Elton got to play agility last night :-) I pay for my agility classes in 4 week blocks, because you get a slight discount - however, you pay for 4 consequetive weeks whether you attend or not - if you miss a week, you lose it.

After last week Solei wasn't allowed (so says me and his chiro!) as he's on rest, so this left me with rather a problem...I didn't want to lose the money, especially as it wasn't my fault. So I rang to find out if I could carry the week over, given the circumstances (no), so I asked whether I could swap dogs. Maybe - bring him along and see. So given I had nothing to lose, off Elton and I went! The instructor agreed I could participate with Elton, and I must say; I was impressed.

I took him along to one of Solei's lessons once when he was about 4 months old and showed him the tunnel. Then when he was 15 months old he did some 3 jumps and a tunnel on a have a go course. That is Elton's total agility experience lol

So the class starts off doing contacts on the end of the dog walk....Elton has never seen a dog walk before in his life. He was such a good boy! Lovely contacts, and after we'd done a few he seemed to have a pretty good idea of what I wanted him to do :-) Then we attempted the full dog walk. The first time he kinda commando crawled over it :lol: (but the instructor (= she) was holding his collar which may have contributed), though his end contact was lovely ;-) The second time he went over it much more confidently, again with a good contact :-)

Next was the chute...again not an obstacle Elton has ever seen. The first time she held him at one end, I went to the other and called him with someone holding the chute open - fine. The second time was hilarious...I was walking towards the chute as she said to me "give it a go, don't worry if he won't". I stopped about 3 metres before the entrance, took him off lead and before I could react he'd run off, through the chute and was waiting for me at the other end LOL So yeah....no problems there then! Third time he tried to go around it, but I redirected him through and he was fine :-)

Then came the aframe - guess what, never seen one of those before either! We were only putting them on the contact, but it was at full height (a more advanced group had been using it "properly") so rather steep and Elton had some trouble - rather than a 2o2o method he eventually settled for flattening himself on the contact an inch or two up! <3

We did a jump a couple of times, then came some sequencing - jump, tunnel, jump. Yay, obstacles he'd seen before! Although his initial reaction was to go around the tunnel and jump #2 when I showed him what I wanted he did the whole thing :-)

Finally we did a sequence of four jumps in a square/circle/thing. I think his concentration span had gone by that point, as when I released him to start he wandered off to do his own thing! One dog retrieved, and he did then do it.

So yes, overall I was really impressed with him :-) I didn't want to start agility with him yet, but if Solei can't then I may reconsider....we'll see. We both had a great time, anyway!

I love this puppy <3 I'm not doubting myself anymore, I think I've done the right thing :-) She's gorgeous <3

She was 8 weeks old yesterday, and I've had her 6 days now. She's much quieter at night, though we're still not sleeping brilliantly! None the less it's much improved. I've reached the point of such exhaustion I'm not as jumpy which helps lol - to start with I was jumping awake with every little noise, determined to get her outside before she peed. Which was quite amusing on Saturday night - I woke up and of course me getting up woke her up. So I went to grab her to put her out, she squatted so I picked her up anyway and put her down outside expecting her to squat as she was that desperate....no, she ran back inside. So grabbed her again, by which time she'd started peeing again (I didn't realise) which ended up going all over my hand and lap before she stopped! This time shut the door before I put her down and she did do the rest outside....but not quite what I wanted in the middle of the night! No such incidents since, thankfully!

I left her for the first time on Sunday, she seemed to have settled quite well so I decided to take Elton to the show I'd entered him in, as we were first in the ring and it was only about 15 minutes drive. Dad was at home, so she wasn't completely on her own. On the whole she was really good :-) (and it was worth going as Elton won his class!)

On Monday some friends came over for lunch, and to meet madam! She was somewhat overawed when they first came in, but warmed up and by the time they left she was all over them :-) I have been warned to socialise her well, and someone with a puppy (7mos) from similar lines (I think his mother is Ria's grandmother) was telling me all about the problems they've been having with their dog and being scared of people. So I was a bit worried to see her initial reaction, but pleased with how it ended!

Tuesday was a big day for Ria - I put a collar on her for the first time (not amused!) and we went on our first big adventure, down the road to the post office :-) She hasn't even had her first vaccination yet, so she was restricted to my lap - much to her displeasure! As we walked down the road she wasn't sure of traffic, but I'd taken a toy and stopped to talk and play when I saw bigger vehicles approaching. She seemed to improve as she was out for longer, so hopefully she'll soon get over that! There was a white German Shepherd walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the road which she thought was rather interesting! She was very interested in the couple of people that walked by, but a bit wary. However, as we got down to where the post office is we met a man who stopped to talk to her and she was happily saying hello. Closely followed by an older couple who she also greeted enthusiastically, and then was actually pulling to get *to* people! So that was good.

After such a busy week I was very tired yesterday, so we didn't do anything eventful! I'm intending to try and book her in for her first vaccination tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

In general, I think she's doing well :-) Early days yet, but she's responding quite well to me (they are known for being a bit stand offish with strangers and that also made the first couple of days hard - she wouldn't respond to me at all). She seems to know her name now (makes a big difference!), and we're working on a nose to hand touch. Kooikers are known for adoration of food and putting on weight easily, and I can confirm she's no exception! I need to work on more toy drive, cos at the moment food wins every time. In play she isn't too bad at bringing things back at the moment, though I expect that'll change lol. She's pretty good about coming when I call her, though the word "come" has barely been introduced and doesn't mean a lot yet! House training is a work in progress, but for 8 weeks old she's not doing badly.

I'm trying not to stress about things and just to enjoy her! This is the first time I've ever had a very young puppy of my own (my family walked three guide dog puppies when I was 9-11yrs old - I don't remember much) and I really want to do my best by her, and especially make the most of that crucial <12 week period I've never had before. The youngest puppy I've ever had was Elton, who was 12 weeks old and came with his sister for me to "run on" the pair of them on behalf of their breeders - so a very different scenario, and I wasn't able to do half of what I wanted to do A) because he wasn't mine (he wasn't mine until he was just shy of 6 months old) and B) because I had the pair of them.

With Ria, the world is my oyster and I want her to be all that she can be :-) Hopefully I won't mess it up!

Although they're not a table breed her breeder starts her own dogs off on the table and then moves them to the floor once they're bigger, and I can't get down to her properly on the floor so we've been working on the table. She had no concept, and the first three times I put her on, she fell off (I caught her!), but she's now a bit steadier and I actually managed some semi-decent photos yesterday.

Ria, 8 weeks old :-)

*Sighs and rolls eyes!*

On Thursday Solei and I went to agility, they'd set up a sequence of four or five (can't remember) jumps, close together in a straight line. Fine - except they wanted to hold the dogs to have them pulling towards the owner. I know Solei can be a bit funny about that, but I do feel like I'm sometimes overprotective/oversensitive, so I let them go ahead. There were two sequences set up, with a different person on each. The first was ok (more or less, anyway!) but the person on the second a typical ham fisted man who was not at all used to small dogs.

I left Solei, and as I started walking away there was an almightly scream and I turned around to see him flat to the floor! I was concerned and not happy at the time, but carried on and he was fine for the rest of the evening.

Over the weekend I wasn't particularly happy - there was a slight look in his eyes, and he wasn't so keen on food - however, having just brought Ria home it could have been due to that.

I could have cried on Monday morning when he was like I haven't seen him since before he started seeing his chiro (excluding the reaction he had 48hrs after his first session!). I left him to see how he went, but not seeing much improvement I rang his chiro yesterday (but had to leave a message) and put him on crate rest.

She rang me back this morning and thought it was unlikely he'd put his back out as badly as it was initially, which was encouraging. She agreed with what I was doing, also told me to do 10 minutes massage twice a day and she said although she's not a vet and can't tell me, if he was her dog she'd give him some painkillers - which I was going to do, I just couldn't obtain any until today!

So we'll see how he goes, fingers crossed the rest and painkillers help. On the bright side aside from the holding the actually agility went very well :-P He was doing the obstacles well, and his 2o2o contacts had come back!

Then there's Elton! He hasn't been the same since we did a "dog swap" in early February - Darwin, whom I'd had for two years, went back and Fern, an almost 9 month old bitch, came in her place. Elton hasn't been the same since. A month after Fern arrived she came into season, and a week after that (so about two weeks ago) she went back.

From a dog that was very much into food and had never been a fussy eater in his life, Elton started being so disinterested in food. It had been a gradual (subtle) decline, until he refused his first meal completely a few days after Fern started her season.

Sometimes he eats (eventually), sometimes doesn't, no enthusiasm for food....which also has a knock on effect that I'm not spending as much time doing things with him cos I can't work with him (I'd cube the NatureDiet and then train him before each meal and use the ND to reward) if I can't reward him!! (Can use toys but not all the time) and he's just lost a little bit of something that was Elton, if that makes sense. I don't know what to do with him, I've tried doing things, not doing things..etc.

He's getting time spent with me on his own, and I haven't tried to do any form of training for weeks. I really hope he's just unsettled and now there won't be anymore dog changes for months he'll get over it - whatever "it" is!

I can't tell you how much I want the "old" Elton back :-(

I don't think I've mentioned this before, as it's gone wrong so many times before. But now she's here, I can announce it -

I PICKED UP MY NEW BABY ON FRIDAY!!!!

Can't believe I've finally got her home. Her name is Ria, she is a Kooikerhondje and she turned 7 weeks old last Wednesday :-)

It was a more than five hour drive each way, so on Friday we left before 6:30am and got home after 10pm. I carried her home, and she was absolutely dead to the world for the first two and a half hours

I have no idea why it's insisting on turning them strange ways (the first and third ones should be 90 degrees left and the second one 180 degrees (it's upside down)) but you'll just have to tilt your head or screen lol - sorry!

Then she woke up, and it got interesting :-) I managed to stop her being too obnoxious, and she slept on and off the rest of the way home. When we arrived home as it was so late I went almost straight to bed, and she did not approve! It was rather a noisy night.

I wondered what I'd done. And someone was upset I hadn't told them I was actually going to pick her up, which upset me and made everything worse. And I was obviously so tired as well....having had such a long day on Friday, and then got very little in the way of sleep on Friday night. So I spent most of yesterday in tears!

She slept better Saturday night, and I do feel a lot better about things today. So, we shall see what the future holds!