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.