Diary of a novice dog-owner

Belka's first bone

Belka has now been with us for three-and-a-half weeks. It didn't take her long to find her favourite place: on the settee where Mike and I normally sit. We are happy for her to be on the settee because she can lie between any two of us and get - and give - double the amount of affection. Her needs and demands are very simple: food, water, exercise and ... as many belly rubs as we can muster.

After several panicked situations that started about 10 days ago, we felt it necessary to call in a dog trainer. Belka had spent her first two weeks here focusing solely on us, getting used to and comfortable with us. After that, her attentions inevitably turned to her immediate environment and she became suddenly aware of too many things that frightened her. Having lived in a yard for several months with many other adopted strays, and being tethered most of the time to prevent her running away, she was accustomed to lots of animal company but not people, cars, bicycles, noise, etc. We were advised to start from the beginning by training her as one would a pup, the only difference being that she obviously needs a lot of space to run around in because she has loads of energy and boy, she can run fast!

And it snowed and snowed over the last week or so (much more than in the photo). Walks in the morning in deep snow and sunshine, at a decent distance from scary distractions, have been wonderful. I've been teaching her the tricks that the trainer showed me. Belka has learnt fast: she is now able to leave rubbish alone or drop it on demand - quite a feat, since she must have had to survive entirely on rubbish when she was a stray. Bless her.