Herding Instincts April 18, 2012
Posted by goldendogbakery in Border Collie, Dog Taining, Dog Walking in Staffordshire, Dog Walks in The Lakes, Holidays with Dogs, Walking the Wainwrights.Tags: Border Collie, brett trafford photography, chasing sheep, Dodd, dog behaviourist, Dog Training, health and safety of my dog, Ingrid Grayling, scafell pike, sheep chasing cumbria, sheep worrying, Walla Crag, Ziggy, Ziggy Trafford
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My last post talked about the wonderful time I had on Scafell Pike. That really was the highlight of my holiday. Well, that and getting to work herding the sheep.
Ziggy – taking time out from his heavy work schedule to take in the view from Walla Crag
You see, over the course of the week I decided I wanted to follow my destiny. I am of course a collie dog and that means I have a natural instinct to herd sheep. In addition, in a cold week in march, just before lambing, all the sheep should be safely ensconced in the farmers fields and not on the fells, so when I saw a couple of sheep on Latrigg, one on Scafell Pike and a handful on Dodd I felt it was my very own duty to use the talents I was borm with to fetch them down from the fells and back to safety.
My humans were horrified, once I turn my paw to something I have true dedication and felt that it better to fulfill my task before returning to their calls and whistles. A collie dog just has to do what a collie has to do.
So my humans decided to take me to a shrink. They told her they were worried that I would anger a farmer. The very nice shrink lady allowed me the opportunity to demonstrate my skills on her own flock of sheep and then showed me that they were actually silly creatures and I should ignore them.
Well that’s fine by me and after a week of practice I now see that my Mom Human and Dad Human need MY protection from the sheep and cows we see on a walk. So I now choose tasks that involve protecting them by staying close rather than herding the sheep. As long as I’m in gainful employment I’m happy.
That’s all for now – am off to sample some of that new batch of biscuits we made yesterday.
Nom nom nom!
A note from Mom! –
Ziggy was allowed to run free on the fells when there were no apparent sheep. However, you can never be 100% certain there are none. As dog owners it is our responsibility to ensure that our dogs remain under our control and if not farmers will shoot without a second thought about how much our pets mean to us. We are regular fell walkers and want Ziggy to have the freedom to run free however he had a strong natural herding instinct. Sadly all a farmer would see is a dog chasing his livestock.
Ingrid Grayling is one of the top dog behaviourists in the country and was entirely understanding and supportive of our problem. Yes, it was an added expense to our holiday and yes it meant we had to take time out from our walking to go, but for the long term health and happiness of Ziggy it was priceless.
Ziggy goes Plop! December 4, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Border Collie, Dog Blog, Dog Walking in Staffordshire, Ziggy.Tags: australian red collie, golden dog bakery, home made dog biscuits, Ziggy
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You’d think now he’s over 12 months old, our handsome golden border collie would be getting a bit sensible.
NO!
We took him for a stroll this morning. Just the usual – through the country park and along the canal then back home.
We’re walking along the canal and as usual he’s jumping in at the edge and back out again, and again, and again …… He doesn’t like taking his feet off the bottom so he always chooses shallow bits. Suddenly he jumps and and plop – promptly disappears under the surface for a second and then reappears and swims – cos he can he just doesn’t like it much.
There were a few leaves on the surface and we think it was these that confused him.
Bless!
A very tired Ziggy needs his rest!
Happy Birthday Ziggy November 26, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Border Collie, Dog Blog, Ziggy.Tags: australian red collie, golden dog bakery, home made dog biscuits, Ziggy
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Just a short post this week as we have been busy Christmas Shopping.
Ziggy reached his first birthday on Wednesday. Its seems that he’s grown from that little ten week old puppy we brought home back in February into the handsome dog he is today in such a short time.
Ziggy – the flying dog November 13, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Border Collie, Dog Blog, Dog Walking in Staffordshire, Making New Friends.Tags: australian red collie, Border Collie Puppy, collies at play, Ziggy
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It was a normal Friday evening. Somehow Ziggy knows its Friday and that to him means a trip to The Hollybush our local pub along the canal.
He’s always keen. So from the moment I get in from work he’s pestering to go out. It was a pleasant evening and the last Friday before the clocks go back so we needed to make the most of the daylight hours.
We were not very far along the canal when we ran into a lady with a couple of dogs, including a Saluki. Whilst the other dog entertained itself swimming Ziggy and the Saluki took chase up and down the towpath. We know from experience that although a Saluki is faster and can turn much quicker that Ziggy has much more stamina.
Off they headed along the tow path. They turned. Ziggy chasing. The other dog climbed out of the canal. Of course the Saluki, probably used to this simply leaped in the air over the other dog. Ziggy’s slower reactions times didn’t allow him to do this and he ploughed full tilt into the grey dog. Bang! Flew in the air and landed on his back at my feet. Horrified I tried to look for damage but the silly dog simply got up shook himself off and started chase again.
Plaque Buster Baking October 30, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Border Collie, Dog Blog, golden dog bakery, Plaque Buster Biscuits.Tags: Border Collie, flea buster bones, home made dog biscuits, Kep, Plaque Buster Biscuits, Ziggy
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This week we made some more biscuits. Ziggy was almost completely out of the Flea Buster Bones as we’d had a bit of a run on people buying them and I’ve also given some little bags away as gifts to a couple of friends with dogs.
He’s begun to look at me sadly when I take the lid of the container and he can see there’s not many left. I’d found a recipe for Plaque Buster biscuits. Hard biscuits with cereals in the scrape the teeth. Surely better than those commercially available and very expensive bones. We’ve never given one of these to Ziggy who I’m sure would take his time over eating them, however Kep use to “crunch crunch and gone”.
The little food gobbler himself – Kep at about 12 weeks
I’m also bored of the little bones we’re making so I found a lovely little heart shaped cutter – just right for telling my dog how much I love him.
We worked through the normal problems. Over sloppy dough, inaccurate cooking times etc, that seem to come with with sourcing dog biscuit recipes and adapting it until we got something that rolled out in some fashion. Hey presto! Well more like an hour later we have over 100 beautiful little heart shaped biscuits.
Plaque Buster Bones from
The Golden Dog Bakery
The verdict? Well, you’ll have to ask Ziggy, but he does tend to take the biscuit and run off to find somewhere quiet to eat it or rather I like to think of him as savouring it.
Ziggy and Walking the Wainwrights August 21, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Dog walking, Holidays with Dogs, Walking the Wainwrights.Tags: Beacon Fell, Beacon Tarn, Mudslides, Outliers, walking the wainwrights, Ziggy
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Anyone familiar with the Lake District will have heard of Alfred Wainwright. Brett and I have “done the Wainwrights” – all 214 of them. Kep was fortunate enough to have completed a handful of them.
4 days in theLake District would normally have resulted in many hours walking the fells, munching cake on the tops, soaking up the views, walking miles and miles.
Ziggy at 7 months is following vet’s advice which is not too long a walk. I’ve googled it. It seems to be recommended 5 minutes walking for every month of age. That doesn’t cut the mustard, not does it touch the sides. We’re talking about an energetic 7 month old Border Collie Puppy. 5 miles for every month of age would not be enough to tire him out. We settle on a compromise. Most walks are no longer than an hour.
So what do you do in the lake district with a lively 7 month old collie dog, a yearning for the fells and sunny weather?
Beacon Fell! Its not exactly classed as a Wainwright. Its an Outlier. (If you want to understand more then google it).
Ziggy and Brett at Beacon Tarn
Fantastic walk and Ziggy loved every minute. It started with a splashing session in the beck. We peaked at 225m. Snacked on the summit next to the cairn, strolled down to theTarn. Sploshed in the mud. Got clean again in the tarn. Sploshed in some more mud and got clean again in the Beck. What a day! And back.
And of course back meant we needed to check from our window that nothing was amiss in the centre of Conison.
Enjoying a quick Kopperberg at The Sun Inn at the after a long walk.
Everyone needs friends. August 8, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Dog walking, Making New Friends, Ziggy.Tags: australian red collie, Border Collie Puppy, dog walks in staffordshire, Ziggy
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This weekend started with Monty, the Beagle from next door sneaking through the hedge. Ziggy was sat by the patio doors and was very annoyed with this uninvited visitor.
I don’t know if his anger stemmed from the fact that Monty was out playing in his garden or whether it was frustration that he couldn’t play. But he turned from a 7 month Collie who yaps in a high pitched rather girly manner to a hulking dog with a real big dark bark.
After a few moments and knowing what a softie he really is, I let him out. He flew out at a rate of knots and the two flew around the garden for several minutes before our next door neighbour came to retrieve his dog.
Sunday, we headed to Biddulph CountryPark. Here he met many new friends. The most notable was Star, the Great Dane. Twice his size and about 5 times his weight, Star does not make a natural friend for Ziggy but the two played and played. Rolling around in the dirt, grabbing each other necks, play fighting.
Poor Zig came home rather tired that day.
Starting School June 26, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Uncategorized.Tags: austrailian red collie, Border Collie Puppy, Dog Training, fred ball, golden collie, golden dog bakery, home made dog biscuits, http://kathbelldogtraining.co.uk/default.aspx, kath bell, starting school, Ziggy
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Starting school is an important day in anyone’s calendar. At the tender age of 5 months, Ziggy’s enthusiasm to learn is high, albeit accompanied by a certain over exuberance.
He loves people and as such a cutie that most people are happy for this pup to jump up when he sees them, with comments like “oh it doesn’t matter” and “he’s only young, he’ll soon learn”. Of course what he’s really learning is that whenever he jumps up at anyone he’s rewarded by fuss and cuddles. At 2 months it was no problem. At 5 months and 2 stone in weight – its borderline. And at 5 months he may well still have some growing to do. Here he is at 10 weeks – his first formal portrait – butter wouldn’t melt.
The final straw was at “Art in the Park” recently when he left a couple of beautiful muddy paw prints on some random lady’s Persil-white Tae-Kwan do suit.
Add to this his poor heel work, which resembles something more akin to a greyhound chasing a rabbit.
So, we started school. I hadn’t seen Fred for some years. It was certainly 14 years since I first met him when Kep started school at 6 months.
Fred seems to have mellowed a bit since then. Apart from mellowing and being slightly greyer – I don’t think he’s changed a bit. I think he’s a retired police or army dog handler and took over the dog training school when his wife Kath became ill.
Seeing Fred on his own with a room full of mad dogs and possibly even madder handlers, he certainly plays the “Alpha Male”, but if you had ever met Kath, you’d certainly know who’s boss.
http://kathbelldogtraining.co.uk/default.aspx
Kep and I spent many months in dog school, and we enjoyed it, we even progressed enough to do a bit of agility, but I think Ziggy and I will just get the basics sorted and based on tonight’s performance I don’t think that will take long. Here’s Kep with his agility medals
First Visitors and First Toys June 19, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Uncategorized.Tags: Border Collie Puppy, home made dog biscuits, Puppy meeting people, puppy toys, Ziggy
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Poor Ziggy arrived home very nervous:
My brother in-law and sister-in-law arrived on his second day bearing treats and toys and he wasn’t sure about them. We were very happy a day later when he decided to play with the toys they’d bought him as this started to show signs that he was beginning to settle.
Ziggy remained nervous for a number of weeks. Whenever people arrived he’d disappear into his cage. For several days on the trot whenever I came home from work or even if I’d just been upstairs, he’d shy away from me when I walked in the room.
This behaviour turned into excitement after a few weeks. Now when I come home the first thing we have to do is head straight outside. Too much excitement equals a lack of bladder control. As a consequence most repeat visitors to our house now come prepared with full waterproofs and wellies.
Kep on the other hand loved to play as soon as he arrived:
The Arrival of Ziggy June 10, 2011
Posted by goldendogbakery in Uncategorized.Tags: australian red collie, bathing a puppy, Border Collie Puppy, home made dog biscuits, Ziggy
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Ziggy’s arrival day was eventful. We made the 1 ¼ journey out to Alfreton and back from Leek. Poor Ziggy didn’t enjoy the journey. He also smelled of dog pee – not surprising considering he’s been living in a shed with sawdust all over the floor.
Ziggy and Sibling in the shed
Taken away from his siblings, thrown into a car, a 1 ¼ hours of nausea and then placed on a strange tiled floor did not really agree with him. He looked so small and terrified. I decided to bath him and get the trauma over and done with.
He sat trembling in the kitchen sink. I rinsed him and lathered and he still sat there trembling. The water was soapy so I emptied the sink. He still sat there. I filled the sink with fresh water and that was it – the little pup was putting up with no more, covered in soap he legged it across my kitchen worktop, cups and plates flying as he went.
Ziggy's First Bath
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