Rocky the Otterhound: The Couch Potatoe Goes To Town

Rocky has now reached the grand old age of 3 months and his relationship with Biskitt has not progressed very much ........ Still confusing, still won't play and still glares daggers at him!

Rocky is only allowed into the living room when one of us is at home, then he is allowed on the sofas providing we are there with him. We lift him on and off and ensure he doesn't re-arrange the furniture with his teeth. This has led to him and Biskitt being in fairly close proximity at times.

This resulted in one evening when they NEARLY progressed with peace talks ...........

I was home, alone with the animals, and like a victorian love story things began to happen. Rocky was quiet and calm and Biskitt seemed to notice him for the first time. He crept quietly closer and she looked at him with curiosity, rather than her usual glare. Closer and closer they got until Biskitt reached out towards him ..... I held my breath and ............... my husband came home from the pub leading to an instant change in the atmosphere .......... and the blossoming romance ended abruptly leading to a renewal of the previous rules of the game!!! Oh well!

Having mentioned the fact of our pup getting onto the sofas, I should let you know about the dangers of such things. Namely the fact that he has eagerly become a couch potatoe in the evenings! I know that pups sleep a lot; but when I want to play, he wants to sleep ......... shouldn't it be the other way round?

Anyway, it has been an eventful week for Rocky. He attended his penultimate puppy party and was blown away to find 8 other puppies there! Being his usual thoughtful self he sat back until the various cliques had evolved and then chose to play with a little Staffy pup. His playmate was very cute but made me laugh so much ........................ if you have ever seen the film "Snatch" you'll know about the Staffy that squeeked every time it barked because it had swallowed a sqeeky toy, well this little fellow did exactly the same (without the benefit of swallowing anything)! He valiantly kept trying very hard to get close to Rocky in order to give him some puppy play bites, but Rocky (like his name sake) kept on whapping him (gently) with his paws (he had the longest reach of all the pups at the party due to his long legs, which he still hasn't quite learned how to handle!) The Staffy eventually gave up and the two of them went hopping and skipping along side by side for a little gamble about. I was very proud of Rocky as the other little cliques often deteriorated into open little brawls, with owners frantically picking up thier pups and telling them to behave ............... Rocky didn't need any of that, he was the most laid back and playful of them all and had picked his playmate well!

Rocky also had his first real trip into the big wide world this week, today in fact. Lead practice at home hadn't been going too well ...................... We were a little concerned that we wouldn't even reach the end of the drive!

So we hatched a cunning plan ....................... we have been building up the short trips in the car, which has been going well; so we drove 9 miles to our nearest Waitrose store, parked up and walked him across the car park to spend a while outside!

Brilliant plan, if I say so myself, he was so curious about everything and I don't think he even realised he was on a lead. He was marvelous with all the cars, pushbikes, children and crowds and had a lot of fussing by a lot of people. The only thing that seemed to upset him were the shopping trolleys (we all know how that feels). Anyway, some reassurance and an introduction to an empty pet trolley got over that one and by the end of it he wasn't even noticing them. He did a little walking, a lot of sniffing and got up close and personal with his favourite things .......... people. The bonus points were that he was so tired after all that new stimulation he fell asleep the moment he got back in the car and didn't even know he had been driven home.

As Rocky grows I hope to write my blog more often as he will need a little less stimulation and will be into more things. But that's it for this week.