A touch-y sort of a Saturday

I had a funny sort of a day yesterday.

First of all, we went for an extra walk before lunch, with a bit of ball throwing, and in a park we don’t usually go to. I did hear @heatheralex say to someone later that it was to run off some of my energy. Ha! No chance It takes more than a walk to a park and a few Fetches to tire me out!

After lunch, we went to Wizard of Paws. It’s one of my favourite places. They have all sort of lovely yummy things there, like pigs’ ears and bulls’ pizzles, and chews and food and bones, and there are LOADS of squeaky toys. Not that I get to eat the yummy stuff, because of my delicate tummy, but a girl can sniff and dream… But we weren’t there to buy anything.

I usually go to Wizard of Paws for day-care, where I get to play with friends and run around. It’s great (and even that doesn’t tire me out!). But we weren’t there for day-care.

Some dogs go to Wizard to have a shower or get their fur done (clipped or stripped). I don’t do that, so it was no surprise that we weren’t there for grooming.

They do loads of dog training there too. I went to lots of puppy classes, walking-on-lead classes, coming-back-when-called classes, clicker classes and even some fun agility, so I was hoping we would be doing some fun stuff. But we weren’t there for dog training classes either.

Nope, we were there for HUMAN training   Something called Tellington Touch or TTouch.

It involves sort of massaging (small circular movements), fur pulling (gently), ear rubs (my favourite bit), and other stuff. It was okay for a bit, even if some of the other dogs were a bit noisy sometimes (well, there was a lovely 10-month old there who clearly just wanted to run and play, so I could understand her asking nicely to go out to play). In fact, I quite liked it to begin with – who doesn’t like a rub and a massage?!

But if I’m honest, after a couple of hours, I was a bit bored. So I started arching my back to say “enough, thank you very much”. And then I put on the soulful eyes. But finally I had to resort to whining. Just politely, but a definite whine. Which did work – yay!

And then we had ANOTHER park walk, a proper one, up in the woods, and lots of ball chasing and jumping in the pond, and then in a lovely muddy puddle. It was great fun, and a good way to end a different day.

PS I had a nice “tarantula” rub this morning – I think that is my next favourite after ear rubs :-)

A winter wander at the Wheel

We went for an easy walk today near Falkirk, at somewhere called the Falkirk Wheel. I am not sure why it is called that, to be honest, because I couldn’t see any wheels, just a canal sticking out into the air over another canal, with a sort of a lift for boats between them. Not that we saw any boats either, mind you.

From the top, it does look quite nice though, and it was a lovely day:

Do you think it looks like a wheel??

We were there with @CatCripps and @WendyatIdrach for a wee wander along canal paths and up through the woods.

All set for the “off”!

I was *mostly* good about lots of things. I was well behaved with other dogs. I sat nicely at lunchtime and didn’t beg too obviously. I barked bravely at a swan on the canal.

I think it’s ok to bark, cos it can’t get me!

I played Chase with some friendly pups (they were Broodle Griffons – I’d never met one of those before). But … umm… well, I did run off after some small furries in the bushes and wouldn’t come back for a bit, so I did spend the rest of the walk on the lead.

But all in all it was a good walk, and now it is time for some zzzzz….!

Walks in July 2012

Time to catch up on some of our walks and travels… In July, I did some good walks around Scotland.

First of all, we went with @CatCripps to Kinlochard – a good run about the forest, with no distracting rabbits or sheep. Well, I like distractions like that, but @HeatherAlex isn’t so keen on me chasing them or staying away for ages, so we try to find walks without sheep or rabbits…

It was a beautiful walk:

What a great view!

One of the best bits was when I got to splash about in the loch:

I do like getting into the water…

Could I wade to the other side, do you think?

There was an unusual bench with a hole in it, so we stopped there for lunch:

Can’t read the words for the rucksacks

More views on the way back to the car too…

OK, nice view, but there’s something small n furry here in the grass!

A nice splashy walk with a good friend, what more could you ask for? And so we did some more with our friend Carolyn in North Berwick later in July. The sea was quite fierce for a small dog though:

The waves were a bit big for me…

But it was ok for people to splash in them

Another day, we went up The Law. Now, you will remember what I said earlier about sheep and rabbits? This is a FABULOUS hill, cos it has HUGE numbers of rabbits, with holes all over the hill under gorse bushes. I’m small enough to get under the bushes and the really good thing is that @HeatherAlex couldn’t catch me there

I had a lovely half-hour running from one rabbit hole to another, and chasing rabbits around the hill. Sadly, I was nabbed while I had my head down a gorse-free rabbit hole (I won’t make that mistake again!). And I spent the rest of the walk on the lead    We did get to the top…

Yay, another trig point collected!

And there’s a huge jaw-bone up there…

Too big for me to chew

Another day, we went for a walk on a path called the Herring Road. It was a nice enough walk, even if I was on the lead most of the time in case I chased anything…

There are no herring in sight!

We had a lovely few days in North Berwick, I do like being beside the seaside

My first Munro!

I do like going up hills, especially with friends, so when @HeatherAlex’s friend Linda came to stay we decided to go up a nice easy Munro (that’s the hills over 3000′ in Scotland – there are 282* of them).

The hill we picked was Beinn Ghlas, a mountain in the Southern Highlands. Now, you can climb all 1103m (or 3618′) from more or less sea-level if you insist, but we decided to drive up to the National Trust for Scotland‘s car park. It’s not cheating, ok… Really… Oh well, it was a nice walk anyway.

We got to the top but no-one took any pictures   Honestly, you just can’t get the help. So here we are setting off back down again after our lunch at the top. You can see the top just behind my friends Kay and Linda:

My wet companions!

There’s a lovely path down the glen, rather than just going back the way we’d climbed, so we headed off down that.

The walk down the glen

If you are eagle-eyed, you’ll see that there’s a VERY long lead trailing behind me. I can’t think why @HeatherAlex doesn’t trust me around sheep but there were rather a lot of them on and around the hill. So I was on the training lead all the time, except when we were in the fenced conservation area. @HeatherAlex likes that bit because the trees and flowers are all growing back, with no sheep or deer to nibble them. *I* liked that bit cos I was off the lead and could run around properly! I even posed for an outdoor portrait:

Posing? me? Surely not!

We had a lovely day, made all the better because I have “bagged” my first Munro. Only 271 to go! *wag*

That’s my first Munro safely bagged!

* when @HeatherAlex started the Munros, there were 277 of them, then some hills were “promoted” so there were 284, and since she completed them, 2 have been “demoted” so there are only 282 nowadays

Texans on Mull

Last week, we went to visit friends of @HeatherAlex who had come over from America and were staying at a cottage on the Isle of Mull. We usually go to the Isle of Arran, so this was a new island to me (so far, I’ve been to Arran lots of times, and also to Lewis, Harris and Skye).

The boat we went on was called the “Isle of Mull” too – that’d be too confusing if they used it for a different trip!

I’m not a huge fan of these boats that we go on to get to these islands as it is mostly pretty boring for me, unless I get the chance to sniff around. People do leave some crumbs around sometimes…

Just checking for crumbs…

When we got there, we met the Broadways – Mike, Tina and the twins, Rachel & Katherine. Mike & Tina used to live in the same place as @HeatherAlex but then they moved away to America. I thought they were very cool and I definitely want to visit them in America – they played with me loads of times, much more than A Certain Someone, and took me for plenty of walks too. Hey, maybe I could move in with them?? (only kidding)

We stayed in Tina’s family’s cottage near the shore. There was a field of juicy-looking sheep in front of the house, and some of them came to visit and eat our grass sometimes.

Can you see the sheep poo in the front garden – that’s a clue to sheep coming here, right?

I wasn’t allowed to chase them, but a girl can dream…

The next day, we went for a run around Calgary Bay to the north. It’s a lovely beach, with lots and lots of sand for me to run around in, plenty of sea to cool down in and even sand dunes full of rabbits. What a great place! I did lots of chasing the ball…

Oh boy, this is great – throw it again, please please please….

Mind you, I did scuff up quite a lot of sand…

Could you wipe the sand off my nose please? My tongue can’t reach that spot!

…so they started throwing the ball into the sea. That was even more fun AND I didn’t get sand up my nose or in my eyes!

Time to cool down a little, I think

…and now we get rid of all that sea water (I like to find someone nearby to stand beside, hee hee)

Honestly, I’m not tired, you can throw it again!

Yay, someone else has taken over throwing now…

Meanwhile Mike was doing what he loves, taking photographs…

Mike takes some great photos and puts the best ones on the web – it’s worth a look. Here are all the Broadways…

That’s Katherine, Rachel, Mike and Tina

Back at the house, I was playing “spot the sheep”, first of all across the road…

Looking from our cottage, the views of the sheep were great…

And then they came up to the cottage, yay…

… then one went past the window, so I had to go have a look…

… ooh look, if I am careful, I can get up on the ledge

They didn’t stay for long so I found a bigger window ledge to keep watch for them coming back:

It was a nice sunny spot too, and a great place to sheep-watch

Meantime @HeatherAlex & Tina went to visit a garden. It was a very unusual garden called Lip na Cloiche, right up the hillside, full of plants and some other bits and pieces too:

Not just plants in this garden…

and great views from the top of the garden…

I didn’t go, I was too busy enjoying my sun-puddle by the window:

Snoring, errm I mean, snoozing in the sun…

Sadly, I also had colitis (AGAIN) on this trip, maybe I’m allergic to travelling?? Anyway, it meant we had a couple of overnight walks so I could get out to do some “business”:

I went for a walk by the light of the silvery moon one night…

All too soon, it was time to go home. We had a bit of time to spare, not enough to climb Ben More this time sadly (next time)

Ben More was @HeatherAlex’s first Munro – I want to climb it too!

…so we just explored by the seashore till the boat came in…

I don’t think that small boat will be going very far…

I hadn’t realised before, but I think the big boat is secretly a monster. Just look at the way it opens its mouth to swallow things:

You can just see it’s beginning to open…

Wide open and ready to start eating cars…

We had a great time though. Big thanks to the Broadways for a lovely few days   What was even better was that they came to stay with us next day and played and played with me. I’m sort of tired just thinking about it! It was brilliant. I hope to see them all again soon…

A hot day in Mugdock Park

It has been very hot here compared to usual (it’s about 25 Celsius, just a bit too warm for me). A week ago it was miserable and raining, and new wellies were ordered cos the old wellies leaked. These arrived at the same time as the hot weather

Not exactly seasonal! but I am sure they will be useful

Anyway, it being a bit hot for walking in the afternoon when we normally go, we went this morning instead while it was still a bit cooler. Back to one of my favourite places, Mugdock Country Park just north of Glasgow. It’s a quite a big park, with its own castle and loch and woods and places to barbecue and such like.

We started off in the woods, nice and shady…

Cool and pretty in the woods today

Then we went up onto the moor so I could chase my ball. It was great fun, but very hot work so I had to find some water. There’s not a lot up on the moor, but I did my best and found a nice muddy bit to jump in.

I found a lovely mudbath for me and my ball

I knew I’d be able to wash it all off in the pond or the river so I wasn’t too worried, but @HeatherAlex wasn’t very pleased when I shook myself next to her

I met a new friend as well – he’s very big, called Bruno and is even more black than me! He’s a Newfie, and he’s had a summer haircut…

Not sure – is he friendly??

Yep, he’s a nice big gentle dog

Then we went for a walk on the high walk outside the park, leading down to the West Highland Way. There was some good shade up there as well, though they’ve been cutting lots of the trees down, so not as much as there used to be.

Up at the highest part of the walk, nice to have some shade again

I had to be put on the lead for the next section, cos last time we were here I smelled a rat or a rabbit or something under a huge woodpile and I tried to dig my way into it & wouldn’t come back when I was called. I’m apparently not allowed to do that again   Anyway, soon enough we were down at the loch. Unfortunately some people and their friendly pup were in our favourite sitting spot by the Craigallian Fire, so we went and sat by the boathouse for a snack.

Relaxing & munching an apple by the side of the loch

After that, we went to a great paddling place so I could wash off some more of that mud:

One of my favourite spots for a paddle

Even if I do have to wear that silly muzzle thing

Then it was a long stretch along by some more woods and a river (yep, another paddle), though MORE woods and up to Mugdock Castle. I never noticed before but it has flowers growing in the walls. I’m not sure they are meant to be there but they do look nice.

There’re flowers growing in the walls, how odd…!

After the castle, it’s down to Mugdock Loch where I got to do lots of splashing and swimming, all chasing a stick. It was great fun!

Then it was back to the car through the woods again

Ending as we began, back through the bluebell woods

A moment’s delight, an evening of miserableness

So… I was wandering along at the country park today, at the end of a great walk where I’d met loads of new animals and had a generally great time. And I spotted a yummy treat sitting on the ground – a cream & jam scone wrapped in cling film. What’s a dog to do? I headed over at a trot and hoovered up half the scone and washed it down with the cling film before I was captured. It was all very tasty!

Unfortunately that was not the end of the story, cos @HeatherAlex was worried about the cling film and phoned the vet, who said I had to go in & see them. They gave me an injection that made me sick and I threw up everything, including the cling film. That was apparently a good thing as otherwise I might have had to have an operation to remove it. Then I had another injection to stop me being sick. I felt very wobbly after all that, and to make things worse, I’ve had no tea tonight. Not a thing.

I’m just hoping I get some food tomorrow….

And maybe, just maybe, I won’t scoff a cling film-wrapped cream scone left lying on the path in future??