Guildford - Doggie Heaven?

There is a brand new cafe open in Guildford called the 'Pet Lovers Cafe' and so Barbie and I just HAD to go and check it out! They have a website here, and they are also on Facebook.

It's at 151 James Street Guildford, and it's a lovely little shop - they have coffees and muffins for the humans, and so many goodies for the doggies.

When we went there was a gaggle of pugs in attendence. There was also this scaredy-cat Iggie who spent a lot of time hiding behind her mummy.

Barbie had a great look around and then realised there was a young Golden Retriever behind the counter so she kept trying to go behind there.

Everyone made a big fuss over Barbie and I bought a couple of presents. Bender got a floaty rubber tug toy (I almost bought him the lighthouse, but maybe next time), and a big wool stuffy bone for Barbie. They have thundershirts, lifejackets and all kinds of dog stuff that I have only seen online.

Doggie-accessory and snack retail is their primary trade and it's really nice to be able to take the dogs into a place which has coffee and muffins on offer as well. I will take Bender there next weekend perhaps.

After the visit to the shop the pavement was starting to get too hot for doggies to walk on (at 10.30am), so I took Barbie back to the car and we drove a short distance to Fishmarket Reserve, which is a great big park on the other side of the railway line. It runs along the river and is low-lying land which is probably in the 50 year flood zone, so it will always be a park and not developed for housing.

The first thing she did when we got out of the car was to lie down in the water to cool off. She has perfected this lying down in the water trick. The problem is that she was only on a short leash and she wanted to go deeper. She couldn't without making me get my feet wet!

I let Barbie off leash a little bit so that she could take a dip in the water without me ending up with soggy sandals. She was very well behaved, though it was too hot for zoomies. 

We sought out the shady spots, but it was still pretty hot, so we didn't stay for very long. Barbie was very happy to jump into the air conditioned car to go home. She will be looking forward to the end of summer, but we have quite a way to go yet.

Whiteman Park - Dance of the Borzoi

We took the dogs for their weekly offleash burn at Whiteman Park this morning, and as we pulled around the corner I spotted two huge, beautiful furry sighthounds hanging out together. I didn't know what they were - I thought maybe Salukis, or Afghans, but since I have never come across these dogs in the flesh I didn't know for sure.

I took Barbie over to say hello, and then she got a small white and grey greyhound tail who followed her around the park - she seemed to barely acknowledge the other Greyhound and she certainly wasn't going to run with her right behind her. I chatted to the owner of the elegant furry sighthounds, and she told me they were Borzoi. She just told everyone they were hairy Greyhounds as it was easier. The Borzoi boy gave me a cuddle, leaning into me while I patted that luxurious coat, he was very tall, probably taller than the big Greyhounds I've met like Daddy and others. Barbie sniffed them but she didn't want to run with them, she knew they could easily keep up with her.

The Borzoi chased Bender a bit, and then spent a lot of time just gracefully gliding around the park. They are a sight to behold when they run, with all that beautiful silky hair flowing. Barbie did go for a burn, but only when she didn't think the Borzoi would come after her! Then she got chased by a small orange dog who was deceptively quick. She enjoyed the race with the little orange dog, and we ended up over near her owners. Her name was Ellen and she was an Italian Greyhound cross.

Ellen's owners asked me a bit about Barbie's recall. Ellen isn't keen on coming back when she is called. I told them we started at Whiteman and other safe places to practice recall. I told them that sighthounds often need some extra work and need to be well bonded to their owners. Ellen is three and they haven't had her all her life, so I think they will be OK if they keep working on it. She did seem to be a very dog-motivated dog, she wanted to chase other dogs but wasn't interested in me at all!

Bender, as usual, pretty much ignored all the other dogs and chased his ball. When we went to leave he didn't want to go home though - he decided he wanted to play with some labradors once we were outside of the park and on the wrong side of the fence. Cheeky dog!

Resisting the chase!

There is a lady who lives nearby who has two little brown Italian Greyhounds, or iggies. I have seen them around, and N has met them up close because their human is a massage therapist who N went to maybe a month ago.

Anyway, we were out on our nightly walk, and I saw a woman walking towards us with a dog on the leash. I told N to take Bender to the other side of the road as we are working on his leash reactivity. I was looking across at them when I saw a small, brown shape flying across the road towards them at high speed. This brown shape was barking it's little fool head off. I told N to look out, but the high speed dog turned and headed for Barbie. I realised then that he was an Iggie. He demonstrated amazing agility by sprinting towards Barbie, twisting in the air, landing facing the other direction and taking off again. His owner was yelling his name over and over but he wouldn't listen. He was just darting around all over the place, on and off the road. Barbie was completely non-plussed. She just stood calmly by my side. I was actually shocked that she didn't try to chase him at all. She didn't even tell him off for saying nasty things.

I was just worried he would run onto the road, and I could see a car coming, so Barbie and I moved as far away from the street as possible. By the time his owner arrived, with the other Iggie on a leash, he had calmed down and was sniffing Barbie's butt. She ignored him completely.

Now, I let Barbie off leash in safe locations, like at the beach and in fenced dog park areas, but I would never dream of walking her off leash in the suburbs. I really have to question the sanity of someone who would let a little sighthound like that, who clearly doesn't like other dogs, off the leash when cars are an everpresent danger.

Just 5 minutes before, walking down the same road, we saw a high powered car speeding down the street, doing at least 80kph and being chased by an underpowered Police car. If that car had been heading towards us, the Iggie's chances of coming out of it unscathed would have been much, much smaller.

Yes, yes, Bender is good to chase!

I just can not get over how good Barbie was. She did not show any signs of wanting to chase this very fast, small dog which hopped and twisted around in the air like a bunny rabbit!