We're getting there

It’s been a really tough couple of months since we lost both Boris and then Dad so suddenly a couple of weeks later, through it all Eko has been an absolute superstar at helping to keep me grounded

Eko has always been a little standoffish with me, ever since he was a tiny puppy he's made it very clear who his favourite human was and it wasn’t me, but lately things have started to change

Image Description - Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel laying on grass facing the camera on a sunny spring day with a bush behind him with some white blossom, his tongue is out as he's been running around on a rare warm day for this time of the year  

It’s taken time for us to find a new normal but now Eko comes to me for cuddles and shows me

Jackanory Part 18 - Throw Back Thursday

This Jackanory Story takes us back to a time before Eko was old enough to come and live with us

I was able to watch Eko formally known as Wash grow from the moment he was born with regular updates, photos and videos from his breeder Sam, I'd booked him (a male puppy) approx 18 months before he was even conceived

Photo Description - A studio portrait of a very cute young Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel sitting on a white chair with a white background looking at the camera with a calm confident expression 📸 This photo was given to me by Eko's breeder, if you're the photographer that took it please DM me and I'll add a credit

But our search and subsequent wait for Eko to join our little family had been so much longer,

The Bestest Boy

Eko is amazing and I really haven't talked about just how amazingly clever he is often enough

When he was younger he was always up to mischief and his antics soon caste him the naughty one of the two

Yet Eko is highly intelligent and as he approaches his 5th birthday

Good Riddence 2022

Good Riddence 2022 it has not been nice knowing you!

I'm sure some good things must have happened but I honestly can't remember them over the 💩 you've dealt us as a family

2023 is also going to have a tough start, especially for my dad as he starts his fight against Esophageal Cancer

My mum is living in her own world these days due to the Vascular Dementia caused by her stroke in 2021 which is tough on everybody, what little empathy she ever had for others which wasn't much, has now completely disappeared

My uncle was finally laid to rest in Cyprus after we weren't informed of his death until several months after the fact

Allotment Adventures

Took Eko to the allotment yesterday and what a clever and brave boy he was

Ever since Eko was a tiny puppy getting him onto our allotment without upsetting him has been virtually impossible, so he's not been down there very often as he gets so very stressed out

To get to our allotment we have to go down a long narrow alleyway, on one side there are approx 8 large dogs of various breeds barking ferociously and throwing themselves at the fence, it's like running the gauntlet every time we visit

Eko laying on grass tucking into a chew held between his front paws with a look of total bliss on his face

Boris has always totally ignored them and we've never had any issues, but

Dog Etiquette 101

Absolutely brilliant

The other day I was at the local public park not a dog park, but dogs are allowed there. 

We were walking along in a high movement area so I had my dog on a leash.

Another dog, off leash, sees us and starts approaching.

My dog needs her space so we start moving away, but the dog got to us before we could leave. 

My dog was stressing a little so I politely said to the woman

"Sorry my dog doesn't want to play" and ushered her dog away.

Her dog gets the message and moves on.

Quite good, right?

Here comes the juicy part:

Jackanory Part 14 - Don't Feed the Trolls

Found this old post of Eko as a puppy, when I wrote it I was very angry but decided not to post it and feed the Trolls at the time, hence why it's now part of our Jackanory Stories

OMG the keyboard warriors are out in force again, yet again I've received unsolicited training advice to use a prong collar on Eko to teach him to respect me

There's absolutely no need to train dogs using fear, force or dominance with e-collars, prong collars, choke chains, rattle bottles, discs or any other of the many adversive training methods out there

Eyes on the Prize

Recently we've been working really hard on Eko learning to focus on my face rather than my hands, as I attempt to fade out the hand signals and lures when practicing our Heelwork to Music moves and assistance dog tasks

Photo Description:- A head shot of Eko sitting in the garden looking up at the camera with good focus, his mouth is open slightly and his eyes are relaxed as are his ears

I hadn't realised just how much I move my hands around to lure Eko until I watched a few videos of our training sessions

Jackanory Part 11 :- Meet Eko

Three years ago on the 16th May 2018 this wee munchkin came home with us and we called him Eko 

Photo Credit:- Auriane Whitmore 

Eko came to us with plans to train him as my assistance dog and a successor to Boris, but he started naturally alerting to his dad's sugar levels at around 5 months old and was reliably

Jackanory Part 10:- Where has the time gone!

I can't believe I'm 6 years old and it's been 5 years since we dropped off the face of the blogging world after losing the star of our blog, my little big brother Badger Boo who originally started this blog by telling tales of his daft adventures

Photo Description - Boris a black Cocker Spaniel sitting sitting on old suitcases looking at a typewriter, with his paws in the typing position

Official Hello and Welcome to Little Boris

Did you guess?

I'm sure you did with my Sunday picture hints. 

I've got a brand new baby brother called "Little Boris"

Here he is at 8 weeks old on his very first day with us, he looks so small and cute next to me and my favourite toy Chunky Monkey, sadly Chunky Monkey is no longer with us because Little Boris decided to kill him, he pulled his head off and pulled all of his stuffing out **sobs**

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive him for that crime, he then went on to do the same thing to my other toy Mr Cat, in fact I think he may have killed all my stuffies in the 6 weeks he's been living here.

Boris now has lots of Nylabone toys and a Kong to chew on now and do as he wishes with, any toy I don't want him to destroy lives upstairs with me. 
This'll make you laugh, it did me when I found out.
Boris isn't allowed upstairs or to sit on the sofa with us at night, mummy says it's my domain and it's a good place to escape too when he gets really annoying, and believe me he can be annoying at times. 

Just because I can't see him coming, he thinks it's great fun to grab my ears and play tug with them or to bite my stubby tail with his needle sharp teeth.
 I gives him a good telling off for that, but he won't stop and doesn't seem to have an off button!
Sometimes I just wants to be left on my own to snooze, hence why I have safe places he's not allowed to go too, which is really pawsome.

Boris started Puppy Pre School last week, and did very well by all accounts, I stayed home and slept, I didn't like the sound of that, being surrounded by  even more yapping puppies.

Here he is during the "Settle" exercise watching daddy and watching the teacher, they both had food, so of course he was watching them, he's a right piggy when it comes to food and is always trying to steal mine if nobody picks the bowl up in time.

I've heard people say he's very intelligent as he can already do Sit, Stand, Down and Recall.  

I have my doubts about the use of that word, I mean look at the next picture, he can't even figure out how how to sleep in his bed, he sleeps like this all the time, talk about a Silly Billy! It doesn't matter how many times I climb in and show him, he still sleeps like it.

Every day mummy takes me and Boris over the common for a run, to start with Boris had to wear a safety line in case he got spooked by something and bolted off, he doesn't know the area and sometimes new things might  give him a bit of a fright, we'd hate to lose him if he ran off scared by something.

Ever since I lost mummy a few months ago, I've had to keep her on the Flexi Lead as I can't see or hear where she is and it stops her wandering off. 
You'll never guess what amazing thing has happened on our walks.

Without any training at all Boris has learnt to keep a close eye on mummy, if she gets too far away he gallops after me and comes to tell me all about it.

He then leads me back to find her so she doesn't wander off and get lost again.
How cool is that?

I guess that Boris isn't such a Silly Billy after all.
We hope you all have a pawtastic weekend.

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