Changes

Since Ghandi came into our family, we have had 2 boxes/crates in our living room. Wesha's metal crate, that she has been sleeping in and eating her meaty bones in since she was a pup. And the transport box out of the car, that we used for Ghandi to sleep and eat in. This, however, was not the best arrangement. It took up a lot of space (and light) in our living room. And every time we were going somewhere by car with the dogs, we had to carry the (heavy!) transport box to and from the car again.



Yesterday, I had enough of that and decided to make some changes. I left the transport box in the car (permanently now). And when it was time for Wesha and Ghandi to eat their meaty bones, I put Ghandi in Wesha's metal crate and I put a vetbed in the kitchen for Wesha to eat on. This is not totally new to Wesha, as she has been eating on a vetbed when we were in Davos too.

And when it was time to go to sleep, again, I put Ghandi in Wesha's metal crate. The dogs always get a filled kong when they go to bed. So I gave Wesha her kong on the dog stretcher. She is now allowed to sleep anywhere she wants in the livingroom/kitchen/hallway. Right before we went upstairs, I saw Wesha walking over to the crate and a little later Ghandi was whimpering a bit. I suspect she was right in front of the crate. But it didn't last long and all went quiet.

Tina was the first one to go downstairs this morning. Wesha was sleeping in the black chair (which is allowed). However, her kong was on the couch and one of the couch pillows had fallen off... so we suspect Wesha had a nice night on the couch, LOL! She is not allowed on the couch and she never goes on the couch when we are there. So, I was surprised that she now did sleep on it. But it made me laugh at the same time. As soon as she heard us getting up, she probably moved to the black chair. Clever girl.

The living room looks a lot better without the transport box. More space and more light.

We will keep the sleeping arrangements like this, until we are certain that Ghandi won't do anything naughty while we are sleeping and he is not in the crate.

Silly dogs

The noise in the background is the water cooker.

Wesha has calmed down a lot in the last few months. We are not sure if this is because she is just plain maturing or whether Ghandi's arrival has something to do with it. She seems more balanced. She can still become pretty hectic when she is welcoming someone into our house, for instance, but she calms down a lot quicker and to be honest, Ghandi is a lot more hectic than she is.
When she is on the leash, most of the time she will now walk nicely next to me. THAT was different before she came into season/before Ghandi came into our lives!

A few days ago, I plucked Wesha's ears. And she really enjoyed it! I was very surprised, because not too long ago, she would always walk away if I did! This time she stayed down and closed her eyes. She even rolled on her back after a while, which made it a bit harder to pluck her ears (LOL), but it showed how much she enjoyed it. The result:


We have been on a few walks with my friend Barbara and her Rottweiler-mix Lenny. Wesha has known Lenny since she was a little puppy. She hadn't seen him for a pretty long time and although she greeted him with enthusiasm, suddenly she seemed extremely insecure and even fearful of him. As soon as Lenny showed some interest in her, Wesha would show him her belly or she even crawled on her belly, ears flat against her head. She was like that during 2 separate walks and today, during our third walk within a week, suddenly she was fine with Lenny again. I really don't know what caused this insecurity, but I am glad that Wesha went back to normal today.

Before we met up with Barbara, Wesha and Ghandi were playing with a stick.


And then Wesha saw Lenny approaching behind me. She immediately left the stick to Ghandi and went to greet Lenny.

Tugging & Eggs - video clips

We gave Wesha and Ghandi a raw egg to eat yesterday. Wesha managed to crack it quite quickly, but Ghandi took a bit longer. He seemed unsure what to do with it. Soon after I finished filming, he managed to crack his egg too.



In the evening, they had a little tug-o-war. I was too late with the camera, because just before I filmed this, Ghandi was lying on his belly with his 4 paws stretched out and Wesha was pulling him through the living room. It was too funny.

More photos and a funny video

Ghandi enjoys playing with a ball that Reto & Lorenzo found in the forest today. He totally ignores Wesha. And then she even got in the way! Look what happened! :D



Some more photos from yesterday's photo shoot:



Lorenzo saw this and took the photo!

So sweet together...

Posing again today

I wanted a photo of both of them on this bench. Wesha was no problem...

But Ghandi first didn't want to go on the bench, and when he was finally there... he got off it too soon!

But in the end I managed!

Birthday Girl

Wesha is 1 year old today!

To celebrate, she got a treat and a photo session (not sure whether she like that last one). Reto came with us on our afternoon walk, so that I could concentrate on taking photos while he kept an eye on Wesha, Ghandi and our surroundings. We took off her harness, so that you can enjoy Wesha at her best. I am not sure what a juror on a show would say, but to us she is a BEAUTIFUL Toller!


YAWN...Posing is boring!

On Monday, Wesha and I met up with Cordula and Nituna. It was a very hot day, so we went to the forest to walk in the shade. In order not to disturb young bambi and its mother, the dogs have be on the leash in the forest until mid June. But where we parked our cars, we could let Nituna and Wesha run free for a while. Just when we went into the forest, we came to this spring/well. Wesha and Nituna used it to cool down from playing.


Nituna is such a beautiful Toller! Beautiful colour and lovely smooth coat.



With Ghandi, I have started a course in order to get the "Sachkundenachweis". In Switzerland, anyone who has gotten a dog after 1 September 2008, needs to do this course. If you already have a dog, you don't have to do the theory part. The course is only 5 hours and in it, you should learn how to safely lead your dog in day to day situations and how to train the dog.
Ghandi is doing really well during the training hours. His attention span has improved and he is a quick learner. He is just a little bit more stubborn than Wesha. If he doesn't see a reason to do "sit", he will just refuse and stand. And that reason is usually a reward that I have in my hand, LOL!

Ghandi has now stopped shedding and his coat is beautiful. It shines brilliantly. Now Wesha has started shedding. It isn't so bad yet, her tail and her "pants" are still full. But when I stroke her from head to tail and close my hand at the end, there is a lot of hair in my hand.

We met two friends of Wesha and Ghandi this morning: Joya and Thaila. I wanted to take some pics, but I only managed once to get them all 4 in one picture, as Thaila, the Border Collie, usually walks a bit further up front.