We thought that we would all write this time as it will be a little while until you next hear from us, and we all wanted to tell you about our appearance at Crufts 2005!

We didn’t really know what to expect on our visit to Crufts, there had been posters up announcing that we would be appearing on the Arden Grange stand on the Sunday for people to meet us together with Derek and Sue Williams, and some of the team from Cheshire Canine Centre.

Now we had heard that if you are at Crufts that you are very special as Crufts is the world’s largest dog show so we felt very privileged to be invited and were very excited.

Derek together with Raven who was only 15 weeks old wowed the crowds with a demonstration showing how positive reinforcement methods are used to teach us puppies the key basic exercises of the recall, walking on a slack lead as well as the sit, down and stand.

Judging by the mass of people who came to watch this was a huge success, Raven enjoyed herself so much she  demonstrated that all these things could be done without a lead on even with all the distractions, and believe you me Raven loves people so they are a massive distraction to her. Raven is like us, she loves to be the centre of attention, so boy did she excel!

We all really enjoyed the experience and even got a chance to show off some of the early police skills we have learnt so far, we got the best cheer when we barked at the end of our leads for our toy.

After the demonstrations were over all of the people watching were then able to come and meet us stroke us and ask the team questions.

This proved extremely popular and created a lot interest drawing many people to the stand to say hello.  We were even filmed by the BBC, proving that we pups are totally irresistible. 

We were such a hit with all the people we spent ages getting fussed and stroked before we went off to meet the team on the Our Dogs Stand.  This was really special for us because the Paw Notes series was being launched in the Crufts edition of Our Dogs, it was great to be celebrities for the day!  We felt really honoured to think that everyone who read that edition would have seen our photographs and read the first article about us.

Once we had finished posing for a mass of photographers at Our dogs, we had to navigate our way back through crowds of people in the Halls to return to the Arden Grange stand, where we had more photos taken together with their marketing manager Victoria Hudson and the Our Dogs MD Vince Hogan.

Just as we were finishing a group of Chelsea Pensioners came past and for one of them Raven proved irresistible, it was really great to listen to their stories of dogs that had been important to them in their lives and one said that Shooter reminded him of a dog he once had.

We had a superb day at Crufts and it was a great success for everybody involved. Arden Grange were so pleased with us puppies that they have decided to support us by providing our food for twelve months, so a big thank you to them from the four of us!

Eye catching

Just think, whilst we were at Crufts on that day, it was the start of this series! This is the final article of this series for a while,  but we will keep  in touch about how we are getting along with our police and display team training.

We are six months old now and look like proper German Shepherd Dogs, our ears are now up and although we say it ourselves we are maturing into extremely eye catching adults.

Just as you humans say, doesn’t time fly when you are having fun and as you know we have had a lot of fun over these last six months getting ready for our future.

The first six months in any puppy’s life is vital in creating foundations that will shape and influence the rest of the dog’s life. Time spent training, socialising and channelling a puppy in the correct way is rewarded as he  matures into a socially acceptable dog which is a pleasure to own. All dogs require this foundation work whether they are destined to be pet dogs, competition dogs or specialist working dogs such as police dogs.

Puppies need to learn what humans expect from them and this needs to be done in a fun and rewarding way so that the puppy understands what is right. Puppies will make mistakes and these should be either ignored or the unwanted behaviour should be interrupted and replaced with something you want the puppy to do so this in turn can be rewarded. Love, patience and understanding are vital in successful puppy rearing.

Puppies need time to be pups, to play and experience new things. The most important thing to remember is that it is a partnership between you and your puppy and that you should both enjoy learning together.

We hope that by following our progress from birth until now that it has given you an insight and greater understanding in how to provide puppies with the best possible start in life and that you will be able to utilise some of the information for your puppy in helping him/her to develop into a socially acceptable dog, as well as a true friend.

Strider, Roxy, Shooter and Raven