Doggin' around

What's that smell?

Dogs smell. There’s no beating about the bush, it’s an unavoidable fact: they smell. Sometimes badly.

To an extent I already knew this from those occasions when I’d visited someone who had a dog. That ‘dog smell’: an odour which is impossible to confuse with any other smell and one which I didn’t find terribly appealing. There’s no way that I’d want my house to smell like that!

What I hadn’t appreciated is that the smell comes in a variety of flavours and that some of them really are quite lovely.

For example, every now and again Bingley takes on the aroma of roasting coffee! I’ve no idea why. Maybe it’s because he’s the same colour as a cocoa bean? But whatever the reasons, and it doesn’t matter whether I’ve been brewing coffee or not, there are times when he smells like a fresh cup of Italian dark roast. Delicious!

Of course when he first arrived he had that very distinctive puppy smell; but now when I push my nose into his fur there’s just this absolutely gorgeous smell of warm Bingley.

Gorgeous as long as he’s dry, that is. Once wet, the smell of his fur is significantly less than appealing and can make my nose wrinkle. There are sound scientific reasons to explain why we get that wet dog smell when a dog gets wet; but the bottom line is that they’re stinky when they’re damp. Bing’s no exception: he’s a poopy pooch on rainy days.

Even on dry days though, it’s easy to tell that we’ve got a dog. I can’t believe how much fur he sheds, and if I don’t vac it all up on a daily basis we can quickly begin to suffer the consequences of all that oily hair. I’ve also become accustomed to having to scrub the kitchen rug regularly: it’s a natural fibre covering and, as it turns out, it naturally absorbs the odour of a dog and can become pretty smelly, pretty quickly.

Bingley also generates a range of other unpleasant smells on a random and unpredictable basis, but usually when he’s lying asleep by my feet and always without warning. These can be bad enough to make me spill my coffee and sometimes so intense that he wakes himself up and has to leave the room. Fortunately though, these particular smells have become less frequent since we changed his diet to JWB Lamb & Veg.

A dog’s sense of smell is phenomenal. In my life BB (Before Bing) I already knew that dogs had this ability; but I had no idea about just how much they calibrate their view of the world through their nose. And Bing’s nose is amazing! When he sits down in the back yard, lifts his head back and starts sniffing, both nostrils seem to move independently as he filters through the wealth of scents that must be floating around invisible to the rest of us.

But his sense of smell is also beginning to wear me out. On-lead training involves a constant struggle with a dog who is heeling nicely one minute, and the next is off following a scent with incredible and unrestrained urgency.

To some extent I’ve learnt to anticipate these lunges and I now prepare to say a firm ah-ah as we approach lamp posts or bollards. That usually works, but we’re surrounded by invisible scent maps and Bingley’s a determined explorer. We can no longer cut across Bingley’s Field in a straight line: as soon as we step onto the grass his muzzle goes down and we’re off on a dizzying zigzag, back and forth, round and round extended sniffing session which usually leads us back to where we started.

But his sense of smell is also good fun, and getting him to find the lumps of apple or carrot which I’ve hidden in the next room is one of our regular games. I’ve also become used to all those doggy smells, even the ones that aren’t that pleasant; and even on the wettest days I’d now rather have a stinky house with a Bingley than a clean house without.

Bingley’s week of misadventures

What a week!

On Monday we all took a Bank Holiday walk down by the river where we met a very small dog who took great delight in bossing Bingley around!

Honestly, this bolshy but engaging little pooch wasn’t much bigger than Bingley’s head; but he was older, out by himself, and obviously street wise. No puppy was going to tell him what to do even if he was significantly bigger. When Bing’s exuberant greetings began to outlast their welcome this little dog simply reached up and gently cuffed Bingley on the side of his head. The effect was amazing: Bing stepped back, sat down and looked crestfallen! He then let himself get chased around for a few moments (all the while looking very worried) before running over to me and hiding behind my legs. Titch meanwhile curled up by Jane’s feet and looked very superior.

Clearly Bingley hasn’t yet learned that one bark from him would have turned the tables and sent Titchy Pooch running. But Big Pooch doesn’t bark much; though he does, I have to say, possess the repertoire. If he’s shut in his dog house and wants attention he sometimes tries a very feminine bark: a high pitched shout which, when ignored, never lasts for long. At the other end of the spectrum there’s the floorboard shaking deep chest bark of a real dog, used when he’s being very assertive and needs to put something in its place once and for all. That bark is reserved for the garden hose. Dangerous things, those hoses.

But on Monday, out in the real world, Bingley didn’t seem to think of barking. He just stayed close to my ankles as we walked away. Titchy Pooch followed us for quite a while, with Bing glancing back nervously and then looking up at me as if to say ‘Can’t you do something about this, Rob?’

In the end I gave my own bark and told Titchy to go home. Which he did straight away. The relief, it has to be said, was felt all round.

Wednesday’s encounter with another dog was, however, a very a different experience and absolutely no fun at all.

Before then though, on Tuesday I was back up to the vet with Bingley in order to get his stitches removed, and to discuss what happens next in this on-going search to find the cause of his allergy. I was a bit apprehensive about the stitches because I imagined that taking them out would be uncomfortable for him; he’s also very wary about people touching his head. But in fact they came out without any difficulty; Rachel and I held him in the corner of the consulting room and she just snipped and pulled them out – easy peasy.

He’s still taking steroids, but over the next fortnight we’re going to be reducing the dosage and seeing if the itching resumes. But in fact it’s pretty obvious that the itching hasn’t disappeared entirely anyway, so I’m certain that we’ll be back to the vet in a couple of weeks and arranging to see a dermatologist.

The weather on Wednesday was beautiful, as it has been all week. In the morning I mowed the lawn and let Bingley help me clear up. As it turns out letting him do that probably wasn’t a good idea, but I didn’t find that out until Friday.

After lunch on Wednesday I decided to take Bing out for a long walk and together we set off along the riverbank to Pelaw. Alex’s water bowl has come into it’s own this week; Bingley no longer even thinks about running off with it, but will push his muzzle in and start drinking as soon as I put it down. I always take plenty of water and we have lots of stops along the way.

It was a lovely walk: the bird song is always beautiful along there and there’s always plenty to look at. Bing enjoys exploring the hedgerows and we had great fun playing in the fields.

There are also other dogs being walked in the same area, so it’s good socialisation for him. On Wednesday however, one of those dogs decided that Bingley was being too attentive to its owner and attacked him.

We’d just left a large empty field; I clipped on his lead whilst we checked the lane and then I let him off again. If I’d realised that someone was following us out of the same field I would have held onto him, but as far as I could tell we had the whole place to ourselves. As I stood looking at the views down river, Bingley ran back into the field to say ‘hello’ to this new friend. Consequently I didn’t see the attack, but I heard it and it was heart stopping. The encounter was vicious and my first experience of one dog seriously trying to hurt another.

Fortunately it didn’t last long. As I ran up to them the other owner was pulling her dog away, and I managed to grab hold of Bing who clearly couldn’t work out what was going on.

The woman was apologetic and Bingley didn’t seem to be hurt; but I was furious and, once I’d made sure that Bingley was ok, I was keen to get away as quickly as possible. Once I’d found somewhere quiet I lay him down and checked him over: he seemed fine. In fact he appeared to be unconcerned and was back to sniffing and exploring straight away.

It was only later when, as we played in the back yard after his evening meal, I noticed that a narrow strip of fur had in fact been ripped off from his side. I can’t tell you how angry and sad it made me feel. But Bingley didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all; he let me examine the affected area without any complaints and the bite didn’t seem to warrant a visit to the vet.

In fact I think that both Jane and I have been more affected by this episode than he has.

Thursday, thankfully, was a quiet and uneventful day. But on Friday Bingley started vomiting after breakfast. This isn’t the first time he’s been sick; but normally it happens once, he eats it up and that’s that. On Friday though, it continued all day.

Bingley and I have the house to ourselves this weekend, whilst Jane visits her mum in North Wales. But I know that I’ll get told off if I go on about Bing being sick! I’ll just add that I examined the ‘contents’ and found traces of the mown grass he’d been munching on Wednesday, so I’m pretty sure that he simply had an upset stomach. Although with the high temperatures we’ve been having this week, along with the attack on Wednesday, the medication from the vet on Tuesday, and the humiliating encounter with Titchy Pooch on Monday: who knows?!

A short fast followed by some light meals seems to have done the trick and he’s back to normal today.

As for me, I’m absolutely exhausted! Apologies for the lack of entries this week, but normal service should now resume. Though I don’t for a minute imagine that Bingley’s misadventures have come to an end.

Pelaw in the rain

Afternoon walk

Bingley on the mend

A very big thank you to everyone who’s been asking about Bingley. When he returned home from his last visit to the vet he seemed to be in a very sorry state and he stayed strangely quiet for…well, at least a day!

But pups bounce back, apparently; and Jane and I seem to have been more affected by all this than Bing himself.

The medication has made a huge difference and although the signs of itchiness are still there, he has at least stopped rubbing his head. Even better, the perplexing lumps on his muzzle have disappeared. We should have been visiting the vet again on Tuesday in order to have his stitches removed and to collect the results of his biopsy, but we had to reschedule his appointment for later in the week. As it turns out that isn’t a problem though because stitches are best left in for longer than a week if possible.

Yesterday however, Rachel, his vet, phoned with the results of the biopsy anyway. I must admit that I got a bit of a shock when she said that she was calling with the results and for a moment feared the worst, but thankfully she was simply being conscientious and there’s nothing worrying about the biopsy report: the swellings were just the consequence of an infection which he’d picked up, probably by pushing his muzzle into places where muzzles shouldn’t be pushed.

I’ve often wondered about that: when he’s off-lead Bing doesn’t usually go that far away, and his recall is pretty good. Unless he’s been distracted by fresh horse manure, that is – he then goes completely deaf and quickly consumes as much as he can before one of us can get to him to pull him away. We’re going to have to work on that one. But besides that he does like to explore and he’s always shoving his head into the most unappealing places. We’re going to have to work on that one too.

Meanwhile though, thanks to a good vet practice, Bingley is on the mend. Of course the allergy issue is still there, and it may take a while to figure out just what might be causing the itchiness. But at least we now feel more optimistic about getting to the bottom of this eventually.

Bingley woes

When I last took Bingley to the vet I was shocked to find myself left behind as he was led away for his very own private consultation. It really was an unsettling experience, but it didn’t prepare me for what was going to happen on our next visit.

Now that we’ve decided to not move house we knew that it was time to knuckle down and find out just what Bingley is allergic to. We hadn’t forgotten about this, but it was easy to put that issue on hold because his allergic reaction seemed so mild. However, over the course of the past week things suddenly became much worse and addressing this condition quickly turned into a priority. He’d begun to shake and scratch his head constantly, frequently enough in fact to start leaving bare patches below his eyes. More perplexing were the lumps that had begun to appear on his muzzle. It was definitely time to go back to the vet.

So Tuesday morning found us all sitting in the consulting room once again; a different room this time, and a different vet. But it was another good examination which seemed to confirm that Bing is definitely allergic to something. Finding out what that might be may take a while though and will likely require him to spend a day with a dermatologist.

That’s the next stage however. On Tuesday the vet went on to suggest eliminating some of the obvious candidates (such as Demodex, little mites that live deep in the hair follicles) and recommended that we leave Bing with her while she did some tests. She’d sedate him, take some skin scrapes from the patches near his eyes and have a good look at the lumps on his muzzle. It would take a couple of hours though, so it would be best for us to go home & she’d give us a call when Bingley was ready to be collected.

Bing of course was happy to bound off with a new friend (though I’m not certain if his new companion was quite as happy at being enthusiastically pulled down the corridor!).

But Jane & I felt bereft and wandered home in a daze. No dog pulling & tugging on the lead as we walked, no insistent muzzle pushing against our legs as we ate lunch. In fact the house felt quiet and horribly empty.

As soon as the phone rang we both leapt up to answer it. The vet explained that the skin scrapes had returned a negative for Demodox, but the lumps on his muzzle had caused enough concern for her to do a biopsy and she’d had to put in a couple of stitches as a consequence. Thankfully the lumps seem to be nothing more than a severe infection resulting from all the scratching, but the definitive results won’t be here until next week.

Jane and I returned to the vets at warp speed! But despite the warning that he now looked worse than he did when we brought him in, it was still a shock to see him. Poor little lad looked like he’d been in a bar fight.

Once home he went straight to bed and slept solidly the whole evening, getting up only to eat his meal – which is good sign, I suppose.

For the next week he’s on a course of antibiotics and steroids. Yesterday I had to add his quarterly worming tablet to the cocktail of medication I seem to be feeding him at the moment.

Not surprisingly he’s been very quiet today, which gives me time to type this. Bonny Bing isn’t that bonny at the moment, so no new photos just yet – I’ll let Jane pick something from the archive. But Bing & I have just been out for a short mid-afternoon walk and as we passed a couple of the local kids one of them exclaimed ‘What a gorgeous dog!’ So, despite the stitches and scrapes Bing’s obviously still an absolute charmer.

Going green

Stay!

By now many of you know that the house move hasn’t happened and that we’ve decided to stay put for a while longer. That’s not all bad news: we miss the notion of being right by the sea, but it’s also nice not to have to go through the upheaval of packing up and moving.

Bingley of course has been oblivious to all these deliberations. Actually, oblivious may not entirely accurate: during some of the more stressful moments he would come and sit quietly at our feet in a most sympathetic and understanding way. And he wasn’t remotely oblivious to the people who recently called round to quote us on the removal costs! That was a bit disappointing because I thought that he might be getting better at resisting the temptation to transform himself into a barking frenzy of jaw frothing embarrassment every time someone visits us.

He does calm down again very quickly once first contact has been made. Unfortunately most people value their lives and are very reluctant to even contemplate allowing first contact to get anywhere near taking place.

During the plans for the move only one visitor recognised that this barking 36 kilo beast was actually just a puppy who wanted to say hello. He was a dog owner himself and wanted to meet Bingley up close and personal. Brave man! Interestingly once Bing had introduced himself with his usual overwhelming vigour he went on to quickly settle down and play with his toys. Brilliant! But as I’m quickly learning, one breakthrough moment does not a well trained puppy make.

In fact training is obviously going to be a lifelong process with all the usual ups and downs. Stay, which until recently was a command which Bingley was really good at following, has now been completely forgotten. At the moment he won’t let me get too far away and won’t wait to be called before enthusiastically running over; and actually going out of sight before calling him is impossible.

Could it be that he wasn’t at all oblivious about our plans to change house after all, and that he’s worried that he might get left behind? It certainly seems that he’s not going to let us out of his sight until he’s convinced himself that we’re the ones who are going to stay!

Sunny Sunday