Rainy days!!!

Well the horrible weather is back! Rain all day today,just like yesterday......and the day before!
There were no magical energy consuming indoor obstacle courses today. Just a very wet walk! Lets just say my coat is no longer waterproof,and well,my boots had ponds in!
Oscar seemed quite happy though,even in the rain and he doesn't like the rain. So after our walk it was time to be dried off,which Oscar liked very much!

A very wet doggie!

Towel time fun!

I've got a cape!!!

I sees you with my eye!

And to go backwards with the day,now i will talk about this morning!
Well as you could have guessed,it was wet so Oscar wasn't too pleased with his morning walk at all,but he soon cheered up when i brought out his new toy,

 

 

Then of course the game had to end,and he soon discovered that i had toast and came to say hello.

Why,hello there,i see you have toast. I too,enjoy toast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also enjoy a nice belly rub,sitting up!

And i can do it sideways!!

And now to confuse you even more we are going to jump to the present! And again,its still pouring down but the wind has joined in now too!
So Oscars a little hyper,but he always is when it rains. But still,he is in his bed,chewing away on his stag bar(finally)

And this is a funny one,well i think so,that i got earlier.I think he looks like he is in a bed deeper than it is,like he is in a hole and i slapped a soft thing in front of it!

Well this will be our last post for 2 weeks because Oscars off to the kennels tomorrow,which he absolutely loves! And I'm off to Florida for 2 weeks on Saturday!!! And only 1 exam for me tomorrow,German,and thats fairly easy.

Roll on Summer!!! And bring the weather too please,not the rain!

Nature can be cruel sometimes

Well yesterday wasn't the nicest day I've ever had.
I was on the computer yesterday when i heard my Dad shouting at Oscar outside,i went down to see what all the racket was about only to see that Oscar had just eaten a whole,live BABY BIRD!
He had been paying a lot of attention to a cedar tree that day,and i couldn't figure out why because i couldn't see anything in it,well there was obviously a birds nest in it.
So that was bad enough,but to make matters worse i went out to Oscar after he had his dinner to see him attacking a shrub type bush thing on the other side of the garage. Underneath that bush on the path(the bush was on a raised part) was another dead baby bird.  This one must have fallen when he was attacking the bush because Oscar didn't notice it. But then another baby fell but Oscar was quick to get it. He had it and ran off with it up the garden,with me in my socks trying to get the poor bird off him. He dropped it and the bird moved,and he pounced on it.
At this point it was still alive and both me,in my socks,and my mum,who had shoes,were trying to get oscar. We finally cornered him in his run and he spat the bird out. I grabbed him by the collar and rushed him inside.
But the bird was still ALIVE !!!

So we scooped it up with gloves and tried to find its nest. We couldn't find it,but even if we did either the cat or the dog would soon get it again.

So we made one,out of a box,paper and leaves and put it in a higher tree,in the hope its parents would get to it.










All we could do was wait and see what happened..............................

......I got up this morning and went to check on the bird,but it had died. Probably out of shock.

The poor little birdie!!!
But i had an opportunity to do something here,i could show Oscar how to behave around the bird,whether it was dead or not.So i showed it too him and let him have a sniff,and rewarded him for not trying to take it,

I don't know if it did any good,to be honest. It probably didn't but i still liked the fact that Oscar didn't try and run off with it again. And he probably knew that it was dead.







He is a hunting beagle after all,he likes to chase birds,hunt for rabbits,although he has never caught one,stalk birds in the garden and chase the cat. But she has scratched him many times now,you would think he would have gotten to message by now!  So what can i say? That i am angry with him? Because i am not,i am actually quite impressed that he could pick up and remember the scent of the birds without being trained,it just goes to show how amazing his nose actually is.Its his instinct,he was doing what he was bred to do,or at least as close as he could get!

And i think this just goes to show how cruel nature can be!

Rainy Sundays!

Well......it rained today,it rained all day. So Oscar spent his day in doors,only going outside when it was dry or when we went for walks. So how could i keep this dog from tearing up the house out of boredom and get him to sleep and settle down tonight? I did some training and some search games inside,but it wasn't enough,i had to put my thinking cap on!
And it worked,i had an idea,and it was a good one at that! Trick training with cheese cubes and an....................... OBSTACLE COURSE!!!!!  
I got a bunch of things together and made up an obstacle course in the hallway,and it was good fun too,especially without my parents about to give out to me.
The first thing was just a line of chairs he had to walk on,he still found it fairly challenging in the beginning though,

And then we set up the actual course part,

He had to go over the camouflaged towel jump,ignore the teddy bear distractions,crawl over the the beanbag and then over the final jump.

We also had a race at it,but he won,surprisingly,i thought the teddy bear i threw at him would slow him down,but no it just made him go faster!!

Over the towel jump,made up of a bin,2 boxes and some of my school books! Oh,and the 2 towels used to dry Oscar off.

And over the bean bag. He was supposed to crawl over it but he didn't quite like that so he improvised! I had to use my hardbacks to block him getting around the sides.

He might have gotten a little distracted on the way back. I think i might have dropped some cheese there by mistake!

He did eventually get brave and tackled the bean bag they way he was supposed to,having a little lie down in the middle!









Then it was outside for a toilet break,but i can't say he was too pleased with that!

Then it was back inside,where Oscar found his new beloved friend,paddington bear!!!

Mine!

Friends forever! Well until he eats the coat that is!

And here is Oscars newest trick,Stand tall!

I also made a long line today! I can finally give my agility trainer back her one when i see her again. I could get a 30ft long line online for 10euro,or i could go to aldi,buy a set of strong and light gang lines and use and old lead clip to make a 24ft one for only 5euro and i have 2 gang lines left over to make another!

Decisions,decisions,decisions

This week was fairly busy,finished school on the Wednesday and spent the rest of the day studying in the library with my friend,spent Thursday at home with Oscar and on many of the dog forums i am on(your dog,dogsey,pet forums) and i did the slightest bit of study. And then Friday was really a waste of a day,me and my friend went in to the library only to find that the study center was closed,so we spent the whole day sauntering around the boring town. Typical,when we want to study we cant!
But something good did come out of spending the whole day in town on Friday.We went up to Lidl and Aldi,and i could look at prices of meat. What a strange thing for a 15 year old school girl to be doing,isn't it? Well it had a purpose,and after a look on the Aldi website yesterday i have had a break through!

I have always wanted to put Oscar onto a Raw diet,but it never suited us,we either didn't have the money or it wasn't convenient enough. So that's why i spent almost 6 months researching dog food, and as an alternative to raw i chose a grain free food with high meat content( The Applaws dry food) . But i did still intent on one day moving Oscar over to Raw.
Well,after researching the raw diet a good bit(last year and while i was doing dog food research) and looking at prices online from English suppliers and in local supermarkets,i have finally found an opportunity to feed raw.
If i get all the meat from Aldi and scraps from the butchers,it will only cost 15-20euro a month to feed a full raw diet! Thats cheaper than feeding dry food! And thats exactly what i wanted to find out!

Only problem is that i will have to prepare all meals by myself,because it wont come straight from a raw food supplier so it will take a while to get a balanced diet. And freezer space may be an issue but i am sure my nanny has an old freezer we could have,where to put it though is another problem. I also need to get a book,but i have no money right now so there is another problem.

So i am going to try a semi raw diet over summer,then once i get prices sorted and if oscar does well and my parents are ok with it(which they will be) i might be switching to raw.
But i need to make the decision,take the leap or not to take the leap?
Certainly the pros of this diet are never ending and Oscar will love having raw everyday but will it work out?

I really hope so! But only time will tell.