Happy birthday Skye!

As an 11 week old pup.

Skye's first birthday was on Dec 26th, St. Stephens Day. It's hard to believe she's already one year old! The time has flown by. As it was her birthday, Skye had an extra long walk on the beach, some yummy treats and some new toys. And of course lots of cuddles and attention. We're also planning a party for her.....!

Holly

It has been quite busy around here too, as well as it being Christmas, which is always a bit hectic, we've had the arrival of Holly, a Cavalier X Chihuahua puppy. Holly arrived a few weeks ago and has settled in well. We had been thinking about getting another forever dog for a while now and as Skye is due to go into to training in February we thought it would be nice to have another puppy and for Amber too, so she has a companion. We will still hopefully be taking on another AADI pup, and then I'll have to make a blog for that puppy too!!

Holly is at that hard work puppy stage, but is a lovely natured dog. She is getting used to Amber and Skye now and they're getting to know her too. Skye is realising she needs to be gentle as Holly is so tiny, and she even licks her and shares her toys. (Hopefully it won't be long before they are all good friends!)

Overall, Skye has been doing well with her training; in jacket she went out to the shops the Friday evening before Christmas so it was quite busy but she did well, walked nicely on lead, etc but the only thing is she tries to pick up any bit of food she sees on the floor. Retrievers are known to be food mad, and Skye's no exception but I probably need to work on "leave it" with more interesting food other than just her dog kibble!  She wags her tail in jacket now and is enjoying it much more than she used to. The only part she doesn't like as much is the initial putting it on; after a few minutes of having it on she settles down and relaxes, especially if she gets a treat or a game with her toy!

There's a few little things I need to work on before February, one of those being her sometimes barking when I'm preparing her food. With Holly now there is dinner for three dogs to make so it takes longer and she gets slightly impatient. The best way is to be consistent and not let her bark, so I need to concentrate on that this week and it should stop quite soon!

The other day we minded Abby, the AADI Labradoodle puppy. Skye gets on really well with Abby and they both had a great time playing together.

Back when she first came to us as a tiny puppy......

Exploring the garden

And now............

Having fun on her birthday