This weekend saw me taking another SHAK/Hadrian's Wall trip and guess what? I still haven't finished the whole thing!!! But more of that later. On Saturday I got to fulfill a long term plan of mine and thanks to my willing assistant Liam I managed to take two of our long term dogs, Laser and Murphy, away for the weekend.
Laser and Murphy are two older german shepherds who have been with us a number of years now. They are both very affectionate once they get to know you, they have always lived together and are very attached to each other. Once again we were unsure how they would react away from the kennels so the weekend was both a trip outfor them and a little test for them.
In the middle of torrential rain on Saturday afternoon we managed to 'load' the two big lads into the back of a clio (!) only to be informed at that point by Steve that Murphy may not have been in the back of a car before! Apart from an excessive interest by him in the rear windscreen wiper though both he and Laser settled brilliantly in the back of the car. On arrival at my house they then had to face the ultimate test - a bath!!! Laser reluctantly went first but once we got him in he stood really well while I gave him a good scrub down. Unfortunately for my flooring Murphy decided to pass on the bath option but to be honest the plug may not have coped with the longhaired GSD shedding all over the place!
After a very settled night (not a squeak out of either of them even when Babsie the cat decided to sniff under the kitchen door) we loaded them back in the car again and headed over to Gilsland to take up where Jetta and I finished at Easter. Despite the miserable predictions for the weather we managed to get a good four miles of the potential eleven done without encountering any rain. The boys seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves with their noses barely lifting off the ground for the first two miles! Unfortunately we managed to pick the four miles of Hadrian's Wall which doesn't have kissing gates, it has massive wooden styles which are really difficult for young, small dogs to master. These were really hard for Laser and Murphy due to their size and not even between Liam and I could we get Murphy's large frame over them.
After completing the four miles we turned back to the nearest 'escape' point and after negotiating our way round three very defensive sheepdogs (maybe I have learnt something about reading dog body language and handling skills because I managed to distract them long enough for Liam, Laser and Murphy to sneak past without getting eaten) and took the two happy but exhausted boys back to mine.
Sunday night was spent with the two of them sound asleep - Laser in the hallway and Murphy in the living room. Any time I moved it was like having two shadows as they followed me around the flat and the only demanding they did was for cuddles. Once again there was hardly a squeak out of them apart from when some drunken bloke was
singing his way down the road and Murphy decided to tell him to shoosh, people were trying to sleep.
Monday morning saw the two lads getting a lift back to the kennels from Jill who provided the last piece in the logistical jigsaw of the weekend. This was an absolutely fab weekend and I really hope the big lads enjoyed it as much as I did. Considering how long these two have been in kennels they did us proud. They were perfect in the house as I've said, asked out perfectly when they needed to, slept all night and never touched a thing they weren't meant to - including
trying to get on the couch!
trying to get on the couch!