We have had guests.
On a lovely warm September day, we were visited by 15 Schipperkes and their owners.
It is an annual recurring event that we here at Autogården invite to an unofficial Schipperke meeting. My original idea for inviting to the meeting was that I wanted to see the dogs that we don't meet at the shows. The meeting is mainly attended by the "family dogs" - those we usually meet via Facebook. Now I do it mostly because I think it's nice.
For the occasion of the meeting, I had made a small playground with various challenges in the garden. There was a pool with empty plastic bottles to hide treats in. Pallets, tires and miscellaneous items were put together to form obstacles for the dogs to climb.
We have chickens. Four of them are chicks from this year that are not fully grown. They have been used to roaming freely throughout the garden with our dogs their whole lives.
I was well aware that it was probably not a good idea to let them run free when the garden was filled with strange dogs, so I spent the week leading up to the meeting sealing the chicken coop from all sides and from above.
Was it successful? No, not at all. Three of the chickens found a way out, about an hour before the guests arrived. One ran back into the chicken coop on its own, one I caught with the help of Mini Corgi, the last one hid somewhere in the garden. Mini has herded sheep a little in her early youth. She is a great help when I HAVE to get a chicken. She is very happy to help, but stops the moment she is asked and could never think of herding the chickens on her own initiative.
The guests arrived, and I trusted that the last hen would be smart enough to stay out of sight as long as the garden was full of dogs and people.
Little Mrs. Sur alias Cookie wasn't exactly down with having her Saturday ruined by an invasion of strange dogs in her garden, but she did hope that someone would take Audi with them when they went home – she was disappointed here too. When everyone else left, he was still standing there, just as annoying as he usually is. Cookie therefore chose to skip parts of the meeting and periodically watch through the living room window instead.
Audi on the other hand had a great time from start to finish.
Normally we take the dogs for a quick walk on a leash before letting them all run free in the garden. This year it was simply too hot to let the dogs cross the asphalt, so instead we chose to let them out in the garden immediately after everyone had arrived.
Youngest puppy was 14 weeks old. Oldest dog was 7 years old. While the dogs splashed in water and played in the garden, we humans sat drinking soda, eating cake and chatting about all sorts of things.
Audi and his father, who is a stud dog and father of many puppies, did not quite agree on who had the right to decide in the garden, so they got into each other's heads and had to take turns being in an enclosure by themselves. Apart from that, the dogs' play went uncomplicated.
After a few hours, we started with some small competitions. We had a raffle for sponsored snacks, a prize for the best trick, and a prize for the cutest dog.
When half the dogs and their humans had gone home, the garden became so quiet that the escaped chicken decided to step out of its hiding place. She shouldn't have done that. She was discovered and soon the poor chicken was dashing across the garden, pursued by six noisy Schipperkes.
Chickens are rarely praised for their intelligence. There's a reason for that. Despite her pretty good flying skills, the little hen chose to run down and hide in a doghouse, freely accessible to all the dogs in the yard.
I admit that at that moment I was afraid whether I would be able to save my chicken from the wild dogs. However, I had done the math without Cookie. Despite her sour approach to many things, she has always been sweet and careful towards the other animals at Autogården. She has petted zebra finches, small chickens and rabbits – always with caution. Here she took the lead and stood in front of the doghouse with the chicken and clearly told the other dogs to stay away. They accepted her request, and we were able to quietly remove the dogs so that the chicken could have peace.
After a long but enjoyable day, everyone went home and we could put our feet up on the sofa and relax completely.
About this week's blogger:
Helene is an early retiree and spends a large part of her time with her animals. The animal team consists of 4 dogs, 1 cat, 15 free-range chickens, approx. 80 aviary birds and her daughter has three axolotls. And now she and Cookie can also call themselves a reading dog team.
She loves writing short stories, poems and stories from her everyday life and enjoys reading a good Scandinavian crime novel.
In addition to Helene and all the animals, the family consists of Birger 55 years old, Thor 12 years old and Sigrid 10 years old.
Guests in September…
We have had guests.
On a lovely warm September day, we were visited by 15 Schipperkes and their owners.
It is an annual recurring event that we here at Autogården invite to an unofficial Schipperke meeting. My original idea for inviting to the meeting was that I wanted to see the dogs that we don't meet at the shows. The meeting is mainly attended by the "family dogs" - those we usually meet via Facebook. Now I do it mostly because I think it's nice.
For the occasion of the meeting, I had made a small playground with various challenges in the garden. There was a pool with empty plastic bottles to hide treats in. Pallets, tires and miscellaneous items were put together to form obstacles for the dogs to climb.
We have chickens. Four of them are chicks from this year that are not fully grown. They have been used to roaming freely throughout the garden with our dogs their whole lives.
I was well aware that it was probably not a good idea to let them run free when the garden was filled with strange dogs, so I spent the week leading up to the meeting sealing the chicken coop from all sides and from above.
Was it successful? No, not at all. Three of the chickens found a way out, about an hour before the guests arrived. One ran back into the chicken coop on its own, one I caught with the help of Mini Corgi, the last one hid somewhere in the garden. Mini has herded sheep a little in her early youth. She is a great help when I HAVE to get a chicken. She is very happy to help, but stops the moment she is asked and could never think of herding the chickens on her own initiative.
The guests arrived, and I trusted that the last hen would be smart enough to stay out of sight as long as the garden was full of dogs and people.
Little Mrs. Sur alias Cookie wasn't exactly down with having her Saturday ruined by an invasion of strange dogs in her garden, but she did hope that someone would take Audi with them when they went home – she was disappointed here too. When everyone else left, he was still standing there, just as annoying as he usually is. Cookie therefore chose to skip parts of the meeting and periodically watch through the living room window instead.
Audi on the other hand had a great time from start to finish.
Normally we take the dogs for a quick walk on a leash before letting them all run free in the garden. This year it was simply too hot to let the dogs cross the asphalt, so instead we chose to let them out in the garden immediately after everyone had arrived.
Youngest puppy was 14 weeks old. Oldest dog was 7 years old. While the dogs splashed in water and played in the garden, we humans sat drinking soda, eating cake and chatting about all sorts of things.
Audi and his father, who is a stud dog and father of many puppies, did not quite agree on who had the right to decide in the garden, so they got into each other's heads and had to take turns being in an enclosure by themselves. Apart from that, the dogs' play went uncomplicated.
After a few hours, we started with some small competitions. We had a raffle for sponsored snacks, a prize for the best trick, and a prize for the cutest dog.
When half the dogs and their humans had gone home, the garden became so quiet that the escaped chicken decided to step out of its hiding place. She shouldn't have done that. She was discovered and soon the poor chicken was dashing across the garden, pursued by six noisy Schipperkes.
Chickens are rarely praised for their intelligence. There's a reason for that. Despite her pretty good flying skills, the little hen chose to run down and hide in a doghouse, freely accessible to all the dogs in the yard.
I admit that at that moment I was afraid whether I would be able to save my chicken from the wild dogs. However, I had done the math without Cookie. Despite her sour approach to many things, she has always been sweet and careful towards the other animals at Autogården. She has petted zebra finches, small chickens and rabbits – always with caution. Here she took the lead and stood in front of the doghouse with the chicken and clearly told the other dogs to stay away. They accepted her request, and we were able to quietly remove the dogs so that the chicken could have peace.
After a long but enjoyable day, everyone went home and we could put our feet up on the sofa and relax completely.
About this week's blogger:
Helene is an early retiree and spends a large part of her time with her animals. The animal team consists of 4 dogs, 1 cat, 15 free-range chickens, approx. 80 aviary birds and her daughter has three axolotls. And now she and Cookie can also call themselves a reading dog team.
She loves writing short stories, poems and stories from her everyday life and enjoys reading a good Scandinavian crime novel.
In addition to Helene and all the animals, the family consists of Birger 55 years old, Thor 12 years old and Sigrid 10 years old.