Gizmo

We own four dogs, or should I say they own us?

Lladdie, our border collie & Gizmo our springer spaniel have been with us coming up to three years now and are about a month apart in age. They are both from working stock and the idea was that each dog would be a companion for Vicki & I while working out with the animals. Lladdie is my dog, and spends much of the day with me, even when I am working in the office, whilst Gizmo spends the day with Vicki.

Having said that, there are times when I'll take all four dogs out for a play and a run around, and one of those times is part of the morning animal rounds, they get to play while I bottle feed the lambs and feed the goats. The other two, Pepper (Jack Russell X Springer) and Cookie (Samoyed) get sent back when I head out to feed the llamas, Pepper being a small dog is afraid of the llamas, and Cookie is just too old to be knocked about. Not that the llamas would knock her about but she is totters a bit and can't get out of the way as quickly as she once did - she is now 14 years old.

Gizmo is the funny one, so much character, loves to chase the ball, loves to swim in the pond and loves to pick up sticks/stones and carry them around. He even picks up dogs bowls, gloves, slippers, shoes etc..., all for a bit of attention.

Why not have an afternoon llama experience when you also get a chance to meet all our other animals, including Gizmo!

Oh dear, a lot of poorly dogs!

We have four dogs, Cookie our 14 year old Samoyed.

Pepper our 9 year old springer X.

Gizmo our 2 and a half year old springer.

And last but not least Lladdie our 2 and half year old collie!

This winter they are all poorly one way or another, we have Cookie who is on regular medication for getting old, arthritis is her main ailment but she is also suffering with incontinence and appears to have a bladder infection.

Pepper has just had a major bout of food poisoning, and had to spend a night in hospital being rehydrated, he is also a grumpy dog and has a bad back which no one can really do anything about. We think the painkillers he was on contributed to his food poisoning issue, giving ulcer-like symptoms.


Gizmo is a clumsy dog and is forever twisting or hurting a foot, it always seems to be healed the next day, but the day after he is limping again - just one of those things.

Lladdie, he is a fussy eater, and on occasions will eat something that doesn't agree with him. This morning he was a sick and his breakfast didn't stay down, too much llama poo for starters I think! He's bright enough in himself and tonight he'll be ravenous and carry on as if nothing had happened.!

The vet fees do mount up on occasion :-(

Wet dogs!

No sooner do they dry out when they get wet again!

I guess the only way to keep the dogs dry is to not let them out, but trust me, working dogs like to be out whatever the weather, and do not seem to even notice whether it is hot, cold, wet, dry, windy or still.

With so much lying water on the ground, often in areas that are muddy the dogs are permanently dirty & wet.

I guess the only time they dry out is in the evening when they get to lie in front of the woodburner!

The only dog that doesn't enjoy this is Lladdie the border collie, he prefers to go to sleep in his bed and ignores the comfort of our living room!

A white fluffy dog and mud and poo!

Our old dog, Cookie, is a white Samoyed, seen here licking her lips!

She's a bit old now and her regular trip to the groomers have been halted as she cannot stand for the required length of time to be blow dried and clipped, so today she is looking a bit moth eaten as we have had a go ourselves.

The groomers used to clip her belly, as she gets such thick fur it never dried out, if left unclipped it not only gets wet it gets dirty too. She does like to walk amid, and sample the various animal poo piles that are around and she does get rather smellie.

So last night, at various intervals so she didn't get worn out, we trimmed her bum area, her belly area and her legs that were all getting a bit mucky with the wet weather and gave her a good brushing. She'll get a days rest and we'll finish her off over the weekend, she already looks a lot happier for our efforts. It was two handed job as she wriggled a lot!

Still, it'll be easier next time as long as we keep on top of it!