Dogs Make Great Pets. The Adventures of Sassie the Super Dog

She is you know! My 3 year old cocker spaniel/king charles cavalier cross named Sassie is super special to me, so I guess that makes her 'super'.

Sassie came to be our family pet quite by accident, I was actually at a local pet store purchasing a fish tank and there she was playing happily with her brother, both of them pure white fluff balls and extremely cute! As my daughter was with me she was instantly taken by both pups. "We have to buy them, look at them, they are gorgeous" she said as she looked at me with her own 'puppy dog' eyes.

So that afternoon we purchased not only a marine fish tank but Sassie as well. Now, Sassie and I have weekly adventures on our many walks and Sassie meets up with her many dog friends whilst I socialise with their owners.

There are so many stories I could recount of Sassie's adventures but one in particular is quite amazing and is mentioned quite often whenever we meet up with friends.

It was a particularly warm August morning and Sassie had her full coat (we clip her every 3 months for her own safety). I say safety because she has a thick, rich coat which sheds easily and if my husband finds any more dog hair around the house Sassie will be in huge trouble. Anyway, I digress.

We started our walk as usual this particular morning and headed down towards the river. The breeze was still quite calm but was pleasantly cooling considering it was already 18 degrees celcius on a winter's morning. Sassie, as usual, was walking ahead of me (I take her off the leash once we reach the river and park) and was happily sniffing away not really watching where she was going. I saw she was heading for some bushes on the water's edge and called her. She obviously didn't hear me because she went head first into them and yelped loudly.

I ran down to help, pulling her out to find her half covered in mud, bindies and burrs. Now remember she had a full coat so it was going to be quite a job to clean her up. Although, on the bright side, she hadn't hurt herself.

Keeping her still (or I tried anyway) I removed as many of the bindies and burrs as she allowed me to and the rest just had to wait until I was able to get her home and into the bath. So we kept walking. The next thing I know she throws herself into the water, the tide wasn't very high so she was still able to walk through the slush and mud. This meant more mud on her coat!

What she was after was a pelican that was wading close to the bank and it had not seen Sassie. Incredibly Sassie was able to get quite close and I thought the pelican would just glide away from her but I guess this fellow was as curious about Sassie as she was of the pelican. If only I had taken my camera that day.

Calling Sassie to come back to shore (I thought the pelican might peck at her) she didn't respond quickly enough and the pelican started to take flight towards Sassie. Well then it started... Sassie began barking at the top of her lungs and, to my horror, the pelican turned and swooped over her. Are pelicans normally aggressive? Well this one certainly was!

I had to get Sassie out of the water and away from danger, so I yelled her name, whistled as loud as I could until eventually she came bounding out of the water and the pelican took flight in the opposite direction. As muddy as she was I gave her the biggest hug, after all, she was just a pup, still only 1 year old.

Well after that little bit of excitement we continued walking and met up with two of her little friends, 'Jazz' and 'Coco'. The dogs played happily whilst we talked. The next thing I know Sassie is yelping and jumping up for me to pick her up. A large dalmatian had come bounding along to play with our dogs and Sassie was so scared by him she came looking for me.

We all commented with a laugh that Sassie was ready to take on a pelican but was spooked by a dog, one of her own species!

"Well, that's because she's a 'super dog', just not as super as she thinks she is." We all laughed.

Most people who own dogs are very responsible and enjoy keeping themselves and their dogs fit by taking regular walks. No matter where you live there should be a safe area where you are able to take dogs for walks.

What can make these walks quite unpleasant is when you have to walk past dog poop which irresponsible dog owners (and their dogs) have left behind. Not only is it unsightly (and quite smelly at times) some dogs (Sassie in particular) like to roll in the stuff! Ugh! As I mentioned earlier, Sassie has a long, thick coat and you should try getting smelly, sticky dog poop off it.

Apparently the reason dogs roll in smelly stuff; rubbish, poop or otherwise, is because they have an ancient inbuilt desire to ward off predators by camouflaging their own smell. Sassie's desire must be quite urgent because she has rolled too many times in crap she shouldn't have. Then I'm the poor sucker that has to try and bath her to scrub it off.

Please be a responsible dog owner and pick up after your dog. Not only will you be doing fellow dog walkers (actually all walkers and joggers) a favour, the environment will thank you too.

Some say it's a chore picking up after their dog and to those people I say "well you shouldn't own a dog unless you are able to look after it, no matter how gross."

Its not hard to do, just have some plastic bags on hand to pick up the offending mess. Many local councils offer free 'doggy do' bags or you can just tie a few plastic shopping bags on the leash. Also, if you're lucky, some councils have special 'doggy do' bins to place the used bags into.

Dogs are not able to pick up after themselves so please be prepared for accidents, if you love your pooch you will do anything for them. Owning a pet is a big responsibility so be mature enough to do what is necessary when it comes to looking after them.

Oh, and for those of you who are environmentally conscious, there are different types of bags that you are able to purchase which are biodegradable, just google 'poop bags' or 'dog bag biodegradable' and you will find many sites selling bags in all shapes and sizes.

Plastic bags do the job but they are so bad for the environment and combined with dog poop inside them, it just makes them worse.

Contact your local council and see if they provide biodegradable bags, mine does.