Early teens, new job, climbing - Nurhan

Nurhan's take:

This is probably going to be a rare sight soon... Puppies pee like this, tail goes up and they don't really care where they are, middle of dual carriage way... fair game... tail goes up and they stop whilst they pee...

Kin's earlier efforts to cock a leg,  invariably ended with him lying on the ground, pretending that he meant to end there. Indeed he's somewhat early for cocking his leg... but he's began... as he's began to ignore commands... at slightly under six months he's tooooooo young for both these behaviours; but doesn't understand when I point this out to him.

Now when I picked Kin up, I  started to work part time for the companies that I was employed by ( www.sway.no & www.swayturbine.com {both great ideas with a lot of potential}).Now both these companies are based in Bergen, so I worked some of the week from a home office and the rest in Bergen; which involved me taking a plane/car/boat, most weeks from Stavanger to Bergen, and for various reasons I didn't want to move to Bergen (the wettest place in Norway)

This is a shop in Bergen that repairs umbrellas... get the idea... (to be fair the whole west coast of Norway tends to be wet because of the Gulf Stream, moist air... we're a long way North without the Gulf Stream it'd be WAC (Wicked Assed Cold) here. Bergen town is spread along a strip surrounded by hills, which means when the clouds roll in, the hills slow them down and often it rains in Bergen. Stavanger is flatter (relative term in Norway), and it's generally winder in Stavanger then Bergen).

I also needed to be at home for some time with my new pup... so since the eighth of March I haven't been working (resigned my job(s) in Bergen). On Monday I start a new position which means that I'll be out the house for close on ten hours a day. One of my neighbours will come in and see/feed Kin during lunchtime so we'll see how this goes.

Now he's getting bigger, more folk are scared of him. Had first jogger scream at me today... Yes he 'should' be on the lead but he's just come out of a lake... that's why he's wet. People get sooooo nasty about it. Also it's a bit pointless trying to teach your dog commands whilst he's on a lead... Of course folk are scared of dogs when they don't interact with them and therefore don't understand their motivation. A lot of the time I don't really like people, huge generalisation but so often folk can't walk the length of themselves to see that there might be a different point of view. The leash law is an ffffing stupid law that does little to protect the public from 95% of dogs but does make the none dog public believe that dogs are scary and thus must be kept on leads, and so a new generation of folk become scared of dogs as if they weren't dangerous why would they be on leads. Many people have no concept of living in harmony with nature... why should we... we've conquered it! Bup-BRRRRRRRRRRRRB thank you for playing... We (humans) will either learn to live more holistically or we will die out... (And for the record I understand that folk can be scared of even friendly dogs, and I endeavour to ensure that my dog doesn't scare or inconvenience other folk, but we have a right to live as well. Let your dog off the lead and see how he leaps, bounds, and generally shows you how happy he is just to be... he can't do this on a lead... having a dog on the lead all the time is cruel).

As part of trying to take him with me to as many of the things that I do as possible, last Thursday he came climbing... or more specifically he watched without any real enthusiasm for these new antics...

Here he is on the short walk into the crag.

The second black blur to the left of D in the trees is Kin, being un-impressed by my concept of 'togetherness'. But I think that it's better to bring him then leave him alone. Whilst I haven't been working we spend almost all the time together, but as of next week this will change so I want him used to doing things that I like to do. {And yes I'm aware that the crab is the wrong way around on the sling in the above picture... It was the correct way around when placed but on pulling rope up through it for second to climb it rotated 180 degrees, which means if you fell on it, you stand the chance of the rope falling across the gate and opening the crab - thought I'd mention it as some smart a_sed bar-steward would doubtless pull me up on it...}

Here's Susana trying to placate him whilst I'm packing the climbing gear back into a rucksack. Prior to her assistance he was taking flying leaps towards me, which wasn't a great idea for lead, collar, tree, and especially the little chap's neck.

Years ago I used to climb with a chap called Berty in Scotland and we used to take his dog, Kim, with us. She could solo up to Diff standard and then often had to be rescued... One time climbing on the Cobbler we heard shouts, looked down and there was Kim going through other climbers rucksacks looking for food... Berties comment at the time was: "glad that's not my dog!" Kin's first outing was more successful than this although he didn't try climbing!

Back in the garden where he can get really comfy!