Lottie's Diary - training diary of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever

Lottie slept a little longer last night. Until quarter to five. We hear her moving around in her crate when she wakes as it is in the room just below ours. Not wanting to break the principle of only releasing her when she is quiet means trying to fetch her out quickly before she starts crying, or waiting for a gap in the whimpers before opening the door. Not great fun at five in the morning.

We have both been feeling a little tired today!

Relaxing under the barbecue with her rawhide bone.

For a moment I thought she was not going to pick it up, but after a bit of experimenting, she managed to grasp the ball in her little mouth and bought it beautifully back to me. What a lovely start. I sat the puppy in my lap with the ball in her mouth and fussed her for a bit before taking the ball and rolling it again as a reward. No hesitation this time, but a little encouragement was needed to persuade her back to me with it.

I am very glad to see that Lottie has a 'chase' and 'pick up' instinct. I will put the ball away for a few days now until I get to know her better and work on encouraging a nice 'puppy recall' response.

Meeting the other dogs continued today, this time with our black cocker Molly. The pup was a lot more confident today and very soon tried to engage Molly in play. Molly is a very sweet natured little dog and put up with quite a bit of 'ear-tugging' and play biting for ten minutes or so until I separated them.

I took Lottie to watch the dustbin lorry

Today was 'dustbin' day, so I took the opportunity of taking Lottie out into the lane to watch the dustbin lorry and all the noise and clanking that emptying dustbins involves. Isn't it lovely how even burly dustbin men dissolve into a soppy mess when faced with a tiny puppy!

Once again Lottie slept happily in the car crate whilst the big dogs were being trained, though as you can see, she will soon be too big for this one.

she was stroked and admired

After school, our younger son Tom bought several of his friends home to visit the puppy. She will certainly be very used to 12 year old boys. I do need to arrange for her to meet some younger children soon though.

The main new experience for Lottie today was a trip to our village pub. I carried her into the bar in my arms and she was immediately stroked and admired by a variety of delighted locals. We stayed for half and hour or so and she seemed very relaxed and happy to be the centre of attention

It was interesting to find that few people knew what breed of dog she was. One person thought she was a chocolate Labrador and most had not heard of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

All in all a busy day - I hope she sleeps well!

Lottie is a much more settled little dog now. She trots about the kitchen and garden with great confidence, and is establishing some favourite places to relax with her rawhide bone.

We are now beginning to gently 'guide' her behaviour to fit in with our needs. In addition to refusing to respond to noise, we are starting to teach Lottie not to bite or nip. Each time she bites we hold her still, say a firm 'no', and then provide her with her bone to chew on. Compared with some pups, she actually doesn't nip very much or very hard. She does however, 'wee' for England - and as yet has no idea that outdoors is the preferred location for 'puddles' and 'parcels'.

Keen to find out whether or not Lottie has inherited some retrieving instinct, I spent some time this morning getting her interested in a tennis ball. I sat on the floor rolling the ball back and forth on the ground between my hands, she stood watching for a moment and then made a grab for it. As soon as she did so, I rolled the ball a few feet away and she raced after it.

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