Tag Archives: walking

animals, life, people, photography, relationships

Day Five

And it’s Sunday! Which means it’s Day Five in the Gina, Azzie and Odin Adventure!

And you know what? It’s going pretty well, all things considered. Still things we are working on, but better. Azzie is behaving much better with him, especially inside the apartment, and she no longer growls at him when he comes near her or her toys. She instigates a game sometimes too.

I’ve found a good balance for Odin’s food – his tummy is doing much better and he doesn’t need any more tablets to keep it that way. He’s eating his food very sweetly, and delicately and enjoying it a great deal – because he knows that there’s another meal coming and he won’t starve. I’ve given him an allergy tablet in the evenings and it seems to be helping his itchies a great deal.

This was his second night out of his crate and it all went well 🙂 He’s chewed up his blanket a bit, and Gina’s fake fur blanket too… but it’s a comfort thing, so it should stop.

 

My main issue right now is the walks on the short lead – so any walk on post or in areas where they all need to be on their leads. Which is all the rest of our walks, basically. We go for 3 or 4 walks as a pack every day around post, and generally it’s fine, until Azzie sees another dog. Then she turns into a complete idiot. It’s not aggression or anything – she just REALLY wants to say hello, and of course she drags Gina with, who also gets all riled up (again, no aggression, just way too excited) and now I’m worried she’s going to get Odin doing the same thing. I try to keep them all walking calmly next to me, or behind me (as Gina likes to be) but then they split up to go sniff things, and then it’s tangles and I’m swapping leads and climbing out of the center of lead webs and they keep swapping sides and switching who they want to walk with and Gina is going ahead and then dropping behind me on the other side, and Azzie just goes ahead and then I ask her to walk next to me and she does for a second, but then she finds something else she wants to sniff so she just barges in front of me (I’ve nearly fallen over her I don’t know how many times) and if I don’t want to fall, I sidestep or stop and then I stand on Gina or on Odin and it’s becoming a nightmare. I’m getting so annoyed and it was so nice before! It’s not Odin’s fault – he’s really sweet on the lead – especially on his own. So is Azzie, and so is Gina! But our pack walks.. arg.. it starts out really nicely and then it’s “OMG I”VE NEVER SEEN A DOG BEFORE I MUST GO SEE IT NOW NOW NOW!” and I’m being dragged from one side of the street to the other, or up a grass bank, or down a line of cars, by Azzie. She’s 115lbs (over 50kg) and Gina is almost 100lbs (almost 50kg) – they weigh, together, more than I do. Even separately they weigh almost as much as I do! My hands were torn up the other day by the stupid idiot and all she wanted to do was say hello to the wiener dogs. Happened again today. And the owners just watch us with this blank expression, no correction, while their dogs yap wildly and run around going nuts and growl at my three, which doesn’t help.

And Gina and Odin had an altercation – not sure what happened as I was busy untangling my thumb from Azzie’s lead before it got snapped off while she whined and went on about the dogs ON THE OTHER BLOODY SIDE OF THE FIELD – I think perhaps Odin stood on Gina’s tail, or Gina stood on his sore leg. Something. I don’t know.

*deep breath*

And then as soon as we had sorted ourselves out and carried on our way.. Azzie was FINE. Walking next to me again. Gentle as a lamb. I think I need to get her a martingale collar or something. Just some way to GET HER ATTENTION before she turns into Idiot Dog. And I AM remaining calm. I AM keeping my temper in check. So I really don’t know why she’s still doing it. I correct her, I try distract her (with my voice, by standing in front of her, or with a treat) but it only lasts a second.

It’s a bit hard to convince people that this 115lbs of hairy “rawring” dog barreling toward their dog, dragging me and two other dogs behind her, is “friendly” and “just wants to say hi” – because that’s it, really. She totally calms down when she gets to the dog. Waggy tail, big smile, no growling no barking, nothing. Even gives them a Berner play bow if she likes them. And Gina too – she’s all puffed up silliness and then when she says hi, she’s waggy tail and sniffing faces and then totally bored and moving on to something else and ignores them. Odin is very confused. He’s not sure if he should be all big chested and boy-dog with his hackles up, or if he should hang back and pretend he’s not there until it’s all over. I don’t want him picking up Idiot’s bad habits. I want him to make FRIENDS. I want him to meet Django and Luca and make MORE friends. I don’t want him to think that every dog we see needs to be GUNNED AT, like Azzie does, until we get to them. Ah well. early days still, right?

Hoping my friend Nicole can give me some helpful tips. I don’t have anyone to help me, you see, so it all has to be done by me. Sort it OUT! Fix it NOW before it becomes even more of a problem. And it WILL become a problem if I don’t get this right. One day, Azzie will gun at the wrong dog and it will be _bad_ and I don’t want that. She’s taken a LONG time to get over her incident with Marcel, and I don’t want her to go through that again. (and it wasn’t even that bad – it was a little unexpected/unintentional nip on the ear while in a dog pile at the dog park) She’s a sensitive dog and it would really do bad things to her psyche. And then Gina would step in. While she doesn’t approve of the way Azzie behaves, Gina is a real “big sister” and she would put ANY dog in their place that went for Azzie, even if Azzie caused it. And then there’s Odin… he growled at the little dogs today… which I don’t want!

So maybe a choke chain for Azzie? A martingale collar I would prefer – I know a lot of people with Berners who use them, because they’re big dogs who just don’t understand their size and strength. It’s not to harm them, just to have a little more control and a way of getting their attention. I would never hurt my dog intentionally. I’ll discuss it with Nicole, I think.

*sigh* As Nicole keeps telling me: Azzie is different. She’s just that kind of dog that takes a bit more effort. But she’s worth it. They all are. I love them all – even Odin. I don’t know him that well, but he’s definitely nudging his way into my heart very quickly. He’s a funny little man, with a lot of attitude, but a gentle soul and I know he is happy now and that makes my heart warm.

On a better note – what a lovely morning walk 🙂

Dogs were super well behaved – Azzie had a lovely roll around in the dewy grass at every opportunity, and Odin piddled so much he had nothing left to piddle after a while and thought he’d try drinking from some puddles to refill his supply (I stopped him of course – not taking a chance with bugs in the water, thanks) so he could carry on doing it. We took a different path, and I had a good idea where it would come out, so it was exciting, but not too scary not knowing where we were going exactly. We ended up coming out near the campgrounds and had a loop around there, and then headed down ANOTHER different path and ended up back at the car 🙂 It was great.

DSCN1923 DSCN1924 DSCN1925 DSCN1927 DSCN1928 DSCN1929 DSCN1931 DSCN1932 DSCN1934 DSCN1935 DSCN1938 DSCN1939 DSCN1940 DSCN1941 DSCN1942 DSCN1943 DSCN1945 DSCN1947 DSCN1948 DSCN1951 DSCN1952 DSCN1954 DSCN1955 DSCN1956 DSCN1959 DSCN1960 DSCN1964 DSCN1968 DSCN1969 DSCN1973 DSCN1976 DSCN1979 DSCN1983 DSCN1984 DSCN1985 DSCN1988 DSCN1989 DSCN1991 DSCN1992 DSCN1993 DSCN1995 DSCN1996 early birds

 

animals, life, military, relationships

Day Four

2 Comments

Moving on to another day in the Gina, Azzie and Odin Adventure…

We made it through a night without him in his crate! Last night, as promised, I decided to just trust in him, and I let him stay out of his crate at bed time. He was very pleased with himself and he rolled around on his… I mean.. GINA’S bed and made snuffly noises and had a big sigh of happiness and then went to sleep in seconds. I was, of course, alert all night to the slightest sound, but he pretty much stayed asleep until around 0300 or 0400 (I don’t know when exactly it was, as I was too tired by that stage to even reach up to get my phone to check) again and then paced around a little bit, got some water, came to check on us in the bedroom, had a think about jumping on the bed (but Gina told him no, and Azzie poked her head up from my side of the bed where she likes to sleep, so I told him “not yet”) and then went back to the lounge and fell asleep on Azzie’s bed.

Took them down individually at 0600, and he is a bit of a whiner when we are separated – he stands on the balcony and whines and makes a weird half yawn half grumble. It’s quite loud. So there’s separation anxiety there which we will have to work on. I’m already doing the DT, DT, NEC (Don’t Talk, Don’t Touch, No Eye Contact) thing when I come in through the door, because I found he was hanging out RIGHT by the door and trying to get my attention as I came in which I know is not a good start. I want him confident and happy, without clinging to me. But it’s only day four, so I’m not worrying too much. We’ll start with the separation training soon. Husband will have to help with that when he gets home, as well.

So I was pretty pleased with him this morning, and the girls for being so polite and gentle with him.

For our morning walk I took Odin and the girls to one of our favourite spots – one of the start points for the Bear path. I parked, he hopped out OVER the back seat from the boot. Full of energy.
I put his harness and lead on and off we went. Girls went off lead the WHOLE WALK and they were AWESOME 🙂 I was so proud. It made my life so much easier, as I wasn’t having to keep such a watchful eye on Azzie and worry about Gina getting stressed. They were both happy and playful and unstressed the whole way.
I decided on a shorter walk this morning – so that I didn’t overexert Odin, as he’s healing nicely, but by the end of the day and so many walks, he’s pretty sore. Plus, I had a feeling he would be racing around with Azzie again this morning, so I added that to his energy levels and thought it would be fine.
I was right! I even took him off his lead this time and HE came back before Azzie did, when I called 🙂
I was SO proud! All three had a blast – running around and playing and chasing each other. Just a few minutes, but Azzie was exhausted and Odin was WELL pleased with himself. Then we carried on back down the other path to the car.
He was interested in the horses in the paddock there, but not scared and not at all aggressive. He perked his little ears up, gave the air a sniff, watched them for a few seconds, and then carried on walking and sniffing things.
It was an awesome walk.

early morning zoomies in the farmland

more farm zoomies DSCN1868 DSCN1875 DSCN1879 DSCN1886 DSCN1889 DSCN1892 DSCN1896 DSCN1897 DSCN1898 DSCN1899 DSCN1904 DSCN1909 DSCN1910 DSCN1914 DSCN1917 DSCN1920 DSCN1921 DSCN1922

animals, life, relationships

counting down and a lovely morning walk

When you spend so much time on your own, you tend to lose track of the days, dates and holidays.
Apparently today is a holiday. “Good Friday”
Which means everything German is closed and pretty much everything American too.
I was going to go to Ramstein to buy some much needed things for Odin’s arrival, but I then thought about it and realised that because it’s a holiday, it would be very busy and I’m not a crowd person at the best of times. So I will go tomorrow and hope it’s quieter.

Countdown to his arrival…. 4 days…
I’m going to start taking my Rescue Remedy today I think. Just to keep me on an even keel until then and when he arrives. For his sake, my sake and my girls.

On the note of our morning walk – absolutely GORGEOUS morning out there – still nippy enough to need my hat and gloves (at first) but the sun is shining and it’s crisp and lovely.
Dogs were AMAZING! Azzie constantly made EXCELLENT decisions (don’t eat that poop, don’t go racing off after the deer, into the brambles, don’t chase that bird, don’t zoomie into the thick brush, once again don’t eat that crap) and was an utter joy. Gina’s tail remained up, and waggy, the whole walk 🙂
What an awesome morning for it.
Both dogs pooped – both excellent.
If this keeps up, I might make it a policy to feed them one marrow bone a week.
But we’ll see how this goes first before I make decisions like that 🙂

20150403_09384120150403_09472920150403_09443220150403_09432520150403_094241

animals, life

and on a lighter note

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.

animals, life

Dogs

Our dogs are doing better – slowly coming right. With no dog park visits their immune systems are becoming stronger and they are feeling healthier and happier (especially Gina) and we’ve been walking further distances and longer durations.

I’m being very careful to keep everything the same and not change anything drastically (or even just a little bit) – they get the same food, the same treats and the same amounts etc. I’m dropping their meal size just a little bit (at the request of the vet – two of them now! My girls are FAT!) each time though, but not enough that they really notice (less than 10%) so they don’t get silly about being hungry all the time. Azzie has in fact curbed her appetite quite well, and I’m letting Gina decide when she’s hungry – sometimes she misses 2 or 3 meals a day – but she’s been very good about eating her breakfast.

We’ve had some WONDERFUL walks the last few days – weather is changing, but thankfully still cool enough for us to walk at our “usual” time and for long durations. Azzie is still working on the “pacing” of her energy usage 🙂

20150308_091408

In other dog news: Odin (the dog that my husband is “rescuing” from his awful situation) has now been diagnosed and he will be having his surgery (dislocated femur, torn cruciate knee tendon – they are pretty sure he was hit by a car) this week. Will cost a pretty penny, but my husband is adamant that he wants to do this. Then Odin will be flying to the US, to be “fostered” (and while I’m grateful that he will be safe, at least – I can’t say that I wouldn’t be happier with a different situation – but it’s impossible right now for us to take him until we get there) until we move back to the States (just a few months, if all goes well) and we can HOPEFULLY make him part of our furry family. He deserves that much. Of course I know that while my husband says he “shares a special bond” with Odin – we all know who will be walking/feeding/training the dog, right?

20141203_152759 20150226_063152

 

 

animals, food, information, life

WoRMS and walks and ribs

Was reading an article about the WoRMS catalog (World Register of Marine Species) (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31851525) on the BBC, and while I am quite happy about their achievement (finally sorting it all and finding out what was duplication and what really is extinct) I was quite sad that the catalog dropped nearly 50%. I personally do not think that that is everything to find in the oceans. There are still so many places they’ve not gone, because at the moment it’s just not feasible (pressure/depth/light/etc) that I think there’s still so much out there still to discover. Humans need to keep exploring.  Space. The oceans. We are a curious species.

clown-fish

We also need to TAKE CARE of what we have already discovered :/ But that’s a whole different rant.

This morning was another awesome walk in the gorgeous German countryside. We walked with our buddy Ciara and her pooches and it was ICY cold to start. We had a rant, a chat, some conversations about things that only _we_ get. Dogs were brilliant – well behaved. I think they enjoyed themselves – the company. Their “mini-pack” of awesome. Sun shining, with a few clouds every now and then, crunchy frosted ground, an ice cold breeze, a good brisk hike.

and now – my weird totally NON-body-dismorphic-disorder moment (I don’t have issues, seriously) this morning: I found that, finally, after this latest (HEALTHY) weight loss… I can feel/see my ribs along the BACK of my body now as well. This might seem like a weird triumph, but when you’ve been “just slightly overweight” for a year or more it’s quite a warm and fuzzy moment. And I can see my vertebrae too, at the top of my spine. It’s not skeletal, it’s just there now, when I stretch or bend. It makes me feel like all the hard work is finally paying off and is becoming “visible” and that makes me feel good. This is how I _used_ to look – when I was fit and thin. I’m not bulimic, anorexic or anything else up that alley – I love food, i have a healthy relationship with it. I’m neither scared of it nor angry with it. It fuels me, fills me and keeps me going. Sure, I sometimes eat too much chocolate and pasta is STILL (and always will be) my food-nemesis, but I’m in control and I will never “give up” food. 🙂

 

Have a nice day!

640px-Smiley.svg

animals, life, people

What do people do?

This question has flitted into my brain quite a lot during my life.

When I was at school – I wondered what people did during the day, while we were all at school.

When I began working – I wondered what people did on weekends when they weren’t working.

And moving here, being a “house wife” – I wonder what people (other stay at homes like me) _do_ inside their homes during the day. And on the weekends, when everyone is inside and I walk by with my dogs… what are they doing? Do they have hobbies? Are they watching tv? Sitting at their computers? Studying? Playing games? Sleeping? Eating? What do they DO?

DSCN0594

I know I am not what you would call a “normal” example of what people do behind closed doors, so I’ve always wondered. Pondered and thought and tried to catch a glimpse of people through their windows. Not out of voyeurism, but simply to see what “normal” people do with their lives when out of sight of other people.

DSCN0548

What do YOU do?

 

On other topics: The dogs and I had a lovely walk – if a little bit anxious for  Azzie, as there was range fire coming over the hill, but she persevered and while she had an anxious demeanor, with a lowered tail and a worried expression, she did have a lot more moments of happy running around and rolling in the ever dwindling snow drifts left over on the path. Between kabooms, anyway.

 

animals, life, photography

quietly growing up

I think Azzie is, very gently, very quietly, growing up…

She’s nearly 3 years old, which is apparently when BMD’s reach their emotional maturity (it takes them a long time, compared to most breeds) and she’s recently been … different. She’s calmer in new situations, calmer with new people, gentler with children, more responsive to me (especially on the short lead) and in the last week or so she’s also started curbing her appetite. She started this when Gina got so sick – she stopped grumbling to be fed, stopped grumbling to go out, etc. I thought it was just her being concerned for Gina, but she’s continued it even now when they are both much better.

20150308_090116

So I’ve begun an experiment (Don’t Panic! I’ve not changed their food or anything else! I’ve learned my lesson regarding that, believe me)  – I feed them (put their food out – it’s just dry food now) and I keep an eye on the bowls. Gina ate when she wanted to this morning, before we went back to bed after early morning toilet break. Azzie ate about an hour after we got back from our long morning walk. Gina ate a little bit after that. She didn’t finish her bowl (and she only eats from one of the bowls, as does Azzie – another sign of maturity?) but she ate enough to obviously fill her up. I have to be careful – I have to keep an eye on the time they eat, so that I make sure we don’t do any exercise for an hour after they eat. So it will get tricky when they eat at different times. I need to keep an eye on them to prevent bloat as well. But if it makes them happy and they lose some weight at the same time – then I’m willing to go the extra mile for them, so to speak 🙂

We went on a nice long walk along a new path, this morning. It’s a path I’ve driven by many times, seen the start of it (and a place to park) but never been brave enough to actually go to. But today we did it. Dogs were AWESOME and so well behaved, it was perfect walking weather (cool, but not icy cold and not too hot) and the dogs had a great time exploring the new area. We did take a few shortcuts across fields, as I wasn’t totally sure where some of the path sections went, but now that we’ve been around there, I think next time we will just follow the path all the way around 🙂

20150308_091642

Spring is definitely here – only a few bits of snow left in weird locations (Azzie made a point of rolling around in all of them, just to make them feel special for hanging around so long in the warmer weather – she’s sweet like that) and everything else was freshly tilled earth and newly budding flowers. Germany in springtime is quite a sight to behold.

20150308_085453-EFFECTS

animals, life, people, photography, relationships

Early morning walks

I might as well start getting used to getting up early to walk the dogs, as it seems the weather is starting to slowly change and we’re heading into spring.

20141025_112218
Pretty soon the places we walk will look like this again!

The girls and I headed off for a lovely morning walk with our friend Ciara and her pooches, Django and Luca. We did a kind of a loop, and some return walking, but it was a good walk and the dogs were all good. It was crisp and the sun was out. I look forward to some more of these hikes together.

20150211_090439
This was the road we took this morning, but now there is no snow.

The fighter jets are at it again today, and at one point it was SO LOUD it made the windows rattle and was even audible with all the doors and windows closed. It got so loud that Azzie was _terrified_ and she came and hid behind me on the couch and shook and shivered uncontrollably 🙁 I distracted her by giving her the toy she’d found the other day on our walk – nice and clean now after a good scrub. It seemed to help, except that of course now she’s obsessed with it!

 

animals, food, life, people, relationships

another long walk

Dogs and I decided to head out in a new direction this afternoon, thinking of exploring some areas we’ve not been yet.

So we headed down into the industrial area, and out the back of  it onto the grass/forested area there. The path I’d found on google maps was covered in downed trees and was very muddy so we had to figure out a new path, but we ended up walking along a nice single lane/bicycle path which headed into our tiny village from another side. It was lovely. Dogs were awesome, super well behaved.

G’s tummy was very good, but Azzie’s wasn’t the greatest. It’s ok, they’re still 90% better and improving every day.

A day of silence, it seems.

Yay, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has started up again! All cued up and ready to go! Now I’m making some killer dinner to go with it, and then I’m going to start watching!