The backward shuffle

Honestly, Nicky is such a little pickle at times. He's a lovely handsome boy, but sometimes he's a bit nervous. And he dosn't like unexpected sounds.

Last week when we were walking without Angie - she had an appointment at the dentist - we heard several distant, but quite distinct, bangs. I'm not sure whether they were to do with the building work, or whether it was a nearby farmer with a gun, but anyhow Nicky decided he didn't like the noise AT ALL.

When he's worried, Nicky paces backwards and forwards, so I crouched down and gave him a cuddle. It seemed to work, and we resumed our walk.

It was only when we got close to the kennels that I realised he was still worried by the bangs. The fields were badly flooded, so I decided to take Nicky down the lane so that he could have a longer walk - closer to the reccomended 20 minutes.

As we started down the lane Nicky turned to face the kennels and walked backwards - we must have looked a very strange sight, walker and dog facing in opposite directions, but matching each other stride for stride.

Nothing would make Nicky turn around and I thought he probably wanted to join some dogs that had gone in the other direction. So I waited until they were out of sight, and tried again. Once again, Nicky started to walk backwards, facing the kennels.

OK, thought I, maybe he just doesn't fancy the lane today. So, I took him another direction - again away from the kennels - same reaction. Nicky faced the kennels and started to walk backwards, matching me pace for pace.

Poor boy - the loud bangs had obviously upset him more than I realised, so, it was back to the kennels.