w/c 1st July 2019

 

Monday 1st July 2019

Poor Dembe was sick immediately after his dinner last night, he projectile vomited it all back up. Jay dealt with it all as I was asleep in bed, I was so tired after the BBQ on Saturday.

I slept until gone 8am Monday, Dembe was with me. As soon as we got downstairs Dembe stood at the backdoor and projectile vomited his breakfast from 4 hours ago. It was just a lake of puke that was quite awkward to clear up with the majority of it being liquid and mushed kibble. He was feeling a little sorry for himself. I also found a pile of puke on the stairs was a nightmare to clear up.

Dembe slept a lot of the morning. I asked Jay to get a vets appointment as I have never seen a dog projectile vomit like that. It had freaked me out as it had reminded me of Willow just before she passed away on December 15th 2017. Plus a bit of new puppy jitters as I still feel like I am getting to know his character and the signals he will give me to tell me he is unwell. He was still searching for food, but everything I gave him he was bringing back up.

He got checked over at the vets, he managed to escape from the consulting room into reception as Jay didn’t realise he had dropped the lead! That was amusing. Dembe was given an injection to stop him being sick and the vet told us to starve him for the rest of the day. Tomorrows two meals need to be divided into 4 so that his tummy doesn’t get overloaded.

I have never felt so cruel in my life not giving him his evening meal. To be fair he was very good about it, he didn’t make a fuss or cry etc. He just accepted that he was getting any dinner and went to bed without any fuss. We are so lucky he is such a good boy.

Tuesday 2nd July

Dembe is much recovered after his sickness bug and before 8am he was chucking his crocodile around the lounge. Jay got him out early to burn off some of his crazy energy levels.

As Dembe was feeling so much better – climbing all over the window sill, see above! We decided we would take him out to do some more environmental training. We went to the beer garden of a local pub. As it was a Tuesday at 11am it wasn’t very busy but it was a lovely day. Dembe encountered children, delivery people and the pub staff. He got a massive cuddle from a delivery driver, which Dembe loved. It was a good first experience . He did have a couple of barks but not massive and stopped after two or three so wasn’t causing a nuisance. We have to work on ignoring him when he starts with the barking.

His new collar arrived from Dogs & Horses today, French navy with Brass hardware. It is a bit too big for him but no doubt he will soon fit it perfectly. His last collar ripped, for which I thank my lucky stars as it saved his life. Dembe was in the back of the car clipped into his seat belt, Jay left the car door open and turned to get something, Dembe decided to jump out of the car. He could have broken his neck or hung himself. A mistake that will never happen again. He had never attempted to get out of the car before and he still insists on being lifted in and out.

Wednesday 3rd July

I had a migraine this morning so Dembe stayed with me until I felt well enough to get up at around 11am. He is such an angel.

I didn’t think I would make Dembe’s obedience training class this evening but I did. This evening only two sets of puppy parents turned up, us and another couple. It turned out brilliantly for us all as it meant the dogs had all the barn to work in and we practically had a one on one lesson. Dembe was a little star, working so hard and catching on to the task required really quickly.

Tonights work was heel work with changing paces, turns and getting your dog to hit a mark. Jays confidence is really growing and it is wonderful to see the bond between him and Dembe really growing.

As there were only two dogs there Dembe and Rhea a German Shepard, we were able to work on recall using a long retractable lead. I have been working on recall with Dembe since he was 8 weeks old. Jay has told me that Dembe is really good when he is out and about , he can be recalled even when playing with other dogs.

Tonight I decided to have a go, my cue for calling Dembe back was when the trainer said the word Pink. Dembe was half way up the barn sniffing around on the floor when the trainer said Pink. I used his command “Dembe Come” and he rocketed back to me. I think the trainer was a little surprised at how quickly he came back. I was so chuffed as that was the first time recalling him outside of the house / back garden. Jay also had a go and Dembe was equally as good for him.

Dembe is a totally different dog now from the holligan that attended the first class 5 weeks ago. I am so glad that we have put the work in as he does us proud most times.

Thursday 4th July

Yesterday Dembe’s replacement fountain arrived for his paddling pool. Jay emptied the water out of his paddling pool and refilled it and got the fountain set up. Dembe is crazy about it and it has encouraged him to get in and out of the paddling pool more.

Jay took him out to Woodbury Castle for his walk and practiced lead walking and recall with him. He ensured he called him back when he was playing with another dog as well. He came back on the first call. The work that Jay puts on with Dembe is phenomenal. I am very proud of him as it isn’t something that comes easily to him. Our Trainer is brilliant and will always come over and show Jay one on one what he is asking him to do. Jay finds following instructions difficult, he is fine when he knows what he is doing but gets very daunted with new stuff.

Dembe has played pretty much all day in the garden playing with the fountain.

Friday 5th July

34 weeks old today.

As the weather was nice we spent a lot of the day out in the garden.

Saturday 6th July

It has been another lovely day so we have spent lots of time in the garden. Dembe has been asleep this afternoon, we have just had a fighter jet go over, extremely loud and that didn’t wake him from his sleep. I am pleased about that as the Weimaraners would have been hysterical after that.

This evening we popped up to my parents caravan and Dembe had a lovely play with their dog Maggie.

Due to flies coming into the house I got a fly screen curtain. Its left Dembe a bit perplexed at times!

If anyone is wondering why we have a Dunelm basket in the garden…..last year we went to Dunelm and bought over £100 of stuff, when we were at the checkout , me in my wheelchair with Jay pushing it, we asked if we could have a carrier bag ( we had come without bags as we weren’t expecting to go there), the staff said they didn’t have any and then proceeded to chat amongst themselves whilst Jay struggled putting our shopping in the basket and my wheelchair. We got to the car and Jay was so furious at the rudeness of the staff, no offers of help etc. He got the basket and threw it into the car. So now I have a Dunelm washing basket – to take the washing to the line. If they had supplied a bag or hadn’t been quite so unhelpful we wouldn’t have it.

Sunday 7th July

Today we took Dembe to the local supermarket and did a small shop he coped admirably with the challenges it presented. He wore his yellow coat which says Assistance dog in Training.

The only problem we had was the number of people that kept stopping us to have a cuddle with him. The vast majority asked us before making a fuss of him but annoyingly there were a few who just ploughed straight in and petted him. It is really hard as you don’t want to upset people by telling them to leave him alone but they wouldn’t go up and pet a Police dog so why do they think it is ok to come up and make a fuss of a dog who has a high viz yellow jacket on who is clearly working. Anyway rant over.

Going to have to cut todays diary entry short as I ended up with an eye injury today and have an abrasion to my cornea so it is very sore.