Christmas Day

This is our first Christmas together and Jessie did get some toy from Santa :-)

The picture was taken at about 9:20 this morning but Jessie showed no sign of getting up


So what did Santa bring? A new reflective harness
Grandma send a new squeaky toy over as well as some treats and bones


Jessie also got a rubber checiken, treat ball, a ring and another ball :-)
And here she is with all her presents:

Happy Christmas everyone

We are wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2009

Forest Park

Since I am off again this week, I took Jessie and her friend Katie to the Forst Park on Tuesday. It's about 1 hour walk away from us and the girls as always had lot's of fun. We got home very muddy about 4 hours later.

Pictures

Sorry that I haven't posted any pics lately, I have been out and taken quite a few but never got around to posing them. Jessie is fine and her usuall bouncy self. She lvoes the snow and frost and goes crazy in it (like her mummy). The first couple pictures are from the end of November when we had just a little frost, I am off for another week of holidays and Jessie and me will sure have lot's of fun.


in the park playing with her ball


Jessie and Charly


Common mate let's play













And afterwards Jessie had to have a bath, this is her after the bath, she was not impressed with it and was sulking afterwards but she stayed in the bath when I told her to :-)



These pictures are from December when we actually had some snow (not enough for my taste though):











The next couple pictures are from one of our morning walks, Jessie thinks snow is the best invention since food and just throws herself in it and roles around ;-)

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