Wednesday 31 July 2013

I'm the real hunter

This is it! Last week, when we went in that funny smelly place I realised that I am the master, the powerful invincible hunter. No prey can resist me, I sniff, I point, I hunt, I... damn, I was on that lead cause mum and dad didn't trust me to not run straight to a big grey kangaroo, as if he could resist me! They are cramping my style!!

Masterful point

Surveying the hunting ground

At least I could see those pesky kangaroos and wallabies. They were just defiant because I was chained and enslaved, but I know that they were trembling in their boots just from the sight of me. They were just trying to bluff their way when they continued munching on the grass as if nothing was there, I know it. I am sure that they couldn't even swallow in fear...

They are there!!!!

Tease...

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Little trip away

Well, before all these misadventures with Mawson, we had actually had a good time, with a few days off in the Blue mountains. We found a nice spot, with lovely wood cabins you could rent in a large property, that was also dog friendly (thanks are due to somebody from the early dog park crew, but I can't remember who!!!). No real link with the outside world for a few days was good! There was a telly but it didn't got turned on. Only nice long walks (I'll come back to that in my next post), a couple of good books and a bit of knitting in front of a wood stove fire. Well I should also add a few bottles of wine and a few good meals. It was lovely. The only down point was that Martin learnt just before we left that he had a job interview on skype on the friday afternoon (typical that that had to fall during the only two weeks holidays we take in 2 years...).

Our wood cabin
The view from the cabin. Not too bad...

The great thing is that we had fantastic weather for the whole stay. Only one day had a little bit of cloud cover that lifted slightly throughout the day. But goodness it was cool, average of 5-10˚C, and frost on the ground in the morning. There was a few middays that got really warmed up by the lovely sunshine but brrrrrrr. Which make the log fire all the more worthwhile.

Waiting for mum to be ready in front of the fire.
Never ending hills means long walks.
We did some fantastic walks amongst the goats pasture land. There was a few trillions kangaroos, with added goats, rabbits and wombats, and I am not even talking of the birds. That made for interesting times with Mawson who was constantly having heart attacks from concentrating on kangaroos and the odd goats. I thought his leg was going to forever be stuck in the point position. I think he was thinking of himself as the great hunter of the land but we were definitely not convinced with Martin.

The two dots are Mawson and me!
Boing, boing, boing.... Kangaroo conga


Monday 29 July 2013

Poor puppy

Mister puppy had to go to the vet to get stitched up today. He had to have the whole shebang of full anaesthetic and surgery. He wasn't best pleased this morning, when we brought him to the vet for the second day in a row, but proved himself to be a tough big boy when he got viciously stabbed by the vet with a needle. I still had to bring him into the crate at the back of the vet, because they were a bit too unsure he would follow them. I tried to mirror Mawson by being a big tough mummy, but it's hard when you turn around and there is a trembling, half crying puppy, looking back at you from the cage with big puppy eyes. If he could have done the wobbly lower lip look, he would have done it.

I've stayed at home to nervously await the call from the vet. But succeeded to sneak out to the butcher and finally secure a shinbone for him. These things are fought upon by crazed doggy mums around Turramurra. I'm lucky to have got out of it without any scratches or loss of limbs...

Anyway wobbly boots is now back home with his war wounds, a bit sore and extremely pitiful.

Now to make sure he doesn't gnaw on is leg... will the cone of shame have to come back out?

trying to stop the wobbling
with legs wide apart!


Sunday 28 July 2013

Well, life is not fair!

As I said in the previous blog post, Mawson was a very good boy throughout the time off Martin and I took, and yesterday at both agility and obedience classes, where he passed his test to go to 4th class. Given he was exhausted in the evening and came back home to snore, we thought we would celebrate by bringing him to one of his favourite spot for a play: the beach at Bayview.

He started by being all excited and running like a crazed GSP with a handful of dogs chasing him as per usual. Then we started playing with the ball, all happy for a while. And then a stupid idiotic black lab (not the usual dog I keep an eye on, as the labs there are all pretty harmless...) took great amusement at hunting down and harassing Mawson, who was doing his running around thing, trying not to pay great attention to that dog and not really playing with him. After I decided that the lab was a bit too much, and realising no owner was even bothered to keep his dog in check, I stepped in nicely and told monster lab to go the other way, very nicely and no problem there.
Then we restarted to play with Mawson and the ball, and all moved on for a couple of minutes... until the ball went in the saltwater and Mawson stopped dead straight in his chase of the ball, came back on the sand and crumbled down nearly as dramatically as when we asking him to play the dead dog. Not the usual hyped up Mawson at the beach after barely 1h run! To our (at least mine...) horror we discovered a big bleeding gash on his left hind... Obviously the lab had just left, possibly luckily for the owner, as I am not taking this type of things very well.

So our celebration turned to a trip at the vet on a sunday, obviously, a poor puppy with a big gash who is very quiet with his big bobo, and needs to go back to the vet for stitches tomorrow... yayyy... at least I got him a big bone out of the freezer and he is now gnawing on it while looking all pitiful. 
Poor puppy :( 


Ouchy!!

Saturday 27 July 2013

Woohoo!

We just made it to 4th class in obedience!! It was a bit of an unexpected test timing mostly after a few days away in the blue mountains. But yayyyy!
Mawson has been celebrating tonight with a pig's ear and is now snoring in front of the fire.
He is not entirely happy though, because he has now to exchange his manly blue ribbon for a pale pink girlie ribbon...

Friday 26 July 2013

Nice warm and cosy fire

It's winter in Oz right now. Even if the weather is not going down to extreme cold temperatures, the evenings can be a bit chilly. So usually, in the eve we settle in front of the telly (well the Ashes are on right now!) with a cup of tea, and we start the gas fire. Mawson is a great adept of the fire and has declared that the space in front was his. He also requests his comfy little bed as pillow... 
If it is not on, he sits next to the fire staring intently at Martin.
I must say that I like the warmth of the fire, but I sometimes wonder how a living creature can stand so close without being cooked. 

Comfy late night sleep,
lucky you don't hear the snoring...

He also loves the white tufty carpet we have there, and enjoys doing the aimless GSP roll on it at any occasion. The life of a dog is so hard!...

Melting in the carpet

Who dares disturbing me while on important business????

Monday 22 July 2013

Little red riding hood all mixed up!

I think that Mawson is getting mixed up with the storyline of his fairy tales. Maybe, I shouldn't have told him "the little red riding hood" in its original french version... He mixed the little red riding hood, and the wolf disguised as grandma all in one...



Sunday 21 July 2013

Torture!!

How much must I be shamed before the RSPCGSP comes to sort mum and dad out? Now they want me to shake the paw of everybody I meet! Even at the park in the morning, in front of all my buddies!!! NOT COOL! I had to get the comfort of mister black rat to help me through the emotional hardship that they documented here. Please somebody help me, that's abuse for sure!!

Ready with the camera? I haven't got all day!

Here, you're happy? Yes... Hello... can I go now?

Saturday 20 July 2013

Quality control

Mawson has adopted an infallible system to make sure every item we bring in the house is passing a rigorous quality test.

Quality control goes as follows:
1- approach new object, sniffing
2- look at new object from top with ears and lips flopping down
3- drop toy in new object
4- look around satisfied that new object has been tested

This works for swimming pools (ok we didn't "bring" that one in the house but it needs regular testing just in case we changed something), pots of paints, buckets full of car washing shampoo... everything!
I sort of prefer that testing method to his first encounter with an open pot of paint, where he dived right in with his nose before I could get to him... well I think he still remembers his light turquoise nose and the wash that ensued. Luckily it was an easy water based paint, but now we are extra careful...

Ready for next testing



Friday 19 July 2013

Agility

Nearly three months ago, Mawson successfully graduated to 3rd class in obedience, we might go to 4th soon now! We had been working hard on that, as it is the obedience grail to be able to start some other cool activities. They appear not to want silly puppies running around crazily during non-enclosed classes... weird.... Anyway what it means is that we were able to start agility!!!
He had really enjoyed the bits and pieces we did in puppy classes, and it is a fun way of getting energy out of a teenage GSP, or any GSP for that matter.

I started doing the class on saturday mornings, but as I am doing the obedience classes on the saturday afternoon, Martin has taken over, so we both have our speciality. Mawson has taken on very well and seems to have a lot of fun. He is still learning a lot, how to do all the different equipments but most jumps, tunnels, tables and A frames are go. There are a few things we haven't yet done such as the walk over (he is a wimp), the see-saw (scary!) and the weaves (he has a big butt...) plus a whole lot of other things, but for now, we are having fun. I must say that the main problem for Mawson's advancement is us! It is actually really hard to get oneself organised and not either confuse Mawson as to where to go next, or trip onto our own feet. And also there are always birds on the course....


I'm flying!

As we are a bit crazy and on holidays right now, we have been doing a bit of construction at home, for Mawson to do some homework. We are pretty proud of our efforts! (don't pay attention to our awful lawn, it appears that the curl grubs are back with a vengeance this year yet again, sniff)

Homework

Thursday 18 July 2013

sun :), rain :(

I have a decree! I declare that:

sun = good          rain = bad.

When it's sunny, we do all sorts of funny stuffs, and we go to the beach, and we do long walks. And when it rains, well.... actually... we do the same but that's not as good because it's all wet and cold!

I loooove the sun and I loooove to sun my little butt in the garden.

Happy sunny day face!!
This is the life

I get all miserable when the rain is on and I don't want to go out to do my business, unless mum and dad get the umbrella out (hehehe).

Grumpy desolate rainy day face :(

At least I never have to face that here, thankfully!!!

??!! Are you crazy!! Not in Oz!!
I leave that to grandpa and grandma!

I only have found one issue with the sun. The problem is that in Australia the sun gets really hot. And I don't like that either! In summer, I tend to melt! So I just need to add a note to my decree: 
sun (in moderation) = good....

The only downside of hot sun: melting!

Little bit of holidays DIY

Martin and I have decided to do a few things on the house while we had some time off over the next few days. Mawson is overlooking all of the house improvements and renovation to make sure the standard of his place is kept proper. So a couple of days ago, amongst other things, we finally got Martin's birthday present we got on the week end (well his b'day is in February but better late than never...).

We had to build it ourselves as it was flat packed and from a pile of metal, screws and rivets came out....

Serious construction.

Martin had to use his favourite chemical in the whole wide world (WD40 or as I call it WKD40 because I hate the smell of the stuff).
It also passed inspection from the site manager, so we have been able to store out a lot of bits and pieces into it. Just needs a better base that will come in a tad.

Site inspection
Now that we have made space in the garage, we can work on getting it sorted for the rest of the week, and also on the under-house space (that we can now access properly) and one of the bedroom that needs full reno. Yay, holidays!!....

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Little snack for the road?

Cheese and crackers anyone? Sorry, didn't find a serving plate, but I promise I washed my paws!


Pepe le pew

This morning Mawson tried a new scent. Eau de "old stale piss" that he rolled into copiously in front of the council office of the NSW premier...

There is a poor lady who went to work and is going to wonder what is that smell around her, as she gave him a good old pat before boarding her train, but more painfully before Martin realised the smell of him following his best rolling effort... Sorry nice lady!

I had to abandon my late breakkie to go give Mawson a full wash when Martin came back. YUCK!


Monday 15 July 2013

Routine is good for minions #1 : mornings

Hi there, Mawson back at the point!

I wanted to woof about the importance of establishing a good routine for any dog's minions. I really like that and I feel that the minions get all flustered and run into trouble when I change timetables. They just can't handle it really! So first I'll talk about the daily routine of what they call their "working" day (I'm sure that all they do is going out of the house to spite me and drink coffee without sharing their food with me, selfish!).
I've realised that I'll have to cut that into a few parts cause there is so much to complain about!

In the morning, I usually concentrate the training on daddy (he needs it a lot). Except when mum tries to kid herself that she can wake up early and "take me" (!) to the park. She has apparently decided that she was going to do that at least once a week following dad's return from his last effort of abandoning me. But she already didn't make it this week after just 3 weeks so... you see what I mean....
Well anyway I prefer when dad comes and let me out of my crate, because 1) he is not awake and let's me out even if I whine a bit because he is too slow and 2) I can run straight past him and go to make sure mum is aware I'm up. She always need to have her face washed, I'm saving her time to get ready in the morning really. When mum get's me up I get all confused and then I still run to her side of the bed and she is not there! It's too hard in the morning to deal with all that nonsense. I think I'm going to draw up contracts so they stick to their jobs.

Then they faff about for a bit while I get bored but I let them that time to "get ready" they need to be able to occupy themselves without me being there alllll the time, that's too exhausting for poor little me.... After that, I start the real training by teaching dad patience to get me in the car. They go quite far to entice me in the back really it's quite funny, they make strange noises, gesticulate, they even have gone in the boot themselves (I nearly went to close the door but I thought that might get them grumpy). Anyway when it pleases me and I think they have done enough exercise then I get in and they get allll happy and give me treats, too easy really...

Then finally we can go to the park so I can hang out with my buddies, sniff all what happened since the last day. If we get there early enough, I can play with Lula she is a cool lady GSP and she has really small petite paws and she's pretty... ahem... she's ok cause only she runs fast....
I have to excuse myself after a bit as I need to keep the minions fit so I get them to send the ball a bit. Good for their arms you see, and I show the other guys here how to get the slaves to look all happy and give me treats. You see first you just throw the ball in a general minion's direction, they get all serious and go huhu! then you just pick up the ball and put it in their hand: bingo they get all happy (good for their emotional development) AND give me the food, easy.

An old pic from the park,
I should do something about the minion's fashion sense...

My only recurring issue with their behaviour is that they keep leaving the park way too early, I barely have time to do my business! All 20 of them spread across the park for better effect (tsehehe). At least they get excused by preparing my food when we get back, never enough mind you. And they still somehow find ways of delaying putting that bowl down and keep going "right, left, right, down, sit stand".  I don't know? They need to make their mind up. One moment they ask me to sit the next they want me to heel, then it's "down", my poor articulations ouch. And by that time I am tired and just want to sleep seriously... But that's just better if I keep them happy so they can leave and give me my day treats, they are too noisy for my proper beauty sleep...


Will they leave yet? I need my sleep...

I'll be back later for the day's occupation and the evening minions' entertainment... It's hard work being a GSP pup, got to go roll about aimlessly on the rug now, bye.

Saturday 13 July 2013

When Martin's away, the Mawson dances

Martin and I are both marine microbiologist. However, Martin is the hardened sea dog who keeps going away on research voyages onboard various ships and floating things. I might digress onto what we are actually doing in a future post, because really... that's "pretty cool"!
Anyway, what all this travel means is that I am often left with Mawson for extended amount of time. I realised last time that I had never left the house for a trip away without mister pup, even overnight, ever since he came in the house :O !!

The first long trip away from Martin was a bit hard for pup, I could not even mention the word daddy without having a crazy puppy running to the front windows wagging his tail until the tail detached... (ok not literally) and then coming back with a dejected little face. The subsequent trips have been much better and he is now resigned to being abandoned.
The thing is, I think he actually quite likes it now because I tend to overcompensate and spend every single spare second of the day doing fun things with him. His morning run was nearly doubled in length, we did jogging and walks in the evening with a lot of play time and training and then a cuddle for the rest of the evening until way past normal bedtime. And also my whole weekends were pretty much Mawson-time with variety of trainings on saturdays and beach runs or long walks on sunday, without forgetting a piece of beef shinbone every sunday afternoon (that one was for me to put my legs up for just one hour!).

mmmmm shinbone....

So, I am pretty sure that Mawson has a lot of fun when Martin is away and that showed a lot in the monster's training and obedience with me. The main issue is that I end up exhausted!

Friday 12 July 2013

Sunday morning stroll

After a week of torrential rain, we got a beautiful week of sunny winter days. Sometimes I really wonder about the seasons in Australia?! Anyway, sunday morning was bright, sunny and cool so I decided to go for a "long" walk with Mawson, while Martin was playing the little winemaker.
We ended up walking for nearly 12 kms, and it was the best walk of Mawson so far! It was all the more impressive that this was a new route we had never walked before. Usually, in this case, he has to check every single blade of grass or stone on a 2 m radius around me for every square millimetre we pass close to. But not too much this time! and it was very agreeable. There was still sniffing about and a lot of fun, but I got to enjoy the walk as well for a change.
Not a lot of people were around, I guess a combination of sunday morning, cold, and sunday morning... But that meant that on the way we saw quite a few birds checking out the gardens, and yet again Mawson had a stand off with a currawong. Those always last for a while until I get enough of it and either shoo the bird off (they are pretty cool customers those ones) or have to somehow get mister pup moving.

During our walk, we saw the best bus stop I have seen so far here... guess somebody got fed up to wait for the delayed bus or maybe they like a bit of comfort... either way I had to take a pic!

The latest Sydney design for bus stops

The good thing is that walking this new route gave me some more ideas of other new routes for the week ends. I like to vary a bit from the week evening walks and also I rarely do 10kms plus every evening!

Thursday 11 July 2013

I'm so smooth!!!

Yay!! Woohooo!!!

That's it!
I've taken over the blog, I stole the computer while the slaves were busy preparing dinner, and they have not even noticed!

I'm sorting out my own page yup and I'm going to write what I want on here. I'm just slow cause I have  big paws. Very adequate for a GSP of my standing I might add, thank you very much! But that keyboard has got some seriously small letters.

Anyway, mum won't be able to get that blog back.

Oh what's that the fire is on! oh let's go lay in front and roll about, yeah!!!

Sorry folks got to go!

Sunday 7 July 2013

Walk vs run

I have recently discovered that Mawson is better at jogging than he is at walking.
Not that, he is bad at walking but he gets distracted by smells or the worst thing: rabbits! Then I get a zebulon on springs and I am fast running out of shoulders... We've been working on that and he now keeps it together pretty well, most of the time...


However, when I go for a jog, he very quickly gets in his stride next to me (all is relative of course!). He doesn't pull me about, stop to sniff or zig zag like crazy in front of me, which makes the whole thing quite pleasant. He is happy prancing and trotting by my side.

The only thing is I am better at walking than jogging.... But he is a real motivator. He goes quite steadily so he is a pretty good pace keeper and I somehow feel like I don't want to let him down by stopping or I will get the disappointed look back that tells me I am really a weak softy who can't run for 4 kms every evening after work... Somehow it shouldn't bother me that Mawson gives me the "look" but actually it does, so I keep going. No wonder my dog is weird, I think I might be weird too!

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Off limits

I know that there are a lot of different views on this matter out there, but both Martin and I agreed early on that Mawson would not be allowed on furnitures. Either beds, sofas, chairs... We originally had a few other agreements... but this one is the main one that is and will still be standing.
One of the major reason, other than trying to make keep some sorts of boundaries, is that Mawson has got a big bum and he doesn't know how to share (I've learnt that from the only time I caved in).

Sneaking up when he was still trying to win!

To be fair, he has a dog bed that is comfier than the current sofa we have in the salon and far more spacious. The funny thing is that he now knows it and he doesn't even go on the sofa when we are out. Not that he even attempts it while we are in either. Now it is mostly when I am watching the telly or trying to do something on my computer that there is a sneaky bum nonchalantly getting placed on the side of the sofa. It starts with just a slight leaning and then a shift...then a rearrangement while looking around innocently. I can't say anything all 4 paws are still firmly on the ground...barely. He still doesn't win anymore space.

I am on it, can't move me!
This move resulted a few seconds later
in the full sofa getting tilted and a very
offended despatched GSP on the floor.

The only time we share is when we go camping and I am usually the one with a snuggled puppy while Martin sleeps like a baby. I have to confess that I love it, except for those paws up my nose, the wriggling and the occasional kick in the guts, oh and the snoring, ok I stop here...

Funnily, after starting to prepare this post, I read the last post from another GSP blog today (Otto's dog blog) and Otto seems to have the same problems as Mawson with "mean" parents not letting him and his brother get on sofas or bed.
Luckily for me, I only have one little monster to deal with and not a tag team trying to weaken my resolve.