Life with a new family dog has been pretty absorbing lately. It’s been fun and rewarding and has added a new cog to figure out in our family’s schedule. Winnie continues to be full of energy and we are working on basic puppy skills like not barking at birds and not nipping at the children when she gets too excited. We’ll be starting a puppy training class with her this week. She is now house-trained, obeys a “sit” and “lay down” command, and continues to be quite good on leash. She walks with us every morning when I take the girls to school.
At the end of April our weather started to get really nice – warm and sunny – and we took our first trip of the year to one of our favourite beaches, plus a chance to introduce Winnie to the water. She had a good time fetching sticks and trying to eat a dead starfish. More recently we’ve done a bit of practise letting her run off leash on the trails. Her recall is pretty good unless she’s distracted by something like a person or a dog or a leaf.
On days when it’s just her and I at home, Winnie is pretty calm. She spends a lot of time sleeping in strange positions like this.
In other Spring news, the girls and I finally planted a few things in the garden! Pearl planted flowers in her own garden box and the two of them chose to plant carrots and cucumbers in their plot. I’ve planted potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers so far. Our big difficulty this year will likely be a dog who likes to dig.
Pearl and Rose have both started soccer this spring, both for the first time ever. They are really enjoying it so far and learning some new skills. Peter and I are still figuring out the logistics of being in more than one place at the same time.
Does it feel like spring where you live?
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Right now, northern Indiana has two modes: England and Florida. It’s either 40 degrees F and rainy and gray, or it’s 80 degrees and humid. My sinuses are waving the white flag, and the plants are all confused. I was surprised to see the photo of Peter and the kids in the water. Aren’t the ocean temps still frigid?
Winnie is so cute, and I love that you get to spend a lot of time just the two of you. When I didn’t work or go to school for 9 months, our cat really imprinted on me because we were always together. Now that I’m back in school, it makes it hard because she gets upset that I’m gone. I feel like a turd every time I leave and she sits in the window and watches me go.
We’re still having a little bit of rain but our temps are getting into the 20s (Celsius) now which is lovely. The girls did go into the water and it was freezing! They went to about their knees and claimed not to be cold but it is still pretty frigid in the spring. The actual temperature of the water here doesn’t change hugely from winter to summer but it is still much nicer to swim in July and August!
Peter is the early morning dog walker but I’m the one spending the most time with her. And I’m now the one taking her to puppy class so she is most inclined to obey me right now!
It looks like you’re having beautiful weather there! Here it’s currently typical April weather (even into May), by which I mean that it’s warm and sunny one minute, then heavy rain and cold the next. Even more so than most years, in fact – our (hopefully) last frost was nearly a month later than usual. Hopefully it will warm up enough for the beach soon!
This time of year there is still a good chance of rain at almost any point but the temperatures are definitely getting warmer so even a rainy day doesn’t feel too bad. Last year we had rain almost into July so already this year’s spring seems much nicer!
Ah, I’m so jealous of puppy days! Nope, still pretty much winter here most of the time – the sun seems to have got lost.
Puppy days are fun but tiring! After our first training class, I think I was more exhausted than Winnie!
Coming into winter here, so the exact opposite of you.
Winnie sleeping pressed up against the wall is cute!
She sleeps in the strangest positions!