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

She is so gorgeous, we are all smitten! They do match quite well don't they? All black with varying amounts of white. Ollie was the only one where I chose the colour. Dusty was a rescue who was dropped off in a hurry by his previous home and I didn't know what he looked like until he arrived.

Because I couldn't commit to buying a pup until quite late due to fears about OH's job, I didn't get a choice with Tia. The fact she is black and was the smallest bitch meant no one else wanted her. Their loss! I think if I had known what she was going to be like I would have chosen her anyway.

I need to manage my "Arriving home" strategy slightly better. Twice now I have made the mistake of coming home from work and going straight into the back garden/kitchen to see the dogs who are beside themselves with glee that I'm home. Having done this I then leave them in the kitchen/garden to get changed into my dog walking outfit. This has left Tia absolutely distraught in the kitchen and both times she has had a poo in the kitchen which is not like her at all. From now on I will try to slink silently in through the front door and appear in the kitchen in my dog walking outfit ready to go. My arrival home and then (very brief) disappearance was just too much to bear!

I thought I had done very well and was getting changed, but she heard me talking (very quietly) to the OH. No mess though, just the screaming ad dabs! It's the only time she does this, if I'm home I can leave her in her crate and take the boys out and she's fine. I will change in silence next time!

We had a lovely walk though. Tia met a beautiful Doodle called Rosie who was very friendly and wanted to play. Tia kept getting knocked over but she's used to that with Ollie, she still kept bounding up to Rosie asking for more.

On our walk this morning Tia met a gang of Collies and greeted 2 of them very politely. The 3rd was giving off "Bog off puppy" vibes so she stayed away from him.

She doesn't wear her harness in the house any more as she ALWAYS comes when she's called now, so I don't need a handle on her back to get her out of situations.

This is Tia learning to skateboard at our final preschool class today. She's a natural!

That's pretty impressive, when I was feeding my dogs, we ended up having to feed them in separate rooms, otherwise Conrad (the much larger and younger dog) would take Sharkas food.

We introduced all the pups to agility equipment and had them walking up ramps and over plastic sheeting. They had a vet nurse show everyone how to familiarise their pups with being examined so a trip to the vet is less traumatic. And a really long play session, Tia was playing with the Great Dane who at 15 weeks is the same size as Ollie! It was our last class, proper puppy classes start next week. The preschool has been brill, well worth every penny.

We had a lovely walk this morning. First of all Tia was walking about 30 metres ahead of me when a jogger wearing fluorescent orange came puffing up behind me. As he neared Tia she spooked and started to bolt away from me. I called her and waved my arms about so she could see where I was and crossed my fingers very tightly. I saw her brace herself and come running towards me, past the jogger and fling herself into my arms. About 5 minutes later 2 joggers came towards us and she stepped towards them sniffing the air quite confidently. We met lots of dogs, which went well other than a 10 month old Bulldog puppy who was like a furry tank and he terrified her. She did creep up behind him and sniff his bottom as he waddled off though. Then we met a bunch of mountain bikers. I didn't call her back, she just stood at the side of the track and watched them go past.

You might be wondering how I fitted all of this into a 17 minute walk ( as she is now 17 weeks old). In the interests of socialisation our walks are a bit longer than that, probably twice as long as they should be. I have decided that on balance stuffing as much as possible into a slightly longer walk is better for her development. In 17 minutes we wouldn't have seen any of the things we saw today.

Here is a pic of all 3 of them after today's marathon.

She's a stunner

Keep up the good work What a wee cracker.

Love the photo

Thank you, I agree!!

Cheers, we are having a fab time. I'm very glad my OH has a sense of humour though. Yesterday when I was at work Tia was out in the garden with him whilst he repotted his little Olive tree and lined its new pot with bubble wrap to keep the frost out. He turned his back for 5 minutes and retuned to find Tia running around with the bubble wrap in her mouth and the Olive tree lying on the grass out of the pot. Then later OH swept the chimney and "hid" a bag of soot from Tia that wouldn't fit in the bin, behind the bin. He returned to find the soot all over the yard and all walked into the kitchen. As I said to him, at least it didn't stain her paws!

A couple of weeks ago I took Tia to visit a friend with a large garden. We were sitting on the patio drinking coffee and Tia went off up the garden to explore. After a short while she was bouncing around with a plant in her mouth, looking very pleased with herself....and rightly so!! She had been very clever and climbed into the pond and pulled one of the pots containing a plant right out in it's pot, shook the soil all over the grass, liberated the plant and taken it for a run around the garden. How we laughed!!

I'm just in the process of getting Tia's education for the next few months sorted out. We are booked into the COA for a clicker based puppy class for six weeks starting next Saturday. Sadly I won't be able to to go beyond this with COA because of the times of their courses. So I've found a couple of KC accredited training clubs that are running puppy classes. One starts next Monday and the other starts in January so we will have two on the go. That means that if my shifts clash with the class then we will get at least one class per week, often two. It also means we have an almost endless supply of puppies for Tia to play with!

We have fireworks going off all around us with the noise even coming down the chimney. The dogs are not even pausing from chomping on their pizzle. Perhaps our firework CD worked. Phew!

That's great news!

Cheetah is bomb proof because in the old house, I had my studio set up, and so she grew up on very loud music.

I'd definitely get one of those CD's if/when I get another dog.

I don't know if the CD made a difference to Tia, it s possible she would have been fine anyway. But it was certainly worth doing anyhow. It's called Clix Noises and Sounds CD. I was playing it at an outrageously loud volume after a few sessions. Normal is number 6 on the dial and I had it at 22.

Here is a video of Tia in her paddling pool this morning playing with the hose. You can see how incredibly shiny she is.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xF0pWImh1Fs

I went out with the OH this morning to look a multi fuel stoves, so Tia came too. She did a brilliant "Settle" and lay down by my feet. I was quite a narrow showroom so other people had to step over her and she didn't move. Everyone who went to stroke her got a lick and wag of her tail.