gracie the graduate.

My Gracie is now just over four months old and last Sunday, she graduated from puppy school! They grow up so fast.

We took Gracie to puppy school with Urban Dog Training, coincidently-not-on-purpose the same place Marie & AK took their gorgeous Mia when she was a youngin’. She fast became the lovable rascal, even being the only student to be ‘timed out’ during class (or ‘red carded’ as CB and I announce it as at home).

If you’re wondering whether you need to take your precious pup to pre-school, well I’m here to tell you that your life will be made easier tenfold if you do.

As you know, baby Grace is a border collie x kelpie and I don’t feel shame asserting that she’s faster and more coordinated than me, probably more intelligent and definitely more mischievous… must get that last trait from her puppydaddy. This is a killer combo that could have brought about some really frustrating teething problems within the first couple of years of Gracie’s life. In fact, it did bring on some early frustration when we simply could not settle her down or stop her from play-biting and excitedly jumping all over guests, accidentally scratching them as a result.

We learned a stack of invaluable info over the five-week course of puppy school, that only takes an hour out of your week (and is actually lots of fun because you get to ooh and ahh over all the other precious pups there). After a short excited outburst at the sight of new humans, Gracie now knows she must sit still if she wants someones attention. Gracie can sit, shake, drop, roll over and stays put if you ask her to wait. Puppy school taught her manners and that was the one outcome we really wanted to see.

Puppy school is not just for working breeds and naughty pups either. We had every size of dog in our class from dalmatians to a chihuahuas and everyone benefited from the lessons. Some needed to learn how to stop their tiny pups from barking and crying all day long, others had dogs who were terribly shy and needed a bit of confidence. I feel that puppy schools also teach the importance of positive reinforcement and ‘punishment’ in the form of a time-out rather than smacking your pup. If you have an older dog at home who is a bit cheeky or you want to adopt a dog that is older than the puppy age bracket, then most companies (like Urban Dog Training) have classes suited to mature pets as well.

There truly is something for everyone in these canine classrooms!

and they called it puppy love.

Mondays are hard even for those with the most positive of dispositions. The weekend is over and it’s time to head back to the workplace. Mondays at the moment are especially hard for me because every morning I have to say goodbye to this adorable, freckly little face…

My Gracie is settling in very well to her new home and I thought I’d give you all a bit of an update of how quickly she is growing while hopefully adding smiles to your Monday with some cute puppy photos.

Introducing…

Happy Valentine’s Day lovers and romantics the world over! I am the happiest in love I have ever been and so a few people have already asked me, ‘what will you and CB be doing this Feb 14?’ To those people I say, BRINGING HOME A PUPPY OF COURSE!

Frannie Loves Marie readers, please meet our lovely little girl – Grace Everton B.

It is something we have both wanted for the longest time and we are over-prepared and beyond excited to welcome little Grace (a farm born border collie x kelpie) into our home, hearts and family.

i loved you before i met you.

I have always maintained that there is no better feeling than falling in love. Colours are brighter, food tastes better and hardly anything can bring you down. Normally, you can’t predict the exact moment that you’ll fall in love and it often happens when you least expect or aren’t necessarily ready for it. There are however, a few exceptions to this, where the love exists before the ‘meeting’. I believe this happened to me when I was younger and my cousins I.H. & J.E. were born. I loved them from the moment my Aunty J told me about them, even when I didn’t know whether they were male or female or what their personalities would be like. I don’t mean to brag, but I did luck out, these girls are easy to love – intelligent, gorgeous and continually making me proud.

Well, I’m in love before the meeting again and this time around I was able to pinpoint the exact moment it happened. Yesterday, I fell in love with a little creature I am yet to meet, when the reality of a recent decision finally hit me. In 2013, CB and I are going to have a gorgeous puppy in our lives.

Discussions around my family’s border collie Denzel were the perfect ice-breaker for CB and I in the early days of getting to know each other. I learned how much CB loves every kind of dog ever (especially border collies) and Denny’s latest displays of ‘cuteness’ gave me the perfect excuse to start conversations with him. Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) sure had it right when she specified in her personal ad that potential partners Must Love Dogs.

CB and I have decided that as soon as we’re in a house with a backyard, we’ll welcome a puppy into our world. It isn’t a decision couples should take lightly and as something we’ve both wanted for many years, we’ll be making sure that our puppy has a happy and adventurous life. The breed of our pup is likely to be a border collie although, we don’t have any unchangeable preconceptions about any of the details and believe he or she will find us. Unfortunately, CB had a name already picked out for his future dog before meeting me but that name just so happens to be the first and middle name of my Pop and Dad and I don’t think he wants to use it anymore because of that. So we’ll have to spend some time choosing a name, but that’s going to be lots of fun!

There’s no doubt that he or she will be loved, because without even meeting the cutie, I’m already in full-blown puppy love! Stay tuned for a 2013 post where I introduce the little one to all of you.