Rigg the Pig

When me and Whitevanwoman went to bed last night, it had started snowing and there was a thin layer of snow in the back yard. When we woke up this morning, there was several inches of snow and it was snowing heavily.

Whitevanwoman was pleased as because it means we can go sledging and I can try my husky harness and the sledge out in the snow.

Whitevanwoman told me today that the search dogs have all gone up to Aviemore for a week to find some snow to do some avalanche training. I must admit to having a little snigger – he he he – they’ve gone all that way for some snow and now we’ve got loads here – he he he!

I remember when me and Whitevanwoman went up to Aviemore with the search dogs to do avalanche training in the snow 4 years ago. It was great and I had a lovely week, finding people hidden in the snow, and the cold didn’t bother me in the slightest. My thick double layered coat and robust constitution (as a result of regular dietary supplements from the compost bin, and the odd loaf of bread left carelessly on the kitchen work bench by Whitevanwoman) means that I perform well in the cold, although I do struggle a bit in hot weather.

Whitevanwoman told me later that she had been told that I was the best trainee search dog that week. We were both really pleased about that, which makes it so sad that it was only a couple of months later that we stopped search dog training as Whitevanwoman didn’t think we were very good at it and there was lots of other things that she needed to do but which she wasn’t doing because of spending so much time training with the search dogs. It was so disappointing for both of us and I think we both wish things could have been different but I probably wouldn’t have become a sledge dog if I had become a search dog as we wouldn’t have had the time (or energy) to do all the other exciting things we do now. I remember being so tired when we got home from Aviemore and slept for about 2 days solid – although it was one of the best weeks of my life, it was definitely the most tiring week I’ve ever had.

I think I’d better start bugging Whitevanwoman to take me out to play in the snow, just in case it doesn’t last. It always seems to take her ages to get her boots and hat and gloves on and to find her keys, whilst I’m jumping round the place in excitement. If I start pestering her now, perhaps she’ll be ready to go out in about half an hour…

Several hours later…

Whitevanwoman eventually got her boots and coat on and we went outside to dig the white van out of the snow and clear the road. She had taken the wheels off the sledge and she filled it with snow which she had cleared off the road and then she dragged the sledge full of snow over to the garden and dumped the snow out of the way of the white van. I didn’t pull the sledge today (Whitevanwoman said it wasn’t worth the bother and I’d end up getting myself all tangled up) and I was pleased that Whitevanwoman is a good pack leader who believes that a leader should not expect others to do things they wouldn’t do themselves

After that she picked up the tennisball throwing stick and we went off for a snowy walk. We just did our usual short walk but we spent ages playing fetch the tennisball on the way – here’s some photos of me having fun in the snow this afternoon…

Why do tennisballs always roll downhill?

Just having a quick breather...

My white goatee has suddenly got bigger!

The sun was just setting as we got back from our walk and Whitevanwoman said that because the sky was quite red, it meant that it was going to be a cold night and hopefully a sunny day tomorrow. I don’t know how she knows that but I just accept, as ever, that Whitevanwoman is always right (even when she is wrong).

Red sky at night, Rigg's delight...

After a yummy dinner which included egg and chips (Whitevanwoman’s favourite dinner – ok, so the chips were the leftovers from last night as she is on a diet, and the egg wasn’t cooked and was so old that Whitevanwoman wouldn’t eat it), I am now stretched out in front of the stove (only because Miss Tibby has suddenly decided she likes my bed and she has started sleeping in it and I’m a bit scared of kicking her off it in case I get a scratched nose) and I’m just having 40 winks, thinking about tennisballs and snow…

Me and Whitevanwoman have been having lots of fun today.

modelling my new husky harness

She has got me a husky harness so that I can pull the sledge and today was the first time we have tried it out properly. She has put wheels onto the sledge which make it easier to pull on the road or on grass. After chopping up some old chairs with the axe, Whitevanwoman loaded the bits of wood onto the sledge and then I pulled it along the back lane to our back yard. It was easy peasy for a muscular athlete like me, so I can’t understand why people think huskies are so clever.

Here’s a photo of me in the sunshine in the backyard with the loaded up sledge…

If huskies can do it so can mongrels

After unloading the sledge, Whitevanwoman decided that as it was such a lovely sunny day, it would be a good day for having a walk on the fell so I was over joyed when she got my tennisball throwing stick and we set off along the fell side behind our kennel. I chased that tennisball up and down the fell at least a hundred times.

We walked along the fell side to the old quarry where I like a game of squash – Whitevanwoman throws the tennis ball at the rocks in the quarry and it bounces round off lots of different rocks and I chase after it trying to catch it before it hits the ground. Heres a photo of me waiting at the quarry for Whitevanwoman to catch up…

 

Today Whitevanwoman kept throwing the tennisball too high and instead of bouncing off the rocks, it kept getting lost at the top of the rocks so I had to scramble up and search for it. Heights don’t bother me, although I am careful where I put my feet when I’m up at the top of a rocky crag. It reminded me of my search dog training days and I put all my training to good use to find the tennis ball. Here’s some photos of me searching at the top of the rock face…

It's up here somewhere, I can smell it...

not here....

is it down there...?

Go on then, give us a clue...

Whitevanwoman was laughing her head off whilst I was searching and I wasn’t sure why – I thought she was just enjoying the sunshine but it turned out that she was laughing at me. I kept catching a whiff of tennisball at the top of the crag but despite searching and searching I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t understand why I could smell it but couldn’t find it.

Eventually Whitevanwoman called me down into the bottom of the quarry and suggested I look round the bottom of the crag. By this time I was so desperate to find the tennisball I was concentrating on sniffing it out rather than looking for it, and so I am a little ashamed to say that I missed it several times, coming within a few inches of it

It's behind you...

But eventually I saw it, nestled right at the bottom of the crag – the smell must have been rising in the heat of the sunshine up the crag and that’s why I could smell it at the top but not at the bottom. So that was a lesson learned and I think I need to practice my searching skills a bit more, although without being a search dog, there’s not much need for them. But I know Whitevanwoman is always pleased when I find her glove or something else which she has dropped accidently on our walks, so at least I do get to use my skills every now and then.

Then we went down from the quarry to the river and instead of going to our usual swimming area we explored somewhere new and found another excellent swimming area. I had a lovely game of swim fetch with the tennisball, doing some serious swimming as it was quite deep, and it was good to wash all the salt and grit from the winter out of my hair.

My usual swimming spot - you have to climb down the other side of the bridge, then scramble through the left hand tunnel to get to it

the other side of the bridge, where we climb down and then scramble through the little tunnel

my new swimming pool in the river - it's nice to have a change

Whitevanwoman was quite pleased to see me so wet as she’d been a bit worried that I was putting on as much weight as she has, but as you can see from the photos, I’m still lean and slim – Whitevanwoman thinks that perhaps people think I’m fatter than I am because I have very broad shoulders and my hair is quite fluffy. Phew! I hope that means that she is not going to cut my rations.

See, I'm still slim and athletic - I just have broad shoulders and a shaggy coat

Although I thoroughly enjoyed my swim, the water was very cold and my teeth started chattering so we had a brisk walk home and then I curled up happily tired in front of the stove, and dreamed of tennis balls, quarries and swimming

Whitevanwoman has been teaching me a new trick called “Legs”. It’s quite an easy trick now that I’ve figured out what “Legs” means – when Whitevanwoman says “Legs” and stands still with her legs apart, I have to walk through her legs. I can’t really see the point of it, but I like learning new tricks and enjoy having some attention from Whitevanwoman so I am a willing student. I have nearly got it sussed all the time now, but sometimes I get a bit mixed up and lie down “dead” instead of doing “legs” because the commands sound similar. Somehow I find I am able to concentrate better and get it right if Whitevanwoman has got a dog biscuit in her hand when she says “Legs”

I can’t help wondering if Whitevanwoman has an ulterior motive for teaching me some new tricks. I have a sinking feeling that maybe this is leading up to me becoming a dancing dog like the ones you see on Crufts on the TV – I do enjoy a little waltz round on my back legs with Whitevanwoman but I really can’t see myself doing all that doggy dancing to music stuff. To be honest, I don’t think I have the build for it – I’m a strong sturdy packhorse kind of dog, not a lean agile athlete.

I don’t know many other dogs who can do as many tricks as me. I’ve listed my best tricks below with an explanation :

• “Bang! You’re dead!” – when Whitevanwoman points her finger at me like a gun, and says this, I lie down and roll over on to my side, and pretend to be dead (although sometimes I’m not able to stop my tail from wagging). This trick is especially popular with children.
• “Give me five” – when Whitevanwoman says this and puts out her hand with the palm facing me, I put my paw on it. We like to do this when one of us has done something good.
• “High five” – similar to the above but Whitevanwoman puts her hand up high and I have to stretch up and touch my paw on her hand.
• “Tunnel” – this means I have to go through a tunnel or hoop
• “Speak” (and “Quiet”) – this was one of the first tricks I learned when I was only about 3 months old, and it means I have to bark loudly – I learned this because I was going to be a trainee Mountain Rescue Search Dog and Search Dogs have to “speak” when they find someone who is lost in the fells. Once I had mastered the “Speak” command, Whitevanwoman soon taught me the “Quiet” command, as I was very enthusiastic about speaking (and still am!)
• “Give me a hug” – Whitevanwoman only says this when she is sitting on the floor because I tend to knock her over otherwise. I sit up and put my front paws on her shoulders and lean my head against her chest, and we have a special moment together
• “Kiss” – I guess you will all know what this means, but instead of giving Whitevanwoman a juicy smacker on the lips, I give her a quick lick on the end of her nose. I don’t think she particularly likes getting dog slobber on her mouth
• “Dance” – Whitevanwoman puts her arm out and I stand up on my back legs and rest my front legs on her arm and we waltz around
• “Turn round” – whichever way I am facing when I am standing up, I have to turn round and face the other way – I learned this whilst being brushed by Whitevanwoman, so that she can brush both sides of me
• “Get back” – this means either walk backwards or go back to where I was depending on the circumstances – usually when I have been told to “stay” but I sneak off and Whitevanwoman tells me to “Get back”. Sometimes she says it when I am standing in front of her and stopping her from moving forward, so then it means that I have to walk backwards in front of her. It can be very confusing but I can usually tell from Whitevanwoman’s body language what she wants me to do.
• “Get up” – this is another command that means different things in different situations – if the back door of the white van is open, it means that I have to jump in the back and lie in my bed in the white van, but if we are out on a walk and there is a fence or stone wall we have to get over, it means that I have to jump over it.
• “Find it!” – one of my favourite commands and tricks, I have to go and find something. Again it depends on the circumstances – when I was learning how to be a Search Dog, “Find it” meant that I had to run off up the fell and sniff the wind to look for people who were lost (or pretending to be lost), but when we are at home, it means I have to find my toys. When we are out for a walk, and Whitevanwoman has thrown the tennis ball or dropped her glove or something else, it means I have to find it.
• “Fetch” – this is another command which means different things in different situations – when Whitevanwoman holds something next to my mouth and tells me to “Fetch”, I have to take hold of it in my mouth and carry it. Sometimes she points at something (like a stick or ball) and then “Fetch” means go and pick it up and bring it back to Whitevanwoman.
• “Give” – this means to let go of whatever I’ve got in my mouth
• “Push” – this means opening the door by pushing it with my nose – Whitevanwoman often gets me to do this when she is carrying things
• “Pleased to meet you” – this means offering my paw to someone to shake, I also have to say “Please” by doing the same thing before I’m allowed to eat my dinner
• “Manners” – When Whitevanwoman says this it means that I have to walk behind her and let her go in front – she usually says it when I’m on the lead and we are walking somewhere narrow or going through a gate.
• “Are you hungry?” – my favourite trick – I dash over to my dinner bowl, grab it in my mouth and take it to Whitevanwoman, often throwing it at her, although I think she prefers it when I put it nicely in her hand. Then Whitevanwoman fills it with dog food and I have to say “Please” and then I can tuck in.

 Of course, there are also the usual every day commands that most dogs know such as Sit, Lie down, Stand, Come here, Heel, Move out of the way, - these commands are second nature to me now, and so I don’t think of them as special tricks.

But I can’t help wondering if perhaps Whitevanwoman is thinking of putting all my tricks together one after the other, like the dogs which dance to music do. I’m not sure if I really fancy that as it will mean alot of learning and alot of practice, although so long as the training involves plenty of dog treats, I wouldn’t mind And now that I think about it, it would be quite good fun and I would get plenty of attention from people so I might just give it a go. I’ll keep you posted about our progress.