THE STREET PETS

A few photos of the Street pets. 

Meg (12) and Mirk (8½) are Border Collies of the short coated variety and both are from working stock. Meg is Mirk's mother. They share all our boating  and are excellent boat dogs in that neither likes swimming! They very quickly suss out whether we are locking up or down and position themselves at the appropriate moment waiting for the command to get back on board. Meg likes chasing sticks although, sadly her arthritis limits this  activity now. She very quickly trains anyone we meet at locks to throw sticks, or even blades of grass, for her. Mirk is a bit of a wimp and just wants to be cuddled by everyone he meets. As he doesn't jump up and is just the right height for a child to cuddle, he makes lots of friends along the way.

Update, June 02. Meg had a stroke a few months ago and is now showing her age. She still enjoys her boating, however even though she now needs to be lifted on and off the boat. Mirk has recently discovered what male dogs are supposed to do with lady dogs in an interesting condition. well, maybe he hasn't got the whole story yet but he is getting there. Obviously a late developer.

Scruffy and Deli are our cats whose boating has been restricted to climbing all over Gamebird when she is at home on her trailer. Scruffy rules the village dogs who all get out of her way and treat her with the respect which she thinks she deserves. Deli on the other hand , is a shy soft little cat who jumps up on my knee every time I sit down. Mirk, being a frustrated sheep dog herds the cats and they in turn carry on doing exactly as they please. Result, one happy dog who feels he has herded the cats and two happy cats who know they have got one up on the dog - again!

Update June 02. sadly Scruffy took ill last month  and was  put to sleep on 10th May 2002. We all miss her but we are fairly sure she now reigns in cat Heaven where she will be getting everyone to do exactly as SHE wants.

Update May 2003. Meg died on 2nd of April 2003, having been active  a few hours before. We all miss her, especially Mirk,  and in fact he hasn't barked again some 6 weeks later. He had always had a mother fixation and never really played with other dogs. He is now learning  how to do that.

We were joined by a new collie puppy, Gael, who is helping take his mind off things and is a bundle of energy. She is from  a farm and her mother is red and white and her father tricolour, Gael is black and white although she may have a red/brown tinge on her coat. She fell in the first time she went boating at the age of 7 weeks but has not fallen in since although she has been boating on both Gamebird and Copperkins.

An update some two years later (doesn't time fly?) in August 2005.

Gael became a problem puppy being very dominant and strong willed and as none of the methods I used to use to train puppies was getting me anywhere, I enrolled in the Broxburn Dog Training Club where Margaret gave me invaluable help. It was a long hard struggle as Gael developed a new trait - aggression to other dogs, especially German Shepherds. I was fairly certain this started as a fear thing but it grew and  I seemed to spend my time apologising for my dog. Mirk, meanwhile was absolutely perfect! It was a short step form obedience training to agility training with Sam and this proved to be Gael's thing. She very gradually stopped being aggressive and she can now be trusted to play with other dogs after training is over. She has always been like this on her daily walks but it took a long time to  get her to behave well at the club. After over a year training, I decided to enter her for an agility show and see how she behaved. No sign of aggression at all and I must thank Margaret and Sam for all their help and advice to help me get Gael to this stage. How did she do in the ring? well, she has a handicap - me! We are both learning and we have a long way to go to get consistent performances but she has had one clear round - well, she actually had two but I knocked over a jump with my hand. See what I mean about her handicap?  One of my fellow agility club members, Lee took the photo at East Lothian club of Gael with her first clear round rosette.

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