A good week of achievements.

A fab week for the dogs in different ways, so where to start?!!

I'll start with Stan. Our oldest, wire haired, wired up wrong terrier, who has a lot of strange behaviours, and is normally not keen on new arrivals. Well having seen Cove in the cage for over a week, we decided to just casually let them meet outside the bars. Unbelievably, Stan was very sweet and loves him! It probably helped that Cove is a very sensible lad and knows how to use the right body language, so being totally submissive when Stan was checking him out but then playing beautifully with him when it was right. So interesting to watch the way Cove thinks about things. They are turning into great friends over the last 24 hrs, and it makes life indoors so much easier! Cove only goes in his crate now to eat and sleep, but otherwise he has run of the house, playing nicely with the cats and Stan. That's a huge hug for Stan too, who really is quite a special old boy.

Then there was Lily. She has been watching and sizing up Cove since he arrived, and she did say hello briefly and offer him her toy in the field earlier this week, but I was still reserved about how she would be in the house with him. Lily doesn't like feeling enclosed, nor does she like people getting close to me if she is with me, and this all makes for wariness as Cove is still such a baby. However, today she has been indoors trying to play and she too loves him!! Ok she doesn't really know how to be gentle so Cove spent a fair bit of time being unsure of how bold he could be, but he soon started barking at her and interacting, and Lily is happy. That's a huge step!!

So to today, and Olli.

The morning was wet and a thick sea fog rolled across and practically engulfed us, so the decision was made by the Gun Captain to wait for an hour before deciding whether to shoot today. Olli was not impressed and sulked in the back of the truck, without taking his eyes off me as I stood with the others chatting. We finally set off at 10.30am, an hour late but the first drive was good and Olli went to work. A couple of fab retrieves straight to me and he settled down to the task at hand in his usual beautiful style. He also picked up a pigeon for me, just as accurately as the pheasants, which a lot of dogs wont do.

By late morning the fog had gone and it was beautiful sunshine across the valleys, so I sat with Olli at lunchtime, shared my cold chicken with him, and a piece of cake before setting off for the afternoon drives. He was a perfect companion all day, and the best part of the day was at the very end when one of the Guns said that a Cock pheasant, had flown on and not been hit as his Labrador had hunted the undergrowth but not found anything. I had heard the bird hit the ground so I sent Olli in to find it. 2 minutes later, after criss crossing the ground, through the brambles came Olli with the wounded cock bird carefully carried to my hand. If it hadn't been for my boy, the bird would have died slowly, possibly suffering for hours, but I did my job and it suffered no more.

Very proud of all my dogs this week.