On Saturday we walked to a beach near Morvah. The cliff path is narrow and crumbling. Snoz pulls a lot when walking down hill and she nearly broke my neck trying to jump into a stream near the bottom of the path (bad dog!) I felt the beach was secure enough to let her off her lead and she was pretty good. Unfortunately, a little yappy dog (with ineffective clueless owners) chased her the whole length of the beach out of my sight which prompted me to get her back on leash as soon as she came back to me.
I have no idea what we were doing in this photo - I hope this is not what I look like ordinarily when I'm running...
Unfortunately, Saturday night did not go to plan. My parents returned from a party late which whipped Snoz into a frenzy (she had been sleeping just fine on a sofa). She took about an hour to calm down again. Then my little sister got back from a party even later and again Snoz was beside herself. I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to make meeting new people a calm situation but Snoz still has trouble with this.
On Sunday I decided it would be a good idea to really tire Snoz out so that she would sleep better. We decided to do an 8 mile walk along the cliffs around Chun Quoit, Pendeen Watch and Botallack in the far West of Cornwall. The walk winds up through wild moorland, then climbs up a slightly hectic stretch of coastline and through the ancient landscape of mines that bought wealth to the area some 150 years ago.
Snoz did well and didn't run out of energy, I got a little worried she was overheating though and ended up putting suncream all over her nose (which has gone very pink recently). She was a good girl during our tea shop break, a little arts cafe in Morvah.
Beam me up Scotty!
A view of the beach. A ship wreck years ago left jagged metal spikes in the sand so visitors are warned to take care when walking barefoot. Metal that people have collected is piled up on the cliff edge.
Again, sadly, Sunday night did not go as planned. I went to bed with one very tired little dog snuggled up against me only to be woken up 2 hours later by her whining and pawing frantically at the bedroom door. My sister returned from another party at 2am, Snoz, of course, just had to say hello and then in her excitement had to pee, and then eat some food...and then have a drink...and then pee again (at this point I was ready to lock her in the shed for the night!) I ended up making her a makeshift bed on the floor which she eventually settled into at around 3:30am...
Today, bank holiday Monday, we were both a bit tired and decided to have a lazy beach day. Praa Sands has always kept the far end of the beach dog friendly year round and so we set out with our bikinis ready for a relaxing day. However, to our surprise, the entire beach is now dog free! There are rude signs up everywhere banning dogs between 7am and 7pm and a dog warden sitting up with the Lifeguards like a spider, pouncing on unsuspecting elderly people and slapping them with fines. Considering the beach is huge (see photo below) this annoyed me somewhat...
Especially annoying as 98% of all tourists sit at the other end of the beach near their cars and the cafes and leave all their rubbish on the beach, (a few years ago whilst working in one of the beach cafes I found a huge meat knife buried upright in the sand) whereas 98% of dog walkers pick up after their dogs and walk the cliffs to the far end anyway.
Instead then, we walked the cliffs (about 3 quarters of a mile) over and down to Rinsey Bay (which is still dog friendly year round). Visitors should be vigilant of adders along this path as many dogs are lost each year to adder bites and the hot ferny cliffs are among their favourite places to sunbathe.
Just as an aside, these 'Euroasian' dogs were the most amazing (and well behaved) dogs we've met so far! I think they may almost have been as beautiful as Snoz!
This weekend Snoz has sampled all the sofas at my parents house and tried all the beds too.
These two proved to be her favourites.
(Snoz is not a sesame, her black collar ran black ink into her chest after she went swimming and has stained her fur a dirty green/gray colour - no amount of soap will get it out!)
Although we did have a great time, Snoz has been pretty hard work this weekend. I'm hoping to take her out of her comfort zone more often as this weekend has really highlighted to me how insecure she gets in new environments.
I could do with another 3 day break to get over this one!
