First Walks

Finally time to be allowed down on the ground and time to introduce her to the collie crew who are Mollys regular weekend walking companions.

We hoped introductions would go OK and I think it is safe to say they went very well indeed with Chance behaving herself really well off lead and all the dogs accepting her with no problem at all.

In fact the puppy appeared to fit right in and even stole the toy a few times and was persued by collies!!

Is it really this way down this muddy path?

Yep - get used to the mud puppy!

Molly, Chance, Grace and Poppy.

Tiny Chance following behind with Poppy.

Pretty Poppy

Chance with her Auntie T

Chance and Molly have their first try on the posing tree.

Leo posing master shows how it should be done.

Sisters having a play.

Heading home with a very tired puppy.

Potty puppy!

Pups can have fun with absolutely anything!!

Homecoming

The scary day arrived and it was time to bring baby Chance home.  I took a friend with my for puppy cuddling duties on the way home and we set off to start this new chapter with a tiny little bundle of black fur!

Joint hellos with Auntie H.

Teeny tiny puppy!

 Synchronised sleeping.

 Its a big scary world out there!

 The grass is nearly up to my belly!

 Hello big sister - want to play?

 Settling for a more gentle getting to know each other.

Poorly girl

Molly has had a few episodes where she has been sick or off her food - and generally a trip to the vets for some injections has sorted her out - but not this time.  She had been a bit off colour and quiet for a couple of days but started to be sick Thursday night as we went to bed and was sick all through the night.  We got to the vets first thing in the morning and she had some injections but the vet warned if she was not drinking by lunchtime they needed to see her again as she would be getting dehydrated.

By lunchtime she was still very sad and quiet and not drinking so back to the vets and they admitted her to put her on a drip.  That evening she was still judged not well enough so I moved her to the emergency vets overnight.  When I went to pick her up in the morning the vets were not totally happy with her so asked me to take her back to my regular vets for their opinion.  We went there and they said I could take her home but needed to bring her back if she was still not well later on.  As soon as we got home she was sick - hmmmm. She was exhausted from being in the emergency vets - apparently there was a dog who cried all night and didn't settle - called Molly.  We stayed home for a few hours for her to get some sleep but she was still being sick so back to regular vets and then back to emergency vets overnight again.

On Sunday morning the vet reported she had once again not slept but had not been sick overnight until once just before I had phoned!  She said it was my choice about picking her up or leaving her there and of course I went to get her.  Not a great start when she was sick again in reception as soon as they bought her out but she was being sick less so I kept her out all day.

On Monday I gave her tiny amounts of food every hour or so and she kept that down - very skinny and tired but finally doing better.

She had a blood test when first ill and the results indicated probably pancreatitis - so a huge change in her diet needed to low fat to keep her well.

Taking a Chance

I will freely admit to not being a risk taker and generally let life plod along rather than try new things.  So when a friend had a litter of puppies there was no way I was going to have one .......

....... sometimes though other people know better and my friend decided that not only was I having one - she picked her for me and I was introduced to my future puppy.  Pups were born on 28th August 2012.

 I was not totally convinced that Molly was going to accept a new puppy into our life together but agreed to give it a go and see how we got on.

As Molly was going to the house where the pups were we agreed to do early introductions so by the time puppy came home Molly was at least slightly familiar with her.

Here Molly meets her new sister for the first time.  I felt pup needed a name which meant something and as my first ever puppy (I have always taken older recycled dogs) the name Chance just seemed to fit.

Testing times

After a good few weeks classes it was finally time for Molly to do her bronze good citizen test.  She lined up with another 5 dogs - amusingly the rest were all black and white - four collies and a springer spaniel.

The examiner was Bob Haynes who set a strict level and as a result only three of the dogs passed.  I was very pleased with Molly who did not put a paw wrong and especially pleased with her stay as we did them individually and she was clearly not totally comfortable with someone with a clipboard stood closer to her than I was - but she listened to me and stayed - good girl Molly!

The test was on Tuesday night and the following Thursday we went to the Silver class to see how Molly got on with the more difficult exercises.  She coped fine with a 2 minute stay instead of the 1 minute she had been used to but was not at all sure about me leaving her 10 paces for a recall.  That was the only real problem so when I heard the Silver test was the following week we decided to give it a try.  I did some work in the week adding distance to her recall and by the test night knew she could wait if she was comfortable but it was a bit of a lottery!!

Again there were six dogs lined up for the test

Unfortunately another dog moved on the stay and when the handler went back (as instructed by the examiner) Molly sat up so she failed on that part.  I was extremely pleased with her though as she passed every other part of the test including the recall and the playing.  Altogether she was a confident happy girl who worked her heart out for me and I certainly can't fault that!

Clicker tricks

Not the best video in the world but we were messing around the other night and I decided to try and get a quick video of a few of her tricks.

I love the way her tail just never stops!!