Hounds of the Highlands

Our Hounds of the Highlands are, Kobe; an 8 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Hamish; an 8 year old Jack Russell, and Maja; a 4 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback who arrived from Sweden on April 9th 2015.

This blog will be primarily about Maja and her progress as she settles into her new surroundings here in the Highlands of Scotland, but that will, of course, include Kobe and Hamish. Maja was driven to the Highlands by Henrik and Bertil from Sweden via Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, France and finally up through the UK from Dover. She apparently coped extremely well with the constant change, something that doesn't really come as a surprise given her confident, bold and adventurous, (some would say naughty) character.

She has settled in extremely well, and despite Hamish's reservations to begin with, he has softened over the last couple of weeks and now the two of them frequently play together. He does draw the line at having his tail pulled though.  Kobe has taken it all in his stride and apart from the odd telling off, and she has deserved it, they have settled in well together.  It's almost as though he knew she was of the same kind! Henrik too seemed to settle in well and was definitely accepted as an honorary Ridgeback!

Week 2 saw us hitting the doggy social scene  with avengence.  Tuesday night was ring craft.  After a slight hesitation to begin with - Maja wouldn't get out of the car! - she took it all in her stride and performed very well for a first time.  Made lots of doggy friends but by 8.30pm it was past her bedtime and she fell asleep with paws on my knee and head snuggled into my neck and jumper.  A girl needs her beauty sleep.

Wednesday night we had supper at a friends.  Maja entertained their 8 year old boxer until poor Gem was literally dog tired. You could see where the saying comes from!  

Thursday night was puppy classes.  Despite not practising she was remarkably good.  Managed to do all that was asked for and then sat looking at her classmates with that aloof Ridgeback expression as if to say " don't quite know what all the fuss is about".  It's amazing what a Ridgeback will do for liver! And it is a lot easier for me third time round.  All these little tips that dog training Kate drummed into us certainly pay off - "make yourself more interesting than everything else, i.e. liver, sausages, chicken in the pocket, treat from the left of dog, command only once etc etc."  Anyway we shall see if the trend continues next week.

Kobe and Maja have also started to really play - it has given Kobe a knew lease of life.  She follows him everywhere when we are out which is good as I know he will always come back,  but I don't know how much he appreciates it when he is on the scent of something.  A small Ridgeback nose in your face doesn't really help.

Sun 26th April - Last week Spring had certainly arrived and the garden suddenly took off.  The newly planted fields (barley) suddenly sprouted and the buds on the trees started to burst open.  Then yesterday there was a icy wind and we had hail and sleet - bit of a shock.  The dogs tried lounging in a bit of sunshine yesterday afternoon, Kobe covered with a duvet but Maja was up and down as it wasn't quite warm enough to settle.  The garden suddenly needs a lot of tidying and weeding - jobs that are not so easy with a young Ridgeback.  Holes are dug where they aren't wanted, plants pulled up instead of weeds and tools are definitely not where they were left.  The rake ended up at the bottom of the back garden, gloves gone and flower pots shredded. I seem to spend as much time clearing up after her 'fun' as I do achieving any results.

Just been for a walk along the beach at Nairn and back through the forest.  Stupidly forgot the camera as they all had a lovely time running and playing though poor Maja got bowled over by a shoulder shove from Kobe. Can't have been that bad as she went straight back to biting his legs to encourage him to do it again!  The gorse is fully out and the scent from it is amazing. Saw a male yellowhammer - incredibly bright yellow and not too shy.  Talking of which the yellow wagtail has returned to the garden.  It and its relation the pied wagtail keep Maja amused as they don't fly off when she chases them but just flit to another part of the grass. Certainly keeps that frown on her face!!

So much for spring arriving.  This afternoon we had a fairly heavy snow fall.  I was out and had to drive the volvo home up a fairly steep hill.  It is useless without the winter tyres which we seem to have taken off somewhat prematurely!