Easter holidays

Not having children I completely forgot that today was the first day of the Easter holidays. What a brilliant and unintentional time to improve Oscar's skills at walking near children. I was so proud of my boy.

It's amazing how suddenly you can have insights into your own behaviour and how it affects your dogs. On seeing all the children about on our walk this lunchtime I have to confess that I did get a little nervous. Oscar is very enthusiastic to meet both people and dogs but I am more than aware that for a lot of people and dogs they don't want to meet every passing dog and due to Oscar's size this is more often the case with him than it probably is with a chihuahua!

I suddenly became aware that as soon as I spotted a child in the distance all of a sudden I held my breath, tightened the lead and called to Oscar in a more frantic tone than I would usually use. I have spent 15 months training to be a dog behaviourist and trainer and it always amazes me how difficult it is to see your own behaviour objectively. I know perfectly well that all those things are more than likely to get a dog to react to whatever you are wanting them to not react to, yet it appears to be human nature and certainly was my automatic reaction to the situation.

Mid way through the walk I suddenly realised what I was doing and immediately loosened the lead and rather than Oscar trying to bomb off to meet any child within a mile radius, he just pottered along, looking at them but not trying to get any nearer. We even did a bit of parallel walking with a kid on a bike (not that the kid realised!!) and he was brilliant. Not once did he try to dive in the kid's direction.

I am also always amazed at how well Oscar responds to just praise. It seems to be, for some unknown reason, drilled into my subconscious that I can only reward Oscar with food or rather that food is the only reward what will count. However, he just soaks up praise and I think it means as much to him if not more, especially when I am genuinely over the moon with his behaviour.

What a lovely day and I wish I could stay here all afternoon with my lovely boy instead of heading back to work! Ho hum!

The nosey neighbour

Oscar cannot understand why more people don't take a healthy interest in their neighbours' activities.

From an early age Oscar has gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep himself abreast of all activities in his area...



11 weeks old Oscar is checking nobody is by the river who shouldn't be!


12 weeks old...checking out passers by



You can never be toooo careful! (12 weeks old)

This is dedication - wedging the head between gate and concrete step...he will stop at nothing... (15 wks old)

Oscar checking out some girls by the riverside...another good reason to keep a careful watch on proceedings (4 months old)

At 6 months old - Oscar is now able to see into the neighbour's garden where he can carefully monitor their activities and tell them off when they don't pay him enough attention!

However this doesn't mean he's forgotten his other responsibilities...

Which he takes VERY seriously...

At 7 months old - Oscar has discovered he is big enough to continue his surveying of all that goes on in his kingdom from inside...clever boy!

These are a few of my favourite things!

You know how you spend money on buying lovely plush toys for your dogs to enjoy and then they show more interest in the packaging of what you've been sent that day. Well today was Oscar's lucky day as I've got some frosted window film (to help him realise it's not necessary for him to bark at everything he sees out of the patio doors!!) and so he got the packaging it came in!


"Right I better try and balance it while I work out how to get it up on the sofa"






This is how people first worked out you could play the didgeridoo!!

"Oh I just LOOOOOOOOVE cardboard"

"Anything outside more interesting...?"

"I thought not!"

"The lazy boy's way of dealing with the item you want falling on the floor!"

"This is a tricky manoeuvre!"