Eleven Months

Ellie was eleven months of age yesterday. There is still no sign of her first season, though we're not overly concerned.

In terms of training, things are going well. Her levels of concentration are certainly increasing, meaning that we are able to expect more and more from her in training. For example, I was taking photographs of birds yesterday, and had her laying beside me. She stayed there with a "leave" command, even though I could see that she really wanted to chase them.

We still don't have a date for her Good Citizen Bronze exam, and I'm extremely disappointed about that. It's looking more and more like she is going to be over a year old before she even gets her first test. It's crazy. If she fails then Lord knows how much longer it will take us to get a second exam. I feel that so much time is being wasted. By now, we should be working towards the silver exam.

As the warmer months are now setting upon us, meaning that we're able to be more active with Ellie, we've started adding small portions of beef dripping to her daily food rations. This will hopefully help prevent her losing weight during the sunnier months, and provide a little extra energy for the increased play.

She's now pretty much as we'd like her to be around other dogs -- ignoring them, preferring to focus on us instead. As we take her to more places over the coming months, I expect her to get better and better around other dogs and people. Thankfully, she does seem to be getting better at not jumping up at everyone she sees, trying to get some attention from them.

As you might be able to see from the photo to the left, Ellie is now looking a little less "stringy" and a bit more muscular. I put this down to a combination of age and exercise. Whatever the reason, it's good to see!

There are still no bad behaviours to report. All furniture is in tact, nobody has been bitten, no running off, no nothing. How lucky are we? I suppose if she has a fault, it's that she doesn't much care for sharing our affections. She wants us all to herself. If we stroke another dog outside, she will make it very clear that she's not happy.

In other news, we have a brand new camera and so we're able to take pictures of a much better quality now, and include some fast-action shots. (Our other camera was really a very basic point and click affair with no zoom capability.)

Ellie's car sickness seems to have improved. The true test will be when we take her to Jan's Mum's, as that is a pretty long trip, and she's been sick each and every time we've taken her to date.

The Waterfall

With the sun shining for a second day, we decided to take Ellie to a small village called Anwick, about 15 miles away from us. There's a gorgeous river with a really powerful waterfall, that we knew she would love. Aside from the waterfall, you can follow the river for miles, and it's a beautifully wooded area.

Unusually too, the water in the river was absolutely crystal clear. We saw a few other people with their dogs, but Ellie is really getting very good at ignoring other dogs. She still, of course, loves meeting people with a wagging tail, hoping they will stroke her.

At the entrance where we joined the river, there is an old lock. This photo shows Ellie posing by the old lock handle that would have been used to open and close the lock gates. I must say that Ellie is getting exceptionally patient with me, happily sitting for ages sometimes, while I move around to get the right shot of her.

A rare shot of Ellie and I. We both decided that we would climb upon an old fallen tree trunk, while Jan snapped away. Usually, I am the one behind the camera, so this is a rare shot.

We've also got a lot of video taken over the past two days, but I need to edit it first.

Here's a shot of Ellie playing the part of a water-baby. She's really getting a passion for water now, which I'm exceptionally pleased about. You can also see in the photo just how clear the water was. It was lovely.

As always, check out the gallery for more images. There are some really good ones from today's trip.

Down by the Trent

The weather held out long enough for us to take Ellie to a new location today. We took her to a part of the River Trent in Beeston. It's a lovely area, with a park, and plenty of access points to the river. The photo to the left was taken at the end of the park, where there's a small waterfall.

The river was quite fast-flowing today, but that didn't prevent Ellie from exploring it, and even swimming in it. This was her first proper swim. Usually, the waters we have taken her to haven't been deep enough for her to swim in.

We spent quite some time just throwing stones into the river for Ellie to try to retrieve, though we kept getting interrupted by another dog that was there with its owner. Despite its appearance, it was a pleasant enough dog though. Ellie did as she usually does, and just ignored it.

We decided today, after reviewing all of the photos that we took while there, that we need a new camera. We've now ordered a new one and so there should be a marked improvement in photo quality as of next week. The new one has a much better ISO, zoom, and features. I'm really looking forward to getting that!

There are loads more photos from the day in the gallerye.