Happy Birthday Harry!!!

Harry has been part of the family for 2 weeks now and I have to say, it feels like he has always been around. There are times when he makes Keith and I laugh until tears role down our faces and slowly but surely his training is turning him into an angel, even if it is an angel with a dirty face.

The biggest progress he has made is with his recall, which has come on in leaps and bounds. We took him off the lead for the first time last week and it was a very scary moment for me as I was on my own that first day.

Imagine, if you will, a wide path between two metal kissing gates running alongside a river and a high chain link fence. Safe ground I thought, how wrong I was. If Harry were a whippet I could say he went off like a whippet out of a gate, as he isn’t, you will just have to imagine him flying through the air with carefree abandon straight into the river. Now imagine (and I’m being generous here) that the poor little mite got water in his ears, thereby rendering him deaf to my calls as he crossed the river and went up the opposite bank. Back into the river he went, still unable to hear my calls and started swimming up and down while I was trying desperately to think how I was going to explain to Keith how I had lost the dog. I was about a second away from jumping into the river after him when I decided that it was too cold and I would never catch him and decided to walk away and think of a plan of action. Miracle of miracles – Harry followed!!! So, should any of you see me abandon Harry in a particularly deep hedge or cold looking river, please don’t think badly of me, it’s just the easiest way to make him follow.

Since then Harry has spent many hours off lead and is now overcoming his selective hearing to the point where we are getting really confident in letting him roam around the local fields.

He’s also made a few new discoveries this week –

1. There are sheep around these here parts, and sheep make scarier noises than cows.

2. There is a cat down the road which does a fantastic slow motion walk if he barks at him

3. Topiary hedges are NOT too dense to get into if he tries long and hard enough. There is now a Harry sized hole in someone’s perfectly manicured border which I sincerely hope they will never notice.

4. Baths are not scary, it is not necessary to attempt SAS style escape techniques and a non whiffy coat means more cuddles

This week he also met the grandparents and I have to say, I think he is going to get spoiled rotten over Christmas. He was very excited about his birthday gifts – a jangly ball on a string (which is no longer on its string) and a hide ‘bone’ which is down to a stump – but more importantly we’re going to need to make sure we still have a dog come the new year, as things stand I can see him being dognapped!! It’s the basset eyes, I swear he could get away with murder after a flash of those.

So Happy 1st Birthday Harry, fingers crossed the next year is even better than the last 2 weeks!!!