Thank you so much for your kind messages of love and sympathy following the passing of our beautiful boy. He has been one of the most loving, energetic and loyal dogs, and we have so many happy memories of him.
He came into our lives as a 14 week old puppy, who had been rejected as a show dog because of his white tail. When we went to view him, the breeder brought him in and just plonked him on my lap and I think we both knew that we would not be leaving without him. After all, we had arrived with a brand new bed, water bowl and lead!
Once we left the breeder, we needed to pick up a snack and parked in the local town. We were expecting to spend a little bit longer because we now had a bouncy puppy that was not used to a lead. What we were not prepared for was how many people would stop us in the town to say hello and admire how cute he was!
He took to training straight away and soon learnt how to fetch and drop a ball, sit and walk on the lead. The one thing that took a while was to stop him from running the whole length of a beach to say hello to another dog, which may have been little more than a speck to us!! In the first year, so many of our walks were spent running after him, calling his name and trying to figure out how to persuade him to stay with his new 'pack'.
We tried many things, one of which was carrying treats in my pocket. I felt confident that I had the answer - no more running after him like twits! As we rounded a corner on the way to the beach, we met a dog walker with 6, maybe 7 dogs and suddenly every nose was sniffing my pocket, with heads turning towards me for a treat - I had never been so popular! Needless to say, I was out of treats before we even reached the beach.
When a second dog arrived, he was not so impressed. At first he vied for attention, but with lots of love and making sure he remained 'top dog', he soon came around to the idea and the two of them became inseparable. There are so many shots of them walking together in our videos - what a joy!
He loved digging on the beach and he soon taught the younger one too. It wore them out and had the added bonus of keeping nails trimmed. And at the end of every visit to the beach, he would be the last one to leave. He would stand stock still and just look at us as if to say, "Are we leaving already?"
We will miss you, our precious boy!
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