Long legged with huge ears

Some parts of Elbereth seems to be growing faster than the rest. People now tend to comment on the big paws, long legs and of course the huge ears. To us she is growing more adorable for each day that passes.

Best friends

Click here to view more pictures of Elbereth from week 11 and 12 at Picasa.

Yesterday Sebastian turned 11 and we celebrated both him and four weeks with Elbereth as well. We had a small party. Elbereth now knows and appreciates those members of her extended family that live close by and is of course doted upon by all.

Sebastian and Elbereth are great buddies. Elbereth considers Sebastian a sibling and he is the one that gets chewed on the most. We are trying to get him to understand that his rapid movements around her trigger this behavior from her, but being 11, it is difficult to move more slowly and calmly. Now they have one toy that will be used only by those two when they are together, in the hope that Elbereth will find this new game more fun than treating him as another puppy. The next few days will show if this idea works or not. In two days Tom goes back to work and Sebastian will have to take care of Elbereth alone a few hours each day for the next two weeks. We are confident that he will manage.

12 weeks, big, bold and beautiful!

Elbereth continues to grow, last Friday she was found to be 8,6 kgs. She is much loved by us and much admired by people she encounters. We have great fun telling them that: no, she is not a cute mix of breeds, she is a Picard, a rare breed from France. Then the height/weight/age phrases and rounding up with a short story about her parentage. :-)

Last week was a time for firsts. I've already told about her first muzzle-to-mule with horses. She also jumped into a lake for her first real swim, followed by a second swim by merely seconds. She obviously enjoyed it in spite of cold water and she slept soundly afterwards. Not so fun was her first encounter with one of the cats' claws. Just one cat and one claw, and it went very well after giving Tom and me a real fright.

She also went on her first train ride and into town for the first time. We need working on getting her used to cars and bikes, now she tries to attack them in passing if we don't pay attention.

Elbereth knows to whom she belongs

Yesterday in puppy school there were only four puppies present. First we played with different toys the trainer had brought. Elbereth loved a large piece of soft hide with a pulling string attached. We also worked on the come command - one of the owners would run dragging a toy while a helper held the puppy for a little while. Needless to say - when let go, all of the puppies ran as fast as their paws would allow them.

Then the last exercise was to switch puppies to give us "parents" an idea of how it is to work with other dogs. Tom and I were lucky and got Stitch, a 5-6 months old Welsh Springer Spaniel. He obviously loved the fresh chicken tidbits I had, and he was no problem at all. Walked in place, sat and kept contact with me at all times, very trusting. Stitch's parents, on the other hand, got Elbereth to deal with and she was not interested in doing anything except trying to get over to Tom and me. After a little while of steadiliy growing whining and crying, she was allowed to rejoin us. Happy, happy, happy! Then she slept the whole night through, must have been about eight hours. :-)

Weekly update

I've decided to update this blog in English from now on, as Elbereth has "relatives" in non-Scandinavian countries. More than one update a week seems to be unrealistic at the time being, as the days continue to rush past.

Elbereth continues to grow, it seems to me that I can see her getter bigger by the day. On monday in puppy school we trained walking nicely on leash in a trafficated area. From the start the youngest pupil in class took the lead and proceeded in perfect style, very impressive! After a while her performance dwindled as she started to tire and get full of chicken tidbits, but for a while there she was the star of the show.

Yesterday she went for the second time with us to the stable where Tom Ivar takes riding lessons. This time she was allowed into the stable and got to greet three separate horses snout to muzzle from the safe haven of Tom's arms. Afterward she seemed to want to play with them, but the horses were a bit scarier when she was on the ground and they towered over her. We also discovered that she loves to eat horses dung, dried or fresh makes no difference, she is absolutely crazy about the stuff.

Hvor forsvant siste uke?

Dagene går kjempefort. Tom Ivar har ferie og ser glassaktig ut i blikket hver kveld, men påstår at han er kjempefornøyd. Han har i hvertfall ikke tid til å tenke på jobb.

I pinsen ble det flere turer til skogsbadevannet for nedkjøling av varm Picard. Det er veldig fin sosialiseringstrening, for der er det på fine dager mange familier med småbarn og det er alltid noen som har lyst til å hilse på verdens søteste valp. Området er også populært for hundelufting, så det blir alltid anledning til å hilse på vennlige artsfrender.

På valpekurs i går var kursleder Anne mektig imponert over stjernens utvikling siden første kurskveld. Nå er hun langt mer utadvendt og mye mindre redd. Dessuten er hun så flink - når hun klarer å glemme de andre valpene. I går ble det trent mer kontakt, gå på plass, sitt og bli, samt innkalling. Alt gikk over all forventning, men så var hun også rimelig sliten da timen nærmet seg slutten. Deretter sov Elbereth for første gang hele natten igjennom. Nå er vi veldig spente på om det kommer til å fortsette.

I dag har hun begynt å vise interesse for yogapositurer, kanskje det blir neste kurs?