A-Z Challenge 2014 - 'B'

My A-Z posts this year will be about dogs I have known, dogs I talk to and some I would love to meet

Regular visitors to my blog will recognise some of them I’m sure. Hopefully you will find links to literature – fact and fiction, films, famous dogs and even a dog owner or two. As usual I am expecting to cheat for some letters of the alphabet; I’m sure you will see why.

B – Beagle, Bearded Collie, Bernese Mountain, Bull Terrier

The world’s most famous Beagle is Snoopy of course, although many of us in Britain would rate Gromit highly as well. Neither of them however show you a beagle in its true colours. I meet one occasionally in my North Yorkshire village.

Beagle

Not that she is very keen on having her photo taken.

The Beagle has been in the UK at least since the reign of Henry VIII (1491-1547) but some sources date them to the time of William the Conqueror. Sometimes known as the “singing Beagle” and quiet indoors, there is no mistaking its ‘song’ when it’s chasing rabbits.

President Lyndon Johnson caused a storm of protest on 4^th May 1964 about his Beagle ‘Him’ when he was snapped –

President Johnson's Beagle
(By Yoichi R Okamota - LBJ's Library Website)

Lifting the dog by the ears.

If you like a dog that’s full of bounce you need look no further than

Bearded Collie - Lily

Lilly, or Elemark Waterlily to give her full name, has featured in my North Yorkshire Dogs series  here. She is still full of bounce when you meet her in the street. You need to be careful however as she is often wet and muddy, and always ready to share it with you.

Another clear round for Lily

On the other hand Lukka was much more sedate as befitted a ‘Pets As Therapy’ dog.

Bernese Mountain Dog - Lukka

Weighing in at 52kg Lukka really was a ‘mountain’ of a dog, and definitely the heaviest I’ve met. You can read more about his ‘Pets As Therapy’ role here.

This is a breed of dog I have not met.

White English Bull Terrier
(Edited; original by Canarian, 14.07,12 - CC BY-SA 3.0)

But ‘Bullseye’ I knew about from reading Dickens.

Bill Sikes & Bullseye
(From a c1870 photogravure illustration to Dickens's Oliver Twist - by Fred Barnard)

Parallels - Thematic Photography.

This week's theme set by Carmi is Parallel which if you are not careful could be confused with last week's Vertical.


I've elected to concentrate on animals this time - well on dogs and a hamster named Deirdre, an escapologist of some renown.

Lily, a Border Collie, takes the parallel bars at speed.

I wonder whether she could take the parallels of the background fence as well.

Deirdre was a childrens' pet some thirty years ago. It didn't matter to her whether parallel bars were vertical or horizontal, they were there to be gnawed or climbed on the way out of her cage.

Deirdre inside her cage for once.

 Labradors like to be inside the house but are equally at home sunning themselves on the deck but not on the parallel planks, their beds are more comfortable.

Sam and Maxie take it easy.

An engineering structure has parallels too as shown by the main support frame for the Statfjord B platform under construction at Rosenberg Verft. Stavanger in the 1980s.

Statfjord B MSF at Rosenberg Verft

You may draw other parallels by visiting Carmi's thematic photographic 153 parallel

North Yorkshire Village Dogs - Lily

A dog with an interesting name -

Elemark Waterlily is a great name for this pedigree Bearded Collie. A lively and intelligent dog as befits this breed of herding dog, she is known to everyone as Lily. She will be two early next year (2010) and already has acquired her slate grey colour – she was born black. Lily’s wiry coat does not moult but, as you can imagine, drying her off after a walk is a regular task even if it is only her feet that are wet.

Lily is an active and agile dog; who has taken to agility training as though she was born to it. Jumps, tunnels, elevated walks, A-frames, weaves are all fun for her. The paddock behind her home contains two jumps, for Lily, not for the horses and the pony that she respects and does not hassle at all. She lives quite amicable with a cat as well. However at night the door to the utility room is closed just in case she takes a liking to the ‘presents’ the cat brings home.

Bearded Collies are herding dogs, but Lily does not attend the local herding competitions as she has been desensitised to sheep. She has however a collection of cups and rosettes from shows and obedience contests. In addition to the jumps there is also a long corrugated plastic tunnel in the corner of her paddock. Say ‘tunnel’ to her and she’s off at full speed through it from one end to the other.

Lily has participated in obedience training, based on play and reward and holds the Kennel Club Good Citizen Gold Award (One of the six UK Bearded Collies this year). Her picture will soon appear on the roll of honour. She is responsive to commands; ‘Sit,’ ‘Down’ and ‘Stand.’ These are followed by ‘High Fives’ with her paw.

Her normal food is Arden Grange hypoallergenic lamb and rice; during training she is rewarded with little bits of chicken. She will take dog biscuit treats gently when offered – she gets nothing from the table.

All squeaks have had to be removed from her collection of soft toys. She also has a ring for retrieving; when she has raced to pick it up the ring often flips up to frame her face. No-one has succeeded in photographing her like this as you need to be very quick.

She gets two walks a day, with the longest in the morning. In the village Lily is on her lead, when loose in the fields the rabbits soon know she is about.

Lily has the run of the house, but is not allowed on any furniture. She rests and sleeps on a large cushion covered by a vet bed which draws any moisture from her feet. Naturally the bed is next to the radiator – after all she is a pet.

Lilly delights in getting wet and will run backwards and forwards through the deepest puddles making a noise that sounds for all the world like ‘Yeah! Yeah!’ Perhaps that’s why her name is Waterlily.