A New Responsibility

Taking on a pre-loved dog is quite a responsibility. Unlike a puppy, they do not come as a more or less blank slate – they have their own personalities, moulded by their previous owners. They also have their own ways of doing things and know certain commands in certain ways. However, Sienna** has settled in well and seems to be happy with us.

Walks

The first three days were lovely. We had dry weather with plenty of sunshine, albeit cold -  but then what do you expect in January? After that, things deteriorated – a lot! First ice and a sprinkling of snow made going to the fields an impossibility. We managed the first couple of days, then after that, abandoned the idea due to the high risk of falling flat on my nose on the roads to the field. So instead, we went to the rec, which is practically next door. Sienna has been off-lead in safe places since we got her and her recall is great. We are working on the ‘pulling like a steam train’ thing and at last, nearly three weeks on, she seems to be getting the plan – if you don’t pull, we walk briskly to the field; if you pull, we stop and don’t go anywhere; if you pull hard, we turn around and go back the way we came. Treats are useful, but she does get a bit over-excited with them.

Yesterday, I took her to the woods across the road. It is a landscaped area that used to be an open-cast coal mine, so you can imagine the mud is a wonderful shade of black! The area was very wet and muddy, but she really enjoyed it, running off and coming back to check in. Her previous owners used to take her to a wooded area near their home, so she must have felt in her element. The only downside was when we returned, she was completely black! From the nice clean streets of the south coast to the industrial mud of the north east means we no longer have a shiny pristine dog to look at! And there’s not a lot of point bathing her right now, as she’ll just get as black again tomorrow, or later today. So brushing will have to suffice for now.

Unfortunately, we have had some vehicle issues since we returned and so a trip to the Dales had yet to occur – but the car is back to normal now, so we’ll be able to go just as soon as it stops raining. Currently it is raining quite heavily and there is quite a strong breeze, making it feel colder than ever. It has been raining steadily off and on (mostly on) for the last week – and we have heavy snow forecast for next week too, so not sure when our first trip will be, but hopefully not too far off.

Obedience

It was suggested she was trained in ‘advanced obedience’. Not sure that phrase had the same meaning to them as it has to me! For one thing, she pulls on the lead as mentioned before, and she doesn’t seem to have heard the word ‘heel’. But for all that, she’s pretty good and we are working on some additional obedience skills. On the other hand, she has a very good ‘off-switch’. Storm was always on her feet the moment you took a breath, or closed a computer, or crossed your legs the other way; Sienna stays lying down even when we walk across the room. Plus when she’s in the car, she doesn’t scream and howl when we stop. Is this dog broken??

Fun and Toys

She doesn’t really play with toys. We gave her a squeaky duck (actually, it’s more of a honking pheasant, but she doesn’t care what it's called), which she plays with from time to time. We also gave her a treat dispenser. We had to show her how to play with it, but after a couple of rolls, she lost interest and it sat there, complete with treats in it, for a couple of days before she bothered with it again.

Yesterday, she actually took the duck to R and gave it to him, so she engaged for a while (maybe three minutes?) before going off to do something else – like lie down and sleep.

We have contacted a dog club and hopefully will soon get into a class to determine what kind of ‘fun’ she will be suited to. She has done agility in the past, but not more recently. This club does some agility, man-tracking, scent work and obedience. So there should be something she will enjoy, to keep her active and mentally engaged. Meanwhile, I’m building an agility course/dog park in part of my garden...watch this space.

The dog who doesn't like toys

People and other dogs

We said ‘no visitors’ for the first three days and our offspring kindly obliged. She did meet one of our next door neighbours when we were passing for a walk. Having met Storm before, he (jokingly, I hasten to say) pulled his sleeves down over his hands and folded his arms. But then they met and she was absolutely fine. He said he would tell his wife we had a new dog – and that ‘she’s worse than the last one’. It was a few days later when she met the wife, who came armed with treats, so she’s definitely in favour.

Our daughter came to see her about a week after we brought her home. She had the idea that she wanted to take her running, but we wouldn’t let her. The last time Sienna was taken for a walk by people unknown, she was then expected to get in a car and never saw her family again. We didn’t want to confuse her, so we asked S to wait.

Our son came home the second weekend to meet her. I never thought he was a dog person really, but maybe that was just Storm. Anyway, they got on really well and she curled up in the evening by his feet.

She has only met one other dog face to face – and that didn’t go too well. Maggie has cataracts so maybe doesn’t see too well. Or maybe it’s just the way she always greets other dogs. But she came to Sienna face to face and Sienna objected. First a growl, then a snap. The second time we met, Maggie’s dad put her on a lead and we stood and chatted about 2-3 feet apart, which was far better.

We also met Mara and her friend; again, we stood a couple of feet apart to chat and that was fine too.

She does meet other dogs now and again in the street as we are walking and we are trying to modify her reaction to them – ie we feed her treats one after the other as we pass. So far, that seems to be working fine.

She is not fazed when meeting people without dogs, unless there are lots of them. I took her to parkrun on Saturday. I was tail-walking so that Sienna could see the route and not be overwhelmed by being in the middle of all those people. She was fine, but was a little nervous when the front runners came pounding through. I think she’ll get used to it okay.

We have only met one person without a dog when Sienna was off lead. I called her to walk with me, which she did; I fed her treats as we passed and she was great, totally ignoring the person, after an initial glance to see who it might be.

Health

A week after we brought her home, we paid a visit to the vet – mainly for a titer test but also to have her checked over. She’s a little overweight (as we suspected) but otherwise seems to be in good health. She is getting extra walks and going further, which should help with the weight control, and we have changed her diet (slowly) over the last three weeks. Instead of kibble, she is now eating ‘real’ food. I remember reading an article about a yoga teacher who decided to do an experiment (on himself) whereby he would eat those ‘balanced nutrition’ bars for three months – after all, they are supposed to be a perfect balance of all the necessary nutrients the body requires, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong! He had to give up after three weeks because he felt so ill! There is no substitute for ‘real food’. We don’t eat ‘fake food’ ourselves and consequently  we don’t feed our dogs ‘fake food’ either.

We had, once again, considered breeding. However, she will be 5 in the summer and has never had a litter. So we took lots of advice and have decided not to breed from her, as the risks are quite high for a first litter at this age.

Conclusion

Sienna is beginning to come out of her shell a bit. At first, she didn’t seem to have a great personality, but she is getting more lively, now that she’s been with us three weeks. She seems happy and there have been no issues, apart from the snap at Maggie. She is enjoying her training sessions and will hopefully soon be doing something more stimulating soon. I haven’t taken her for a hike, or running with me yet (apart from parkrun, which we walked anyway)... 

Which reminds me, raining or not, I have a training session to do!

** Not her original name

 A New Beginning

So, seven months have now passed since Storm left us. Have we decided to take the plunge and get another puppy?

Over the last couple of months, yes, we have been searching for a ‘replacement’ – not that she could ever be replaced, of course. Lists are the thing now – some litters are booked up to a year in advance. Getting on such a list has seemed impossible, though I have tried several places. I contacted a few breeders with whose names I am familiar – some have stopped breeding (well, it has been 12 years since I was last on this quest!); others were having the final litter from a certain dog; yet others agreed to let me know if and when they decided to breed from their dogs. I initially went to the breeder I had looked at when I got Storm – Bryning Border Collies. I had wanted a pup from her gorgeous merle Spark. Sadly, while I was looking he died unexpectedly. However, Storm was his granddaughter, via his son Kai. I was happy with that.

Bryning has a beautiful dog who is also an offspring of Spark – and a merle just like him. I contacted the owner and she said she ‘might’ be planning a litter in the spring 2026. Meanwhile, she ‘might’ (there’s that word again) be planning a litter between two other dogs she owns in the autumn of 2025. I heard nothing, so I went on several other sites to find a suitable puppy. Ideally, I’d like a blue or slate merle puppy, but colour is less important than the dog’s personality – don’t think I want to go through what we went through with Storm all over again!

I saw one advert for a 2 year old collie that needed rehoming. She was Kennel Club registered and relatively local. She was definitely not a merle of any colour – rather she was a chocolate and tan tri-coloured girl. I contacted the advertiser – no reply. I tried again – still no reply. Then the ad was taken down and labelled ‘sold’. I was disappointed, but realised I would actually be happy with an older dog and maybe breed a home-grown puppy, or buy in a puppy later.

So when I saw an advert for a four year old chocolate and white collie that needed rehoming due to health issues of the current owners, I contacted them and asked to meet her. We spent some time on the phone discussing what we had to offer the dog – she is agility trained, but hasn’t done any for a year or two. I of course have never done any agility with a dog, but I wanted a hiking companion and a running buddy.

After a few days, we made the trek south – to Eastbourne in Sussex. When we arrived, we were met at the door by a very friendly chocolate and white girl, who was so shiny (think new conker colour) she must have been polished recently! She took to us straight away. They answered all our questions and offered to let us take her for a walk to a local park. She was as good as gold, though she pulls a like steam train on the lead. We met lots of other dogs, children, scooters, bicycles, pushchairs and, of course, other adults. She didn’t flinch at anything – such a change from Storm.

While we were away, the owners had time to discuss whether they liked us as potential owners or not. Apparently, they did, as they agreed to let us collect her the next morning to make the 300 mile journey home with her! That journey was so strange. She was so quiet you could almost forget she was there. And when we stopped the car (to let her out to stretch her legs), there was no yelping, cage rattling, or screaming from the back of the car.

Anyway, she has been with us for almost two weeks and seems to be settling in well so far. We are (slowly) correcting the pulling and have found a couple of quirks about her – such as she doesn’t understand a sit-stay. She will sit on command, no problem, but on adding ‘stay’, she automatically lies down. She also doesn’t like other dogs in her face, though she’s happy to walk past them when we’re out. She also doesn't play with toys, though she has engaged a little bit with a toy duck, and she had to be taught how to get treats out of a treat dispensing toy - and hasn't touched it since the first day, despite there still being some treats inside it. It is however lovely to be able to take her for walks and to let her off lead, knowing she will come back when called. And I think I might have found a dog club where we can go together. It’s a whole new world.

Meet our new family member:

 

Which brings me to this blog...

My original idea had been to take Storm on hikes and write about those; to take her to agility where we could learn together; then at an appropriate time, have puppies which would continue the line – puppies named in similar fashion, eg ‘Storm Chaser’, or ‘Shadow of the Storm’. Obviously our new dog is not related at all, so should I keep this blog, rename it, or start a new one? I think, on balance, the answer is likely to be yes, because I intend to do the same sort of things I had not been able to do with Storm and Storm is the reason I started it, so the name would remain too. But what do my readers think? I’d value your input.

The Remorseful Day

 The Remorseful Day

NOTE: This post was written in June 2025

How Clear, How Lovely Bright

How clear, how lovely bright,

How beautiful to sight

Those beams of morning play;

How heaven laughs out with glee

Where, like a bird set free,

Up from the eastern sea

Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,

No more shall yield to wrong,

Shall squander life no more;

Days lost, I know not how,

I shall retrieve them now;

Now I shall keep the vow

I never kept before.

Ensanguining the skies

How heavily it dies

Into the west away;

Past touch and sight and sound

Not further to be found,

How hopeless under ground

Falls the remorseful day.

Poem by A E Housman

It's been a long time since I updated this blog, but today is the day to do it.

Back in February 2016, I posted 'Action and Reaction', explaining that Storm had become highly reactive. Despite trying many different training types, behavioural trainers and even tranquilisers, nothing worked and she simply got worse and worse. We chose to live with it, though it was a topic of discussion several times over the years as to whether we should take her for that final walk to the 'rainbow bridge'.

It's now 9 years on from that post and while she's never fulfilled the potential we had hoped for her, we have done our best to keep her safe and happy and we have managed. She was never off the lead; she wouldn't let us groom her, trim her nails, answer the phone, answer the doorbell, leave the room, etc etc. It has been a hard slog - we've not had people over for years!

Then, about 8 months ago, her behaviour took a serious turn for the worse. Instead of growling and lunging, she would suddenly start really snarling - and looking quite vicious while doing so (sorry, no photo of that!). We realised it was only a matter of time before she hurt someone - whether one of us, or some random person as we walked by. She gave no warning - just snarled every time she didn't want to do something, even if that something was going outside to toilet. It became something of a nightmare and, as I said, I knew it was only a matter of time before she did attack someone.

Fast forward to last week:

Tuesday 3rd June 2025

We were outside doing some gardening. Storm was tied on a long line to a tree - we couldn't afford for her to get out of the garden and run freely round the neighbourhood, biting whoever she might meet, so we tied her with plenty of room to move about and yet still be outside with us, rather than confined to the house on her own. OH was walking towards me. To get to where I was working, he had to pass the dog. As he did so, without any warning or provocation, she lunged at him and bit him on the lower leg. She knew immediately she shouldn't have done that - her lower lip quivered and she crouched down, ears back, looking pleadingly at us both.

She had finally crossed the line. The day we knew was coming had arrived.

We both said afterwards that it was at least good that it was one of us and not the neighbour's 4 year old granddaughter! But the bite was quite bad. Oddly enough, it didn't damage his trousers, but it certainly damaged his leg. [At the time of publishing this - January 2026 - OH still has a mark on his leg which will no doubt never fade now]

Wednesday 4th June

The bite was pretty sore, so we spent the morning at A&E getting the wound professionally cleaned and tetanus shots etc. OH was given a 7 day preventative antibiotic course too.

We also called the vet. I could hardly speak when they answered the phone. But I made the arrangement - 4pm this afternoon. So soon! OH said I should cancel it as it was too quick. We needed time to get used to the fact and maybe our son might want to see her again one last time before she took that final walk. Our daughter was living with us and son had already planned to come home next Tuesday, so I rang the vet again and asked for a different appointment - next Wednesday at 4pm they said.

Saturday 7th June

We had barely been able to take her anywhere for years, but we were determined to make her last days as happy as possible. So together we took her to one of our favourite walking spots - a trail just off Stang Lane in North Yorkshire - and walked her on an extendable lead for 8 miles. She loved it! [NOTE: I scattered some of her hair along this walk - she's now part of the landscape]. This photo was taken that day:

Tuesday 10th June

We took her for a few walks and on this last day, we went to Great Punchard's Gill. Again she loved being able to run as free as she was able on the extendable lead.

NOTE: I would not have had the confidence to take her by myself, so OH and I went together, to places where we knew we would meet no-one - weekdays in the Dales are usually free of people and thankfully this was no exception.

At the end of the walk, as we approached the road where the car was parked, OH went to change her lead from the extendable to the static - and fast as a flash, she bit him again, this time on his hand. She was so fast, I didn't realised she'd made contact until I saw blood pouring from his hand. Once again there had been no warning from Storm and no provocation from us - she had had her lead changed countless times, it was nothing new. To be honest, I had been beginning to waver - surely there was something else we hadn't tried, surely we could manage - after all, we'd managed the last 11 years, so why not just keep going? But after this second bite in less than a week, I knew I had no choice.

And as if to confirm it, when we turned the ignition on in the car, the radio burst into life - Andrea Bocelli singing 'Time to Say Goodbye' (in Italian). It seemed like a 'sign'.

We discussed her epitaph around the dinner table - I liked 'You came into our lives and left paw prints on our heats' - that is, until both children added '...and bite marks on our hands'! Seems I'm the only one of the family she hadn't bitten. So I chose another one (see below)

Wednesday 11th June

She had had to be 'doped' yesterday in preparation for today, but we still took her out again this morning. She always loved rivers, so we took her to Gunnerside by the river. There was a short walk along the bank which we took, but she was really sleepy - she didn't walk far but was clearly too tired to go any further. Then she found it really hard to get up the steps back to the road and the car. When we asked her to jump in the car, she struggled - it was heartbreaking to see.

When we got her home, we had a brief photo-shoot in the garden. Our front garden is a mini meadow and she lay down peacefully among the buttercups while I snapped away with my camera.

Again, we had to give her some dopey tablets to prepare her and she could barely get in the car. OH went to help her in, but was snarled at viciously for his trouble, so we had to be content with helping her up using the lead - I'm not sure it was comfortable, but it was very quick.

Arriving at the vet's, they administered the pre-meds in the car, then once she was asleep, they brought a trolley (like a human one in the hospital, but smaller for a dog), and wheeled her inside. I had to sign papers to give my permission for them to carry out the procedure...

And then it was all over. I have to say they treated her with dignity as a family member and not as 'just a dog'. Then they left us with her for a while to say our final goodbyes.

So that's it. We'd had almost 12 years with her, most of which she was reactive. We had never been able to do agility or show her, we could barely take her for walks, let alone anything with other dogs present. We had had to 'manage' her behaviour rather than enjoy her. Yet she was the best (and worst) dog I have ever had and I miss her greatly.

Do I regret having her - no! Not at all!
Do I regret having her put to sleep? Well, I don't regret doing it - it was the right thing to do - but I most definitely do regret having had to do it and wish with all my heart it had not been necessary.
Will I get another dog? It's a bit soon to say, but watch this space....

RIP

Kamarda Snow Storm

aka Storm

27th September 2013 to 11th June 2025

You still live on in the hearts and minds

Of the family you left behind

Photos taken the morning of June 11th 2025 - hard to believe she was almost 12!

Run free, my beautiful girl.