1st Jan 2009 - Our new puppy was born.
20th Feb 2009 - Poppy is home. Mop and bucket are on stand-by. She has settled in very well, its like she's always been here.
1st Mar 2009 - Poppy is doing very well. I'm chuffed at how much she has settled in. I slept on the sofa for the first week to let her out during the night. It was so nice to be back in bed again! She's sleeping for 5/6 hours at night now but still wakes up barking and whining, I know it will stop soon though and I've made sure she isn't getting too stressed. She is doing very well with her house training, only 1 indoor accident today. Last week I taught her sit, down and stand. She understood sit after just 2 attempts. We're learning her quirky ways, like getting very ratty when she is tired.
12th Mar 2009 - Poppy had her final jab today and a microchip installed, which she took quite well considering. She can go out in about a weeks' time, so I've been getting her used to wearing an anti-pull harness as well as her collar and lead. I've decided to use an anti-pull harness as it will be kinder on her neck while she is young.
19th Mar 2009 - Poppy's first day coming to work with me. She was a bit apprehensive at seeing some of the large breed puppies in my socialisation class; perfectly natural when you've only seen your Mum, siblings and the dog you now share home with. The only different animals she has seen since coming home have been horses. She did very well and took it all on board. As she had to stay for 3 hours, I had come well prepared; pen, bed, food, toy, puppy training pad! Later she joined in with my Bronze and Silver/ Gold GCDS class and enjoyed showing everyone what she had learnt so far. She was fast asleep all the way home.
8th April 2009 - Poppy started the first week of the KC's Puppy Foundation tonight. I do this in the last 4 weeks of my puppy course. Tonight we did, cleanliness and ID, handling and inspection of puppy and food manners.
22nd April 2009 - Did week 3 of the Puppy Foundation tonight. Poppy will be 4 months old tomorrow.
24th April 2009 - Poppy has lost 3 teeth today. I haven't found them 
1st May 2009 - Poppy has passed her KC Puppy Foundation and is now house-trained.
3rd May 2009 - Found 2 more teeth today; no big teeth as yet though.
25th June 2009 - Poppy is 6 months old today. She is practising for her Bronze and when she is ready she will do it with the other dogs from my classes. All her puppy teeth have gone now. I managed to save quite a few. She is such a great pup. On the 26th she wasn't too well; picked up a tummy bug. By the 28th she was as right as rain again, thank goodness.
1st September 2009 - Poppy is 8 months old today, I can hardly believe it as time as flown by. We will be (fingers crossed), doing the Bronze test on the 9th September. She is still very much an excellent puppy and a credit to Jane Kelly of Donisthorpe Labradors who bred her. We take her out a lot to MG shows and other events where she sees lots of people and dogs. She is helping me to socialise the puppies in my socialisation class on Thursday eves and is very good at being the stooge dog. We went away in our camper in August which she loved. She hadn't seen the sea before that, so we visited Rhosneiger on Anglesey. Guess who had to go in the water first.....yes, me! Once 'Mum' was in so was Poppy and although she had watched Charlie go in and out of the sea many times, she didn't trust him that it was ok. Was it a ruse, I wonder, just to get 'Mum' wet? Mmmmmm....
9th September 2009 - Poppy passed her Bronze Good Citizen test tonight. I am so proud of my clever girl. 
23rd September - Thought I'd have a go at the Silver Good Citizen Test tonight and she passed!!
1st October 2009 - Wow, we passed the Gold test tonight!! She is 9 months old today too.
13th October 2009 - Poppy was being sick earlier today, so I took her to the vet. She was x-rayed and something showed up in her bowel. She has had an operation tonight to remove it. I'm lost tonight without her.
23rd October 2009 - Poppy had her stitches out today and is back to her normal self! The item that was stuck in her bowel was a bobble from a hat of a dog toy. As soon as I knew what it was, I 'castrated' all the toys!
29th October - Is Poppy having her first season?
31st October - Answer to above...definately! Charlie is being very good and keeping away from her. Has he had experience of lady dog's mood swings I wonder.
21st November - Poppy still in season at moment, when will it end!
8th December - Poppy's first season lasted about a month but her Mum has longer seasons too, so I will know that for next time.
I can't help but say it is 2 years today since we lost Holly, I still miss her but Poppy fills the big gap that she left and sometimes the things she does is uncannily similar to Holly.
Poppy seems to have slowed down growing now and is at the moment only 3/4 the size of Charlie, who is a smaller male anyway. I'm not bothered by her smaller frame but I may find it difficult if I wish to have a litter of pups from her, as I'd need to find a small male for a stud. I haven't put my tree up yet as it's my tradition to do it on my Birthday (14th). I think she'll be fine with it.
25th December - Poppy was unsure about her presents and thought the paper stayed on but a quick watch of how Charlie opened them soon got her going. She took all her's and Charlie's presents on her bed and sat playing with them all. My Mum bought her a string of sausages! We got her a puzzle ball and 2 jumbones. Charlie had a new triangle, 2 jumbones and a tugger from my Mum.
1st January 2010 - Happy New Year to all Poppy's followers and Happy Birthday Poppy; 1 year old today. Poppy and Charlie had a treat in the shape of a stuffed Kong.
27th Februray 2010 - Poppy has loved all the snow we have had over the last few months, she couldn't get enough of it. We however have been glad to see it go. She has been going through her teenage time lately and has been a monkey chewing things inparticular cotton items, like the kitchen hand towel. Things have been well out of reach but somehow she has got them, but we should be sorted from tonight as we have done a little bit of jiggling with the puppy pen. She still stays in the pen at night just so that Charlie cannot be disturbed as he likes his sleep.
I measured her last week to compare her to Charlie; she is 21 inches from floor to shoulder compared to Charlie's 22 inches. Breed standard is 21 and a half to 22 and a half so she is a little under size.
