Two months

 Sherlock back from walkies, lazing up on the couch as though he'd been there from day one, has been in the family for a proud eight weeks now. 

 I hate to say the barking may be on the mend in case I jinx it, but I have had a little more sleep at night and silence during preparation for walkies is also improving. It is still a bit hard juggling a bag of shopping with the three dogs, Sherlock refuses to stay on one side, be it right or left, and continues to minnow around, darting hither and thither from behind my legs, which gets rough when there's a bag of shopping to wham into...and I don't have my hands free to untangle the leashes. But compared with the barking...no wonder they say silence is golden.