Oh I’d forgotten what fun young puppies are! They’ve never, ever been apart from each other – and they’ve been with Sally’s puppies for the last few weeks so two of eight. Being a mean, nasty mummy I decided they could sleep in boxes on their own 😆 So on Thursday night into their own boxes they went….and they cried/howled/whined ALL night. I got no sleep so I suppose they had the last laugh! Actually I don’t think Elton was too bad, Lacey was the main culprit.

On Friday Elton came for a walk (well, a carry as they haven’t had their second vaccination yet) with Solei and I was really impressed with him…we saw children, dogs, bicycles, cars and even a 4×4 pulling a caravan and he didn’t bat an eyelid at any of it 🙂 He was better than Solei! (Who hates traffic, especially anything bigger than a smallish car)

T has been taking them out to the park and around the lanes but as a litter, so my main emphasis is really on separating them as much as possible because that’s what’s going to do the most damage.

Friday night I actually got 3 hours sleep before they started creating! Then dozed on and off after then but had to be up fairly early anyway, because Saturday was Chepstow Agricultural Show. Without rain!

The ground was dry, the weather was almost too hot and it was a lovely show. When we got there I picked up the catalogue and discovered I had the only two Papillons entered, so was hopeful of BOB 😉  Thankfully the judge didn’t withhold and both Darwin and Storm won their classes and then Darwin was BOB and BPIB again and then Puppy Group 2! Poor Storm, I’ve never seen such indignation…they know when they’ve done well and I’ve honestly never seen a dog look more put out and upset than Storm did when she gave the BOB rosette to Darwin, who was far from on his best behaviour! He was bad in his class (but again was alone so got away with it), had settled slightly for the BOB challenge (though had to be moved twice) , bad in the regular group (threw away a placing 🙄 ) but had settled by the Puppy Group. Oh and was 2nd in the Puppy Stakes! (Where he also went well)

So in four days Darwin has got 8 rosettes – two 1sts, two BOBs, 1 BPIB (2 BPIBs but there was no Best Puppy rosette at North Devon), 1 G4, 1 PG2 and 1 PG1 😀 He’s only got one open show left in puppy now 🙁 It’s his 1st birthday in two weeks – where does the time go! I’ve had such an amazing time with him this summer, I wish it didn’t have to end.

On Saturday night the puppies were once again very slightly better and last night I actually got more than 6 hours sleep before they woke me up 😀 Not sure whether they were totally quiet or whether I was just so exhausted nothing was going to wake me, but still – onwards and upwards!

This morning I took Solei, Elton & Lacey to the park and into town…Solei’s been having rather a hard time with Darwin so I thought he could come as well. They met three young boys in the park and I was really impressed with Elton – Lacey was still at the sitting quivering stage but Elton actually moved forwards (all on my lap – 2nd vacc isn’t until next week) and was wagging his tail! Lacey was a bit more confident after we’d been sitting there an hour or so but I’m very pleased indeed with Elton. As we walked along he sat on my lap looking around and taking it all in…didn’t seem particularly phased by anything.

That was until we were walking through town. Youngish woman who had about 6 girls (probably 7-11) with her and was pushing a buggy. These girls saw the puppies and SWOOPED down like a hawk on a mouse! They were literally screaming, totally OTT and so rough..they weren’t just trying to stroke him, they were grabbing hold and trying to pick him up and god knows what else. He was a bit more reticent with people after that and we didn’t meet anymore children, so I just hope that hasn’t done any damage because he really was doing so well until then. Wish people would keep control of their children!