Pugs
Nearly 25 years ago my sister Sara decided to get a pug. She’d had a pug as a child and Tweedle was the perfect dog. Even though the mutt looked rather plain in a bonnet she was happy to be dressed in dolls clothes and be pushed around in a pram. Looking back, Tweedle was an Einstein amongst pugs. Generally they are not the brightest stars in the intellectual firmament. Sara didn’t want a puppy so we visited various breeders to see what they had available. Nothing fitted the bill. Then she heard about a year old pug in...
read moreDogs and poisoned rats
Last night I returned from work and found the dogs squabbling. I suppose our three and Great Aunt Daisy Beatyl make up a pack. A flock of hens can be tricky to manage but a small pack of dogs can be a nightmare if you are tired and just want to chill. If they are not dozing in their baskets they are sorting out their pecking order. Inca, the youngest, challenges each dog in the pack regularly. It is not restful. Yesterday The Contessa growled and snapped for far longer than usual. The key dog beds are two small cat igloos that sit under the...
read moreFly. My first Min Pin dog companion
Fly, dashing constant companion and coachman, was my first Min Pin. He was a black and tan, loved motorways and high speed. He was far more intelligent than any other being that I have met to date. I would sometimes turn to find that I was being observed by his black gimlet eyes. On the rare occasions that I pulled the wool over those eyes, and left for an exciting spot without him, he would ignore me when I returned. For days. Eventually, I’d curl up in his capacious basket. After a while he would creep up and scramble to reach the top....
read moreDog toys
At the end of the church fete my aunt would nip over to the toy stall and buy a selection of knitted dolls for her Pekingese dogs. She never admitted the prospective future of these dolls to the old ladies who had knitted them and twinkled and bobbed, delighted to have made a sale. Generally the dolls lasted for about a year just in time for another foray to the stall. An abiding memory of those days at my aunt’s house was watching a small black Peke, knitted nurse doll in jaw, strut towards a nervous visiting doctor. The Min Pins love...
read moreLost dog
We have just spent a nervous 25 minutes searching the garden for Inca. She is 21 months old and still “our puppy”. We realised that we hadn’t seen her for a while. Danny was cutting up our leftovers to divide amongst the dogs. There was a large gap in the attentive canine audience. Inca, the ultimate foodie, had vanished. We called into the darkness of the garden. She is obedient and always answers. Silence. “She has escaped upstairs and is lying under our duvet.” I went upstairs. The bed was empty. Danny was...
read moreSeven random facts about our Min Pins
Berry and Basil (world renowned American gardening Min Pins) wrote a post on Sarah’s great blog Gardendogs and I have been inspired to answer from the perspective of our three UK Min Pins: Dr. Quito, The Contessa and The Lady Midnight Amber (Inca). We love yapping and scaring the postman. We can hear his van driving up the road and can bark for a good five minutes before he hits us on the head with the mail through the letterbox on the front door. We also enjoy yapping at the bank manager next door when he is scratching about in his...
read moreCooking with dogs
Daisy Beatyl drinking from the large bowl of water in the kitchen is one of the most soothing sounds. This is my Mum’s miniature Daschund. She is on the very largest end of miniature. In fact she seems to be a proper sized Daschund to me. She also has very large, soft eyes. The only small part of DB is her lack of spite. When crossed, the Min Pins can spend a day in their igloo beds with the blinds down. Daisy Beatyl is always forgiving, wanting to join in, loving being petted and returning the compliment in a Daisy Beatlyish sort of...
read moreHouse training a puppy easily
We share our house with three Min Pin dogs. Intelligent, stubborn and a nightmare to house train. These are dogs that know where they are going. Luckily they sleep a lot. Otherwise they would be firing up the laptops when we are out and becoming Captains of Industry and ordering ground steak from Tesco online. I wouldn’t welcome another breed into the cottage. As with any brainy beast there are problems. Min Pins can be difficult to house train. When I disappear into the loo with a good book I can almost feel the glare of the laser beam...
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