Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas with love form all of us and Twiglet!

Santa Paws

Twiglet was not sure what to make of Santa Paws!

Round the reservoir

Twiglet is allowed 35 minutes free run now, which - at a brisk pace - gets us right round the reservoir,  one of our favourite walks.  The sun shone after 4 weeks of rain - a real bonus!

Twiglet is 7 months old now and weighs 23Kg.

 

Recovered

Twiglet has recently recovered from her spay and is raring to go!

Here she is after a muddy free run - all free runs are muddy at the moment as it has rained non-stop for  MONTH!

Here we are at Manchester Christmas markets.  She was excellent and it was a good opportunity to practise food-refusal (lots of bits of food on the floor!)

On the lookout

Twiglet, with her favourite toy in her mouth looking out of the back door.

Two in a bed

Tatze and Twiglet have plenty of beds - but they still love to squash into the smallest - that's pack animals for you!

Jacket

Twiglet passed her 6 month assessment with flying colours and now has her posh new jacket to wear out and about.  Here she is in front of a Christmas display at the garden centre.  We practised lifts, open tread stairs, lying sensibly while mum had a cappuccino in the cafe  and ignoring lots of cute toddlers!

Teddy

Puppy on the roof?!

Twiglet shouts at her reflection in the skylight.  I like the way her ears flap as she woofs :)

Phew, we just had an incident in town - more embarrassing than worrying, I think. We were walking past a bull-type terrier when it started going wild, snarling snapping, barking and baring its teeth. Twiglet was brilliant and I was concentrating on walking her calmly past - when I fell! I managed to have the presence of mind to keep hold of her lead but soon had a crowd round me *blush* they were very kind and helped me up and Twiglet then looked at the dog (which was still going mental) and woofed, but was soon re-focussed - good girl! I have two bruised knees and a lot of wounded pride. She recovered in no time and we finished our walk and bus ride home. Here she is now (Yellow Lab/GR 23 weeks) lying down and surveying the garden in the sunshine with Tatze (pet black Lab).

My thought was - what if she were a guide dog and her owner couldn't see the bull terrier?

Sunday morning free run

A lovely Autumn morning walk :)

Big girl!

Twiglet has GROWN!  I had her weighed yesterday and she weighs 20.3Kg!  She's 23 weeks old.

Here are two videos of her hoolying while Tatze watches on :)

A walk in the park

Teething

Twiglet is losing a lot of teeth at the moment and her adult teeth are coming through.

This is her favourite teething chew.

First train journey

Twiglet had her first train ride today.  We have been sitting watching trains and getting on and off stationary trains, but this was her first 'proper' journey.  She did really well.  The gap between the train and the platform was really wide and she negotiated it without a second glance.  Then she settled happily at our feet on the journey.  We went to Manchester and worked on her pigeon distraction plus having a good look at escalators and a practice in lifts.  (GDs don't go on escalators but need to be able to negotiate past them to the steps/lifts - they are good at indicating the lift button too)

We then had a coffee in a little independent coffee shop - very nice.  Twiglet's reward was a nice rawhide chew while we had our coffee and toastie.

Twiglet loves her free runs!

Snoozing with Tatze

19 weeks old today.

Meet up

We had a meet up with lots of Guide Dog owners today.  
Twiglet had at least eight excellent role models to learn from.

She loved it!


When she got home a good long snooze with Tatze was in order.

A message from Helen - Guide Dog owner

Helen, a Guide Dog owner friend of mine on facebook said this about her dog, Rosie -

"I wanted to share with everyone who helps guide dogs on their journey just what it is like to be a guide dog owner.

A simple example..at the shops;
Without a dog.
In the shopping centre its busy. Lots of noise,people walking in all directions. I have bits of vision so i see bits of arms feet bags faces. I feel someone beside me. Hear someone behind me. Im concentrating very hard to stay upright, to not walk into anybody and get to where I want to go. Im creeping slowly,carefully. Concentrate!
I walk outside into the sunlight im completely blinded..

WITH A DOG..
I step out into the sunlight,im blinded. I look down and can make out Rosie my gd. She is scanning. I tell her "left' and off we go. She strides confidently forward finding the way through the busy high street. People see her and part to let her through. I feel completely relaxed. Im enjoying the sun on my face and being out with my dog. People all around are looking at her,admiring her. I look down and she is looking side to side checking all around us is clear. My heart aches with love for her. She is like a Guiding Light. I just need to follow. I know that if there is not enough room for us she will stop. If there is a kerb or something on the path she will stop or lead me round it. To walk with her is a joy.
A simple thing but just one of many wonderful things she brings to my life. If i wrote them all down we would be here a long time! So I would just like to say thankyou to you all so so much. Guide dogs really do change lives xx

Picture shows light yellow lab gd Rosie smiling."

Isn't Rosie gorgeous? What a smile! Us puppy walkers go through a lot of emotions through the year. Parting with the pup is total heartbreak. I tell Twiglet, as I did with Gypsy, every evening when I kiss her goodnight "You are not my dog, but you are going to have a very special owner to take care of and they will love you just like I do."

But reading Helen's story and those of people like her makes it a journey I am happy and proud to take.

17 weeks old

Guard of honour

It was Guide Dog owner Robin's funeral today. Guide dogs and pups formed a guard of honour. Twiglet is second from the left, she was the youngest there.   Dogs lined both sides of the road. It was the saddest sight seeing GD Gig following his daddy's coffin.

16 weeks old

Little Monkey!

I bought the dogs a toy 'newspaper' from Asda (great toy, only £1) - guess who won't let the big dogs near it?  Little monkey! 

(Zaba is two years old and best friend to Tatze, he's staying here for the week while my friend is on holiday)

Garden play

With Twiglet in crocapup mode!

Learning to pose

On the decking in the sunshine.

Lookout

Bite inhibition

Pups need to learn to inhibit their bite, especially on human skin.  They can very easily chew up a raw chicken wing - so our fingers would have no chance!

You don't do this by stopping all biting but by stopping any chomping.

It works, here is Twiglet practising her bite inhibition.

I've found my place in the sun

.... and it looks like a magic carpet!

Oh oh!

♩ ♪ ♫ ♬   "There may be trouble ahead!!"    ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

Twiglet and Tatze

Tatze is a great 'big sister' and puppy sitter to Twiglet :)

Time for work

Twiglet is 12 weeks old tomorrow, the time has flown!

We go for two training walks a day now, one for walking and one for sitting and watching the world go by. She's such a good girl during these sessions, you'd think she was twice her age. 

In the evening she turns into a total nutcase lunatic crocapup - but she's such fun too, we end up laughing our socks off at her antics!  Neither Tatze nor Gypsy had the 'wall of death' bum tucking zoomies anything like Twiglet does!