I understand that it is fairly 'obligatory' to have photographs of your pets on a blog, so let me introduce you to the most important member of our family:

September 2013: aged 9 weeks

September 2015: aged 2 years 3 months

This is Elwood J. Blues, our lovely - but challenging - Chesapeake Bay Retriever (we very soon found out what the 'J' stands for: it stands for TROUBLE. This has given rise to a new saying in the family - "trouble with a capital 'J'")

Elwood (aka Chesepi Rock Creek, and various other names such as 'oi, you, get off that sofa' and 'what's he done now?') was hand reared. (I am sure I heard a sharp in-take of breath then, from anyone who knows anything about dogs!) Although the breeder, Molly, did a great job, hand reared dogs are always a challenge. Chessie's are a challenge. The combination of the two has been hard work. We were used to docile Labradors not this manic whirlwind. In the early days our one relief was the fact that, like most gundog breeds, he slept, a great deal. The only downside was that having been hand-reared his default comfort position was in a lap - quite sweet at 2 months old. Not so funny now, hence the strained look on my face. Admittedly the lap thing is rare now, and we don't let him do this often, but every now and then he will have a go.

Nearly made it

Puppies will sleep anywhere