Dog house blues

Our butter wouldn't melt in their mouths puppies are well and truly in the dog house. No joke.

They disgraced themselves by chewing up the new veranda furniture that MT had slaved over making over the Christmas break. Although a bit of sanding, filling and repainting will repair the majority there is no getting away from the fact that there is a bit missing from one of the chairs.

To say that they were not very popular today is an understatement so they've been banished back to their playpen and dog house and their free ranging days are over.

The chewing extravaganza followed an evening of bad behaviour when MT was in charge and I was out living it up with some friends in town. They ran away up the drive and didn't want to come back and then proceeded to fight and chew their leads making it impossible to walk them with any semblance of control. All in all it sounded awful.

If there is any admonishment it has to be mine for leaving them unsupervised to chew on the furniture. I can tell you it's a tight squeeze for three in our little dog house and with the damp and wet it's not pleasant putting up with the doggy smell.

It's not that they haven't played today - they've run riot across the lawn, bounded up and down the newly mown area in the lower area of the garden and investigated the barn during a clearing out operation. It's just that they've not been able to run around the flower beds, hoon around the house and play tag up and down the veranda. It's just not the usual level of independence they've enjoyed in recent weeks.

Whilst we can "blame" Fortnum and Mason the truth is their behaviour is the outcome of that of they carers. Their training regime has been reduced when the visitors were here and since I've been trying to catch up with all my chores they've not had the investment that they need to turn them into disciplined and well behaved pooches.

So our basset cherubs are back in intensive puppy school and banished from the house and veranda until they can behave. They were a little confused about being kept under so much control today and Fortnum was particularly sulky when he went to bed.

Pity he has no idea what awaits in the Basset Bootcamp tomorrow!