Foxy walk - the code of conduct

Perhaps some readers have seen previous posts featuring the monthly Aberdeen & Shire fox terrier walk, and would appreciate tips on appropriate etiquette should they care one day to join us.

As ever, I'm happy to help out.

We assemble at 11 am on the last Sunday of the month at the designated meeting point. This month it was the Castle Fraser Estate car park.

Front left to right: Merin, Rupert, Luna, Nobby and Agatha

Greeting one's pals with butt-sniffing enthusiasm is of course acceptable. However, timid newcomers must be treated with polite respect. 

When well away from the parking area and any dangerous traffic, we are generally allowed off the lead and there the real fun begins. 

Don't tell the humans, but between us foxies, there's an unspoken (un-barked?) competition to see who can find the wettest and muddiest spot. My girlfriend/partner in crime Agatha usually wins, with me a close second...

Hmmm. I emerged from today's water fight disappointingly clean...

Later in the walk, before returning to the car park, the humans persist in the delusion that we might all pose nicely for a 'team photo'.

It's bonus points to the first WFT to break ranks. 

At the end of the walk, the humans decide where to meet the next month, and we all keep paws crossed that they chose somewhere with maximum opportunities for terrier mischief and mayhem. 

Why not join us in Haddo Country Park in late October? The good news is there'll be muddy ditches a-plenty...

Better a crown than a cone?

Gail and I both smiled at this photo in Saturday's 'Times'.

We are pleased to read how King Charles appears to be responding well to his cancer treatment. But Gail and I are quite sure that he and our terrier loving Queen Camilla would have preferred to be joining  the Aberdeenshire WFT gang on our muddy tramp around Bin Forest yesterday morning, rather than being stuck in some palace Down South reading get well cards.

Clockwise from front: Nobby, Merin, Agatha, Rupert

Scoring a treat from Anny

Poised for lift off...(the pink boot belongs to baby Margot)

Impressing Agatha with my jumping skills

Waiting for Gail to stop taking photos

Attentive foxies. Left to right: Merin, Nobby, Agatha

Team photo: Rupert, Nobby, Agatha, Jinx, Merin

Living dangerously...?

So Gail has bought herself a cosy new winter coat, and her ten year old dirt-coloured dog walking jacket has been consigned to the Oxfam pile. 

She tells me all her friends have been complimenting her on the purchase, saying what a nice cheery colour orange it is. 

Well I must say I was a bit surprised when I saw she'd made the 'brave' decision to wear this coat for the Aberdeen'n'shire monthly fox terrier walk yesterday. 

It struck me as a high risk strategy but I kept my thoughts to myself. The planned walk was along the muddy riverside track leading to the ruins of Fetternear Bishop's Palace. Maybe Gail would be lucky and none of us fox terriers would run through the puddles and then leap up and leave pawprints on her still pristine outerwear. 

In the event, we foxies (Agatha, Rupert, Merin, Jinx, tall newcomer Otis and myself) were all having such fun rampaging around and jumping all over each other that we more or less let the humans alone.

And the bright new coat remains miraculously pawprint free. For now, at least...

Tough wire-haired fox terriers, tough owners!

The Aberdeen'n'shire Foxie walk, so often the highlight of my month, was scheduled to meet at Balmedie Country Park (a stretch of beach and sand dunes a few miles north of the city) on Sunday the 29th October.

Doubts crept in when Gail looked at the weather forecast on Saturday night. Would anyone really show up with 30 mph (gusting 50 mph) winds blasting straight off the North Sea and bringing heavy rain? 

Come the morning, the rain at least had not arrived but the wind definitely had. While Gail strapped on my red jacket, she also prepared me for disappointment, saying she feared we might be the only ones mad enough to turn out in these ferocious conditions. 

How very, very wrong, she was. 

One by one, vehicles carrying foxies and their hardy humans arrived in the car park. 

Look, here's Merin! And Rupert! And Jinx! And Dougie! And Edmund! And BEST OF ALL Agatha! 

So we set off through the sand dunes to the sea. The tide was high, driven yet higher by the wind and waves. 

The humans deemed the narrow strip of beach too dangerous given the strong possibility of rogue waves and summoned Rupert, Agatha and me back up to relative safety. 

It was all tremendously good fun! For us dogs anyway. 

While we rampaged around the dunes, the humans managed just snatches of conversation between pulling hats and hoods over ears to protect from the sea spray, foam and whistling wind.

"...you have to take them for a walk anyway..."

"...worst period of gales and rain I can remember..."

"...don't want any of them swept away by the waves..."

"...at least the sand's wet so it's not blowing in their eyes..."

"...sorry, I didn't quite catch that..."

"...all this racing up and down the sand dunes will tire them out..."

"...the dogs are having a great time anyway..."

"...should choose somewhere more sheltered for next month..."

Oddly enough, we didn't meet a single other human or dog during our hour long walk in this normally popular spot. 

The WFT pup who didn't get the memo

This is Luna.

She is five months old and I met her for the first time on our monthly Aberdeen'n'shire fox terrier walk last Sunday. 

Luna is indescribably cute, of course, but it appears she didn't inherit the WFT behaviour blueprint.

Luna, being submissive is not part of the job description! 

Really it isn't. Your timid conduct will just invite a terrier pile on...

See, I told you so!

Sadly, my feisty foxy friend Agatha was not present on Sunday to give wee Luna sisterly advice to how to act in an appropriately assertive manner, and as a result us boys had to be kept on our leads for most of the walk. 

Although that didn't stop big bro Rupert and me indulging in a satisfying game of tug of stick at one point.

The traditional end of walk 'team photo' was even more than usually shambolic...

The walk took place in the woodlands near Duff House, and after the others had left Gail asked me to 'pose nicely' in front of the rather grand Georgian mansion, and I duly obliged.

Cruden Bay melee

Wire-haired Fox Terrier Roll Call, Cruden Bay, 26th March 2023:

Nobby - just wants to be your friend

Rupert - known trouble maker, big brother to Nobby

Merin - pretty bandana belies feisty nature

Stan - elder statesman, gentlemanly behaviour

Agatha -  petite, likes to mix it up with the boys

Jinx - a lively and fun wee lass

Edmund - relative newcomer, still finding his paws

A couple of days before the monthly Aberdeen'n'shire Foxie Walk, Gail and I met a couple on horseback, riding along the River Dee. They spotted me and stopped to ask if we were members of the local wire-haired fox terrier group. Gail said yes. It turned out they knew about it from a relative and loved looking at the FaceBook page, and said what a fun group to be part of. 

It is a fun group! Sometimes one takes these things for granted and it's good to be reminded how lucky we are. On Sunday the roll call at Cruden Bay beach numbered seven fox terriers and we all had a blast. (Literally, given the strong wind blowing straight from the Arctic.) Gail says you should be grateful she managed to take the pictures and video below, as she'd left her gloves at home and her not so tiny hands were frozen.