Bråstein & Baths... Nurhan

Today Kin and I were at Bråstein:

And before anyone thinks that Kin has grown, and the temperature has strayed significantly above freezing, this is Karma, & I taken (by Pål Tunge) in August 2008. Sometimes folk had difficulty passing Karma on paths... not sure why...

Kin and I stood at this corner today meeting, greeting, and socialising. Now Karma and I went regularly to Bråstein, and today Kin and I met many folk who knew Karma. Atlas's owner (he's a lovely Leonberger) made a fuss of Kin and welcomed him, (in fact most people made a fuss over him). The thing I have in common with these folk is our dogs, and there was genuine warmth as folk stopped to talk.

We met a ten year old Leonberger, who was lovely, with an older couple, I can only imagine what they are feeling as their loved one's life draws to an inevitable conclusion; they were enjoying the time they had, which is all any of us can do.

Kin and I are getting on well. Lot's of contact and this week he comes back to me. Here he is meeting two St Bernards, (he met three in all this trip... no Newfies yet...).

We even managed to walk all the way back from this corner to the car.

Back at home I'd decided it was bath time... Now the main suggestion that I'd had for making bath time better for the little chap, was, to sing to him... I was somewhat sceptical to this suggestion and opted for a tub of roast beef:

I also opted to have water in the bath, wear shorts and get in with him...

I don't think that he found the singing particularly reassuring, however he was highly appreciative of the roast beef!

This week the bath went well, he was a lot happier.

Now to see if I could use the same trick with the air dryer...

Started with the dryer, him running to get the roast beef then running away. Then to calm things down a bit we used towels:

and then we went back to the air dryer...

All in all, substantially more successful than last week's attempt.

According to my scales of dubious accuracy, Kin weighs the same this week as he did last Sunday, 11 kgs.

Shampoo used is (and I'm guessing this has to be an American brand) Griminator! The folk who run Hund1 (http://www.hund1.no/) also have Newfies. Now my breeder recommended Hund1 and the shampoo 'Emerald Black'. I rang Hund1 and they said that they tend to use Griminator as it's effect tended to be longer lasting and this is the brand they tend to sell most of to Newfie owners... Now years ago when Xo would get wet, black would run from his coat owing to the Shampoo that Pål used to use on him, and their were allegations of dog dyeing! So Griminator is what Kin and I are using (and judging by the size of the bottle, will be using for the next four years!).