A pre-Christmas walk with Ted

Isla had a long (and muddy) walk around Toft with her big mate, Ted the Golden Retriever, this morning.  Despite the chilly conditions, both dogs were determined to take a dip in any water they could find.

Isla managed to get her ball stuck in a field, and struggled to get it out despite digging furiously.  When she eventually managed to extract the ball - with a little help from yours truly - it was completely caked in mud (not that this worried her in the slightest).

Much of the time it was Ted who managed to steal the ball from Isla, sneaking in to pick it up as soon as she dropped it for me to throw.  Isla never did quite work out that Ted was the culprit...

The Three Musketeers

Yesterday afternoon the Three Musketeers (first seen here) staged a reunion, since Dillon and Daisy's humans were going to a wedding.  As the weather was hot and sunny, we took the dogs for a walk around the fields.  It goes without saying that huge fun was had by all, with lots of manic rushing about (mainly by Isla, of course).  As before, Dillon has a white stripe down his chest (being a Springador), Daisy has a pink collar and Isla has a black collar.

Isla has recently discovered the "full immersion" experience, choosing to cool herself off in our pond after a walk.  On this occasion she jumped into the river without any encouragement, and then swam around for a while - purely for the fun of it.

The long walk singularly failed to exhaust the dogs, unfortunately, meaning that they were still loud and bouncy when Baby Joe came for a visit (of which more later).  As a result, the pooches and I were banished outside.

Winter Sun

It was such a beautiful afternoon that we arranged to meet Isla's "special friends", Dillon and Daisy, at the Recreation Ground.  It was still frosty underfoot, and the glorious winter sunshine made it a pleasure to be outside.  The dogs clearly thought so too.

Since all three dogs are black, it may be difficult for the uninitiated to tell the difference.  Well, Isla has a black collar (first picture), Dillon has a white patch (being a Springador, second picture) and Daisy has a pink collar (third picture).

At the end of the walk, we bumped into Tilley - yet another black dog, who also (coincidentally) has a pink collar.  In order to avoid confusion, left to right we have Tilley, Daisy, Dillon and "Two Ball" Isla.

Walkies

Being a week after Isla's second set of injections, Saturday was "Walkies Day".  We were warned by the vet about an outbreak of Parvovirus, to which young pups are particularly vulnerable until their immunity is established.  The advice was to avoid places where people normally walk their dogs.  Working on the assumption that this is pretty well everywhere, we decided to combine a trip to Girton College for Harriet with our first real walk in the grounds.

We needn't have worried about Isla in the big wide world, though, since she took to it like - well - like a labrador to walkies.

She clearly has the "pack" instinct, as she became very hesitant as soon as one of us (usually me with a camera) held back for any length of time.

We're limited to 15 minutes per day at the moment, but at least Isla will now be able to work off some of that energy which has been building up.  The daily dog walks are the main thing I've missed after losing Amber last October, and I can't wait to re-establish them.  It will be a little while before we're able to go for a ten-mile stomp, unfortunately, but I was always told that patience is a virtue.