Toff's progress

Six days since Toff arrived, here is an update on her progress and what we have learned.

Toff is making great progress from being a farm dog who lived outside to a pet who lives in a house.  She is still timid and skittish, but she is bonding well to her new people, particularly Caroline.  She is more confident now than she was at first in the unfamiliar environment of a house.  She needs to make a little progress in her house training, she is improving, though demonstrated this evening that she isn't where we need her to be yet.  We have now had three successive nights of uninterrupted sleep, though only by dint of C spending time calming her before bedtime.  The mistake I made was to bake some bread late one evening, and the smell was all too stimulating for her.  

Outside, she has excellent recall when off the lead.  I found yesterday when I took her out on my own that she was much less confident than when C is with us, at one point she started running away towards home (which would have involved crossing a road that cuts through the village), but when I called her, she did come back to me.  It was a nerve-wracking moment and it convinced me that she is not ready yet to come with me unleashed on my walks through the Park and up Garrowby Hill.

We have learned:

* She is generally relaxed out of doors during the day, she gets more skittish when it gets dark.
* She is much more wary of men than she is of women.
* She has been relaxed with all the other dogs she has met so far, and she has found a couple of young dogs with whom she enjoys playing.
* She is fit and quick, and very agile.  She can run rings round most dogs.  She is going to need a lot of exercise, which for us is good if somewhat daunting given our various health issues.
* She is very quick learning new things, and like a horse, she never forgets where she has been spooked by something unexpected.
* She is gentle and totally lacking in aggression, which would explain why she failed as a sheep dog - despite being easily trained, she lacks the edge that a sheepdog must have.
* She has no affinity for water, she likes to stay clean and dry.
* The exception to that last point we discovered today is that she likes rolling in things we would rather she didn't.
 * We forgive her because otherwise she is totally adorable.