General Chat

Well, she had her first injection on Tuesday then wormer powder Thurs-Friday.

Yesterday and today she's been a poorly little thing with and upset tummy and being sick, hopefully it's just a reaction to the wormer powder so she was starved until lunchtime today and now seems a bit livelier.

Feel so sorry for her when you can't ask her what's wrong.

Glad to say she is well on the road to recovery. 9 weeks old yesterday.
She's back to being her cheeky, bouncy self but tires easily and sleeps more, has got slightly bigger but only put a little weight on.
Still mainly on a bland diet of chicken or fish with rice but slowly reducing that and reintroducing her kibble.
Starting to teach her some basic commands as well.

Now 12 weeks old.
Yesterday I spent almost an hour at the car dealers getting the wiring under the passenger seat repaired where she had chewed it and getting the warning light on the dashboard reprogrammed to cancel it.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-S

She's now 19 weeks old, down to three meals a day and weighs 13 kilos.Her repertoire of commands is coming along well, sit, down, wait, stand, roll over, shake hands, and a couple more, not always perfect but not bad for her age.

Have been out twice this week to give talks to social groups to raise awareness of Canine Partners and try to get some donations since demand on the charity for trained dogs far outstrips what they can supply with existing income and income from legacies has been poor recently (probably due to the mild winter last year Lol).

Bianca was too young to demonstrate but settled in her crate looking cute and got some cuddles at the end.

Well, Bianca went off to "Big School" on Monday.
She proved to be a very lively and intelligent girl but with a couple of naughty traits that they will have to try to eliminate, like being over-friendly when meeting people and stealing and chewing things.

Sadly, Canine Partners could not get enough volunteer "Puppy Parents" in Essex so have had to phase out our Branch. Bianca was the last to go.
It's now a waiting game to see if she settles in at advanced training, gets through her assessment and qualifies to go into full training.

We are switching over to Guide Dogs and should get our first puppy from them in about three hours.
It will mean learning a whole new load of commands and ways of doing things.

Wishing you all the best , enjoy your puppy training <3

The new puppy is a black ten week old Labrador/Golden Retriever cross named Windsor.

Awww great news...loving the name :-D <3

Bianca was partnered with a gentleman from the Midlands, spent 17 weeks in Advanced Training being taught all the tasks he needed her to do for him, finished her two week residential On Site Training course with him last Friday and is now at home with him as a fully Canine Partners qualified assistance dog.

We are so proud of her and she will be in our thoughts forever.

Great to read an update.

What a wonderful help, friend and companion Bianca will be in her new home.

Your early patience and good training set her on the right path.

Great news remember as they leave you the care & love you have given Bianca means she had the best possible start .good luck in the future Brian

Haven't been on for a while, but Windsor is coming up to 17 months old and we give him up on 6th January.
He has turned out to be a smashing dog, handsome, affectionate, obedient (mostly) and full of life.
He has been chosen, with eight others, to go to Belgium to bolster their Guide Dog programme.
We already have the next one, Lemar, who arrived last Thursday and who is a male, yellow, another Goldilab cross and was 10 weeks old on Sunday.
Someone we met in the churchyard on Sunday commented that he looks like the Durex (sic) puppy in the TV adverts.

I don't know how you do it Brian..... it must be so hard to give them back <3

But well done you and OH for doing their puppy training which is no mean feat :-)

:-D :-D :-D @ the person in the churchyard

Keep up the good work :-)

Just trying to train one puppy is enough work, let alone doing all that and then saying goodbye...but a very good cause none the less... :-)

Poor Lemar has been very unwell for the last week or so, with an upset tummy due to a Giardia parasitic infection.
OH has been sleeping downstairs with him (and Windsor) but after three visits to the vets and medication prescribed he is showing signs of recovery.
At that age (10-11 weeks) they go downhill so quickly and we have been very worried.
I'll be taking Windsor off to his next adventure on my own on Monday so Lemar can stay at home and rest.

Well, I took Windsor down to the GD centre in Redbridge on the 6th, on my own as Lemar was still not well, and sent him off with our good wishes.
Had a phone call from Belgium on the Wednesday to say he had arrived safely, was partnered for training with another dog from our training group and was behaving himself very well. Described as "a credit to us" which is gratifying.

Landed up taking Lemar back to the vets last night as a sample we sent off showed the giardia still present, so more medication for ten days, wait a week and send off another sample. Fingers crossed that the bug gets knocked out of him this time.

He is so thin that we were advised by our local trainer not to expose him to public gaze too much as it might make people think that GD don't look after their puppies properly. I was a bit miffed but suggested we sat him outside the local supermarket with a collecting box so people who thought that could donate money to feed him up.

Poor Lemar - I hope the medication works <3

Love this thread Brian and I hope that Lemar gets well soon. <3

Poor Lemar <3. I do hope this course of meds work, Brian...they are just like human babies at this age....rather vulnerable but hopefully will eventually be stronger for it <3 <3

Good Luck, Windsor <3

Btw I too like reading this Thread :-)