Week 14

I must start by apologising for the missing two weeks. Unfortunately, I have been unwell and unable to do anything much, let alone write the blog. Still things are on the mend now and returning to some form of normality.

I must say, having Lewi did make some sort of difference to my illness. Before, I would have just stayed in bed, curled up under the duvet and wallowed in the illness. Now, I had no choice, I had to get up to let him out, feed him and take him for a daily, very short walk. I couldn’t stretch to playing with him though! Not sure whether it speeded my recovery or delayed it…

He has learnt a couple of new tricks, one is annoying and the other is extremely annoying.

He has learnt to cock his leg to mark lampposts and trees and bushes and corners of walls and tufts of grass, and has to practise it every time he passes one. Bearing in mind that 20 years ago Milton Keynes was called the city of two million trees and there are even more now…

His other trick involves rolling up his bedding or a mat and behaving very inappropriately with it. That is one we will definitely have to cut out.

The Finnish Spitz Club Newsletter came last week. This will seem strange to other owners, but it was a surprise to me to see pictures of other FS that look just like Lewi. He is, I think, the only example of his breed in the area and so I am not used to seeing any others. Every walk we go on, we are stopped by people wanting to know what his breed is, wanting to fuss him and telling me how good looking he is. I’ve come to think of him as unique (well he is!) so to see the pictures of others like him, does seem strange! What is even more interesting is to read of some of their habits – just like him!

He has developed a good bark and other voices. I like the growl that sort of mutates into a kind of yawn sound. It tends to mean “Hey, it’s time that you started paying attention to me, come on let’s play”. He did a very brave hunting bark yesterday. We were walking by the lake and there was a small flock of geese. He carefully placed himself so I was between him and them then started barking at them. My brave Lewi. He is a lot braver with the collar doves and blackbirds. His calling can be misinterpreted though. Often when we are out and come across other dogs, he will get excited and do his let’s play growl. Some owners, though, seem to think it is an aggressive growl and try to pull their dogs away. Luckily, other owners and their dogs are more sensible and read his body language which is so obviously shouting “I want to play”.  We have made a good pair recently, me with my uncontrollable coughing and Lewi with his barking.