November has been a busy month with mixed weather ranging from Storm Bert to hard frosts and even a bit of snow (although nothing settled here in Gloucestershire). Milo and Millie are getting to know us and us them. After a week or so of them sleeping on Daniel's bed at night we have encouraged them (with the aid of a child gate) to sleep downstairs and they have very successfully done so, only complaining for about 5 minutes on the first night - oh, and another night when Milo managed to break through the extension that had been added to the gate at four o'clock one morning so had a lovely time very excitedly licking everyone until we were all awake and had to be shoved down the bed to quieten him down. The gate has now been fixed! They seem to love their old beds that came with them and snuggle down happily as bedtime approaches, Milo in particular liking to be covered up so only his ears show.
The cold weather has meant new jumpers are the order of the day and Milo very proudly wears his and even asks to have it put on. Millie is not so keen and stands looking miserable if one is put on her so we think it will have to be very chilly before she is happy to wear it. We are not ones for having the heating turned up high but we have had to put the gas fire on in the living room on a couple of occasions and Milo and Millie seem to rather enjoy that!
They are typical terriers and like nothing better than a game of tug - sometimes the noises they make sound quite violent and, like a naughty pair of children, have to be told off and separated until they have calmed down. On other occasions, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths and they are extremely loving and affectionate. Milo, in particular likes to play at Parrot-Dog and sits on the back of chairs to get the best view whereas Millie likes close contact and prefers a lap.One of the main problems we have with them is they will both pull terribly on the lead and we have tried an assortment of harnesses and leads to try and overcome the problem. The best method seems to be to walk them separately so Daniel will take Milo one way and I will drive Millie up to the Common and they are both fine so we suspect it is a bit of rivalry going on when they are together. After they had been with us for about 3 weeks we decided to see what they would be like off lead so Daniel walked them both to a field about a mile away which we know is totally secure. When he was there he gave me a call and I drove to the opposite end of the field from where he was and entered it from the other end. Once Daniel could see me I started whistling and calling and he let them go - they instantly raced towards me and you can see from the attached video this first successful attempt. Unfortunately, they do not have a particularly good recall for general walking and love to charge up to other dogs. Having had Akitas who had to be permanently on a lead we know from first hand experience what a nuisance small off-lead dogs can be so we are making sure there is never anyone around when they are let off. A work in process!
We haven't seen Toby and Steph for a couple of weeks so they have had no contact with Misty, their Miniature Schnauzer. In fact she has been in doggy hospital for a couple of nights this week with pancreatitis and was very ill but is now home so Toby bought her round on Saturday. Initially there was a lot of snarling and barking but they quickly settled and, at one point, all three were sitting on Toby so actually not too stressful at all. We are hoping that the more they meet the more they will come to like each other so we will keep persevering.
