Diaries

Well, it's finally happened...I'm turning into my Mother. I wasn't content enough to have the one lovely dog from Battersea, or even when the second one came along from the Animal Aid Munlochy here in the Highlands. No, I wanted to try pedigree and go for a Boxer puppy. I can't truly pinpoint exactly why it had to be a Boxer - so different from our other dogs, a collie-cross (Coffey) and labrador-cross (Meg). I like the way they stand so powerful but are like putty in your hands. Their faces hold such character and they are such fun to play with. We found a breeder in Aberdeen and chose a red/brindle bitch with white socks on her front legs and a white dash up her face. Officially she is to be known as Wilflo Gem of the Highlands. The husband was very patient with the three 200 mile round trips to Aberdeen to follow the progress of our new 'baby' (there were a few heavy sighs, however, when we encountered freezing fog and temperatures of -8C on one of our 'have to go today' trips). From when she was born we decided to call her Gemma.

Gemma comes home...
Still, when the day came that we were able to bring her home at eight weeks old, husband loved her just as much as I did. She marched into the house without a backward glance. The other two canine family members were more wary and baulked at her confidence. I worried for the first few days, especially when Gemma would continually try to swing from Coffey's tail - there's only so much a dog will put up with. The rough play with Meg was relentless and I regularly had to announce 'time out' and remove Gemma for a while for her own safety and our sanity! Things gradually settled down and the other two accepted Gemma into the family - albeit with a few 'tellings off' now and again to keep her in check.

Toilet training has been interesting - as it tells you in all the good books, she was praised highly once she had done her business outside and she would wiggle her bottom all pleased with herself - then would promptly run in and repeat it all on the carpet! Hmmm, still working on that one.

Boxers are renowned for their ability to get on with children and Gemma and our three children is no exception - especially our three year old, Paige. Gemma loves her, probably because she is closest in height, but also, it seems for her 'My Little Ponies'. The long plaited manes and tails are great for gripping in your teeth as you run away. We have put up barriers in front of Paige's toy box but Gemma is very agile - she must be thinking 'what a great challenge!' The box of dog toys is close by, ignored.

Training....
This has been quite easy so far. Gemma sits and stays very well on command (she loves her food, great incentive) and recalls well in the large back garden. She wears a harness on walks now that she is nearly four months old - it's amazing the strength they have already. Coffey and Meg are off the lead most of the time so she is straining to be with them - the harness is better for her and my hands! I take Gemma out separately later on to get better with the walking. She loves the walk experience and shows great excitement when she sees her lead. Travelling is no problem either - we were ready with the sick bag but she just curls up and goes to sleep. The initial obedience classes start at the end of April so watch this space for progress!

Puppy party....
What a great idea! This was arranged by our vet and had a good turnout of local puppies. Gemma mixed with westie, collie, staffordshire-cross and labrador puppies. We were shown how to check your puppies health regularly and encouraged to swap dogs to experience handling different breeds and for our puppies to socialise. Needless to say, Gemma was in her element and didn't once look at us for reassurance. A big fuss was made of her - she is already well known by the staff at the practice, from her vaccination visits.

The annual holiday......
Gemma is 10 months old, time for her to cope with a holiday. We had booked a cottage in Cumbria for a week. The owners had kindly (or insanely!) agreed for us to bring all three dogs as well as two well behaved children. We arrived a little earlier than expected, whilst the owner was still mowing the lawn. He gave us the keys and carried on. We all trooped in with our luggage and immediately Gemma squatted in the pristine living room. This was the beginning of an interesting week...

The agreement was that the dogs would stay in the kitchen and downstairs hallway while we were out or asleep. This was ideal, until Gemma emptied the contents of and ate the lid of the kitchen bin, found a whole pack of grapes that we couldn't fit into the tiny fridge and ate the lot (I was convinced she had been poisoned - see my article on sultanas) and peed twice more in the hallway (thank goodness for 1001). Our other dog Coffey, not to be left out, scraped paint off the doorway to the living room so we were there with the 'matchpot' on the last day filling in the bits. Trying to find all the poos in the cottage garden and keeping the dogs from jumping the fence to join the neighbouring cows was all quite exhausting. I did question the reasoning for going on holiday at all. Our children were so well behaved!

I think unless a holiday cottage is really 'dog friendly' it is just as well to stay at home - they would be much happier and, after waking at the crack of dawn to see to the dogs before they did anything else, I think we would be too!

Teenage Acne....

11 months old and Gemma has canine acne. Poor thing, it looked so sore. The vet has given her antibiotics to reduce the inflammation but cannot guarantee it won't come back. Within four days it had cleared dramatically - wish I'd had some of those pills when I was 16!

New year 2008....

Gemma is two and a well established member of the family. Just as well, as we humans now have another human baby of 12 weeks old. Gemma took this in her stride and sniffs the new arrival occasionally but no more than that.

Money!

Having a pedigree dog definitely burns a deeper hole in the pocket. Gemma has spent more time with the vet than the other two put together. As well as the acne she has had two teeth removed as they were crossing over each other (bang goes the show potential), abcess on her paw, an injury to one of her eyes and now she has damaged ligaments in her knee joints. Much of this is due to her exuberance and curiosity. When the vet tells me she can only go on two short walks a day until whatever it is has cleared up, my heart sinks. When Gemma hears me take the other two dogs out she wrecks the dog room in protest. The dog room has gone from a comfortable, reasonably cluttered room to a sparse minimalist area, free of anything she can rip apart, tip over, gorge on. Poor thing, I know it's her frustration at not being able to go out.

Wanting to be Top Dog....

Two and a half and Gemma decides it's her turn to be leader of the pack. When the dogs went out first thing, Gemma would pounce on Coffey, nipping and snarling and generally making his life a misery, so much so that he stopped wanting to go out. Meg would join in by barking at them both so the morning routine was rapidly turning into a noisy, stressful free-for-all and I no longer felt able to hold baby Hazel whilst opening the door for them. It was the same when going out for a walk. Things came to a head when I tried to separate them and received a nip on my knee. This concerned and upset me enough to write to 'Your Dog' Magazine for advice. These things take ages, so, in the meantime, husband and I decided the best way to deal with it was to give Gemma some more training, be more assertive with her and for me to ignore her for a couple of weeks to show her who was boss. This was hard as I always pat the dogs when I walk past them in the house. It seemed to work though. Baby was put in her activity centre before I let them out and I ordered them out firmly, not standing any nonsense. A couple of months later my letter was published in 'Your Dog' magazine, July 2008 I think, and the advice given was that it was natural for dogs to re-establish their positions in a pack, especially when a younger one comes through and it was best not to interfere. Also, that Gemma would benefit from extra training and maybe some more exercise as the other dogs are older. I think the exercise is okay as they do get an hour's off the lead hike in the woods every day, but maybe more lead work is needed.

Well, it's August now and things are calmer in the Hendry household. There is the occasional tussle between the dogs but we try to let them sort it out themselves. Gemma knows her place with us and (most of the time!) does what we ask her.

I don't think Boxers are natural swimmers.....

We have just seen the funniest thing - Gemma swimming in the sea. Gemma has always danced about on the edge of the surf, preferring Coffey to retrieve the stick and pounce as he comes out of the water - good tactic. However, he has become wise to this and is good at dodging her. This meant that Gemma had to go deeper and deeper into the water, until eventually a wave caused her to try to swim. Well, it was the funniest thing - she flails and splashes her front legs so much that all you can see is froth and foam, it's like she is trying to cycle in the water. She thrashes her head around to try and get the stick while Coffey smoothly glides past like a seal. I must get a picture.