MEET MY NEW PUPPY, ELSIE!

Meet my new pride and joy, Elsie. I had been toying with the idea of getting a new dog for the family for a couple of weeks and found myself visiting The Dog's Trust a few times to try and find one that chose me. 

It's approaching a year ago that we lost our beloved Maisy. If you haven't already, you can read Maisy's story here. No dog will ever replace her but we have so much love to give so I felt it was the right time to offer it to another pooch and begin the journey of having a four legged best friend once again.

I bought Elsie from a breeder in Essex and it's not been a very pleasant experience. I paid £400 for her and was told numerous times that the breeder has a litter of "healthy puppies". It's safe to say that some people lie and only breed dogs in order to earn as much profit as possible. Sadly (and regrettably), I think this breeder was indeed one of those bad people. However, I wouldn't change Elsie for the world. I'm just very angry.

Elsie settled in fine but then started bleeding in her poop after just two days of having her. When I contacted the breeder to ask them if they had wormed her, I got a reply saying "I think so, I don't know". That was verification to me that I wasn't dealing with someone who genuinely cared for these puppies. I was dealing with a money obsessed idiot.

Despite being ten weeks old the day after I bought her, the breeder was advertising them as 8 weeks old and none of the puppies had received their first vaccination jabs. Not only this, but the breeder had no idea what food he had been feeding the puppies when I rang him regarding what food I should buy for the first week.

I felt Elsie was in pain when going to the toilet, so I took her to the vet on Friday and they told me she has colitis. This is caused by having worms in her system for so long without being treated. They have now attacked her intestine and caused swelling in her stomach. She is now on medications to remove the worms and sort out her digestive system. I dread to think what may have happened if I left it any longer without consulting a vet.

I am going to do a separate post on the do's and don'ts of buying a puppy (or any animal) through an internet advert. I was naive to say the least and have learnt a lot about what you should look out for when buying a healthy puppy, what questions to ask the breeder themselves and what things should make you turn away from a breeder.

Onto Elsie herself...

Elsie is a 10 week old chocolate labrador who was born on 5th November 2015. Her dad is a golden retriever, her mum is a black labrador and they had a litter of 5 pups, including Elsie. She has settled in really well and definitely sees me as her mum. She follows me EVERYWHERE and has me up at 5am on the dot every single morning wanting to play tug of war with her teething toys. It's a good job she's cute!

She is on a particular diet of boiled eggs and rice at the moment to make her stomach better but she seems to wolf it down quicker than her regular puppy food! Elsie LOVES to chew everything and anything; shoes, firewood, handbags, phone chargers, tissue and even her fluffy bed.

Basically... remove everything off the floor unless you intend on it being destroyed.

Her training is slow but going well. She has been sleeping next to me in bed every night whilst she settles in but as of tomorrow, she will be trained to sleep in the kitchen over night. Her toilet training is going very well and I feel like a proud mummy every time I see her sniffing the floor and squatting to release herself on her puppy mats. Of course, there's an accident every now and then but she seems to have the hang of it already!

Elsie is yet to start her vaccinations so 'walkies' are on hold for the time being... boo!! However, I intend on letting her off the lead and training her to stay within a reasonable distance.

I am going to give Elsie her own little feature on my blog with regular updates of how she's getting on throughout her life so I hope you enjoy the journey that me and Elsie are beginning and come along for the ride too!

If you have any particular questions about puppies, buying puppies, training or anything else, do leave them in the comments below and I'll get back to you!

Love, Ashleigh and Elsie x