6 months old!

How time flies! Wesha is now exactly 6 months old. We went to the vet today for her rabies immunization. When I lift her out of the car in front of the vet's building, she immediately starts pulling on the leash like wild. She just loves going to the vet, LOL! She was whimpering in the waiting room, silly girl! She just couldn't wait to get into the examination room.

The vet said that she is looking very well, coat good, ears good, eyes slightly red (they are often a bit dirty too, especially after sleeping), heart good, joints good, teeth good. Her weight is perfect (almost 13kg), but he said we should be careful now and rather give her a little less food, because the most accidents with ligaments and joints happen when the dogs are 6 - 8 months. And the less the dog weighs, the less chance for injuries. He also said that Wesha is very pretty. Well... I of course agree, but I am not objective. :D

We are going away for the weekend. It will be Wesha's first time in a hotel.

Eye candy

A lamb

For lunch, Reto and I had a lovely piece of lamb. It was really good, but it was also a huge piece of meat. Too much for us to eat it all. The left over was tender, still fairly red and we decided to cut it into really small bits and use them as goodies for Wesha.

So when we went for our afternoon walk with Wesha, Reto had some aluminum foil with the tiny bits of lamb meat with him. After the first treat, Wesha didn't really react. But after the second, she changed.... and for the rest of the walk, she walked next to Reto, looking up to him. On leash or off leash, didn't matter. She was a true lamb. LOL!

I think I will need to take something similar to the Christmas Show!

Gardening

Reto and I were doing some gardening today (before the snow comes - we are expecting snow for Friday night and Saturday) and Wesha decided to "help" us...

Training for Christmas Show

We are going to the Christmas Show of the Swiss Retriever Club early December. I have never been to a dog show before and I didn't have a clue what to expect. Three of Wesha's siblings will come to the show too. One of them is Weta.

Yesterday, Nicole (breeder) had organised a little training for us. Angie and Steve were there with Weta and I went with Wesha. Nicole and Peter were there with Dazhitaa and Duscha. The training took place near Maienfeld, about 1.5 hrs drive from here. Beautiful nature there, a little rugged because it is the beginning of the Alps. We were lucky with the weather, it was a lovely, sunny afternoon.

Nicole told us and showed us what would be expected from us and our dogs. We tried the walking in the (imaginary) ring, going to the judge (Nicole and later Steve), letting the "judge" touch the dogs from the teeth down to the tails, trotting away from the judge and back again, in a triangle and finally standing while the "judge" was writing/dictating his/her report.

It was very hard to get Wesha to trot. She didn't seem to "get" it that we were training. (During the puppy course, she understood that so quickly and she is always so focused then.) She just wanted to play with Weta, Dazhitaa and Duscha. So when we tried trotting in the ring, she didn't pay any attention to me, she just pulled and pulled, trying to get to Dazhitaa or Weta. She managed to wriggle out of her show leash twice!
It went a bit better when we played the part of going to the judge, trotting away and back again. The first time, she wouldn't let Nicole have a look at her teeth, but the second time went better.

In between, we let the dogs run free and play a couple of times. We also practised walking on the (normal) leash when the others were near. But since Wesha didn't seem to understand that this was training, it was hard to do with her. Again, during the puppy course, she would look at me and do this soooo well!!

Oh well... at least now I know what will be expected from us during the Christmas Show. I will practise the trotting on the show leash with Wesha and hope for the best. We are going for fun and to make the experience. So it won't be so bad if we mess it up. ;-)

After about an hour, we put the dogs in our cars and went for a drink, before driving back home. Nicole presented Angi and me with a great Photobook that she had printed for the owners of the pups. It is a fantastic diary of the first 10 weeks in the lives of the puppies. So nice to see and read how Wesha developed. How she gained weight, on what day she opened her eyes, when she started listening to her name. Big thanks to Nicole!

Thirsty

We went for a walk near Uhwiesen today. Near the end of our walk, Wesha had a good drink from the well we passed.

More sleeping positions and a camouflage dog

Another trick

I taught Wesha another trick today. The idea was, to teach her to walk around an object. I had to send her from at least 2 meters distance again. This video was filmed after only one training session of about 15 minutes! Wesha is incredibly clever!!

A walk with Nituna

This morning, Cordula and I went for a walk with Nituna and Wesha. "Walk" is a big word... it was hard to get Wesha to walk. She just wanted to play, play, play! The first bit on the leash was very difficult. And once we let the doggies off the leash, Wesha was all over Nituna. They hardly moved forward.



Cordula and I kept on walking and once there was a little lull in the play, we called them. It was a great sight to see them running towards us! Two tollers, only 10 weeks age difference. And yet, the difference in size is huge!
Nituna is so cute. She also has this very intense, intelligent look in her eyes.

When we put them back on the leash, I could only walk normally with Wesha, when we walked in front of Cordula and Nituna, with about 5-10 meters between us. What Wesha does well, is sit and wait when I stand on her leash (while Cordula and I were chatting).

This is a part of the first time we let them off the leash:

Pics from the last few days

Sleeping like a bat, hanging upside down from the chair


This looks much more comfortable!

First trick - "Touch"

As part of a competition (for fun) on the Dutch Toller Forum, I wanted to teach Wesha the following trick within 2 days; She had to touch an object with her nose. The object had to be at least 2 meters away. It only took 2 sessions on the same day and Wesha understood what I wanted from her! I am so very proud of her!

I posted the following video clip on the Dutch Toller Forum:

The Horses

Wesha has been to my sister in law's stables a couple of times. She was scared of the horses so far. But yesterday, after a break of 4 weeks, we went back there and suddenly Wesha was VERY enthusiastic and brave too. She wanted to greet the horses and was nose to nose with a couple of them.

Here she is greeting Onyx: