I love my dogs but I don't want to know what they get up to when I am not looking

yeah... we're watching it.

I have prepared myself to get annoyed... I usually do with these programmes.

Not been too bad so far.     Though I object to the woman who had a couple of labradors... then tried to raise a wolf indoors... and cos the wolf wanted to see what was on the table, she deemed that the wolf wanted to trash her house... and therefore she scientificallly states that dogs are not domesticated wolves.

For a start....   if she had been an owner of a cairn terrier... she's have been better trained to deal with the wolf.

Im watching that programme too.........interesting

please tell me they are not trying to tell me my dog is an evolved fox?

I'm not having it... nooooo!

& not keen on all the foxes in cages either

Very interesting bit early on when they showed that dogs look at other dogs and objects head-on, but they "read" the human face by checking left to right (which they tell us is what humans do.)

yeah.... that was quite good.

and how we can recognise the different meanings of different barks!

Aw... I bet Annoca would have loved this programme...  not sure she'll be up to watching it at the moment though....

....but this is bordering on her area of doggy expertise now..

Ditty. I thought of Annoca too. So sad.

I've been thinking about her all day!   

I am caught between not wanting to stalk her... and wanting to make sure she knows she can come and have a waffle if she needs to.

my friend's just got a cairn pup, are they all complete and utter, headstrong little shytes then?

LOL!

they can be!  Well, with the odd exception (my parents current cairn - who is very soft & lap doggy... strange! )... yeah they are.

I grew up with one... and there have been another 5 in our family.   I currently have a 5 year old male cairn....

you can only really train a cairn so far.... basically if they don't want to do something they won't.   But on the upside... they have so much character..  they are so very very funny, and when its important.. loving & loyal.

but yeah... they can be right shytes!!  

they also tend to have littledogitis.... as in... they think they can, and must, "take on" any doberman, alsation, ridgeback, rottweiller, or any other big dog with big mouth they encounter!

Hubby has a theory that the dark brindle ones are more willful than the wheaten coloured ones!

(Ours is a dark grey brindle)

the stroppy madam has her lurcher's life but she has loads of character.

there's a Cairn facebook group (well theres a few... but this one is the one my hubby spends hours on)...

Cairn Terrier Group

It has some fab pics

You know you can get cameras from Firebox.com called Pet's eye view camera
and you get to see what your pets are up to while you're out

lol!   I am fairly sure, on the rare occasions we leave him on his own.... he yowls pitifully and then barks accusingly at us from the windowsill... then when we are gone he settles down for a kip...

if he's quick enough he tries to hide this when we get back... and make out he has missed us and been upset for ages... but he has failed to wake up in time on more than one occasion.

However... once the initial welcome has been done... he will then sulk at us for hours.

Isn't this called "the Napoleon complex"?

I had a big dog, and when the little ones barked at her, I would say, "Never mind, Mocha.  He's an hors d'oeuvre dog."

Napoleon complex is also known as 'little man syndrome', my boy dog totally has it, he'll run up to any big dog barking and growling, when they turn to look at him, he runs off yelping, very funny to see.

I do try and explain this to my dog.    I tell him "are you stupid.... he'd eat you in one mouthful..."

and yeah... Napoleon complex is probably a better term for it... though littledogitis is more easily understood as I shout it across with an apology to the big dog owner

I find most big dogs are wusses when it comes to smaller dogs, my dog certainly is, she is really scared of small dogs

wish mine would do that....   we live in fear of coming across a big dog on the loose....  it would not be good...   our dog would die rather than back down.

SERIOUS Napoleon complex.

besides hors d'oeuvre dog, the other word that now comes to mind is "amuse bouche".

I have to wonder how big our dog thinks he is!

He can pride himself in being bigger than Milo - I had to send out a search party in the back garden today as he sank into the snow and I couldn't see him

aw.... I love milo!

I hope his he could find his plant pot stash ok!

AJ is massive for a cairn... twice the size of the breed average.

I really love milo

i've never had a dog.......never wanted one TBH
My whole family wants a dog, and I'm the stumbling block

We've had guinea pigs, and hamsters that I've grown to love, and they've died, and I've been devastated .........How would I feel if we had a dog that died

I really feel like I'm denying the whole family in not wanting a dog, but I know the novelty would wear off, and I would be the one walking it , and worrying about it, and generally doing the whole messy stuff that goes along with it.

I sort of want one now I've written all that down  now

Annoca  I'm thinking about you as I type this    Hope you've got someone around that's helping you cope

I don't mean to sound insensitive.

I really wanted to watch it but I knew if Angus and Hamish heard them barking or panting they would start barking at the telly and my head could not take it

Stoory... its true.. you will be the one walking it and stuff... and if you get a puppy, it can knock you off your feet just like when you've just had a baby (only a baby born with the mobility of a toddler)....
...but - cos you are the one walking it and yeah worrying about it... it ends up your baby...

We've had hamsters, guinea pigs, and a rat, and I loved them all and was in bits when they died...  but the bond I had with them was nothing compared to the bond with my dog.

So yeah... its a payoff.... he's one of the best friends you'll ever have, a really special relationship.  A baby that you don't have to do the hard parenting with (cos they will never have to make their own way in life..)... and they don't gob off either (well.. not much anyway).   But yeah, the payoff is the ultimate loss.   I hadn't realised it til we got AJ.... that realisation hit me & hubby hard.  Almost like setting ourselves up for the biggest hurt.  

But I wouldn't change it.   I love him, to me he is the best dog in the whole world...

he changed my life for the better   (I rarely use that smiley btw... in fact I never use it... but that is the expression I just made.... so is a sincere use of that smiley!)

it doesn't sound insensitive to me.... well thought through actually xx

They do have the stinkiest farts ever though (I am turning green here!!!)

I am off to bed... I was actually only hanging around in case Annoca came online.

Night all

xx