Garden Fun

Sasha at 12 weeks

 Sasha loved playing in the garden with his people. As a small puppy, one of his favourite things was to swing in the hammock and try to catch the tassels.

King of the Tropics

Later, when he was older and we had his classes in the garden  with other dogs, he enjoyed playing with them, particularly Veronica: They used to spend a long time playing tug with each other.

Training and Fun Agility

 I had always felt that Simon didn't get enough fun exercise so I decided that it would be a good idea to try and find a puppy group or an agiity group for Sasha. Of course, he was still too young to do jumps or such things, but I began to search anyway. I was fortunate enough to discover Lynne Watson. We had a chat over coffee, and she agreed that Sasha could come along to her obedience class where they also used some agility equipment.

Tessa used to come along to the classes too but she did not tke part in them. instead she stood or lay on the sidelines and watched as the others did their thing. The group was varied with a range of different breeds and temperaments, and Sasha made two great friends there, Veronica and Jakey, that we later shared weekly walks with for almost the rest of his life.

When we turned off the motorway to reach the training venue, Sasha immediately sat up and began to bark with excitement. 

After some time access to the venue was no longer possible and Lynne had to find another option. As we had a garden, I offered to host the classes there, and afterwards the participants all had tea on the terrace.

I also offered Lynne the possibility to hold her other classes in our garden, but that was a major mistake as far as Sasha's wellbeing was concerned. My perception is that he felt that his safe space was being invaded, particularly as he was not participating in these other classes.

Finally, due to family circumstances, Lynne had to return to the UK, but before she left we had a Farewell B each Walk which all the dogs enjoyed.

Sasha's love of fun agility never wavered. We bought some equipment - a seesaw, tunnel, andweave poles - and for the rest of his life he loved agility activities. he also never forgot the rules he had learned as a puppy about pausing slightly before coming off the seesaw.

Integrating into his new home

 Sasha never had any problem integrating with other animals. he fitted in seamlessly with Tessa and the cats we had at that time. If anything, Tessa was the one who had to make the bigger adjustment to having a boisterous young dog around the place disturbing her peace and quiet, as we can see in the photo where she is being ambushed by this naughty new arrival.

 

 

 

As a puppy Sasha loved to get up to all kinds of mischief. He might have made a great therapy dog, unloading washing machines and doing other tasks!!!

He loved to interact with his people in the garden and he spent a lot of time carrying flower pots and other objects around. This use of his mouth would be characteristic of him throughout his life. Had I been more savvy then I might have been able to interpret his behaviour better in terms of his emotional state.

This position was one he adopted throughout his life, relaxed but alert and observing all that was going on around him.

Sasha arrives

 This story of Sasha is long overdue, but I feel that he deserves to have his space and recognition for all that he taught me over the years.

About a year after Simon died, life without a beardie was just not the same. Tessa, the little crossbreed dog who came to us when her owner, Fred, died aged 92, was alone and already quite old. There was nothing for it but to contact Suzanne Moorhouse, the lady who had bred Simon. Suzanne was an institution in beardie circles because she was active in the early activities of salvaging the breed from extinction. Suzanne did not have a litter at that time but she told us that one of her dogs, Hamish, had sired a litter and the puppies would soon be ready to go to their new homes. 

This time I travelled alone to Worcestershire to collect Sasha. There were two puppies born in April 2007: one was Waxlands St. George of Willowmead and the other Waxlands St. Patrick of Willowmead. Which puppy would be ours? Suzanne recommended that I should take St. George, and St Patrick would go to a family in Turkey who had taken a puppy from the same litter as Simon all those years ago.

The puppies had been born on a farm and brought up to Suzanne. Unlike Simon, who stayed indoors with his mother, these two puppies were outside in a puppy run. Sasha was seven weeks old when I collected him, but I have come to think that he had been at Suzanne's for at least a week which, in my view now, was too soon to be taken from his mother and siblings. 

While staying at Suzanne's we took the puppies to the vet to have their second vaccination. This was, and often still is, standard practice, but in the years since Sasha came to us I have come to believe and see that these vaccination protocols are counterproductive for the animals (https://news.wisc.edu/schultz-dog-vaccines-may-not-be-necessary/). Forward-thinking veterinary professionals now recommend that puppies should not receive vaccinations before twelve weeks of age as they still have the immunity gained from their mother's colostrum which lasts up till that time. In fact, there is now a test that can be done while the dam is pregnant to determine her level of immunity, and on that basis the length of the immunity she will pass on to her pups can be determined. Sadly, at the time when Sasha was a puppy, these ideas were not so well known!

For the plane journey back to  Spain I had brought a soft red pet carrier and some puppy milk. At the airport, however, understanding and compassion were not on the agenda for the security personnel who were now a standard feature of air travel. The puppy milk was confiscated. What terrorist is going to blow up a plane with puppy milk?! And they insisted that the puppy had to be passed through the hand luggage X-ray machine. Was this little mite a ploy for drug smuggling?  Despite my protests, through the X-ray machine he was pushed. My already low estimation of authority's rules and regulations plummetted even further.

There was a long wait at the airport and, unlike Simon who had slept soundly most of the time, Sasha was a wriggler. He climbed up on my shoulders and could not remain still. Once on the plane, however, as soon as the engine noise settled down in cruising mode, he fell asleep and did not wake until the sound changed as the plane prepared for descent. This would be a constant feature throughout his life. As long as the car engine was cruising, he was calm and quiet but when the gears were changed down on entering a town, he immediately sat up and was on alert.

His introduction to Tessa and the cats in the house was uneventful and he seemed to take that in his stride. The house now had a bearded collie once more!