For Sale

One very cute but extremely naughty Zanna.

Usually listens…..

Hardly ever chases deer….

Eventually comes back after chasing deer….

Keeps herself extremely fit……

A real bargain at half price!!!

I can arrange a Irish wolfhound to accompany this Lagotto. Also an expert deer chaser….

Ok my mother offered to buy her and keep her in her garden Hahahahaha.

Boy she is becoming a real hunting dog… she must of got this from her father ;-) as her mummy is such a sweet and obedient girl.

And she is making Tuck, the Irish wolfhound and big brother of Tiba, act with her. They make a very naughty team!!! When Tuck came back (before Zanna) he was shaking on his extremly long legs, thats how hard he had run!!

Tomorrow its Zanna’s agility exam… Hope I can sleep tonight, Zanna dosnt have that problem. Wonder why.

How funny when wishes come true. I wished Shadow not to be at doggy school and he wasn’t!!! I must admit I did feel a bit guilty…

But this did do Zanna a world of good. She regained a lot of confidence and was wagging her tail most of the time.

And today (Sunday) we had to train instead of next Tuesday as our teacher had another engagement. It was in the morning instead of at night which is a bonus as next Saturday morning we have our exam and up till now we never trained in the daylight. Some dogs can react to silly things when things are different and not perform.

Most of the group managed to come, including Shadow and his girlfriend a lively Belgium “Groenendaler”. And still Zanna did great, she was not busy keeping an eye on them. No she actually enjoyed herself like in the good old days!

The wife of our teacher paid special attention to Zanna to make sure she would like the whole lesson and even took her for walk arounds when we humans had to do things without the dogs. I think that is so great of her, she is a true dog lover helping anyone that needs it and always giving positive criticism when it is needed. She and her hubby are very good at their “job” keeping everyone enthusiastic even when things are not always going so well. I’m glad that the rumors say we shall have them teaching us next season too.

Oh but next week exams, brrrrr. I always get so nervous. I remember the first time I had to do the agility exam with Tieka. My knees were shaking so much that I was truly afraid that I would fall over after I took the first step. That is slightly less now, I know I won’t fall even though my feelings are different.

Its so silly to be so nervous, our life doesn’t depend on it, it should just be fun! I’ll try to keep this in mind all this week.

Zanna seems to have forgotten that Lagotti are now bred for searching for truffles and not hunting!!!

This morning we were to make a quick walk, the big walk we would do in the afternoon.

But Madam Zanna had other plans. She disappeared for about 20 minutes. That’s not very long if you have an Estrela go on an adventure. But for a Lagotto that is ages!!!

I don’t mind, and actually encourage, if my dogs do things by themselves. But Lagotti are so hard to “get rid of” so I got rather worried after 10 minutes of her not rushing by. I was listening really hard to perhaps hear her cries after getting stuck in a big rabbit hole or something.

And then out of the bushes came one happy Zanna! She looked like she had been running hard the whole time, her tong practically hung on her paws, and she was looking wild, cheeky and very happy. Oh said that all ready but it emphasizes how she was :-)

Oh well no harm done and she was nice and tired so I could go to the market with out feeling guilty.

In the afternoon I had to spend more than an hour picking out, I lie not, more than 200 round sticky weed seeds!!!! She has a good thick coat at the moment so this made it much more fun Ha, ha, ha.

Tonight we have to go to agility. Zanna is still very nervous since she was attacked from behind by Shadow the German shepherd a month ago. It went better 2 weeks after the attack but last week she had a relapse. I must admit it was a bit busy on the field as we all practiced separate hurdles at the same time and Zanna just couldn’t keep an eye out with so many dogs at once. I hope this evening that the teachers have thought of another tactic for Zanna, I just don’t know what to do any more. I act happy and encouraging but she still thinks its no fun any more. A real pity if she doesn’t get over this cos she is so good at it. Maybe Shadow is sick!!! Ops sorry for the naughty and mean thought.

By the way Tieka is actually starting to get faster during agility! I now have the ultimate incentive for her. I make her sit in front of the first jump and then show her, her tennis ball and pop it back into my pocket. This works great!!! She gets the ball at the end of the run ;-)

I think Lagotti must be very good for your health. It is said that laughter is the best medicine and watching Tieka and Zanna always makes me laugh.

Zanna just has to sit and look and she gets me going. She is sort of like a little person; the way she looks around is simply charming. When she wants something she can look at me with her cheeky eyes and I melt for her. And then when she snorts and yawns loudly while walking around with her bum and tail high in the air when she is board and wants to be lets out is so funny.

Tieka loves to lean heavily against me, or she pushes herself along the chair that I’m sitting in, pushes her bottom in the air and I have to cuddle and “smack” her bottom while she snorts and twists around completely enjoying her self. Inside she is quiet, but outside during walks she can often have a great time barking loudly while trying to get Zanna enthusiastic to run and “fight” with her. Its REALLY a noisy business!!! I have the impression that Zanna thinks her mother isn’t completely 100%.

Tieka and Zanna start rushing after each other in the park, Tieka barking loudly and then Flecha gets excited by this and starts to chase them. He usually ends up chasing Zanna all around the place as she tactically keeps just out of reach from him. Its very funny to see, little dog being chased by huge dog. Flecha is nearly 9 but doesn’t always seem to remember this, its great to see his long legs flopping around. During these times he looks like an over grown puppy.

The whole of the day you can often hear me chuckling.

Well I must go, Zanna is yawning and burning holes in me with her eyes. She is right of course as it is late and the evening walk before we go to bed is long overdue.

We are having such wonderful weather here in Holland.

Today I have drove on many roads with beech tree canopies. What a beautiful sight, and at this time of year the best!

It is autumn here now and all the leaves have such beautiful colors.

This week the leaves have really started to fall and the ground in the woods are huge carpets of autumn color. And an extra bonus is that it sounds so great to walk through and the dogs have such fun rushing around on this exciting new landscape.

This morning was another blue sky day but there was also a bit of a breeze. And this made the effect of driving along the canopied covered roads really cool. It was continuously snowing leaves. Curtains of thousands and thousands of leaves, and then the mini tornados of leaves that had already reached the ground and were rudely made to come into action again.

Autumn is the best, wonderful scenery and great temperatures. The dogs and I feel very good with this.

Hi Folks

Oh glorious fun, I can give you another gory story!!! Pity I don’t have a digital camera to just show you Ha ha ha.

Yesterday I went to pick up a crate of chicken carcasses, no big deal these days. But while I was busy putting them in to a big rubbish bag the poulterer (I think that is the English word for “chicken man”) started de-heading and de-legging some hares. As you can imagine any self respecting Barfer cant let such a unique chance go by so I asked if I could take all the heads and legs with me as well. Yes the fur was still on and the eyes still in place. I even got to take the innards home!!! Isn’t that wonderful he he he.

I came home with 4 rubbish bags, 2 with chicken carcasses, one with hare heads and legs and one with innards and skin with attached fur from the body. 2 years ago I would never of imagined that I would be doing such things, and now it’s nearly normal! How people change.

I started with bagging the chicken carcasses, I freeze everything in daily portions. All the time I’m busy, and that’s hours, the dogs patiently stand with me in the kitchen, only to rush to their baskets if I give them something and then return.

Since the bags were on the floor I could see the reaction of the dogs to the bags. Flecha was more interested in the chicken that I was busy with but Zanna was really sniffing the “hare bags” so I took out a leg to see what would happen. I put it on the floor in front of Flecha who gave it half a glance and left it as if it was beneath him to eat such a thing. But Zanna couldn’t believe her luck, such a yummy leggy and Flecha didn’t want it! She rushed under him, grabbed it and ran to her basket and finished it off.

Being the gruesome person that I am I wondered what she would think of a hare head so I got one out and put that in front of Flecha, and he of coarse ignored that too but Zanna again grabbed her chance and took it to the basket. I though she would start on the ears, they seemed to me to be such nice chewy doggy things. But I was totally wrong, they were actually eaten nearly as last. No, she started on the chopped off neck side and worked her way up, the neck, the bottom jaw, top jaw then skin and ears and then the skull. All that was left over were the teeth!!

When I finished bagging the chicken I started on the hare. I decided to give Flecha a second chance and put another head on the floor (by the way I have vinyl on the floors so it is easily cleaned) which he didn’t touch till he was really sure that there were no more munchy chicken bits to be had. He then picked up the head and went to his basket with me sneaking behind to see what he would do with it. I was sure he would eat the ears first…. But no, I was wrong again. In fact he used the ears to stand on and hold the head down while he pulled on the other end!! Quite cleaver I thought ha ha.

Again only teeth were left over.

And what about Tieka? Well she didn’t want much to do with the hare until I offered her a piece of hare hart. She liked that.

That’s usually the way the dogs experience new things. One will eat it with no problems and the others have to get used to it. I’m certain that next time all 3 will eat hare with out any problems no mater what part I offer them.

Up till now there are 2 things none of them will eat.
One is duck. Zanna did like to roll in it the first time (yuk!), but that’s was as far as she would go. Even when I tried to trick them and put a duck carcass between the chicken carcasses they would leave them. I have been extra sneaky and made mince meat out of duck liver, stomachs and necks and mixed that with chicken mince meat. This they do eat!!! Horary for the perseverance of their owner!!!!!
And the second thing is day old chickens. They are little yellow fluffy things that all 3 think are to scary to touch! Isn’t that the strangest thing!