Houdini and the Halti pt II

Today was one of those fabulous winter days when the sun is shining and everything is bright and clear. There was no sub arctic temperatures to contend with, no pale, watery sun, no rain… in short, perfect walking weather.

Being in the Shire gives a lot more scope for walks and today was most definitely a Big Park day.

The Big Park is one of my favourite spots in the world which is why I’m not going to name it- some of you will know it anyway- as there are quite enough people trampling through it already.

Big Park is, as the name suggests, huge and runs down through a steep sided wooded valley. There’s a half built Victorian Gothic Mansion slap bang in the middle of it, an ice house, a boat house, 5 lakes and the remains of a quarry and some 18th and 19th century cottages. It also is home to some rare horseshoe bats. (Thank you Wikipedia).

On a more personal note, my mum played in the park and mansion when she was a kid as she lived near to one of the entrances. The mansion was abandoned for many years but because it was so isolated and remote in location, it thankfully did not get demolished, trashed or developed into luxury flats.

Mrs Bitey has been there before and loves it. A group of us walked the length of the valley and had a picnic mid point. As there was plenty of food about and Mrs B likes to be the centre of attention, she was free range off the lead but didn’t stray too far running and probably did double the distance at high speed. However, given recent Bad Behaviour, especially running off hunting, warning signs about sheep and also for my own sanity, I decided to keep her on the lead.

Big mistake no 1 was to use the short everyday lead. Granted it is more comfortable and lighter to use as I can hook it on my arm, but it did mean that Mrs B pulled like hell. She pulls on the extendable box lead too but not quite so much.

Big mistake no 2 was not starting with the Halti and fitting it on her at home. I am soft hearted so thought we’d start with the just about tolerated harness and keep the Halti in my pocket in case of heavy duty pulling.

Big mistake no 3 was walking past a field of Belted Galloway cows, a lovely breed I’ll freely admit, but ones that Mrs Bitey likes to chase and round up as they run quite fast.

As the pulling situation got worse, I decided to stick the Halti on. Mrs B was not happy at all and showed it. Thankfully the one thing that I did do right today was to clip the additional Halti safety link onto her collar.

Good job I did too as with a squirmy, wormy manoeuvre, two backward steps and a charge forward, Mrs Bitey has wriggled her way out of the Halti.

My first thought, after a lunging grab to prevent Mrs B from reenacting an episode of Rawhide, was that I’d put the Halti on wrong. Pilot error so to speak. So I refastened it, checked it, pulled the straps tighter still, checked it again and off we went.

30 seconds later after a second squirmy, wormy manoeuvre, the same thing happened. Further attempts yielded a similar outcome. In short Mrs B was in the Halti for about 30 seconds each time.

After 5 escape routines, I gave up. The harness was pressed back into service and it was time to be dragged. The first half a mile was the worst, requiring frequent changes of direction trying to correct her. Negotiating two sightings and a walk past of sheep was hard work. Thankfully there were no squirrel observations on the slippery steep bit or I’d have ended up in one of the lakes.

Just to add to the fun, there has been recent rumours of a ‘big cat’ roaming wild in the park after a semi eaten deer was found. Early on, there was a brief moment of defeated temptation to jettison the lead and let Mrs B risk being eaten by a tiger, panther or whatever but I did not give in and gradually, over time, Mrs Bitey settled down into a tolerable pace of mild pulling.

It seems that Mrs B is a terrier version of Houdini. She can get out of her harness and collar when stuck and makes easy work of the Halti- which was hurled into the back of the glove box and probably won’t see light of day until the garage next service my car and get the logbook out to stamp. It’s time to think of a new strategy. Ideas greatly welcomed…

The good samaritan

My faith in humanity has been roundly restored over the past couple of weeks by strangers. First there was the lovely couple who found Mrs B when she ran off (see lost and found post) and then last night a random phone call from a guy who’d found Mrs Bitey’s collar and harness after the most recent MIA episode (see AWOL post).

The unnamed good samaritan had found both items stuck on a barbed wire fence (Lord knows how Mrs B had wriggled her way out of them, I’d like to have seen it), took them home, washed them, found my number on the tag, rang me to check that Mrs B was ok and also to give me his address where both items were bagged up and hanging on the gate post for me to collect.

I’d not imagined that the collar or harness would ever be seen again so to get both back is great. Collars, tags and harnesses are not cheap and the ones that she lost were her ‘best’ ones.

Naturally, Mrs B is also over the moon as it means that there is an alternative option to the Halti. I’m letting her run with that mistaken idea for today only…

Houdini Hound in Halti

Mrs Bitey had her first long walk in the much hated Halti today. We did a good couple of miles and I’d like to think that good fun was had by all- but alas I don’t think that was the case.

Mrs B tried her usual protest tactics- refusing to walk, sulking and trying to roll on her head to remove it but to no avail.

However when we saw a couple of bemused spaniels, Mrs B broke into a gravity defying leaping and rolling dance. It was a bit like a cross between breakdancing and that ethereal swaying that Kate Bush used to do on Top of the Pops in the Wuthering Heights era.

Said moves were successful in freeing her head from the Halti although complete liberty was foiled as I had cunningly clipped the extra linkage to her collar as recommended ‘for the lively dog unused to wearing the Halti’.

The Halti was duly reattached and Mrs Bitey stomped off defeated.

1-0 to me I think

AWOL (again)

Today’s events neatly sum up Mrs Bitey.

We walked the common land early, the sun was up and there were very few souls around. It was so still and peaceful that I found myself slipping into a lull listening to my boots squelching along in the muddy grass- it was really quite hypnotic and I felt at one with the world.

Mrs B was hopping about, sniffing, pausing to look around, having a run… in short just being herself.

Then looming on the horizon we spotted her Nemesis – another terrier she had a nasty scrap with back last summer. The owner was even worse and had sent me a very poisonous threatening letter – I’d apologised profusely and paid the vet fees for her dog to be checked over but clearly that wasn’t enough.

A rematch was the last thing that I wanted so we detoured to the very edge of the common- BIG mistake. There is a small copse of trees clinging perilously to the side of the steepest part of the hill. In places it is practically a sheer drop. Wooded areas are not good news for me as they offer endless scope for hunting and adventure for Mrs B.

I reached out to grab her but was too late- she’d spotted a squirrel or bird or possibly just a stray leaf and took to her heels. Her ears shut down in that infuriating terrier selective hearing way and that was it for 20 minutes.

The 20 minutes I could live with, the climbing down to find her and the state of her when she emerged grinning from under a bush I could not.

She was triumphant and sans collar, harness and half of one of her back claws. The claw had needed a trim I guess. The nearly new harness, posh collar and matching tag remain at large and I can only imagine that somewhere a squirrel has donned the collar, is using the harness as a hammock and wearing the claw hung from a string round its neck as a necklace (thanks Neil for that last unforgettable image!).

The silver lining is that it means that the new Halti will be pressed into service tomorrow.

Can’t wait.

Halti Hate

Mrs Bitey is not a happy bunny today. Since her recent Missing in Action episode, she is now going to be on a long lead when out in the countryside.

She has a tendency at times to pull on the lead which won’t do my op site any good. Her ‘stop pulling instantly’ harness does hold her back a bit but she uses the resistance created by it as a muscle building exercise for her front legs and shoulders. Of course, as she gets stronger, she pulls more and so on…

So today’s purchase was a halti head collar. A halti works well on Mally, my friend’s super lovely and super strong Old English Sheepdog and she swears by it. Given this glowing endorsement and the fact that we have exhausted the range of body harnesses, it was time to take a different approach.

The halti works brilliantly – but Mrs B ain’t happy. She firstly sat wrinkling her nose up, flashing the odd bit of fang but not growling or resisting; instead looking as happy as a pig in a pork pie factory. I ignored this and gave her lots of praise. She glowered back at me.

Her next tactic was to refuse to walk. However, she could not resist the winning combo of encouragement and a slight yank of the lead so off we went.

Tactic no3 was to attempt to do a rolling head stand whilst walking, again ignored and instead praised to the hilt.

In the end she trotted on, but treated me to frequent glowers over her shoulder.

Mrs Bitey was furious when we got in from the halti test walk. Every attempt of refusal, sabotage or sulking was roundly ignored and praise was instead lavished. You could almost hear the cogs clicking in her brain thinking, that didn’t work- now what?