Monday 18 February 2019

w/c 11th Feb 2019 new things

 Monday 11th Feb

Today is a day of firsts – Dembe has worked out that if he pushes the patio door with his nose it will slide open. The door was slightly ajar as the patio was being washed down with the hose. The next thing we knew Dembe was trying to bite the water coming out of the hose pipe.

Then just 20 minutes later he jumped from the floor up to my lap as I was sat on the sofa. He hasn’t jumped from the floor to the sofa yet so that was a bit of a shock. Since the end of last week he has been jumping off the sofa with ease but never on it.

After a dry two weeks on the toilet training front – well we presumed dry, I caught the little bugger having a wee on the lounge rug. The annoying thing was I was just about to call him to get him out on the patio. I wasn’t impressed as the rug now needed to be cleaned with biological detergent to break down the urine so it doesn’t become a regular spot – however I might be a little late. As checking the rug that evening I discovered an even bigger wet patch. The rug has been binned RIP rug, three Weimaraners wreaked havoc on you but you couldn’t cope with a 12 week old yellow lab. It was a valiant effort but sadly not enough.

Jay brought Kat home with him for lunch today and yes she couldn’t believe how much he had grown in the last few weeks. He is still very dinky though, especially when you see him out in the real world.

His obsession today has been chasing his tail, most days at some point he will attack his own tail but today for some reason his poor tail couldn’t do anything right. Dembe was like a kid who had discovered that spinning around makes you dizzy and walk funny. I have never seen him chase his own tail as much as he did today. He has been full of beans all day. Thank goodness Jay is on an early and he will be walked this evening.

Monday morning pose
Monday morning pose

 

finally asleep
Asleep this evening – photo taken by Jamie Morris

 

Tuesday 12th February

Dembe was down on the beach at 08.30 this morning, we met a friend of ours called Richard and his dog Whisky who is a springer spaniel. Unfortunately Whisky was a bit too full on for Dembe  and he became very timid, running back to me on the slipway or hiding behind his dads legs.

I used my mobility scooter again which is just wonderful as it gives me so much freedom.

down the beach
Jay with Dembe down the beach
mobility scooter on the slipway
Me sat on my mobility scooter on the slipway

Eventually Dembe got over his nerves and got a bit braver. It seems he is happier meeting dogs in a gentle manner whilst everyone is calm or on leads. A bouncy springer that reminded me of tigger daunted him.

Dembe also got to meet my hairdresser today Rachel, he was very intrigued by the gown she put over my clothes to stop them getting covered in hair. He was very good and went to sleep on his kitchen bed whilst she worked and didn’t try to get up and play with all the hair that was on the floor.

It was a very busy day as in the afternoon I had a physio session. I can’t believe it but we got away with it again having Dembe in the waiting room. Again everyone came out to meet him. Dembe was very well-behaved and adored all the attention from the staff. My physio Jane is such a darling, as she was replacing the tissue cover on the examination couch I asked her if I could have the cardboard tube as Dembe loves chewing them. She dived out the room and came back with 3 more. So the spoilt boy has 4 to destroy.

cardboard tube from the physio

He went crazy over them when we got home, charging about all over the place.

Whilst I was in my physio session Jay took Dembe for a quick stroll around the block to ensure there were no puddles in the waiting room. He ran into a lovely lady called Lo from O and P silver, who made our needle-shaped rings. She recognised Dembe from my photo’s on Facebook before she recognised Jay.

needlering

So the little pup had a wonderful day full of adventures and cuddles.

destroying my toy box
Dembe doing his favourite thing, emptying his toy box and then chewing the inside. He killed it this week.

 

Wednesday 13th February

We are attempting to push Dembe’s wake up time to nearer 6am than the current 4.30am -5am as the wake up times are killing me and impacting my health. He is waking up because he is starving hungry typical lab. I don’t care how hungry he is 5am is not breakfast time. We are still splitting his breakfast into 2 parts to stop the choking. Breakfast is the only meal he goes totally crazy for. He is happy at every meal time but he is happy to the point of hysteria at breakfast time.

Today’s training mission is to stop his naughty habit of jumping up and throwing himself at the fridge freezer, whenever the fridge door is opened. It won’t be long and he will be tall enough to jump to the height of the bottom shelf of the fridge so it needs working on now. It is a behaviour that has come out of nowhere, so needs stamped on now. I am also working on being able to open the front door without him charging for it.

Both training sessions went well and I was able to open the front door without having to pick him up. Believe me he needs to learn this fast as he is getting so heavy and I am going through quite a difficult time with my back so I don’t need any additional strain placed on it. I really wouldn’t be surprised if he was around the 8 kilo mark now. He will be weighed in 2 weeks so it will be interesting to see how much weight he has put on in 4 weeks.

The training with the fridge door is going well, even though he still runs into the kitchen when the fridge is opened he is now sitting and waiting and no longer throwing himself at the door. To assist with training I am walking around with a pocket full of treats so that I can be timely with his rewards. He is so switched on that he is a joy to work with however because he is so easy to work with its easy to move on too quickly when you think the problem has been sorted. So I am determined to keep up with both bits of training as they are equally as important as each other.

Dembe was made famous today as his photo’s were shown on TV today on the Sewing Quarter channel 687 on Sky ( you can also watch live on YouTube and Freeview) .



 

Thursday 14th February

Dembe didn’t wake up until 5.40am this morning which felt like a lie on! It is the first time in weeks he has slept so late. He was taken out at 12.30am for his last toilet trip ( we go to bed very early) which as usual was a success. He woke me up this morning by smothering me in kisses. He is such an affectionate loving boy.

As Jay is on late night he took him up on to the common for a run around, I stayed in the car as I was still exhausted after Tuesday. Dembe loves having a large open space to run around in and chase after a ball. He loves exploring a new environment. He was a little muddy when we got home so his legs were washed off and his belly was given a wipe down. He is so good I know the Weimaraner pups would never have put up with that but he just sits there happy with you doing whatever you need.

I had a bit of a shock today as Dembe jumped up at the baby gate that is blocking off the stairs and his paws can sit on the top of it. He is just growing up way too fast. In the space of nearly 5 weeks he has just shot up his legs are longer, his body is longer his snout is longer. He is still dinky, you can really see how small he is when outside but inside he is looking enormous especially when his head is level with the lounge coffee table.

chewing his cardboard tube
enjoying his cardboard tube from my physiotherapist
cuddled up to my snuggle topIMG_20190213_092112_547.jpg
Cuddled up with my snuggle top
my view every time I go to the toilet
My view every time I go to the bathroom!

on my bed day time rest

As I was so tired after Tuesday we had our first ever upstairs afternoon lie down for an hour. Due to Dembe needing out frequently I have been having my lie downs on the sofa until today. I wanted to see how he would cope so I set my alarm for an hours time and had a lie down. He entertained himself, no accidents and snuggled in with me. So I know now if I am having a very rough day he will come back up to bed without too many problems.

Friday 15th February

As I said on Monday it was a day of firsts and today was no different. Dembe has learned how to jump up on the sofa unaided. I was in the kitchen and it had got suspiciously quiet, I came into the lounge and saw Dembe curled up on the sofa asleep. I also knew I hadn’t left him there, by the time I got my phone out to take a photo he had woken up. It now means nothing  is safe .got up on the sofa unaided

Later on in the morning he jumped up beside me again unaided so it wasn’t a one off.

on the sofa beside me

I needed to take something upstairs and normally I would lock the baby gate behind me and within 30 seconds Dembe would be whingeing. Today I decided to do a little experiment , I left Dembe on the sofa and went upstairs leaving the baby gate open, dead silence, no whinging, I did this several more times during the day and there was still no whinging. It was obviously the physical barrier that was upsetting him as without it there was no crying and yet he didn’t even attempt to get upstairs. It maybe time to remove the babygate and see how we get on.

I decided to do some embroidery on my machine this afternoon, normally Dembe would follow me into the kitchen and put himself to bed. However today he decided to stay put on the sofa with his head on the arm so that he could keep an eye on me just like his uncle Frankie used to.

watching me whilst in the kitchen

I can’t believe he is 13 weeks old today and has been home with us for 5 weeks now. He is such a huge part of our lives.

Saturday 16th February

Jay was late night again today so we took Dembe up to the common for a run around . I stayed in the car as I have woken up with a headache and vertigo.  Dembe thoroughly enjoyed his walk and was playing with other dogs, which is a relief as I thought maybe he had suddenly become frightened of other dogs after reacting the way he did on Tuesday. But he is fine and is being a lot braver with every meeting.

Today Dembe decided to channel Satan again, barking and growling was immense fun and he was doing it to inanimate objects and humans. He was also over excited all day which meant he was jumping up and nipping inappropriately at the small humans we had here. Thankfully he didn’t bite them, I was mortified and had to give him a time out in the kitchen to calm down, which he was shocked at because I have never removed him from a room completely. He did calm down and was allowed back in. The time out seemed to stop the barking also.

It was a day of many visitors, before the day’s end we had another 4 people visit us and Dembe kept getting over excited which resulted in him being removed from the situation. Every time someone went to stroke his head yesterday it was seen as an opportunity to chew their fingers. If someone ignored him he started barking at them. It made me a bit sad that he was being naughty but he is a baby and he is testing the boundaries .  I am stopping the behaviour before it escalates by removing him and allowing him to calm down. He is very good when I put him behind the baby gate as he just sits and watches and doesn’t make a sound.

With other things he is doing really well, he now no longer jumps at the fridge when we open the door and he sits patiently waiting when Jay puts his lead on. He will also wait when I open the front door and allow visitors in or take in deliveries. It is amazing when you have been used to dogs that went mental when the door went and had to be shut in the kitchen when visitors arrived. Everyone has their off days and I think yesterday was one of those for  him.

We decoded to remove the baby gate yesterday at the bottom of the stairs to see how we would get on without it there and if he would go upstairs if he had the opportunity. He wasn’t interested and only attempted to go upstairs once and was quickly dissuaded when I told him no.  We have had to move our large wicker basket up into my room as it would just be too tempting for him to use as a chew toy.

Sunday 17th February

Dembe woke me up at 5.30am this morning but as I was asleep before 8pm last night ( shattered after all the visitors) it didn’t feel too bad. Dembe woke me with a whiney yawn he had obviously been awake for a little while and all other attempts to rouse me had failed.

By 7.45am we were down the beach, it never ceases to amaze me how busy the seafront is all day long. Dembe loves the beach and meeting new dogs and there were plenty of them this morning. He is getting much braver with meeting new dogs and Jay is really good handling those situations. I would be terrified my immediate urge is to pick him up – which is awful as I am miles away from him on the slipway, I watch holding my breath. Jay just gets on his haunches and pets the dog that has come over for a sniff and makes a fuss of them. Left to me I’d have picked him up and run away. At least with Jay being so confident Dembe doesn’t pick up on any fear.

He has been pretty tired since his walk this morning and has been sleeping either on the sofa beside me or on the dogs bed I made for our Weimaraners.

Sunday Dembe

And yes that is my slipper behind him!

The rest of his day has been spent sleeping, he is obviously having another growth spurt or he wore himself out yesterday with all his exuberance. We were planning on having a quiet day today as Jay and I both needed to recharge our batteries, so with Dembe being so tired it has worked to our advantage.

Next week will be fun, on Monday he will be meeting his admirer Sam who is on half term from College and then on Wednesday my best friend Ellie will be bringing her dog up (Bruce) to meet Dembe.

Have a great week everyone xxx



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