HAPPY 2015!!!

Happy New Year all!! Here's to a fantastic year filled with adventures, dog walks and so forth.

All of the season's greetings aside, this year started off on a bit of a wobbly leg for us. We got home on the 1st of the new year, to a freshly ransacked house...This was obviously very upsetting to both us and Salvador, as I'm sure he felt this would never have happened, was he here to protect his property. I'm sure the smell of intruders still linger in his always busy nostrils and as a result he is now even more on guard than before. Literally NOTHING can go past our house, front or back, without him alerting us. It's not great being slightly more paranoid, as one tends to be after these incidents, and suddenly waking up to a manically barking dog at 2am...but then I stick to my theory that I don't think anyone would have broken into the property if Salvador was around, because he would have been on high alert the moment someone entered the garden. Yet another reason to get a dog!!

As far as New Years resolutions go - I'm not sure if we have that many. I have however decided that we will be taking Salvador along to restaurants more often. Now not all of us are lucky enough to do this, bit living in Cape Town, in a mostly pet friendly suburb with loads of on street dinning delights, this is definitely something we are going to start doing.
In fact, we took Salvador and his friend Jameson to a lovely, laid back place called The Stall in Franschhoek today and I was pleasantly surprised at his good behavior. This being said, he was exhausted when we got home, as I think trying to behave all through lunch, at a foreign place with so many new smells, just took its toll on him mentally. He handled himself well though.
There seems to be many places around Cape Town that is relatively dog friendly - I mean it's probably always going to be hard to find a place where they literally beg you to bring your dog along(I'm not sure if one can be sure of the cuisine at such an establishment...), but there are definitely some that would sooner ask you if you would like a water bowl for your panting pooch, than chase you off hungry. We will be checking out some places this year and with Salvador's help I'll inform you of the good ones!

Another thing we are working on this year is going for a well calculated, peaceful jog - now as you can see, I've underlined a bit there as this is a big block in the road for us. Our current jogs starts off with a bang - literally a BANG, as in the gun shot at the beginning of a sprint race, because we are bounding off at break-neck speeds! Somewhere midst all the pulling and jerking we then come to an abrupt halt in order to tend to some toilet business...it is towards the last 2 minutes of this mad sprint that we reach a stage of total bliss as Salvador gets a bit more tired, but before you know it we hit the front step and the chaos is over. As any of you who are keen runners can gather, this is no way to exercise, well not for me(I'm sure Salvador tires himself out quite a bit), so we will be tending to this issue in the coming months.

To end off this New Years post, I am glad to inform you that we will be able to stay on at our current address for at least another year! This comes as a great relief after we were told that the house we are renting is on the market, in which case there was a big chance that it would sell and we would be stuck in the horrible tumult of finding another pet friendly residence - one of the hardest things to do in this town! But we are definitely staying and couldn't be happier!!

HERE'S TO A GREAT 2015 !!!    

xxx

Sweet Sage

We had to say goodbye to cute little Sage today, our nearly 2 year old little visitor, and boy has it been an entertaining visit! I was not prepared for dealing with Salvador with a baby around, but in the end he didn't do all that bad! 

On Day 1 there was much excitement with the arrival of the new guest and their tiny little human. It took a while for Salvador to realize that he can jump up on her as he is most likely heavier than her. We decided to go to the beach, which went down well with both baby and pooch and the rest of the night was spent getting acquainted with the new guests. 

Sage and Salvador playing together on the beach

 On Day 2 Salvador battled to grasp the idea of sharing spaces (couch, room,everything etc) and his mom with the little new comer. As we all well know, Salvador is not that keen on sharing so he got a bit upset whenever little baby entered any of his areas - at which he would bark at her every now and then, but luckily he soon got over his territorial nonsense.

Very early on he learned that babies are a constant source of interesting foods (I can't even imagine what he has been eating for the last 3 day...everything from strawberries to baby formula) and followed her around EVERYWHERE, in case a morsel was dropped. 

All in all it has been relatively stress free introducing him to a baby. I can imagine that the thought of introducing a new baby to the family and its dog can be a daunting one, but I think it's something that will take a lot of time and patience. With a bit of both, it can be done!

Licks and Kisses

XXX

Salvador on the job

I've always thought that Salvador is the kind of dog that needs a job - Spaniels being working dogs and all. Unfortunately for him, we aren't anywhere near hunting grounds with any retrievable game on it, so I decided a day at work with me could only do him good - and this is what happened...

He got rewarded richly for protecting the car for 15 minutes while we went into the shops. He then decided to chew on said reward for most of the working day...

He went for a leisurely stroll along Sea Point Promenade...

And then he got portraits of himself drawn by two budding young artists?! I mean, how was that even work?

Oh...Salvador is looking at me now as if to say, "don't conveniently leave out the bit where you made me come with you to meet a friend after work, and I had to sit in the busy street all that time you guys were chatting away!"

(I can explain...I had to meet a friend after work and we decided to go to The Power and the Glory, which is a great place in Cape Town to go to if you happen to have your dog with you, as you can sit outside. Although, at this stage Salvador had 'lost his sense of humor'-I guess it's usual after having had such a busy day at 'work' and all- and started getting a bit annoyed with all the strangers walking past...)

Nippy behaviour...

My first memory of a Spaniel was from when I was about 7. I went with my mum to a volleyball tournament and one of the ladies playing had a Spaniel. My first thoughts were naturally 'aah cutest dog I've ever seen, lets cuddle', but I was very quickly warned not to try and interact with the dog - where it was lying half on top of the owner's handbag(did I sense protection mode there?) - as she doesn't like strangers... So naturally when I met Henry, our neighbor's Cocker Spaniel and Salvador's best friend, I was amazed at how sociable and easy going he is - long story short, I got young Salvador.

Henry (Salvador's bestie)

 Aggression and biting first came up again when my boyfriend told me about a rescue Spaniel they had as children. To be fair, this dog apparently went through quite a tough time before they rescued her and she seemed to take a liking to girls and would therefor 'protect' his mum and sister by growling whenever anyone came near the couch.
Another account is an aunt's dog that fiercely 'protected' her whenever they were in the bedroom. All the other accounts come from when we've taken Salvador to the Saturday Market on many occasions. People are generally overwhelmed by his cuteness and friendliness, before the childhood accounts of a mean Spaniel somewhere in the family comes out...
I would kind of shrug these stories off and think that Salvador is way too sociable and used to others - large and small, for him to ever become a biter!

BUT I seemed to have been wrong!

About 3 months ago I was lying in bed, half asleep with Salvador on the floor beside me and my boyfriend came in after working late at which Salvador promptly jumped up in an unfriendly manner, as if to bite... When I heard of this I thought perhaps he got a fright, yet a few minutes later the same thing happened (and I witnessed it this time!).

Now, I've gone through the trouble for you and read up on Spaniel behavior and there are countless sources explaining that Spaniels are quite POSSESSIVE dogs. Many see this as a bad thing although this is often because we usually don't like to punish our pets and insist on treating them like kids. DO NOT DO THIS WITH YOUR SPANIEL!!!
As soon as Salvador attempted that second little attack he was banished from the bedroom! If he can't share the room with others then he can't be in it - as simple as that. When you tolerate this kind of behaviour for the sake of thinking it's cute that your dog is being protective over you, you are setting yourself and your dog up for a world of trouble.
Set boundaries and stick to them calmly and consistantly - this is the only way to avoid naughty behaviour and future problems.