Whoop! Whoop! New puppy alert!!!! (Malinois) General Chat

Tia's friend Chip came to play today...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17ADyVp49D0

Well I am back at work tomorrow working a 1200-2200 shift so I can take the boys out for a long walk and Tia for a very short walk around the park before I head off. Then my OH is in charge. Tia is a bit squitty at the moment because I was far too generous with the peanut butter in her Kong, so that's a slight complication. But she's been on chicken and potato today so should be fine by tomorrow. The crate is a godsend and can't remember how I managed without one when Ollie was a pup...because he was a total brat! I don't actually shut her in there much as she spends a lot of time in it with the door open, but the OH has that option if she isn't settling down.

Well that went better than I was expecting. I thought the housetraining would all go to pot because OH is busy working so can't concentrate on whether Tia's tanks need emptying all of the time. SHE'S NOT HAD A SINGLE ACCIDENT IN THE HOUSE! The back door has been open and Tia has been taking herself outside, without fail.

Yesterday OH had to go into the office so I took Tia to my mother's for the day. She spent the day playing with her 12 month old Collie x and didn't have a single accident in the house. By all accounts she didn't miss me at all, which is a good thing, but hey what about my feelings!

Our daily "walks" have been pure socialisation, with me seeking out more and more challenging places to go. Considering she is only 12 weeks old and has only been on the ground for a week she's brilliant. Today we walked across a busy garage forecourt, past the MOT garage with all the bustle and noise coming from a busy garage with a man using a cutting torch and another man using a welder, through the village centre past the busy shops, stood chatting, got fussed by numerous strangers, had buses and vans passing by at close range. All taken completely in her stride. Hmmmmmn where to next?

Multi storey car parks
lifts
train
bus
stables
cows
sheep
for starters

Excellent! Thanks for that, we'll put them on our list. Feel free to make any other suggestions about our progress.

Stiles, gates, cattle grids

It is AMAZING how many dogs are freaked out by kissing gates I discovered after going on a group walk a few years ago.

We are going to do a multi storey car park and a lift this afternoon.

Outside your local supermarket on a saturday afternoon ,a carboot sale a market ,outside a school...

Cheers Murf, I'll put them on the list. We have just been into Leatherhead, walked up the four floors of the multi storey car park, come down in the lift, walked through the shopping centre at lunchtime, popped into the petshop and come home. A bit of lunch and now Zzzzzzzzzzz!

And your local pets at home for the little furries at floor level ...

Good idea, although she doesn't react to my chickens....yet. ;-)

Well me and my big mouth! Tia has just noticed the chickens and touched the electric fence (for the second time). Poor squealing little pup! :-(

Eeeeek!

At least she is not likely to cock her leg on it!

No, being zapped on the nose was bad enough!

We went to our second Pre-school class today which was really useful. All of the pups were much more boisterous today, but none were cowed or intimidated. We mingled amongst a herd of pushy, confident hand reared lambs. They weren't at all frightened of the pups and went marching up to them in a quite aggressive manner. One grandma sheep inspected each pup and if they looked her in the eye she gently butted them. Tia got butted and pushed over and has decided she doesn't like sheep at all. She sat on my feet and ignored them.

We then went over a footbridge over the M25 and practised recall across part of it. Then we went to another part of the farm where there were some rams in a field. They charged over and started butting the fence next to where we were standing. They we practised recall away from the rams. The pups were very glad to get away from them and be reunited with their owners!

This was our first visit to the river, as you can see Tia took it in her stride.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ByIhyJQugo4

Today we went for another walk up the multi storey car park, down in the lift and then around the market.

Here are some pics of the gorgeous girl taken today...

She is MEGA cute

Most people think she is a GSD X, I didn't realise how rare black ones are!

I don't think they are "rare", more "less common" if you see what I mean

Most people think of a GSD as black and tan/gold/red etc and don't realise they also come in black, white, sable etc. I have been asked a few times if Zak is "pure GSD" or even if he is a Malinois

I quite like having a "less common" colour, even if a lot think she is a cross breed of some description.

Loads of people have asked me if Ollie is a Dobe x Lab because you don't see many black GSPs either