Alfie – The Cocker Spaniel

In the many years of operating the kennels we have come across some delightful characters- none moreso than Alfie. Alfie when hes good and Alfred when hes bad. His owners got Alfie to replace the loss of another cocker spaniel who died of old age- Tess who was also a bit of a character.

Alfie when he comes in surveys the other occupants with disdain- inspects his pen throughly and looks in his bed to make sure it is ready for his occupancy then having checked the water supply to make sure its up to his standards plants his little rotund bottom in his bed and we dont hear from him until walktime. Now if for some reason the bed isn’t made up (it is a fairly large plastic dogbed with a mattress and two blankets) i.e. the two blankets aren’t there yet- wobetide the person on kennel duty- Alfie will stand and grizzle until the two blankets are placed- of course supervising the whole action- then jump in the bed with a look that only dog owners understand.

The reason I find him worth writing about is the extraordinary way he dealt with what he perceived as a problem. Alfies owners periodically had a house sitter- a competent lass- but for whatever reason Alfie had decided this particular day that he definately wasn’t going home with her. I had loaded him into the back of her hatchback -walked away-looked back to see to my amazement Alfred (definately Alfred) out of the hatchback lying on his back on the ground with his legs in the air defying the housesitter to get his collar by snapping the air as she tried. I marched over and told him to get up and he just lay there with his legs in the air and a mutinous look on his face and when I tried to grab his collar he snapped at me also. The only answer was to loop his head with some difficulty-pull him up and bundle him back into the hatchback. I might add that he didn’t try and snap once I had him right way up- but what got me was the way he had thought it through -lying on his back he was nigh on impossible to deal with and normally that is a submissive pose from a dog not an attacking pose.What made it more remarkable is that Alfie isn’t snappy or difficult normally.Whats more it was yet another instance that left us pondering just who are the dumb animals on this planet