Sunday Drive

We had a big adventure today and I suppose you could say it was our version of a Sunday drive. It started off as a normal walk in the fields but It was nice out today and I really felt like exploring so that's exactly what we did!

I've still got no dry food for treats (should be here tomorrow) so it was more cheese cubes today. Though I got no complaints from Oscar. It was quite cold out so Oscar had his fleece on too and I must say, it's turned out to be one of the most useful things in the house. He's always bone dry (bar his legs) when I take it off and warm too, but not so warm that I have to worry about him overheating in it. And it's light too, so if I do feel like taking it off him I can and then fold it up so it fits in my pocket.

Anyway, moving on to the actual walk itself. It was quite strange to have the moon in the sky on my right and then the sun shining in the sky to my right but it was really nice to look at when I was sitting in the trees. It was dryer out today so I could get much higher in the trees (meaning that Oscar couldn't follow though). Although with the bad stormy weather the past week some of the trees have taken quite a beating.
Enough talk about trees, here are some pictures!

To the right.....

.....And to the left

Why are you sitting in a tree? I'm waiting!

Poor tree

Looking rather unhappy

If you're very bored on a walk and get the opportunity to cross a stream then definitely do it! It will introduce you to a world of new fields! 

You first Oscar!

A nice new field to explore!

Another new one. Looks mucky but wasn't as bad as you'd think. 

I really loved the last one, 

It was so big and green and empty! If I had a horse it would have been amazing to gallop through at top speed but alas I don't so I just made up for that and ran around with Oscar instead and then I couldn't get him to leave me alone for the rest of the way home! He was constantly by my side looking up in the hope of either a game of chase or some cheese.

Here are just a few photos of our messing about. They're not great but as you can imagine, running about chasing a dog or running away from one and taking good photos is not the easiest of tasks, fun though!

Then after all that messing about it was time to head home,

Bombs away!!

My loyal hound waiting for me on the bank, or is he waiting for a treat?

Treat please!

The only downside of the Equafleece is that legs still have to be washed off afterwards!

And to finish off tonight here is a photo of 2 of the over 50 horses that trotted past my house on Friday (there must have been a hunt canter on or something, no hounds with them though and thank god for that!). What I would have given to be out there with them but I don't think anybody would let me borrow their horse if I just walked across with my gear and asked them!

The Way to A Beagles Heart Is Through The Stomach

We had a fantastic walk today. When one has cheese you can rebuild your bond with your dog in a matter of seconds! 

Typically, it started to rain as soon as we stepped out the door but Oscar was properly prepared in his coat so it didn't stop us at all! Luckily enough, it cleared up about 20 minutes into the walk and the sun came back out again. I did take my camera with me today too so I have some photos! 

Treat pouncing!

One level at a time

Let me up, let me up!

Are you coming down?

Finally in the tree!

It really is incredible what the right treats can do! I did a little tree climbing today (evident from the last few photos) and Oscar wanted to join in. He was very interested in getting up the trees after me, but there is only so high his little paws can carry him. 

I got around to cutting his nails today as well. Getting his nails short is the never ending struggle. I set out to do it but then one day I forget to cut them and that ends it all. Here's to hoping that this time I may get somewhere with though! 

I've ran out of treats entirely. Literally, we have no treats left. That's part of the reason why I had to use cheese today. But I'm ordering 13.6kg of Taste of the Wild dry food tomorrow. It's on sale, at €55 so that should last me a very long time! 

Kidneys!!!!

Kidney's, I've got new kidneys! Any Doctor Who fans?

Anyway, I arrived home today to find a bag of butchers scraps on the counter that mam got for me. I opened them up, gagging at the stench, and I see KIDNEYS! 6 weeks and I finally get kidneys, and lets not forget that they were free too. There were a few other things in there with them, but I haven't had a chance to sort it out yet.

So, with that, Oscar had some kidney and sardines for dinner (I may pay dearly for the combination later on tonight but it was all we had). 2 huge kidneys, they must have been huge pigs or small cows but they stank! I was fighting the urge to reproduce my own dinner on the grass. It was absolutely dire! Oscar has rolled in things before, and I'm well used to handling and sorting out raw meat but this was just disgusting. I had to take some extreme measures when it came to getting dinner ready,

Yes, that is indeed a gas mask! And yes, I am also in my uniform!

In the end I only managed to hack off enough of the kidney for that meal and the rest is now waiting in the fridge, tightly packed up in 2 plastic bags so that we don't all die when we open the fridge.

Despite the smell, I am very pleased with the fact that we have kidneys again!

Priorities

It appears to be that time of year where I need to get my priorities straight. I've just gotten my laptop back and I've been sitting in the same spot for pretty much the entire weekend except for food and to walk Oscar, which is not good, I know. I need to decided where my priorities lie because right now they are definitely not with school. Currently it seems as if they lie with the thing sitting on my lap, and that isn't Oscar either.

Do you ever just feel like the internet and the telly are the best things in the world, but also the worst? Because right now, I do. I spend my weekdays in school from 9 till 4 and everyday I come home telling myself that I'm going to do my homework straight away, or that I'm going to play with Oscar but how many times does that actually happen? Very few. Instead I'm on my tab straight away to check if the internet modem is turned on and if it is (which is the case most days) then I can guarantee you it's not homework I'll be doing or Oscar I'll be walking. It's tv shows that I'll be watching online. Namely Doctor Who, Sherlock or Supernatural. But it's not like I haven't seen them before. I can quote at least one line (and sometimes entire scenes in sync with the actors) in every episode of  Doctor Who, and I have seen a certain scene (I wont say in case of spoilers) in 'His Last Vow' of  Sherlock 6 times now. Its an obsession and it's not right.

I haven't played with Oscar, with a toy in the garden for, I'd say about 3 weeks. It's disgraceful, I know. And I can't even remember the last time I sat down with my clicker and treats in hand to actually train him something new, no matter how useless or bizarre. I don't walk him during the week because "I don't have the time", when in fact I could easilly make time to do it after school. I can't even tell you that I walk him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday when I do have the time because on more than one occasion now he has gone without a walk on any one of those days. I'm quite simply, lazy and becoming totally uninterested in Oscar. I never thought I'd ever say the latter part of that sentence and I shouldn't really have any reason to either, but I do. As a result Oscar's behaviour and training is going down the drain. Just 2 days ago he ignored all recall signals and ran away from me, out of the field and down to the road. He is less responsive to any commands on walks, even the casual ones that tell him to walk a little closer to me or to come this way not that way.
At home he is putting paws up on counters a lot more and not settling down at night. The clicker means very little to him and his recall has quite simply gone to shit.

School is very much in the same boat as Oscar as well. You'd think that I'd be trying a little more this year, given that it's 5 months until my leaving cert, the exam which will ultimately decide what I do with the rest of my life. You'd think I'd be doing some study and trying at school but I'm not. I've never really tried that hard to begin with and I've always been fine but now it's different. Now I really am not trying, and not caring and as a result school work is suffering, and suffering terribly.

So there's the question, where do my priorities really lie? It's time to cop on and make some changes I think, and soon.

New Year and Back to Square One Again

First off, Happy New Year everyone! No new years resolutions this year, I don't really feel like adding to my list of things to do for the first week of January!

Moving on, the new year hasn't exactly been great for Oscar so far. We went on our walk yesterday when he was shocked by an electric fence wire that was knocked down by some trees that fell in the storm. I'm unsure if he got shocked on the nose or the paw but either way he did not like it. I'd always assumed that the fence was turned off and I've never really had any reason to check it because we can get under the fence easily without touching it and any time I have touched it, it's been with my coat so I wouldn't feel anything anyway. But now I am under no illusion as to whether or not it is on or off. Needless to say, Oscar was not pleased and let out a good yelp when it happened. He proceeded to run straight back home with no interest in stopping. He was so shocked (sorry) that he wouldn't take a treat, even the dried sprats that he loves.

I wasn't about to give up there and then so I clipped his lead on (it's a good thing that I remembered it) and continued with the walk as we usually would. He was fine with that and plodded along next to me as we made our way to the second field. In there I let him off the lead again and he went about his usual business and started to eat treats again. He did occasionally stop and turn to go back home but he came along when he was told to until we got to the 3rd field. Here, he legged it home yet again for no apparent reason (there is no fence around that field, just ditches and banks). Off I went again to get him and back we went to continue our walk.

By the time we got to field 4 he was fine, let him off the lead again and he was totally back to his normal self. He walked home off leash as we usually would and all seemed to be fine. It may have been a frustrating walk going backwards and forwards again and again and chasing Oscar all over the place but I thought he'd be fine after that.

But was I wrong! Today he started to make his way back home again as soon as we were half way through the first field. Luckily enough, that was the only time he did it and the rest of he walk went very much undisturbed as usual but it's clear that he isn't comfortable with the field anymore, at least not one side of it anyway.

I spent months getting him back into the fields because of the incident with the horses but now I may be back to square one again! I just hope it will be a simple fix though. I'm going to walk the other way around the field for now and avoid the side where the fencing has fallen down but by doing this I am risking him being scared by the GSD down the road that likes to charge at the fence and bark at us. If that doesn't work I might just have to resort to keeping him on a lead until we get to the 2nd field and wait for him to come around again.

Seasons Greetings

I hope everybody had a lovely Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year!

It was a lovely day indeed (until Doctor Who came on, but that's a different matter entirely and I fear that I'll only annoy and anger myself if I speak of it). I got up at the later time of half 8 this year as my brother did not get up an wake us all up so I ended up being the first one up and out of bed and ready to open presents. I got my new laptop, which is wonderful.....apart from the itunes issues and the fact that windows 8 is extremely difficult to get the hang of. Oscar too got some lovely presents, not as many as the previous years but then again, he'd be more than happy if you got him an empty box, flower pot or egg carton!

He loves the toy and so far it's still looking intact. The treats were greatly appreciated too although I did specify that only one pack is to be opened at a time, however that did not last long as now all 3 are open!

Oscar was not allowed to come to Christmas dinner at my grandparents house (I did try my best to fight his case but I'm not a good lawyer) so we went out for an extra long morning walk. It really felt like a Christmas morning - cold frosty air, gentle cool breeze and the crunch of hard frosty grass beneath my boots. Oscar didn't care for any of that though and just wanted to get out to stretch his legs and run around like a lunatic!

Would have looked better with snow, but nothing I could do about that!

Wishing some rabbits a happy christmas!

He took to walking through the frozen puddle, he later decided that it was a bad idea!

Zoomies in the garden!

He got one more present that day too, but he had to wait until after dinner to get it. He waited a very long time to finally get one of his own and after all of my indecision and oooo-ing and ahhh-ing he finally has one........ an Equafleece!!! It fits him perfectly just as I thought but it's a nightmare to get on and off. Putting his legs in first and then his head seems to be a lot easier than putting head and then legs in but it's still awkward. There must be an easier way to go about doing it. I was thinking that turning it inside out would help so I'll give that a try tomorrow and see how we go. Here's the handsome fellow himself modeling his new coat, (they're a little blurry)

He had it on him for our walk today and he got it nice and wet and mucky. As soon as we got home I washed off the muck in the sink but I was astounded to find that the inside of the fleece was still bone dry! People had told me such things before and that's one of the reasons why I wanted one but I can't say that I was fully convinced (especially since the Dublin Dog Collar issues). Even my Mam commented on how good the coat looks and feels! So here's to hoping that it lasts a good few years too!

Wishing you all a very happy New Year! 

It's Christmas......

......nearly......

And I'm so excited too! I cannot wait for Christmas! I'll have my own laptop and an Equafleece for Oscar! The only part I'm dreading is transferring all my photos to the new laptop, it's going to take me forever but at least it's an excuse for me to sort them all out.

Oscar will be getting the octopus toy for Christmas.....technically he's already had a little play with it but it's been living in my wardrobe ever since so it will be like he's never seen it before. That's all though I'm afraid as I am broke! For once in my life I have very little money...but I suppose €20 is more than what some people have. Maybe I'll invest it, I'll just jump in my Tardis, go back in time and invest in Apple.

The other good news is that the fields behind the house are finally empty! Well there are horses in field no.2 but they spend their time in the field next to it with more grass in so they're not an issue. And even with the horses within view Oscar still went into all the fields today, he wasn't scared one bit! As it was our first walk back in 'our territory' I took lots of photos!!!  

Green Freedom!!!

Back to recalls again

HAY BALE!!!!!!!!

THERE WAS A HAY BALE!!!

It's a good thing I wore wellies today

In tip top shape thanks to raw feeding! 

Time for a game of 'Catch the Treat'

Got one!

And off again!

Wonder who's paw this could be?

I'm coming!!!

A walk wouldn't be complete without a dash around the garden when we return home! 

Walks have really been dragging on and on and on recently and haven't been enjoyable at all but this walk today was lovely! Oscar was a good as gold and time seemed to fly by. The weather was lovely too. It was cold out but the sun was shining and the fields weren't mud pits.

In other news, Oscar's Dublin Dog collar eventually arrived. You know, that one that was sent out to me 4 weeks ago? Well it arrived  last tuesday......

And thats the Royal Mail - Packet for Ireland, to Australia it goes!  Honestly, I was utterly speechless!
But that's not all, after I complained about the first replacement collar not arriving after 3 weeks, Dublin Dog kindly sent me out another replacement collar. That collar arrived 2 days after the one above, so now I have 2 identical collars, both of which were free! It took a long time to get them here but 2 brand new collars for the price of one broken one - score!
The difference between Oscar's old collar and the new one was unbelievable!

It's not like Oscar goes cave diving and his collar gets a lot of ware and tear because it doesn't, or didn't. I don't really know how so many people with bigger, stronger dogs say that they look as good as new even after 3 years because mine certainly didn't after less than 1 year! But if these 2 new ones live up to the expectations that I originally had (and all the praise that they get)  then I'll never need to buy another collar again.

Time for something different. As of late it's been so hard to get kidneys in the shops for Oscar. Liver is the only offal that I can get and it's getting annoying. He's getting too much liver for my liking but he needs the offal in his diet so what can you do? Not feed as much liver and mess up the 'balance' or risk giving too much liver? I do have some tripe though so for now that's replacing a meal of liver each week but that's going to be gone soon too.
I have no shortage of hearts though. The biology teachers in school kindly proved me with the hearts they use for the dissection experiments. It's wonderful to get them for free and already cut in half for me! But I do get the strangest looks from other students when the teachers ask if I want them, or if the see me carrying them to my locker. And if I mention that I give them to the dog RAW they look at me like I'm crazy. The things we do for our dogs....or maybe it's just me who brings lamb hearts home from school for my dog...

To finish things off I'll leave you all with a few festive pictures of my new pet - Oscar the Reindeer!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!