Scooter and her bad boy dog crush

One of my new year's resolutions is to be more regular with blogging.  I had kind of forgotten I wrote a blog.  So here I am back on the blog-wagon.

Other new year's resolutions include:
- learning how to make shortcrust pastry
- not buying any new clothes (excluding underwear and swimmers) - use what I have and opshop all the way
- moving more and eating less - this prompted this week's goal of 'swim a K every day' - I need to crack the three digit barrier
- cooking my way through Julie Goodwin's 20/20 book (I did this last year with Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals - great way to try heaps of new recipes and really commit to a cookbook)
- reading War and Peace
...
and whatever else I decide to try!

Anyway, onto today's blog topic.  My dog Scooter and her bad boy dog crush.  Over Christmas we went down to Armidale to hang out with family and friends.  We stayed most of the time at my friend's farm, where she had two dogs.  One was a border collie like Scooter, and the other was a cattle dog cross called Charlie.

Scooter could not leave Charlie alone.

She would follow him everywhere, yipping to get his attention.  She would gaze longingly at him. She would visit his pen when he was locked away for the night.  She would find a ball and bring it to him.  She would get into his space at every opportunity.

 If she could, I think Scooter would have Charlie's name tattooed on her neck, and photos of Charlie pasted up in her kennel.  She would find excuses to walk by his locker and gaze at him across the classroom.  She would write poetry and sing Taylor Swift.

Every couple of hours Charlie would tire of her obsessive behaviour and roll her, pin her to the ground with a paw and mouth her neck, just to show her who was boss.

Scooter loved it and would come back for more every time.  Treat me mean.  I'm yours.

It was slightly embarassing to be the owner of a complete Charlie fangirl.

Even now when we are home again we mention Charlie and she looks around, hoping he will appear at the door, ready for her love.

And I thought I would have to deal with my daughter's crushes.....not the dog's.

too much drama

Yesterday I popped into a friend's house after school to practise a short drama for church on Sunday.  It was all going swimmingly - we learnt our lines, we had a cup of tea and a nice chat, and I started saying things like 'I must  go now and start rustling up some dinner' (side note - have recently discovered Jamie Oliver - only about 15 years later than everyone else - but I am very much enjoying cooking my way through 15 minute meals.  Not that I would say I was a cook by any stretch.  But I am competitive and I like seeing how close I can get to doing the meal in 15 minutes.  Last night's took 25 minutes - but I had not defrosted the meat and had to wait until the microwave did it's work).

Anyway, just as I was about to leave I noticed Scooter (who I had brought around to play with their dog) was sporting a brown ruff instead of a white one.  And there was a malodorous miasma wafting from her direction. I put her into the car - but then realised there was no way we could possibly drive home and breathe the same air that she was inhabiting.  We searched around for the cause of the stink.

The dog had tipped over a container of Charlie Carp (liquid dead fish) and rubbed herself all in it. 

Ugh.

Usually Charlie Carp is diluted a capful to twenty litres.  Our dog had about 250 ml adorning her neck.  She smelt like she had been dragged up from the dead fish sewer.

We decided to bath her - a wet dog in the car is slightly better than a very stinky one.  While we were bathing her the girls were waiting for me on the grass out of the front of my friend's house.  Where Gab got two stings by ferocious greenants.

So I had a wet still smelly dog, a crying child, and hungry bellies.

We quickly made our exit, wafting Charlie Carp down the streets of Brisbane as we drove home.

It was a little too much drama for one afternoon.

I thought I smelt lovely with dead fish around my neck.  The perfume of the cods.

puppypuppypuppypuppypuppy

Happy birthday Scooter!

Our puppy is now one year old.  It was a bit of a decision to get a new dog after our beautiful Amy died, but after a year without a dog in the house it was time.

We called her Scooter.  After the character on the Muppets.  And scooters in Vietnam.  And because none of us could agree on a name and Chris just announced 'the dog's name will be Scooter regardless of breed or gender'.

She's so FLUFFY!

 She has quite a calm personality for a border collie, she likes hanging around at home.  And eating flowerpots.

She takes her responsibilities as a chicken rounder very seriously.  So seriously we even found her chewing on a chicken in the backyard recently.  She is no longer allowed in the backyard when the chickens are having a walk until she can control herself.

She loves water - beach, hose, river, puddle.  She will even willingly come and have a bath and sit quietly while she gets a massage and warm water poured on her.  Actually I would sit quietly for that as well.  Her hair goes crimpy when it is wet.

She is a pretty good dog.  Sometimes I forget she is not our old dog and try to get her to do the things Amy used to do.  But then she does some Scooter type stuff.  Like gives us an old ball to throw.  It very typical to have a ball-obsessed border collie.

We love our dog.

 She is probably thinking 'somewhere on this beach there must be a ball.  And I must fetch it'.

Cause I know what she thinks.

the dog park

As a new dog owner I have been discovering the joys of the dog park.

please please can I go to the dog park please please

My favourite time to go is when there is no-one else there.  Then Scooter and I practise the obstacle course - well she runs it and I tell her to run it.  She can now go all around the course as soon as I say 'do the course' as long as I throw the ball for her at the end.  She is very motivated by the ball being thrown for her.  She is not interested in food rewards AT ALL.  Someone told me  that offering a food reward to a border collie is an insult - they wants jobs, they want to please you, they want to herd something and put it into a gated small area.

Anyway, when I go at times when there are other patrons of the dog parks there with their dogs it is very interesting.  There is the fat lady with the massive greyhound, the two guys with the labrador, the old guy with his white fluffy thing, 

and the Weird 3 Whippet Woman.

She is always there with her three whippets - offering advice to everyone else on how to train their dogs.  She has a bum bag full of treats and a critical eye for other dog owners.  Her whippets take it in turns to be subservient.  I had been 'advised' by her on a few previous occasions on how to train Scooter, and it was getting a bit irritating.  So today when she started towards me, surrounded by the whippets with an earnest expression on her face I countered with a cheery 'hello, it might rain today what do you think okay Scooter get your ball let's go!'  and pretended to run across to the other side of the park.

Avoidance?  Possibly.

But there is only so much not needed advice I can listen to on a glorious Friday afternoon from the Weird 3 Whippet Woman.

The dog has a conehead

Scooter was de-sexed on Friday, after realizing she was very close to being able to have puppies. And after her little operation she has to wear this cone for 10 days. She keeps forgetting she has it on and running into chairs and doorways, and trying to get her ball from under the table. It is officially called an Elizabethan collar. There are far too few ruffles on it to be truly Elizabethan.

I feel bad for her.

But it is also funny that the dog has a conehead.

yes it has finally turned hot here

 " Oh you mean this pool was not set up specifically for me?"

The crickets humming where the air hangs heavily in our backyard, and I chase a breeze around the house.  For a few days each year I wish we had air conditioning, and then we get creative about beating the heat.  We play water games and lie under the fan and make almost unnecessary trips to the shops to be in the air conditioned car.  We chase comfort over jobs.  The grass gets higher and our clothes lie in a puddle in the bathroom.  We eat salad and call it dinner, and wait for the clouds to build in the south west, to rumble and rain.  We are on a holiday schedule.  Which is none.

Ahhhh.

dog at beach goes crazy

We popped down to Pottsville to catch up with Chris' Dad.  Which meant trips to the beach.  A first for Scooter.

The beach! The beach!

Yeah!  Let's run into the water!

Eat the water!  Eat the waves!

Ok.  That stuff is quite wet.

I feel the responsibility of rescuing the smaller members of my family from the dastardly waves.

Dig! Dig! Dig!  and I don't get in trouble!

 
A hole!  I can sit in!

(Apologies for the excessive use of exclamation marks in this post.  It is just how I imagine Scooter thinks.)

puppypuppypuppypuppy

We are very much enjoying having a puppy in the house.  At times I forget she is not our old dog and give her commands that she has no idea what they mean.  But she is very fun.

Today was HOT in Brisbane - so I needed to get a clam for her.  Does it mean anything that the dog got a nice new clam and the children got one from council pick-up when they were smaller?

She went nuts in her clam. Splashing and carrying on.  Like she was having fun.

Then I made her a digging spot.  The dog trainer at puppy class said this was a good idea for dogs who like to dig - give them one spot to dig in and they may not dig in the garden.  Scooter likes to dig, and has made several holes in the backyard already.

She really enjoyed her digging spot.  Which was the old place where the sand pit used to be.  I hid little treats in there for her.

I would like to train her to recognise weeds and pull them out by the roots.  This is my plan.

So we had a wet, dirty but very happy dog all afternoon.

I understand, Scooter.  This is also what I would like to do at the end of the day.  Maybe with pants though.

same same but different

Being back in Brisbane after spending some time in wild random Asia is slightly surreal. It's like my ears have not popped after the plane and I am in a slightly muffled bubble. I can drink the water from the tap here, and walk across the road when the green man goes beep beep beep beep. I know what to buy in the shop and I didn't bargain with the check out person at Woollies today. Everyone stays in the one lane on the road and we are wearing seltbelts again. I might need to go down to the Asian shops in Sunnybank, buy something random and eat some awesome food.

In other news our puppy is so fun. She is still getting used to living here and we are getting used to her. Her name is Scooter - as a kind of Muppets/Vietnam homage. She does not whinge and is a curious bold sort of dog. She is also very trainable. I am hoping to teach her some cool tricks. After she learns to wee outside (she is currently using the bathroom - which makes sense...).

I don't go back to work until January next year - long service leave. Yay! There is a list building of ideas and projects I want to achieve, as well as much catching up with people. And supporting the girls through what is looking like a very busy term. Such fun. Such fun.

unreasonably excited

We have decided to get a new puppy.  I have felt the loss of a dog in our lives since Amy died last September. 

She was a good good dog.

I did a lot of looking around and researching (some would say over researching - well I like to get everyone's opinion before making up my own mind) and was checking out different breeds.  But then we met another border collie owned by our mechanic.  And I loved it and wanted another border collie.  I am familiar with the breed.  And love them.  A well trained border collie is a joy of an animal.

Our puppy is coming from this lady.  We went and met all the adult dogs, and my dog barometer Gabby was not scared by any of them (she is normally very skittish around dogs).  They were beautiful calm dogs.

I am getting very excited about the puppy.  I keep looking at the puppy pictures on the website and dreaming about it.  In a fit of rashness I said Chris could name the dog. 

So our puppy will be called Wolverine Deathspawn.  And be very cute.