and now having brought things up to date, let the Luna journey commence!

So as I mentioned I brought her home on Sunday, aged 8.5 weeks. What a baptism of fire! I had been excited for my first summer pup to house-train, after having to do all the others in winter...so we arrived home in torrential rain and I got to spend most of Sunday afternoon standing outside as it deluged! Not conducive to house-training.

It was a very stressful, exhausting and fragmented afternoon (bit of a fraught journey home too - it wasn't far but there had been an incident on the road we were on before the motorway and then the M5 was like a car park due to an ambulance fire) but her first night was quite positive - she refused to wee at 10pm but then slept through til 5am. I took her outside and she peed, but then it all went a bit pear-shaped as I went back to bed but then couldn't really settle and then spent til about 8:30 up and down as she failed to pee!

The day did improve. It's just finding my feet and working out how to do certain things, plus settling and us both learning about each other...getting towards a bit more of a routine now I think which will help, and I think we are starting to form a bond which is a relief! I was feeling like all I was doing was bad...all I care about at the moment is her bonding with me, sod anything else! I'd also forgotten how much harder it is with a wheelchair - I think house training is a nightmare at the best of times, then add in an object with interesting smells, loads of things to chew and something you can hide underneath and it suddenly becomes even more complicated, with nothing I can do about it! (To say nothing of the whole not being able to act quickly issue...) I'm hoping we don't have a problem as she seems to be leaking a bit. I hope it's just submissive urination and she'll outgrow it.

She has a very good pair of lungs on her - she screams frequently! Sometimes for no apparent reason. She can be in the crate, in the puppy pen, loose or even sitting right by me. But early days and she needs to settle.

Kooikers are not first dogs anyway, but my initial impressions are that she would be a nightmare in an inexperienced home. She's a lovely pup but very much of the temperament and behaviour that you could reinforce the wrong things so easily and then you would end up with an absolute nightmare...and if I can see that at 8 weeks...!
Let's just hope I don't mess it up.

Her second night was better in some ways and worse than others - she had a last pee about 9:30, went to bed. Woke me at 00:45 crying, I let her out of the crate onto puppy pads (which I have resorted to at night for the first time - incredibly frustrating for me but there is physically no alternative at night - I cannot move) and she peed and pooed really quickly, so back to bed. Woke me again at 3am fussing, let her out but she didn't want to do anything so put her back to bed and then decided to try a different tact and rather than wait for her to stir and then struggle to move quickly enough at 6:15 I woke her up to take her out and start the day. Took her outside, she peed and I then gave her a bit of food and was able to settle down :) which was soo much better than the previous day, especially for the boys who are finding it all a bit stressful. It's now just gone 8am and we have had a lovely "normal" hour and a half, plus pup is still asleep after an initial play!

So a much better start! Now let's see what today holds....