Over a barrel

 

It's been a beautiful day today so we drove along the coast to give Tilly some time on the beach.  It's a dog-friendly beach and again we practically had the sand all to ourselves. Well not exactly as we had to watch where we were stepping as the beach was littered with washed up jellyfish.

 

 

Going down to the waters edge we came upon this monster and I've since discovered it is called a barrel jellyfish otherwise known as a bin-lid jellyfish. I did read that their sting is not normally harmful to humans but can cause dogs a nasty injury even when they’re dead.

 

We came away unscathed and walking back to the car Tilly proved she is fearless and enjoys walking along the wall. She's doing well with the new head collar and is a happy little pup.

Clouds and courses

After returning from walking Tilly yesterday I sat in the garden enjoying a mid-morning cup of coffee and a slice of toast. I looked up to the sky and saw the most beautiful cloud cover, it reminded me of cauliflower florets.

 

 

 

I'm still not having much success walking Tilly without her pulling me along even with the new harness and training lead.  I've managed to sign her up for puppy socialisation classes. It's an eight week course but unfortunately the current course began last month so we will have to wait for the next course to start and I've already paid a deposit to secure her place. I asked about the one to one training but sadly they are not doing that at present. I mentioned about Tilly pulling on the lead and they recommended this nose collar which I ordered and it arrived quite quickly. I was advised to introduce Tilly slowly to it as sometimes it takes some getting used to the nose band so that's on the agenda for today. I'm actually looking forward to attending the puppy classes and doing some socialising myself :)

Yesterday

Yesterday I dropped Tilly off at the groomers for her shampoo, blow dry and pamper session and took the opportunity to do a spot of supermarket shopping to while away the hour. I'd only intended to buy a few bits and bobs but came out with a clock for the garden. Now it's up on the wall I think it looks good and I can make sure I don't sit outside in the sun for too long.

When I went to collect Tilly she did look gorgeous but I was met with the tale that Tilly really, really didn't like the blow dryer. "Oh and while she was having her nails clipped she was biting me" the groomer said and "one of her puppy teeth fell out and would you like it?" I said yes and she put the tooth into a small plastic bag for me. After paying she told us she'd see us again in four weeks time but I'm not so sure as I left feeling really upset that Tilly hadn't been cooperative and had been naughty. I took some photos at home of her looking lovely and fluffy with her new toy, a nice soft burger.

 

Not long after returning home hubby's brother and his wife called and spent a few hours with us which was nice and they brought us a big bundle of rhubarb from their garden. Tilly seemed none the worse for her ordeal as she enjoyed the company too and having a fuss made of her and a few cuddles.

However later that evening my thoughts turned from being upset that Tilly had been naughty to feeling upset that we had put her  through that ordeal. Having always had rescue dogs we've never had a dog that needed such regular professional grooming. I'll be very interested to read your thoughts on the matter if you would be so kind. Here's a photo of Tilly's tooth.

Same but different

We've been enjoying some beautiful, hot and sunny weather and my roses have started to bloom in the garden. We have two of these patio roses but only this pink one is flowering. Of our two climbing roses only mine with the deep red flowers is in bloom but hubby's yellow roses which are more in the shade won't be too far behind.

 

It's been lovely either sitting outside in the garden or playing outdoors with Tilly. She absolutely loves jumping up and getting soaked while I'm using the hosepipe to water the plants. That really is a very wet Tilly and the other silhouettes are me and a different shrub.

On Friday we did something entirely different and went for a walk around the lake but not all the way round as that is far too far for us to walk in this heat. There were more visitors than we had anticipated but it was nice to see so many families with children fishing for crabs and we heard one little boy announce he'd caught a jellyfish.

I had a nice conversation with a lady who had a friendly five month old Cavapoo  and I could have chatted with her for hours. Her young pup was just four days younger than Tilly but bigger than Tilly. Tilly is quite nervous of other dogs but that pup was quite calm. The lady told me her pup goes to doggy day care while she is at work so is used to socialising with other dogs which I now think is what is needed for Tilly. Also her dog had been groomed because apparently she had looked like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.  I'd already booked Tilly in for another shampoo, blowdry and comb through for this week even though it is only four weeks since her last visit. Our groomers won't give her a complete trim until she's six months old so hopefully this week's planned visit will get her used to the place and the people before the big event.

While we were at the lake we decided we would take a ride on the miniature railway and you can read all about it here. I didn't manage to take a photo of the actual train but here's Tilly in the station, ignore the time on the clock as it's wrong. She really did enjoy the ride with the breeze blowing through her fur.

 

 

Bank Holiday Monday

Summer has well and truly arrived with the hottest day of the year so far and a welcome end to all the gloomy weather. We weren't planning on going anywhere so as to avoid the heavy Bank Holiday traffic and hoards of visitors to the coast. So it was an early walk with Tilly to the harbour and already the sky was blue with just a few people on the beach.

 

Tilly is always interested in what is going on around her.

On the way home I noticed our friendly neighbourhood giraffe had abandoned his face mask in favour of a parasol and sunglasses.

I brought out the sun loungers and spent the afternoon sat out in the garden. With the promise of the nice weather I'd ordered some cider with the online shopping but not being something I would normally drink but with flavours such as parma violet, toffee apple and rhubarb and custard I just couldn't resist and I can tell you that it didn't disappoint.

I have to own up that I am a little bit sunburnt and although the sun is shining I will spend more time indoors today.