Seleighe, my dog, has now been here for two nights - about 48 hours in total - and is largely a brilliant success.
She wasn't toilet trained, but took about three or four attempts to learn about newspapers and what my copy of Puppies for Dummies coyly calls "elimination". By the second night, she had a one hundred percent hit rate. Supposedly, puppies don't develop bladder muscles until 12 weeks or so, but she already has some self-control - for long enough to warn that I've forgotten to put paper down - for a few minutes.
I have made a room - the back bedroom - puppy-safe and she sleeps in there. She wailed like an air-raid siren three or four times in the first night, for a few minutes each time. So, last night, I put my iPod in there, with a playlist of Mark Kermode film reviews and philosophy lectures from an American course, as well as sticking one or two relatively indestructible items of furniture around the room to break up the space, and I didn't hear a peep out of her last night. Her being a collie, though, this is dangerous. For one thing, she now seems to believe that the superb animation of Cars is insufficient to justify any comparisons with Toy Story, and that Plato's cave is an over-literalistic metaphor for the realm of forms. I am nervously anticipating her inevitable teenaged discovery of Nietzsche. But a puppy that takes one night to settle down and sleep by herself is quite the boon.
She is well along the path to learning to come when called and to sit. All this is very good. However, there are drawbacks.
For one things, she is very mouthy. I don't mean her line in snappy comebacks. She chews a lot. I gather this is normal, but it is still a pest. She will stop chewing things when told, but will, until spotted, happily gnaw on anything wooden. This is, I suspect, rather better than her chewing on anything destructible like paper or cloth, but will eventually tell on chair legs if it keeps going after 12 weeks or so. I bought chew deterrent - a mixture of alum and bitter fruits - which, when I spray it on something, makes the air incredibly bitter, soit must taste like liquidised paracetamol. Unfortunately, she licks it for pleasure. I suspect she'd view coffee as quite the treat.
She is also prone, when very tired or over-excited, to almost nip. She will lick your hand then momentarily put her teeth against your finger. Not a nightmare so far, but tricky to deal with when it is so fleeting. I just try to stop paying her attention immediately, but I suspect that I might need another approach if it continues, as collies are infamous for nipping.