June Showers

Last week saw typical April weather… except it’s June… blistering sunshine on the Saturday, heavy rain on the Sunday. Blue didn’t care that much, he still wanted his walk. The sun made a break through the clouds and I caught this shot on my mobile.

Springwatch

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted and as Blue is loving Spring, I thought I’d better post a few pis of what he’s been up to. The above shot shows him cooling down in the cool grass with his (hidden) tennis ball. He’s pretty good off the lead now. A good chuck of the walks are off the lead. He’s been making more doggy friends this way and loves to run off the lead with them. Plus it really knackers him out.

He likes to leg it into the bean crops with his tennis ball… he knows I can’t catch him. The crops have grown quite quickly, since this shot was taken, the beans have shot skyward – in some fields they hide him completely now. The only way to know where he is is to follow the crops that are moving.

More chillin’ in the cool grass

Making Friends

As the snow makes a return, Blue loves to get his nose buried into it and enjoys a game of catch the snowball.

He bumped into a recent new friend –  a big ol’ Lab called Leo, about five times his size. Whilst they were messing around a couple of other dogs showed up. Blue was in dog play heaven. He took a particular shine to a beautiful 5 month old blue merle collie called Tiger on account of his markings.

Not snowed in

With the UK blanketed in snow, the media are really going to town with the downbeat reporting of ‘Arctic UK’. Personally, I’ve found the main roads salted and clear with no real problem. I’ve driven 250 miles this week with no issues.

Blue’s loving it, maybe it’s his Tibetan Terrier genes, but he had a great time today.

Taming of the Blue

I’ve finally managed to tire out Blue by running with him off the lead. He carves out large arcs at breakneck speed in figure of 8’s around me, followed by a extended game of chase the tennis ball, crashing through hedges, ending with (if there are any other dogs around) an explosive run-jump-play fight with a random fellow local dog. He loves it and is getting used to running off the lead. He’s crashed out next to me, where he’ll stay like that for several peaceful hours.

Happy 1st Birthday

It’s Blue’s birthday today.. at the grand old age of 1. Happy Birthday lil’ man, thanks for the laughs.

Bliss

This is an old pic of Blue, I just love how happy he is, taking a breather from chasing his tennis ball.

November Sun

I love walking in the Autumn. Despite the wind and occasional horizontal rain, it seems all worth it when the low sun baths the land with its gentle warm glow. The shadows are unbelievably long and it feels like you’re walking through a watercolour painting. In one of his favourite fields, Blue stopped to gaze through the wire fence with an alert but calm inquisitiveness. I snapped this pic on my aging mobile, but it came out rather well.

No Running

Poor old Blue is not allowed any major exercise after his op. Yep, he had ‘them’ removed, the poor sod. There has been no significant change in his behaviour, but maybe now he’ll stop trying to hump his bean-bag toy dog 24-7. The collar has to stay on for another week, until then, he’ll have to continue his routine of crashing into doorways and giving me ‘the big stare’.

Coming of Age

Relaxing after a mad run around. The sun bringing out his newly acquired brown whiskers.

It’s been a while since I mashed the keyboard about the adventures of Blue.
To kick off, several weeks ago he stopped pissing like a girl. Yes, he now pees like a proper man-dog. I’ll be honest, I was starting to get a teeny bit concerned about his ladylike peeing antics. So I’m quietly chuffed.

It’s always a comical time to watch a growing puppy learn the man-dog peeing business. They don’t always get it quite right. Cocking the wrong leg, falling over, peeing on their own foot are the chief pitfalls. But, it’s fair to say that Blue seemed to take it all in his stride.  Starting from a standard lady-dog-peeing position, he would suddenly remember, mid-flow, to cock his leg a little. Each time the leg got higher, until he got the hang of it and is now peeing like a full on man-dog.

Playing ‘Sticks Top Trumps’

Sticks. The other thing I’m quite pleased about is Blue’s ability to select big ass manly sticks to carry around. No, non of your wussy half foot twigs, no sir… proper sticks that are so long and thick they bloody hurt as they clatter into my legs when he walks alongside me. Brilliant. When we go past another dog with a stick, it’s like a secret game of stick Top Trumps. The other owner knows it too, eyes narrow as we weigh up opposing stick sizes… yep. You’ve been well and truly trumped.

First time off the lead

Energy. As I’ve documented in the past, Blue has some serious energy. Any thoughts of him calming down have been tied to a lead weight and thrown out the window. His energy levels are now at Defcom 4. Six mile walks aren’t enough. This has led to a big step in his growing up…  running off the lead.

With a pinch of nervousness, I selected a location miles from roads and, with not a soul in site, unhooked his lead and dug into my pocket for the all important tennis ball. Jeeezzzus, he can run. He moves so fast he can’t brake in time. In fact, the first few times he needed to learn how to stop from such a speed. He still overshoots the ball by about ten feet, legs scrambling to change direction, occasionally falling over, tongue lolloping.

It’s great to see him running free, although I don’t think it’ll ever get to the stage of walking completely off-lead along side me, he’s just too much of a nutter. On normal walking duties, he seems happy enough to be on the end of his new 8m retractable lead, it doesn’t bother him one bit.

Catching his breath after a good ol’ game of fetch the tennis ball

Shagging. After a few hours walking and bolting after tennis balls, what better than a quick kip followed by a quick humping session. Dunno why, but I find it highly amusing when he grabs his cuddly toy and gives it a humping. It usually catches me off guard. I’m slumped on the sofa, feet up on the coffee table watching the TV…  in the corner of my eye I see his furry ass pumping away. The toy in question is a fluffy dog he has had from around 8 weeks old. He throws it around the room a bit, then grabs it by the neck, in the correct orientation, and gives it some. The toy is too small, so his humping is pretty unsuccessful and momentary, but funny as hell nonetheless.

Health. He went to the vets last week for his full dog-MOT. Weighing in at 11 KGs at seven months old, all is as it should be, all is in order. The vet said he was ‘a beautiful dog’, not in aesthetic terms (which he is too), but in body shape, muscle mass and all over condition. He is apparently pretty much all muscle. This is good news, but I fear that my new walking shoes aren’t gonna last too long. I wonder how his brother and sisters are getting on. I wonder if they too are stark raving bonkers.

Communication. He talks, or rather sings a lot too. Especially when he doesn’t get his own way. He chews my sleeve, I tell him ‘No’. He sing-howl-warbles at me, it’s brilliant. I’ll have to get a recording and post it on here.

If you mimic him, the decibels increase, culminating in a good ol’ bark. An incredibly deep bark. This is due to his Tibetan genes. They are renowned for possessing a bark of a much larger dog. This is one of the reasons why, historically, Tibetan monks used them as guard/watch dogs around their temples. Probably not Blue though, he’d probably eat the temple, run up Everest, shag a mountain bunny then sing about it.