Soon we will be three :-)

I am back from Germany since Saturday. The car ride back was uneventful and Jessie was as good as gold on both rides. On our way back we stopped at Fallowfen Kennel near Newark to not only look at their litter of puppies but also to select our new family member. What can I say the puppies are gorgeous and we picked our little girl. When I saw the initial pictures of the litter I fell in love with bithch number one (see link) because of her markings. When I saw the puppies, I went for bitch number 2 inititally but changed my mind after birch number 2 continued to come and climb on my lap. It was as if she was telling me, that she was the one, so I changed my mind and picked her instead (although I was told she is much more timid then her sister). We will go back and pick her up around 8th of July and then our family is complete for quite a while.

Now the big question is what will I name her? When I thought about a pup last year, the name Faith was strong on my mind (mainly because Jessie is so faithful) but since puppies mum is called Faith, I can#t call her that. Other names that made it on the list so far are:

Aspen
Ronja - current favorite
Kaja
Cora
Sasha

I keep you updated on the name search and will upload my own puppy pictures over the weekend, as well as some more from Germany

Germany

Jessie and me are in Germany now since Tuesday night. We left at 17:00 on Monday evening and drove down to Folkstone. We got through alright, with enough stops and Jessie was doing fine throughout the journey. It was pretty hot when we were leaving, so I had some concerns about her in the car but she was fine. We arrived in Folkstone at midnight, checked in at the tunnel and then the two of us went to sleep for a couple hours in the car. The train was leaving at 5.46am on Tuesday and within 30 minutes we arrived in Calais, France. It was a bit chilli over there and we drove via France, Belgium and Netherlands over to Germany. Things went well until about 100km before we arrived at my mums. That’s when the car broke down and we had to be rescued. So we arrived very late at my mums on Tuesday. Jessie settled in very well, she follows me everywhere and puts her nose into everything. Here are some pictures from our journey so far.

River in my moms neighbourhood

A true Toller…. in so many ways

It’s nearly a week since I wanted to post this, I just never got around to it. Jessie is doing great, in classes last Saturday she was brilliant but also showed me that after 3 repetitions things are boring for her and she wants something new (typical toller). We did recall work and all dogs were on a long training lead for that, all dogs? No a little red dog was the exception, she was the last to do the exercise and Sue our trainer thought she would be alright without and there was no need for the lead. Of course my little girl was alright, she is doing well with her recall anyway. Funny thing was, that Jessie who goes to say hello to anyone, had no intention to go with Sue anywhere (or with anyone else), the moment I turned around, she was by my side. I had to tell her to stay, which she did and walk away and then call her and she came flying to me.

Sunday morning we went up to Water Gate Forest Park, we had a couple of hours of walking, tolling and playing until little girl was tired. There were baby ducks (11) and other dogs were in the water too. The duck kept their distance the whole time until Jessie went in and suddenly she was surrounded by baby ducks and their parents again typical Toller). It was too cute (no pictures unfortunately), she completely ignored them thank god but it was funny that they only came once the Toller joined.

On Monday it was BH here and I decided to take Jessie down to the beach. The weather wasn’t too nice but still OK. Jessie enjoyed her time, she loved the beach and went crazy as usual. We also walked along the river side and did some retrieving work and on the way back she played with a couple other dogs.

last year Jessie was able to walk all the way down to the beach at this are but it's fenced of now and Jessie was keep looking sad, as she tried to get in

Today we had classes again and did a mock exam in preparation for next week, well little girl was excellent until it came to a 30 second stay. She just was not interested in doing it… Sue thought that was strange but she just behaved like a Toller, luring you into a false sense of security… The more I tried to repeat the exercise, the more bored she got and the more she refused to co-operate…

Jesmond Dene

I took Jessie out this morning at 8am for a walk around Saltwell Park. We walked around first and on our way back, Jessie wanted to say hello to a little Jack Russel in the dog compound. I was only going to get in for 5 minutes as Jessie usually doesn't play in the compund but this time she did. The little Jack Russel was all over her and keep jumping in her face but she was great with him and let him chase her around and she was really playing with him. Later on they were joined by Nico, a 4 year old Husky and Jessie and him had a fun time. They were chasing each other and did so puncing on each other. Eventually we left (it was 9:30am) and Jessie went home to sleep for a little, while I went in the office for 2 hours to catch up on some work.

In the afternoon I wanted to take her to Water Gate Park but since I was already in town and had a Metro ticket, I thought I might as well take her to Jesmond Dene. So we left the house at 1pm and walked along the Tyne and through Newcastle to Jesmond. Jessie enjoyed the time, she was dead good (apart from trying to find a way in the Tyne) and when we arrived in Jesmond Dene, she was all hyper and jumped straight in the water. I tried to get her to swim again and after some interesting tires, she went in the water and swam to get her ball (for mayb 5 seconds). I am sure by the end of summer we will get there so that she is swimming. We both had a great time out and got back home a 5:30pm. We were both so exhausted, we took the Metro home, Jessie in her usual self fell asleep on the Metro as always.

Once we got home Jessie had some fresh chicken, spinach, pineapple and carrots for dinne while I had pasta with bolognese sauce and now the little rascal is all sleepy and actually asleep on my feet.

Videos from todays walk

Here are some videos from our walk today, unfortunately the color is not too good but at least you can now see how Jessie tries to convince the ball to come back to her

Jessie palying in the water and then quickly following me

Jessie trying to convince the ball to come to her

Last but not least one video in which she swims a little bit

Dog Classes

Jessie and me went to the dog class this morning and she was a little star. Sure most of what we did was fairly easy and she knows it already but she is always much better doing all this stuff outside then inside. Let me tell you she was brilliant, got lot's of praise and didn't show me up :-) We are having the classes inside and she was so focused on me, the other dogs didn't bother her at all and she did show them up quite a bit for doing everything right on the first try... :-)

Right now she is tired from all the training and the time we spend outside, so she is laying in the sitting room sleeping

Swimming or the attempt ;-)

Last night at about 8:30pm, I was asked if I can work night shift, as someone from the team was sick and we could not find anyone to cover. The same happened on Friday night but because of the obedience class on Saturday morning, I said I couldn't, last night though, I went into work at 10pm.

I got home about 7.30 this morning and found Jessie deep asleep on the bed ;-) once she woke up, we went for a walk and then I went to bed for a couple hours. I had the back door open, so Jessie could go in and out as she pleased but I think she spend most time under the bes sleeping.

I woke up at 1pm and was sill tired but thought I better get up. After some lunch, I took Jessie back to Water Gate Park. Like yesterday she enjoyed her time but this time he didn't end up as muddy as yesterday. For the last hour we played fetch near the lake and I tried to convince her to go in the water to swim. As much as she loves water, she will not swim, she goes up to her belly and that's it. I was keeo trowing the ball in and she ran in the water and waited for the current to bring it closer so she would not need to swim. She was also barking a lot at the ball (as if telling him to come back). Eventually she did swim 4 or 5 times for a little bit to get the ball and I was so proud of my little girl. When it's a bit warmer I will go in the water with her to see if that encourages her. Unfortunately I have no pics from the walk, as I left my camera at home but I have this one of her laying next to me now that we are home. She is exhausted :-)