Puppy preschool

Hooray! I had a call from the vet today, and they must have got enough people for the puppy preschool classes as they will be starting next week!!!

For 1 hour from 6:30pm, we will go to the vet along the road, and Chica will get to socialise with other puppies, and we will get to learn some basic training etc.

I am really looking forward to this - a great chance to get her off the property in a safe environment, and get her used to other dogs.

Roll on next Wednesday!

On another note, Daryl tells me that after the 30th of June, he will not be so busy at work - will we actually get to eat dinner with him again?

Sunshine helps...

After wishing this morning that we had never even got a puppy, I am feeling a little more positive this afternoon.

The sunshine definitely helps, and I hope (probably in vain) that we get a lot more of it.

Chica and I have just spent some time out on the deck with tiny squares of luncheon sausage- with the aim of teaching her to sit. The lesson began with Chica rushing madly around me as she smells the luncheon sausage, and me thinking what a silly idea this was. Once she had calmed down a bit, I saw glimmers of her beginning to grasp the idea of "I do something and then I get the treat".

We will work on this more, and hopefully have some success!

More rain..

Turns out it is quite hard to keep a little puppy occupied when it continues to rain.

When we take her for a walk onto the lawn so she can do her business, she often gets to the end of the deck and sits down. At this point she looks at us with her head to one side as if to say "you have got to be kidding me… have you seen the size of the puddles down there!"

She has spent most of the morning in her cage inside, surely there will be a break in the rain soon so we can have a quick wander around? It would be much easier if I was allowed to take her for a walk along the road - hopefully the next 5 weeks are not continuously wet!!

Rant over.

Chica

Well, there have been a lot of posts on here lately about food, but there is (apparently) more to life than just food!

On Saturday, we acquired a new family member in the form of a 7 1/2 week old puppy who we have named Chica. Chica is the spanish word for girl, and sounds remarkably like the word cheeky… which is an apt description for her!

She is a border collie springer spaniel cross, and so is full of energy. Her first night home, we were expecting her to cry a lot, and were lulled into a false sense of security when this did not happen. Sunday night was a different story altogether. She howled and whimpered and carried on till after midnight, and then finally went to sleep, only to start up again at 5am!!! So, come Monday morning, we were all feeling a little tired. Last night, she was perfect, sleeping through without a problem.

She is so cute, that we will forgive her for the bad nights… as long as there are more good nights than bad!

We have just had confirmed by the vet today that she has to stay away from dogs that we do not know, and places where unvaccinated dogs may be/have been until she is fully vaccinated (13 weeks). This is a little disappointing, as we were looking forward to taking her to soccer practices with us, but she will just have to wait, as the risk is that she could catch Parvo Virus if we take her out before she has had all her vaccinations. She can come with us, but will have to stay in the car, or we would have to hold her the whole time. I can picture that getting a little tedious. Oh well, it is only another 5 1/2 weeks.

And what does Missie think of her? Not much.

She has met her, briefly. She looked at Chica for a few seconds, arched her back, hissed, and took off. This has become known as a "Missy fit". We have seen a few of these now.

Missie is spending most of her time on the top bunk in Braden's room at present. I think she figures that this is as far away as she can get (horizontally and vertically) from this silly little animal that we have dared to let onto the property! I hope she comes around soon, as I rather miss my lap warmer when I am in the office working, and my furry friend that keeps me company when I go outside to hang washing, or stand in the kitchen cooking. Come on Missie, smarten up and show the silly puppy who is in charge!