A day of ups and downs !

Well the rain came eventually but not until after I'd had my walk this morning, but I got myself into all sorts of bother. The thing is you see that in one of the fields I walk across there is a cattle water trough in the hedge between two fields, and everyday I have a drink from it as I pass by. What's the problem I hear you ask, well this morning there were two bullocks drinking from the other side of the trough in the other field. Well I wasn't having that, it's my personal drinker and I've never seen anyone drinking from it before, so I hopped through the hedge and barked at them and then chased them away from the trough. Seemed a sensible thing to do I thought, but my did I get into trouble. My humans just won't allow me to bark and chase stock in the fields and I broke the rules. I got severely told off, so I won't be doing that again, on the other hand I don't think the bullocks will either........ Result !

Then this afternoon one of the toddler humans told me that I smelt, and so what did they do, bathe me that's what! I don't know, it hasn't rained for weeks and the first spot of it and they decide to dump me in the bath - they could have just let me run around in the rain, that would have been much more fun. Still even I will admit that having been shampooed with the Pennyroyal Shampoo I do smell particularly attractive....... won't last long though you can be sure I'll find something more doggy smelling when I go on my walk tomorrow.

Picking and shooting

Well, no rain but it's very windy, quite bracing as I'm told they say!
We went out picking the last of the blackberries, sloes and some rose hips today which they make into nice things to eat, although I don't much go for jams and jellies. I wonder if they'll give me a snifter of the sloe gin when it's made though? I doubt it somehow. Anyway it was a very leisurely walk as we had to keep stopping and we did a lot of walking around fields and hedges instead of running across them. Still I don't mind too much as we were out for hours and hours.

It must be autumn properly now as not only are there all these fruits in the hedges but shooting has started. I couldn't tell exactly what they were shooting and don't really care as long as it isn't me! I'm told it's some sort of pigeons made of clay - very odd if you ask me I've never seen a clay pigeon, seen lots of real ones but can never catch them myself - perhaps that's why they use guns? Anyway I didn't worry about all the bangs that were going on even though they were only in the next field to where we were. Those Scullcap & Valerian Tablets must already be working on me as it didn't bother me at all.

Home for a nice snooze now - see you tomorrow.

They say it's getting cold in the new few days

If the weather people are right and it does get really cold and wet everywhere in the next few days I shall be glad they've already got my cosy den set up, as I can get in to it and snuggle down until the weather gets better. I don't much like the rain, although funnily enough when I'm out for a walk in it I don't even notice it, but just going out for a quick cock of the leg on a rainy night is another thing altogether!

One of my whippet friends, Hector, has gone off on his holidays. He went on a aeroplane, yes actually up in the sky, must have been amazing. It seems a bit quieter here without him but he'll be back before long and I bet he'll have lots of stories to tell........ Of course he had his Scullcap & Valerian Tablets before he went on the plane, just so he would be super relaxed, as it's a new experience for him. Apparently he loved it and is having a great time in Finland where he's living with some other whippets and two cats. He's such a cool dude I reckon he won't take any notice of the cats and he's going to have a great time. See you soon Hector have a nice holiday. Woof woof.

Sorry Roxy, of course you're a girlie....silly me!

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of Roxy, who won one of my Firework Survival Kits, and got myself into trouble....... Roxy sent me a message to say she is a girl and not a boy (which is what I had thought), so I just want to apologise to her for being so silly. It's no excuse I know, but I'm more used to sniffing dogs to find out all about them rather than looking at photos, but now I can see she has a lovely gentle face so obviously she is a girl, and a lovely one too. Still it gives me a chance to show you all her picture again sitting amongst all the great things I sent her in my Dr Monkey Firework Survival Kit.
I hope she's already started having her Scullcap & Valerian Tablets, as I know she's very scared of fireworks. Here's looking at you Roxy, what a beaut.......

There are more of my kits that you can win - I'll be doing more on-line competitions and you will also find more opportunities to win one in Your Dog and Dogs Today magazines and in Dog World and Our Dogs in the next few weeks. Outside our office there's a very nice metal drain cover, doesn't sound too exciting I know, but in this weather it gets lovely and hot in the sun and so today I'm spending my day stretched out on it enjoying myself. It's just Monkey sized so I'm sure they put it there for my benefit - nice humans to think of me !

I've started having my tablets

Today it has been decided that it's the right time for me to start having my daily dose of Scullcap & Valerian Tablets. It's just 2 weeks to the 5th November and my people know that because I am so frightened of the noises, they need to start giving them to me now. I'm rather a large Border Terrier, about 15kgs, so I am having 3 tablets twice a day from now onwards and they'll probably also give me some Valerian Compound over the firework weekend. As they are sugar coated tablets I don't mind at all, in fact they put them in with my food and I don't even notice I'm having them - hey ho life's a breeze isn't it?

Make sure you can be identified

It's really important that cats and dogs can be identified if the worse happens and he or she runs off in fright during the firework period. I've been microchipped so I'm pretty satisfied that if anything awful happened and I got lost they'd be able to scan me and let my people know.

It did happen to me once, when I was a bit younger - I chased a wild boar across some fields and got so carried away that I found myself on the main trunk road right in the middle of the traffic! Gosh I was frightened, but some kind person found me and took me to a kennel where they had a microchip scanner and before you could say "dogs dinner" my owners came and got me. So I'm now a big fan of microchipping.

There's still time for your owners to get you chipped, but if not then tell them they must make sure that you have a disc on your collar so that people know where you live, or who to contact if the worse happens.

As I keep saying - better to be safe than sorry!

Time to get the den sorted

A lovely sunny day in Dorset and I've just had a lovely walk. See me here looking out from my perch on one of my favourite stiles!

It's time now for you to make sure that your family are getting a suitable cosy, warm and secure den ready for you so that when the fireworks start you have somewhere nice and safe to go. It makes such a difference if us dogs and cats feel ther is somewhere we can go when the noises start. It's also time for a new toy for you to have in the den - there's nothing like distraction, so being prepared with this now is the thing to do.

I saw Michaela Strachan on Autumnwatch on the TV the other day - was I proud or what? She is supporting our DORWEST SAY RELAX firework campaign this year with her dog Toto - wow isn't it great?