Alfie gets the hang of retrieving

A couple days ago I received an update for Alfie, who is from Smudge and Henry's litter and Alfie is Blottie and Bumble's brother.



"Hi Jane

Hope all goes well with you. I read your blog about little Rose and I have to say I really admire you for making your difficult decision about her. I know you invest a lot of time and integrity to get your litters just right and we are very grateful for that.

We know we have a puppy who as far as possibly can be known is healthy and happy, well socialised and even house trained as a bonus.

Alfie continues to delight us with his antics. It hasn't been easy for him the last two weeks with having my daughters dog staying, but he has bounced back every morning giving us a wonderful greeting and ready for the events of a new day. I have taken on board your advice on getting him off the lead ASAP and although we havn t done it yet we are preparing the groundwork. It worried me that he didn t return to me when I called him even tho he knows his name so I bought a clicker. I started by getting him to sit and clicking and rewarding. That worked beautifully so then I stepped it up and hid round the garden behind trees and used the clicker x 4 to get him to find me + reward for coming. He's definitely motivated by food reward! He is now glued to my side when we walk round the garden together.

Lexy is also improving in her social skills with him, becoming more tolerant every day and even getting a bit playful with him which is lovely to see. We can now do throw ball and retrieve with both of them together, each taking a turn which is brilliant. I ve attached a video of Alfie doing retrieving which was filmed a couple of days ago. He catches on really quickly.( I hope the video works as its a first for me as I had to edit it a bit. You know what they say, "you learn a new thing every day".... it applies to humans as well as dogs!)

We have been walking them separately until Alfie settled into the routine of waking on a lead, but now we are walking them together side by side. Lexy is let off the lead but I keep Alfie on a running lead . Next week when Lexy returns to her home we will make the big step(for me) to let him off the lead in a safe place we've found locally (big breaths.... it's a scary thing for me!)

Love the videos of Primroses pups, they look a lovely lively bunch.

Alfie excelled himself today as we took him into town as we had to get some papers signed and we were invited to take him into the offices...... he behaved impecably, sitting quietly and very relaxed, no barking or fussing,  while we did our paperwork. Then a short walk through town where he attracted quite a lot of interest. We are so impressed with him, he is a lovely character. (but he too loves the dishwasher.... thats the next job to tackle!)

Love and best wishes

Joan and Colin"

Thanks Colin and Joan for letting me know how things are going. Alfie is certainly getting the hang of retrieving. A weeks or so ago they contacted me about letting Alfie off the lead and when to do it. Colin and Joan had, had a bad experience of losing their last dog for half a day when on holiday in France, so has made them worried about recalling in an open space. Sooner rather than later is my standard reply and with some advice to help with the confidence to do this for their dog, as letting a dog run free is one of the most precious gifts you will ever give them. 

Joan and Colin mention playing hide and seek with Archie, which is one of the tips I gave them, when getting a puppy to come to you. Hiding when you recall makes your puppy look for you, rather than you looking for them.  Using this method with Henry (Alfie's father), when out with Henry he will run off, when let off the leash, but without recalling him, he will always return in around a minute or so, to a position he can check my whereabouts.

I have to confess though that I do not consider myself a dog trainer. I live with dogs and the way I live with my dogs works for me and seems to work for them. If you want a dog trainer, put "Dog trainer" in your search bar and you will find people better qualified than me in training dogs.

Below are photos taken by our son, Thomas of Alfie's father Henry and Alfie's sisters Blottie and Bumble. Blottie and Bumble are like Alfie growing in to very handsome looking dogs and are very quick at picking up basic commands.