A break in transmission

Gosh, where did the last few weeks go? I can't believe Christmas is nearly upon us. Grey doesn't know anything about Christmas, so there's a blessing! He'll not be disappointed with another usual walk and a usual breakfast!

We had a sad even befall us. Grey shared our house with Rock. Our four and a half year old maine coon cat. He had only recently bee diagnosed with the heart condition HCM and was doing really well on the meds. He died suddenly at home two weeks ago while Grey and I were out having his dental plate looked at in Hastings. We're so sad as Rock was such a wonderful cat and companion.

A few days after Rock's passing we were notified of two littermate maine coon boys who were up for rehoming due to bereivement. So Ollie and Jay now came to live with us. They've been here five days and have started to settle in fine. They're lovely soft cats. They're being introduced to grey slowly and so the baby gates have gone back up. So far so good. Just mixing up the scents at the moment and getting them used to the sound of the other.

We also had flu hit the house. So much of last week, Grey's walk was a real struggle. I ended up climbing back to bed along with Grey for the afternoon and evening.

Lead training has been going well. Still tiny steps and it all depends on how excited he is. But slowly and surely he is starting to show signs of how it will be to have a dog that walks nicely beside me. We had a nice session out on Minnis today. His recalls are good again. I sat out on the sea wall and called him back on the whistle leaving him a nice little prize of hotdog sausage on the wall beside me, then releasing him back. I did it about 10 times, and no fail. Did some loose lead on the sea wall which was really surprising. I also added in some sharp right turns and about turns at the end. I was given this tip from a gundog trainer I've been talking to. Right turns keep them closer wheras the left turn (also a methiod oft used by gundog trainers) pushes through the dig, but away. So I'm working Turid's method for loose lead walking and then I'm adding in a tighter 'heel' where he has to follow me more closely.

Gummy chops

Grey's lost most of his baby teeth now. He's ever so gummy, bless him. No idea where they've all gone to, perhaps he's eaten them! Now we need to monitor how the adult teeth come through and see if any further action needs to be taken.

We went to puppy class last night and we got a 'well done!' card and I got a chocolate. Grey got an extra bit of sausage. He did the down stay while I lay on the floor which was fun practicing this week in the park. He was much calmer in class in general and mostly sat or lay watching me rather than the other dogs. He managed to 'leave' of sausage on the floor for 15 secs and also a down stay of 20 secs in class too. So amazingly well done for a young pup.

I had been thinking of starting him with puppy gundog training, but might think again on it, as some friends have said they think he's too young for all that yet. They're right, there's a whole life of time for that kind of training and we can just carry on working on the basics and enjoying him being a pup.

He's also been much much better on the lead the last few days. I think having the back up of the gentle leader head collar has been brilliant. Just to get through those explosive 5 minutes where not even roast chicken can stop him from dragging me down the street. After he'd calmed down and got used to the idea of not being way up front, I took it off and just did the usual leash training on his flat collar. Not had to go back to the Gentle Leader in days.