Stronger and more resilient by the hour, Tess seemed to think nothing of the seven mile walk I took her on today (20th December) around several of the Cotswold Water Park lakes (there are more than 130 of them in total to choose from) and along a stretch of the River Thames close to its source near Cricklade.

She’s very bright and learning fast (though she does still pull a little on the lead). The best thing so far is that she has already learned to sit and wait “almost” patiently for me to finish messing about taking photographs, making notes or drawing little diagrams every fifty yards or so as we make our way along (something that certain others in our household and who shall remain nameless, have never learned to do)!

I have a friend with a small-holding (no euphemism intended) and she is happy for me to take Tess along to her tiny farm in the New Year to introduce her to the various sheep, pigs and goats that roam about the place and, hopefully, enable her to get thoroughly used to them. Tess has already mastered sit, stay, roll-over, fetch, drop and all the usual stuff and she’s still only less than sixteen weeks old.

She reminds me so much of my old dog Chloe that it’s slightly unsettling at times!