Separation anxiety

I've lived with Ann for almost two weeks now and we're starting to get a very good bond together. And even though I'm a very sociable little collie, I know that Ann is my owner. I follow her about all over the place, so much so, that Ann is now starting to worry that I might suffer from separation anxiety if she leaves me with anyone else. When Iain looked after me for half an hour on Thursday, I cried when Ann left me.  Ann wants me to grow up to become a very well adjusted little collie with no neurotic tendencies.



This afternoon Ann said, 'Trixie, I'm going for a swim and instead of leaving you home alone I'm going to take you to Kay's so that she can look after you for an hour or so.' I was happy about that. Kay and her dad, Fred, looked after me and I got to play in their garden for the whole time. Yay! I had a lovely time and I didn't cry at all. And when Ann came to pick me up I went zooming towards her and gave her ever such a nice welcome. So all is good.


Home now and Ann has popped me into my crate for an hours snooze before dinner. I was out in my stroller for a couple of hours this morning because it was such a beautiful day for a walk. Every now and again I was allowed out to have a little walk, but I'm only supposed to have about 15 mins of exercise a day. I'm sure collies that are training to be sheep dogs get more than that?



Oh and guess what else happened today?............................... There I was, having a little potter around on the balcony when I heard a dog barking down below. So I decided to bark back. Not one of my silly little puppy barks that I sometimes do when I get shut in my crate. A big grown up collie bark. Ann said, 'Trixie, NO'. …............I know what the word 'NO' means but I didn't think it applied to barking so I just carried on. Ann wasn't happy with me. It's the first time she's heard me do a proper bark. She picked me up, brought me back into the flat and told me that barking on the balcony wasn't an appropriate thing to do?!!


#thereissuchalotforapuppytolearn 


PS – If anyone else would like to look after me for an hour or so, please let us know. Apparently I need as many new experiences as possible.