The full story
Thank you all for your nice comments. Last night went well. We put her into her crate, she begged (no loud crying) for a few minutes and then calmed down. She slept through, and when I saw her this morning at 7, she was clean and dry. We had our first walk today and again, she was fine. She waited while the children played in the park and we walked back together. She loves to play in the garden and has been a real sweetheart. This really is too good to be true, and touch wood, it will stay like this.
You are absolutely right, those six weeks make a huge difference. We visited Anne Wood (Broadreach) on Friday. While we were happy with her set up and liked her parent dogs, she only had one eight weeks old puppy. She was absolutely lovely, but I think she will be shedding. While researching RS, I had contacted a Poodle breeder who pointed out that a lady close to us might have a female Cockapoo puppy of which the father was her black Optigen tested mini Poodle. Sounded good, so I contacted the breeder. She is actually not a commercial breeder, which we like and prefer, but has occasional puppies of her only dog, which is a golden show type pet Cocker Spaniel. Since we have had young puppies in the past we knew how much work it is to train and integrate an eight week old puppy. Black would have not been our first choice, but health and temperament were and are the more important characteristics. We spent some time with Felfel and decided she must be the type of dog we want. (The mother was actually a nervous dog and not very nice). All 6 brothers and sisters had been sold immediately due to their cream/apricot colour and the only black one had been left behind. We are happy she is with us and she seems to be too.
Such a lovely picture 
