Day 1

The alarm went off promptly at 06.45... although we were so excited we were already awake and raring to go. We arrived at Kate's house to collect our new puppy. We were really fortunate to have visited Kate and her puppies several times but Merlin was the last of the litter to be collected. When we arrived, all the Miniature Schnauzers were excited to see us and Merlin came running over to say hello wagging his little tail. After a coffee and being given our puppy pack we made our way to the car where Merlin's crate had been placed in the boot.

Taking Cesar Milan's advice from his "Raising the Perfect Puppy" book, we held Merlin and allowed him to sniff and make his way into his crate with the help of a treat or two. He soon settled in and after a brief howl we made our way home.

When we arrived at Chez Bass, we opened the boot and immediately Merlin stated to sniff out his new territory... a very good sign! I carried him from the car and let him sniff the air for a couple of minutes before walking up to our front door. Once outside our front door, Merlin became very inquisitive and his nose lead him around the hallway. He didn't like the feel of the lead though... he was quite put out to be shown the way and immediately tried to chew it so I think we have some more work to do there!

When our guests were in place, we made our way to the designated puppy area in the living room and let him down to play. Almost immediately there was a little yellow puddle on the waterproof floor liner and when cleaning up the little accident, Merlin became fixated on the tissue and thought that the clean up was a fun game.

Most of the afternoon was spent playing with his new toys and generally having lots of cuddles. He ate all his meals and especially liked the little bit of Christmas turkey as a treat. He also managed to do all his messes on the puppy training pads (Thank you Kate for getting him used to these before he came home).

Before bed, we experienced Merlin's first howl... something very common for Miniature Schnauzers to do, and after a bed time cuddle from his new Daddy he settled into his crate for the night. Lets see what Day 2 has in store tomorrow....