Monday 25 January 2021

W/C Monday 18th January 2021


Monday 18th January

Posing beautifully for me and then he did this

When I woke up this morning Dembe was downstairs asleep on the small sofa in the lounge. He was really shattered and I had to wake him up to give him breakfast at 9.30am. He isn’t an early morning dog. He had a huge breakfast.

As Dembe has been refusing to eat his Kongs ( he gets these when we have jobs where we want to keep him out of the way) I thought maybe he would try them with Brussels pate in. Yes I know he is a spoilt bastard. I used to do him ham and cheese Kongs but he steadfastly refuses to eat them now. He went crazy for the the Brussels pate. So at least I know have something I can put inside his Kongs and he will eat them. He does have expensive taste.

Jay nipped home for lunch and walked Dembe around the block. Dembe saw Ben next door for the first time in a few months and was doing the play stance and barking at him trying to get him to play. Ben was playing football with Dembe in the summer. He obviously remembers.

Jay finished at around 4pm and Dembe got taken straight up the common for a walk. He settled very quickly this evening.

A Facebook memory came up this morning of Dembe when he was tiny and loving to sleep with his head in Jays slippers.

He still likes sleeping on his dads slippers

Tuesday 19th January

Jay is day off today, he took Dembe out early and then again at 9.20am. He took Dembe up to the model airfield and met up with a colleague from work (observing social distancing) and his dog Whisky.

Initially Dembe and Whisky were a little wary of each other


However after 10 minutes or so they then started playing chase which as regular readers will know is Dembe’s favourite game



Apologies for the bad language at the end of the video, my husband forgets I post the video’s on here!

Both dogs were running around like mad for the whole 75 minute walk. We expected Dembe to be knackered after his walk but no he kept going and going.

Jay took Dembe out up the common again in the afternoon for a shorter walk. I am sure that due to Jays early shift he has lots of energy left over on a Tuesday after the Monday. Thankfully he settled down in the evening. I had a migraine so went to bed early and my pup came with me to keep an eye on me.

Wednesday 20th January

Dembe is being spoilt this week with 3 walks with professional dog walks. He has two with Martin from Happy dogs and one with Sophie from Creature Kind.

I got up at 7am and Dembe was not impressed, refusing to get up with me. He did saunter downstairs around 20 minutes after I got up and graced me with his presence.He brought blue dinosaur with him as well so looked ridiculously cute.

This one was taken last year but shows his blue dinosaur

He refused his breakfast this morning so went without. I have had to be quite hard when he starts messing about as he is such a fussy eater and will try it on. I am sure he would love ham, cheese and Brussels pate for every meal but it isn’t happening! I did discover later that it was the bit of chicken roll on his breakfast that stopped him eating. When removed he ate the lot!

He had a lovely walk with Martin from Happy dogs. The weather was absolutely awful as Storm Christophe had hit the UK so windy and rainy. He came back covered in mud but that was easily sorted with a hose down in the garden – I am talking about Dembe not Martin LOL!

After he has been out for a walk he likes to lie on my lap for a bit! Getting me damp from his wet belly.

He had a long nap after his walk!

Thursday 21st January

Dembe surprised us this morning by climbing onto the coffee table in the lounge. It is the first time that he has done this and out of all the dogs we have owned only Mollie climbed the lounge coffee table. Travis used to climb up on the table in the garden but never the one inside the house!

Of course as soon as I went to take the photo he started to come off. We couldn’t help but laugh at him as we were so surprised by him doing this.

Today he is going out for a walk with Sophie from Creature Kind and her crew. Whilst they were out Sophie sent me this photo of Dembe, which I now have as my phones home screen.

He loves having a swim on the common. Apparently he took every body to the pond so they could have a swim!

Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind

As you can see he has a wonderful time out on his walks. I swear this dog has a better social life than I do! He did however let himself down at the end of the walk by refusing to come back to Sophie. He decided to extend his walk a bit by running off and going to play with some smaller dogs. The dogs owner wasn’t impressed. I was mortified as normally his recall is spot on. Sophie was really good about it. Next week I am going to give her some cubes of cheese to take with her to see if that gets him coming back to her better. He is far too clever for his own good sometimes.

He was ravenous when he came in and had a huge dinner! No problems with him eating it.

As he fell asleep really early I managed to get us up to bed before 7pm.

Friday 22nd January

Dembe is being spoilt again today as he is having another walk with Martin from Happy dogs. He wasn’t massively energetic before Martin arrived.

When Martin arrived I let him know that Dembe had been a naughty pup with Sophie the day before. Thankfully when Martin dropped him back he said Dembe had been as good as gold. The relief! I hate it when he is naughty with people. As Dembe had been by himself for this walk Martin had taken him through some basic training, so recall, walking to heel off the lead etc so it was a really good mental session for Dembe as well. He wasn’t too muddy either, I was expecting him to come back pickled!

Whilst they were out Martin took some great photos of Dembe

Photo Credit Martin Pashley Happy Dogs. Dembe having a treat thrown to him!
Photo Credit Martin Pashley, Happy Dogs
Photo Credit Martin Pashley Happy Dogs

Martin said that Dembe was fascinated with the helicopter going over head. I told him about the Chinook going over us when Dembe was a little pup and how he had been into watching aircraft ever since!

He was very tired after 4 long walks this week, 3 with professional walkers and one long one with Jay on Tuesday. He was starving today and demanded his dinner at 3pm which is crazy early for him to have his last meal of the day. He scoffed the lot without looking up and I gave him a huge dinner due to the amount of physical activity he had this week.

I think he was over tired as he was very unsettled and whingey for the rest of the afternoon. He did conk out at around 7pm and that was him asleep until 4am when Jay got up.

Somebody’s watching me…

Saturday 23rd January

Jay was on an early shift today, unusually for Dembe he was raring to get out at 4am, normally Jay would have to drag him out of bed. When they got back Dembe raced back upstairs to bed with me.

After jay had showered and dressed, he came in and sorted out what toys needed to go downstairs, as over the week Dembe had brought up so many. He took down sprout and carrot. Around 5 minutes later Dembe went downstairs, picked up carrot and brought him back upstairs. Dumping him on my head.

As he was a such a good boy whilst I sorted myself out this morning, I got his fish toy out for him. His Auntie Heather bought this for him last year.


He has slept the rest of the afternoon and when he has been awake he has been exceptionally cuddly.

Monday 18 January 2021

W/ C 11th January 2021

 Monday 11th January

Happy Gotcha Day Dembe, two years ago a blonde bundle of fluff slept all the way home in the car and became our little sausage. How has the time gone so quickly?

Today was supposed to be a day of wonder, two years since Dembe arrived int.o our lives but oh my goodness someone stole my sweet boy away in the night and replaced him with a demon! He didn’t want to have cuddles, he didnt want to play games. All he wanted to do all day was to bark and howl out of any window he got access to. It was draining!

He then decided in the afternoon to hoof out all of his toys from the toy box in the lounge.

After he emptied them all out he then went onto the small sofa and slept for all of ten minutes before taking up position at the window again. I have no idea what has gotten into him today but all he wants is his whole pack together.

Other than a few 10 minute power naps he didn’t sleep all day. As soon as Jay came home and he had been walked he went to sleep. It was ridiculous as he had been out twice during the day before the evening!

What a day! I wont forget his second Gotcha day in a hurry!

Tuesday 12th January

As is usual daddy is day off today so Dembe is very happy to have everyone home. Of course after his nightmare day with me yesterday he slept all day today. Crazy animal.

He is being very demanding at the moment. He has worked out when Daddy is home he can get extra walks around the block if he fusses and cries lots. So he had his first big walk at 5.30am, he had a walk around the block at 9.30am and then another walk around the block at 1pm, then taken out for a big 40 minute walk at 2.30pm and then around the block again at 6pm. We now have a fit idiot that has us over a barrel with his refusal to go to the toilet in the garden!

On his walk up the common he was playing with another fox red Labrador, which meant he had a very good run and was exhausted by the time he got back to the car. As it was raining Dembe had to get washed off on our return.

Post walk

This evening Dembe has been carrying around his carrot and his tail has been wagging furiously.


Wednesday 13th January

Jay is on a late shift today so before he had gone to work Dembe had three walks, 1 up on the common and two short ones around the block. Dembe is still very chilled out today after Manic Monday. He is still obsessing about being by the window and barking at everyone but not as bad as Monday.

Today he is out with Sophie from Creature Kind today and his mates Polo and Nellie. Dembe adores going out with Sophie. Whilst they were out Sophie sent us some photos

Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind

That one had us in hysterics, you can tell he is having the best time.

photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind
Photo Credit Sophie Start Creature Kind

The photo above is another one of my favourites that Sophie has taken.

Dembe was starving when he got home from his walk. I swear he has a better social life than I do! I had to make him wait for an hour before feeding him ( to prevent the chance of bloat) . He hoovered up dinner and then went to sleep.

I got up to go for a wee after going to bed and came across Dembe on the floor fast asleep, stretched out like a skinned rabbit.

Thursday 14th January

Dembe woke me up just after 7am with him having violent hiccups. He had woken his dad up just after 5.30am for a walk. He didn’t want to get up when I stirred and took at least another 30 minutes before appearing downstairs.

Today he has his first walk with Martin from Happy Dogs of 2021. He will love seeing Martin again. Earlier on in the week I played a Facebook live stream and Martin was talking on it, Dembe sat up and then cocked his head so he could get a better idea on where he could hear Martins voice coming from. He will be muddy today when he comes home as it is a bit damp out.

Martin came and collected Dembe and let me know Dembe would be walking with Chester the German Sheppard today. You can see them out on their walk together if you have a Facebook account by following this link https://www.facebook.com/415343231815686/videos/443936583406642

As predicted Dembe was a bit muddy after his walk. As soon as the video was taken Dembe decided that the biggest dirtiest puddle was prime real estate for some Labrador zoomies. It wasn’t too bad really and washed off easily using the hosepipe in the garden. Dembe is very good and will stand whilst he is hosed off, you don’t have to chase him all over the garden.

He was quite chilled out for the rest of the day and slept most of the time.

He was so tired in the evening he was staggering around like a drunk and dragging his fox toy around.

Friday 15th January

Dembe woke me up at 12.30am by getting up off the bed and going downstairs. I could hear him walking around. Then I had just dropped off when I heard him start crying at 1am. Terrified something was terribly wrong I came downstairs to see what was wrong. The issue was that Dembe couldn’t get his smaller fox toy out of the toy box. I grabbed the toy gave it to him and then made him go back upstairs. Unfortunately Dembe thought this meant I wanted to play with him and the fox toy. He was quite shocked that I didn’t!

Thankfully he did settled down for the rest of the night and we didnt get up until much later. For some reason today Dembe just wanted to be out in the back garden all day. Which would have been fine had the temperature not dropped yesterday and it was blood freezing having the back door open all the time.

He wasn’t even playing out there he just likes lying out on the artificial grass and barking at the seagulls!

I got some sewing done so I could keep an eye on him as he wanted in and out of the house into the back garden.

He was very excited to see Jay at lunchtime and went crazy. He waited by the window when Jay went back to work. Thankfully with him being on an early shift he wouldn’t have too long until he was back.

We had a huge cuddle just after this photo was taken.

Jay took him up to the airfield for a walk after work. Jay said Dembe was playing with a Black Labrador that was very naughty and not coming back when she was being called. She was having too good a time with Dembe and Jay throwing the ball for them. In the end the bloke who owned the lab walked behind Jay observing social distancing. Dembe and the black Lab had a lovely play and then, the black Labs owner managed to get her back on the lead. Dembe adores playing with other dogs especially games of chase.

Saturday 16th January

Jay is on the third early shift of the week, I got woken up at 6.30am when Dembe managed to knock my chromebook off the coffee table with his tail. He came up to bed after that, initially sleeping in with me and at some point moving into Jays room. I got downstairs at around 8am, Dembe followed at 8.30am. I had to wait until 9.30am for him to wake up and then I could get him his breakfast.

Dembe is in an incredibly cuddly mood today. He also keeps hogging my electric heated throw. I keep getting crawled on so that he can get onto my lap and have a cuddle. I haven’t been able to do much today as I am not feeling very well. So it has been nice to have so many cuddles from him.

Week Commencing 25th October 2021

  As we suffered a bereavement this week there won't be much of a Dembe's Diary this week. I will after this post be having a break ...