The Big 3!!!!!

Happy Birthday Oscar!!!!!!

He was the big 3 yesterday! Cannot believe it, time has gone by so fast!

For his Birthday Oscar got to go to the vets! It was definitely what he wished for, his boosters and the Kennel Cough vaccine......... NOT! He was not a happy hound. To make it up to him I gave him a pack of bacon, a WHOLE pack! Mind you, it was 5 days past its best before date but it smelt ok and I'm sure his industrial strength Hydrochloric Acid stomach of steel can cope with it. I think that made his day better.

I must admit that I didn't actually have anything for him. I had to go down to Wexford and pick him up something. I got him an Antos dog chew, which lasted about 5 minutes, and a Busy Buddy treat dispensing toy, which I'm not certain he knows how to use. 
Here's the toy
But in all fairness, even I find it hard to get treats out. I think I may have to modify it a little. He loved it though, he spent 10 minutes bouncing it around.
I was hoping to get him a new collar and I had one in mind which I could get from a pet shop but it's quite expensive for something that isn't too impressive. I could get a pacman half check chain one with an engraved slider name tag attached for about €25 roughly. It's this collar.
I wouldn't be able to get it until the end of the month though.

I have brilliant news! Oscar has finally lost the weight I wanted to get off him! For months I was trying to get a little bit of extra weight off him and I weighed him to see that he is now 13.6kg!!!! He was 16kg this time last year!!!!

He really enjoyed his walk. Sadly, he is restricted to the long line for the time being because of an incident that involved shouting on my part and ditch climbing on his. (if only I hadn't forgotten my whistle)
He was very good, and his recall is just stunning!

Lift me in please, I'm ready to go!

Its been quite some time since he wore his Julius K9 harness but seeing as it was it's 1 year anniversary with us (he got it when he was two) I thought I'd give it a spin.
We had a quick game of catch the treat,

The Horses are back in the fields again so now we are back down to only one field to walk in. I would go into the field with the horses in but there is a tricky gate and electric fence to maneuver and there are a lot of horses that I know nothing about. I spent enough time taking photos of them though, so they definitely know who I am!

Then we did some recall stuff and Oscar was great. At one point I turned around and he was doing a sit stay for no reason! I hadn't asked for it or even hinted that I wanted one but it was very good none the less!

Then we headed home. Just in time actually because it started to rain as we stepped in the door! 

Mam and Dad got Oscar a pack of pigs ears for his birthday so while they were out shopping I gave him one. It took him about 5 minutes to figure out that it was edible but then he scoffed it down! 

Happy Birthday Oscar!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sunny Day

The sun was out today. It was quite nice, but despite the sun, it was freezing!!! I still had to wear my coat, and actually zip it up on our walk and even then I was cold! Stupid wind! It ruins everything with its coldness!
If you found a spot sheltered from the wind but still open to the sun then it was really nice, so nice that if you were a dog or a cat that you could sunbathe!

We did go for a walk today, and I did bring my camera but I didn't bother with photos. I love Oscar but they are all the same, look here is one of Oscar sniffing, and another, and now one of him looking at me and then one of him in a stream looking at me, oh and then one of him sniffing....again! So if you want to see what our walk was like today then have a scroll down at some of the other blog posts.

I did take some nice pictures of him earlier though. Just to let you know though, they are all of Oscar lying in the sun and thats pretty much it so enjoy!

And then he got annoyed and hit my camera so I went out and annoyed the cat instead, but she isn't as interesting to photograph...... at least she never killed me though.....

As you can tell it was a really interesting day.......... not really.
Oscar had some turkey and pork for dinner with an egg and shell and a bit of garlic, but the freezer is bursting and the dog food is at the bottom and I really don't want to go out and dig through it to find something to give him tomorrow. I'll have to though, but maybe later......

I just saw this on Facebook and I really want to take Oscar!
 Bark in the Park
But its an hour away from us so I'm not sure..........  We will have to wait and see though.

A Few Busy Days

This blog post is so overdue so I think its time I do it now and get it done with!

I'll have to do a day by day account of what has happened over the week because if not then chances are I will mess it up and nobody will be able to make sense of it!!!

Monday to Wednesday
Nothing really happened at the start of the week to be honest. I did the usual with Oscar, walked, played, trained etc but I did start training a new trick on Monday, "Be Shy" and its coming along well. I missed a few days so he doesn't quite know it fully yet but he is getting there. On Wednesday I had to go into school for a THREE HOUR maths class!!!!! THREE HOURS!!!! I've never been so cold and bored in my life! Later on that day a friend of mime fell out with another friend and, well, I won't go into detail on that one.

Thursday
Me and Oscar walked up to meet my friend Judy and she came back to my house where we made lots of dog treats for the fundraiser thing on Saturday (don't worry, we will get to that too!). It took quite a long time to make them all, bag them up and then put the labels on them and I may have over estimated the amount of ingredients I needed....... I have half a box of cheese and a pack of ham left over! Here are some of our masterpieces!

Then I went to horse riding a little earlier than usual, dragging Judy along with me, and it was fun (as it always is, of course) even if I did fall of once and then nearly a second time!!! The first time was funny because Bobby (the horse) ran straight over and tried to eat the branch of a cross county jump as soon as I fell! It was my first time cantering a full jumping course so I was pleased that I didn't kill myself or something!!!
Then another one of my friends came over, Zoe, the one who fell out with the other friend of mine. ( I know, very confusing right?!?!) And they both stayed over that night.

Friday
We took Oscar for a long walk in the fields, while also looking for my neighbours lost dog. I'm pretty sure Oscar enjoyed it because he decided to cross the steam again that day! But at a different side this time! We got really close to that pony he found during the snow then too, to the extent that I could see that it has a cut or something on its leg. Still not sure if its owned by anybody though.....
As with every walk, here come some pictures!!!

For a dog that is supposed to hate water, he seems to be walking in it quite a lot recently! Maybe his water loving side is emerging..........

Mr.Pony getting very close to us,

Oscar then decided to go climbing! Disappearing at some points but always reappearing again eventually!

 

So he had a wonderful, adventure-ful  walk! But it was cold......... 

However with every walk where the dog returns with fox shit on its head a bath must follow and seeing as I planned on entering him into a dog show too it was probably the best option. Oscar was not happy though and I am pretty sure that I have scared most of his water loving genes away!!! 

For me?????????

Before he got in

All lathered up!

A dog feeling very sorry for himself!

After he was all done and clean!

To finish of the Friday I had to bake some more treats and put on the labels and stuff, but Mum helped me with that. 

Saturday

I was at a fundraising fun day from 11 until around half 5 selling dog treats and toys with Judy. 

It was a good day but we ran in to some problems.

The first one was where we were told to set up, it was in the wrong place! We were originally given a place by the door, but then they said to move down the hall to the area where there were some rabbits and stuff.
The second problem was the fact that people were queuing for face painting right in front of us and people with dogs were mainly up at the entrance. If everybody with a dog bought 1 bag of treats then we would have sold out in the first hour, but we actually have quite a lot of stuff left.
The final problem was the way the whole thing was run! A pony was supposed to be there at half 1 for pony rides but Marble (a pony from my stables was the pony who came along with Lisa my instructor) didn't arrive until quarter past, half past 2. I brought Oscar in at 2 so that he could do the dog show at half 2. But despite a sign saying entries taken from 2:00, I couldn't find anybody who was taking them and with a stall to run I couldn't spend ages looking around. At 3 there was finally an announcement for the show, but the judges had names of the people in each class written down so they had already paid and entered but how, I don't know. In the end I gave up waiting around and never entered Oscar in the show.

So he helped us sell stuff then instead! He met lots of dogs (4 beagles too) and people and I was so happy, he didn't go crazy with all the dogs and had a nice sniff of some and he didn't p*ss himself when he saw big dogs (one st.bernard who was 6 times his size!) and he never even attempted to jump up on people or children (he wasn't hyper around them either)   So I am over the moon about all that!!!!!  He did tricks and everything for me, and all his sits and lie downs and stands and he gave me lots of good eye contact!!!!! With all that going on around him, the supposedly untrainable Beagle was the best dog in the whole place! I may be biased though, but at least he would sit when I asked him to and didn't bark the place down like some dogs. One man had 3 dogs on one of them would not stop barking for the whole time it was there. The owner said sit, sit, sit,sit,sit,sit and then pulled up on a choke chain repeating the previous but the dog never did sit down....... I was a little shocked at all the choke chains I saw, it seemed to be part of the package with each large dog there!

I also got to talk to some lovely people, particularly one Beagle owner. She was telling me how her girl helped her lose lots of weight and how she has been taking her to training classes and lots of other stuff. It was really nice to see lots of different Beagles. I was convinced that Oscar was a big beagle but he was nearly the smallest one there, only by like a centimeter or two though

Now for some pictures from the day,

Our stall

He wanted the cake......

Our sales dog.....in my seat.....

Oscar met so many dogs, ones that didn't want to attack him for once so he got plenty of socialisation that day and in the end we made €72 which is pretty good although €30 of that is going to South east Animal Rescue which leaves us with €42, so we get about €14 each. (split between 3 people) . So I'm pretty happy with that. 

I have also decided that I want a Goat!!!! A goat like George, 

He was just awesome!!! Kept hiding under our table in the morning and trying to eat our sign! I now want a goat, never mind a dog! He could do agility and everything!!!

Sunday

Well, today I plan on doing nothing! Waiting for a new dog book to arrive so I have nothing to read. I'll probably do a little bit of training with Oscar, maybe some free shaping or scentwork and he'll be going out for a walk before his dinner. It's freezing outside though, so not sure if its going to be an on or off leash walk yet. I also plan on doing chemisty note now too.