Enjoying sharing his garden

Blue has seen much more activity in the garden the last few weeks, with a number of jobs being done by Sue and me.

Blue does like to get fully involved, like if you dig a whole for a fence post, he thinks it should be wider and deeper no matter what you think is deep enough.

So for some of the time he has been shut indoors, which he seems to accept quite amicably.

Feeling a little guilty, I decided to give him the opportunity to join us both outside, Sue painting the fence, me filling and barrowing aggregate into the back garden.

So with his halti collar attached, I looped around the tow bar of the car, Sue got his bed to help him settle.

This put Blue less than 10 feet away from passing pedestrians, of which a few went past, without a murmur, just a watchful eye, he was loving this new getting a clearer view of passers by, without looking through an iron gate.

Until a cold caller came a visiting, we warned him not to enter the drive, as we were not interested, in whatever he was selling, as he came into view, Blue seconded our opinion more verbally and definatly more persusavily than we had, the cold caller retraced his steps away, and ventured into our neighbours garden, still in sight of Blue who was now testing the towing ability of the car, sideways.

The suspension rocked a little, but that was all that moved, as soon as the caller was out of sight Blue settled back down.

He has his own code of conduct, you can look at him, but if you approach him or speak to him he will soon let you know when you have overstepped the code.

Back to the garden, we are going to have a "Summer house" not a shed, a "Summer house" and some of the work involved was putting down a base, and before the scalpings could be flattened, Blue was checking out the bedding properties.

Normal service is soon resumed, and a nice shaddy place with the radio playing and he is chilled

in this mood even the sweeping of a broom is no match for comfort

Tomorrow night will be Blues last swim for a fortnight, due to the pool being closed for holidays, so we will probably take a trip to the coast, but then he is a bit more resistant to get into the sea.

How much does it cost to be priceless?

Anyone who reads this Blog can be sure in their mind is not moaning, nor scare mongering and certainly not bragging, some of what you will read may surprise, even astound you but all I can say is that not one penny spent hasn't been repaid.

From the beginning, as Blue is a Pedigree he came at a cost of £650.00 what we now know it is was more like a down payment, but through the years has turned out to be a sound investment.

We won't go into every detail, but there have been what others would term as consumables, bedding, toys, leads and collars.

Training was a must, if you have never had a German Shepherd before, don't believe for a moment that training is not essential. It is great for learning bonding and socialising. First there was "puppy" class's then there was obedience training, and later on there was a failed Schutzhund training, we all failed that, there is an entirely different story to be told about regarding that day.

Veterinary 
Vet bills don't come cheap, needing regular boosters, worming, flea treatment, removal of his hidden testicles that never saw the light of day, allergy treatment, spinal surgery really hit home hard. The spinal surgery alone was £4,500.00 of which we paid 10% and the rest was claimed back on insurance.

The spinal surgery meant that although we already had a crate for Blue, it was too small while he was still growing through his recuperation, so a second was needed, which meant he could have the small one for sleeping in at night, and live in the larger one through the day.

Once recovered Blue went through a course of hydrotherapy, which was covered through insurance, but he was still limited to mobility with other dogs etc, so the socialising training needed to be done again.

Swimming
The benefits of hydrotherapy were to help us through a very trouble time with Blue, essentially he was becoming a bully, he needed to have his energies channelled elsewhere. We were fortunate to come across "Aquadoggies a few miles down the road. To this day Blue rarely misses his Wednesday swim, the cost is £200.00 for 10 weeks swimming. There he gets a 15-20 minute swim, shower and blow dry.

Dietary
German Shepherds are notorious for delicate/dodgy tummy's. Blue is no exception, for a long time now he has been on a mix of dried food and tinned Royal Canin, the dry food is specificallly for German Shepherds and the tin food is for sensitivity control,but he still picks up things while out and about, the food he is on now costs about, and of course like every dog treats and rewards fill the gaps in between

Holidays
We spend around 4 weeks of the year away on holiday, where many places charge for dogs, normally around £20 per week



How much have we spent over 7 years? 

Breeders fee	£650.00
Food	£3,612.00
Treats	£2,016.00
Hydrotherapy / swimming	£4,000.00
Holidays	£480.00
Vets	£1,260.00
Insurance	£5,460.00
Collars,leads & squeaky toys	£250.00
Training	£350.00
Grand Total	£18,078.00

So about the cost of an average new family car. I always used the expression it was like running a luxury car, which in some ways about £2,500.00 a year would not be far off.

What has our money got us, for just  £6.84 a day or 28p an hour? over 2628 days

Over time I have read and heard about the unique attributes of a German Shepherd. My own account is that they truly are more than a pet. 

We do not own Blue, we live with Blue. Blue very much fills our life and our home, Is every day a bed of roses? No; But would we be without him? No

The most endearing qualities about Blue are hard to put into words, but he is better than a best friend, he is more loyal than any football fan could be about their club, and he has a mischievous side.

Given what he has in his armoury, he could do a lot of damage, but has a very sensitive soul.

We have grown together, learning from each other, Climbed mountains, trekked across fells, ran and played all sorts of games, gone into the sea, and crossed burns and streams, dug holes.

We have had our spats, both of us have trouble counting from 1 to 10 during "wind ups", each of us know which button to press to get a reaction, more often annoying my wife Sue.

I am currently reading a book called the last wolf, I can see where some of the traits have been passed down through the generations, not the myths, but the social side.

So for a cost of just under £7.00 a day for the last 7+ years our world (Sue and me), and Blue's has been shared, with only a couple of days apart, (while he was recovering from his spinal operation at Fitzpatrick Referrals)

It would still be a bargain at twice the price.

Oh and just to add, we he is a live in intruder alarm, which operates 24hrs, 

we have a few times been asked, would he bite?, 

we say yes, that way no one will be disappointed or surprised

Just for fun the image below picks up on words used when writing about Blue

A typical day in Scotland on holiday

Under (the weather and the water)

Poor old Blue has had a few days of severely upset tummy, but this morning he has finally completed his recovery. Without being too graphic he suffered after a few tasty morsels from the next door neighbours BBQ, sausages and chicken pieces etc.

The effect on him was very dramatic, making a mess of the kitchen hallway and upstairs landing, the loss of so much fluid caused an element of dehydration, and generally became very clingy.

There is no apparent long lasting effects, but with a carefully managed diet of the right food, he soon got over the sickness and diarrhoea.

This morning we had "conkers" as I described his business to my wife.........who ever walks Blue reports back on condition of his deposits.

Blue will be swimming tonight, Wednesday, as per usual being he is over the worse for his experience. Last week we used our new GoPro to film his underwater swimming action

Really good fun to film and watch back afterwards, you can tell how much he enjoys his sessions in the pool.

He has also continued to find discarded and lost balls in the hedgerows of the local park, some are behind chain-link fencing on the railway side of the fence, he knows they are there, he points them out, but is not too bothered when we move await without getting the ball.

Blue has also been housebound more than usual as we are putting up a new boundary fence, but he always checks out the progress.....

Thanks for reading, and please share Blue's experiences where you can

Out for a walk

Just a few shots out walking with Blue

Sunny days, Blue days

Blue is a very fortunate dog, who is rewarded in so many ways for his loyalty,companionship and love, which in fairness could never be rewarded enough.

We have been enjoying walks at weekends in the beautiful grounds of University of Reading, Whiteknights campus where Blue loves to walk through the wild meadow, we tend to keep away from the lake, as Blue and nesting birds don't see eye to eye.

Last weekend we set off for our annual excursion to get some flowers and shrubs for the garden, out came the trailer, in the trailer went Blue.

All though we had other idea's Blue seemed to settle in quite quickly.

But with a bit of a fuss he agreed to shake paws with Sue and agree to vacate.

It would have turned a few heads if we would have driven down the road with Blue sat in the trailer, though it is likely he would have soon bailed out at the first sign of a C-A-T or anyone that would dare speak to him. He soon settled in the back of the car, and enjoyed the trip out in luxury.

Gardening and Blue do not always mix well, last year, half of the plants had been "Blue'd" before they had been planted, so this year he was kept separate from the plants and the planting.

Given the glimmer of an opportunity, Blue decided that if the plants were out of bounds, the containers needed his attention, and in a blink of an eye, their fate was sealed.

So the damage was much more limited this year, but Blue does enjoy helping, so even if the planting out passed him by, the watering needed his close supervision.

and whenever we are in the garden, all activity has to end with a game of ball, though his "Jollyball" no longer resembles a ball.

and the flowers in the garden are beginning to flourish, with Blue's assistance

Morning walks are more like morning drags, Blue will happily walk to the local park, but once we begin road walking, the paws dig in, and the pass goes in reverse, after a while he does move forward but all be it behind you. Until he knows that he is homeward bound or returning to the park, where the pace increases significantly.

Daily exercise is important, it ensures he gets good movement on his joints, and in fairness looking at the pictures below you can see where he is happiest.

Yesterday I went to Asda, while there I picked up the No1 CD by Florence + The Machine

When I got home, I noticed how apt the title was;

HOW BIG HOW BLUE HOW BEAUTIFUL

Until the next time here is Blue 

enjoying his holiday 

in

 Scotland this year.

Normal service has resumed

Blue is back in the swing of normality, the need for a cat nap in the afternoons is surely a sign of slowing down now he is the ripe old age of seven, equivalent to being 56 in human years.

The title is normal service has resumed, because of what happened during his afternoon walk, a glove needed his attention. Why we do not know, but Blue must shred any stray glove that he finds. Today he converted the latest victim into a finger less glove. When I say fingerless, that is in the singular not plural.

Today only the tip of the index finger was removed, and Blue kindly posed with his trophy;

Blue has returned to his weekly swim, and gets good exercise, and helps him with his back. Although it is over six years ago, Blue has never fully recovered from the spinal surgery, we do notice how he can be a little wobbly on his hind legs, and rarely jumps into the back of the car, we have to lift him in, I get the sharp end and Sue gets the tail end, he sometimes looks at us in an indignant fashion, but that is part of his character.

On holiday this month in the Scottish Highlands, we avoided some of the high level walks and kept to those walks which were less challenging, and avoiding the need to scramble over rocks and boulders, though happily walk for nine miles.

This morning on our dawn walk, we came across a fox, within the grounds of the local university, just stood on the edge of the "wilderness" watching me and Blue walk along, not a murmur from Blue. This is very different to 3.00am Wednesday morning when Blue needed a wee, I took him into the back garden on his extending lead, without being attached to a lead he would wander round all night, barking at anything and nothing in equal measure, I digress, well he had his wee and then as we approached the back door, it happened.

Bold as brass stood by the car on the front drive was a young fox, that was the cue for Blue to bring out the big guns. I did well to hold him, but could do nothing about the ferocious barking, the fox retreated to the end of the drive and just stood and looked, wondering what all the fuss was about.

They say things come in 3's so out there is one more encounter waiting for Blue.

I mentioned we have just returned from Scotland, a lovely place in the Highlands, Inveralligin set on the northern shore of Upper Loch Torridon, so just a few snaps of Blue's holiday pic's until we blog again....

Making good use of the local furniture

The obstacle course, that had to be negotiated on the North Face Trail to Ben Nevis

It's a long way down!!!

Stunning views

7 Today

Look who was born on this day seven years ago. Blue looks at the gifts received this morning.

We have just spent two great weeks in the Highlands of Scotland, where Blue has had a marvellous time. He is, showing his years more now, with the grey whiskers and a little stiffness as he rises, but apart from that he is in good health and spirits.


One of the funniest things on our holiday was when walking along the shoreline at Sand in Applecross, Blue spotted something on the rocks, actually it is best shown in pictures..............

Enjoying the fancy footwork of @Bluesmummy 

Aha what is this hiding in the rocks?

Now he's got it

Yikes it's getting away

Assistance is required, if you please!!!

Looks like the rapid response team are too slow!!!

As you can see it was best to keep taking pictures rather than assisting the dynamic duo.............

Happy Birthday Blue!