First week

Jessie is with me now for 5 days and she is such a joy. She stopped whining the second night and is going to bed now without fuss. You don't hear during the night or in the morning and she waits until I am up before she makes a fuss and wants to get out of her crate.

She loves to cuddle up with me and we do play a lot. She currently has her "wild hour" at around 7pm, when she just goes crazy. We usually play then and I also take her outside, so she can release her energy.

I have also started clicker training with her. Sit and down works already quite well. She walks well on the leash and will start heel soon but I wanted her to get used to the leash first. She is a natural retriever and retrieves anything I throw (toys, paper rolls, balls) and she has learned the command "puppy kiss" and provides you with lot's of puppy kisses when I say it.
I have also started to take her outside, to get her used to passing cars etc.

Here are a couple more pictures:

Retrieving



Cute huh?

Who do you look at?



Sleepy

Night 1

The first night is over and she was pretty good. I put her in her crate at 10:30 last night and she was whining for no more then 5 minutes, before she went quiet (although I have to admit, it were probably the longest minutes of my life ). She woke up at 5 this morning and I took her out for a wee and then we continued to sleep until 7am. Since then she was outside in the yard (it's pouring rain) and after that she was under the couch fast asleep.
I figured she enjoys sleeping under the couch, she did that last night as well when I was on the phone with my friend Emi.

I think we are slowly figuring out the poo and wee thingy. We only had one wee in the house today compared to like 15 yesterday. She is now either letting me know by "dancing around" but most of the time she just goes outside and gets lot's of praise afterwards.
She has a mad 30-60 minutes phase usually every 2-3 hours in which she is like a little tornado and after that she is pooped out and needs a nap (like now, where she is lying next to me on the couch. Apart from that she seems to be alright to entertain herself on her own for a little while.

And here is a video from yesterday about 30 minutes after she moved in:

Day 1

This morning I went down to Huntingdon to pick up, I had planned to go down on Friday already but my car broke down, so I went today. It took me only about 4 hours to go down, I arrived at 8:45 this morning. Jessie was the last one from the litter still there, everyone else was picked up on Friday or send by plane to their new homes.

Jessie has been a star in the car, she was whining in the car for about 10 minutes and after that she settled down, played with her toy and eventually fell as sleep, as I didn't hear anything from her. She didn't get sick either. And this is Jessie on our way back home


Once we got home she took over the house like a tornado, bouncing around like she always been here and not a bit shy. I was really surprised, as my previous dogs where all a bit shy.
She picked up one of the toys and we played for a while...




Eventually she decided it's time for a nap and so I have a quick moment to post this online

Puppy proofing the home

Well I am puppy proofing the last bits and pieces of my home and am making sure no cable are around anywhere. So far I am all set for the little one I guess. I have food and water bowl, training pads for toilet training, lead, collar, puppy toys (including Kong), books on how to teach tricks and how to keep the dog busy throughout the day, I have checked out a vet and am actively looking for puppy classes, the crate is set up already for a couple weeks and the countdown to take Jessie home has started today.

Friday it is!

5 more days alone

Gee I am excited!

Happy New Year

Jessie is now 6 weeks old, only two more until she will be home. I honestly can't wait. I have bought a crate yesterday for her and it is now sitting in the living room proudly awaiting Jessie (obviously with some toys already in there). I am still waiting for some Kongs that I ordered and need to buy a food and water bowl before I am all set.

Time is runing

Pup is now 5 weeks old and weights about 76 oz. She was micro-shipped when she was four weeks old and is now on really puppy food. The breeder says all puppies are very alert and responsive now.

I guess I should stop calling her pup now and finally give her a name huh?
Finding a name for the little one was kind of difficult, after all it should be a name that is comfortable in both English and German. The list of possible names was long but it always came back to one name: Jessie! So I guess this will be it, little pup shall be known as Jessie from now on.

And here she is, meet little Jessie when she was just a couple hours old:

Nova Scotia ..... WHAT?

When I moved to the UK in December 2003 I had to leave my beloved cat Jacky behind as well as my nearly 2 year old Bernese Mountain dog Cora. As I only lived in a shared flat in the beginning, there was no chance for me to take them with me (and needless to say even if I wanted my mom wouldn't let me). I intended to try and get thm over ASAP but tragedy played into this, Jacky died about 6 month after I left and my mom and brother couldn't cope with Cora. My dad (who passed away in 2003 and me where the once who always looked after Cora and my mom couldn't cope with such a large dog, while working full time in different shifts. My brother on the other hand who had the time, couldn't be bothered as he had other things to do. So in the end my mom decided that the best would be to give Cora away :-( . I was sad about this but I could understand it from her point of view.

Ever since coming to the UK I wanted to get another dog. After Cora and our Collie-German Sheapard mix Rolf (he died in 1998) I was looking for a not too big dog, who is intelligent, very active, with a good temperament and working abilities. At some point in 2004 I came across the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and this dog with it's energetic zeal for life just fit my wishes. In 2004 I knew I wasn't ready for a dog due to still living in a flat but I did research on the breed etc. to get a better feeling for those dogs and the more I researched about them the more I fell in love with them. It was soon clear to me, my next dog will be a "Toller" or no dog at all.

In Spring/Summer 2007 I was ready to start "Operation Toller" as I call it and my aim was to find a Toller by the end of the year. I got in contact with several breeders outside the UK but it is just too difficult to import a Toller to the UK, so therefore I looked at breeders in the UK. I got in contact with the Fallowfen Kennel (http://www.fallowfen.co.uk/), who had an upcoming litter that was born 30/09/2007. Unfortunately there was no puppy for me that time but they had another litter upcoming in November that I was interested in.

On Friday 23/11/2007 at around 10am I got a call from them that the puppies where born and soon there after I had the first pictures of the litter. My little girl was the 3rd puppy born. Her parents are Fallowfen Foxy Madam (Amber) and Ale Rudy Fallowfen Lis Retrover (Rudy).

The puppies are now three weeks old and from what information I get (and pictures/videos) I see all puppies are doing well. My princess is currently 38oz and all puppies are becoming a lot more active, independently moving around,investigating and becoming vocal. I am really looking forward to having her home in about 5 weeks.
I was dog sitting for a friend last week and I just missed having a dog so much. I mean yes they are a lot of work but they give so much love...