The Bingmobile

Bingley has changed our lives in many ways, most of which I’ve already talked about and most of which I wouldn’t want to change back again. But possibly the biggest event since his arrival has just taken place: we’ve bought our first car!

There was a time when Bingley would quite simply have had to learn to be a cyclist. Or at the very least he would have had to get used to being carried around on a pushbike: there are some very nice trailers out there, so it isn’t beyond the realms of imagination. Though the idea of getting Bing to sit still in one of those things is probably stretching things a bit.

I recently spotted a cyclist pootling along with a dog zipped up in his jacket: just its head sticking out, with ears flapping in the wind. The dog that is, not the cyclist. Small dog too, definitely not a Bingley.

A papoose would have been a possibility. Bing strapped to my back with his paws on my shoulders and his chin on my head. That would have worked, I’m sure; and been fun as well. But my back, as I’ve mentioned, has been very creaky recently and lugging around 6 stones of dog wouldn’t have done it any good at all.

No, Bingley and bikes were never going to work out.

But Bingley and cars seemed like a grand idea.

Learning to drive was an adventure in itself and deserves its own story. For the time being I’ll just say that I count myself as being very fortunate in finding an instructor who was not only a wonderful teacher but also a top dog breeder. I ended up learning as much about dogs as I did about driving cars; which is as it should be I think. Thanks again, Janet!

I’ve always enjoyed looking at cars – from a design point of view as well as that of a cyclist trying to survive on the roads. But finding a car just right for Bingley turned out to be a challenge. Zipping around in a small reliable hatchback was a very appealing idea; but we quickly realised that there was no way we were going to be able to wedge Bingley into the hatch, and getting him to sit still on the back seat of one of those cars wasn’t even close to being a possibility. Talk about back-seat drivers!

We did think about cutting port holes in the back of a van or strapping Bing’s cage onto a flatbed. But in the end it seemed easier just to buy an estate car instead. However finding an estate that was just right proved to be tricky: I discovered that some of these cars have backs with a very high step, some have a very deep inner lip. On some the wheel arches get in the way, whilst others are full of integrated netting designed to secure the shopping (yes, I did consider that one!)

Talking to the staff at the different garages I visited was good fun and very helpful: some of the people I met were dog lovers themselves and they not only understood what I was looking for, they also had very useful suggestions of their own.


But in the end, after much trekking around, we came across what seems like the perfect Bingmobile: a dark blue Golf estate with a low step and a large flat back big enough to comfortably accommodate an almost 2 year old bundle of boundless energy.

Bingley’s good friend Dave helped us out and drove the car home on the first day. Bing of course greeted both this newest addition to our household, and his friend, with typical giddy enthusiasm. Thanks again, Dave: I’m glad that you’re still talking to me and I hope that the bruises have started to fade (I’m sure Bingley didn’t do it on purpose!).

I’m still getting used to the new car and we haven’t driven very far yet; but after a couple of trips to the beach Bingley seems to be settling down to the idea that this is going to be fun. He’s quickly grown accustomed to sharing his back yard with this new room on wheels and he happily clambers into the back when it’s time to set off. On the first trip out he spent the entire journey walking round in circles, but by the second ride he seemed comfortable enough to simply lie down and wait for the fun to begin: he loves going to the beach.

So here we are at the beginning of a new series of adventures; and knowing Bingley all I can say is – watch this space!

Out early

Sunny moments

Bing on ice

Sunshine & snow showers

The K-Spot

Why is it that when they’re given a choice dogs will always opt for the disgusting?

Bingley loves new toys and will go giddy with excitement when he’s given one. But ask him to go and get a toy out of his collection and he’ll always choose the dirtiest, smelliest, most dog-eared saliva-hardened toy he can find. Stinky for us, but dog toy nirvana for Bingley.

Of course when we’re out walking the chances of finding something disgusting are infinite, and if it’s out there Bingley will find it. If he’s on-lead he can be fairly well behaved and not even try to get to that plastic tray of cold left over curry; but he has been known to almost pull me over in an attempt to get to a discarded bag of fish and chips.

He loves fish and he’s always keen to remind me that he loves fish. When he dug up an old cod, which must have been dropped by an angler several months before, he couldn’t wait to run back and proudly show me what he’d found. My lack of enthusiasm must have disappointed him because I couldn’t see anything appealing about the mulchy mass hanging out of his mouth and I made him drop it at once. As we walked away he kept stopping and looking back longingly, before casting perplexed sidelong glances up at me.

That was one of the less disgusting finds; the list, I’m sorry to say, goes on and on and includes one unidentifiable pile of gloop with a smell which still makes me gag as I think of it. Honestly, half an hour later I still had to turn away my head as I clipped on his lead. Bingley of course was in seventh heaven and has made several attempts to get back to the gloop so he can finish it off.

These indiscretions continue inside the house and he has little respect for my increasingly vain attempts to keep things clean and tidy. Quite frankly I don’t know how other dog owners manage to keep their living rooms looking so nice!

Or maybe it’s just us. As far as we’re concerned Bingley is sharing our house and if he wants to sit on the kitchen floor to munch his Kong, as we sit at the table munching our meal, then that’s just fine. The problem is that he wants to chew his Kong on the same spot every time.

We bought the kitchen rug just before we bought Bingley, and when we bought the kitchen rug we had no idea that we were going to buy a Bingley. In terms of dog friendly rugs it was possibly the worst choice we could have made. Light-coloured natural fibre, it looked lovely for about a month. Then Bing turned up. Over the past year or so his claws have desiccated the surface of the rug and his paws have turned the cream colour into a muddy shade of beige. Not only that, we now have the K-Spot.

When I was younger I remember hearing relatives talking excitedly about G-plan furniture: it was something everyone wanted to have. But for reasons best left to an analyst (or very close friends) I used to imagine that the G-Spot & G-Plan were related and thought that there was something daring about the way my aunties were candidly enthusiastic about how comfortable the furniture must be. It was my first experience of the wonders hidden behind the ordinary.

I’m not sure if dogs have a G-Spot, but if they do it’s probably in their nose! Bingley however definitely has a K-Spot: it’s the area on the kitchen rug where he always goes to chew his Kong. The only variation in the colour of our now muddy-beige rug is a darkening, waxy looking spot which marks the place Bing has claimed as his. Give him a stuffed Kong and he’ll take it there, lie down and spend half an hour methodically teasing out the treats stuffed inside.

The rug has clearly been destined for the tip for some time, and because Bingley lives with us we haven’t much cared about the gradual appearance of the K-Spot. The gradual appearance of the smell was, however, a different matter and the rug has now been shunted into the back yard!

There’s no doubt that as far as Bingley was concerned the smell was part of the appeal. But although he shares our world, when it comes to mulchy cod, grey gloop and a smelly K-Spot, there’s limit to how much we can share in his strange and wonderful Bingdom.

Festive distractions

Bleep and Booster

This morning I was back up to the vet with Bingley, but on this occasion it was for a more routine consultation. With all the allergy related issues over the past few months and mainly because he’s been on long courses of Atopica which doesn’t mix well with other medication, his annual health check & vaccination has had to be repeatedly delayed.

Given the number of vet visits we’ve made over the past year it seems ironic to say that he’s missed his annual health check, but that’s one of the many worrying side effects of his allergies along with the medication which we’ve been using to control the symptoms.

In fact there was some concern that his annual booster was so late that we might have to start from the beginning and engage in yet another series of injections. But he’s just been through that process with the allergy jabs and it would have been horrid to have had to put him through it again with his annual inoculations.

It’s also looking increasingly likely that he’ll be back on Atopica before too long; his condition has gradually worsened since we finished the last course of tablets and until the allergy jabs start having an effect we want Bingley to be as comfortable as an 18 month old dog should be.

Atopica doesn’t combine well with other medication so if we did have to restart his inoculations from the beginning we’d been facing a dilemma: itchy dog or vaccinated dog? I hate him being so itchy, but the annual vaccination is an important inoculation and given where he pushes his muzzle (as well as what he sometimes finds to eat) I had visions of Bingley contracting some exotic and unpleasant illness if he missed his annual booster!

Thankfully though, it turns out that there’s few months leeway and Bing’s just within that window. Another month and we’d have had to start again, but as it is we can continue as normal. Or at least we can continue with what counts as normal for Bingley. His next annual health check is (quite reasonably!) next December. How nice, I found myself thinking as I paid the bill, if that really was going to be our next planned visit to the vet.

Not that I don’t enjoy visiting our vet, it’s a terrific practice and we always have fun. Today we enjoyed talking with someone whose 14 year old dog barked at everyone who came close: he’s been this way since he lost his older brother, she explained. There was also a man who’d brought in two budgies for a check up, which sounds like the beginning of a joke. He wasn’t a dog lover but he liked Bingley.

I had a nice chat with a woman who was having her 10 week old puppy checked over. At home she had a 7 year old Westie who, like Bingley, enjoyed jumping up at people. The thing is, I explained, when 5 kilos of dog jumps up its funny; when 38 kilos of dog leaps up it can be hard to laugh. I know what you mean, she replied, I used to have 2 German Shepherds who enjoyed jumping up at my mum. She was very slight and when they’d knocked her over and were sitting on her she was the only one who never saw the funny side of it.

I love our vet practice!