Miss Betty Boo

My favourite kinda Sunday ... we took a walk down to the ancient megalith at Kits Coty with our girls at the weekend and it was so peaceful!

Betty, now 14 weeks old, has settled in beautifully and is fast becoming a superb companion dog.  She is a busy little pup, always sniffing, playing, exploring and stealing slippers.  She is also wonderfully obedient and eager to please, so  long may that continue!  I am constantly enchanted by how quick to learn and affectionate my new puppy girl is, completely true to the wonderfully 'biddable' reputation earned by this fabulous breed.  

Polly is proving herself to be an excellent big sister to Betty and a surprisingly calm teacher too.  We have started work on basic obedience training both in the garden and also on our daily walks and it seems that both girls appear to be learning from one another.  Polly taught Betty how to sit and lay down when asked and how to walk in a reasonably straight line on the lead without tripping Mum over, whereas Betty taught Polly to speed up her recall if she wants to share Mum's tasty treats!

They love to play together and even though she is still very small, Betty isn't in the least bit overwhelmed by her big sister ... in fact Betty is usually the instigator of  wrestling matches and daft games of 'bitey face'.

We are having so much fun now that Betty is old enough to come out on short walks with us.  It is a true joy to watch her and Polly dashing around so playfully together in the late Summer sunshine.

Welcome to our family little Betty Boo ... and by the way, where have you hidden my slipper this time?!

Mix and Match Walkies

On Sunday we popped Polly and Betty into the car to drive and drove to what we call 'Big Field', where they had an absolute blast indulging their inner goldie by romping through the long grass.

As Betty is only just coming up to fourteen weeks old, we are of course making sure she doesn't overdo her walks, so rather than walk to the field as we usually do with Polly, we drive and let Betty set the play pace once we're there.  Polly is having so much extra exercise with the little sister puppy play, she doesn't mind a shorter walk because it's so much more fun than walking on her own!  Polly still has a longer individual walk with me each day and Betty also has a mini daily lead walk to teach her the basics of heel walking and obedience ... (she's doing really well!)

With the mix of individual and joint walks for both dogs, dog walking is currently a bit of a shift system but at least a routine is beginning to fall into place ... and I am having so much fun watching them explore the big wide world together!

:-)

Puppy Steps

Little Betty has quickly become one of the family.  She's bright, funny, affectionate and keeps us very entertained. She and Polly are now firm friends, spending much of their day playing tug and bitey face together, then snuggling together when they're worn out; they really are a daft pair, great fun to watch. Betty has without doubt, reinvigorated Polly's inner puppy!

As she's now completed her course of inoculations, we decided to try Betty on her first short walk along the road to our local playing field yesterday and I am happy to say, she had a lovely time! She wasn't in the least bit concerned about the big wide world, taking everything in her rather bouncy stride, tail wagging excitedly and daft grin on her face the whole time. 

Luckily the playing field was completely empty when we arrived, so our girls had a chance to play chase together and we had a perfect opportunity to practice a few recalls with them; I've decided it's best to start recall training as early as possible this time!  Betty's recall was super speedy and Polly, keen not to be shown up by her baby sister, paid close attention and raced back when called too ... not quite as quickly as 'Betty-come-come' though!

Betty-Come-Come!

So that's the first lead walk done and dusted and I was delighted with how well it went. The spot of lead training I've been doing in the garden to help Betty acclimatize to wearing harness and lead, paid off.  I have absolutely no idea how I will manage walking both girls together on my own in the future (given that I have never walked two dogs together before!) but as I don't plan to attempt that until Betty is used to walking on a lead and ready to take longer walks, I won't be worrying about it just yet. Hopefully I will work out a practical walking schedule for both girls in due course, but meanwhile, when Dad's home to help us, we'll weave in a short daily play walk for both girls to enjoy together and Polly will of course, continue her usual daily walks with me.

Small steps and a new learning curve, but I'm sure we'll gradually sort everything out and have plenty of fun along the way!

:-)