Nearly a Collie Catastrophe Today

Well its been an exhausting day today. It could have ended badly but thankfully hasn't.
Its been a warning about how a dog could in theory cause a lot of harm !

This is what happened !

Firstly Tika has so far been contained by our lovely new fenced garden. She has only twice lept the new fence and that was when in the middle of a very exciting game.
So around lunchtime today she was pottering the garden and our neighbour who she seems to love called her over. The neighbours were sitting out enjoying the sun. I had been out playing with Tika but left her pottering in the garden. Anwyay I watched from the window and she leapt the fence and went to say hello. The neighbours didnt mind but I did so went to rescue her as she could have ended up going to the front of their house and into the street.

The next incident was then more dramatic as she went to visit the neighbours again and this time ended up in their house !

And finally i asked someone to walk her in the garden on the lead until I had time this evening to build a higher fence ! However the person I asked seemed not to have heard about the earlier incidents (do you know people like that as well ?!?) Anyway they decided to leave her playing in the garden.
Next thing is she has gone visiting again and I didnt realise straight away so the neighbours were trying to catch her. When I finally arrived she very nearly could have caused my elderly neighbour to get injured and another of their family who had a broken leg to have fallen over, and she had disrupted their dinner.

So obviously it is not acceptable. And thank goodness no-one was injured. We have now started to raise the height of the fence !
I know as well that you shouldnt really leave a collie on their own in the garden - she needs occupied at all times - games, exercise etc.
Its like having a naughty child though at this stage !

She had had a good walk this morning although it was slightly curtailed as there was a dog walker walking eight dogs on the moorland where I was walking so I had to change route and put her back on the lead earlier than I might have done so that is a bit annoying. I dont understand how people can walk 8 dogs ! She actually lost one of the spaniels which had come across to say hello to us. Last thing I saw it was heading back to her. But they must be earning at least £40 for that walk but how under control realistically can you be in charge of 8 dogs ! I cant even keep control of one dog as you can see from today's hectic day !

Have a look at this - if its true its remarkable !

A goose that helps out a blind dog !
http://blogs.discovery.com/daily_treat/2011/04/seeing-eye-goose-befriends-blind-dog.html

Ticks Out

Well the bad news is that we found a Tick on Tika today. It was swollen up so had probably been on her overnight. I managed to create a tick remover by folding a paper clip into a similar shape to the one I had bought (and left behind at home !)

So that is the news - ticks are definitely out here in Scotland for the summer - we got this one in Perthshire I think. The weather has been good for quite a few weeks now and as long as there have been no more frosts then the ticks start to appear.

Also unfortunately I just gave her a dose of Advocate Spot On a couple of days ago. This covers worms plus lungworm which can be caught if they eat snails and slugs which Tika will probably do once they appear in the garden a bit more.
However the plan was to give her Advantix "spot on", which has some sort of action against ticks, in a months time. But it looks like we have maybe been a bit too late with this plan !
So hopefully she'll not have caught Lyme disease or any other nasty thing from it. The tick appeared to come out whole as it was still alive and its legs were wriggling - it actually had pretty big legs when you saw it.

Really Cute Video - Puppy Lullaby !

This is very cute !