April 30th / May 1st

Last night saw us at puppy class for the second week and I have to confess that we hadn't practised as much as we should have done.  It is held at the Black Isle Showground which even on the best of days often has a cold wind as it is quite exposed.  Anyway the first 30 minutes went well and Maja was noted for her excellent behaviour.  The second 30 minutes, well that was a different story!  After being told to try and never have a tight lead what are you supposed to do when you have 20kg of spring on the end of a lead making the most peculiar noises in an effort to entice the neighbouring classmates to abandon any thoughts of lessons and have some fun!  When all that failed, she then discovered that there was rabbit poo hidden in the grass.  Dried liver/beef heart was no competition. As a friend used to say - "if only we could freeze dry rabbit poo, we would make a fortune". And finally the cold hit her and she refused to move off her mat, as she sat shivering and huddled looking very sorry for herself.  Next week I will have to put a coat on her if the weather doesn't improve.  Also perhaps an hour is a bit too long for a puppy class - especially a Ridgeback puppy.  A Ridgeback will do something once, twice if your luckily and then they just don't see any point in repeating it again and again.  I must say that last night, given how cold it was, I very much agreed!









Ist May - today we had a nice walk up the hill and heard our first cuckoo.  I have changed the feeding regime to suit Maja and the other two are finding it difficult!  I used to feed them after their morning walk but it meant that Maja was having meal one and two too close together so I have changed to feeding them before our morning walk.  Problem is that Kobe and Hamish seem to have forgotten by the time they have been walked that they have already been fed and look at me accusingly when we return from the walk as if they have had no breakfast.  Hopefully they will soon adapt. Walks these days are incredibly peaceful compared with when she first came.  The odd play but mostly the dogs just doing their own thing which is nice

Later this morning Maja and I went to the supermarket and then visited the vet to pick up some dog food.  After that we had a socialising saunter in Nairn.  She loved meeting all the people and was greatly admired but was not too keen when two very big Retrievers had a sniff - in fact - she didn't like it at all. Something to work on.  We met a nice little Scottie later on and that was fine - in fact - she wanted to play.  Visited the pet shop and bought some biscuits.  After her initial excitement she settled down and was very good whilst I was sorting it all out.  All in all a good experience.

Finally, for now, and a change from dogs, I set the motion camera up on the badger sett the last few nights hoping that the young ones might be emerging but no, just lots of coming and going from the adults. Ignore the date but the time is accurate which is interesting, as it is still light at 20.38.  Perhaps we should try and watch them one night soon.