20 weeks old

Puzzle is now 20 weeks old, time has flown by since we have had her.

She has been to 2 more shows and has got a 1st for junior handler and 3rd for prettiest bitch, so all going well.

She has already had a vet trip for a broken tooth which had to be removed on friday, but she is right as rain now, still gobbling her food, so it has made no difference to her at all.

Her training is coming along well, we have only done one little bit of search and rescue training, which was not worth posting about, but she has more to come. She has learnt sit, down, stand and speak with voice of hand commands, she can also do paw, high five and high ten, but only on hand signals at the moment, she is also learning twist, spin and tidy toys, we have only done these a few times yet, but we are working on them. She has got a lot better at fetch, and is very steady, so all things good on that part. Her recall is improving every time we let her off lead, she is really good and never strays far from us when walking.

I have taken loads of photos of her, so will try to upload them as soon as i can, she has grown heaps, she is now 18kg, and she was 6.5kg when we got her, so she is a heavy girl

Puzzle's Training

After finally dragging myself out of bed, i might as well say how puzzle was at training last night

The trainer was very pleased with puzzle and so was i, it was her first official training class. It went really well, she was so well behaved. next week she is going in the next class up as she is too advanced for all of this basic puppy stuff ( said the trainer) which i am very pleased about.

She done some lovely heelwork, Watch me's ( no need to command that, she was doing all the time anyway), short sit stay, on lead recall, Cone heelwork and she also done a nighttime road walk (with barley's class).

We are working on her stays, she managed 1 minute last night, so we are just going to keep building on this. The trainer loved her heelwork, she also said that if she keeps up like this then we could do competitive obedience with her. The trainer really liked the fact that i was using a clicker with her. There was 4 other puppies in the class, 2 blue roan cocker spaniels, 1 GSD x husky and 1 Chihuahua, she was the second biggest of the group as the GSD x husky was bigger than her, but more noisy.

1st show

Puzzle went to her first show today 

She was sooooooooooo good, she behaved perfectly, some pulling on the lead but not much, she played with the agility tunnels a few times and is getting tunnel already. 

She was entered in the show for 3 classes, Best pedigree, Most appealing eyes and the dog the judge would like to take home. She got 1st in best pedigree and 2nd in the dog the judge would like to take home. Then she won best in show overall, so i am very pleased with her, she done herself proud. She behaved very well for the judge, she let her look at her teeth and feel all over her, she also trotted nicely and paid constant attention to me. 

Barley also got 1st in most handsome dog and 3rd in the dog the judge would like to take home.

weekly pupdate

Well it has just been over a week since we have had puzzle, and the time has flown by. She is such a fast learner, of good and bad things. She is almost 7kg now, so she is growing fast. She still have a couple of weeks left until her 2nd jab, then a week after that before she can go out to the big wide scary world. the last couple of days we have been sitting in the porch with the door open watching the world go by. Toilet training is still going well, we have only had two accidents but they were both on barley's be, and they were scent marking, not an 'i really need to go for a wee' wee.  She is getting used to our family and the house, she knows where her food is kept and where our food is as well, being a typical Labrador, she loves food, i mean really loves it, she will practically do anything for food, including begging for her bowl!

Vet visit and update

Puzzle went to the vets today for the first time, she had her 1st vaccination, She was no trouble at all, she did not squeal or anything, she was very good. She is getting heavier though, she weighed in at 6.5kg at the vets today, that is a 200g gain since we first got her

Today she also got a new bed, but she was not very impressed with it, but she will get used to it. She also got a puppy kong teething stick today, which she loved, she loves chewing it and carrying it around everywhere with her.

She is also learning to speak on command which she is picking up very quick, dad has also ordered both of us a whistle each, mine is purple and his is yellow, so when they arrive we can start whistle training her.

Her fish4dogs food came today aswell, she was very interested in the package and tried to help me open it but scissors were required, she has got a few weeks left of wainwrights before she will move on to fish4dogs, also with the food was some fish treats, we have not tried theses on her yet, but we will soon

Comparison to barley

We have completed some measurements ( with great difficultly with puzzle as she does not stay still) to see the difference between puzzle and barley, and to see how big puzzle is getting every week. there will be some photos coming later
Barley = Blue
Puzzle = Pink

Neck -  46cm  ~ 23cm           

Behind front legs - 81cm ~ 38cm

Infront of back legs - 61cm ~ 33cm

Length of front foot - 10cm ~ 6cm

Length of back - 68cm ~ 36cm

Width of front feet - 8cm ~ 6cm

Muzzle - 28cm ~ 18cm

Length of ears - 13cm ~ 9cm

Width of nose - 5cm ~ 2cm

Head - 51cm ~ 29cm

Day 2

Yesterday was puzzle's second day with us, she visited my grandparents, who she instantly loved. She slept downstairs by herself last night with no fuss at all. She is still clean in the house, no accidents yet. She has already learned sit, and working on down and come. She is settling in very nicely. We have been adding a few bits of wainwrights food to her current food (skinners) and she loves it, but she is a typical lab and will eat anything put in front of her. She is getting used to wearing her collar, and yesterday was the first time she had her harness on her, no worries at all, she accepted it like she had been wearing on all her life. She also traveled in the car without being on my lap for the first time yesterday, she wined a little bit but quickly settled down. She got introduced to brushing yesterday with a very soft bristle brush, she loved all the attention, no problem at all, and having her front teeth brushed, which she took to like a duck to water, and she loves the taste of the toothpaste.

Here are some pictures that my grandad took: