You wouldn't know it from looking through this blog but I'm an absolutely dog-crazy person.

Just ask Michele who has to put up with me narrating every single thing that every single dog that crosses my path does.

As in...

"Oh look at that dog! It's so cute! (We could be talking mastiffs and rottweilers here) Oh look, it looks like it's smiling! It's sitting down! Now it's standing up! And it looks so happy! That is such a happy dog, look, look at it walking!"

(He turned it into a game where whoever sees the most dogs in a day wins).

(Which is usually him).


I posted briefly about this little guy when we first got Bertie, back when he was as yet unnamed.

I really wanted to call him Billy but it was far too close to Millie, the name of our last dog. And seeing as I chose Millie (which was actually short for Millenium seeing as she was born just before New Years in 1999), Mum vetoed all of my suggestions and named him herself.

Hence Bertie Wooster was christened. Yes, really.




We've had him for about a year now so he isn't quite the adorable little pup shown in these pictures anymore but he is still just as silly and just as cuddly as he was then!

He doesn't appear on the blog that much because he lives with my parents and with uni being in Exeter and Michele living in Italy, I'm not home all that often at all.




So I thought it was high time I dedicated a post to Bertie and showed some pictures of our silly little dog's first trip to the beach.

We're really lucky to live about ten minutes walk away from the beach. Botany Bay is right on our doorstep and it's such a beautiful place. The cliffs circle the sand and make you feel as if you're in your own private cove (as long as you don't go in the middle of summer - there's no danger of being under any such illusions then!)

As soon as Bertie was old enough, we took him out to enjoy the last of the summer and for his first taste of sea and sand.



Although he wasn't at all sure about the sea when he first went in!



After a few gentle attempts at coaxing him in (ok, fine, we pretty much just stopped short of throwing him in) he ran in, barking at the waves and began to leap and jump like a hare.




Keeping his eyes on the camera at all times like a real model of course!

Bertie is a ridiculously droopy dog meaning he has a permanently guilty expression on his face. It's got worse as he's gotten older - but then he's also earned more reasons to look guilty too!




After a little while, he'd clearly had enough so we began walking back up the beach where he came across his first ever three-headed dog!


Dad picked him up so that he wouldn't get all sandy whilst he was so wet. Poor Dad got a coatful of sea water!


And alas, it was all in vain.

Now, what exactly do puppies do best?


Misbehaving!


As soon as we got to the top of the cliffs, Dad set him down for one second to put his lead on, only to have him slip from his grip and bound happily back onto the beach. Where, as you can see, he got more than just a little sandy.

Poor Bert. He was feeling ever so pleased with himself... until we bundled him in the bath as soon as we got home!


Sorry Bertie! The last laugh was ours!