Entries from March 2009
Twenty saxophones, guitar, bass and drums may be too much for some people. But for Lacey it’s all in a day’s work.
Lacey is Richard’s new Guide Dog. Only two years old and two weeks on the job, this Lab/Spinone cross seems to be taking it all in her stride.
I’m afraid I did see her wince – the blues harmonica player was a little close to the mic and it was rather loud. Lacey dived between Richard’s legs and hid there till it was over. But apart from that nothing seemed to phase her.
I join Sax Shop from time to time and Barney, Richard’s now retired Guide Dog, used to come to all the rehearsals and snooze while we did our playing. And twenty or so saxophones are LOUD!
We look forward to welcoming Lacey to many more gigs and rehearsals. And needless to say, I love having a dog around all the time 
Find out more about the Guide Dogs at Guide Dogs.org.uk
Simon D'souza and Beccy Rork do their thing at the Sax Shop gig
Categories: Guide Dogs UK · assistance dogs · dogs · lab spinone cross · music and dogs · saxophone
Tagged: charity, community, dogs, Guide Dogs UK, lab spinone cross, music, music and dogs, Sax Shop, saxophone
The blue skies and warm weather of the last fortnight seem to be over for the time being. Back to furry ski gloves, fleecy hat and waterproofs.
For the dogs it’s perfect weather of course – neither too hot nor too cold and a fresh blustery wind to ruffle the fur.
Here are a couple of pics from this morning. I found a nice sheltered spot and plonked myself down on the grass. As soon as I do that, Georgie, the Retriever, starts digging frantically a few cms from where I’m sitting. She seems to have a surge of energy whenever I stop on the walk and as you can see from the photo below, digging with her paws is mixed in with poking her nose and mouth in the earth! This photo isn’t cropped by the way. They both just like to get as close as possible and this is how it came out. I thought it was funny!
Categories: English weather · Sheepcote Valley · Sussex · dog walking · dog walks · dogs · golden retriever
Tagged: dog walk, dogs, dogs digging, golden retriever, lab cross
I walk with a great dog walker on a regular basis. One of the things Karen likes to do is throw a handful of treats on the ground and let the dogs use their noses to find the goodies.
‘The Find’ proves how balanced packs behave – there’s never any fighting or disputes over food. Just a group of dogs with their heads down searching frantically.
I remember the first time Georgie (my Golden Retriever) was asked to ‘find’. She sat in front of Karen, as good as gold, waiting to be fed by hand as usual. Now, as you can see, she gets stuck in with the rest of them.
Categories: dog walking · dog walks · doggy pals · dogs · golden retriever · pack of dogs
Tagged: dog walk, dogs, dogs eating, dogs searching, golden retriever, pack behaviour, pack of dogs
Well today started off with – joy of joys – a puncture. So before we could visit the sheep at Sheepcote Valley, the tyre had to be changed by the very nice man at the AA. Thank you to the person who left a 3″ nail in the road that caused the problem.
Now Georgie and Jessie have met sheep before. We had a ‘dog-friendly’ holiday in Scotland – on a sheep farm. This was the one piece of information missing from the description and had we known, we wouldn’t have gone there.
On the first morning of our holiday, we’d let Georgie and Jessie into the front garden, which we assumed was safe and enclosed, only to find the whole area around the house surrounded by sheep. By that time it was too late, the two species had met and two dogs and two sheep ended up in the sea. Everyone survived but after that, the dogs had to be tied up on long leads whenever they went into the garden.
Here they are in the amazing ‘front garden’ of our holiday home safely tied to the picnic table.
So when I discovered that sheep were being brought in to graze our local patch I thought it was an opportunity to do the ’sheep thing’ again.
It was a while before the dogs noticed them. But when they did, the same excited barking started and Georgie, especially, thought she had new friends to play with.
What I didn’t tell the dogs was that there was a low voltage electric fence surrounding the grazing area. Sure enough, both dogs got too close and both got zapped. And this was actually what I wanted. Not pleasant I know but certainly effective and I’m hoping they’ll now make the association between sheep and that nasty shock they got today.
I may go back tomorrow and see if they remember. Probably not an ideal way to cement a life long friendship, but one way of making my dogs just a little more respectful of sheep then they were.
Categories: England · Sheepcote Valley · Sussex · dog walking · dog walks · dogs · golden retriever · sheep
Tagged: dog walk, dogs, England, sheep, sheep and dogs, Sheepcote Valley, Sussex
