Food

It's been a long hard slog but Yu You seems to be eating (almost) sensibly at last. It was all my own fault as although I have read the book and ALL the websites say do not give in to your dog when it is begging for food off your plate, I was too weak!! She was ok at first and still ate most of her own food but last month she turned down almost everything except human food. In fact on several occassions she turned down scrambled eggs and smoked sausage! I'm not sure what tje final straw was but something had to change - she was moving down a notch on her collar as a result of being ill at new year so it was time to be her pack leader and do what was best for her.

Initially she was very stubborn and would rather starve herself than eat dog food. It was very stressful as I felt that I'd ruined her! We tried a lot of different brands of dog food, dry and wet. Eventually we bought Morrison's own brand "My Dog' tinned food and she seemed to eat that - albeit after I put it on a plate and made a small game out of it by "dropping" some on the floor... But at least she was eating almost a whole plate of it! Beef and Rice is strangely her least favourite food but apparently a lot of dogs develop allergies to beef so perhaps that's why.

I have moved her onto Pedigree chum now though as I was a bit worried at the thought of what "animal derivatives" might be! I've noticved that she is now back at the second hole of her collar rather than the third and it looks like she soon will be on the first if she keeps eating as well as this :D My big baby!

Here are some new pictures but also one of her eating as proof!





Note her nice hair - obviously the "pet cosmetics" are working!

This last photo is of Yu You's brother Toddy and her mum Kitty. She looks a bit like her mum I think but Toddy is massive next to Kitty! Toddy is destined for the show ring so he is not allowed to get his hair cut unlike Yu You. I still think Yu You is cuter though. I am not sure I can cope with all that hair!

The white stuff

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of the pets so here are a couple of them looking very confused at the recent snow we had. Boomer really would rather not touch the strange white, wet *and* cold blanket in the garden hence her paws are almost all on non white pavement although I had gently nudged her out of the door...
























Yu You on the other hand is more confused (hence frowny look) as to how it got into her back garden and had to do a peremiter check before settling down to eat it :D











Lately, Yu You has needed a lot more grooming due to the length of her hair now and the bad weather. It was bliss when we had ice as all the mud was frozen! I am now considerring buying a grooming table but they cost upwards of £65. Eeek! I am searching ebay now but the odds are i'll give in and buy a new one before my back kills me!

Yesterday I strangely managed to spend £50 on doggy hair products as I noticed her hair was getting very dry. I got her a Mason and Pearson comb which means nothing to most people. I didn't realise myself but they are *hand made*!! I tried it on my own hair and I think I may get myself one now. So comfortable on the scalp! I may swap my own boots branded one with Yu You...

Update

We have taught her "tummy" i.e. rollover :-D and she and Boomer had a play in the snow last night. Boomer didn't like it much and tried to stay out of the way of falling snowflakes but Yu You seemed to enjoy exploring the new white garden!

:O

Yu You has learnt "Paw"! She needs to be touched on the leg first though but huge leap forward! Hurrah!

Happy New Year!

Wow! It's already more than a week into 2007! So much has happened to us already.

I had my eyes zapped but this meant travelling to London to get it done as I am (was?) uber blind. Daniel's mum kindly agreed to look after the kids for a few days while we were in London. And so starts Yu You's tale of woe...

On Tuesday afternoon I was picking up the rubbish that had blown onto our front lawn as a result of the storms and the cheeky puppy decided to go to the toilet on next dorrs lawn. As it was a no 2 I had to get a poo bag and pick it up and noticed it was a bit soft but thought nothing of it as by then Yu You had invited herself into Hannah and Beth's house for some play. Cheeky, cheeky puppy!

Boomer had decided that outside was too scary as a result of a slight accident (it was!) the night before when I had locked her outside for the night. She was very, very clingy for ages afterwards but I refuse to feel (too!) guilty about it as she has to learn!

Anyway, that night Yu You started to vomit and had diarrhoea and by bedtime had nothing left in her belly. She hid herself under the bed as is her preference when feeling a bit poorly. By morning she seemed a little bit better so Daniel dropped the kids off at their grans as arranged and a quick check on Wed night showed she had been a bit down but ok and so we thought that was that...

On Thursday, we called again to see how the kids were and discovered that now in addition to Yu you being ill, she'd managed to spread the bug to Jake, Daniel's mum's dog. Poor Jake!

We collected the pets on Friday afternoon and found Jake still ill and Yu You not too bad but on Sasturday morning we had a huge amount of mess to clean up so I called the vet and made an emergency appointment for them both.

The vet thought it wass probably just some bacteria picked up at the park that caused the bug and gave them both some pills and a jab.

I am pleased to report that they are now both better.

Boomer is still asking for lots of cuddles so obviously I am not quite forgiven for locking her out!