the chicken

Demolition Dogs

Whoever thinks dogs are not capable of logical thought has not met Patch and Blaze. Last week I came home to shreds of paper all over the lounge room floor. Upon cleaning this up I realised it was the TV guide. Pete assures me that Patch over powered him and he was helpless to stop her wanton destruction. Um, yeah, I believe that.

Today Blaze found the TV guide for this week. When I say found, I mean that she had to look for it, take it off the top of the TV and then try and systematically destroy it.

I did manage to rescue it before too much damage was done. These two seem to think that anything that draws attention away from them must be dealt with swiftly. There is plenty of paper around, they have not eaten anything except the TV guide, oh, and the mail.

I was looking for a very bloody and tattered post man the other day, driving in to see that days post strewn and torn all over the yard. To achieve this Patch had to physically take it out of the mail box, carry it out the back, THEN go to town. Clever girl. I'm sure Energex will believe I didn't pay the bill this month cause the dog ate it!

She is a cheeky little girl, but thats why we love her.

And Blaze is good at acting contrite when caught red pawed.

Blaze the Duckhead

The funniest bit about this was when Patch realised where her toy had gone....

Three Gold Stars for Blaze..

When Blaze arrived her book said she was "nearly" house trained. This equates to peeing on the floor if inside overnight. We have now had 3 nights without incident, YAY!

Pity I can't say the same for Chicken. He really does know better. He poos on the carpet just to show his displeasure at whatever he is upset about. He has been toilet trained for years.... just his way of saying, These dogs suck, can you please get rid of them now?

I am holding him only because given half a chance he will jump on poor little Patch's head. He has taken to looking like he wants to be friends, creeping really close, nice and quietly...then BAM! claws out and mad swiping at the unsuspecting dog. Nice.

Very bad dog...

Blaze started out Saturday as a very good dog. She got really excited when someone knocked on the door at 9am. She and Patch got up and ran to the door and Blaze jumped up to say hello...

The nice Jehovah's witnesses got a bit startled at such a big dog jumping up to greet them. Excellent. Normally I would ignore or discourage this behaviour, in this instance I welcomed it as I made my excuses and said I must go and settle the dogs, BYE NOW.

We went to a promo that day too.

Patch loves these, her little tail wags at each and every new person she sees, and if she hasn't seen one of the other dogs for more than, oh, about 30 seconds, they get a sniff and a tail wag too. She is always exhausted at the end of the day. Drags herself to her bed and doesn't move for a long, long time!

Blaze is new at the promo thing. She didn't do so well.

These girls are all promo veterans, they know how to turn on the charm. There were all girls there Saturday, and they all enjoyed their day at the races as ladies do. Patch and I will be going to Albion on Thursday, methinks that Pete will be hanging out at home with Blaze! Blaze can't be trusted and frankly Pete and the dishlickers and a tote don't mix well!

Blaze is not in the dog house anymore, she managed to not pee inside last night. YAY! Pete credits Patch with a little too much cunning, he suggested that we didn't know that it was Blaze who had the accidents, might have been Patch. Yep, she has never even looked like having a slip up and was just waiting until a poor hapless foster came along so she could pee on the carpet and blame the innocent foster???? I don't think so. Luckily greys learn very quickly and love their comfort. If it means holding on till 6am to have the comfy bed inside they will soon figure it out.

Anyone got a shoe horn?

Blaze has car issues. That sounds wrong, she has no problems with traveling in the car, she has trouble getting OUT of the car. Not in the same way our other Blaze did, he would just get in a car or the back of the van and stay there for 6 hours, just for fun. The current Blaze get herself into a position so that getting out is a logistical nightmare.

To get her out I had to physically roll her over, like a cast sheep. Am now very glad I invested in the doggie car seat hammock thingy. Can't imagine how stuck she would get if she had behind the seats to fall into.

Both Patch and Blaze know that in the afternoons we get in the car and go to the dog park. They love it. Pacth especially loves to roll in the grass, possibly cause she equally hates having to be muzzled.

After a few sprints she gets a little discouraged, all the other dogs are chasing the ball. She always gets to the ball first, but can't actually pick it up due to the muzzle. Must be really frustrating for her. The pair of them will run a little bit, then lie down to recover while I explain to other dog owners that being greyhounds they need very little exercise and are built to sprint, they have no stamina. Resulting in a quiet trip home, a painful extraction of Miss Blaze from the car and then some hard core sleeping.

There are a few styles of greyhound slumber. The little ball, Patch is half way there, she is normally quite tucked up. She hasn't mastered the art of cockroaching, she is too unbalanced, she rolls and then falls over!

And the full stretch, a personal favourite of Blaze, she figures that if she takes up enough space Patch will go elsewhere and that will leave her with the toys....

Please administer smelling salts now..

Blaze had a trip to the vet yesterday. She should have taken better care of her skin, she has a nasty pimple like lump behind her ear. It is innocuous enough, just not very attractive. She is on antibiotics and the vet said it was a simple matter of cutting the lump out when she goes in to have her dental. This is all routine. Whats not is my extreme reaction to vet clinics, hospitals, blood etc. I am a fainter. Really doesn't take much. When I picked Dory up from being desexed I managed to drive approximately 2 and a half blocks before I had to pull over and get Pete to drive as I was on the verge of passing out. Sad really. Just the antiseptic smell of a hospital waiting room has me on the floor. I made the mistake of thinking I could drive Pete home after he had wisdom teeth removed... silly me. Fainting whilst driving down the highway is not recommended, and the embarrassment of having to get someone to come and drive us both home, then collect the car later was bad. So Pete has the task of driving the dogs to the vet, or at least picking them up when they smell all vet like!

Blaze is hiding her unsightly blemish under the blankets. She also conveniently has all the toys tucked up under there. Clever girl. Takes alot to get them away from Patch.

Pete took the last one she was hoarding while she wasn't looking... it's not nice to mess with her head like this but it is highly amusing!

This is her usual stash, sleeping on the plushies stops anyone from sneaking them away from her.

We haven't had Blaze for long, and looks as if this will be a short stay, she has a home lined up so will soon be a forever dog. She is a very personable puppy, at the dog park she makes sure she goes and gets cuddles from all the humans before she goes and investigates the dogs. She really loves the retirement thing, does very little at the park except look sad and scam cuddles, she then trots round, has a sniff and promptly lies down in a nice shady spot to watch the world go by.

She is in your face most of the time, attempting to get in your lap if you happen to be sitting down. Patch will be devastated when she goes, they get let out in the mornings and race into the backyard to do the greyhound version of cartwheels and handstands. It is so funny to watch, really must video it one day.

De ja Blaze

Meet Blaze. Our second Blaze, and surely not our last. Is a fairly common name for greyhounds..

She even looks a little like the previous Blaze, only half a foot shorter and her nose is much longer!

Personality wise she is the total opposite. As a horse rider I have been told I have a "hot seat" basically I can hype up a nearly dead horse, anyway, seems I have a similar effect on some dogs. This Blaze was meant to be quiet. Maybe Patch can take some credit, she lost the plot when I got home with Blaze. She just loves to play and was so excited to meet her.

This is nice, Patch is happy again, Chicken however is not.

He can't flatten those ears any more if he tries. So far he has had a few swipes at Blaze, she just skirts around him and carries on with whatever she was doing before he got in the way. Good start. Patch is enjoying the reprieve, the last few days Chicken has been randomly attacking her, just to keep in shape I think, can't let those paws down for a second.. Speaking of working out, Blaze has made herself at home in the gym and was buffing up this afternoon... a few weights, a bit of a run.

A bit of a kerfuffle ensued when she attempted to do chin ups. You can well imagine, what with no opposable thumbs and such a long nose and all...not pretty.

Patch wasn't going to be left out, she figured she would get in on the weight thing too

Could you just maybe take that heavy bit off? I'm only little you know!

Here's hoping we have a quiet night with the new addition...