Christmas with Dogs

Actually, our dogs pretty well missed out on Christmas. My husband, son and I went out yesterday, which was Christmas Day, and again today. We didn't give our four dogs anything special for Christmas and they certainly don't know enough to feel they've missed out on anything.

Of course, dogs have no idea about the Christian tradition, and they certainly don't shop. Our dogs did get fed, let out and let back in again as possible. They were all locked away when we went out, Lah Dee, our male Pharaoh Hound was shut in our bedroom, Nena, our female schnauzer was locked in a crate, and Ananka and Missy, our two female Pharaoh Hounds were locked in another crate.

I'd love it if we could leave all of our dogs loose together in the house, with easy access to the yard. Sadly, that isn't possible for us. Lah Dee digs holes in the back yard, and when he was put in the dog run this morning he began barking non-stop. He was not a happy puppy, so he came back inside.

We can't have Nena loose with either of the other two girls, because they're currently enemies. I hope they may one day become friends again, but they're certainly nowhere near that time yet.

We could have left Ananaka and Missy together in the back yard. These two are mother and daughter, and they are friends. Ananka has a higher position in our pack, and Missy is perfectly happy with that.

To add a further bit of interest to our pack situation, Missy is in an interesting condition, to put it delicately. She's been in season for over a fortnight, and judging by the way Lah Dee's acting, she's probably ovulated now. Lah Dee's been pining for her, and not eating much of his dinner, for the past couple of days.

Once Missy's back to normal, then the three Pharaoh Hounds will be able to be loose together in the house, and perhaps with Nena too. The dogs all act better together inside than outside. I'm glad about this, but we still have to keep watch on them. These creatures are dogs, and they have their own pack rules. If the people in the house get involved, then it won't be a good thing. So we keep them where they can all be happy and not have to fight to work out the hierarchy. 

This of course has nothing much to do with Christmas. We offer our dogs love and goodwill though, and that certainly is a Christmas thing. I hope you've had a Merry Christmas!

My Dogs don't love rain!

It's been so rainy today, none of the dogs want to go outside. I don't either - rain and cold don't make a lovely spring day.

I'll have to let them out, or kick them out, at some stage though. The young pharaoh hounds, brother and sister Lah Dee and Missy are asleep on the dog sofa, their mother is asleep in her crate in the other end of the house and schnauzer Nena is asleep in her crate. It's very peaceful.

Having the dogs separated like this is now the way it has to be. The four of them had a battle for supremacy last Sunday and blood was shed. I hate dog fights and I'm glad it ended with only bad injuries, not terrible injuries. 

Missy was the loser for the day - much bleeding from one leg and a trip to the vet on Monday and another trip Thursday. I wish we could go back to having the dogs all loose in the house, but I'm not going to risk it when I'm the only human in the house.

It was sweet when all four dogs would sleep on the sofa together. It's sure not sweet when and all in brawl erupts with teeth and snarls all around.

Oh well, at least dogs like to sleep for many hours every day - it makes for a quiet day with them sleeping and not getting nasty with each other.Owning a pack of dogs can lead to interesting times, but I'll be happy if times stay quiet and boring. It's easier and it's cheaper!

A Day in the life of me and the dogs

We have four dogs - one schnauzer girl, Nena (the oldest) and three pharaoh hounds, one male (Lah Dee) and two females. One of the PH girls (Missy) is the youngest of your dogs, the other PH girl (Ananka) is mother to the two younger PHs.

OK, get your heads around that and then I'll let you know what they're doing. 
I let Missy and Ananka back inside, from the back yard. Nena and Ananka circled round each other briefly, but nothing untoward occurred. These two are the most likely to fight, neither really concedes superiority to the other. Inside the house they’re usually cautiously OK. Outside is a different story. Outside they’re quite likely to fight, with nasty results. The role of Alpha Bitch is much sought after if you're a female dog.

We try not to have the two oldest girls outside together, for that reason. We also make sure that the dogs are fed separately, so there are no fights over food. The giving of scraps happens with them all loose, but you have to be careful, they get a bit snappy over food.

At the moment, Nena is lying down in her crate which is about a metrre and a half from where I sit at the computer. She’s not asleep, but she’s not far off it. Ananka is lying down at rest on the dog’s sofa which is just next to (on the right of) my spot at the computer. Lah Dee is also on the sofa, and he looks like he’s asleep. Missy is lying down on the carpet, next to the sofa and about a metre and a half behind where I’m sitting. She’s awake, but she looks like she could be sleeping really soon.

This is often how the dogs and I spend the day. Me on the computer, searching the net, connecting through social media, checking emails. The dogs rest, getting ready for when it suddenly gets exciting. What could make it exciting?

Well, I may stand up. Then the dogs would get up and maybe rush to the back door, to go out for a drink and a toilet break, and to chase birds out there. If I put them out, the chasing bird thing could last for a long time. We get sparrows, starlings, spotted turtle doves and black birds every day, every time the dogs are out. Sometimes one of the dogs may get lucky  and catch a bird, in which case there might be some chasing of the lucky hunter. If it’s Ananka who catches something, she’ll get left alone. The youngsters know it’s safer to leave their mum alone.

This might all sound very boring, but I have fun with my internet connections, and my dog watching. At dinner time the dogs rush to the laundry where the dog food is. Our dogs are mostly fed a dry dog food and they usually seem to enjoy it and eat it all up. Any food that gets left is put away for the next day. Nena didn’t eat all of her tea last night, so I’m keeping a bit of an eye on her to see if she seems OK. She does, and I’ll be checking her out when she gets her tea tonight.

Nena is probably my favourite dog. She’s been with us the longest, and she may well be our last schnauzer. I love the breed, but I’m sick of the grooming involved. The PHs are much easier to groom – leave them alone most of the time and give them a brush if you feel like it. It wouldn’t matter if they hardly ever got brushed. Our dogs are no longer show dogs. If we were showing the PHs a lot more work would be required.

So that’s it. Leave a message if you’d like more info about me or my dogs. It’s a quiet life here in sunny Redbanks!

They're not called Bitches for Nothing

I've got a sneaking suspicion one of our girl dogs is coming into season. I think the girl dog is Nena. This is not a good thing.

Nena is our middle-aged schnauzer and we have more or less decided we are not going to be breeding any more schnauzers again. Ever. This was a decision I more or less made on my own, but I think (hope) my husband Graham agrees.

We are Pharaoh Hound people now, far more than we are Schnauzer people. Although, based on our showing, you could say we are just pet people. We have barely shown our dogs since the Adelaide Royal Show 2008, and when I realised I had missed the closing date for the Royal Show entries for this year I laughed and shrugged.

I guess you could say we are not that committed to showing our dogs at the moment. That doesn't mean we'll never show again, it just means we are more into our other things in life at the moment. We still have two schnauzers and a bunch of pharaohs, but they seem to have decided being couch potatoes is more fun at the moment too.

Ever since we decided the old sofa was for the dogs and our teenaged son, the pharaoh hounds have barely gone outside. They so love a comfortable life. They still run at speed, they just don't do it so often or for as long. Inside the house, on the sofa is so much nicer. It's winter in Australia, and it is very cold out there!

Anyway, back to our bitches. I caught Ananka (PH) staring at Nena and growling half an hour ago. I didn't see what Nena was doing in return, but I am very glad one was in the crate and the other loose inside the room. If they were looose together there would be a fight for sure. I don't like dog fights, so Nena and Ananka are never loose together. They both think they are top bitch. They usually don't bother looking at each other through the crate, but Ananka seems to be trying to assert her authority.

The joys of living with multiple dogs! If I was the dog whisperer, I could probably get them sorted out, but I'm not, so I just thank whoever it was that invented dog crates. I am a firm believer in dog crates. They are so useful in so many situations.