Hello all,

Here is another update on Sally as we have reached another milestone - she has just had her first public wee at last yipee!!!!!!

Neil and I had been shopping at Booths in Lytham this morning and as it was a nice day we took Sally for a walk along the beach for the first time. She really seemed to enjoy this and trotted along quite happily smelling everywhere and seeing other dogs - we even saw a brindle Bullmastiff dog who was huge but they were walking away from us and faster than we were going. When we were near Fairhaven Lake we met a couple of little terriers that wanted to play. It was on the way back along the grass that Sally just stopped and peed to great praise after.

Exploring the beach.

Making friends.

But Sally has not been all good this week. When I came home at lunchtime from work on Friday Sally was in her bed under the stairs and came to me very quietly so I thought she had been there all morning and praised her ... then I went into the lounge to a scene of destruction. She had managed to get 2 DVDs off the shelf (which she had never bothered with before) - one of them was in 2 pieces and the other just had the case chewed; she had chewed the corners off a little table in the shape of books; she had got a little cardboard charity box and chewed that and there was small change everywhere - I don't know if she had eaten any - I wouldn't put it past her. So now she will not be allowed to stay in that room when we are not in.

Here are some more photos taken in the last few weeks when I have not had my computer .....

Sally sunbating on my lounger at the caravan last weekend.

Sally likes plenty of cushions under her when she sleeps.

Having a taste of Neils' ice cream ...

and my ice cream...

Swan ..... what swan? Don't think Sally had seen the swan until it hissed at her then she turned and ran back up the bank.

We were visited by my sister, Ellen on the 15th April bringing a card for Neils' birthday and meeting Sally for the first time.

Sally wasn't happy with her bed under the stairs so she moved it into the middle of the hallway ... needless to say, it is back undr the stairs now.

Barking at Neil cleaning the outside of the caravan.

Helping me sunbathe.

Now it's Neils' turn.

At last where she should be ... oh yeah!!!!!!!!!

This is how Sally likes to sleep - at first she had a cusion under her but now she just sits on the couch and hangs her head over .... or on her back like this ...

With John and Thelma.

Well that's all for now. Will put another post on next week

Bye for now.

UPDATED

Hello everyone - well at last I have my computer back and am online. It seems ages since I last posted news of our Sally so here goes with all the news ....

Sally is now 21 weeks old today (Tuesday 21st April) and it is 9 1/2 weeks since we adopted her (is that all - it feels like we've had her forever). We have had so much fun over the last few weeks with her and it is amazing how she is developing her own personality and character.

We weighed her last night and she was 24.8 kgs (4 stone) and approx 20 inches high (almost her full grown height) and half her full grown body weight. Sally has put on 17 kgs (over 37 lbs) since we adopted her which is equivalent to 4 lbs per week. Neil says she will be about 8 stone when grown, she will certainly be bigger than Katie, our last dog.

Her sense of smell and taste have developed more now to the extent that she will not have food with limestone powder and cod liver oil in so we have to give it to her in a syringe which can be a very messy job. Neil holds her sitting on the floor and holds her mouth open and I squirt the mixture down her throat little by litte. But she always gets a nice treat after.

A couple of weeks ago she started losing her baby teeth and her adult ones are coming through fast. This results in her play bites being slightly less painful and she can still be very boisterous and biting at times. One thing that has helped with this is getting her fresh bones to chew on and she loves them and will chew them rather than us. When she gets too much we just isolate her in the her playpen or outside. We have now had the gates put on so Sally can stay outside on her own safely without wrecking the garden or swallowing something she shouldn't, as she still wants to taste everything.

The gates have helped a lot in toilet training and now Sally will often go to the lounge door and look back at us to be let outside. But she will not go to the loo outside of her territory yet despite going for plenty of short walks, she will always hold herself until she gets home. Neil has just taken her out this evening for 20 minutes and she could hardly wait to get home to pee. After saying this she does still have accidents in the house, especially when we are not in. Its like she has not realised yet that she has to hold it until she can be let out. It is the same at work, despite being taken out frequently she still has accidents .... but we are getting there (I think!!!!)

At least she is continent in the car where she is good as gold, even for short journeys she will curl up in the back and go to sleep. When we go to the caravan in the Lakes Sally will be asleep before we get on the motorway and wake up just as we turn onto the road leading to Windermere where the caravan is.

First view of the lake.

Sally loves being at the caravan and certainly makes herself very much at home. there. Again she can go outside onto the decking on her own and she loves to lie in the sunshine (just like her mum). We have started walking her down to the lake where she meets different people and is being socialised with other dogs especially Ellie a golden lab belonging to some friends of ours, Mark and Karen, who have a caravan on the same site. This weekend she met a swan for the first time but didn't get too close as it was hissing at her.

Meeting Ellie for the first time.

She has also made friends with another golden labrador called Holly who belongs to Christine who works for us in the office and brings Holly with her. Today I took Sally to work at 10 am and the two of them played together for 2 hours before we forced Sally to go into daddy's office where she soon fell asleep for 4 hours solid, it must have tired her out completely all that doggy playtime.