postal315 
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Oh how I wish you'd had bracelet camera! That would have been a priceless shot.
Or a cell phone video, you could have entered America's funniest video.
Oh well, it's a charming anecdote. I can see Susie just fasinated. You've descibed her as so energetic that I'm surprised she relaxed into the experience.
You'll have a memory of peace personified. Way to go Susie!
Reply #121. Jun 15 12, 1:27 PM
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| Daaanieeel
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That has to be my favourite Susie story so far. That must have been pretty special to see.
Reply #122. Jun 15 12, 10:04 PM
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Christinap
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Life with Susie has been quite quiet lately, however she made up for that with vengeance this morning.
The last few days have been very hot and humid here and she has wanted nothing more than to lay in her outside run in the shade with plenty of water. Today the humidity has gone, temperature dropped by around 10C so I decided a nice walk would be good for both of us. As soon as we hit the open part of the bridleway she was up on her toes, looking over into the long grass as though something was there. I couldn't see anything, thought she had spotted pheasants or something like that, so heeled her past it and carried out.
Coming back she was doing the same thing as we approached the long grass area again, and as the bridleway slopes a bit I was a big higher up and could see something sticking up out of the grass. I looked like the top of a ball, so I thought, OK, she's spotted it, we'll go and have a look and if it's a ball in decent condition we'll take it home with us, so we waded into the long grass. The ball wasn't a ball, it was part of someone's backside. There were two naked men indulging in what I can only desibe as a recreational outdoor pursuit. To say they were a bit surprised to have us suddenly stumble over them is something of an understatement.
Susie, you will be pleased to know, does not regard naked strange men as anything like the same threat that she sees from clothed strange men. In fact she gave every apearance of wanting to be quite friendly. They however clearly viewed her as something of a threat. As with many big dogs her nose and the sharp things in her mouth are on a dead level with the male equipment, a fact which they clearly recognised.
Honestly, I didn't know where to look, or what to say. I was standing there, thinking I can't really say I thought your backside was a ball. I started to back up, but Susie didn't want to come. She'd found them, she wanted to play with what she'd found. It was becoming obvious that we had put something of a damper on their fun and games. I dragged her out sort of muttering apologies as I went and got her back to the path and got the heck out of there. I'm not easily embarassed, but two naked men in a state of - well I leave that to your imagination, at 10.30am in more than my aging system can cope with.
When I got home I did think about it and did ring our community police officer and report it. I mean kids use that bridleway on ponies all the time and on pony or horseback you would have been able to see them quite clearly, and you don't want your kids seeing that on their morning ride. Also, had I not had a large dog with me you don't know if they would have turned nasty at being disturbed.
Reply #123. Jun 29 12, 7:09 AM
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postal315
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What an interesting area you live in!
But yes, grown men should keep their indulgences behind closed doors. Our kids seen too much too soon as it is.
Reply #124. Jun 29 12, 5:10 PM
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Christinap
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I wouldn't go into that long grass with no clothes on. It's full of horse poo, biting insects and we've seen adders crossing the bridleway and going into it on hot days as well. We stick to the path or the short grass area the other side.
As for those two, hopefully they won't be doing it again, or not there anyway.
Reply #125. Jun 30 12, 1:45 AM
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Mommakat
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I'll bet Susie thought you were a party POOper ROFL
Reply #126. Jun 30 12, 2:21 AM
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Mommakat
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Seriously though, that was a bit disgusting and would have been very embarrassing. Been in similar (though not quite as bad) situation myself - "see Tribute to Advice for Bachelors" LOL
Reply #127. Jun 30 12, 2:23 AM
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bloodandsand
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Is Susie trained! We haven't heard about her in a while, hope everything's ok.
Reply #128. Jul 22 12, 12:11 PM
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Christinap
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Everything is fine thank you. The weather has been limiting our activities somewhat. Where we walk on the bridleway has been so muddy that a couple of horses have actually gone over in it, and both our garden and the trainers fields have been too boggy for classes to be held in safety. There has been a very good chance that someone could slip over and break something.
Is Susie trained? - no, still a work in progress although she is unrecognisable from the dog we took on late last year.
I'll do a full up-date on her progress and doings in the next couple of days.
Reply #129. Jul 23 12, 7:59 AM
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Christinap
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Well, as a said our activites have been a bit curtailed due to the appalling weather. However, the last three days have been lovely, and yesterday our trainer decided to put into operation an idea that has been in his brain for a while. Now I have to give him his due, he is nothing if not brave. His idea is a sort of doggy tea party. He sourced a venue where we can move indoors if we need to.
Idea is he takes 10 dogs and owners all of whom have issues with strangers, other dogs etc and are at different stages in their training. 10 tables, all set pretty far apart. Everyone sits down, has a cup of tea and cakes, dogs sit happily beside you behaving themselves. Each person in turn walks their dog round the perimeter getting as near as their dog and the other dogs will permit. The idea is that at the end of 10 or 12 weeks everyone, dogs people the lot are sitting round one big table and everyone is getting on with everyone else. Lots of scope for complete and utter disaster there.
So, there we were yesterday afternoon. Ten dogs, owners, tables, parasols as it was very hot, water for the dogs, food. Now it honestly was not Susie who started it this time.
A lady with a doberman decided to tie the lead round the leg of her chair. Everyone was sitting there being very civilised, first person got up to take a walk round, a corgi. It was going quite well until it got to the doberman. There'd been some barking, but nothing too much. When they got level with the doberman the corgi was unable to resist his tail - which was sticking straight out behind him, and he bit it. Doberman was straight up and after him, still tied to the chair on which his hapless owner was sitting - although she didn't stay sitting on it for long. Corgi owner made the big mistake of running for it. So, corgi and owner, doberman attached to chair in full pursuit. Everyone else on their feet trying to hold their dogs back. As they got level with us the chair wedged against our table momentarily, table goes over, Susie goes straight for the cake, so does the doberman. Corgi escapes from owner and joins in. Cake going everywhere (victoria sponge if you're interested). Couple of other dogs get loose and join in. All the leads are tangled up. There's upturned tables cake and tea everywhere. Susie turns her attention to an Afghan who has cake attached to his very long coat. He doesn't want her to clean it off him so starts rolling, getting even more cake on him in the process. All of this mayhem takes only moments. Trainer and assistant wade in and we get everyone separated, even if not cleaned off. Tables and chairs are put back up and we all sit down again, except that is for the corgi, who has completely slipped his lead and is off and running. Takes four people to catch him. The rest of us sit there and watch. Susie has smug look on her face as if to say "see, it wasn't my fault, it was him".
It could have been worse. As the trainer said in analysing it, no-one got bitten, the dogs let complete strangers haul them off the food and away from each other, and they didn't react to the other dogs being in the general melee over the food.
Believe it or not we're going to do it all over again next week, hopefully with more control. Extendi leads are now banned, short leads only and everyone will be looking to see where their dogs tails are.
Reply #130. Jul 24 12, 7:44 AM
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supersal1
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Hilarious! I came to the same conclusion as you, a strangely successful experience.
I think the tea party was a wonderful idea.
Reply #131. Jul 24 12, 11:32 AM
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| C30
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As one who, many, many years ago, owned a Cardigan Corgi, why doesn't the fact it was all started by the Corgi come as any great surprise? Lol
Hilarious tale though!
Reply #132. Jul 24 12, 3:08 PM
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Christinap
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It was successful in a weird sort of way, yes. Took me half an hour to get Susie clean enough to be allowed past the kitchen though, that cake icing sticks like murder.
Looking forward to next week.
Reply #133. Jul 24 12, 4:11 PM
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Christinap
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We have noticed that Susie is more weather reactive than some other dogs we've had. She goes nuts in snow, but they all do that, wind excites her unless it is one of those that moans and it's at night, when she appears scared of it, she hates rain with a vengeance. We havn't had a good thunderstorm until today.
I had a bad night last night, upset stomach. so around 1pm today decided to try and get a nap in as I was out on my feet. Left Susie in Pete's tender care. I heard him go through with her to take her out, and moments later the heavens opened and it started thundering. Suddenly the bedroom door burst open and 35kg of soaking wet dog landed on top of me! She obviously thought I needed protection from the thunder. She proceeded to bury her head under the pillows, try to actually get in the bed under the duvet with me, and every time it thundered she dug in a bit closer. So I'm in bed, soaking wet, being trodden on, muddy paw marks all over the sheets - so much for an afternoon nap. More like get up, find clean sheets and do some washing.
Reply #134. Jul 29 12, 5:37 PM
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Christinap
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Our second week at the doggy tea party was a decided improvement on the first week. No-one tied a lead to their chair leg and with extendi leads banned all the dogs were under pretty good control. The walk round went well and essentially there was no chaos at all.
For the second part of our training this week our trainer decided that as she hadn't checked Susie's road manners for a bit we would go for a walk and we picked the high distraction route. We can go in a big loop which takes us past residential, a pub, a golf range, a garden centre, equestrian centre, mixture of road and bridleway. We set off, within 100 yards we had neighbours dogs barking at us, someone mowing their grass, no reaction at all from Susie other than to look, and it carried on that way. We had people, other dogs, a cyclist, some horses, traffic close to us, and she was absolutely perfectly behaved every inch of the way. No pulling, no lunging, no barking, no trying to trip me up by diving in between my legs. The round walk is about an hour and a half. Her trainer is delighted with her and I really do feel that we have made so much progress since she first came to us as a skinny scared little thing with no manners at all.
Reply #135. Aug 10 12, 5:36 PM
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Christinap
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I am confused (nothing new there you may think). When she is in her outside run Susie's favourite toy is water. She has a big concrete bowl that I fill up before she goes into the run (she destroyed two plastic ones before I found the concrete model). She runs in there, has a small drink. Head goes right in the water, throws it everywhere, front paws paddle up and down right in the bowl, tips it over, then yells for it to be filled up. Then comes her favourite game - play with the hose. Drinks straight from it, jumps in and out of it if I put it on shower. I get her bowl the right way up and start to fill it again, she's in there head, paws, throwing water everywhere, she gets absolutely soaked, and loves every minute of it.
So why, if there is the slightest bit of rain, is she standing there screaming its RAINING and it's NASTY and I'm getting WET and I want to come IN. Mommy come get me, get me indoors.
Reply #136. Aug 24 12, 7:48 AM
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| veronikkamarrz
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Probably a control issue. She can't control the weather!
Maybe she needs a kiddie pool to play in. :)
Reply #137. Aug 24 12, 10:18 AM
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rayven80
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Mom's Newfoundlands are the same way. They have kiddie pools to play in but they like to get the water out of the hose too. They are also the same when it's raining. Sad puppy eyes and all.
Reply #138. Aug 24 12, 11:03 AM
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Christinap
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If I could find one she couldn't destroy I'd get her a kiddie pool - someone should make a doggy proof one.
Reply #139. Aug 24 12, 11:41 AM
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Christinap
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We have a squirrel in the garden and Susie has decided to regard it as the biggest threat to mankind she has ever seen. It taunts her. It runs along the top of her run with her chasing alongside it jumping up and down not able to get it. It sits on top of the fence just out of reach. It sits on tree branches and looks down at her with what I can only describe as a smug "ya, can't catch me" look on its face.
On the bright side, trying to get this thing is giving her so much exercise she comes in completely worn out, but very frustrated. Every time she sets foot out the door she is looking for it. I wouldn't bet against her taking it by surprise and getting it one of these days.
For anyone who wants a look, I've put a photo of her helping me make the bed this morning on Photography thread for August over in Forums.
Reply #140. Aug 28 12, 7:22 PM
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