Just thought that i would give a little update on barley and puzzle. Puzzle is doing great, she is coming up to 9 months on the 9th of march, time has flown by. She is such a quick learner, she has learnt lots of tricks and commands, most can be done by voice and hand signals, much better than barley. We have been working on the stop whistle and are making great progress, just now increasing the distance between us, she can do sit and down by whistle command. We are both learning our left's and right's, she is getting the hang of it, it is more me who makes the mistake and gets it wrong. Her SAR training has been coming on great, making great progress, more handler error than dog error as usual. Heelwork is still a work in progress but we are getting there, some days better than others. She is such a pleasure to train and work with, she is great. We have our first obedience show in april, so we have been doing lots of work to prepare for that, more training me than her but we will get there. Barley has been doing well the past week or so, no more limping. Not been doing much work with him only simple touches and stuff like that just to keep his mind busy. He is not happy about being on a diet, but its good for him. He had to start back on piriton again this week as he had started itching again, it has helped him as he has currently stopped which is good. he has benn getting on really well with puzzle, no growls for a month or so at the least, they are now starting to play more and generally he is accepting her more, she knows his boundaries and when not to go near him which is good. Most of his walks have been at unsocialbe evening hours where we are less likely to encounter other vdogs or people and with headcollar/halti on as he can not be trusted. We still eventually want to move him onto a raw diet but since he has 8 months worth of food already stored in the house, he has a lot to get through before we start think about moving him to raw. Things have been so different since puzzle arrived, i now can not imagine life without 2 dogs, it just seems natural. Getting puzzle has been great for me, it may sounds like i am getting bored of barley, but it is nice to have a dog i can take for walks and let off lead without the worry that she will run off, a dog i can train and teach with no trouble as she loves to learn and to please and most of all a dog who is friendly to everyone and everything she meets, she just generally loves life. Barley is still the best though, he has his best points, like competing at crufts, we would have never got there if we just had puzzle, barley is special and different, i can't not love him as he is just a great dog in the house, he can have his moment but he is allowed to.
Re: Gingernut and grumpy update Sounds like they and you are all doing really well Pretty exciting to have your first obedience comp coming up in April!
Re: Gingernut and grumpy update Thats just lovely Annabel, you sound really positive, Otis is a couple of months older than Puzzle, sounds like me ,you are really enjoying him, Its great at this age, they are over the worst of puppy biting, and growing up, he sounds just like Otis friendly and loving, sweet dogs. Take care, Maggie x
Re: Gingernut and grumpy update Anabelle you are so committed to both your dogs,and do a great job of looking after and loving BOTh of them?Really great the SARS training is going so well,we haven't seen any pics for a while.if you have a chance when you get back from your trip pop a few on,thanks for your news xxx
