Murphy came to stay with us on Monday. Sherry was very much looking forward to seeing her brother but the other girls were still trying to recover from a trip to Taupo at the weekend. Murphy arrived mid morning and proceeded to play with Sherry as is normal with puppies. However, I did get the impression that the play was somewhat lazy and therefore I think that Sherry was actually still a bit tired too. See video below of lazy play. On that very first day we went for a nice walk to the river. Murphy doesn't swim - or didn't... he does now! Within 15 minutes of being at the river with the other dogs he was suddenly in and out of his depth and absolutely fine about it. He came out, ran around as if he had just got the shock of his life, but then settled into a more "look what I just did" mode. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but I took a video on my phone of the second time he went in and you can see Murphy going in twice in this video. I just had to record his first day of swimming (see video below). Day 2 dawned and Murphy had been a really good dog during the night. He has never been crated since he left here as an 8 week old puppy, but I put him in a crate to sleep in the lounge last night and was preparing for a bit of a fuss. Well, there was not a peep... in fact he was still in the same position in the morning as he had been when I put him in there last night, so I'm not sure whether he bothered to turn around or not. He really didn't seem to be bothered at all. He was pleased to see us and the other dogs though. Murphy clearly was under the impression that he could jump on our bed - he only did it once - that is not acceptable in our house and he is a really quick learner. Part of poor Murphy's morning was spent being groomed. Again, he was not bothered by this at all. He sat up on the grooming table to have his neck and ears trimmed, then laid down while his feet were being done. Last of all he was put on the floor to have feet and tail finished and he basically nodded off to sleep, in fact he was snoring! Once I managed to wake him up I took him outside to trim his nails. He wasn't too bothered with that although I got the impression he would rather not have them done, but it was simple enough. Then we went off for a walk down the river again. I think Murphy was a bit tired as he loped along behind us and occasionally had a gallop around with Sherry, but on the whole was happy having a sniff. He went in the river again and had a little swim. The weather today is fantastic, probably about 23 degrees, so all the dogs appreciated a nice dip. Then back home again and after a little snooze he was russed up by Peter and Sherry to have a tug of war game (see video below). The next day was a fairly quiet day. The morning was spent just lazing around at home. Murphy watched me do the hoovering from a distance and played on and off with Sherry. I decide to brave a walk in the bush near our house today. The reason I say brave is that it meant that I would have to walk five dogs around the streets to get to the bush walk and I didn't know how that would go. However, it was really great and I wouldn't have a problem doing it again. No-one pulled, Murphy got the hang of walking beside me fairly quickly, Shadow and Sherry were in front and Kula and Phoenix bringing up the rear. We had a lovely walk through the bush to a little grassy clearing where the dogs had a bit of fun (see photos and video below). (click to enlarge photos)   In the video below notice how Phoenix is getting in on the action. She is mainly playing with Shadow, and Sherry and Murphy are rough and tumbling together, but its great to see her enjoying herself. She has certainly changed since she had her eyes operated on as she would not have been able to do this before the operation . Her eyesight is improving every day and it's just wonderful to see her run round like this and get excited. After the walk Sherry and Murphy had to be put in the dog run as I had to go out for a while. They seemed quite happy when I got back - the water bowl was full of mud and Sherry had sand on her back so I guess they had had a bit of fun! The evenings (on nice days) are spent out on the lawn, Sherry and Murphy together, playing and getting up to mischief. Tonight they had a communal stick chewing time (see below) and were very happy.   Thursday dawned another lovely day. The morning was spent doing the normal things that dogs do, resting, playing, resting, playing, drinking, resting, playing. Murphy learn't a lesson today - not to put his paws in the water bowl and play, at least not in the water bowl indoors or outside the back door. What he does with the water bowl in the dog run when he is in there is up to him! In the afternoon we went for a lovely walk up the Korokoro Stream. It was very hot so a swim in the water was always on the cards. Murphy seemed to enjoy himself. (click to enlarge photos)   Kula and Sherry share stick retrieving duties (below). Meanwhile, back at home the dogs are kept well in order by each other and by Peter.      Phoenix decided she would put the pups in their place, and in particular Sherry. However, I'm not sure that sneezing at her over and over again is achieving the desired effect, as Sherry keeps coming back for more (see below, you need sound for this one)! Friday was a day for more fun. Sherry and Murphy are inseparable and are always found together, either out in the garden doing a communal stick chewing event, or running round bickering over the smallest piece of a toy that they can find in the house. We had another lovely walk at the river today, but it was a bit windy as you will hear on the video. Murphy enjoys himself when he is not being ambushed by his sister!  Murphy has a sniff in the grass at the river (above). Murphy swims (below) Shadow fishes for stones.   Dive, dive, dive (bottom left). Got it (bottom right).   Poor Murphy, after making sure Phoenix is under control (although Phoenix really had chosen to roll over and dry herself) Sherry proceeds to ambush Murphy. She does this a lot, especially when he is not looking and is perhaps just enjoying sniffing the grass or just looking the other way. Sherry actually hammered Murphy good and proper in another ambush today and left Murphy limping for a few minutes :-( Once the walk is over Sherry and Murphy are pictured below waiting to be dried off with the towel before getting into the van.  Saturday came and finally the puppies had crashed. They had a really quiet day sleeping and only half heartedly playing. I think the last few days had finally caught up with them. It suited us because we were busy in the garden. Later on in the day they just got a 20 minute walk around the local park as I had hurt my back and didn't want to go any further than that, but that seemed to suit everyone.     Sunday dawned and it was the Golden Retriever Christmas Party day. The dogs were so excited and there was so much fun had that there is a separate News item for this special day. Click on this link to see all the fun - Golden Retriever Christmas Party. Monday was a quiet day after the fun of Sunday. We had a walk in the bush around 4pm and once I let Shadow off, Shadow, Kula, Sherry and Murphy all disappeared into the bush and I could hear frantic barking. At first I thought it was another dog but then I realised that my four had gone and it was probably Shadow barking. I then knew that she was on the scent of something and the others had gone off with her. So I had a few moments of frantically calling hoping that they wouldn't get lost or caught up in branches etc. A week ago I would not have been confident that Murphy would come back, but he is well set in the "pack" now and looks to me for guidance, so I knew he would come back with the others when they had finished their chasing. Lo and behold, they did turn up, all four of them panting madly but looking so happy with themselves! That was a relief. The only other thing that happened was that I lost a lead on that walk. I only realised when I was at the end of the walk and because I had obedience training with Sherry, didn't have time to go back to find it. Eventually we went back out into the bush after 7pm and I found the lead three quarters of the way down the track. That was lucky! What's this silly toy doing? Sherry found it hard to control her tail in the wind! Tuesday is Murphy's last day with us as he goes home tomorrow. We will miss him. He has been fun and I think he has learnt a lot as he has had to deal with a lot of new things that he was not used to. He especially enjoyed my sons racing around. Murphy has had to learn to fight dirty because Sherry does and she hammers him all the time. He has got better at sticking up for himself and occasionally gets Sherry down. He had a final trim and a bath today. I thought the bath might be a problem as he didn't like his legs being hosed off the other day. However, with Jeff''s help the bath was really quite a calm effort and I was most surprised.  We had a last lovely walk up Normandale today. The dogs played through the pine trees and enjoyed running around.   I am sure Murphy has enjoyed his "holiday" with us and hopefully we will get the chance to play with him again soon. |
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