Hounds of the Highlands - Febuary 2016

  Maja continues to amuse us all and is doing well.  Her temperament is so sound and there is not anywhere I wouldn't be happy to take her. Her Gold Good Citizen Award training is coming along quite well - I am especially proud of her 'emergency stops' and also how she has taken a new location, new dogs and new people all in her stride. Our main challenge is that previously she was allowed to do 'down stays' on a mat, so no way is she now going to grace a hard floor!   That said, we have  managed to progress from a soft blanket to a folded yoga mat. The next step, hopefully, is a single layer of the mat which will then be cut smaller and smaller until she hits that hard floor. Fingers crossed.

 She does, however, have some very odd sleeping positions!

Thankfully she seems to have stopped ripping the wallpaper off the walls so we are now hoping to decorate the kitchen in the not too distant future.

Today, Sunday, we woke up to snow.  Maja and I were supposed to be going to a small show about an hours drive away, but I decided it wasn't worth chancing the roads, never mind getting up the drive, to have 5 minutes in the ring before being thrown out.  Such faith! So we went for a lovely walk instead which I am sure she enjoyed better.  I did!

Apologies for the photography, it was early morning  and little natural light, as I had got up early in preparation for the show

Maja and Hamish had great fun playing in the snow

The face of wisdom!

and not!

Now for some snaps taken on the phone

and finally, I think I mentioned that we sometimes put a GPS tracker on Maja when on walks to see how far she travels compared to us humans.  Below is an example of our walk (in blue) and Maja's (in red.)  It's interesting, partly because a lot of the time although we can't see her  she is not far away and also to note how often she does 'check in' just to let us know she is still about.

Hounds of the Highlands -9th Jan 2016

Happy New Year to all blog readers!  Maja took a busy house throughout Christmas and New year in her stride and didn't even pinch anything off the Christmas tree or any of the presents.  She still loves to run upstairs and pinch something, usually an article of clothing.  She then charges downstairs and  through the house in a triumphant run, head held high so we always know when she has got something.  She has even been known, when we have deliberately ignored her, to run back through to make sure we have seen her wicked ways!  No fun otherwise!

Today we had a very hard frost so had a lovely winter walk.  We have been very lucky and have missed the worse of the heavy rain and flooding that the N E of Scotland has experienced.  

We have had one very big storm, just before New Year and lots of trees were blown down.  We ourselves lost several in the woods.  Today we couldn't get through on our normal route so had to go through where the Highland ponies are kept.  Maja wasn't at all sure about them as they crowded around us obviously thinking we were there to feed them.  Hamish grumped at them not that it did much good and Kobe had a quick sniff of noses, decided they weren't worth bothering about and was totally non-plussed about them following us. Photo below shows some of the trees that were blown down.

and the ponies

Maja is very agile, and thinks nothing of jumping this fence!

 Some of you may notice that Maja is wearing a GPS tracker.  She gave it to me as a Christmas present!  It's great fun and lets me see where she has been when she diverts off the path. When I get home I can download the file onto Google Earth and track her movements.  Today we walked just over 4 miles - Maja did between 7 and 8 miles, with top speed of 23mph!  No wonder we still can't get much weight on her - she is solid muscle with definately no fat!

Hamish in the frost

Kobe, nose in air, sniffing the scent of a deer perhaps?

Waiting patiently for Maja who is in the forest nearby, we hope!

Hounds of the Highlands - Maja's 1st Birthday!! - 20th Dec 2015

Last Sunday Maja and I attended the ring craft Supermatch and Christmas party.  We were out in the first round of the supermatch - she hasn't yet mastered the art of standing still for long enough but she did try to give the judge a few bribery! kisses which, though causing many smiles didn't alter the result!  We participated in many of the games which she seemed to enjoy!  She is so easy going and is always complimented on her friendly, though sometimes naughty, behaviour. 

Big dogs are not normally allowed on chairs in our house but Maja decided she was exceptionally tired after the party so decided to breaks the rules!!

During the week she has been helping me to write the Christmas cards!!

  And today it is her birthday! - and we wish all her siblings a Very Happy Birthday!  Here she is in a Birthday pose with all her mates!

 

Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year!!

Hounds of the Highlands - December 13th

Sorry for lack of 'blogging' - busy time of year, weather been awful and not good for photography etc etc.  Maja continues to amuse and keep us smiling.  Her latest achievement is that she gained her KC Good Citizen Silver award last week.  Its onward and upward to Gold now!

Today we are off to Ringcraft Club's Supermatch and Christmas Party - that should be fun!!

Not much else to report - Kobe has had a bit of a rough few weeks - broke a back toe so was on the lead for a few weeks.  Had just started to let him off a bit when he managed to get a stick injury running in the woods.  Not very nice, quite a few stitches etc but has healed amazingly well.  The vets all loved him and thought him a proper gentleman!  Amazing what a pot of sausages can do or even a block of cheese!! ? We were on our way to the vets to get his stitches out when I realised we had forgotten the sausages so popped into the village shop en route and grabbed a block of cheese.  His face was priceless in the vets when he realised he may be getting a whole block of cheese and not the usual sliver!  Needless to say he never even noticed the stitches being removed.  Quite a difference from the young dog who was reluctant to have even his paws touched.

Hamish well and still mouse hunting when weather permits.

Apologies for the photos - will try better for next blog! 

Hounds of the Highlands - October 18th

Maja continues to amuse, and  at times infuriate, us with her outgoing behaviour and naughtiness!

Below are pictures showing the remains of a packet of golf tees and Maja in the middle of it all as if nothing had happened.

And then there was the burnt chicken!  I had put a chicken, for the dogs, in the top oven of the Aga and forgot all about it.  As you do not get cooking smells from the Aga it had cooked to a very hard, smelly lump. To stop it smelling up the house when out of the oven we put it outside on top of the car to cool before binning it.  It was out of the reach of the dogs or so we thought!!!

Maja got up on the bonnet and jumped from there up the windscreen and on to the top.  Unfortunately for her,the chicken was too burnt even for an 'always hungry Ridgeback' to eat so she then decided to sit there and admire the scenery. Thankfully no harm was done to the car and she skipped a row because we were too busy laughing at her!

Scotland has had a lovely Indian Summer and we have had two weeks of sunshine, although the mornings have been frosty, so off to the beach we went for a lovely walk.

The face of innocence!!

And not so innocent!! - caught at a bad moment!

That's better.

Despite the teeth it is all good fun!

As the tide was out there was quite a lot of soft sand which Maja loves.  She had a proper 'loopy' on it just for the sheer fun of running.

Then a few birds got chased - she will grow up and learn that it's not worth the effort but for now it's good fun.

Waiting for the other two at the end of the walk.

And finally Hamish and his digging - nothing better than doing a bit of hunting, getting filthy and creating a few unwanted features in the garden!