I took both pups to obedience on Monday night. I’ve been doing this with Darwin – getting there 15+ minutes early and just sitting in the hall with him watching the earlier class, so instead of Darwin I’ll now be doing this with one or both of the puppies. This week I decided to take them both and leave Lacey in the car whilst I went in with Elton. He thought it was wonderful, wasn’t phased in the slightest! He said hello to everyone (on my lap) with his tail wagging and was adamant he wanted to go down on the floor! Which of course he can’t do yet. His attitude towards people reminds me a lot of Solei’s(which I love) so I’m happy with that. I actually love Solei’s personality except for the stupidly nervous behaviour he has towards stupid things – like he never usually breaks a stay I’ve left him in before I recall….he did on Monday, you know why? Because one of dogs behind him was wearing a half check and the chain clinked! Even when I walk him on a normal lead he flinches at it…he has an incredible aversion to anything that might hit him, I haven’t got a clue why. I know Elton hasn’t been down on the floor yet but so far he’s showing no signs of it – though the only thing I’m really basing that off is he hasn’t shown any sign of nervousness withtraffic which is another thing Solei doesn’t like!

I love Solei to pieces but I really don’t want to go through all I’ve been through with him again!

On Tuesday I took Elton & Darwin to Pets At Home (trying to rotate who I take, so sometimes it’s 2 puppies, sometimes 2 puppies + Solei, sometimes 1 puppy + Solei, 1 puppy + Darwin..not yet brave enough for 2 puppies + Darwin!) because we were in need of more toys! Particularly balls, having just discovered Darwin has a ball fetish. I ended up buying a rubber puppy chew toy for Elton & Lacey, a pack of Kong Squeaker balls for Solei because even though he hates squeaky things they were the only balls small enough and they need to have quite a lot of pressure applied to make them squeak, so seeing as it’s for supervised play only and he’s quite gentle on his toys I don’t think he’ll make them squeak…hope not! A Kong Bone for Darwin’s birthday (he’ll be 1 on the 24th, where does the time go 🙁 ) And a pack of 6 squeaky balls for Darwin & the puppies. Darwin managed to make a hole and desqueak the one I gave him in a very short amount of time so they’re now for supervised play only..! But the puppies love theirs, though Darwin keeps trying (he can’t) to get it out of the puppy pen….

Wednesday was quiet (ha!) at home as everyone had done so much…nice to have a day at home for once! Then on Thursday we embarked on a trip to the garden centre. I left Solei & Darwin at home and just took the puppies, much to the boys disgust!

Well…they’ve never had so much attention in their lives! Elton was lapping it all up, standing on the arm of the chair, wagging his tail and offering licks to all who spoke to him! Lacey is much more nervous at the moment, she starts off cuddled up to me quivering, though gradually gets better as time passes. By the time we’d finished they were absolutely *shattered*. Even Elton couldn’t find the energy to make the effort to acknowledge people stroking him! He was flat out on my lap in the car on the way home, fast asleep. He’s lovely actually, when we’re walking round he sits on my lap quite near the front watching everything, like he’s the king of the castle in his rightful place and he knows it! So interested in his surroundings though, I hope he’s as brave once he’s allowed on the floor. And luckily no damage seems to have been done with those children in town 🙂 He was fine with the children we met.

The problem with meeting so many people is I get absolutely sick of having to explain over and over again what they are! You can’t just get away with a one word answer like you would with a more common breed, I end up having to go into a long spiel about “they’re Phalenes, drop eared Papillons. You know Papillons, the butterfly dog? Well these are the moth with the ears down…etc” and that gets so hard to repeat over and over and over! They were called Cavaliers, Spaniels, Chihuahuas and more yesterday…I don’t mind those three, Chihuahua is probably the most common one (and actually a long coat chihuahua can look *very* like a Papillon, even I’ve done a double take at photos of a Chihuahua before) and after all they *are* spaniels (Continental Toy Spaniels), but yesterday someone actually told me my puppies were Jack Russells?! I was near speechless at that 😆 Can’t quite see the resemblance, personally….

At the last minute on Saturday we decided to go to a local companion show. So glad we did! I just took Darwin & Solei and all I entered was AV Puppy with Darwin and AV Non-Sporting with Solei. Darwin won his class and was  Best Puppy in Show!! Solei got a 4th in Non-Sporting which I was delighted with as it was his first show since he lost the tooth.

Sunday was our ringcraft club’s companion show, this time Vale came as well as the two boys. Solei was thrown out in Non-Sporting (which I expected once I found out the judge had Cockers, had a feeling he wouldn’t like a missing tooth) and Darwin won Non-Sporting Puppy 😀 but was beaten by the Sporting Puppy winner for Best Puppy in Show.

I’d entered some novelties this time and Solei was 5th in both Most Appealing Eyes and Best Mover. Vale won Veteran 😀 was 2nd in Waggiest Tail and then was Reserve Best Family Dog! (RBIS for the winners of the novelty classes)

and so there endeth another hectic week!