Well, here he is. I've been asked to post a recent picture of the Jaxster. Here he is after his morning swim and we play on the meadow at our local country park to help dry him off before heading home.

He's now 1 yr 10 mths and has settled down a good deal in the last month or so. He's still 'in tact' and doesn't half show it!

We've going to keep is coat shorter. He's due back at the groomers for a clip in two weeks (last full clip was early April, so it looks like 3x a year rather than 2x a year. We get his paws trimmed monthly to get round the seed problem we had last summer (see here, here, here and here). We've only had one real incident this summer when I stupidly walked him on the fen the other week and then spent most of the evening pulling the offending grass seeds out of his coat!

Jax's new look

It was difficult to know when to give Jax his next hair cut, but we bit the bullet and had him trimmed down so that he'll be back to his shaggy best come mid-winter. Its amazing just how different he looks cropped, and just how light he is now compared to his first close shave eight months ago.

Jax at 1!

A birthday portrait of the Jaxmeister.

Jax loves to swim now. During the summer it he was in the lake at Crown Lakes every morning. Now its autumn he wants to swim less which is fine cos it takes him an age to dry!

After his swim he likes to chew a stick.

A great wet look!

Jax in full pelt!

Jax's training is going really well. We're still going weekly to Talking Dogs training class. We're at level 1 coming on level 2 with a bunch of other critters. I'll try and get some snaps of the other dogs in his class soon.

He's still eating his Orijen food, now on adult mix of course, and mixed in with some James Wellbeloved. He still loves his natures:menu treats but for training we mix these with cheese - he likes a bit of cheese!

Viva Espania!

Viva Espania! Jax's team won! Pedro de Agua Espanols all over the land will be barking their joy at their home nation winning the football World Cup and triumphing over the disgraceful Dutch.

Carles Puyol - of Barcelona and Spain - Jax's favourite player, cos as he rightly points out, there is surely some SWD in him somewhere with a thatch like that!

Evidence!

The two bloodied seeds on the right were extracted from Jax's paws by our vet last weekend. They go right in. these two were buried so the vet had to dig around in each wound to find them. I've been frequently pulling seeds out of wounds which I can just see the tips of sticking out of the open wound. I've noticed the wounds which hold seeds for the vet to get ooze whereas wounds containing no seeds just bleed.

The three seeds on the left I pulled from his paws after his walk this morning. Before we had his paws shorn I would be pulling out 3-4 times as many per walk and they were a lot more difficult to see!

Short-lived relief?

Having had Jax's paws shorn yesterday we've now had our first day without a new incident in a week! Hoorraayy! I checked his paws last thing last night and no new seeds. I checked again this morning and again nothing. He's stopped limping too which is clearly a sign his current wounds are on the mend. But only short-lived relief I expect!

The vet told me that it really is down to the individual dog rather than the breed whether they suffer with seeds or not. She gave an example of two cockers from the same litter, one has never had an embedded seed and the other was like Jax, always getting them and ending up with her.

I spoke to our breeder yesterday too and she has never had any problems with her SWDs. So I'm inclined to agree with the vet. Individual dog and individual circumstances. Just sods law its us!

Grass seed hell continues

So, it was back to the vets on Saturday and two more extractions (again under sedation) and another vet's bill!

He's at the groomers again this morning to have his feet shawn. I can hear SWD purists cringe as I type, but there is no other option.

We've identified our garden itself is a big risk - semi wild, and even the mown areas are just mown rank grass, nit nice neat laid lawn! And we are surrounded, quite literally, by tall grasses. When I was removing as much tall grass species from the garden as possible yday, I was watching grass seeds being blown in to the garden from the adjacent field!