I have one dog that runs when he's scared, and another that stands stock still. Fortunately the dogs are mainly scared of different things. As we got to the top of the hill behind the cockroach mansion, a single firework went off. Bender attempted to drag Barbie and I down the hill, fortunately he didn't have enough traction for that. Somehow in the process Barbie's muzzle came off the front of her nose. SO I had to try and stop Bender while putting Barbie's muzzle back on. She is usually pretty compliant with the muzzle when we are at home because she knows that it means she can go out, but if we are ALREADY out she tries to avoid at first. It's a hard thing to do, putting a wiggly hound's muzzle back on with one hand while trying to stop a one dog freight train from running down the hill. Barbie is now really scared of trains because I think we were standing a bit close for her comfort while waiting to cross the line a few days ago. She just freezes, so I try to walk her back away from the train until she's responsive to me again. She's not the most responsive dog anyway and Bender is distracting!
I emailed Julie, who is the owner of 'Dog Kingdom' which is a website which imports collars and leads for hounds and sells the GAP merchandise. She knew Barbie as well! Her and her husband were involved in looking after her litter. Apparently Barbie had to be physically picked up out of her kennel and bought out into the run! I think she's made some good progress! Anyway I can get a harness custom made for Barbie at cost price! I think she has a soft spot for that litter, she almost adopted Barbie's brother Beavis but she already has two hounds and Beavis was a digger and a flyscreen shredder. The flyscreen shredding runs in the family then. Barbie has wrecked the one on our back door trying to get her daintly little paws into the security mesh to slide it open.
In other news, the dogs have more Christmas presents than me. One each from me, one each from Mum & Dad and one each for Kim's.
