24/3/2026

I have ducklings, rescued from the pond, in a crate in the garage. Meg is interested. I take her with me, and hold a duckling for her to sniff. She’s very excited, and tries to lick it. I speak very calmly, praising her, ensuring she stays sitting. It’s not (yet) very calm, and I can tell she’s bursting to leap on them. But I will continue.

I had a nightmare. It was very grim—something evil was hovering over the bed and I knew I needed to wake-up but I couldn’t. I screamed (which did wake me). Husband came running. The point of this, is that Meg was asleep on the floor next to me, and her reaction was…zero. I screamed a full-panic, real fear, scream. Meg did not move. I do not find this reassuring in terms of guard-dog duty. I suspect if a burglar came she might join him if he looked more fun than me. She scores 100% for resilience, 0 for empathy, 0 for security. Sometimes I wonder why I keep her.

18/4/2026

Walking Meg in the woods is delightful. She is very obedient, especially when off-lead, and will come and walk beside me on command. She still grabs at sticks occasionally, so I wear tough gardening gloves to avoid losing a finger. But other than risk of losing a limb, she is great! I’m especially proud of her when other dogs invade her space, as she will always ignore them and come to me when called.

On a less good note, I still do not feel she likes me much. When no one else is here, she will faithfully follow me wherever I go, and will sleep on the floor beside my bed. But anyone more exciting (which seems to include everyone) Meg is off, looking for better company. This annoys me. I feed her, walk her, pick up her mess—but it is Husband who she greets enthusiastically. This morning, I opened her cage, bent to fuss her—Husband walked into the kitchen—she rushed off to bounce him happily and take him gifts of dirty towels. I was ignored, of no interest whatsoever. I find this odd. All my other animals like me, so I feel the fault is hers. It makes me less tolerant of her bad points (which is perhaps not rational, but I feel she should love me best!)

By the way, introducing Meg to the hatchlings has not changed her behaviour at all. She still views them as things to chase/bark at. I will continue to keep them separate unless she is extremely closely monitored.

2/4/2026

Meg has been fairly good this week. We have a nice routine in the morning, when she comes into the field with me and I water the new plants. Goose and Maverick are out, but behind a flimsy fence (it wouldn’t keep Meg out if she decided to join them, but it’s a psychological barrier, and it keeps the birds contained, even Maverick the fighty cockerel). If I am holding a stick, and I concentrate on directing her, then Meg stays with me, and doesn’t bark at the birds. She walks to the middle of the field with me, then stops and watches me walk the rest of the way. If I call her, she will join me (just to check whether I have anything interesting, then she returns to the middle of the field).

When I need to refill the waterings cans, at the tap right next to the birds, Meg is almost good. I tell her to ‘stop’ and to ‘wait’ in a place about a 100 yards from the bird enclosure. Meg stands still. I turn to walk towards the tap, Meg creeps forward a step. I turn, make unhappy noises, she stops. Every time I move towards the tap, Meg moves closer. It’s like one of those ‘creeping up’ games you played as a child. It’s very disobedient, and as a GSD, Meg should be completely obedient. But she’s busy concentrating on moving without me noticing, which means she is ignoring the birds, so I don’t really care. Life with Meg is all about compromise. She rarely does exactly what I want, but ‘close enough’ is okay.

August 2026

Meg is being hard work. I think this is due to lack of routine—we have been away a few times, there have been visitors in the house and I have been distracted by work and ill family. This means Meg has not been my focus, and she has started to ignore me when I tell her to do something. This week she even refused to come to be put on the lead in the woods, and then almost refused to jump into the car—problems I thought we had cured years ago. She makes me cross, because life has been disrupted for me too, and I don’t have any patience for her naughtiness.

On a brighter note, we used ‘Rover’ and no one died. Rover is an online site, a little like Airbnb for dog-sitters. You upload details about your dog (like whether they can cope with other dogs, or cats, or children) and then you look for a suitable host on the website. They can then ask further questions before agreeing to take your dog. We were going to Cambridge for the weekend, and it was holiday time so all the kennels were completely full, and several friends have recommended Rover. I was nervous. I worried about whether Meg would be safe (although we specified an enclosed garden and no walks, but people might interpret that loosely). I also worried whether the host would be safe—Meg has a lot of enthusiasm and is incredibly strong. There wasn’t a tick-box for ‘Is your dog like an excitable tiger?’ but we did our best. We found a host conveniently near Cambridge, and delivered Meg. I worried a lot. The host seemed very nice, and I felt a cross ‘sergeant-major figure’ may fare better with Meg. She also had a very nice house, with lots of pretty things that a tail might sweep to the floor. I did my best to explain that one of them needed to be the boss and it should not be Meg, and that it was probably best to contain her in the kitchen and garden rather than having free access to her very tidy house. But I still worried. We left.

Later that evening, we messaged (to make sure the host wasn’t weeping). We received a happy message in reply, and a photo of Meg, looking very pleased with herself, sitting in the lounge (though not on a sofa, thankfully). I tried to relax. When we collected Meg, the house was full of visitors, all of them said goodbye to Meg and seemed to genuinely like her. Meg (of course) was completely fine. She is bomb-proof (probably why her siblings are used in the police/army). It would take a lot to shatter her happy confidence (which is one reason why I was willing to risk leaving her—I would not have left my other slightly less robust GSD). After we were home, Meg received a review from the host on Rover. It said she was a happy affectionate dog, and the host had enjoyed having her to stay. That was nice.

Ruth is staying with us again. Meg loves this (and it’s one reason why she has been difficult, because Meg feels she now has options as to whether to obey me). Meg will be asleep in the kitchen, and will suddenly sit up, then race upstairs. Seconds later I hear Ruth’s bedroom door open. Meg enjoys leaning against Ruth, going into her bedroom (which is not allowed) and licking Ruth’s feet (I think Ruth is less keen on this). I will attempt to reinstate some discipline after Ruth has left. Meg sees her as backup in her quest to ignore me.