As you're aware we collected GP (Gaia Pup) from the West Country on Saturday Dec 16th. The breeder had kindly held on to her for an extra four weeks so we could collect her to coincide with the Uni's month long Christmas break. I imagine she had a bit of a culture shock that day. She was the only puppy left from the litter still with her 'mum' and she'd watched her litter brothers and sisters go away from her home one by one until she was the only one left there.
We thought that the 250 mile journey home to our little Yorkshire village might be a bit traumatic for her but she slept through most of it and even obliged us both by having a wee when we stopped at the services on the M42 for that very purpose. The breeder had told us that the extra weeks with her had meant Gaia was now a 'dry puppy' ie she didn't leave any "mess" indoors! I was a little sceptical but it was true. The beautiful pup has been dry ever since we let her into our house.
I was concerned how she and Ieva would get on as Ieva's arrival at our place in the late twenty teens must have been quite traumatic for her. My big dog (Callie) barked at her when she entered the house and then had nothing to do with her at all for about five or six months. Eventually Ieva was tolerated but they never really played together like most dogs do.
When the new bundle of fun arrived in our back garden (we'd taken Ieva out of the car first so she'd be 'in residence') I was already prepared for a similar reaction from Ieva but no! The big dog started playing with the puppy from the moment she arrived. They rough and tumbled in the garden, in the kitchen, in the lounge, even in the back field behind our house when we were supposed to be getting Gaia used to toileting in there!
The back field became Gaia's 'walk route' while I took Ieva on her "Big Dog walk" three times a day. Unless it's absolutely monsoon weather outside I take Big Dog for about a mile and half on each of those 3 walks, they are - first thing in the morning (Laura picks us up at Glen Howe Park to go on to the local swimming pool six mornings a week); as soon as we get back from work (a circuit through the hamlet up the hill, through Hill Top Wood and back) and the same walk again last thing at night. I do those two walks in either direction depending on how I feel and if there seems to be more traffic on the lane when I set off...
Gaia's first 'proper' walk, with Big Dog, in South Yorkshire took place on the sunny but cold morning which greeted us on Thursday 1st Of February.
The both came with me for the first walk of the day on what was Gaia's first Big Dog Walk.
I simply walked the same route and distance as I do all the time but I ended up walking it much slower.
It took me about 50 minutes to walk what I normally do in 30.
I had Gaia on a 'extender' lead which allows her to wander about 20 feet in front of me before she reaches the lead's limit.
Most of the time she didn't do that, once she'd realised she couldn't run ahead with Ieva. The sudden stop when she reached the lead's end must have been quite a shock at first but, being a smart breed of dog (Weimaraners are known for their intelligence - and stubbornness), she soon worked out what to do.
I had to shorten the allowable lead length in Hill Top Wood as she would have wound herself round some of the trees if I hadn't.
OK, confession time, she did do that, but with the stone gate post that marks the entrance to the wood or exit if you walked up through Hill Top village into get to the wood.
(Hill Top's merely a small collection of houses, really, probably about 10 or 12.)
She was really quite scared of the handful of cars that came up the lane once we'd left Hill Top but I made her sit until each one passed - there were seven in all that morning. By the 7th one she seemed to get the idea and wasn't as twitchy. [Almost two months into this routine she doesn't even flinch if a car goes past, she simply sits and waits and then just walks on again.)
On returning to our house that first day she didn't look any more tired than I would have expected, but she seemed to 'wolf down' her food quicker than before. At 8.15 am she'd been snoozing on her bed in the lounge for almost an hour, along with Ieva and it seemed a pity to wake them to put them in their kennel...
But because it was a normal day, at the 'chalk face', in they went.
This walking arrangement continued for the whole of the week which followed but the next Friday lunchtime (9th Feb) we threw a spanner into her quiet, three walks a day routine because we all piled into the car and whizzed up to Dad's place (in West Cumbria) for the weekend!
We just prayed that the weather would stay dry for the whole weekend, a tricky proposition in Cumbria in February.
The plan was to take Gaia and Ieva to Crummockwater, my favourite of the lakes and just 10 miles from Dad's house, on the Saturday and then down to the Southern coast of the Solway Firth on Sunday, either at Allonby, Crosscanonby or Maryport.
We wanted to see the puppy's reaction to the sea. It's only about 2 miles as the seagull flies from Dad's house but almost 5 miles by the winding West Cumbrian roads.
That Friday night she did the stroll up Tallentire Hill to the grit box as if she'd been doing it all her life. Owing to the fact the road is hardly ever used I bit the bullet and allowed her to run off her lead once we passed the last house. She sort of stuck like glue to Ieva and never wandered more than a few yards away from her. Illuminated dog collars are a great idea.
In the daylight stroll, the next morning, she and Ieva ventured a bit further from me as we walked up to the grit box but was still pretty close. The view across to the Lake District fells from the lane showed we'd probably have a nice day at Crummockwater (ie NO RAIN) so we planned to go after breakfast.
To get to the LDNP from Dad's you have to drive though Cockermouth (I guess you can avoid it if you wished) but I wanted to see the building which had collapsed in to the River Cocker (The Old Court House and the Honest Lawyer restaurant). They have set up a traffic light system to allow you over the Cocker Bridge, so we were able to rubber-neck like billy-o at the damage done and then right into the Market Place and then up Kirkgate to join the Lorton Road. You have to drive though Lorton to get to Crummockwater.
We set off at about 9.00am from Dad's and already at 10.10 (ish) the car park past the old Scale Hill Hotel was over half full.
Straight out from the car park there's a really steep slope that takes you through the woods (Lanthwaite Wood), past and through a rocky out crop and then through a field gate that lets you get to Brackenthwaite Hows - a very minor summit but with outstanding views of the middle Lorton Valley. Rannerdale Knotts blocks the view of Buttermere (village and lake) but over the top of it on a clear dale Great Gable and part of Great End are visible in the distance. The biggest fell in view is Grasmoor, to your immediate left.
We had two youngsters with us, Gaia and my kid sister Chloé who's 8. She's done this walk masses of times with me, Laura and the dogs and with her Mum & Dad (Chloé's Mum is my step-mum). At the field gate which marks the 'intake wall' of the fell Chloé asked of we could let Gaia off the lead. There were no sheep immediately in view - there aren't usually any on this bit of fell top anyway but as we neared Brackenthwaite Hows summit we encountered a boxer, seemingly alone. Its owner was at the highest point looking south at the view and Gaia and the boxer sniffed each other and began a tentative play.
I was really pleased by this as she'd not really met any other dogs since she'd been with us and it was interesting to see how they'd get on. Pretty well it seemed. The guy and the boxer eventually headed off in the direction we'd just come from and we trooped down the opposite slope to re-join the intake wall at a second gate. Gaia went back on the extender lead from here and for the rest of the stroll.
This took us down to the boat house on Crummockwater's edge; along the footpath that follows the line of the lake heading north; a look at the fish-ladder arrangement at the lake's outfall and then back to the car park strolling along the bankside footpath of the River Cocker. The same river we'd crossed earlier when I wanted to rubber neck at the collapsed building...
Callie, of course was off the lead for all of this walk, she chased about with Gaia at the summit and then walked ahead of us and back as if rounding us all up. She paddled in the lake by the fish ladder but Gaia was rather wary of the water.
Despite the morning's stroll, she was able to manage a mid arvo one prior to her evening meal and then a just before bedtime one at about 11pm.
Next Entry Gaia sees the sea!
