Winter Greetings !

No idea why this picture is sideways - does anyone know how to fix this in the blog ? Thanks !

Here is a picture of Tika with her "friend to be" - my friend's labrador puppy - 9 days younger. Not sure how they are going to get along yet - possibly signs they might or might not. It would be easier if they could just get along as that would be good for walks once they are a bit older. Anyway her friend decided to follow Tika's fashion sense and got the same very trendy tartan coat ! Essential for minus ten degree temperatures !

For Christmas entertainment, we got her a Jibber Jabber toy from the pet shop ! That kept her busy most of the day. It is a ball which sort of jumps around and responds to their movement - if they throw it through the air it starts jibbering again ! Anyway she wasnt remotely frightened or wary of it as I thought she might have been. But it did provide a lot of fun for her ! Unfortunately just like kids toys, the batteries had run out by the end of the day !

Other news is that she is now toilet trained - yippee !! Mind you we have left no mats of rugs down just in case ! I will eventually risk bringing out the fleece throw I bought from Ikea to protect our chairs but I think its early days yet - I dont want her associating any of these things with "toilet" !!

And today as she hit 16 weeks old we got the parvovirus booster at the vets and also the kennel cough vaccine which she needs for the puppy classes we are going to go along to next week.  So that was more money to the vet - expensive business !  The vet also recommended that depending on her lifestyle we may need to keep worming her every month, but it doesnt always need to be the tablets, sometimes we can use the "spot on" skin version. She now weighs 9.9 kg and when they hit 10 kg they can get adult worm tablets which are larger. I liked the puppy version ones as they went down really easily. However I must admit she seems very calm at the vets and doesnt appear to even notice her injections so thats good news !

Oh yes and the other good news is its finally thawing so we can now see some grass, although there's still lots of ice around...

A Collie who knows 1,000 words !

Wow here is a collie who knows a 1,000 words. So far Tika can do Sit, Stay, Come, Down, Paw and Rollover so we are doing well but have a long way to go !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12067099

Two Paws forward One Paw back !

Well we still have continuing snow and ice but some wonderful views to keep your spirits up in those sub zero temperatures. Here are some photos from this mornings walk !

The highlight today was that she is increasingly good at her toilet training but this morning I just thought we had it sussed to come through to find a "mistake" in the room that had to be cleared up.

However after a really bad day on Friday we had a good weekend for toilet training. I think the presence of lots of people in the house encouraged her to go outside. Anyway no doubt we'll get there - I am blaming the cold weather as she looks out the door and decides it much warmer inside ! .... In fact I must go and turn up that heating !!

Vets for Worm Tablets

Age 14 weeks - now weighs 8.95 kg !
She was 4.2 kg at 8 weeks !

She got weighed at the vets and they then gaves us two worm tablets as puppies need to be wormed every month until 6 months and then 6 monthly after that. They were pretty small and went down quite easily with a chocolate drop. However she may be more wary next time now that she knows what I am up to !!

Anyway must dash - I can hear her wrecking stuff !

Winter Still here and Pup now Reluctant to go Outside ! (age 13wks 5days)

Well Tika is still full of energy and has had me running around all day rescuing the various things I dont want to be destroyed - music, sellotape, Christmas cards, glove, Christmas stamper, brush, windowsill (expertly installed by my husband), chocolate from bin that was through the stair gate etc etc. And the headphones which I didnt rescue in time ! Her own toys do not seem to be of any interest today !

Anyway the weather outside is still very cold. Think it was at least -5 degrees today and probably down to minus 10. And the back garden is still mostly snow and ice. So its actually not good for her to run out there. Its not good for them to slip and fall so I have been throwing the ball in the top half of the garden where the sun has melted the ice. However it means that firstly she is not running off energy and secondly the temperature is putting her off (and us off) standing around in the garden to catch those moments when she decides to "do her business". Any time we do catch her going outside we lavish praise on her but at the moment we are running at a 50% success rate and not improving from day to day which I believe is not great for a collie !

Also she refused to go any further on her walk tonight and that was even with her coat on !
Also I have now slipped three times on the ice, Once on our back steps even after I had gritted them heavily. However the snow was melting off the roof and had led to thick ice on the steps. I was lucky to avoid serious injury. The other two falls were while I was walking her. I landed on my left wrist both times but seem to have avoided too much damage.

They are predicting more snow for here in Scotland for Thursday. As you can see from my posts we have had about two or three weeks of this. The bins have not been emptied as the dustmen have all been working on the gritting lorries (not that I have seen any of those !). My neighbour tells me its now three weeks since our bins were collected. I can believe that as we have four bin bags in the hall and two in the cellar as well as all our recycling items stacking up. So its a chaotic run up to Christmas here at the moment !

On a final positive note though we have met lots of dogs and she has got on fine with all of them. She is still on her lead but she has enjoyed meeting them. That is apart from a few older dogs who werent interested and a few terriers whose owners quickly hurried past with their dogs ! 

We also had a day of major socialisation when I took her to watch our local Christmas lights being switched on. So we were able to tick various categories (as recommended in The Perfect Puppy book) - fairground rides, lights, crowds, cars, lorries (she didnt like those), noise, uniforms, shops ! She did very well considering it was a first time for many of those things !