Playgirl of the Month.

You know, looking back over this little series of ‘calendar shots’, anyone would think that The Princess spends 90% of her time on her back with her legs in the air.

And they’d be right!

I know, I know. You all think this is a Photoshopped picture, don’t you? You think I caught The Princess in a somewhat odd pose and decided to have some fun.

You think I have nothing better to do than sit all afternoon digitally placing a small green pea in the mouth of a dog.

Honestly - just what kind of person do you think I am? If I’m going to spend that amount of time and effort I’m more likely to be cleaning up the background of a picture of Johnny Depp so I can see him better! D’uh!

No, this picture is absolutely genuine.

You see, I often buy a pack of peas in the pod at this time of year. I never actually cook them, I just eat them as they are, because they are quite delicious raw and cooking merely ruins them. Anyway, there I was this afternoon, idly shelling peas and stuffing them into my mouth .. Mmmm! Nice peas!

And then I noticed a pair of wistful brown eyes fixed upon me. The Princess clearly thought that if anyone was eating, it really should be her.

I showed her an empty pod and said ‘See? Nothing interesting!’

She took it delicately between her little front teeth, trotted off with it and spent the next few seconds industriously shredding it on her bed. Other Half said it was cruel to give her an empty pod. He said she looked disappointed.

I shook my head at his little flight of fancy, but indulged him and offered The Princess a full pod.

Here’s what happened. Enjoy!

Today I took the Princess for another of her longer walks, but this isn’t going to be a post about the beauty of the countryside or the pleasure I took in the exercise, or, indeed, her company. This is a small rant.

Coming back through the village at a smart pace, we came up behind a couple of very young women, one with a child in a buggy, and the other with a small white dog on the end of a longish lead. The Princess was behaving impeccably (thank you, sweetie!) but we crossed over to the other side of the road because I could see that the little chap ahead of us was not under much control.

He was a rather nice looking half-grown crossbred, with a fair bit of Jack Russell in him by the look of things, and he was bouncy and interested in everything. He was wearing a harness, which was fortunate for him, because the young woman on the other end of the lead was not paying him any attention at all. Every so often he’d make a little detour onto the grass verge to sniff, but just as he got his nose down, there’d be a sharp jerk as he got to the end of his rope, and he’d be forcibly dragged along and he’d have to do a little skip to avoid being tumbled, end over end. This was happening because his owner had not paused or slowed, or even noticed what he was doing.

The Princess and I were walking a little faster than they were, so we drew closer and the little white dog noticed us and got excited and started to yap in our general direction. This got him his owner’s attention. She whipped round sharply, hauled on his lead until his front legs were six inches off the ground and yelled ‘Pack it in’ into his shell-like ear. Then abruptly turned and carried on walking and chatting to her companion. This happened two or three times, until she got really angry with him and practically swung him on the end of the lead while telling him she’s had quite enough and was sick and tired of him and did he want her to give him one? Then she let him go and he dropped to the ground and shook himself, by which time she was already several paces ahead and once again, he got a sharp jerk and had to do his little skip to avoid falling over.

She didn’t actually hit the little guy while I was watching, but clearly it was part of her repertoire and it made me very sad. You can do far more with positive training than by smacking your dog round the head if he upsets you. The Pirate was extremely vocal when we first got him because he hadn’t met any dog that wasn’t a greyhound for a very long time and he got excited when he saw one, even in the distance. But with time and patience and a bag of treats, he learned that when he did see another dog he was only allowed to actually get close if he was quiet and well-behaved, and that if he did behave well, he got a treat, even if it wasn’t possible for him to go have a sniff, which was what he really wanted.

Which brings me to the second part of my rant.

I would have liked to catch up with the owner of that little dog and ask her why she was taking him out for a walk when she clearly wasn’t paying him any attention or allowing him to indulge in any kind of normal dog behaviour - like sniffing good smells and peeing on things. In fact, I wanted to ask her why she had a dog at all!

When we first set out this morning, The Princess found a trail of something in the grass which had her spellbound. She spent so long with her nose glued to the ground that I thought we were never going to make any progress at all. It took us a good five minutes to travel about fifty yards. But you know what? Dogs, even sighthounds, are very much aroma-oriented animals. Smells are their landscape. They don’t care for a nice view from a hilltop, but they get a huge amount of information and pleasure from sniffing things along the way.

What The Princess found this morning was clearly the Johnny Depp of smells, and it was her walk.

So, who was I to deny her the pleasure of a good long sniff?

The Princess has been posing so prettily this month that it’s been hard to choose a picture for my virtual calendar, but I do love this one. It sums her up so beautifully!

Say cheese!