New toys

Very excited appreciation of the lovely shakeable Petstages Toss and Shake:
Damn! I paid too much for that at Pets at Home. Oh well.

And the Orka Tube:

Windshack cafe, Minnis Bay

This morning we took a walk down the opposite end of the coast we normally go to. We walked from Minnis Bay along the grassy path, which gives Grey lots to scent and is more his natural habitat than the beach and tarmac. I though he could do with a good run after the funday yesterday and the long car journey. The tide was out so on the way back we did the beach route and ended up at the Windshack cafe. Which to our pleasant surprise is super dog friendly, with other dog walkers there enjoying a breezy windswept coffee and the dogs get a biscuit from the owner Dougle (who knows all the dogs' names!). Definitely a recommended dog friendly place.

This reminded me to register a group on Flickr for dog friendly UK places.

Back from the Slovak fun day

Had a fab day at the Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Club fun day in Aughton near York. Grey was really good on the 6 hour journey up north. He slept for all of it. Was great to meet lots of other slovaks in one place. Grey even won a prize! Amazingly, he came first in the scurry and he was the only pup. Bless him, he jumped over bales of hay to get the stuffed toy and bring it back to hand. Not sure that he meant to bring it back to hand, but rather misjudged his usual drive by swoop.

We had an intro to ground scenting (not sure if that's what it's called) by Denise who owns the lovely Fuzy (Ansona Brigadier). Grey managed to follow the trail of food out into the field to then find and pick up an object. So, I think he'd really enjoy doing more of this kind of activity in the future.

Unfortunately, I only managed to take a few pics as most of the time I was handling a very sociable Grey on his lead and then I was too distracted to take more.

I think we got kind of an idea what kind of adult Grey will turn into. Ian and Lynne Ware's Ted, seems to be the nearest in type and build. Ted is lovely. All the dogs seemed to show that the slovak temperament is really good. No disagreements all day.

Pics from the day:

Ted

Ian and his bird. Sorry, Ian, I can't remember the name or breed!

Freya (Stormdancer pup 10 days older than Grey)

A weim getting an intro to working trials with Denise

Wee wee wee!

Grey stood on his hind legs, propped himself up on the chaise with his front paws and had a wee on the corner of it while looking at the cat. Huh? And I thought toilet training was going better the last week.

In other news, we took a trip to the vets again. He's had a bit of a cough and I wanted to have them look at his new teeth. The cough is nothing to worry about and is probably caused by his op to have his teeth out. We're supposed to give him Benylin. His teeth are still not through enough to comment on or plan what to do next. The vet suggested we cut his eye lashes down to see if that helps clear up his sometimes gunky eyes. He does have ridiculously long eye lashes.

Nothing else hugely eventful other than to report he now weighs 22.6KG!

This evening we walked in the opposite direction along the seafront to normal as L took the car. A jack russell had a little snap at him from a safe distance. How rude!

New kid coming to town

Just heard that another slovak will be coming to town. He's a month younger than Grey and by the looks of it is a lovely handsome boy. We'd met his then prospective owner outside the chip shop a month ago and had a long chat about Grey and the breed. Very much looking forward to meeting him in person. So, C, if you read this, some and visit soon!

Gummy chops

Grey's lost most of his baby teeth now. He's ever so gummy, bless him. No idea where they've all gone to, perhaps he's eaten them! Now we need to monitor how the adult teeth come through and see if any further action needs to be taken.

We went to puppy class last night and we got a 'well done!' card and I got a chocolate. Grey got an extra bit of sausage. He did the down stay while I lay on the floor which was fun practicing this week in the park. He was much calmer in class in general and mostly sat or lay watching me rather than the other dogs. He managed to 'leave' of sausage on the floor for 15 secs and also a down stay of 20 secs in class too. So amazingly well done for a young pup.

I had been thinking of starting him with puppy gundog training, but might think again on it, as some friends have said they think he's too young for all that yet. They're right, there's a whole life of time for that kind of training and we can just carry on working on the basics and enjoying him being a pup.

He's also been much much better on the lead the last few days. I think having the back up of the gentle leader head collar has been brilliant. Just to get through those explosive 5 minutes where not even roast chicken can stop him from dragging me down the street. After he'd calmed down and got used to the idea of not being way up front, I took it off and just did the usual leash training on his flat collar. Not had to go back to the Gentle Leader in days.

Grey meets Gunner

I'd tracked down one the owner of one of Grey's litter mates. His brother, Gunner. Who it turns out is even bigger than Grey! Now there's a first. He lives about an hour from where we live which is brilliant. It was so very strange to see two slovaks together. Two youngsters the same age expecially. I'm so used to being the only slovak in the village. I suppose if the breed takes off then this might happen more often, but it's still rare. I don't even come across many HPR (hunt point and retrieve) breeds at all. In the last few months I've seen about three weims, one viszla, one spinone pup and that's it.

Anyway, Gunner is lovely. Less hairy than Grey, but then Grey is possibly too hairy at this stage. He's taller than Grey. Both have lovely temperaments, which is great to see. I'd love to know if there is some kind of residual recognition from when they were pups. They only lived together until they were seven weeks. They had a lovely play on the beach and for once I managed to get some great pictures.

Gunner is going to start gun dog level one training soon. I've begun enquiries about finding an HPR course for Grey too. I think half his leash issues are from him naturally quartering. Certainly don't have a problem sending him away from me to hunt. It's getting him to walk by my side that's a pain.

Here are some more pics from the big get together: