Previous submissions

Previous submissions

A couple of fillers from assignment two. The Dogs Today filler has been worked up into a 1000-word article and has been submitted to the editor.

Reader Digest UK – Filler – You Couldn’t Make it Up Average 80-90 words

Travelling to a business meeting I decided to take my puppy Molly the Patterdale Terrier along too.

Stopping for a break, she took the opportunity; as I opened the car door, to make off down the road to
a nearby pub.

Spying ducks in the garden she chased them into a pond and two laps later and with me wading
behind my business suit behind we were once again united.

Much was the hilarity of the customers and later at the meeting; I never lived down that adventure for years.

Filler – Dogs Today - Dogs and their toys (500 words)

WATCHING dogs playing with their toys give us hours of endless joy and sometimes a little stress.  How often has your pride and joy greeted you or even your visitors with a well-worn and slobber-soaked toy or more horrifyingly an item of underwear from the dirty washing basket and do we know what they are trying to communicate to us?

In presenting you with that well-worn, well-chewed and, more often than not, slobbery toy, your dog is paying a mark of respect to you as pack leader just as wild dogs do to their alpha male or female.

Interactive toys such as throwing discs, balls and tugging ropes all need human collaboration and satisfy a dog’s instinct to hunt and chase after live and moving prey. Bringing them back pleases their human pack leader and is rewarded with a treat and a congratulatory pat on the head for the dog.

Tugging ropes are more akin to the wild dog behaviour of stripping the flesh off a carcase. However, with a domestic dog, it is a game and a chance to get one over on the human or canine opposition.

Gun dogs bring fallen prey back for the owner on a shoot and this is mimicked by them bringing their plush small animal toys to you at home. Terriers will often satisfy their predatory instincts by de-stuffing theirs, especially if they are fitted with a squeaker!

Safety with toys, naturally, is very important; ensuring they cannot swallow balls or chewed pieces of rope toys. Stuffed toys have their obvious perils. Removing a swallowed ball or squeaker from your loved one has the potential for very expensive veterinary bills.

Cognitive toys, healthy bones and chews are excellent for the wellbeing of mind and health of teeth and gums.

Young puppies, not unlike babies, are comforted by toys and when teething will find something hard to chew on and it is not uncommon for that toy to become a lifelong favourite.  Younger bitches they can become a bit of a surrogate mother to a toy particularly if she has been spayed.

 Like children, dogs will quite often take their favourite toy to bed with them or as in the case of our dog takes it into our bed!

Toys educate our family friends and go a long way to bring out their personalities. They also reveal their heritage too, Gun dogs, terriers and miniature breeds all play in their own individual way, hence why a spaniel is always keen to chase after a ball and with a terrier you are more likely or not to find a de-stuffed plush small animal all over the living room carpet. Either way, you will be greeted with a wagging tail with an anthropomorphised smile on their face.

If your dog like ours has its own toy box, I hope on their next rummage through to find that buried old well-chewed rope toy or worn-out plush toy you can have a smile and wonder what is going on inside that head for theirs!