Suffering as I am from withdrawal symptoms, I have been helping my pal Penny out with her labrador Molly. Penny suffers from back trouble, which restricts how far she can go, and Molly is a very strong dog who has a mind of her own. Recently, Penny's back has been particularly bad, and this has coincided with a series of loud (and I mean loud) explosions from the military area down at Shoeburyness. Molly's reaction to this is to go into panic mode and to try to hide somewhere out the way. The recent thunderstorms haven't helped. So Penny hasn't been able to take Molly out or walks.
Anyway, I went to visit Penny today with a load of dog food that's surplus to requirements, and to take Molly for a walk. To begin with things were fine, but Molly seemed to have a massive aversion to going into the local park. She deliberately turned away from it. I had already decided that I wouldn't let Molly off the lead, but the park is where the poo bins are, so I literally dragged her into the park and tried to get her to walk around. I indulged in a little bribery, but once she had had her treat she was digging her heels, and everything else, in. Her resistance was far from useless, so once she was empty we returned to her house. Even that wasn't easy because she dug her heels in again.
Morphy used to have a good old panic at firework time, but I don't remember him ever worrying about thunder. We live a couple of miles further away form the Shoebury ranges, so explosions from there were less of an issue for us.
