Dog

Enjoying a good challenge is what life is all about. As if looking after our three children isn’t enough of a challenge we’ve taken up the helm as dog owners. Lucy, our Working Cocker Spaniel has been with us now for two whole days (two and a half if we include the sleeping she did with us on Saturday afternoon and the poo on the kitchen floor this morning).

So far, she seems to be settling in really well: She’s getting the hang of her name and responding (sometimes) to it when called. She is starting to understand the command no to some degree and we’ve also been teaching her wait as command because sometimes we don’t want her to sit down but we want her still like to remove her lead for example.

Wait is working somewhat, although trying to tell a twelve week old puppy to stand still is a problem in itself, so I’m sure this one will work better over time. We haven’t started with sit yet (or at least I haven’t) because we want to concentrate on the name and toilet training first – Get those right and we’ll move on to something else.

At the moment, we seem to be having more success with using the rug in the lounge or the floor in the kitchen than the garden as intended, but we’ve got to give it time – Something which I unfortunately am short of, being an impatient kind of person. She is on the other hand doing really well with night times and sleeping. Settling down in her bed when we go to bed at about midnight, she is sleeping through until about 7 AM and is managing to hold herself for the toilet until then. The only problem is that upon waking, she is so excited to see me or whoever else greets her, that some of the stored wee usually comes out – Doh. Bladder control comes with age I guess.

I took her on her first public outing last night to Pets at Home to pick up a Pee Post. I was actually after the pheromone spray but they don’t stock it. She was a little angel in the car and hopefully she stays like it as we end up carting around the south of England visiting people quite often. She got out of the car with ease, however after that decided she’d rather be carried around the store. The smell of hundreds of other dogs was obviously a bit too much for her to take in, as she was shaking a bit to start with, but she came around to it after a few minutes.

It’s early days still, but I love her loads already. She is super cute and she seems so loving and affectionate to me, Nicky and the girls after just these two and a bit days – I’m looking forward to once we get some solid training into her, and we can enjoy her as a young puppy dog and the rest of her life, go out and do things and see places together.

Keep your eyes on my Flickr feed for pictures of her.