DOG BLOG

We’ve had news that Jessie is pregnant and the pups are due mid September. Exciting.

Tina just sent us a photo of Jessie.

Jessie

We went to the Windsor Dog Show yesterday and met up with Sue and Ian. Their Twix won her round and then came second overall! We also met Tina and Jenny who I spoke to, a few weeks back, about potential puppies later this year. We met Lily – a real sweetie. We spoke to a guy at a leather supplies stall, who gave us advice on getting a puppy collar and lead. When we said we were getting a wire-haired he pointed to the back of the tent where he had his 9 month minature. He said he was the best natured dog he’d ever had. Everyone says how lovely they are. I also fell for the Irish Wolf Hound big time.

Minatures on show

Dogs on wheels

Wirehairs on show (Sue in front)

A small herd of Irish hounds

Twix (in motion)

I rang Jenny, in Wiltshire,  last night as her bitch Lily is likely to have pups in a few months. Lily is part of the Sunsong line but I can’t remember how exactly.  Jenny hopes to mate her with a male that has the chocolate colour gene in him. This way they may get some more choc coloured dogs.

I also talked to a lady in Putney who has another of the Sunsong line who may have pups about the same time as Lily.

Another link to the Sunsong family of dogs – http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sunsong/gypsy.htm

Potential mother of our pup

It’s jumping the gun a little bit, but here’s our thoughts on the name of our future furry family member.

So here’s some ideas:

1. Something on the sausage (dog) theme, like “links“, “banger“, or “snags“. I think this would work really well if we had a standard and a mini – they could be “cumberland” and “savaloy“.
2. Traditional standard human names like “Peter” or “Susan” (neonames like Sharonda, or anything ending in an i just wouldn’t work)
3. Adjective-based names, such as “Mrs Wrigglesworth“, “Napoleon” (cos the dog will be small, but will probably end up ruling our household), “Halfie“
4. Namesake dogs from popular fiction. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of dogs in fiction and not many of them tend to be good role models. For instance, there’s “Blood“, a telepathic dog that helps the protoganist find  women in A Boy and His Dog. Then there’s the downright evil “Cerberus” or “Cujo“. There are the occasional good dogs, but their names are inappropriate for other reasons, such as “Einstein” from Dean Koontz’s Watchers. This dog is a noble and honest beast who if I recall correctly eventually sacrifices himself for his master. All well and good, but I doubt anyone will assume our dog is named after this one when introduced as Einstein! Then there’s the “boy’s best friend” dog stereotypes, such as “Lassie“, or “Buster” (from Superman III). A dog that would be an excellent role model is the dog from the recent remake of I Am Legend (the book of which I’d urge you to read, especially if you’ve only ever seen one of the movie adaptations). Unfortunately, that dog’s called Samantha, which is already covered in category 2 above!
5. Traditional standard dog names, such as “Rover“, “Spot“, “Rex“, “Fido” etc. (Fido’s not bad for three reasons – a traditionalist revival, Latin for “I am faithful”, and brings back memories of being a nodemaster in FidoNet).
6. Name them after our previous dogs – “Akeela“, “Max” or “Chockey“.

The only real requirement is that it’s something you’d feel comfortable shouting the first syllable of at night in a deserted park (so perhaps some of the ideas above need a rethink).

Our favourites so far then are:

• If it’s a male wirehaired dog – “Shlomo” (given the whiskers and personality).
• If it’s a female dog of whichever variety – “Couscous“.

However, researching the fictional dognames has given me a final bit of inspiration that’s worth investigating… “K9“.

Feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions!