Monday 26th August
It is a bank holiday here in the UK so if Jay wasn’t on holiday he wouldn’t have been in work anyway. The weather is scorchio. Jay took Dembe out early and they went to the model airfield. They bumped into a black Labrador called Ruby who was 11 months old. Dembe and Ruby had a wonderful time playing chase. That seems to be a Labradors favourite game. Ruby’s owner was so impressed with how Dembe walked on his lead he asked Jay for advice as his girl Ruby pulls like a train in her harness. It makes us both chuckle when people ask Jay for advice as we only went to the training classes as he was struggling with training Dembe and needed some guidance.
We had the same problem with Dembe when he was wearing a harness and if you think about it harnesses are designed to allow animals to pull loads. So it is no wonder some of them make it a lot easier for them to do that. We have been using a slip lead since the 5th June and it has totally transformed our walks. Jay recommended a slip lead but introducing it slowly as many dogs hate having it over their nose. I did lots of training with Dembe to get him use to it. Jay also recommended our training classes, saying how much they all helped. The most important thing is consistency though. You can’t expect a dog to get something after an hours class and then continue to do it forever. It takes practice and doing this on a regular basis forever. This is where a lot of people fall down they don’t put the work in and then are so surprised when the dog doesn’t do what it learnt.
We spent the afternoon on and off in the garden playing with the ball and the paddling pool. Dembe nearly had me off the garden chair when we were playing tug, he is so strong.
Dembe decided to sleep downstairs this evening which would have been ok had he not decided to go on the window sill and bark at everything that went past. Jay had to go downstairs and bring him back up to bed. He settled next to me on his cooling mat.
Tuesday 27th August
Dembe woke me up crying really loudly at 5.30am for his breakfast. When I came up after breakfast he settled down quickly although I did have give verbal appreciation of his blue dinosaur.
I woke up at 6.40am and Dembe was still up with me. Every morning as soon as I stur I hear the thump, thump, thump of Dembe’s tail. He is just so gorgeous.
Jay took Dembe out to Woodbury Common, it was very drizzly but luckily as they went through the woods, so they weren’t too wet. I had the doctors at 9am, so Jay and Dembe came with me . I went into the doctors by myself, so Jay toon Dembe on a wander around the town. Dembe has decided that he doesn’t like rollators and zimmer frames and decided to bark at those. At the moment he keeps getting scared of stuff he has seen infrequently. Jay took him into the indoor market where they went to the pet shop, where Dembe got to pick out a toy. The pet-shop owner treated Dembe to a sausage which he heartily enjoyed.
Dembe loves his new puppy dog (toy) when we gave it to him at home he ran upstairs with it and hid in my room!
This afternoon we went up to Woodbury common for a walk
After our walk we visited Pets at Home and got Dembe some toys ( another 2) he loved Pats at home and was sniffing madly everywhere. He did get annoyed that he couldn’t get into the food bins!
Every evening Dembe and I engage in the pillow wars. He hogs my pillow as I get ready for bed. I then have to persuade him to move.
Wednesday 28th August
Jay got Dembe out early as the weather was a bit grim, the airfield was deserted, so Dembe had lots of fun with his daddy instead. Jay has been practicing recall, as unfortunately Jay had got into the habit of not bringing treats with him on a walk so now Dembe wasn’t responding to recall. A silly basic error that we have now been working on all week to put right ahead of our training sessions that start again next month. Dembe is already coming back now he knows that there is food involved again. Like all of us Dembe simply refuses to work for nothing!
Today our friends Mike and Eileen visited from Southampton. They were meeting Dembe for the first time today. They spoiled him rotten, bringing all his favourite treats. He was instantly enamoured with them. He covered Mike in kisses and was playing with Eileen. Just as they were leaving Dembe got up on the sofa pinned Eileen down and smothered her in kisses. She was squealing which made him kiss more. It was hilarious. Dembe is such a kissy dog, I thought Frankie was kissy but he had nothing on Dembe. I got Dembe to retrieve Crocodile from his toy box to show off his skills whilst they were here.
Dembe didn’t sleep all day. Around 40 minutes after Mike and Eileen left he collapsed and went to sleep. He is such a FOMO – fear of missing out and won’t go to sleep when we have visitors. He has to know what is going on at all times. He was so knackered that when Jay went out for a few hours in the evening Dembe didn’t wait downstairs but came up to bed with me. He did bark like crazy when Jay got in.
Thursday 29th August
Dembe was up the common nice and early as our hairdresser was coming over today to both mine and Jays hair. He met a cocker spaniel called Sam who is 20 months old and they had a manic run around. When Dembe got home he was still full of beans. I really don’t know where he gets his energy from a lot of the time.
Dembe was funny whilst I was getting my hair cut. He went out into the garden and brought in every toy he has and dropped it at Rachel’s feet, trying to get her to play. He was getting very frustrated that she wouldn’t stop doing my hair and just play with him.
He also kept standing outside the kitchen door looking in forlornly. He was very good, he didn’t try and eat the hair on the floor which is what he normally does when my hair has been cut.
I was in a lot of pain after having my hair done so took it easy for the rest of the day.
Friday 30th August
We give Dembe a frozen Kong everyday when the cleaning is done. He loves it. Normally he eats it up on my bed but today he brought it downstairs
In the afternoon we took Dembe up to Woodbury Common
Dembe was shattered after our walk. We came home and gave him his dinner, around an hour later we then went up to my parents caravan and saw them. Dembe had a mental run around with his mate Maggie.
Saturday 31st August
Dembe was a really sleepy boy all day. I cracked on with some sewing whilst Jay played on his PS4. Dembe slept on Jays legs. After his walk in the afternoon we took him up to my parents van again where he got to have a mad run around with his mate Maggie.
I did take this cracking shot of him
Sunday 1st September
How the hell is it September already??
Jay took Dembe out nice and early this morning as I was stuck in bed with a migraine. He took these shots of Dembe whilst they were out.
When Dembe got home he raced upstairs and covered me in kisses. He always likes to find me in the house when he gets back from a walk. He is very much like Frankie in that respect. Frankie always had to find me when he got home and wouldn’t settle until he did, none of the other dogs were that bothered. It is nice that Frankie and Dembe share that.
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