Holidays

I am off work this week and am able to spend lot's of time with Jessie, which is great. I am using the time, to teach her some new tricks and she is responding very well to it. Of course she also enjoys that I am home and that we can just snuggle up.


Yesterday I was cleaning the house and Jessie decided to help by crawling first in the wardrobe to make it her new home and then to lat between the stuff I want to give to the charity shop:

Shortly after lunchtime, we went for a walk to toward the Angel of the North. It's about a 30 minutes walk from me but right before the "Angel" there is a huge field to play. I don't want to go to the same places over and over again and so I change them all the time. I took our football with us and Jessie had fun chasing it around the field...

I climbed on a tree and Jessie had to follow, this is what it looks like to have a dog on a tree...

Jessie and me

Flying Toller chasing the ball

Jessie and her Wubba

For today we have planned to meet with our friends Andrea (with Brogan and Katie) and Cat (With Copper and Tessa) to first go for walkies and later on have some yummy food.

Snow

It has been snowing a bit each morning for the last 2 days but not much and nothing stayed. This morning there was a bit left when I took Jessie for a walk at 5am (I had to go to the office for 2 hours at 7am, so I had to take Jessie out early). We had about 0.5 inch of snow on the ground and Jessie went crazy. Like me she loves the snow, she tried to catch the snow flakes falling from the sky and had a good time.

I wonder if she is as happy about having snow for her birthday as I would be?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

I can’t believe how fast time went by and that Jessie and me are a team for around 10 month now. Today she is turning 1 and she is one of the best things that ever happened to me.

I am very pleased with her and am extremely happy with her character. In general she is a very calm but attentive dog. She not easily fazed by anything and is extremely laid back. I was a bit worried at times, as she didn’t seem to have the “typical Toller energy or enthusiasm”, however, I have noticed this change in the last couple of weeks. It seems that as she is getting older, she is having more energy and also has more enthusiasm for both work and play. She still very laid back and calm but I can see the smile on her face and the enthusiasm in her eyes, each time I take the ball, dummy etc out. Once we are outside, it’s go, go, go but around the house she is calm and chilling and doesn’t mind a lazy day (apart from when she gets her hyper moments after being outside and wants to continue to go).

She is very people orientated and thinks she needs to go and say hello to everyone. While she happily goes off to greet people, she is very loyal towards me though and she wouldn't go of with just anyone if I am around. About 70% of the time I have her off the leash and she is great, never runs off to far. Training is going well, she knows the basic comands and behaves her self well. She easily picks up new tricks but also is the kind of dog that thinks "I do it BUT what is in it for me". She is easily motivated by food or her current favorite toy (at the moment this is a red ball). I am trying to teach her a new trick about once a week and to review the old once daily to keep her occupied. Once a week, we go out hiking for the day, which she absolutely enjoys. During the week, we alternate between obedience and tricks or dummy work (apart from our walks and doggy playdates).

For the next year I plan to get more active in obedience and maybe start competitive obedience with her, as well as agility. As Jessie is a gun dog, I also work with her in that area and she enjoys retrieving dummies but I don't think she will ever work in the field. Still I believe it is essential that I maintain her abilities as a gun dog and as this is what she is breed for.

Apart from that she is a happy girl and we look forward to extend our family by another Toller in the future.

And now for some pictures of the past:

8 weeks:

9 weeks

12 weeks


5 month

One wet Toller

I so love this picture that I took on Saturday, I can't belive she will be 1 in less then a week

Water Gate Forest Park

On Saturday morning I walked with the girls (Jessie and Katie) to Water Gate Forest Park (it takes about 45 minutes to walk there). The girls were absolutely exited and enjoyed the time a lot. We spend about 3 hours out and when I got back home I had to very wet and tired dogs...

First view of Water Gate Forest


Jessie had to climb on a log


so I tried to pose her for a nice picture


Katie and Jessie


Chasing each other











Both Jessie and Katie went crazy when they saw the water, racing up and down the shoreline...







One wet and tired Toller on our way back

Dummy Training

I did some dummy training with Jessie yesterday. She is very enthusiastic whenever I take the dummy out, bounces around and can't wait to retrieve it. The session was really good and Jessie was very focused, didn't get distracted by other dogs and showed good markings. Her marking has really improved and we had lot's of fun. Afterwards I let her go in the little river where she tolled some ducks and then went back home, after we where both muddy.

I took some pics with my phone and will try to upload them in the next couple days:

Nearly 12 month

In about 2.5 weeks, Jessie will celebrate her 1st Birthday. I can't belive she is already turning one and that she is with me for 10 month. Here area a couple pictures from last week (appologize for the low quality I used my mobile):


Katie and Jessie chilling on the blanket box




Jessie

That is my bone

Fall is great

Roaching

Come on mate let's take a nap

I am soooo cute

My Duckie

Let's have fun

another nap