2 x 11 = ?!

It's been a while since we last updated. For all of us life has been going like a fair! There's been lots to do at home and in training and bringing Wigeon on to try and make a decent and well behaved hound out of her .....but I've also gone back to 'school' and so I'm studying hard again. Thankfully this is on a part-time basis again as I just don't have the steam for full-time. There's also been a performance I was involved in at Wigtown Book Festival. That's made it appearances at both Wigtown Book Festivals this year - crumbs! Then there was the slight distraction of recently getting a year older and even though counting the years no longer matters - the excuse for scoffing good food does!


Why did I call this post 2 x 11? Well today, as in the photo above, I realised that Wigeon is 11 weeks old and my older hound is 11 years old. The two of them were sharing a bed this morning and looking rather sweet so I snapped this photo. The old girl is so good with this young upstart and I did catch sight of her playing with Wigeon in the garden yesterday. Old girl has a lovely nature and the patience of a saint - which is needed with a very lively Wigeon.

Wigeon is coming on incredibly well. She's got some lovely qualities but I've found some not so nice ones too. Her needle gnashers are not so nice when inserted into me and she did have a go at piercing one of my ears yesterday which I didn't appreciate. I was playing with her on the floor and she took a grab at my hair, but she got my ear too. Ears can't half bleed and yet it was only a wee hole! It seems Wigeon also has a bit of a temper about her when she's 'wronged' or feels that way. So we'll be coming to an 'arrangement' about that and it will be on my terms and not hers. This only happens if she's not getting her own way when she's been roughed up by her fluffy mum Teasel, now living up at the farm, but it's something I'll keep an eye on and check her on. I think there must be an element of 'terrorist' (terrier) in her somewhere? Who knows with a rescue?

On a very positive note, Wigeon had her second inoculation and in 13 days she had put on 1 kilo! I was amazed that she'd gone from 2.9 to 3.9 kgs so quickly. I suppose from only having two meals a day when I got her from the rescue centre to her present 4 meals a day she was likely to grow like a mushroom. It's hard for me to see how much she's growing with seeing her all the time but looking back at the camera full of photos I can see such a difference from when she came. The legs are certainly getting longer and she's very good at doing hand-brake turns round the garden when she goes mad!

Wigeon was sitting on command at 9 1/2 weeks old and then was sitting and waiting for her food a few days after that. When I say, 'OK get it,' she's like an Olympic sprinter out of the starting blocks and heading straight for her bowl - obviously going for the gold medal every time. Her lead work is coming on, but she does think it's fun to grab the lead and have a play instead of concentrating and being serious. An old film canister with her puppy food in is good to rattle when I call her and she comes and sits in front of me looking expectant until she's given a piece of her food. My brother saw her do this yesterday and was really impressed. He's a whizz with training sheepdogs for farm work. I reckon he thinks hounds are disobedient and hard going with training but Wigeon seems to be a really fast learner. I hope this isn't all too good to be true and to keep up, but with Wigeon so far, I don't think so. I reckon she's got some healthy grey matter between her large ears as well as that streak of determination!

Yesterday I looked up Wigeon in terms of Chinese calendar years - she's an ox; an 'earth ox.' That makes the last three dogs a dragon, perhaps appropriately she was called Puffin but only because I'd studied the morphology of the puffin and I name all my dogs after birds. Then along came a 'tiger' born under the sign of Leo so two cats in one for her but with an owl name. Confused? It's always the bird names I go for in naming dogs ......although there is one bird name that I'll never use for a future dog!

So it's all chaos and madness here with the puppy, my lovely old hound and me back to studying hard.