June already?

Yes, it's June already and the longest day today too!  Hard to believe really looking out the window.  Today we have a mix of rain, cloud and yet more rain.  Beginning to wonder if we will actually have a Summer this year.

The last few months have been full on with work, in fact, for our little business year 5 has been our busiest to date (not that we're complaining!).

The lovely ladies choir that I belong to finally put on their concert back in April after 9 months of busy rehearsal.  We raised around £1600 in total half of which went to Short Cross Methodist Church and the other half toward research into Lupus.  Since then we've taken the concert out to a couple of other venues and we'll be performing again on Saturday night but this time in aid of Birmingham St Mary's Hospice who do invaluable work offering help and support to people with terminal illness.  This should then be our last performance of 'Film Fantasia' and then we'll have a short break before starting up again later in the Summer.

 

The school choir will be performing their Summer concert next Tuesday after rehearsing since January.  During the last few weeks we've taken a small group from the choir to sing at the Salvation Army's Birmingham Citadel and also at the 'Time Out' group's Jubilee Party.  We were made to feel very welcome on both occasions and children sang their hearts out.  They're more than ready now to perform their final concert and I think we're all a little sick of the songs if I'm completely honest!

My running has recently come to a bit of a standstill unfortunately due to some health worries.  Everything now looks to be clear so I'm hoping to get out for a run at the weekend.  This will be my first in 2 months so as you can imagine I think I'll struggle to get to the end of the street rather than manage the 7 miles level I'd finally reached.  It's a bit disappointing really as I felt I was doing so well, but I'm determined to get back to it and build it up gradually again as I did before.

The family are all well.  The school year seems to have whizzed by so fast, can't believe 'A' is nearly at the end of her first year of high school.  It doesn't seem 5 minutes since we were stressing about how she'd settle in.  'S' has had a good first year of study for his GCSE's and has done some marvellous things in Music in particular.

'P' celebrated his birthday at the start of the month so thought it was about time he booked in his birthday present from LAST year.....White Water Rafting.  See my next post for all the fun and photos!  He's still running and his performance has come on no end since he's been regularly running with the club.  He has another race tomorrow in Blakedown and during March managed to win 1st place in the competition on RunBritain for most improved running handicap..

Arnold celebrated his 2nd birthday on Tuesday.  Hard to believe he's been part of our family now for 2 years.  I can still remember when he first came home with us, I had to wear my knee length boots around the house in the peak of Summer to fend off his feisty puppy needle teeth!  Well worth the pain though, we wouldn't be without him :).

Arnold Update - 7 - 8 months

Thought it was about time for an Arnold update seeing as the little fella's nearly 8 months old now!  I really can't believe what a grown up dog he now looks, he's fur's really grown and almost looks like he has a lion's mane.  He still has the same adorable face and it's still hard to deny those big brown puppy eyes.



He's made a new friend in 'Arthur' my friend Jo's Airedale Terrier.  Their personalities are so alike it's untrue but I guess that's the 'terrier' in them!  When let loose in Jo's garden they chase each other around having a good bark and generally play biting and jumping on each other.  It's so comical to watch! :)

Behaviour wise, he's such a good boy on the whole.  When I'm at home with him during the day he's just so loving and follows me around from room to room or curls up by my feet while I'm working on the computer.  He still has a long way to go with his walk training and his behaviour towards other dogs, but we're working on it.  Looking at him now I can't believe how far he's come since the days of hanging onto our legs with his teeth till he drew blood!



Arnold's off on his hols next weekend when he goes to stay with Mom-in-law for 3 weeks while we're away at Disney.  We've been 'acclimatising' him over the last month by taking him to stay once a week for 1 or 2 nights.  He absolutely loves it now, Mom-in-Law takes him on loads of walks and he is great company for her too.  She said she loves the way he curls up next to her on his blanket, leans on her feet and looks up at her with those loving eyes :)

We shall miss him soooo much while we're away and I just hope he hasn't forgotten us when we get back.  One things for sure, Mom-in-law will certainly miss him after having him there for 3 weeks.

The Gallery - Arnold's Autumn Adventure

Well this is Week 34's entry for 'The Gallery' and the topic is 'Seasons'.

Well I thought what better picture to use for this weeks entry than of our lovely puppy enjoying the Autumn leaves.  This was taken on our recent afternoon out at Bidford-On-Avon.  It was a beautiful November afternoon, the sun was shining and there was a lovely nip in the air.  Arnold had his first experience rustling the leaves and was completely shattered by the end of the afternoon.

Arnold - Class of (Nov) 2010

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Well, that's it, Puppy socialisation class is now over - wow that 4 weeks went fast!

I think the opportunity to meet and play with the

other puppies has been invaluable.  He's learned a few important tricks along the way such as sit, down, roll over but I think just the chance to interact with other similar dogs has been the most important part of puppy class and I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

 

I don't think we're planning to take him to dog training as we're happy to keep up the practice at home.  He has plenty of other doggy mates he can interact with too to show him the ways of the canine world.

[caption id="attachment_307" align="alignright" width="225" caption="See me 'Lie Down'!"][/caption]

I can't believe the change in him just over the last 3 or 4 weeks.  He listens (most of the time!) to what we say and seems eager to please us.  Hearing some of the other owners tell their stories at puppy class I actually consider us to be very lucky as he's picked things up (especially house training) so fast! 9 or 10 wks ago when he was a little ankle biting monster I often wondered what the hell we were doing wrong!  Thanks to everyone who said "it will get easier" as it has and we really do have a lovely puppy :).

Puppy Class - Week 1

Took Arnold to his first ever puppy socialisation class tonight at our local vets - what a fab way to spend an hour!

Keeping Arnold company was Monty the Norfolk Terrier, Henry the Beagle, Tinkerbell the Sprocker (cross between a Cocker and Springer Spaniel), Marley the Staffordshire Bull Terrier and Megan the Welsh Terrier............along with their respective owners!

The trainer spent a little time tonight telling us about 'puppy biting' and 'lead training'.  We didn't feel we learned a lot as with Arnold being 16 weeks old we've tried most techniques already!  We did spend some time handling other people's pooches though, in particular we were given Henry and Megan.  I don't think the other owners knew quite how to handle Arnold excessive energy levels though!

The last 15 minutes all the puppies were allowed off their leads and had a chance to play/bite/hump/growl/bark you name it!  I have to say we had a great time watching Arnold interact with the other puppies.  He finally seems to have met his match in Marley the Staffy as he was equally as keen to bite, box and attack as Arnold is.  Arnold seem to have a rather worrying attraction to Henry the Beagle but the trainer assured us we need not be worried at this early stage :)

All in all, it seems a good night was had by all and I don't think I've ever seen Arnold quite so shattered.  He's sleeping peacefully in his bed my feet as I type and after tonights escapades, think he'll probably be there for most of tomorrow too!

Arnold Update - 15 Weeks!

Well Arnold's now 15 weeks old, in fact he'll be 16 weeks this coming Saturday and I can't believe how much he's grown!  We've gone through ups and downs with his behaviour, in particular, the biting and his latest spirited episode involved getting tangled up in the cables to the external hard drive and proceeding to knock it on the floor.  I can now also see where the phrase 'the dog ate my homework' came from as he's such a little sneak thief, he will steal and run off with any piece of paper he can get his teeth on.  We've even had to remove the waste paper bin from the lounge as he wouldn't stop stealing tissues, wrappers, you name it, and running off with them!   He's still quite fond of taking a chunk out of me and seems to have taken a liking to my slippers (as they have a pink rosette on each one that he likes to attack!).

He likes have a mooch in the garden, in fact he's doing this as I type!  You would not believe the things he has bought in that he's found buried underneath rock and plants!  He seems to have settled down a lot now and has got used to the routine in the house.  He's still happy to settle down in his crate at night and likes to go sleep in his bed in the living room when we're all at home.

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He's now taken to barking when anyone knocks on the front door, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.........guard dog in the making me thinks!  We've been for many walks to school and back where he's enjoyed jumping up and biting all the nice strangers that walk past.  We've yet to loose him off the lead but we know this is something we need to try soon to get him used to coming back to us.  A plentiful supply of treats required I think!

All in all he's becoming a loving companion to us all and despite his moments of sheer craziness I don't know how we ever managed without him! Although,  I do think the neighbours maybe sick of hearing the words 'NO ARNOLD'!

Our new addition

On Saturday 14th August our new addition, Arnold the Border Terrier puppy, moved in!  He's now 9 weeks old and settling in really well.

We spent most of last Saturday afternoon and evening following him around like a shadow to grab him everytime he decided to do his business on the kitchen floor!  I can remember thinking, omg, what a massive responsibility..............but lo and behold the following day he was waiting every time until we took him outside to the garden.  He's learned to sit on demand within the first week and we really can't believe what a clever little puppy he is and how fast he learns things.  We've had a few accidents but on the whole he's doing everything he should.

He has a habit for diving at and biting and growling at our ankles every now and then when he's having a mad half hour which we're trying to put a stop to as we know that we have to lay down the rules now while he's still little.  A swift minute shut out of the living room behind his door gate is usually enough to make him realise he's been a bit naughty.

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He loves to play with his soft toys in particular and has already bitten the ears off his toy dog after only a week!  He will run and fetch his toys when we throw them for him but hasn't quite mastered the concept of 'Drop it' yet

He sleeps in his crate when he needs to and has slept continuously through the night from the first day we had him (we consider ourselves very lucky!).  We moved his crate into the kitchen through the night on Friday and with a little help from Radio 5 live he was as good as gold

Arnold had a trip to the vet on Wednesday evening just to check him out and they were really pleased with him apart from having a little dry skin which we're getting a moisturing shampoo for - his first bath will be interesting!  He will be returning to the vets on 31st August for his final jabs and then just one week later will be allowed to go out for walks - we can't wait!!

All in all he's been a super addition to our family so far and we've laughed so much already it's untrue!