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 !
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