Mug Shot

No words today guys, just a picture of my handsome mug! Hehe.

Slobbers

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Walkies?

Hello Everyone....guess what? It’s the weekend and weekend are just awesome! A big thanks to www.dogbarkcollar.com  for this post today. We live for the weekend, because weekends mean Mum gets to spend a whole 2 days with us without having to go to work, although she does spend some time with her friends or doing other human things…which we think is completely unacceptable, don’t you agree? As Mum works full time and despite the fact we do get a good hour or so of walkies each week day Mum tries to take at least one of us out each weekend to some where a bit different. Like our blog post a few weeks ago when we all went to a place up in the Lake District which had a very doggy friendly visitor centre, called Brock Hole. Mum was feeling really brave that day and took all of us, and we behaved surprisingly well. As you all know Daisy Boo is a bit of a shy violet, around the boys she is a ruff and tumble macho girly. But in public places with lots of people she tries to avoid the centre of attention. But taking her out with Dante and Sampson she seems to see how they behave around strangers and in fact there is nothing to worry about.

Around our town and the especially Lake District is a fairly doggy friendly place and everything is within a reasonable drive for us-even though we have been to lots of places there are still loads of doggy friendly things for us to do and explore. But the best thing about where we live is the abundance of places for us to walk in safety and relatively undisturbed. 

Firstly, all our local beaches are super dog friendly (as long as you are respectful and you make your human pick up your, erm ‘business’ and that your under control around other animals and people) there is a beach that has lots of wildlife in the sand Dunes, so between March and October you have to be on your leads so the birdies and other animals can have their babies in peace! Plus beaches are the best place for zoomies with your brother & sister.

Secondly there are lots of woods & forests for us to run around and explore near us too! In fact we go to the woods near our house almost every day (unless we go to the beach or somewhere different)and we often meet lots of our doggy friends up there too; you could call it an unofficial ‘doggy park’.

.Mum says although it is nice that we have each other to play with it is good for us to socialise with other doggies of all different shapes and sizes. We love it because it is a mixture of woods (and with woods there are lots of sniffs and things to roll in!) fields and big muddy puddles.We can have a big run too, as long as we avoid the trees, hehe.

Along with our woods and beaches, we can venture up into the Lake District where there are more places for us to walk- forests, lakes, moors and even mountains! But that is a story for another day. What about you, what are you favourite place, or places to walk?!

 Slobbers

P.S Mum got a bigger car recently- I still don't think we fit!

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My life with a young arthritic slightly hip dysplasia riddled dog.

Hello everyone! Dante here, I knew I’d get myself some blog time sooner or later! We want to give a big thanks to www.dogfencediy.com for this bloggy post. Sampson does seem to be stealing the lime light lately don’t you think? Myself  and Daisy Boo were begging to feel a bit left out from all his publicity, but enough about them too this post is all about me.  Well, about me and my sore back leggy problem, it has really gotten worse over the past fews months and is making me and Mum rather sad, my whining was making everyone feel sorry for me –hehe, at least I am milking lots of attention. But Mum wants to right this post from her point of view, but don’t worry it is still about me!

Words from Mum- Dante is my first dog, the first dog that taught me everything I know, Dante taught me how to handle those sharp puppy teeth trying to chew you and your wordly possessions to peices, those seemingly endless weeks where your pup doesn’t grasp why he cannot just pee and poop where ever his heart desires and why on earth you start flailing wildly when you have a tiny..ok rather large ‘accident’ on the carpet several times a day. 

The day I got Dante I finished work and drove the 2 hours north to the border, initially to see some tiny cream 5 week old Labradoodle pups.  I drove into the outskirts of Carlisle to a lonely little farm sitting quantity in the middle of the fields- it looked like something out of a certain Werewolf film! When we pulled in we were greeted by some very aggressive barking from what we assumed was the ‘farm dog’ coming from the nearby barn. We entered the house, and were greeted by squirming yelping little cotton wool balls of pups and were told we could leave a deposit for the pup of our choice and come back to collect it in a few weeks’ time. Obviously I was smitten by the adorableness of the little ones, the breeder then went on to say that she had three 12 week old ‘Labradoodle’ pups out back that were ready to today home today. Foolishly I said I would take a ‘look’.  Twenty minutes later I had a very confused black lanky puppy sitting in the back seat of my car. A rather rash decision on my part, considering I had not seen either of his parents only this now rather bewildered pup and his two boisterous and scruffy  brothers. So to this day I do not know the true parentage of my supposed ‘Labradoodle’…now when people ask what kind of dog he is I always reply ‘He is a good dog’.

Since his puppy hood Dante has always walked with what he have called a ‘waggly’ gait, meaning his back end has always swayed with the grace of an elephant trying to do the Samba and his back left leg has flicked out at a slightly crooked angle as he ran. He was taken to our vets at the time as I was concern that he may have a hip/leg problem that would cause him issues when  he was older- but my worries were dismissed and I was told ‘it’s just the way he is’ . But that concern was always at the back of my mind. Dante had a happy healthy adolescence we were constantly going on hikes and day trips, besides his ‘waggly walk’ we had no indication that in a few short years my fuzzy bear would be struggling to go about his day to day life.

The terrible twos -enter the Daisy Boo! When Dante hit two our second scrufster entered our lives and Dante relished the job of teacher and brother albeit with a slight limp to his walk.  We took him again to the vets who gave us several course of ant anti inflammatory tablets that did nothing to shift his limp. This limp-drug cycle continued for another year or so with Dante, not being in pain as such but he did look uncomfortable a times. We also had a spell at hydrotherapy, which amazingly made him so much worse, the poor dog was in agony after each session, we could see the benefits were seriously being over shadowed by the short term negative impact it was having on it, so after a few months he was taken off the programme.

In the few months after Sampson finally entered our lives we knew Dante wasn’t right- he was less exuberant on our walks, less active at home and as a result began to pile on the weight, which in turn made the limp and his hips much much worse.  But thankfully, due to an overdue change of vets Dante was thoroughly x-rayed with his arthritis and dysplasia confirmed which at least gave us something to work with.

Now he has been diagnosed Dante has had a few life alterations, firstly he is on the dreaded D-I-E-T, the vets did say because of his condition it would take him several months to shift the extra bulk, but that means NO treats and teeny portions of food. He still needs his walkies, but they are to be ‘gentle’ which is often hard to stick too when your arthritic dog gets his uncoordinated zoomies! Dante loves to swim, and although he over does it at times, I try to take him and just him to the beach when the tide is in so he can do what he loves most without being competitive with his brother and sister.

Along with his diet Dante is on his Joint Supplement tablets- as are Daisy Boo and Sampson. They get crushed into their second meal of the day, Daisy Boo gets one and Dante & Sampson get 2 each, to help keep their joints supple too! 

Along with drugs to help lessen the progression arthritis Dante also has his pain relieving and anti inflammatory medicine ‘Meta Cam’ which we give him if he is having one of his bad days. We try not to give him too much as in the long run it can cause liver damage so we keep its usage to the minimum.

Dante is also helped with the little things, we try not to let him jump from any great height, we have a special ramp which- although I took him some getting used too, does reduce the stress on his joints getting in and out the car. He is also encouraged not to lie on the hard floor, so he is given free reign for any sofa or bed in the house he wants!

People have said it is our fault for not buying responsibly, neither of his parents have been hip scored, but at the end of the day he was still born and I would relive this journey had with him without a second thought, he has taught me so much not only about the joys of dogs but how to see the light in everything, even when you’re hurting. Dante can keep his gentle good nature, even when he is in severe pain; I hope one day I can be as patient as my boy. Obviously in the future we will have to take further measure to keep him happy and comfortable, methods such as steroid injections and hip surgery, but that is a bridge we will cross when it comes to it, but in the meantime, although he is not the most active dog in the world, he certainly is one of the happiest!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Our last 'Summer' Hike.

Here in the UK, there is a mythical phenomenon that supposedly comes around every year. This is called 'Summer'. Now we and Mum have only ever caught odd glimpses and days of this rare thing, but now Mum says that 'summer' is nearly over- did it really ever come?! Anyway, it turned out to be a glorious Saturday last weekend, so it was hike time!

Now Mum decided to go to this little lump of a fell called 'Gummers Howe'. It is not a very big walk, but it's good because you still get fantastic views for quite a short climb, only 1053ft above sea level- I mean just check out the view from the car park!

Mum decided, because you know I'm the best. Tell the truth Sampson! Ok Mum decided to take just me, because for one Dantes legs would have really hurt him to climb this far..and two Daisy Boo, loves sheep and cows, and by loves I mean will chase and loose all sense of hearing when Mum shouts at her- so because of that little Miss Boos had to stay at home (don't worry though her and Dante still got their daily walkies!). Annnyway, we parked the car and made our way to the footpath....this must be it.

As you can see I am looking very dapper in my fancy collar....I don't actually know why Mum made me wear it- suppose I have to look handsome for the sheep why might meet. Or any lady doggies, heheh.

I had to spend some of the walk on the lead and some of it off lead, Mum said something about being respectful to the wildlife and other walkers- pah! It's just to slow me down because Mum gets out of breath and I don't, in fact I can run circles around her. So we set off- it is a very varied walk for how short it is, only took us an hour or so, but the bottom is wooded, so it was lots of good sniff for me to follow.

After my forest related zoomies, where Mum spent the whole time screaming, WATCH OUT YOUR GOING TO HIT A TREE!...honestly so dramatic, we started our climb. I could see some mountains in the distance!

The walk up is steep in places but really easy peasy, well with four legs anyway. Mum said it was like I had a red bull or something because I was running rings round her on the way up. BUT she put me on the lead, because apparently I was being silly running around and there was a chance I might fall of the edge- but it doesn't look too steep, does it?

It gave us a chance to take it slow and admire the view, can't believe how clear it was- normally it is cloudy and rainy- or at least murky, but not on our hike! Down below is Lake Windermere- the longest lake in England, at 11 miles!

 

Mum said that we were only half way to the top and if we kept going the views were going to get even better. Plus I was being a good boy again (not running around like a loon) so Mum let me off lead again....on probation of course.

 

Considering it was a gorgeous day, we didn't see a soul on the way up to the summit- Mum said they must have seen my mad zoomies in the distance and scared them away, bwhaha! Mum then put my back on the lead, there was a big steep drop next to us, and just to be sure I didn't go 'adventuring' and get myself into trouble. 

 Oh but after that part of our walk I was SURE I could see the top, in fact, I could smell it. I wanted to run a head and make it before Mum, but she was grumpy and told me I had to stay by her side- in case there were any people or sheep up the top for me to scare.

 

But finally, we made it! Plus we found a whole load of people that made it up before us. We had no idea where they had come from! That big pile of rocks is called a 'Cairn' and it marks the summit of a mountain or hill. We had to wait for all the little children and grown ups to move before I could get a picture of me, and JUST me by it, hehe.

I just had to check out the view while we waited, plus all the people had to come say hi to me before they went on their way. Cue the 'you could ride that thing back down' and 'where's the saddle?' Mum laughs  but says those jokes got old a looooong time ago. But in the end we got one of me next to it.

Then of course we had the 'top-of-the-hill-obligatory-photo-shoot-which-takes-ages' which was a whole heap of boring standing around fun!

Me and Mum then sat and just spent a good 20 minutes starting at the view...I did get a few biscuits and a big drink of water to keep myself occupied. Along with the different mountains  we could see lots of boats on the lake, I couldn't see any ducks though!

 

 Mum said it was getting late and we better get ourselves home to feed my brother and sister, who would be missing us! So after a few more photos (ugh) we set off down the hill again. I didn't want to leave, I was having too much fun! But Mum promised me a big juicy chicken thigh if I was a good boy for the rest of the walk. 

Back down the steep steps we go, plus check me out- off lead. I was being a good boy, must be that bribery of a juicy bit of chicken.....I'm drooling thinking back about it now. 

 On the way back I found a nice fresh stream to drink from...refreshing, but really really COLD! Mum gave my ears and tummy a splash with water too, just to help me cool down a bit because I was panting a lot (and drooling too according to Mum!)

 When we made it back to the car I had another big drink of water and a big pat on the back for being a very well behaved boy (most of the time) on our hike. 

It took me ten seconds flat from being buckled in the car to falling asleep, I was very very very sleepy! I did manage to wake up for my tea though, hehe. Hope you enjoyed our walk with me, also don't worry Dante and Daisy Boo will be in the next post!

Slobbers

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