I’ve discovered a sure fire way to make my dogs happy and relaxed and utterly ZONKED for hours: give them a marrow bone, after a LONG morning walk in the rain and wind and cold!

I waited nearly 5 days after giving them their first marrow bone in years, just to be sure it didn’t affect their tummies adversely. All well! They both have had excellent poopages for the last few days so I’m taking a chance, but I gave them another one today after the long walk through the village this morning. It was pouring with rain, windy (thankfully not like the other day where it nearly blew my beanie off) and pretty damn cold, and we came across some camels, dromedary, donkeys and ponies (and I think there might have been a goat, too) and they behaved like super stars – no barking, no lunging, no silliness. They did want to have a good look, and when we got downwind they sat and had a good smell for a few minutes – but they were brilliant. I said to them that it was like “walking clouds on leads” soft and easy and relaxed, for pretty much 95% of the walk. Just a few silly moments near the end, when Azzie got tired and she started behaving like a pumpkin.

We were all exhausted and soaked to the skin when we got home, but it was a nice long easy walk around the lake, and then through the village.

Instead of feeding them, I gave them their new HUGE marrow bones and they’ve been gnawing on them, and then snoozing, and then gnawing on them again and now they are OUT like lights – and this is the usual time we would be walking again for the second time…

Hopefully, these marrow bones will also go down well and they won’t have any issues. We have only a few days until Odin arrives… and dealing with dogs with unhappy tummies while also trying to introduce a new dog to the pack is NOT something I would be looking forward to 🙂 So let’s hope this is also a positive marrow bone experience 😀

It’s still pissing down out there, so I’m quite pleased with the nice relaxed, sleeping pooches I have at the moment… I can stay snuggled on the couch with the blanket my mum crocheted for me and a cup of hot chocolate (I’m way below my calorie limit :D) for company.