( when did that happen? Last time I looked, it had frost on it) it gave the three of them quite a challenge and kept them distracted from each other for all of one and a half minutes.
Resigning myself to wearing a two tone fur coat, as the three of them laid on, below and beside me, I used Reg as a mouse mat and Ralph as a foot-stool while I attempted to write this blog. Percy, who tends to be ever so sensible, simply stared at me in a quizzical manner, hardly believing that I may have brought another puppy in to torment him.
So I'll be sticking to two dogs for the time being. It's more than enough.
Mind you, there are days, usually when destruction has been on the menu, when even having two is just too much...
This will never happen again...
Yesterday, I looked after Mrs S's Labradoodle puppy Ralph for the afternoon. He is an adorable ball of fluff, as are Percy and Reg, but put the three of them together, and the fur flies. I thought it would be a great idea to take the three of them for a long walk when I got back home having collected Ralph, in the hope that a combination of heat and exercise would encourage a nap. It works for me, so I just assumed that they would be the same.
I managed to get the leads on the three of them, and then spent a frustrating five minutes at our gate trying to untangle them. Macrame was never my strongest achievement at primary school, and in the end, I had to un-clip each of them and start again.
We made it over to the rabbit field in one piece, and I let them all off. Have you ever heard the saying about 'what goes around, comes around'? Well Reg, who has quite possibly been the bane of Percy's life over the last year, found himself at the abuse end of the walk this time. The trouble is, although Ralph is much younger, he is also much bigger than Reg, and took great delight in jumping over him. Reg didn't get a minute's peace, and Percy sauntered round slowly with me, giggling softly
behind his paw in a 'serves you right' sort of way.
After an hour's walking, we fell back through the gate and After some more detangling they were ready for drinks and snacks, and what I hoped would be a mammoth sleep. How wrong I was, Here's the thing. When you have several dogs, they never all fall asleep at once. There's always one picking a fight on another, and to be honest, I think they managed around four minutes of sleep between them.
In the end, I had to resort to a very dirty trick. Grabbing a small handful of Reg's puppy food, I launched it up the garden. As it sank down into the almost too long grass ( when did that happen? Last time I looked, it had frost on it) it gave the three of them quite a challenge and kept them distracted from each other for all of one and a half minutes.
Resigning myself to wearing a two tone fur coat, as the three of them laid on, below and beside me, I used Reg as a mouse mat and Ralph as a foot-stool while I attempted to write this blog. Percy, who tends to be ever so sensible, simply stared at me in a quizzical manner, hardly believing that I may have brought another puppy in to torment him.
So I'll be sticking to two dogs for the time being. It's more than enough.
Mind you, there are days, usually when destruction has been on the menu, when even having two is just too much...
Comments