Friday, October 17, 2008

Ellie Meets Mia

Mia II
As you will know from previous posts, we've been providing home-boarding for dogs. This entails looking after other dogs in our home while their usual owners go away. Sometimes it can be for a week or more, and other times it could be for only a single night. Regardless of the duration, as dog-lovers it's sometimes hard to believe that we get to spend time with more dogs, and get paid for it too! Not only that, but as a hobbyist photographer with a particular penchant for photographing dogs, I get a steady stream of subjects on which to practise upon. What is not to like about home-boarding?

The most recent addition to our list of home-boarding dogs was Mia. She was a seven year old GSD x Border Collie. Mia, for me, was the perfect dog. She was at the age where she is content with life, and is happy to sit and watch the world go by her. Though, Im must add, I've never met a dog that moans and groans so much in all of my life. She's a character through and through, down to the "woo woo woo" sound that she makes when she tries to initiate some play. She was also the perfect dog for Ellie. Not only was Mia a calming influence with her naturally laid-back nature, but she just wasn't interested in being with Ellie. That is how Ellie prefers things.
Ellie now seems to be getting used to having different dogs come and go, and in that respect it's good education for her. It also provides us with opportunities to train her in the company of other dogs, and improve her focus.

The next interested party is apparently a Daschund. If all goes well, that dog should be with us around the end of October for a couple of days. By the way, Ellie will be eighteen months old next month, so you can expect a big blog post then! :)

1 comment:

Xsara and Tani said...

Hello,
to answer your question about theraball: we've been training on it regularly for two weeks now and it seems to be totally resistant to nails. My friend has five mini pinchers and they also use a theraball and love making the "dig" trick on it - so far no problems either. The declaration on my ball says it can hold up to 100kg, so Xsara's 11.5kg are a piece of cake.

I riecently got a job in a company that specializes in walking and taking care of dogs while their people are away. I agree it's awesome to be able to spend time with many dogs around, and even get payed for it :)