Friday, 16 January 2009

First 24 hours home

Wow!! What a day!! For Daisy, I mean...

The sweetie has been SOOOOO upset at losing mum, siblings and home-as-she-knew-it :O(

The great news is she's settling in. As I type, she's gone to sleep in her pen.

The drive home and first night were heart-breaking as it dawned on her that SOMEthing was up. AMAZingly she slept right through the night once we'd all gone to bed, and even held her poo till the morning (think that was probably more from stress than anything else). So far, she's been to class with us, met some new people, cried and whimpered quite a lot but also settled very frequently, and often after only a few minutes, and toileted outside a few times. Bless - it's HARD being a puppy!

Fred seems distressed by her distress. He keeps taking himself off to places where he feels safest / he can escape: front door mat (usually reserved for when he's feeling too warm) and our bed. Once she settles, he settles. It's hard being a sensitive lurcher-type...
An interesting, subtle observation I saw in class was when I asked Freddy to lie down, he was VERY reluctant, and kept glancing over at her crate where she was whining. He looked worried, and obviously didn't feel safe enough to lie down. To his credit, he did!

Anyway, here are two pictures of them first meeting off-lead together. Notice Freddy's eyes in the second picture as she tries to crawl on top of him. He would have told her off had I not verbally praised him for tolerating "this little oik" (the words in his head, I reckon!). So far, touch wood, he's being incredibly good.


Heh heh, Freddy looks like a demon in the first pic!!







Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Early days in a puppy's life :o)

Thought I'd post some pics of Daisy during her first 7 weeks of life...
I THINK this is her brother, Elvis, with her sister, Coco at 2 days old:


This is her, just born:


Already checkng out retrieve objects at 5 weeks old!!

Don't know what these two look so grumpy about...!
This is soon-to-be Big Brother Fred, with mum, Cherry. They don't live together, but they do get on well. Cherry seems to hero worship Freddy, always following him when they're out on walks together!


That'll do for now. Don't want to bore you all to death!!

The pups' family background

The pups are ready to go to their new homes now, and after a few failed attempts at getting this blog up and running, it's time for a long overdue history on the pups short little lives...




Cherry - Mum. 5 years old, Westie (West Highland White). 1st litter, and she's been a BRILLIANT mum!!




Dazzle - Dad. 1 year old, Miniature Poodle. 1st time mating. Unbelievably good with the pups. Coco really takes after him, in looks and personality :O)



"Auntie" Sadie is a 10 and a half year old "lean-on" berger (Leonberger)- she's lurrrvely!!

Tessa - Maternal Grandma. Westie, 7 years old (going on 8). Cherry was from her first litter.


Elvis - 1 hour old!




Elvis - 2 hours old, and Daisy - just born!


*Sadly, since I first wrote this, my favourite Leonberger in the whole wide world passed away peacefully at home. Sadie was the best advert for powerful, big dogs you could ever hope for. As her owner, Yolande, put it, Heaven has just gained another angel.


Sunday, 4 January 2009

Welcome to the pups!


Mum, Cherry, and new baby, Daisy.