Tales from The Shire

stepuptothepl8 wrote: »

How lovely that you have a rescue collie :-) so do we.. she's still anxious, but we have coping strategies. She has a crate, and if men (one of her triggers) are visiting we tend to pop her in there, or the car - she loves the car. She hates eye contact, so we tell visitors to ignore her completely, and she also hates sudden movements so everything has to be gentle and slow. With us, she is a loving, obedient, soppy girl. With strangers I still wouldn't trust her. And we've had her a long time!!
Good luck with yours - pic please!

FDawg is getting a little better every day. I'm hoping he just needs patience and training.

porgiegeorgie wrote: »

Aww lovely news about the dog ^_^
Pets are family so you can't really put a price on them, no need to worry about not being MSE!

Good job PG - I'm too scared to look at the costs so far.

bexster1975 wrote: »

Ah Fortune, you have not met my OH. Some of your cons list sound quite familiar too :whistle:

I'd like to clarify he has not declared an unhealthy interest in cows or sheep to my knowledge

Bexster

I'm very glad to hear that Bex :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Fortune x

Yes, my life is still revolving around FDawg. He finally did a 'before bed' wee in the right place last night which I was ridiculously pleased about

We did some training after his walk and he now knows 'sit' and 'bed' really well, 'down' and 'stay' a bit and I've just introduced him to 'stand' which he finds very puzzling. He sits and waits while I put his dinner down and is also standing nicely to be brushed.

There was some barking and growling in the night which could have been attention seeking, play or alerting me to something. Our bedroom is above the kitchen where he sleeps so one 'Quiet' command was all that was needed to quiet him down.

Mr F comes home today so he's going to help with training FDawg to answer the door and greet visitors.

I tried a different technique with FDawg whilst walking him this morning and it seemed to work better in making him less interested in the livestock. It may be that he finds the cows a threat. It's something I really need to address along with establishing physical boundaries to his domain so I'm going to get some professional help. I've found someone local who is an ex-police dog trainer and have sent him an email. Once we've got the basics right with him I can think about taking him to classes. More spending but I think it's essential.

Today's priority - bath FDawg :T Although the weather is worsening so I might have to play it by ear.

I am a dog-bore already :rotfl: In other news...

A previous employer has contacted me about my defined salary pension scheme to offer me an enhanced transfer value. It doesn't look lucrative enough to compensate for what I'd lose but they are providing free financial advice so I'm going to look into it. I am planning to take my pension early so we can use the lump sum to OP, however, I'll need to balance this with potential future needs so some free financial advice would be good.

I've come to a standstill on unpacking and clearing the annex so will be putting my to do list to work this week.

Might have to change my flipflops for socks and slippers soon - my feet are cold :snow_laug I'm already in my big cardi :rotfl:

Fortune x

badmemory wrote: »

Just delurking to tell you something I'm sure you already know. Make sure the financial advisor is an independent financial advisor & the only reason they offer this is to save them money. Sorry! I've been reading the pension forum too much!

Thanks BM. Excellent advice. I used to work for a pensions/FA company so feel ok about making a decision. What I really need are the figures for the final salary scheme - value, lump sums, reductions for early retirement, etc for each year so I can make a proper comparison.

Fortune x