It feels like it has been a very busy week. Some ups and downs but I think that things are improving slowly.

The week did not start off well when we decided to go to Kineill for our Monday evening walk. We normally see people walking with and without dogs. This time there were kids with a motorbike (there are big signs saying no bikes). Not one of these tiny things but a full off road trials bike. When we arrived they were up near the car park and driving up and down the first section of grass so we kept the dogs on the lead until we were further along. Unfortunately not long after we had let Tara off one of them came riding up the path, it did wind Tara up but she kept out of the way. Unfortunately once it was passed us she decided that she would have a go at Zak as she was so wound up. We put her back on the lead and decided to let him have a run on the far bit of grass but he was also too wound up and kept being grabby and charging at Tara. I put him back on the lead and we went up the path by the big pond. Again to be passed by a different kid riding the bike along the narrow path. I did say that they should not be riding bikes in the park, but I just got that who cares look as he revved it away. So the rest of the walk was not fun it seemed whichever bit of the park we went to one of the kids came past on the bike. They shouldn’t be riding it there but the local police don’t care and none of the park people are there on an evening. So there is nothing we can do apart from avoid the place. So we went home wet and all wound up.

Wednesday was dog training again, this time Graham took Zak and I had Tara. I definitely think that I got the easy job. She is so good at the recall that I was having her sit for up to 40 seconds before calling her back. I will let Graham tell you how Zak got on.

Dog training is split into two halves. The more experienced dogs work at one end of the whole, the newbies at the other. Zak and I started with walking at heel, which worked fine while he couldn't see Claire and Tara. As soon as he saw them, he wanted to join them. After that, Zak was supposed to sit quietly while I walked round him. The sit was fine, but as soon as I started to walk out of sight, Zak jumped up and followed. We tried and tried, but I never got more than a third of the way round. Recalls suffered a similar problem - keeping Zak's bum on the floor long enough to issue a command. Zak seems eager to please, but not to have sussed that we'd be really pleased if he'd do what he was told. Still, it shows just how far Tara's training has come on.

We had a good walk on Thursday evening at the community woodland. There is a field at the end that we let them have a run in. Usually they have a run separately and then we let them play together. Normally the dogs play very rough and we grab one or other to break up the game before it gets too rough before putting them back on the lead. This time we did a recall and grabbed Tara, with their minds now on us we did the recall fine and then we let them play again. This time they were tired and both went and did their own thing without pestering each other. As we were walking home we met some of the local children who wanted to ask loads of questions about the dogs. After they had overcome their initial worry at the size of them (mainly Tara) they made a fuss of the dogs. Zak thought he was in heaven. He loves attention especially from children, even when they play with his tail.

Things got a bit strange later. As we walked up the path towards the poop bin there was a scruffy, strange looking cat sat not far from it. I held the dogs while Graham went to the bin to get rid of our bags. It miowed at Graham in a pitiful way and we were just discussing whether Graham should go and look at it in case it was hurt when Tara decided she should. She managed to slip her collar and went up to it, so it hissed at her. So she backed off and then went for another look while trying to keep out of Grahams way so he couldn’t get hold of her. It hissed again so she woofed at it. Tara of course likes cats and was not sure why this one was hissing at her. It went through the fence into a garden and Graham managed to get Tara back. When Graham went for a proper look it turned up with a friend, wearing the same collar and in perfect condition, so we can only presume that it wasn’t a stray but just old and skinny. Zak of course wondered what the fuss was all about.

On Friday we had our friend Mags round for dinner. She is one of the few people that the dogs get really over exited at seeing. It was quite difficult to stop them jumping up at their at first though they did calm down quickly. They were both very good during dinner and waited patiently until we had eaten. When we went for our walk they were a bit more of a pest. Every 2 minutes Zak wanted to run up to Mags to say hi, which made walking a bit difficult. Tara just got over exited and pulled the whole way.

We had no particular plans for Saturday so we headed down to Blackness for a walk in the woods. The tide was out so we decided to start the walk on the beach. It was a very bad start with both dogs misbehaving and barrelling into me. We put them both on the lead, but they then wouldn’t walk without pulling. We got strict and made them walk to heel all the way along. When we got to the grass we tried letting them both off for a run, but again they got rough very quickly, this time it was Zak who instigated it so we had to put him back on the lead.

Once we were up in the woods Tara was behaving well off the lead and I commented to Graham that it had been my plan to let Zak stay off the lead once the dogs had played. But with the rough behaviour we had not managed that. As he was walking nicely and not in any way exited we decided to try gently letting him off as we were walking along. It was great he just trotted along sniffing at things, not going too far and not wanting to play rough with Tara. Graham and I kept wondering if it was really happening. We did about a third of the walk like that with both dogs behaving well. We then did a recall and put him back on the lead. We really did not want to push our luck and we were about to get to the busier part of the walk and I am still not sure what he would do when meeting other dogs or people. We were exceptionally pleased though that it went so well.

As the weather was nice we spent the afternoon gardening. The dogs still see the garden as somewhere that they can be rough with each other and they both had a couple of timeouts. It was better than it has been, so we managed to get some gardening done as well.

On Sunday it was the GAL Edinburgh walk, this is the first one that we have been able to make. It rained, quite a lot. Though given it rained at home as well we could have been wet and miserable on our own or wet and chatty in Edinburgh. It was also good for Zak to be around the other dogs. Zak was reasonably good, a bit of pulling when he was at the back and when he wanted to see people was about all. Tara started of not very good, pulling and growling at dogs if I made a fuss of them. This is her newest escapade. She settled down later though and even came strait back when she slipped out of her collar. It was very nice to see so many people despite the weather.

Late on when we were all relaxing, Zak was on his bed and Cisco came up to share it with him. I thought I would show you a picture as it was very sweet.

Well I haven't posted much in the last couple of weeks and in truth there hasn't been much to tell. Things have been going along fine, wet Edinburgh walks, nice walks on the beach with Nora and her dogs. Zak's recall had improved enough that he was getting off the lead on most walks.

Unfortunately Saturday (7th October) turned out to be much more eventful than we expected. We had signed up to do the can collecting at M&S and been asked to do 12-3. So we all got up early so we could give the dogs a good walk before they had to stand around.

Having remembered that there is quite a nice walk along the canal from Port Dundas to Firhill and parking that is free we walked the dogs round the block at home and then headed into Glasgow. After a few problems finding somewhere to park we got up to the canal and let Tara off the lead. We decided to keep Zak on the lead as there were several joggers and cyclists and given he likes to go say hi to people we thought it might cause problems. He also seemed happy to wander around on the lead sniffing. Tara was good and the only worrying moment was when she decided that the reeds in the canal could be stood on and sank straight through. Not sure who got the bigger fright her or us, but she quickly jumped back out again.

Once the dogs had had their walk we headed down through town to meet up with the other people doing the collecting. Both dogs behaved very well with the number of people and crossing busy roads. There was a bit of overexcitedness when we arrived as they both wanted to see all the other dogs. Having calmed them down and had a chat with people, we put down their blanket and braved the rush of people who wanted to see Tara. Zak also got plenty of interest and was a little star. He made friends with a guy in a wheelchair who must have come back about 4 times to say hi to Zak and by the end as soon as he heard the guys voice Zak would bounce up to lick his hands and have a fuss. There were loads of kids (Tara seems to be a magnet for them because of her size) all poking at the dogs and both of them took it in their stride. We even had a toddler in a buggy who pulled Zak's whiskers. Zak stood there for a while and when he had had enough of that he just moved back out of reach. We met loads of people and all had a great time. The dogs eventually got to the point where they were just lying on the blanket trying to ignore people, though they were good about being fussed anyway. We decided at that point that as it was nearing the end of our shift that it was time to go. So a bit later we managed to escape, well you can't just walk away when people are taking to you.

The walk back through town was fine and George square was useful for a call of nature break. Graham and the dogs waited for a while outside John Lewis so I could nip in and buy some bits and pieces. Once back at the car we headed over to Graham's parents for a visit, much to the delight of his niece and nephew who were also visiting. The dogs were exhausted and quite content to lie in the middle of the floor being stroked. They were not as sure about being shut out of the dining room while we ate, but we made it up to them with the bits of chicken that the kids had left.

We left for home reasonably late and at points I wondered if we had forgotten the dogs, they were so quiet in the car. Once home they both flopped onto beds. I sat next to Zak stroking his face and telling him how proud of him I was. Unfortunately that was when it all went wrong and he bit me on the hand that was stroking him. There wasn't even enough warning for me to react. In retrospect I think that the signs had been there. The nose twitching was probably a lip curl rather than the wuffle that I took it for. I called for Graham who was in the kitchen while trying to not get blood on things and inspect my hand. Zak just laid there looking scared. Graham put him for a timeout and found me a towel to stop the blood. Thankfully it was not a long cut and had missed anything vital. I managed to stop the bleeding which was a relief (I have a condition that stops the blood clotting properly and can make cuts worse than they should be). Graham got Tara calmed down and found me the first aid stuff that I needed and I strapped a pad on my hand. Mainly at this point all I could feel was shock as it was so without warning and so unexpected. We made sure that Tara knew that she wasn't in trouble as she was very wound up as well. Though I think that being in the kitchen she had little idea of what had happened, which may be just as well as she can be quite protective.

Much discussion and tears ensued as we tried to figure out what had happened and why, and what we should do. One possibility was that Zak had a sore patch and I had hurt him sparking his fear aggression. This also seemed out of character as I have now treated a couple of sore patches on him without problem. Another possibility was that he was so tired that he had just wanted left alone. Although Graham had been bitten previously that was over food and easy to deal with and came with warning signs. This time we had a dog that had bitten with no or little warning and no obvious reason.

Eventually Graham let Zak out and I ignored him. After a while Graham put a cautious hand close to see if Zak was likely to bite again. Zak just looked worried. Graham stroked his nose the same way I had and Zak flinched, especially when Graham touched the spot just between his eyes, so maybe there was a sore spot. Most of the flinches appeared to be more that Zak was expecting to be hit for what he had done.

As it was late we walked the dogs and went to bed. I couldn't sleep though and kept picturing the toddler who had pulled Zak's whiskers and then Zak biting me. If he had done it to someone during the day it would have terrible. But we were so happy to let him see people as he has always been so good and friendly.

On Sunday Zak was still worried that something bad was going to happen. He looked nervous when either of us went near him. Especially me. He would lay there and shake and pull scared faces. I stroked him carefully watching for warning signs and trying to re-assure him that it was OK. I was very aware that while he is scared he is more likely to snap. We decided that after lunch we would phone Carole who was advising us on Zak and ask her opinion of things. Our problem is that if we can work out what made him bite we can fix it. If he is biting without warning this may continue to happen and we don't think that we can continue to have a dog that may bite us or someone else. All of this is proving to be very difficult and quite heartbreaking as we did appear to be doing so well with him.

We took the dogs for a walk a Beecraigs and Zak, apart from spending a lot of time looking nervous, seemed to be back to the normal dog of the previous week. Tara was a monster as she was picking up on our stress (something we have seen before), and dragged Graham the whole time she was on the lead, tried to bully Zak when he was off the lead and growled at a puppy that Graham made a fuss of. The rest of the day was quiet with the dogs sleeping and Zak still looking nervous. It is like we have gone back to stage one with him in terms of fear.

We did not manage to get in touch with Carole so later in the day we decided to call Dave and ask his advice. Dave is going to speak to Viv and we will arrange to see to her as we do feel a bit out of our depth with this. We could hand Zak back at this point but I feel that if we can just find out why he is doing this we can stop it happening. I don't want to give him up without feeling that we had covered every option, though in the back of my mind I do know that it may come to that.

You may have realised by my ramblings that I am very stressed by the whole thing and still not quite sure what to do. The one bright spot is that Zak does know that he should not bite and snap. Later when we fed them we put some food scraps in their bowls with their dinner (something we do often). Zak decided that raw beef was not to his liking. Tara on the other hand loves it. Zak started picking it out of the bowl and dropping it on the floor at his feet. Tara then tried to steal a bit and he snapped at her, again without warning and quite aggressively. Tara jumped back and didn't push it as she knows that she is not to touch his food. Zak on the other hand shot out of the kitchen and laid on the bed in the living room cowering. Just as if he expected something bad to happen.

As if all this upheaval wasn't enough later Zak went to lay down and caught himself on the drawer knob on the sideboard. It was hard enough to pull the drawer front off and we rushed to see if he was hurt. Thankfully he seemed fine and let us inspect him for sore bits. The rest of the night passed without incident and we tried to make both dogs feel secure and loved.

This morning Zak was looking happier and came to have his morning cuddle with me. He still looks worried when I stroke his face but seems to be calmer.

Just a little update today as Graham took Zak to the vets to have his teeth looked at. It turns out that he has a burst abscess in the root of one of his front teeth. So we now have an explanation for Saturdays behaviour. I feel a bit guilty that I had not spotted it sooner. Every time he was rubbing his head we had a look in his mouth at the point where he was rubbing but this is actually some distance from the problem area. He goes in for treatment on Tuesday, probably having that tooth removed, and the rest cleaned and checked. Until then he's on anti-biotics, twice a day. Feeding dogs pills never fun, though we made a pate ball and gave the first one that way which went down very easily.

It seems odd to think of a sore mouth to be good news, but it does indicate a definite cause of the behavior so we can start to deal with it. Zak still needs a lot of work, getting him to trust and communicate with us better, but this now seems much more achievable than a few days ago.

My hand is also healing fine so all of your good thoughts have been helping.

Claire