Oliver's New Coat

Oliver has decided that it was a good idea to grow out of his coat that he hates wearing, So his lovely mummy knew of a great lady on www.k9community.co.uk that makes brilliant coats for Italian Greyhounds......So this morning his lovely new fleecy coat arrived. It's fab and covers all the right places and has a lovely curved back to it that hugs his shape perfectly.

It has a wrap around strap that goes between his front legs and does up on his back, this keeps his chest warm and now its not baggy around his undercarriage so there's not pee pee accidents on it. It's also fully reversible.

I'll be ordering Sophie one in the new year.

Sophies Bithday

It's Sophies birthday today, she's 1 and what a beautiful girl she has grown up to be. Everywhere we go we get lovely comments on how striking her markings are, especially people who know the breed well and know how unusual it is to see a pied coloured Italian, i've yet to meet other like her(except her Daddy!).

She got 2 presents for her birthday, a new walking out collar handmade for her by a lovely lady in the states and a new squeaky toy called Buddy, Oliver's not allowed anywhere near it.

A piccy of the Birthday girl and her new toy. xxxx

Italian Greyhound Club Fun day

This is the one meeting of the year when KC unregistered dogs can join in with the rest of the club and take part in the show ring. So both dogs got to have a bath this morning and were spruced up, looking lovely and shiny.

Sophie got first place in the Prettiest bitch class, despite nearly falling off the judging table and Oliver got second place in the handsomest dog class. Mummy is very proud of her lovely little Italians. Oliver stood very well on the table allowing the judge to examine him(he thought she was lovely) and Sophie moved around the ring in great style(she has a lovely walk).

So we had a fab day and had some lovely comments about the dogs, which was very nice.

Some photo's of the dogs and their rosette's.

Oliver meets his Nemesis......The Coat

Now Oliver absolutely hates wearing his coat, he would never go outside wearing anything when he was little, he went au natural. Today the heavens have opened all afternoon so out came the coat and off Oliver dashed. After wrestling him in to it I had to drag out for his walk. He spent most of the walk with his head down and dawdling behind. Now winter seems to be on it's way he'll just have to get used to wearing it.

Not a great picture but he was refusing to look at me and it was raining.

Ring Classes

I've decided that both Oliver and Sophie could benefit with doing ring classes, so last night I took Oliver to his first class(Sophie was sick!). He did really well with the standing and he was very good on the table as the judge looked over him and put her hands on him. Sophie will definitely not like that bit but she needs to get used to people handling her and wanting to be near her. I'd like to be able to show both of them at Companion Dog shows so we have lots of practise to do. Off to Richmond dog show on Friday to pick up some proper show leads for them.

We've go so much to practice.

Italian Greyhound Meet ups

At the weekend Oliver and I went in to London to meet up with some other Italian Greyhounds at Battersea Park. We met up with the lovely Clara and Nino and had a lovely long walk in the park. Oliver got on very well with Nino and it was nice to talk to Clara about having an Italian greyhound, Oliver does a lot of the same things as Nino does so I know a lot of his little ways are just him being an Italian boy. He's so different to Sophie and still very much a little baby who finds some things very worrying. Next time it'll be Sophies turn for a day out, but only if she promises not to chase the bicycles!!!

Our Holiday

We've been very busy the last couple of months, Oliver's growing up to be a lovely little boy and Sophie's finally beginning to get the potty training at night under control. We've been away on holiday and the dogs came too, Haven allow the dogs in their chalets and we had a lovely time at the beach in North Somerset. The dogs loved running on the beach when there was no one around and had a great time eating seaweed. We also took them on a stream train to Minehead which they seems to enjoy.

A New Addition

Been a while since our last blog and I've been very busy with our new little Italian boy. He's been with us now for 5 weeks and is settling in nicely and his name is Oliver. 

Sophie hated him first and they fought constantly but in the last 2 weeks they have become very friendly and seem to miss each other if one is not around. He's also much better at the toilet training than sophie was at his age and has shown her that it's ok to pee on the grass and when you go out on a walk. But Oliver still has issues about the walking outside bit, I bought him a different lead and collar which seems to have helped.

A few piccys of our new little handsome man.

xxxx

A sad day

We had to let our lovely greyhound poppy go off to rainbow bridge this afternoon. We will all miss her dreadfully and poor Sophie keeps looking around for her big playmate. She was a lovely dog to have in our lives and we were very happy to let her live out her retirement on our sofa or stretched out in the sun by the patio doors in the lounge, which was her favourite place to be. I will miss her big soft eyes as she gazed at you while having her ears scratched, and the way she would bound out into the garden expecting to find something to chase. 

Rest in peace my lovely girl xxxx

Growing Up

Sophies now nearly 5 months old and she's definitely now part of the family. She's been doing very well on the potty training front and hasn't wee'd on the floor for about 3 weeks now. We've learnt to go to the back door to go out and wee but not to poo, she still prefers to do that in her big crate on the paper, which I dont mind as when we are both at work she has to use the paper even though she's only left for 3 hr stints, hopefully she will learnt to hold it for longer soon.

This evening she managed to lose her first baby tooth, which was quite scary as at the time we were having a nice chew on her bone and then she started to look like she was choking on something. We finally managed to get it out of her mouth and found it was one of her back molars. Think it might be time to introduce a toothbrush to her soon. 

At the weekend she went on her first geocaching mission and had a lovely long walk in the country. We've noticed that she is much calmed in the evenings if she's had a nice long walk, hopefully we can do that most days now the weather has improved and she now likes to go out.

I'm off to crufts on the 6th of march to see lots of lovely Italian Greyhounds and of course to do some shopping for the little weed who keeps on growing out of her coats, any excuse to spoil her.

We've also booked a summer holiday in Somerset in August with Haven holidays who welcome dogs at their holiday parks, so we are all going to the beach.

Off to the new puppy training class tomorrow night with a lovely lady who seems to understand small dogs, I hope Sophie will co-operate and listen to the commands and not just stand there looking cute!

Snow

Sophie had her first experience of the cold white fluffy stuff this morning, she spent a lot of the time looking out of the window watching the snowflakes, We let her out in the front garden and she bolted back in as soon as her feet touched the ground. She was a little more adventurous in the back garden with daddy. Bounced about in the quite deep snow for a dog who is only 9" tall. Had just enough time to get some photo's of her.

But mummy I'm gorgeous

But can be a naughty little thing..............She's now decided that coming to the office is a good place to be very naughty, jump on mummy's desk, play with her keyboard, emptying the tissue box was great fun. So she will have to stay at home on the days we are both working.  She also seems to have realized that she can bark, which is quite funny as she's so small but tried to make a big scary noise.

Took a lovely photo of her this evening, she now 13 weeks old.

Puppy Classes

Tonight we went to our first puppy class, poor sophie was the tiniest dog there and the youngest. She spent most of the time hiding under my chair, huddled in her jumper. I don't think the teacher really appreciates just how tiny and short haired IG's are, I got the impression that she just thought I was treating her like a little doll.

We did learn what's the best action to take when sophie starts to sink her teeth in to you.........scream very loudly at her!!!

So hopefully next week she will be a bit more excited to be there and less frightened around all the other much bigger dogs. Breeze the rottie looked like she thought sophie was a walking titbit (we'll stay on the other side of the room)

Homework is to practice our sit and down commands

A new Year

We've had a eventful few weeks with sophie, she's been keeping us on our toes and now has discovered how to go upstairs, which is lovely until she leaps on you first thing in the morning and covers you with licks and nibbles. She's also discovered the fish tank and spends a lot of the time trying to eat them.

Things aren't so great with Poppy who is too nice to really growl at Sophie when she doesn't want to be bitten or have her tail played with, hopefully Sophie will learn with Poppy doesn't really need to be nipped all the time.

She'd  now allowed out for walks but hates the cold and finding a coat for her has been quite difficult because she's still quite tiny(now weighs 2.3Kg). It was quite sunny today so we went for a walk around Lily Hill Park which she really enjoyed, no dragging needed!

Toilet training is going very well and she goes almost 100% in her crate which is lined with paper, I think eventually she will have a litter tray in the kitchen as she really hates going outside but hopefully when she's bigger going outside will be easier.

Been able to take some lovely photo's of her, these are some of my favourites.