Doggy Do!

My dog is driving me friggin mental!

Sorry but there really is no other way to put it. Actually there is, it's not just my dog, Craigs dog is also doing my head in!

Uh Oh! Sorry you tuned in? Don't be, the rant will be over before you know it.

We have two Staffys that live with us. Sash is about 14 years old and Taz (yes, I do know how silly it was to name my daughter Jaz when we already had a dog named Taz but we loved the name ok?) is about 6 years old.

Sash, until recently has been a beautifully behaved girl, doing everything she is told, never bothering BBQ visitors for morsels, gentle with kids and kind and loving.

Recently, however, she has become a complete mess. I think she is going a little senile, and though that's not her fault, it really is painful! She needs to go to the loo no less than a half dozen times a night and needs to sleep with a night light on. I think her hearing has gone and she gets a bit disorientated in the dark?

Sash and her senility aside, Taz is the current cuprit - determined to make my blood boil. She is scratching incessantly at the back door, wanting to come in. You would think that after 6 years she would know that she is not coming in while she is making that racket! But no! The noise (and boy is it noisy!) persists.

Taz is not the brightest dog, nor is she the best behaved. Taz actually flunked out of puppy school. I have trained other dogs and never before have I failed to get a dog to pass basic training. Taz, well, she is a whole nother story!
Taz is a houdini dog - mastering the art of escape and having cost us thousands (yes thousands) of dollars in fines and pound release fees. We now pop rivet colourbond to all pailing fences and secure other areas with pool fencing to keep her in. Extreme? maybe, but it works.
Taz has a bit of OCD. She licks her foot - all the time. There is nothing wrong with it. We have had it checked, time and time again. It's just one of her neurotic tendencies.
Taz is scared of the rain, wind and of course thunderstorms. So basically unless it is a perfectly still night without fireworks then Taz will cry and whimper unless cozied up next to a big tough human!
Taz tries to walk along things, balancing... and falls off.
Taz stopped growing at 6 months old and has remained the size she was as a puppy permanently.
Why do we love her?
Taz gets dressed up as fairies and doctors and balerinas, she is adorned in necklaces, sunglasses and tiaras and wags her tail the whole time.
She has been used as a step ladder, been fed chalk and play dough and had a grape shoved unceremoniously up her nostril and she was still wagging her tail with her whole body wag she does whenever she is around kids. She wags so hard she falls down sometimes.
Taz - though she may drive me to the nuthouse - is a gorgeous girl with a big heart and even larger amount of patience. She is the percfect companion to a child. A childs first best friend.
If only I could convince both our fur kids to not wake me up, I may have a chance at a full nights sleep - one of these days.