Jasper's diary

[JudyN]

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Oh, the joys of a 'special' dog...

I was hoping for a quick walk this morning but the cold, crisp weather seemed to energise Jasper and he headed up to the woods, along a path where he has had a tendency to snark at other dogs. On the way up, he grrred at a small group of 'snack-size' dogs who yapped at his ankles, then at a friend's spaniel he hadn't met before, and finally at a 12-week old pointer pup... Generally he's tolerant of pups but there were a few of us milling around with our dogs cooing over the pups.

Then, shortly after, my friend accidentally stepped on his toe, and he jumped up and snarked angrily at ME! Which is probably better than snarking at her but still felt a bit unfair!

This makes him sound like a monster... 99.9% of the time he's a perfect angel and people simply don't believe he really needs to wear his muzzle. Until they step on his toe

 

[Josie]

Oh, the joys of a 'special' dog...

I was hoping for a quick walk this morning but the cold, crisp weather seemed to energise Jasper and he headed up to the woods, along a path where he has had a tendency to snark at other dogs. On the way up, he grrred at a small group of 'snack-size' dogs who yapped at his ankles, then at a friend's spaniel he hadn't met before, and finally at a 12-week old pointer pup... Generally he's tolerant of pups but there were a few of us milling around with our dogs cooing over the pups.

Then, shortly after, my friend accidentally stepped on his toe, and he jumped up and snarked angrily at ME! Which is probably better than snarking at her but still felt a bit unfair!

This makes him sound like a monster... 99.9% of the time he's a perfect angel and people simply don't believe he really needs to wear his muzzle. Until they step on his toe

Thanks @JudyN for starting Jaspers diary! I love to hear what everyone is up to.

Just sounds like one of those days for Jasper! and of course the ones you love the most always get the brunt of it!

 

[JudyN]

Jasper caught a scent when we were on a narrow path on some heathland this morning, and disappeared off round the corner. A moment later, what I thought was a large brown dog came belting past me, no more than a foot or two from my leg, with J in hot pursuit. Not a dog, but a deer!

The area is fenced, and fortunately J is always muzzled on walks, doesn't realise that he's more than capable of clearing a 4' fence (if it was a 4' high & wide fallen tree he'd have sailed over) and is not so inclined to charge through prickly gorse bushes nowadays. He also has pretty rubbish stamina, so he soon abandoned the hunt and came back to me, panting like a steam train. I checked him over for scrapes and grazes but he seems fine.

I remember the days when seeing a deer at such close quarters would have been awesome, rather than an 'Oh sh!t' moment

 

[Josie]

Oh wow! Thats a sight to see!

"oh shit" moment ha ha!

 

[JudyN]

I nearly got a photo of Jasper playing with another dog today! He hardly ever wants to play with another dog and if he does, it's usually another sighthound who's been pestering him. Or he'll play, but it's in an 'OK, you wanna play? I'm gonna show you how the BIG boys play!' sort of way...

But I'd been chatting to someone in the park for a while, and been ignoring the 'Muuuuum, I'm boooored' whining for a while, so he decided to play with her cockerpoo instead - with lots of playbowing and even going easy on the boxing, given the difference in size. But the moment I got my phone out to take a photo of this unprecedented event, he wrapped his front legs round the cockerpoo and tried to hump him. And when he gave that up (it was never going to work, for various anatomical reasons) he got a bit more growly and worked up, so we parted before he got too rough.

I'm sure he's more lively in the cold weather - has anyone else noticed that with their dogs?

 

[Josie]

I nearly got a photo of Jasper playing with another dog today! He hardly ever wants to play with another dog and if he does, it's usually another sighthound who's been pestering him. Or he'll play, but it's in an 'OK, you wanna play? I'm gonna show you how the BIG boys play!' sort of way...

But I'd been chatting to someone in the park for a while, and been ignoring the 'Muuuuum, I'm boooored' whining for a while, so he decided to play with her cockerpoo instead - with lots of playbowing and even going easy on the boxing, given the difference in size. But the moment I got my phone out to take a photo of this unprecedented event, he wrapped his front legs round the cockerpoo and tried to hump him. And when he gave that up (it was never going to work, for various anatomical reasons) he got a bit more growly and worked up, so we parted before he got too rough.

I'm sure he's more lively in the cold weather - has anyone else noticed that with their dogs?

Yes totally!! Dennis has been really playful today to.
He starts to hump when he gets over excited also! (He usually has quite a fancy for other lab boys)

Nice to hear Jaspers enjoyed having a play

 

[JudyN]

Jasper decided we were going to Upton Heath this morning, which is quite a long round walk, despite the cold. It was worth it though, the views were stunning that I had to take my gloves off to take some photos. How lucky am I to live just over a mile away from this?

 

[Josie]

Looks beautiful @JudyN - Jasper knows what he’s doing!

 

[arealhuman]

In answer to your question @JudyN - very!

 

[JudyN]

I saw something really heartwarming this afternoon...

It was grey, cold, raining and miserable so as I walked into the woods I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw what seemed to be someone sitting on the ground under a tree reading a book. But it was, and next to her was a large fluffy ageing GSD. She smiled at me and when I commented that is wasn't the best weather for reading a book under a tree, she gestured to her dog and said that she (the dog) couldn't walk far any more and loved to be outside. So, despite being cold & wet, that's what she did. What a lovely lady

I moved on fairly soon as J was a bit too interested in her rucksack which contained treats (she really should have added a flask of cocoa ), but we met again, in the middle of the open field where her dog had again decided to have a lie-down, after I'd done a whole circuit of the woods. So we stood and chatted in the pouring rain for about 20 minutes about our dogs and their little foibles.

I was quite surprised J put up with standing in the rain for so long while we chatted, but he got his own back when we got home. He had a good old barky rumpus on our bed, and I now need to change the sheets

 

[Josie]

That is really heart warming @JudyN - what a lovely lady. She must really love her dog.

They always get their own back!

 

[JudyN]

Woof!

My life has been turned upside down One of the best places in the world is Mum & Dad's bed, because it's comfy and smells of them, even though I used to have to turn the quilt back to get to the actual nice smelly sheets. Still, after a long wet muddy walk it was quite fun to have a good old scrabble, pile the quilt into a heap, and then settle down on top. It also got rid of a lot of the mud!

Then Mum started covering the bed with a big throw which they tucked in. It took a lot more scrabbling to get to the sheet below, but it was worth the effort. Then they put an extra duvet on top, to make it comfier, which was good as they'd had the duvet cover in bed with them a few times so it smelt of them... but it wasn't the same, and then they went and washed it. Recently, I've resorted to sleeping on the rolled-up quilt on top of the blanket box but it's a bit precarious.

And now I'm not allowed in the bedroom at all till bedtime!! I have to go and sleep on one of the human puppies' bed now he's moved out (which I'm also sad about) but it's not the same. You'd think Mum and Dad would be happy to sleep in a bed that smelt not just of me but also the woods, and the heath, and the ponds. I'm sure all the grit helps them exfoliate too. And what's wrong with holes in sheets anyway?

Mum also says I'm not allowed to play the humpy game with my best friend F the cockerpoo. I don't know why - I like it, he likes it, and he soon wriggles out and hangs off my ears again. I don't know why I like him, but I do. I don't like playing with other dogs and if any other dog hung off my ears like that I'd rip their heads off! But Mum's friend has told her that the humpy game is so much fun that I might not let F escape my clutches, and might try to play it with other dogs who wouldn't like it. I don't know why they wouldn't, but Mum never seems keen when I try it with her...

 

[Whippylove]

Thats great lol its like reading something Marley would do! He likes the humpy game to on poor Oliver and sometimes me my son always shouts hes doing the disco dance again .

 

[Josie]

Great diary update Jasper!

Dennis doesn’t know why humans change routines, it puts him all out of sorts to!

 

[JudyN]

Haha! People keep telling me it's a dominance thing and I tell them that's a load of rubbish. But at the moment, I can call him away when he starts up and I don't want him to get so keen on it that I can't. I think he's only ever attempted it with four dogs - two boys and two girls. And me of course.

Trouble is, he's so big that I find it quite hard to escape his clutches, particularly because I'm normally laughing so much.

Oh yes, I forgot Monty, the cat! His rear end was a good 2 foot away from Monty's but he didn't let that stop him!

 

[Whippylove]

Poor you! At least with a bit off pushing Marley eventually lets go

 

[JudyN]

A firm 'off' or 'sit' tends to work. Though last time he couldn't sit because his rear end wouldn't stop...

 

[Josie]

Dennis will start humping his lead or his bed the majority of the time! He's tried it on with me once and like you said @JudyN it's hard to stop because you find yourself laughing so much!

He usually takes a shine to other male labs!

 

[JoanneF]

You might find this article interesting

Why Does My Dog Hump Everything?

 

[Josie]

Very interesting read - thanks @JoanneF! Although personally I don't find Dennis's humping issue to be stress related (I hope not anyway!). It usually happens when we're playing and he gets too excited!