On Thursday, 19th, I noticed the first little baby tooth in the front has fallen out... So the countdown for his (less painful) adult teeth has finally started!
On Wednesday, he also got his first bath here. He wasn't too impressed, but we got it all over and done with without problems. He didn't like the hair dryer much either, but we got through it and he ended up looking all soft and smelling sweet (until he rolled in fox poo during the week-end... eeekkk...).
On Friday, 20th, Dylan, Flash, Jesse and myself went off to college together with Karen and Willis. The plan was originally to let Jesse travel at my feet in the front, but I ended up putting him into the crate with Dylan and Flash. Though it was a bit of a squash, they all travelled very well and there was no problem at all. Jesse was certainly over the moon being with his big brothers.
It was a long trip and took (including a long break) 6 1/2 hours. The dogs were let out a couple of times for a toilet break, other than that, they pretty much slept throughout the journey.
We arrived at our usual B&B at 11.30 pm. The dogs went to toilet quickly, we brought all our stuff up into our room, including Jesse's crate... and at about midnight, we all went to bed. Jesse went into his crate without problems and all the dogs (and myself) went to sleep straight away.
At 6 am, Flash woke me up because he wanted to go out. So all the dogs got saddled... oh sorry, put the leads and harnesses on... and off we went for a quick morning walk around the farms grounds; and then it was back to bed for another hour.
As usual during (the lovely) breakfast, the dogs stayed in the car. Just after nine, we arrived at the college, checked the dogs into the kennels where they stay during the day when we are not training. Again, I took Jesse's crate as I did not want to risk leaving him with the other two without supervision in an unknown environment. There was a lot of barking and whining everytime I left the kennels, but it very quickly calmed down and I didn't hear them anymore after that! Dylan and Flash too have finally got used to the kennels and don't bark and howl anymore for hours when left there.
During the breaks between outside training and class room, I took Jesse around the college, which is a huge working farm. So he met horses, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and lots of people and dogs. He barked at cows and horses at first, but he soon got used to them and just walked past them or sat down to watch them; he was particularly fascinated by the cows, but then that's no wonder as they would come up to the fence and stare at us... LOL
By the second day (Sunday) he was moving around the college grounds like a pro and nothing seemed to phase him, though he sat down and watched a cockerel walking about... His face is so cute when he does that.
Saturday evening, Karen and I took the mob for a walk in a field in Market Weighton. It was a bit difficult as Dylan and Flash as well as Willis can only be let off if we can see what's going on around us, no dogs too near and plenty of space. However, they all got a good run in the end, and Jesse loved it anyway as he was off lead all the time (he doesn't go far and has pretty good recall)and could just plod around wherever he wanted to.
On Sunday morning, I took Jesse into a training class and he did very well there too. Everyone in our group loved him and gave him lots of cuddles, which Jesse enjoyed very much.
In the afternoon, I did a little more training with Dylan (as it is Dylan that I do the tests with in the summer), which went extremely well. In fact, I am over the moon with Dylan's progress. He always knew his exercises, but his attitude wasn't very good (partly my fault and partly breed related) and he would normally just stand there like a lemon and make a fool out of myself. So since last February I did not much else but play with him; a training session would be 90% playing and 10% training... and it did the trick. Dylan's attitude was so much better, he enjoyed doing stuff (as long as I didn't overdo it...) and it was quite easy to get him to play. He had good fun, and so did I!
At 2.30 pm, we embarked on the journey back home. With a couple of short breaks, we arrived back home at around 9 pm. Dylan, Flash and Jesse loved seeing Troy again and I think Troy was happy too to have them back. They were all tired and weren't any trouble all evening.
It was a great week-end, Karen and Willis also had a good time and my lot certainly did... though Flash was a bit worried as they had bird scare guns going off every so often, which Flash didn't like at all; but he coped ok with it. I didn't do too much training with Flash though as he wasn't too interested due to the shots. (The same gun shots were of course excellent socialisation for Jesse!).
Jesse was a star throughout! Four months old and already so well behaved that he can be taken into a B&B hotel room, no trouble in kennels, got used to all the big animals without problems and loved being around lots of crowd and people.
There was some trouble for us though on Sunday evening... as our car got broken into and everything in it stolen... Cornel noticed at around 10 pm when he took Troy out for a walk! What a nightmare and what hassle to get it all sorted out!
It also means that the chiropractor appointment that I booked for all four dogs for this Friday (Troy treatment and the rest just check up) needed to be cancelled and it is only Troy now going in my small car...
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