Life With 2 Dogs – 4 Months On

It only feels like 5 minutes ago since I was writing up my first ‘life with two dogs’ update, but it was actually the end of May when I posted it. These last few months have been so, so busy and I feel like I’ve blinked and missed them. Can we just talk about how it’s September soon, one more month of semi decent weather before the jumpers are pulled out for the next 8 months. * sigh * 

beagle-and-sprocker

So if you’re newish here, or missed some of my updates originally then let’s start with a quick recap. We had our eldest dog Dexter a gorgeous beagle since he was a puppy. After a year of weird behaviour with him that we couldn’t seem to correct, we had a specialist come, who basically told us, he was lonely. Since we’d moved into our house we had thought about getting another dog to keep him company anyway, we had the space to accommodate another dog and within a week of having the specialist here, we’d been to see another litter of puppies and waited a few weeks to be able to bring our little Sprocker named Charlie home.

sprocker-puppy
Charlie is significantly more posy than Dexter

 In my last update, Charlie was waiting for his inocculations to be clear so he could finally start going on walks and within a few days of that post going live that finally happened. Unlike Dexter who we have never been able to let off the lead, due to him literally not giving a crap if you want his attention, Charlie we trusted off the lead on his first walk and he behaved pretty much perfectly and has developed a severe love of tennis balls and the game fetch – which Dexter does not like to partake in, being a sniffer dog he was way more fun tracking where a rabbit might have been about three days ago.

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They also joined us for our engagement shoot where they were surprisingly well behaved for the entirety of it, whilst neither of them like to sit still to pose for too long!

At home, Dexter is definitely not lonely any more, we thought Dexter was a pretty in your face dog, but Charlie is even worse. Any time you’re giving Charlie attention he wants more of it, any time you’re giving Dexter attention, Charlie will push him out the way to get attention. Charlie thoroughly loves being around humans and human interaction, if you call him from the other side of the garden into the kitchen he’ll be there in three seconds to want to know what you want. Dexter will only come if he thinks there’s a chance you’ll be feeding him or you might have a treat, otherwise not interested.

Trying to take blog pictures, cuddles more important
Trying to take blog pictures, cuddles more important

They now spend the day together whilst we’re at work in their big kennel we built in our garden which is covered in fake grass for sunbathing, shaded areas for when it’s hot, a shed they can let themselves in and out of when it’s raining with beds inside for snoozing, and some built in toys to keep them occupied. Seriously I would happily spend the day in there, they have shit loads to do.

Civilized Dexter hiding from his brother at the patio table
Civilized Dexter hiding from his brother at the patio table

When they’re let out at the end of the day, all hell breaks loose. For some reason it’s like they’ve not talked to each other all day and now they have a whole garden to chase each other around, they wrestle with each other, and I’m sure from an unexperienced onlookers point of view it looks like they’re trying to kill each other. They bite each others ears, try to bite each others necks and drag one another around. It’s so comical to watch, although they do it all evening. Watching a 40 minute tv program now can take double that or more easily as we can’t hear the TV over them growling and barking at each other, but they’re happy – so we’re happy.

Biting each other
Biting each other (with love)

In the past few months Charlie has had a lot of his ‘firsts’, First trip to the beach he LOVES water and swimming, and we’ve taken him back as many times as we’ve been able to and are hoping to go again at some point over the Bank Holiday (fingers crossed for good weather!). Dexter loves the beach, but has never been that keen on the sea – or more specifically waves, he seems to grow in confidence by watching his little brother tackle things head on without a second thought, our last trip to the beach after an hour he starting managing a shallow paddle in the sea. Comparing pictures from the first posts Charlie is huge now and isn’t too much smaller than Dex really, every time we go to the vets they tell us ‘he’s going to be a big dog’ and he’s starting to be a bit of heavy lump to pick up!

sprocker-puppy-swimming sprocker-puppy-beack

Beach babe
Beach babe

Overall we’re happy with how they’re settling in together, they’re a combination of being inseparable BFFs and brothers who have to love each other, despite the fact one of them is annoying the other. Home is noisy, but I love it.

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Helpless Whilst Drying

Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com

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7 Comments

  1. August 23, 2016 / 3:46 pm

    Such a lovely post. Charlie is such a cutie! I’ve already told Tom that when we move out I want a brother for JJ lol! I’d love to know more about the big kennel you’ve built as that could be really handy!! Xxx

    • August 23, 2016 / 5:12 pm

      So when we moved into our house there was already a shed here that we knew was going to be too small for us, so we thought we’d keep it and build a dog run as we can’t leave Dexter locked inside, he knows how to open doors and would just destroy everything! We cut a hole in the side and made a waterproof flap which with a heavy duty bit of elastic that we can pull up and down from the outside, which leads out to a run which is mostly gravel, but with a patch of fake grass for sun bathing. The run is just very high fencing posts with chainlink fence that’s about 7ft high – and we’re growing lots of climbing plants up it to make it look prettier and for it to provide shade. Inside the shed there’s also a ledge which Dexter can jump up on (charlie can’t quite make it yet) with a bed for him to watch out of the shed window. In the window we’ve carefully positioned a camera which we can look at on our phone/move and talk to them if we feel like it so we can spy on them and know they’re okay. Whilst we don’t tend to leave them out there at night at all, it also works in the dark, so very handy for quick check in if you’re out for a meal or something! Can send you some pictures if you’re interested in seeing more, my explanation probably wasn’t amazing haha!

  2. August 23, 2016 / 9:29 pm

    I can’t believe Charlie can be trusted off the lead already! Dexter, being a beagle… they can never be allowed off the lead – scent dogs are just so single-minded! 😛
    Sounds like having Charlie around has definitely benefited Dexter. I love that action shot of the 2 of them rough housing!

    • August 23, 2016 / 9:41 pm

      I’ve been wanting to write this post for about a month but have been waiting to get a picture of them fighting, it’s been hard enough for them to both be in shot let alone in focus ha!
      We see other beagles off the lead here but literally could never trust dex, maybe when they supposedly mellow at 7 years he will be trustworthy!

  3. August 25, 2016 / 5:55 pm

    Beautiful photos of the whole family! 😀

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