Posts tagged ‘outdoors’
Toothsome.
A Mingus in the grass is worth two in the hedge.
Like most dogs Mingus has always enjoyed a good old chew, but now, as his final adult teeth come through, he’s become possessed with the need to fill 95% of his waking time with chewing.
So, much like Phoenix before him, Mingus has now got into the habit of bringing a bone along with him for his walks, but is never too busy with that to pass up the chance to chew, and preferably run around with, something more interesting… leading to some ambitious projects:
Now that's what I call a log.
The Ever Changing Mingus.
When we first met (and show stacked!) Mingus at the tender age of 4 weeks he was very compact and stocky, beautifully and correctly proportioned. At around 3 months he looked very long-bodied and short in height, no longer stocky at all. By 4 months he suddenly looked very tall and giraffe-like, neither compact nor stocky. Then, at 5 months, everything started to come back together again, but he was all frame and no body. Now, at 5 and a bit months, he is once again starting to look compact and stocky as he gradually fills out – such are the ways of puppy growth – so we just wait for those deep ribs to spring to complete the picture.
Mingus surveys his kingdom.
This week at ringcraft everyone commented on how big he’d gotten and for the first time he was a fair bit taller than the adult female English Setter there. Judging by his knuckles he’s certainly going to finish larger than both of his parents, but still be moderate in size…which is just what we were hoping for.
A while back, whilst trotting around and investigating the pond, Mingus found himself on the opposite side of the water to us. Rather than trot back the way he’d come he simply plunged into the water and swam directly across to us (the pond is 6 foot deep and 150 foot long…) He’d never previously gone more than about ankle deep in water, so it came as something of a surprise to us – as well as to him – that he could indeed swim so well. On arriving at the other side he looked enormously pleased with himself and has been pretty keen to get wet in the pond and the river ever since.
The mysteries of the deep.
Freedom!
Now that Mingus is getting on for 5 months old we are finally able to start taking him out for slightly longer walks, and this week – for pretty much the first time – we took Phoenix and Mingus for a few trips out together, resulting in much jollity and frolicking all round (a week of non stop sunshine certainly didn’t hurt either!)
Yippee!!
Huzzah!!
The pack also expanded this week with the arrival of Tim’s son Fred who was down for the Easter Hols., and who, as ever, was seamlessly integrated into the wolf/human hierarchy as we all hit the beaches and the moors.
Mingus, Phoenix & Fred in action - skimming stones at Lyme Bay, Dorset.
Mingus at Scorhill, Dartmoor.
Mingus, trying out the "stately whilst chewing an old bone" look.
With Adam at the Scorhill stone circle.
A big pile of snooze at the end of the day.
Crufts + Puppy Progress.
Time for another long overdue update…
First up, last weekend saw our very first trip to Crufts! We’ve never previously attended as spectators, let alone exhibitors, so it was with much excitement and some trepidation that we ventured with Phoenix to the show-of-shows to take our place in the big ring alongside 74 other HWV’s.
Phoenix stacked for judging at Crufts.
In the end Crufts proved to be pretty much like any other Champ Show (albeit with adjoining vast arenas stuffed full of every conceivable canine related product and thronging with punters.) The actual dog show element of Crufts seemed to pass by most of the general public, which resulted in lots of space and a remarkably relaxed atmosphere.
Phoenix was in Special Junior Bitch class and despite our concerns about her slightly jumpy, hormonal, post-season demeanour (which has seen her pull away from the last few judges who examined her rear end) she stood beautifully. Sadly her movement was not so hot (blame operator error…) and we were awarded 2nd Place, which does mean, though, that she’s automatically qualified for Crufts 2011.
Unfortunately our in-house photographer failed to produce much that was usable to document the day.
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Mingus - 16 weeks Head Shot.
Meanwhile, back at HQ, young Mingus has come on in leaps and bounds – often quite literally so. Advice from Tracey at Puppy Gurus saw us relocating his cage to be right beside Phoenix overnight and an immediate good-nights-sleep for all was the result. In fact he’s never failed to sleep right through the night ever since – yippee!
At the grand-old-age of 16 weeks Mingus has now perfected all his Puppy Gurus obedience training moves and will be tested this coming week. He’s also picked up all the basics of ringcraft incredibly well and just loves being taken along for training where he struts his stuff with the big dogs – leading one very experienced Champ show judge to comment this week that Mingus was: “Just amazingly good!” He has proven to be vastly easier and quicker to train than Phoenix, although a large part of that must surely be down to us knowing roughly what we’re doing this time around!
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Mingus - Called to attention on the common.
Mingus’ utterly delightful, affectionate, calm and polite nature never fails to charm everyone who he meets. Today on a socialisation trip around Torrington Common he hooked up with a wide assortment of walkers and their dogs, from Labs to Cockapoos to Spaniels to Scotties, all with great waggy success.
As was the case with Phoenix’ puppyhood we’re also now back in the land of “he’s got big paws – he’s going to be a big dog,” together with the usual (sometimes rather surreal) attempts at playing Guess The Breed – today’s examples being:
1) Labrador
2) That Dog With The Ridgeback (that would a Ridgeback Madam)
3) Newfoundland (see below)??!!
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err....Mingus? (apparently!)
So that’s where the last month has gone…
Shockingly it’s been over a month since our last update…slapped wrists all round…we blame pressure of work and puppy juggling… so we’ll now attempt a potted history of the last month-in-the-lives-of Mingus & Phoenix.
Twin engine.
Firstly, like Phoenix before him, Mingus has been busy at his Puppy Guru’s training classes, the third of which is coming up in a few days. His initial foray into the class was undertaken with some trepidation (but then he was only 11 weeks old at the time and hadn’t yet started getting out and about to meet and greet) but since then he’s really got into the swing of things and is incredibly quick to learn and easy to train. We’ve mastered come, watch, sit, up, down, (plus the infamous sit-up-down sandwich) heel and wait. This week should be “stay”.
Mingus at large.
Meantime Tim took our little lad along to his first ringcraft class last week, mainly to introduce him to the cut-and-thrust of the training environment. Luckily he loved the whole experience and, of course, received LOTS of attention from humans and canines alike as well as some extremely favourable comments from several of the Champ show gundog judges who were present. He also did several pretty presentable laps of the hall in fine style,so, all in all, a very pleasing start.
Having an explore on the Common.
Back at base Tim is slowly attempting to shape Mingus’ stacking technique using the same positive training methods that (eventually!) worked for Phoenix. This time round at least one of the two parties knows roughly what they’re doing, so hopefully by the time he’s 6 months Mingus should have a pretty decent stack to show the world.
Watching the action at the Wadebridge show.
We all went to visit a dog show at Wadebridge in Cornwall last weekend in order to give Mingus more full-on socialization opportunities. Despite the cavernous venue and the many, many dogs of all shapes and sizes, he took it all firmly in his stride and trotted round with great enthusiasm and curiosity – again, receiving much attention and many oohs, aahs and coos along the way.
Ready to roll at Rough Tor.
Soggy-bearded Phoenix en route to the top of Rough Tor.
At only 12 weeks old Mingus is limited to walks of 10 to 15 minutes at the moment (so as to protect his developing joints) so he still gets to be carried once his allotted walk time is up…we did manage a quick trip to the beautiful moorland of Rough Tor on the way back from Wadebridge though, and this allowed Mingus the opportunity to splash around in the shallow river and see some horses close up. Phoenix and Tim then went for a great romp up to the top of the tor itself whilst Mingus and Adam want for a snooze in the sun back at the car….
It's all go on the dog-sofa.
Phoenix & Mingus are still very much besotted with one another, but (again, with joints and hip-scores in our minds) we’re now very wary of allowing them to play together for more than a few minutes. We currently running an alternating-dog schedule of play, walks, training and confinement which, although very time consuming, seems to be working fairly well, but can’t wait for the time that they can both hit the moors and beaches together.
Throwing a semi-point on Torrington Common.
Mingus’ big-boy cage arrived last week, so he’s now upgraded to a full-on adult-sized den, which he clearly loves, and voluntarily hops into when he wants some quiet time. He’s been completely toilet trained for a few weeks now, but still wakes up a couple of times each night, so the 3AM toilet run has yet to fade into memory (unfortunately…) That’s pretty much the only area that needs work though, in all other respects he’s a total delight to live with, incredibly affectionate and responsive and such a cutie!!
Sling Shots.
Riding in the sling on the Tarka Trail.
Mingus reached the grand old age of 9 weeks yesterday, and has been with us for 1 of those weeks, so it seems like a good time for an update. He’s settled in incredibly quickly and remarkably easily, is very eager to learn and be trained – again, the miracle of clicker/treat training works every time, in every situation – and he and Phoenix are now inseparable…
What's that about letting sleeping dogs lie?
More sofa action.
He’s almost toilet trained, and today, for the first time, he trotted to the front door to ask to be taken to the toilet – where he gets a click and training treat. After some “howl” issues on nights 2 and 3, he’s slept well for the last 4 nights in a row, and, with two night time trips out to the toilet area, he doesn’t wake ’til after 7:00AM, which is fine with us!
Sling ride.
Mindful of that vital 8 weeks to 12 weeks socialization window we’ve been taking Mingus out and about as much as possible so he can get used to all the wonders of his world. Because he’s not fully vaccinated for another 3 weeks he travels in the same baby sling that we used for Phoenix, which works fine for a while, but he’s already getting increasingly frustrated that he can’t zoom around like his big sister, and after 20 mins or so starts to get very wriggly.
Taking in the world.
"But Dad, I wanna get down and run around!"
Ultra-confident, so far he’s been unfazed by all manner of people, dogs, prams, cycles etc. etc. and travels without any concern in the cars, but was a little spooked by the traffic when we went out and about in Torrington town yesterday, so that seems like the one area to focus on.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Antarctica.
Last night, or so we’re reliably informed, was the equal coldest night ever recorded in the UK, with temps dipping to minus 22C or thereabouts, the same as at the South Pole. Here in “balmy” Devon we dropped to minus 14C, easily cold enough to have potentially devastating consequences for some of the rare trees, shrubs and bamboos that inhabit our garden….we won’t know what damage has occurred until Spring, but in the meantime our bore-hole fed water supply has frozen and pipes burst, flooding the kitchen. The river has also frozen over (for only the third time in the last 25 years), we’ve had no post delivery for days and none of our cars can make it out of our entrance drive….so clearly the only thing left to do right now is go and play in the snow:
Our Valley.
Gotta Have A Stick.
Then Have a Stick Wrestle.
At the bottom of the garden.
Snow hoover.
Helping Adam to make a Snow bunny.
Finished!
1 flattened Giant Bamboo (foreground) & 12 snowy Redwoods (background)
Hock-deep in the snow.
Sister Act.
Just a few days shy of their 9 month birthday, Phoenix met up with Thirza, her litter sister, along with Thirza’s human companions Sue and Henry. This was the first time that the two pups had met since they were 7 1/2 weeks old, as Thirza and family were away when the litter reunion took place back in May. As might be expected from the getting together of two exuberant 9 month-old’s, the meeting was conducted with a calm, quiet and dignified formality….as the pictures below will hopefully illustrate.
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 