By such experiences am I tested

Those of you who love The Goodies may remember the episode in which Graeme took up dog breeding in order to develop a super-breed to win at Crufts.  The scariest line was perhaps, “I’ve exhausted all the possibilities of breeding dogs … with dogs.”

When the husbandry extended to breeding dogs with household furniture, the mood was set by Graeme spraying hormones from an aerosol can into a darkened room.  Excitement ensued.

I mention this because I feel as if someone has sprayed my house with dog hormones by night.  (Indeed, someone has; it is the dogs themselves.)  Docile and amiable by day, once night falls the dogs’ good humour gives way to competitive, grumpy and possibly horny barking, in which Eddie laments the changes occurring to his girls, Fern laments Eddie’s lamenting and Evie (who is having a very bad-tempered season) shouts above it all her intention to kill anyone who looks at her without due deference.

Last night, putting Evie to sleep in the kitchen, Fern in the living room and Eddie in the spare room helped, but it didn’t make for a restful night for me.  Bear in mind that these are early days yet; when one of the girls actually becomes ready for mating I anticipate some kind of mini tornado until the boys are sent on their biannual holiday with the harvestparents.

This clip is not from the same episode of The Goodies as the one I cite above, but it captures the currently competitive spirit of my household.