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.

Distruction!!

So its gotten round to that time of year again,Oscar is digging for worms. He is making potholes in our garden!

And he took out one of our hedging plants,but it was dead so he actually did me a favor

I had filled in the hole before i took the picture

And for the biggest hole so far,

Its deeper than it looks!

He gets kongs,treats,toys,cat food you name it but he would rather seach for worms and eat them. But i must say its quite impressive,the fact that he can smell things underground and pinpoint exactly where they are. Maybe i should have stuck with the tracking after all?

And there is more,despite his numerous chew toys he decided that hose pipe connections were nicer,so he has chewed all of the hose connections we own,

And those are just from the front garden!

He also lost his stag bar,and i have been looking for it all week but i found it today! It was under his favourite tree,don't know why i didn't look there in the first place!
Oh and this is what happened to the only good football we had,

But in all fairness,i do play football with Oscar each week.

And finally,i am finished school! Until next Wednesday when i have to go in and do my junior cert exams.
But on an end note today,Oscar is quite happy relaxing in his bed in the sitting room(after all the chewing and digging)

The weekend!!

Friday started off good,but Saturday soon turned out not so fun for Oscar. Saturday was annual booster and kennel cough day,and that all included a trip to the vets. It was a new vet clinic this time,we took him to get his boosters done in the kennels we send him to when we go on holidays(and he absolutely loves it).There is a vet clinic and grooming studio on site and Oscar quite liked the vet clinic and the nurse in the beginning,and i liked her too,she was so much friendlier and nicer to both me and Oscar.
But all went down hill for Oscar when she took out the needles.He was fine with the boosters and the check up but then came the needle up the nose. It was like a military operation trying to hold him still,but eventually we got the needle up his nose
He wasn't right then for the rest of the day,he just wanted to do nothing and the heat didn't help with his mood either.He didn't even eat his chicken drumstick,he just left it to cook in the sun
And to make his day even worse i soaked him with the hose and gave him a bath! He was horrified at the though of it,but it was the bath i was meaning to give him since February so at least its out of the way now.
But he wasn't happy,

                                     So he sat on my mums chair while he was soaking wet!!!


Today was better though,we started of by hiding his breakfast in the kitchen for him to find,a game that he really enjoys,

I can get it,i can get it,just one more inch!

                                       
Then he decided to come say hello while i had my toast,

Mmmmmm....can i have some???

And then out to say hello to the horses,but he decided to sit and wait until i got back

I had plenty of free time today so i decided to get back into weave pole training. I had to start from day one yesterday,because i hadn't done it right before so today was our second session. He did good for about 5 goes then he decided to have a lie down,

No thanks i think i will lie down

 It wasn't like he had to weave 12 poles,he just had to walk through the middle of 2 poles and then he got a treat,must have been very difficult and tiring work????











So anyway,that didn't go quite to plan,but at least we got something done. Instead we did some recalls,and he was happy to come back for some ice cubes to play with.

Did i hear you say ice cubes?

Later in the day he got a bone,which he did eat,and an ice pop!

Yummy!!! 

And after all the tiring work he had done he had a snooze in the middle of the garden in the sun

I also took this opportunity to take a nice photo of his paw!!

And then  he decided to help with the wheelbarrow,

So,where do i push it?

The cat also had a very productive weekend, she spent most of it on this lovely rock!!

I have also found a lovely swimming pool on sale in Argos,so i will be getting that tomorrow! Can't wait to see how Oscar likes that! It also comes with 2 inflatable dolphin things holding a net,a volleyball and a water slide thing that you put on the ground.  But i only actually need the pool!!

Fridays,don't you just love 'em!!!

I do! They have got to be the best day of the week,end of school week,homework isn't due till Monday and the sun comes out!!!  It had to be the hottest day of the year,without a doubt,it was gorgeous! After all its about time the sun made an appearance,i think the sunny south east actually lived up to its name today!

So had a right day today after school,met up with my friend at 6 and we went for a great walk in the woods,Oscar had a great time and we will all sleep tonight too.
We also have some visitors in the back field too.

I also tried to give them an apple but they didn't want it.
So now that horses occupy the fields,Oscar wont be walking in there for another little while.
But we had great fun in the woods.

Oscar took the lead,as we made our way though the trails,

And we decided to drop the long line,to stop Oscar tangling himself around trees,and he did well,following us and waiting for us to catch up to him.
We also took the river walk trail,so he had the chance to go swimming,and while he wanted to go down to the river we were not prepared to go under the barbed wire fence. Not just yet anyway,but we admired it from the distance!

So Oscar improvised and tried to drag us somewhere else!

After a while he got tired and slowed down a little,and let me take some nice pictures,

He certainly enjoyed himself!!!  Will be a great place to play scent games in!!! 
Hopefully the weather will stay nice and warm for the weekend. Fingers crossed anyway!