Our boys are back

Whilst we headed off for our holiday to Golden Bay, our boys - Fortnum and Mason - were back home with their mother. Yes, their real one - she's called Abbie.

By all accounts they've been very well behaved. They seem to have left this behaviour in Woodville and started a new terrorist style of retalliation here at home. If you're wondering what this might look like I wish I could post a photograph but they are dashing around like puppies demented that it's almost impossible to capture them on the camera.

So what's changed in our boys? Well first of all they went away babies and have come back smelly teenagers. They smelt like dogs (or rather I should say they smelt like other people's dogs). They have become surly and petulant and go out of their ways to ignor or give a cursory response.

They house training seems to have gone completely to pot as they leave me a pile of messages in the morning. This is one of the most frustrating things as they never "soiled" their room overnight when they were puppies.

They have also become much more snappy and grumpy with each other - less tolerant of each other and down right agressive and possessive. This has resulted in a few fisticuffs which are not pleasant but tend to be shortlived with no winner either side.

It's been hard work sometimes but to be fair to them, they are still only babies and have had their routine changed. Although they are definitely being friendly (especially around feeding time) they are also trying to prove that they will pay me back for leaving them.

Little do they know that the dog trainer is back next week to see if we can work on some particularly annoying behaviour and they are booked with the vets to have the snip to see if we can nip this aggression early on. Fortnum might need to have a slightly bigger operation as he's only got one, well you know what I mean, and if this doesn't drop it can be dangerous so he'll be feeling particularly sore and grumpy I am sure.

Hopefully they will start to be more like their normal selves again soon and we can re-establish total domestic harmony. If not, it's only two hours to Woodville where I am sure that they will be welcomed back with open arms.