Joy

Toff airborne and at full stretch. I’ve been attempting to get a half decent shot of her in action. This isn’t as sharp as I’d like, it was late afternoon and the light was failing, but it does show her fitness and athleticism. She was playing in the field with C, doing turns in mid-air, and springing over tussocks. And that was the restrained version for human benefit, with another dog, she is very quick and agile. I can see why her trainer persisted in trying to get her interested in rounding up sheep.

At home she is making good progress, getting bolder and more curious. She is sleeping through the night without woofing, though C is still getting up in the early hours to let her out for a wee. It’s paying off, and her house training has improved her toilet habits - there’s been no accidents now for a few days.

We next need to get her accustomed to the car, after the trauma of her trip from the trainer’s house to our’s a week ago, she is none too keen on getting in. Then, we need to train her to be a little less dependent on one of us being at home, so that we can confidently leave her when we both need to be out of the house.

The biggest complication is that she has come into season, and so we are having to be extra careful with her on her walks for the next few weeks.

On other matters, I have spent part of the last week trying to understand what else I can do to lower my blood sugar, and finding out if there is anything that I eat that is contributing to the problem. I have made big changes to my diet and exercise regime in the last two years, and this has stabilised my blood sugar level just into the pre-diabetes range. Glucose monitoring this last few days has identified certain things which are problematic, and others that I thought could be a problem, have turned out not to be. It looks like I can even start having marmalade on my morning toast again, while my seedy porridge is not a problem either. All very encouraging.