Grey had a lump removed today

Grey went in for surgery yesterday to have a lump removed at the back of his right shoulder. It was quite a difficult lump to find. I'm not sure how long he's had it for. While he was under, he had his teeth cleaned and his nails cut. His teeth had got a bit or tartar build up. He doesn't have bones now, so I think I'd better get a toothbrush.

He was fine going in to the vets. Simon checked him in.

Had a chat re Polka's permanently inflamed eye. The next step if we want to do anything is to flush the tear duct under sedation. But there's no rush.

I took Polka out for a walk nearby on her own. I think, to my shame,  this is the first offlead walk I've done with just Polka. We walked in an apple orchard opposite Howlett's wildlife park. Polka was really good. But also really good at ignoring me when she was eating apples. But when she could hear she came bounding up full of smiles when I called her. She's super lovely.

The vet called a few hours later with the news that they weren't happy with the lump they removed. Rob said it was surprising. It looked grey, rough and slimy and had a good blood supply. I've had loads of people tell me that even if it was a growth and even if its a malignant growth, it might all still be ok. But one can't help but worry. Grey is only 4 years old and I've not heard of a Slovak cancer case I think.

He cried all the way home in the car. Was generally unsettled. He was happy for Polka's cuddles. She tried her best to mind her own business for a good 3 minutes.

He wouldn't settle with us in our bedroom to sleep which is his usual place. He asked to go downstairs on his own. This morning I woke up to him howling at the kitchen door. He been out for a wee and poop ok, eatcn breakfast and had a dose of Metacam. He's now asleep on our bed with us.

He'll be on lead walks for a week or so. I'd forgotten about that aspect. For some reason it didn't dawn on me. So I'll have to decide where to walk Polka while I leave Grey home.

We love The Original Raised pet bed

I've had one of the large sized Original raised pet beds for a couple of years now. I can't speak highly enough of the them. They deliver really fast, come packaged in a sturdy carry case and are really amazing quality. I have the mesh covered one as opposed to the solid. I don't bother with changing the frame cover, But pile up blankets on top in the form of vetbed pieces (another amazing quality brand that can be washed and washed for years and not deteriorate or get destroyed) and supermarket single duvets for humans. The latter usually come in at £6 each, so a far better economic option than covers for animals and they can easily be chucked in the washing machine.

I've just bought another of the beds so we have one in the bedroom as well as downstairs. That way there might be some room for the humans in their own bed. So I ordered the same bed in large with a mesh chocolate brown cover and a mink coloured vetbed sleeve to go with it.

Polka helped unwrap it and attempted to guard it from Grey as soon as it was put together. So I guess we can say that was a success.

Edited to add: Oh dear, I don't know what has got onto their feet on our rainy walk, but both went mad biting their paws. Polka has bitten through her pads on two. Both have been bathed in Hibiscrub, given Piriton and now asleep on their old bed.

Lazy but never boring - that's a rule!

I'm now a self confessed lazy dog trainer. I'm short on time, hate stress (as discussed yesterday), and generally have come to the conclusion that the best thing for me and my dogs is to find ways to hang out together and be happy. When we're home we don't play games. No ball chucking stuff. I've noticed how much harder work and demanding the dogs are if they have been under exercised, but not just in the physical sense, mentally. I know a lot of Slovaks are gundog trained. Seeing as I don't want to do that, I've found a happy medium of our own. What is more important is how they've been using their brain. In particular, in what mode. The picture above is a small snapshot of the large country area where I regularly walk.

By this I mean there is a difference in seeking and chasing. Especially important for a dog like Grey. I want to switch off the reactive side of him and switch on the seeking. Chasing of objects isn't really a natural state for dogs anyway and not one that I want to encourage. So no toys on walks, no thrown objects falling from the sky with all the associated injury risks. When Grey was an only dog I would hide objects for him to find. Basically, when Grey starts charging around looking for falling things whizzing through the air it's just mental and not in a good way. Not an ideal state to meet other dogs in if we bump into some on our travels.

The other aspect of my daily routine is I do one full stimulating walk rather than two or three separate trips to a more stressful environment. By stimulating I mean, thinking not just mad running. So I head out to the countryside to an environment where they are encouraged to use their noses in a good way, rather than multiple trips to a local park where they would focus on undesirable stimuli and I would have to work much harder to distract them and to avoid undesirable behaviours such as lunging, barking, pulling, chasing, possessiveness.

Here are Grey and Polka checking out hedgerows and ditches. Polka, despite her thin fur is of hardy working stock and thinks nothing of crawling through brambles. They have miles of open country to run in. And run they do. But when there is terrain to investigate like this, running is put to one side and the noses are put to use. I've found they will literally sleep the rest of the day and evening from this.

Grey's Days now with added Polka

It's been a long while since I updated this blog. Thankfully, this can mean that at 4 years old, Grey is settling down and has less issues for me to work out how to deal with. It's also true that I've grown to live with Grey's issues and in some cases, even love him for them. It's what makes him him. What makes our life together what it is. The other reason for not updating the blog is that I've been run off my feet with home life and the other massive change in our lives...Polka.

Polka is an english pointer girl, rescued from Ireland and seems to be of working stock. She was thought to be around 15 months to two years old when she came to live with us in April. Polka knows a lot and not much at the same time. She's very skilled at play, loves people, dogs, an ardent thief of epic proportions, and expert at standing on tables. She's soft, but a madam at the same time. She didn't know her name when we got her, so we called her Polka. Polka Poo for short. She's a fast learner at clicker training, if only I had as much time to put in as I did with Grey as a pup. She's way harder to train to recall, so I've changed where I walk to areas with less on lead dogs. So we hardly ever hit the beach these days unless it is in the midst of deep country.

I'll write some more on life with them both. Grey has adjusted really well to living with an in house madam. The cuddle lots have a whale of a time on walks. It's really worked out very well.

I had to start a photoblog as somewhere to post the hilarious daily occurrence of Polka sitting on Grey and Grey allowing it. Polka probably grew up in a pack of friendly dogs. Pointers. And she's probably used to lying all over the other dogs. She thinks nothing to doing most things while sat on Grey.

She's also used to saying hello by standing on hind feet at the cage door. Hence, she is also highly skilled at standing on two legs.

I didn't think I'd have anymore room in my heart for another dog. But in she came and I have a whole new compartment in there with Polka's name on it. Grey is still my best boy, but Polka is my best girl. Of course.

And this gets me on to training. It never crossed my mind to take Polka to a training class locally. When I got Grey, I fretted about where to take him. And we had some pretty awful experiences. All I want now is for them to be happy. To come back when called (working on that one!) and to be nice. So I spend more time studying their body language, thinking about environment and what kind of mode they're in in different locations. I have my pocket of cocktail sausages, I have my whistle. I take them on an amazing walk every day where they get to explore hedgerows riverbanks, fields, hills, sea, pebbles and more. And I go with them, so it's all good de-stressing for me. I hate taking them to the park or busy beach. It wouldn't work. They're Pointing dogs. They need stuff to point at. In essence, best advice I ever had was take your dog where he's not stressed and where you aren't stressed. Start from there. Stress is bad. If there is stress, go away from the stress and work with that until you're not stressed.