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Mack, Mack, Johnson, Carrot. 
See it? 

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Good boy. 
Yes, we have a new crew member 

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on board, Mack, the border 
Terrier puppy. 

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So this episode of the Water Rd 
is all about having pets afloat.

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We'll be hearing about the 
lengths you sometimes have to go

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to to get your cat to come back 
home. 

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There's all sorts of tricks that
people suggest, like if you're a

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lady hanging your bra outside so
your scent is actually in the 

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air. 
And we'll discover that it's 

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possible to have more unusual 
animals on board as well. 

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The nose turns head when you're 
walking up and down the toe path

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as well. 
It's it's a good conversation 

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start. 
Lots of people stop and wonder 

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what we're doing, walking and 
talking this with the top 

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animal. 
Welcome to the Water Rd. 

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Well, Mac is named after the 
Macclesfield Canal because 

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that's where we were when we 
found the litter, went to choose

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him and brought him home. 
He joined us at 8 weeks old. 

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I think it's fair to say that 
having a puppy on board has been

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harder work than we expected. 
When you're on a boat you don't 

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have a garden to let them out in
and when you're moving all the 

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time, every new place is 
exciting. 

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All the advice on toilet 
training, for example, says they

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should use the same place all 
the time. 

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That's impossible when you're 
constantly cruising. 

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Now puppy training isn't really 
about teaching the dog what to 

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do, it's about teaching the 
owners. 

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And a friend recommended a 
trainer in Bollington on the 

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Macclesfield Canal who gave us 
valuable advice on what to do 

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with Cal Thorpe from Off Leash 
Dog Training. 

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And you've been helping us with 
Mac because he's been a bit of a

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handful. 
In your experience, are we alone

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in finding that it's very hard 
work having a puppy? 

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No, puppies are horrible, quite 
frankly. 

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Bitey little messes and not very
nice. 

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What's the secret then? 
What do you have to do to make 

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them a nice puppy? 
Good breeder first and foremost 

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for finding the right breeder 
for the right dog, for the right

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people instead of, oh, that 
one's pretty, I'm going to have 

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that one. 
So you want to look for a decent

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breeder who's got decent lines, 
who's not just after the money 

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for the puppy. 
Then it's making sure that 

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you've got really good sleep 
patterns so that your dog learns

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what to do, when to do it, and 
loads of redirecting onto things

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you want them to bite instead of
your legs. 

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Obviously we're living on a 
boat. 

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You've come to the boat to do a 
couple of sessions with Mac. 

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Do you think it's easier or 
harder being on a boat? 

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Much harder. 
You've got restricted space so 

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therefore you've not got places 
where you can put him for sleep 

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out of the way, so he's always 
got distractions of things 

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moving around. 
You've got no garden so toilet 

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training is an absolute 
nightmare for you is when you 

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first start your risk of 
everything is highlighted so 

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over friendliness with other 
dogs when they're going past. 

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So you're doing too much 
socialisation and literally 

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making things just more which 
can make matters worse later on.

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So especially with our terrier 
breeds, what are really quite 

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choose. 
Choose your world carefully. 

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Terrorists. 
So they want to be biting a lot 

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of things and chewing a lot of 
things because that's what their

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design is and that's what their 
make up is. 

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So for me, when you're living at
the side of the boat or living 

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on the boat, you're much more 
exposed to lots of different 

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things than people are in houses
because you're going to have 

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wildlife right on your doorstep 
no matter what. 

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Plus sometimes impolite people 
and impolite dogs. 

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So we've got to make sure he's 
properly trained is what you're 

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saying really, isn't it? 
Yes, but I think that with every

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dog, it's just your 
circumstances are going to be a 

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little bit tougher because 
you're literally contained in a 

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barrel. 
Literally. 

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It's a very pretty one, but 
you've got less space for doing 

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things that you would normally 
be able to do in a 2 up to down.

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The exact same goes for people 
who've got too much room. 

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So when I go to people's houses 
that have got like 10 bedrooms 

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and things like that, they've 
got too much space. 

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So the dog does too much naughty
business. 

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So like the toilet in on the 
other side of the mansion, 

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darling. 
So in some ways a smaller for 

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toilet training's easier, but 
for a bigger area it can be even

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harder. 
But for you guys, I think the 

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quietness of your boat is the 
hardest bit because as soon as 

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you walk to your kitchen, 
they're disturbed. 

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But he's going to have a really 
good sleep pattern because 

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you're putting it in. 
And hopefully he's going to 

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really enjoy that life, isn't 
he? 

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Don't you think? 
Yes, yeah, I'm coming with you. 

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He is going to have a really 
good life on the boat. 

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You're just going to work on it 
always. 

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While dogs are certainly the 
most popular pet among boaters, 

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there are also quite a few cats.
Some of them are indoor cats, 

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but others are allowed out, 
which opens up new challenges. 

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I spoke to Pip from Narrowboat 
Oliana about Tilly, who's been a

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boat cat for 10 years. 
So Pip, obviously we've now got 

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a dog and dogs are trainable, 
whereas cats are notoriously 

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independent minded, aren't they?
So how does that work on a boat?

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When Tilly came to live with us 
when she was four months old, we

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sort of had some ground rules 
straight away. 

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We'd we my old cat had moved on 
board with us when we first 

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moved to live on board boat and 
Houdini been sort of she was an 

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old cat. 
So we didn't have a cat flap or 

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anything like that. 
And we decided to keep the same 

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sort of rules for telly. 
So once her evening meals down, 

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she can't go out etcetera. 
So she comes back for her food 

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and and then doesn't expect to 
go back out again. 

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She actually thinks that she 
should sleep with us rather than

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be alive at night and running 
around the world. 

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She comes home for dreamies. 
Thank you for coming home, 

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Dreamies, which is the best bit 
about whenever she comes in the 

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boat, she gets dreamies as a 
reward. 

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We ring a bell whenever we feed 
her, a little like reception 

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bell, and we call food time 
Ding, Ding time because it's 

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Ding Ding. 
And that was something that 

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somebody suggested online at one
point. 

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That would mean that if your 
cat's outside, you could ring 

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the bell and they'd come running
home for some food. 

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Tilly just lifts her head and 
goes, alright, OK, But if she's 

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busy outside, she's busy. 
Some days I can go outside and 

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call for her and she'll come 
straight away. 

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Other times if she's busy with 
finding friends, etcetera, you 

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have to be very patient and go 
keep going back outside to call 

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for her. 
There's all sorts of tricks that

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people suggest, like if you're a
lady hanging your bra outside so

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your scent is actually in the 
air and their litter tray, which

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is always a problem if you just 
cleaned the litter tray. 

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So it sounds as though you're 
saying that cats can be kind of 

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trained in a sort of way. 
In a sort of way, not like a 

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dog, which is like sit, lie 
down, etcetera. 

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I suspect we're as trained as 
much as she is, as in we give 

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her the dreamies whenever she 
comes home. 

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We started it so it's our fault 
and we have to open and close 

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doors because we have no cat 
flap. 

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So are there other 
considerations then that you 

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have to bear in mind, like if 
you're more up somewhere? 

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Yeah, we we choose where we 
more. 

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You can't always choose a really
good place to mow for a cat. 

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So we wouldn't mow next to a 
busy Rd unless there's no 

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choice. 
Near a fast running river. 

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Maybe not ice. 
No, she wouldn't be allowed out 

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because she'd want to walk on 
the ice if there's duckweed 

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across the canal. 
Tilly's first ever swim was at 

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Selby Basin when she went out. 
Looked. 

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She normally looks to which side
the towpath is. 

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And yes, Tilly, we're talking 
about you. 

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And she looked at the grass and 
thought it was great and went 

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for a swim and swam the full 
length of our 60 foot boat. 

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We do a quick cap and health and
safety. 

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And she has a whole series of 
ratings for different moorings, 

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doesn't she? 
She does. 

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She has the Tilly stamp of 
approval and she also has names 

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for places like Birmingham isn't
Birmingham. 

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Birmingham is Bombingham because
it's pants. 

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It's not very good for cats. 
She goes out in Birmingham in 

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the middle of Birmingham near 
the Sea Life Centre, but it's 

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bricks and a few shrubs so that 
gets a a bum mark. 

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And but if it's somewhere really
good where there's good hunting,

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good trees to climb, she loves 
climbing trees, then it gets a 

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Tilly stamp of approval that 
goes on our. 

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Blog and you mentioned the 
hunting for friends as you call 

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them. 
Have any of those made it onto 

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the boat? 
Yes, we have had a few. 

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Every now and again we get mice.
We tend to be a boat that has 

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doors closed most of the time so
she can't bring them in. 

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We did once have a baby rabbit 
brought in that on our previous 

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boat to Oliana and she brought 
it in through the front door. 

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I didn't know what it was in her
mouth to start off with and I 

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slammed the door in front of 
her, the bathroom door, which of

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course has a little air vent at 
the bottom and the rabbit 

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managed to get under the door 
but she couldn't. 

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So we did manage to rescue this 
baby rabbit and kept her inside 

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whilst the baby ran. 
Rabbit bobbed back to it's 

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Warren or whatever, and then she
sat by the Bunny hole for the 

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rest of the day, waiting for 
another one. 

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And it's not just cats and dogs.
We've seen boats with parrots 

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and other birds on board and 
there was a boat at the Crick 

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Boat Show a year or two ago 
which had a built in rabbit cage

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in its saloon. 
And Gemma and Jack have a border

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Terrier called Goblin who's a 
year older than Mac and a 7 year

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old tortoise called Tea Cake. 
They live on a wide beam boat in

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Skipton in North Yorkshire and 
have a mooring with a garden 

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00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:05,640
that they use in the winter. 
I started by asking them what we

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could expect over the next year 
with a border Terrier. 

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It's a wild ride. 
We have our ups and downs with 

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him, don't we? 
Yeah, he's, he's got a sixth 

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sense for chaos. 
I was just saying the other day 

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to Gemma, you can't really have 
a terrier without becoming a 

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little bit terrier. 
You just got to kind of roll 

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with the chaos a little bit. 
And yeah, make what you will of 

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it. 
He's literally the best thing 

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00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,920
that we've ever done though, 
like he's just completed our 

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little family on this boat as a 
name and he's settled in so 

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well. 
Do you think having the garden 

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helps with with having the 
having the pets? 

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00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:48,160
Oh 100% yeah we last. 
I mean because we've only done 1

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00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:53,200
summer with with Goblin. 
We realised when we came back 

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00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,360
here how easy it is just to kind
of let him out in the garden for

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00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:59,720
a run around. 
Whereas on the tour path I would

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00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,120
imagine it's very similar to 
living in a flat, isn't it? 

200
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:05,320
You've got to kind of go out 
with them and it's a walk every 

201
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time they need to go out, 
especially puppy times. 

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00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:11,560
That was every time. 
Like as we were training him, we

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00:11:11,560 --> 00:11:15,040
had to put his harness and his 
lead on every time we let him 

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out to use the loo. 
And how do the two of them get 

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on together? 
Because it's a bit of an old 

206
00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:24,520
mix, isn't it? 
A border terrier and a tortoise.

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00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:27,600
Yeah, they didn't really have a 
choice, did they? 

208
00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:31,280
Tea Cake was hibernating when we
got Goblin as a pup. 

209
00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:35,480
So Goblin had about. 
Did he have about a month? 

210
00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:38,200
Yeah, just to settle in and. 
Without him. 

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00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:42,640
And then we woke Tea Cake up and
I think he was just like, what? 

212
00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:47,720
What is this? 
And last winter they got on so 

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00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:48,760
well, didn't they? 
They. 

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00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,000
Yeah, we had broken heating last
winter, so they were kind of 

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00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,560
just buddied up by the fire and 
I think it was a a kind of a 

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00:11:57,560 --> 00:11:59,480
relationship built on stress 
really. 

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If they were going to be warm, 
they had to put up with each 

218
00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:03,880
other. 
That soon changed once it was 

219
00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:07,040
fixed though. 
T Cake has absolutely re 

220
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:11,080
established the hierarchy. 
So people might imagine that a 

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00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:14,640
tortoise is easier to manage 
than a dog or. 

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00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:19,080
But has T Cake had his moments? 
Yeah, from last year didn't. 

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00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:22,800
He, yeah, we've had plenty of 
moments with that little, little

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shell boy. 
He last year, we lost him for 10

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days. 
Yeah, we were on our mooring. 

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Bit of a strange story really. 
You were doing some gardening 

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and Yorkshire be in Yorkshire, 
some pigs got out of the farm up

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at the top and Gemma's natural 
Yorkshire instincts kicked in 

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and she went to Herdham back 
into the field and thought TK 

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won't go very far, he's only 
slow and then came down and he 

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was gone. 
And normally, like, we'll stick 

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like a pom pom or something on 
his shell or like a little flag 

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or something so we can see him 
in the grass. 

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And I hadn't done that day. 
And then when it came back about

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20 minutes later, I was like, 
oh, no, but he's gone missing 

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before. 
And we've kind of just thought, 

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oh, I'll turn up, we'll find 
him. 

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He's usually in the same bushes 
every time. 

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And then I had to go to work. 
And then we knew when it got to 

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kind of overnight that we might 
not be finding him here. 

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We had all kinds of people come 
and search for him. 

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And then we had. 4 labradors 
come and try and sniff him. 

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Oh yeah. 
We had some trained Labradors of

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our friends who sniff and search
dogs. 

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They came and tried to look for 
him, but ended up just jumping 

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in the canal. 
So that wasn't very, that wasn't

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very productive. 
But then we came back from a 

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walk and we were just walking 
over the canal bridge and just 

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out of the corner of my eye I 
just saw him just swarming 

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through the field. 
With a little scheme of geese 

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behind. 
Him. 

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Yeah, in with all the Canadian 
geese. 

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He's. 
Got a little, you know the tiles

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that you put on your keys so you
can find your keys a little. 

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Tracker. 
So we just blue tack that to him

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when he's outside so we can ring
him if he goes missing. 

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The other problem with him is as
well is that we've raised him 

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to, I don't know how we'd manage
this, but he'll only eat Pak 

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choy and he'll only eat hand fed
Pak choy. 

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He won't eat off his own accord.
You imagine them being so plain 

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and quite boring really, but 
they're so emotive at tortoises.

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They just, yeah, he's really got
a sass about him. 

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And he's he's, if he wants to be
demanding, he'll make himself 

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known. 
Don't get a tortoise if you 

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think it's an easy animal. 
It's not, especially on a boat. 

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When we bought the boat, we 
didn't really understand battery

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banks so much. 
We'd lived on a van, we knew 

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about 240 and 12 Volt and 
etcetera, but we didn't really 

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understand the the full in and 
outs of conserving electric and 

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what uses what. 
So when we moved him onto the 

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boat, he's obviously got a 
really high energy that needs to

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be on for like 12-30 hours a 
day. 

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So we just rinsed our first 
battery bank just by using a 

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tortoise lab. 
Probably cost us about £600 in 

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leisure batteries until we got 
educated and solar panels. 

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So it's much better now. 
So finally we've got any advice 

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for us to get through the first 
year with a border puppy. 

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Lots of puzzles, like you can't 
get out every day, obviously we 

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walk him and whatnot, but so I'd
say just about every day we set 

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him a little blanket puzzle and 
like we do a lot of sniff 

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training around the boat and 
hiding things and just keep him 

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entertained, Yeah. 
Yeah, it's all breed specific, 

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isn't it? 
Because the, the sniffing and 

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ratting dogs, we do a lot of 
stuff to kind of keep him 

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enriched and keep his brain 
active. 

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I think just ride the wave. 
We've had a, I've had a terrible

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00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:54,040
week with him this week. 
He's been a nightmare, running 

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00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,360
off after everything and 
anything. 

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00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:58,360
But then we've just take, we've 
just come back from the beach 

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with him this afternoon and he's
been beautiful. 

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He's been such a good boy on the
beach, so he's restored my face.

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Terry's being Terry as they just
love novelty as well though, and

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when you're moving on every 
couple of weeks and you know, 

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you go from village to village 
and he's got somewhere new to 

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explore, he's just comes into 
his own. 

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He's just the happiest creature 
you'll ever meet. 

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You can follow Gemma, Jack, TK 
and Goblin on Instagram at our 

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00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:27,920
floating house Tip Make and 
Tilly the cat have a blog. 

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00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:34,600
mollyanna.co.uk Cal Thorpe is 
off leash dogtraining.co.uk or 

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00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,960
find her at Wolfington's in 
Bollington and Mac is on 

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Instagram at Mac The boating 
border. 

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And that's all for this episode 
of the Water Rd. 

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Next time we'll still be on the 
Macclesfield Canal, exploring 

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the Middlewood Way, The Walking 
and cycle path that runs 

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00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,920
alongside part of the canal 
using the bed of a former 

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railway. 
I'm really pleased with how the 

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community are involved, how they
get together, how many people 

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know each other, walk with each 
other and meet each other, go 

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out for drinks together, you 
know, and it's all because they 

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meet on the middle way. 
The Water Rd is produced and 

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00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,560
presented by me, Adam Porter. 
Don't forget to follow or 

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00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:15,200
subscribe so you're alerted when
new episodes are published and 

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00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,920
all previous episodes are always
available to listen to wherever 

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00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,760
you get your podcasts from. 
Thank you for listening to The 

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00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:23,359
Water Rd.