w/c 18th March 2019

 Monday 18th March

This week has been really hard, absolutely nothing to do with Dembe, he as always is my boy and an angel. Its me, I had a medication dose altered and I’m away with the fairies or trying to function through thick fog all the time. So this weeks dairy entries are going to be a bit scarce.

For the first day since he came home with us I forgot to take a photo of him, which proves how bad it has been. He has been well looked after and as always is my number one priority. It’s just well the dosage was too much and now I have dropped back to what I was on before.

We had a lovely day together and he has been very cuddly and following everywhere, which shows he has picked up on the fact that I wasn’t right bless him.

 

Tuesday 19th March

As Jay was day off today and we had several things planned Dembe was taken for a walk on the common at around 8am. He is looking so big in the back of the car these days it is scary. He still seems so small to us.

Before they left for their walk I asked Jay to take some photos for the blog. Due to my mobility issues I can’t go out with Dembe unless it is somewhere there is pavement. I do have an off-road trike attachment but due to the issue of the trapped nerve in my neck I am not using it at present. Jay took some cracking photos.

He loves to either carry the ball around during his walk or he likes it being thrown for him. Mollie used to love having a ball thrown for her but she is nowhere in the same league as Dembe for a ball obsession,

Jay spent the next few hours getting rid of the old wood from the back garden which meant Dembe had to be in his crate for a bit as we live in a terraced house with no rear access so everything has to come through the house. A nightmare if you have pets or small children. Dembe was an absolute angel and patiently waited until Jay had cleared up all the mess before he was let out. He then had some fun as I was getting my hair done, it was the first time I had a full set of foils on my head for highlights so his face was a picture looking at me wondering what on earth I was doing. He was pretty good around the hair only taking a few curls and running off with them.

As he had been such a patient boy all day with so much going on and had behaved himself when Rachel my hairdresser was here he got rewarded with another walk up on the common. When we got home we looked in our post box and found that Dembe’s coat for when he is a bit bigger had arrived. I’m not sure what he thinks about it?

We also have a cover for his lead that says in training. We are getting the basics down. Our next major challenge is to get him to walk alongside the mobility scooter without him trying to jump on me all the time. He walks like a dream for Jay but as soon as I am in the picture he just wants to be with me. So we are going to find a local car park and for the next few Sundays in the early mornings try repeatedly getting him to walk alongside me. It maybe that we have to think of a super dooper new treat for daddy to carry whilst we do this so his attention stays on Jay and not me.

Wednesday 20th March

I have no clue where this week is going! Dembe’s new adult teeth are almost fully formed and look quite strange against his baby teeth that he still has. He has been an angel all day again. There have been things that I needed to get done and he has just put himself on his bed and gone to sleep. He hasn’t got himself into any mischief, I am sure that will happen by the bucketful in the future! I thank my lucky stars that I have such a lovely boy, especially when I read the horror stories on some of the Labrador social media groups ( not our Broadleaf one ). I do wonder though if these people thought properly about getting a dog before taking the plunge, some of the things they complain about have me in shock, they are expecting way too much from a 9 week old puppy.

As we were up early this morning 5.30am for me, my nose was being gently chewed and 6.30am for hubby we got Dembe up on the common for a good run by 7.30am. It has set us up nicely for the day as he has been asleep for a lot of it and none of his usual antics of constantly wanting his ball thrown. I think all the excitement of yesterday as well has probably worn him out.

He has been my little helper today, picking things up for me when I have dropped them – and not running off with them but giving them back to me. Nothing that we have been working on this is his natural behaviour. Very good when I dropped a load of socks on the floor when emptying the tumble dryer.

Here he is lying on the bed

He really loves stealing his dads star wars slippers. It doesn’t seem to matter where Jay hides them in his bedroom Dembe finds them and brings them into my room. He also has in his mouth his comforter that he brought home from the breeder. It’s never been washed and I had to do a slight repair job on the arm of the teddy as it had torn, he still plays with this everyday. We keep it upstairs in my room so he has it there at night.

He has been out in what we have left of the garden which is the patio and a small amount of decking as we are having a garden make over at the moment. Which is being done on Jays days off. It will be a long project, but when it is done we won’t have to do anything to it again other than weeding! Plus it will be so much safer for Dembe to run around on. The decking as soon as it is wet is lethal and I was constantly terrified he was going to hurt himself

Thursday 21st March

As Jay was on a late night Dembe was up for a walk on the common by 9am. He loves his walks up there as he gets to meet other dogs and have a play. Today he met a very elderly black lady Labrador who was very patient with him as he bounced around and tried to get her to join in and play with her, He also met a horse properly today.

Jay and Dembe have bumped into this rider a few times, she has been watching Dembe grow up. Today they met properly and she got the horse to stand very still whilst Jay lifted Dembe up and let him have a look at the horse properly. He then put him on the floor and let him walk to the side of the horse. The horse snorted and Dembe had a bit of a jump as it startled him. He was very well-behaved as normally when he gets frustrated or wants something or is frightened he will bark. ( I still haven’t got him over his fear of the printer, every time a printed page drops to the collection tray he barks and then runs away! It is the strangest thing to be frightened of). He was shattered by the time he got hoe and slept the rest of the morning.

 

Dembe  has got much better at entertaining himself if I am doing something where my attention can’t be solely on him. Most of the time he will get up on the sofa and go to sleep or put himself on his bed. I have been lucky that he hasn’t got into mischief so far. I check on him regularly to ensure he isn’t chewing or destroying something but he has been very good. He reminds me of our first dog Travis who was a good boy when we couldn’t give him our undivided attention because we were doing jobs around the house. We could trust him not to destroy things, he was just happy we were in the house with him.

As we were by ourselves this evening we were up in bed by 7.15pm. Dembe settled really quickly and only woke when Jay got home shortly after 9pm. As soon as I felt Dembe sit up I said to him it was daddy, so he didn’t bark. He got off the bed and waited patiently by the baby gate until his daddy came upstairs. He goes mental when Jay gets home and showers him with kisses.

Friday 22nd March

Dembe had us up at the crack of bloody dawn! From 3.15am he was trying it on for his breakfast. He eventually had it at 4.30am as Jay was on an early shift, he then did his business in the garden and came back to bed. I ended up getting up at 5am as my back was sore. This lazy lump then decided to sleep for the majority of the morning! If only us humans could get away with that.

I just have one question though how does something so cute and small snore like a warthog?

When he isn’t next to me on the sofa sleeping he goes on the sofa opposite me so he can keep an eye on me. He is quite a guard dog, any strange noise outside the house he will bark. The other night Jay got up for a wee and Dembe barked at him as normally Jay doesn’t get up at night. He really does see his job as protecting both Jay and I.

When Dembe was more awake in the afternoon we started back on the “lie down” command. We started it over a week ago and due to me feeling rough and not very with it I didn’t go back and revisit it. I was so surprised that he remembered what I wanted him to do. Ok so he isn’t lying down immediately but he is getting it and considering this was our second session I was impressed. Lie down is quite submissive for a dog and many of them will flatly refuse to do this. I did have Frankie and Willow trained to lie down but Travis and Mollie would never do it!

 

I weighed Dembe today and found out he now weighs 14.5kg / 32lbs / 2st 4lbs at 18 weeks old, he is roughly supposed to gain 2lb a week at this stage so I can stop panicking that he is overweight. He certainly doesn’t look fat, you can feel his ribs and see then when he turns a certain way. I can also feel his spine and pelvis without having to rummage around. Plus his waist does go in. With him being a Labrador I panic constantly in case he becomes chubby.  He doesn’t half try it on now though, he is forever sitting in front of the fridge waiting to see if any cocktail sausages fall out!

Saturday 23rd March

As Jay was on a late night Dembe got a nice walk up at Woodbury Castle this morning. Dembe had a wonderful time playing with a Collie cross called Sookie. However Sookie ( like all dogs tend to do at some point)  decided to have selective hearing when her dad was shouting at her to come back. She was having far too much fun playing kiss chase with Dembe. Jay wasn’t bothered as running around playing is as good as a walk. In the end though Jay had to call Dembe back to him – and he came back first time, the miracle that is a bag full of bits of cocktail sausages. Jay then stayed put until Sookie’s owner came and collected her. She wasn’t impressed but her dad was exasperated with her. Jay couldn’t wait to tell me when he got back to the car about how good Dembe had been coming back with his recall. I am sure when he hits his teenage years he will decide to be a plonker and develop selective hearing. We are just very lucky that we have concentrated on this from day one. I could always call Mollie and Travis back however Frankie and Willow had selective hearing. I know how scary that is so I wanted to ensure we didn’t have that fear with Dembe.

After his escapades on his walk he has been a pretty tired pup bless him. We have had a couple of play sessions to burn off any energy and we have continued to work on lie down which he is getting faster at responding to.

One thing I really do love about Dembe is he loves getting mummy cuddles as much as I love giving them to him. He really is the soppiest dog I have ever owned and Frankie was a very loving boy.

Sunday 24th March

Sunday the day of rest, that’s a laugh in our house with the garden being revamped. BY 11am this morning the remaining decking and joists had been removed and are sat on the sliver of front garden that we have running alongside the drive. Dembe was a good boy as he had to stay in his crate for quite a while, whilst the wood was taken through the house and then whilst the mud was cleaned up. We are very lucky that he really doesn’t kick off much at all when he is put in his crate.

As we knew he would have to be in his crate for a period of time today we took him out on Woodbury Common at 8am. He met two female Bulldog puppies, who loved playing with them. He also met two elderly chocolate Labrador’s who were very placid when faced with a bouncing pup and had they been a few years younger would have had a play. It is really nice now that Jay can take Dembe anywhere and not have to worry about running into other dogs. The Weimaraners were not good with other dogs, particularly Frankie who was nervous aggressive. This always caused us so much stress, now we have the freedom to choose where we go.

Dembe had been such a good boy this morning that once all the garden work had finished and Jay had some lunch he was taken out again for another run around. This time we went to another part of the common. This time he bumped into three horses, thankfully after meeting the horse earlier in the week he knew to sit close to Jay whilst they passed. All these things are excellent experiences for a little pup.

He has slept the remainder of the day bless him.

w/c 11th March 2019 – wobbly teeth week

 Monday 11th March 2019

This week and probably much to Dembe’s disgust we are going to be working on his barking. He currently barks at anything that makes a noise , which although at the moment is quite cute as he has a little puppy bark in 6 months time when he gets an adult bark won’t be so cute or funny.

He started this morning by barking at my epilator as I was sorting my legs out before my physio session on Tuesday. As soon as I started it up he lunged forward and started barking at it. In our house we have small bags of treats everywhere so good behaviour can be rewarded and that teachable moments are recognised. So with the epilator still going I made Dembe sit and wait. Once he had been quiet for 30 seconds I rewarded him with a treat and lots of verbal praise. This dog goes crazy for a “whose a good boy”. Within 5 minutes he got it, if I stay quiet and don’t bark mum will give me a treat and make a fuss. I love how switched on he is.  After 5 minutes he took himself up to the top of the bed and settled down on the pillows.

The next challenge was the vacuum cleaner, as unless he is in his crate or sat on my lap he barks at it constantly. So working along the same lines as we did with the epilator the vacuum cleaner was switched on, Dembe barked, I then asked him to sit and wait. When 30 seconds were up he was rewarded with a treat. It took a bit longer with the vacuum cleaner as it is bigger and noisier but he got it. (The vacuum cleaner has been out a couple of times a day since Monday and he is not barking at it any more.)

Today was a day of firsts as this evening it was Dembe’s first trip in the back of the car alone. Since the 11th of January whenever he has been in the car I have been in the back with him. Purely because I have been terrified that he could fall down between the front and back seats. I know I have been over protective, I know that it is the symptom of my anxiety and trying to control things. Hopefully now that I am getting some help for this – it’s been triggered by losing Mollie and Frankie, I can stop being so over protective. The car journey went really well. He was fine in the back of the car by himself. In fact he settled a lot quicker in the back alone than he did when I was there with him.

Yesterday at Pets at Home we bought Dembe a wobble kong and a treat ball. So on Monday lunchtime I gave him part of his lunch in his treat ball and part in the wobble Kong. He loved it.

 

Tuesday 12th March

The weather is foul again windy and raining again. We have another storm on the way Storm Gareth and there is an amber warning from 9pm tonight. As I have a Physiotherapy appointment at 12.15 this afternoon, we took Dembe up to Woodbury common at around 08.30am. Both boys came back to the car looking like drowned rats.

Dembe was so dirty that we put him straight in the shower – one of his most favourite places. He doesn’t really enjoy the shampoo part but he does love getting in the shower cubicle with me. This was the dirtiest he has ever been, the shower tray is full of sand and red mud. However he now smells as fresh as a daisy and won’t be dropping sand everywhere. The common is on an ancient pebble bed so the ground is incredibly sandy. So our car gets filled with sand along with our vacuum cleaner!

On our trip to the Physiotherapy centre ( as I had done this morning) Dembe travelled in the back of the car alone. Today marked the first time Jay had taken Dembe out alone in the car as he dropped me off and then headed up to a different part of the common to give Dembe another quick walk.  This part of the common had a wood and it was the first time Dembe had experienced it. He loved running around amongst the trees. Jay said he was very brave going off and then running back to him.

As Dembe will eventually be trained up to be an assistance dog the Physiotherapy centre are brilliant and allow him into the waiting room. He has become a firm favourite with staff and clients. So many people have been following his progress and delight in his visits.

It was a busy day for the pupster as he also got to meet his (human) Grandma and Granddad ( my parents ) for the first time. He was on his best behaviour and my mum seemed to instinctively know that he loves his ears being scrunched and cuddled. It is what I do to him. Well I say best behaviour…I was just talking about his humping and he gave them a live demonstration, 3 times!

He also saw our neighbour Nicky, although he wasn’t that bothered as he was in the middle of having his dinner. I reckon a bomb could go off and he wouldn’t stop eating! He was a pretty tired pup and early on in the evening was sparko.

Wednesday 13th March

As expected after all the cut and thrust of yesterday Dembe has been a very sleepy puppy. He has alternated between sleeping on me, sleeping on the sofa and sleeping on his bed. He is a very cuddly and full of kisses today.

I managed to capture this one as Dembe decided my chest was the best place to attempt to have a nap!

As you can see it took a bit of moving around to find the best place to sleep on mum!

This afternoon Dembe has been a bit more active so I have been starting to teach him lie down. I tried a few weeks ago but he was quite resistant to it. I tried today and he was much more open to it and on 2 occasions he laid down on command without any assistance from me. I was really impressed as this command can take a bit of perseverance to get. I know with Frankie and Willow it took a couple of weeks for them to get it. Obviously just because he did it twice out of 20 times that I asked him to do it, does not mean that he has got it. This will be a work in progress until every time the command “lie down” is said he lies down without any help from me.

Dembe has 4 wobbly teeth, the last time we saw the vet he said in the next few weeks Dembe would start to lose his baby teeth. Both the front top two and the bottom front two are wobbly. It will just be 24 hours or so and these shall be gone. No wonder he is chewing like crazy on his antler chews and his huge Nyla bone. I played tug with him early and fully expected to find one of his baby teeth embedded in the toy! I can wobble them with my finger. So it really won’t be long at all.

We had a surprise in the post today, Jays sister sent us this beautiful picture. I have to say I teared up a little as today has been one of those days that I have felt the loss of Frankie and Mollie quite keenly. This made my day as it is our little family

 

Thursday 14th March

Well Dembe’s wobbly teeth are hanging on in there. They are incredibly loose and I would be very surprised if they make it through the day. He is chewing like crazy on all his toys bless him so his gums must be hurting him. There is a little bit of blood on the Antler chew so I will keep an eye on that but I think it is the beginning of his molars erupting. Poor little sausage.

Both Dembe and I are shattered today. All he wants to do is cuddle up beside me and sleep. He has had some very manic weeks so it is always a surprise when he suddenly then drops the energy level down. I think he is having another massive growth spurt. He is looking taller and longer this week. He is very heavy, I haven’t weighed him but I can no longer lift him off the floor. If I need to pick him up he needs to be on a bed or sofa as I just can’t manage his weight now. It is a bit sad as it shows how much he is growing up but he is such a wonderfully loving boy. All my boy dogs have been very loving and soppy but Dembe is off the chart and what is really beautiful is that he also loves Jay so much.

Every night when I get up for the loo ( which is several times) he gets up with me, he wanders into Jays room, checks that he is ok and then sits at my feet. He then escorts me back to bed. He really does see his role as looking after me.

Jay took Dembe up the common after work as now the evenings are lighter for longer even with a 6pm finish he can have a good off the lead walk. After being quite sedate all day he is a loon this evening. Finally collapsing at 8pm,

 

Friday 15th March

Dembe has lost his first tooth. I have no idea when it came out, it was there first thing but a few hours later it was gone. He still has the two loose bottom to but they won’t make it through the day.

 

As Jay is on a late night we got Dembe up the common at 8.40am so that he could have a walk in a busy area, so he is meeting people and other dogs. He loves this walk as it is the one that includes the woods and he loves scrambling about in there and following scents, Jay bumped into a couple who breed Labradors and they stopped and asked Jay where he had got him from and were very complimentary about his looks and temperament. Everyone who knows anything about Labradors goes nuts when they meet him, telling us how gorgeous he is. Dembe went straight to sleep on our return.

Paul popped over this morning as he was delivering two bedside cabinets for me. It is so sweet now watching Dembe react to people he knows. He went crazy for Paul, his tail was thumping against me, as I picked him up so he didn’t attempt an escape as Paul and his colleague brought the units in. Paul has been the first person that I have seem Dembe really recognise. Which is really special as Paul is such an important part of our lives. Paul made a real fuss of him.

Dembe was out for the count again soon after Paul left. Although he soon woke up when Sandra popped in. As soon as he heard her voice he jumped up and his tail was wagging furiously. He really loves Sandra too. She is the only person he gets really vocal with and will make noises like he is trying to have a conversation with her. He had us in stitches today as he was making noises we hadn’t heard before.

Whilst Sandra was here I noticed that Dembe had lost both the bottom teeth that were wobbly. I have no idea where he has lost them and they are so dinky its highly unlikely we will find them. he has probably swallowed them. The tooth fairy is going to be busy tonight.

We have had a lovely play upstairs this afternoon and I managed to get this cracking photo

Dembe is 17 weeks old today and we have had him 9 weeks today. This may sound really odd but Jay and I have really struggled with getting our brains to accept that he is really ours. Finally for me it is starting to sink in.

Saturday 16th March

Dembe has been really cuddly again today, I was trying to embroider a sweatshirt and he just wanted to sit on my lap the whole time which was a bit awkward.

Every time I needed to do a colour change I would have to put him down on to the floor. Dembe would immediately start jumping up at my legs wanting back up on my lap. He is so big now that unless I am sat on the sofa he really isn’t going to be able to sit on my lap when I am at the machine for very much longer which makes me sad. He is growing  up way too quickly.

Where Dembe has lost teeth his new adult teeth have already erupted through the gums. I am amazed at the speed considering there was nothing there at all yesterday just gums! You can see how tall he is getting when he jumps up on his back feet his front feet are at waist height.

He has had a manic hour or so when he wanted the ball thrown continuously. He took his soft toy skunk outside as well this afternoon, he then proceeded to drop it on the decking and then pee on it! So that has had to go in wash! I don’t know what Skunk did to deserve such treatment and I really don’t know if the squeak will still work when it has dried out.

Dembe has now crashed out and is sat beside me on the sofa.

Sunday 17th March

Dembe has lost his 4th tooth this morning, I got so close to almost having one of his baby teeth to treasure forever and then the little bugger swallowed it. His adult teeth are coming through very quickly. The gummy look doesn’t last long as his adult teeth start pushing through within 12 hours.

Everything I wear now is covered in red / yellow Labrador hair. The vet did say to us on 25th February that his adult coat would soon start to come through and would mean he would start moulting… a lot. He wasn’t wrong. It looks like I have had my hair cut and sprinkled the hair everywhere! The Weimaraner’s had very short hair so although they would moult, Willow just seemed to permanently moult, you didn’t really end up covered unless you wore black jeans. Every item of outer clothing is covered in his hair although there doesn’t seem to be masses of it in the vacuum cleaner.

He is growing so quickly, out and about on the walk he looks tiny especially next to full grown dogs, In the house he seems huge you only have to compare photos of when he was 8 weeks old to now to see the difference in him. Sometimes it feels like if you blink you will miss part of his development into a full grown dog. In the grand scheme of things he is still a baby at 17 weeks. He still fits his first harness although it won’t be long and he will be in the next size up. His coat is also getting very red, he is a mixture of deep red and very pale yellow. His dad was fox red and his mum was very pale.

Today has been full on as the garden revamp has started, our decking has been down for 15 years and is very rotten and frankly in places dangerous. Dembe has been having great fun digging holes in it. We were going to leave the revamp until the summer but it has deteriorated so badly due to the heavy rain we have been having that it had to go. This will  be a project that takes a few months and for much of that Dembe will be confined to the patio again for his own safety until its safe for him to be in the rest of the garden. Thank you to all our friends who have been pitching in to help. I am so proud of Jay for insisting that he took this project on himself as he wanted to be able to sit back when it was completed and know that he had done this for Dembe.

W/C 4th March 2019

 Monday 4th March 2019

Dembe and I were back to our normal routine today as Jay has gone back to work after his weeks holiday. Dembe has been a soppy little pup today wanting lots of cuddle’s and sleeping loads.

I think I have said before about how he always manages to get in the shower with me in the mornings. Today was no different. Yet again we have a wet dog

Sorry for the picture quality but he was refusing to sit still as usual. I have so many photos that I have had to delete which are just a yellow blur as he has run towards me as I have tried to take the photo.

He was ecstatic when Jay came home for lunch. It’s always really nice to see him get so excited when his daddy gets home. Especially as he is my dog, due to the amount of time I spend with him but he really loves his dad too.

We’ve played lots of games today, tug and chasing the ball. He seems to have boundless energy for such a little pup. In reality it is a lot of activity in a short space of time followed by long periods of calm and sleep.

Jay took Dembe for a walk around the block tonight after work. Due to Dembe only being allowed 15 mins total walk time per day ( to protect his joints) at the moment he is having one long walk ( his full 15 mins ) a day. This will increase again on Friday as he is 16 weeks old ( 4 months) and he will be allowed to have 20 minutes a day.

At some point I am sure I have told you how Dembe likes to sleep at night. It’s mainly as close to me as he can possibly get. I managed to snap this one tonight.

I had to move my head to take the photo, his nose  has to be touching me! If he is sleeping at my feet he will rest his head on my left leg.

Tuesday 5th March

Jay is day off today so Dembe was taken up to Woodbury common for a walk. He deliberately took him to an area he knew would be busy as he wanted to keep Dembe used to meeting other dogs. Dembe is very sweet in the fact he is a little obsessed with other Labrador’s. Today he met a black lab and a Collie. He wanted to play with them but they were more interested in Jays bag of treats that he carries. Dembe was very confident though and trotted up to meet the dogs under his own steam.

There have been various jobs around the house being done today, we keep trying to use different tools so that Dembe gets used to the noise. Today was the turn of the sander, he was a little perturbed at first and then realised it was all ok and settled back down to sleep.

We have a slight issue developing with Dembe and the Hoover. When Dembe is in his crate the hoover doesn’t bother him at all or the steam mop. He is quite happy getting his treats out of a frozen kong toy. However when he is not in his crate the hoover gets barked at non stop whether it is on or off. He is ok if he is up on the sofa with me, it is when he is on the floor that he feels the need to bark. At the moment it is quite cute but give it 12 months and its a big dog bark it isn’t going to be any fun at all!

 

Wednesday 6th March

Jays shift today is late night, so that means that Dembe can get a nice off the lead walk up the common. The weather was pretty grotty, gusty winds and peeing down, thankfully Dembe didn’t care at all. Come rain or shine a walk is a walk to him.

They have been doing a lot of land management on the common and areas that were full of tree’s or gorse bushes have been cut down. So where there used to be a tiny path to the pond, it is now all flat and the pond is in clear view of the main path.

Jay decided to take Dembe to the pond to see what he would do. Initially Dembe was just paddling around in the edge of the water. As Jay had wellies on he thought he would go out a bit further to see if Dembe would follow him. The next thing Jay saw was a blonde streak launching himself into the water and having a swim. Jay was gutted that it happened so quickly he was unable to take a video or some photographs for me to be able to see it.

By the time my boys got back to the car they were like a couple of drowned rats. Thankfully with Dembe’s little swim he wasn't that muddy and just needed a quick wipe down with a towel when we got home. I can never get over how quickly Dembe’s fur dries. The Weims fur seemed to soak up the water and take an age to dry. Dembe just needs a towel dry and he is there. This is probably due to the fact the breed was originally used to retrieve fish, so needed a good water proof coat.

Back of the car post swim!

 

Thursday 7th March

We have just had the best night ever with Dembe, he has slept from 10pm until 5am. He only woke up at 5am because I jolted awake in a panic as he hadn’t been out during the night. If I hadn’t woken him he probably would have managed to sleep a while longer.

This morning Jay took him out for a small walk around the block before work as he was on a 9-6 shift. We had hoped it may help him burn off some energy but no he was still as mad as ever.

On the whole Dembe is pretty much house trained, although he still has the odd accident. His accidents are due to Jay and I forgetting we aren’t dealing with an adult dog. On Sunday morning he had a wee on Paul’s carpet, I was absolutely mortified. This happened because we  didn’t let him out for a wee before we went to Paul’s.  If we had of done this wouldn’t have happened. Thankfully Paul took it a lot better than I did!

Last night I got into bed and my feet hit a cold wet patch at the end of my bed. Yep Dembe had a wee on my bed during the afternoon. I know exactly when it happened and why it happened. I was busy doing something when he whined at me. I assumed he was bored and told him to wait. Clearly he couldn’t. I am just glad he didn’t do it on the carpet and that I have a large drum washing machine and tumble dryer! I can’t be cross about either occasion as both of them were down to human error not canine.

Today I have been teaching Dembe how to go down stairs, up until now he has been carried. However he is getting very big and very heavy, my back doesn’t allow me to do it anymore and he hates sitting on my lap as I scoot down the stairs on my bum. So I decided today was the day he would learn.

It took around 10-20 minutes to get him down the stairs, it was done with the lure of cocktail sausages on each step and gently feeding him bits of sausage, The hardest part for Dembe seemed to be starting. Once he overcame that he was easily managing the stairs. For the next few trips downstairs I was making him do at least half of them. It was an all day training session on and off.

After all those stairs it was time for a sleep!

Friday 8th March

Upstairs with Dembe this morning, he was in my room and I was in the bathroom. When I went to go downstairs I looked around the bedrooms and Dembe was nowhere to be found. I then stood at the top of the stairs and could hear Dembe taking a drink from his water bowl in the kitchen. The little bugger had only done the stairs all by himself! I was so proud of him as I knew how scared he was yesterday of taking that first step. It is also his 4 month birthday today so its been a momentous day.

All the books I have read say that Labrador’s are a quiet breed, rarely bark etc. They obviously forgot to tell Dembe that, he is very vocal and at times he sounds like he is trying to have a conversation. He does this with Sandra every time he sees her. It is quite funny as the more she speaks to him the more noise he makes.

Dembe is a bit of an exhibitionist, he delights in humping his bed inside his crate whenever we have visitors. It wouldn’t be so bad but he likes to make eye contact with me or our guests as he is banging away at his bed! I have enquired with other Broadleaf owners and it seems to be a bit of a thing for the boys. As long as it stays confined to his crate and not on human legs etc he can continue to have his sexy time!

I forgot to say that Dembe was taken on a very early walk this morning – 5.30am. Initially he was a little spooked with it being dark, it was his first walk in the dark. Once he got over his fear he was fine and was pottering alongside Jay with not a care in the world. From today he can have 20 minutes exercise a day, so we are splitting this up into two 20 minute walks.

For his evening walk Dembe was treated to a walk up the common where Jay used to walk our Weimaraners. It’s nice that we have this continuity but it is so bittersweet. Some days when Jay gets back to the car I am waiting to see Frankie and Mollie jumping into the car, our grey ghost and in pops our blonde bombshell Dems. It is difficult for my brain to adjust after all these years. Just goes to show what you actually see and what the mind decides to make up for you.

 

Saturday 9th March 

Today I have seriously wondered if Jay slipped some speed into Dembe’s breakfast. He has been manic for a lot of the day.

The little tike got soaked again whilst I was having a shower and tried to steal a bar of soap!

Here he is perched on the end of my bed dripping wet, Excuse the bomb site behind him we tend to live in our house and aren’t always Instagram ready.

I have discovered that he is not a fan of Andrex which is sad because he is an Andrex puppy! He found a toilet roll and proceeded to shred it whilst I was in the kitchen getting a drink. I could hear him chasing something around the room, I am thankful that he managed to wedge what was left of the roll under the sofa. It looked like someone has sprinkled confetti all over the lounge floor. I did manage to laugh it could have been so much worse.

Dembe is now going up and down the stairs no bother at all, which is great to see. This morning first thing Jay and I left him at the top of the stairs to see what he would do and after a couple of minutes he made his way downstairs. After that he has been going up and down them like he has been doing it the whole time he has lived here which is 8 weeks.

All he has wanted to do today is play outside with his football. I bought him a proper leather football a few weeks ago and he adores it. Its got teeth marks all over it but he doesn’t care. When he first got it, it was almost bigger than he was and he struggled to pick it up. Now he carries it around no problem at all.

This week Dembe has definitely got taller and longer. I am amazed at how quickly he grows. It’s like you close your eyes for a second and he is bigger again. His head still seems quite small and he hasn’t lost any teeth yet but you can see his jaw bone has grown as the gaps between his teeth have got much larger. He is still a bit of a biter so we are working on that.

Sunday 10th March

Its been horrendously windy overnight and there have been tree blown down. thankfully Dembe slept through it. Our previous dogs would have had us awake all night as they were frightened of loud noises. Even when Dembe nearly got blown over having a poo he didn’t bat an eye lid.

This morning Dembe has been up the common. Jay tried to get him into the pond again but he wasn’t having any of it. Too cold I would imagine.

We decided that we would head over to Pets at Home today as we hadn’t seen our favourite lady for ages due to me coming down with that awful virus a few weeks ago. Thankfully she was there and thank goodness I had a 10% off voucher as the little boy was thoroughly spoilt. We got him a treat ball, so he has to nudge it along the floor to get his lunch / dinner out of it, a wobble Kong so he has to push that to dispense treats, a huge Nyla bone, an enormous antler for him to chew as he is chewing a lot at the moment and wanted to ensure he preferred that to the furniture. We also got two more Kong Tennis balls which are his favourite. So he did very well.

The lady who we see at Pets at home was working so made a real fuss of Dembe. She is so lovely, I was asking after her as the last time we had seen her she was suffering with a burst eardrum bless her. I apologised for it taking us so long to get back to the store. she treats us so well, the queue for the till was so long as their was only one cashier on. Our lovely lady took us over to an empty till and put us through. Bless her heart, she is so kind. I hope Pets at Home realise what an asset this member of staff is.

When we got home we gave him his lunch in the treat ball and it took him far longer to eat his lunch than it normal would of. He has seen a treat ball before, it was last week at his puppy socialisation class so he knew what to do straight away.

He has spent the rest of the day sleeping and having cuddles.