Category Archives: British Cream Golden Retrievers

Nov. ’15

One Year Ago Today…

We met and brought home our Bess Pup

She quickly found the toy box

Met her sisters Bonnie and Belle, who clearly didn’t know what to think about this new bundle of energy.

Bess was introduced to Linus under Belle’s careful eye.

They soon became friends.

From the beginning Bess was determined to keep up with her big sisters.

Just like her sisters, Bess went to school to learn manners and how to be a good pup.

Bess is a bouncy loving pup and it’s been a blast watching her personality develop this past year.

Over this past year Bess has changed from a bouncy, barky alligator jawed puppy to obeying “leave it” and “give” commands even when she really, really doesn’t want to. She is learning the joy of sleeping in on the weekends. (Thank you pup!) She is starting to realize how much fun it is to cuddle. She is learning compassion and will quietly lay beside someone in an effort to bring them comfort. She is starting to learn that when she wants me to get up out of bed that means she has to stop standing on me so I can get up.

Bess will show us what she wants, by following the “show me what you want” command. Sometimes it’s to go outside, other times she wants a tummy rub. She still loves her stuffie toys and usually has at least one and most likely two or more in her mouth at one time. She is always up for an adventure and continues to be our bouncy Bess. I can’t wait to see what this next year brings.

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: British Cream Golden Retrievers. Tags: british cream golden retrievers. 6 Comments

Oct. ’15

Lucy Kitty and Barky Bess

Last night when it was time for bed I took down the child gate from the stairway door, Bess ran up with me and low and behold there was Lucy kitty sitting on the stairway ledge. Bess luckily didn’t see her and I was able to get Bess to go back downstairs. It’s amazing what a burst of energy and an excited voice will do to get a pup to obey. With Bess downstairs and the stairway door closed I scooped Lucy up and took her downstairs where I was hoping the pups were otherwise occupied. Um, yeah so I quietly opened the door and there are all three pups staring at us. Bess barked, Lucy clawed to get down and shot up the stairs with Bess in close pursuit followed by Bonnie and Belle and me saying “Leave it Bess Leave It!”

Lucy ran and hid under the bed with the pups Bess of course in the lead, running around the bed barking trying to get closer to Lucy. I managed to get the pups out of the bedroom and closed the door. I then called to Lucy, who from under the bed immediately started to tell me how she felt about all of this came out from under the bed, let me pick her up and snuggled close purring all the while. I simply held her for a few minutes, then I wrapped her up in a sweater to try once again to get her downstairs. With Bess barking I tried to explain to Greg what had been happening and he was able to get the dogs into our bedroom while I got Lucy out.

Once downstairs Lucy jumped out of my arms and ran into the front room. When I went back upstairs I told the pups it was now bedtime and time to settle down. It took a bit but they finally did.

This morning I went out to the front room where Lucy greeted me and seemed calm. The pups were out in their pen so I carried her to her spot on the desk in front of the computer but she wasn’t ready yet and went back into the front room and that’s ok. We’re taking this slow, we don’t have a choice in that because that’s how Lucy needs it to go. All in all we are making headway, Lucy isn’t nearly as upset as she would have been a few days ago. Bess even though she is barky and bouncy is listening and does “leave it” when we tell her to, well after hearing it a couple of times. So we’re getting there and that’s encouraging.

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: British Cream Golden Retrievers, Cats, Golden Retrievers. Tags: british cream golden retrievers, Cats, Golden Retrievers. 3 Comments

Sep. ’15

Look Who’s 1

Bess Puppy

Bess

1 yr old Bess

Happy 1st Birthday Bess!

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: birthday, British Cream Golden Retrievers. Tags: birthday, british cream golden retrievers. 4 Comments

May. ’15

Bouncy Bess’s Mother’s Day Walk

So on Mother’s Day I had this “brilliant” idea that Greg and I should take Bess 8 1/2 months old for a walk to a local park. No problem except I forgot the part where our bouncy Bess doesn’t really know how to go for a leash walk. Of course we practiced it during our puppy classes but in the busyness of life right now I forgot that you have to keep practicing to really master a task.

Bouncy Bess and her Greg at the park.

Bess kept getting Greg tangled up in the leash and she was just all over the place trying to take in all the sights and smells especially the smells of the park. So we cut that walk short and headed home where first we took her on leash for a walk down one of the country roads by our house to help get the bouncy wiggles out.

Getting the bouncy wiggles out

Then we headed home to our long lane and treats to work on leash walking and yes we forgot to take treats to the park so that just added to the experience.

Starting out in a sit.

Getting ready to head out

Walking together

I would love to say we mastered calm leash walking but you all know better, what was mastered was 15 feet of calm leash walking and we consider that a win!

Bess was one worn out pup

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: British Cream Golden Retrievers, Dog Training, leash walking. Tags: british cream golden retrievers, dog training, Leash walking. 4 Comments

Apr. ’15

A “Quiet” Saturday Morning

A few weeks ago we decided to try having Bess pup sleep uncrated upstairs with Bonnie, Belle and Greg and I. After a week getting used to the new arrangement it’s working out well and the crate will be taken down and stored for some future use.

Our weekday wake up time is 5:00am but on weekends I like to try and sleep in a bit so last night I asked the pups if we could please sleep in until 6:00am. This morning at 5:30am I woke up to see Bess puppy standing over me with her stuffed toy in her mouth asking me if we could please, please get up. Since it was at least past 5:00am I agreed much to her delight.

It’s finally warm enough to have the windows open and I’ve enjoyed a peaceful morning listening to the birds as I’ve been working on typing up Sunday’s bulletin. As seen in the following pictures taken this morning the pups and Lucy kitty enjoyed the lazy quiet start as much as I did. Linus didn’t get in on the picture taking as he ran upstairs to go snuggle with Greg.

Of course the quiet of the morning has been interspersed with multiple trips outside, a few roughhousing playtimes between all three pups and multiple leave it, gives, and redirection for our pup who is still learning what she can chew on. Plus a give command and a reminder for Belle to not chew on my shoe, yes the shoe was put up and she had to reach for that tasty morsel. Yep, we’re always learning and no, she hasn’t done that for a long, long time.

Oh and Lucy has left her computer supervisor position to go to her perch on top of Greg’s recliner where she surveys her kingdom and keeps the rest of us in line.

Wishing you all a wonderful Saturday!

Lucy Kitty, my computer buddy

Bonnie and Bess

Belle

Belle and Bonnie

Bess

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: British Cream Golden Retrievers, doggy playtime, Golden Retrievers, Kitties. Tags: british cream golden retrievers, Cats, crates, doggy playtime, Golden Retrievers, Linus Kitty. 5 Comments

Apr. ’15

Bess’s First Thunder Storm

So…. last night we decided to see how Bess pup who is 6 months old would handle sleeping upstairs with her sisters and Greg and I uncrated.

The only areas the pups have access to overnight is the hallway and our. Even then Bess was pretty antsy and she just didn’t quite know what to do because you know there were lots of good smells to sniff and lots of exploring to do.

Then all of a sudden there was a flash of light and a few seconds later some fairly loud rumbling. Bess immediately started barking to let us know there was something going on. Belle jumped up on the bed to nudge me off of the bed to go take care of whatever that was. Bonnie stood at the ready to see what we were going to do.

Our dog trainer Lora during one of Bess’s puppy classes told us to make thunderstorms a party so puppies can handle the storms better. Remembering that, I thought to myself how do you have a party at 11:30 at night, well by turning it into a slumber party of course. Calling the pups to come with me we headed downstairs, it had been several months since we had had a thunderstorm so all three dogs were stuck like glue to my side. We had cuddle time during the worst of the storm, yes, it is possible to cuddle three golden retrievers weighing between 50- 60 some lbs each at the same time. When the storm started to move away I grabbed a quilt and settled down in our oversized recliner for the night. Bonnie decided to share the chair with me, Bess was happily laying on the floor about a foot from me, and Belle was curled up on the couch also about a foot from me. Linus and Lucy kitties weren’t bothered by the storm but they did curl up on the chair with me to give their support. Thanks Kitties!

This morning Bess woke me up by gently laying her head on my arm, saying “it’s morning, I need to go outside please.” After checking things out I discovered that Bess did well being uncrated all night, there were no accidents and nothing was chewed up, so we’ll give it another try tonight, hopefully there won’t be any storms to add to the fun so we can sleep upstairs.

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: Anxiety, British Cream Golden Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Kitties, Pets, Thunderstorms. Tags: anxiety, british cream golden retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Kitties, Pets, thunder storms. 4 Comments

Three Pups and a Couple of Kitties

Follow the antics of our loveable crew