rio's friend

is called miisa. she is finnish, a malinois lady, 6 years old (?), likes to play ball, chase rabits, make noises and much more. here's her smile





doozing away on the bed bum to bum

rio and chocolate - or - how food affects behaviour

$ $ $

believe me, the combination of . . . . .

. . . . . . . and . . . . . . . .



is a very unfortunate one. this is what happened during the weekend.

Saturday, i plan to make cookies for an invitation on friday. 300g of dark chocolate and 200g butter were ready on the counter to be processed, pushed all the way back, with apples and a box of kleenex in front of it.

after hopping off to see a new puppy school in the area for 30 min elie tells me that rio was 'on the worktop' ingesting all those goodies. too late to say anything of course, but doggy's stomach did look a little expanded . . . . . and that was after he had had his own dinner. in addition chocolate can be toxic to dogs (http://www.talktothevet.com/ARTICLES/DOGS/chocolatetoxic.HTM) and with all the 75% chocolate he was luckily still in the safe range.

Sunday, we had a morning of Rio-hypness on the fleamarket and then went out to visit friends (those who the cookies were for). a few hours later are back and discover rio has been on top of another worktop (paw prints clearly visible) to grab some salmon in a glass i had left out for, yes, him, has jumped on a high chair in the kitchen to grab half a pack of milk chocolate digestives, and jumped on another shelf to unsuccessfully get to some dog biscuits that had been up there for about 4 months (the shelf came down with everything on it).

This morning, Monday, i planned to take him on the second walk after walking indi and a labrador. when i came back to pick him up our breakfast bread was gone from the place we have left it for the last two years. so what is wrong with that little guy ??? when i saw that i hated him and did not talk nicely to him, persued him with the hose in the garden, probably less for a change in his behaviour but venting some of my anger.

what will be next ???? dog knows. a diet for sure. and locking away everything, buying some wire mesh possibly so he can get used to the smell of unreachable bread.

and why did it come to that ? why did his habits change within 3 days ? things he never touch ed before suddenly are a delicacy ? even though they have been around in the same places for years. one of my clues is that i fed him pedigree pal pouches together with mixer this week. tinned food is like junkfood for dogs and it might well be that it made him really really greedy. this is the only change that has happened recently, as far as i can think. any ideas and tips welcome of course !!

sun and shadow

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wuzzies - crazies

% % %

finally we reached dog island.



c'mon, throw that stick pleeeeaaase !!



. . . . . . booooooring . . . . . .



we got her pretty well trained ! - it's mine !









woozies are alright when there is space an no lead . . . but his is quite different when leads are entangled around your legs and both dogs have different agendas.



all indi is after is running large circles around rio and the visual stimulation of movement



first beach, then mountains !

of names and games

" ! " ! " ! "

the sound that means something to her is 'indi'. she was impulsively named after a huge big lazy greyhound who rio shared the house with last summer. let me find her picture of the original indy.



here she is, busy with her favourite hobby. for the rest she spends about 99% of her time on a sofa, like any decent greyhound would. - quite unlike our little mad indi, but surely more relaxing. in the meantime ms busy acquired the following nick names:

• meiga - witch in gallego
• lepaco - bat in finnish
• vermicelle
• nudeli - little pasta in swiss german
• tussi - hard to explain, something like a fashion chick
• propellerli - because her tail is like a propeller
• bäftzgi - swiss for barker
• and probably more that i cannot remember now.
  

anyway, she is a very busy dog except when she sleeps. you could then fell a tree right next to her and she would not move an inch.

notice that tongue flick there . . . .

i do sometimes tie her up to give her a break from fly chasing. there are always some insects whirling around and it is her job to chase them down.

finally a second to take a portrait. it is hard to get good still pictures of her.

rio on sandy point in somerset

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a typical walk with the monsters

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bum-boy, people rio really likes only ever get to see his bum.



and sometimes his face, usually suffed with a stick or something.



while indi's favourite hobby is to wait for the stick to be thrown. she is not after the stick or ball, but instead loves to draw big circles around rio who has acquired all the polite and patient retrieve and convincing skills.


le petit couple . . . hihihi.



waiting for dinner



tired after a long walk and inhaling supper.

dog social walks

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this is a long-time project of mine, getting a bunch of people and their dogs together to go on walks. it did happen as nero, a dog from around here, was moving away and his humans organized a fare-well-walk attended by 11 humans and just as many dogs.



indi was totally happy around all those other dogs, while rio was not feeling quite at ease and being like a pot of glue behind me.



wherever something happened you would find indi as well.



and this is a very shy dog called sideways, because walked sideways shortly after being born. she lives on one of the boats on stourbridge common, close to her mum there as well. i love the way she peeks out the boat window and watches other dogs walk by.