New arrival - Tide-y

I got up really early on Monday morning and headed off to Plymouth. It took me just about 3.5 hours as traffic was really light as it was bank holiday morning. It wasn't a particularly pleasant journey as it was raining quite a lot and really foggy for much of the journey. I took Niamh and Zeki with me so that they could have a good sense of the puppy on the long journey home and it wouldn't be such a shock to them. I listened to the radio on the way down and am glad I did as Miranda Hart and a guy who I can't recall were sitting in for Chris Evans. I so love Miranda. She started off a bit nervous but soon got into the swing of things and was making me laugh so much. It really helped to pass the journey and I was really disappointed when the show finished at 9.30 am.

I arrived at Becky's house at about 10.20 am after giving the girls a quick run in the local park ... in the rain. I was very excited by this time and when I went into the sitting room I was greeted with this lovely sight. What a beautiful litter, sadly I couldn't get everyone to face forward quite at the same time. Tide-y is the third red and white from the left. The fourth red and white you can just see behind the little black and white boy with the white paint-pot nose. They are all seriously cute and beautifully marked puppies. Obviously one of them stands out more than the others ..... to my eyes of course!

I stayed for about an hour and we had Tide-y out playing, even when she tried to go to sleep we kept her playing trying our best to tire her out for the long journey home. Once we had completed the paperwork we set off. I must say at this point that I think Becky and her Mum have done a fantastic job with these puppies, they are well socialised and it is clear that a huge amount of time has gone into their upbringing thus far. Tide-y knew her name really well by the time I collected her and so that at least would be one familiar thing for her in her new life.

Whatever we did worked as she slept from Plymouth to Edenbridge. This time the journey took best part of four hours as the homeward bound holiday traffic was starting to build. Luckily I missed the worst of it but it was still tedious especially along the A303 prior to Stone Henge. This time French and Saunders took over on Radio 2 and they were hilarious and helped to pass the journey for me. I was lucky it was a bank holiday and there were such excellent guest presenters!

We got home around 3.30 pm and Tide-y woke up as I let Niamh and Zeki out of the car. She came indoors and had a lovely greeting with Andy and the other dogs. We have to keep Niamh away from her at the moment until she is a little more accepting of the new arrival. She isn't very tolerant and is quite jealous. It's really strange how she immediately accepted Zeki, she seems to love shelties but nothing else!

So far she has been out in the car each day and touch wood she seems to be the sort of puppy who just falls asleep as soon as you put her in her little pod. She learned to toilet on our gravel dog patch on day 1 and on an extender lead. I always accustom new puppies to this regime as it helps when we're at dog shows. So at the moment she goes onto the extender for toileting and is, I am pleased to report, very good at this task!

I have done a little clicker work with her, just building on what Becky had already done for me, i.e. just click and treating to build up the clicker/treat association. We have lots of little play sessions during the day and I've been doing lots of games with a toy in each hand where she tugs on one toy then I let that go dead and she runs across to the other toy. Johanna taught us this game when we were in Denmark as a precursor to the dog understanding an active hand/arm as opposed to a neutral one. I'm really pleased that she is doing this so naturally. We also have a little grooming session each day and she has had her first visit to our lovely vets. She enjoyed that as her examination was accompanied by puppy biscuits at each stage. She is booked in for her first jab on Monday when she will be eight weeks of age.

She has been into the garden lots of times and for little walks into the agility area with a different dog. She is on her extender lead and just follows the big dog. She has been with Poppy, Niamh and Zeki. This is the way that I'll try to get Niamh used to her, where there's lots of space and Tide-y isn't right in her face. I have also taken her down there by herself and she was a little more cautious as it's a big space but by the second trip she was trotting off ahead of me with her little extender maxed out!

I haven't got any pictures of her outside yet but hope to get some this evening or tomorrow. Meantime here are some of her on her first day home and with her very fist visitor, Elspeth.