New Haircut

Good sleep, gentle start.
Walk, lunch, walk - Scary Big Dog..
Home for a big nap.

So this morning was mainly about Ben's hair!  He's been getting more and more shaggy but his behaviour has meant I haven't wanted to get near to him with scissors.  Today I decided he was calm enough to have a go.  It's a tricky job as he only sits still for a couple of minutes so I have to be really fast and try and get it right first time.  I'm additionally hindered by the fact he has a double crown so that his hair falls from two different places on his head and any shake of his head and the whole thing falls completely differently!  As you can see from the photo - it was even on both sides when I finished.. but then he shimmied and now there's a wispy bit on his left hand side!!  Oh well, it's an improvement from yesterday, so I'm counting it as a borderline success :-)  The reward for hair cuts is 10 chocolate chips, quite cheap really!  
We made some lovely chocolate chip cookie bars, it was sort of like a tray bake and then I cut it into bars.  Yum.
This afternoon we went for another walk and I had my first scary dog experience.  I'm not sure if I overreacted, it was all very fast but a big boxer type dog who was off lead came running to Leo, his owner was calling him back and he wasn't responding.  Leo was on a short lead at our feet but the boxer came so close that Leo jumped up at him and the other dog was growling, snapping and trying to pin Leo down, it felt really aggressive and Leo was whining.  In the moment I panicked and pulled Leo up by his harness and then the other dog was jumping up and growling at me, I ended up in a blackberry bush :-/  And the dog still wasn't responding to its owner.  When the owner came over he said the dog just wanted to play and that he was only jumping up because I'd picked Leo up.  I felt stupid but reflecting on it, for a start he shouldn't have been off lead if he can't be recalled and also.. aggressive growling is not play in my book.  I was quite shaken up but Leo was fine which is the main thing.  Mr KCNQ2Haiku was lovely and Ben was calm about it all, so we shook it all off.  Mr KCNQ2Haiku asked Ben to hold Leo's lead whilst he was calming me down, I haven't let Ben do that yet as he has been really grumpy and cross on walks with Leo.  I was really surprised that it went brilliantly, something about him being in control made him much more understanding of Leo darting about and he looked really happy.  I was impressed he held on too, even when Leo was pulling to go ahead.
At home we made some pesto and did some tidying.  Leo had a big sleep and that's about it.  Happy Saturday Evening to all :-)