"Happy New Year from Elly & Missy"

New Year greetings came at the beginning of the month from Elly, who has Missy. Missy is from ​Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups. 

"Dear Jane,
Wishing you and the Poundlane family a very Happy New Year! I've enjoyed reading the updates on your blog and it's wonderful to see that Blottie might be pregnant again.
Missy continues to grow into a lovely dog. She has bundles of personalities and keeps us all entertained. At 8 months she is around 7.5kg and her coat is starting to really thicken out with tufts of hair sticking out in all directions!
As she hit adolescence we did have a few training problems. Her recall went completely and she goes bounding up to every new dog she sees but, after many hours of training on the long lead, her recall has improved dramatically in the last few weeks. She still wants to greet every dog but she does now come back very consistently to my whistle. A few weeks in Cornwall over Christmas training alongside my mum's dog was really useful as it taught her to pay attention to me even in the presence of another dog. 
The other issue we are having is with barking. She is very interested in the TV and will bark at many things on it - from animals to suspenseful music. She also sometimes barks at sounds from outside the house, like a person speaking loudly in the street or a dog barking in the distance. We are trying lots of destination and 'counter-conditioning' training to trigger noises but haven't seen much progress yet. If you have any tips on how to address barking they would be greatly appreciated! 
Aside from that, Missy is a complete joy. She has lots of admirers and plays very well with other dogs. We had her spayed recently and she has recovered well from the operation. She also has tonnes of energy and has loved walks on the beach although she is still quite bemused by the sea. 
I'm sharing some recent pictures, including one of her very first ice-cream experience! 
Sending love and best wishes,
Elly"

"Hello Elly,
Happy New Year!
As for the barking at the telly, what you are doing is the way to go. If you are not making any progress, it might be an idea to get some help from a qualified trainer to come to your home and not let the behaviour escalate any further. Often it can just, being them help you get the timing right in intervening when she barks and rewarding her when she ceases barking.
Thanks for the update and love the photo of her licking the ice cream. Your Mum's dog (I presume in the photo with Missy) is a lovely looking dog. 
Hope this is some help.
Love from us all at Poundlane
Jane x"