W/C 15th April

 Monday 15th April

Another cuddly Monday morning with Dembe. Training wise this week the plans are to focus on getting him to got to his crate when “in your crate” is used and onto his bed when the phrase “bed” is used. It is slow going as he gets confused between the commands but it is great brain training for him. I am adding in some stuff that is mentally stimulating for him as this will keep him from getting bored and then possibly destructive.

We have a raft of visitors popping in today Julie, who saw him a few weeks ago is coming by to have a look at him and then Leanne and her son Liam are coming along also.

Dembe is very good at waiting when the front door is open and not trying to bolt out the front door. Something that the Weimaraners were terrible at and we would have to pop them in the kitchen when we answered the front door.

Julie couldn’t get over how much he had grown. On the whole Dembe is very well behaved but he has started putting his front paws on your shoulders ( from behind when you are sat down) when he has a toy in his mouth and wants you to play. It is over bearing and not very polite. Julie is ok with it apparently her late Izzie used to do it. Inside I am dying of embarrassment.

When Liam and Leanne arrive Dembe get’s over excited so I have to put him on a time out in the kitchen . When he has sat down and is calmer I allow him back into the room. He is much naughtier with Leanne and Liam here and he climbs all over Leanne. I am mortified and now stopping that behaviour is top of this weeks training list. To be honest I am also very fed up with being used as a climbing frame.

 He looks so angelic when he is asleep!

Tuesday 16th April

As Jay is day off today we take Dembe up to the common quite early for a nice walk. The weather is hideous so both my boys come back to the car looking like drowned rats.

Late morning we go and visit Sandra who has broken her leg in two places just yesterday. I am terrified the whole time that Dembe will clumsily bash into her temporary plaster cast but he gives it a sniff and is then very careful around her leg. The last time we were at Sandra’s house he was just 15 weeks old. He does behave mostly however he nips Sandra twice. Again I am mortified as he hasn’t nipped anyone for weeks. It is a little bite and doesn’t draw blood and was done whilst playing but I am still gutted that he has done this. I think he went to mouth her hand but she pulled away – which I have done myself and that does hurt.

It’s not all bad news though as Dembe has had his first experience of an open fire at Sandra’s and was sensible enough to keep well clear! He was very intrigued by Sandra’s husband and was watching him intently as he sorted out the fire.

Dembe slept most of the afternoon as he didn’t have a morning nap with us going To Sandra’s.  At 3pm we take him for another walk, thankfully the weather has improved. There are lots of puddles but he is still at an age where he is avoiding puddles. He reminds us of Princess Willow one of our Weimaraners who steadfastly refused to get her feet wet until she was around a year old. She expected to be picked up and carried over puddles if she couldn’t walk around them.

He is very into Jay today which is lovely to see.

 

Wednesday 17th April

As it quite usual for a Wednesday Jay is late night so Dembe ha had a nice walk on the common this morning at Woodbury Castle. Today he met a huge Yellow Labrador that he was desperate to play with. This Labrador we think was from show lines as it was slightly larger than our biggest Weimaraner Frankie ( who was large for a Weim) . He was very muscular this Labrador and a huge head. He made Dembe look very sweet and dainty. Working lines are bred to be smaller and more compact.

Dembe’s frozen bones have arrived today , the delivery driver was looking for a dog when I opened the front door. He stuck his head in to see Dembe just lying on the sofa waiting patiently as I had asked him to do. The guy said how lovely he was and very cute. Dembe had kittens when he saw me load all the bones into the freezer. I let him have one for 30 minutes as I knew he had another back tooth loose and that it was bothering him. He loved it and was very annoyed when I put it back in the fridge.

His morning nap.

Thursday 18th April

As Jay was working a 12 hour shift today we got up very early so that Dembe could have a walk before Jay went to work. For Dembe it was his first walk in the dark on Woodbury common. He was freaked out a bit by his shadow initially but was soon pottering around like it was a normal day time walk.

He was pretty shattered in the morning due to the incredibly early start I managed to capture this series of photos as he dropped off to sleep.

He was out for the count.

My friend Heather popped over today, who we haven’t seen in a while due to the usual things work, family etc. I think the last time she had seen Dembe was when he was 9 weeks old and he is now 22 weeks old. 23 weeks old tomorrow. He spent the whole of Heather’s visit sat on her lap, getting her to hold his bone so that he could chomp on it. He has never sat like that on anyone other than me and Jay.So it was really nice to see.

Dembe is doing much better with the not jumping on people and wanting them to play. He has been told no and then placed on the floor. We have only had to do it twice and the jumping stopped. Hopefully that is the end of it… for now.

The poor baby still has a very wobbly back tooth and when he has been chewing his toys he has been bleeding onto them. He is ok in himself but you can tell the tooth is bothering him as he keeps flicking it with his tongue to try and dislodge it.

Good Friday – 19th April

Today Dembe is 23 weeks old how the time has flown by. He is still our little baby, when you see him next to a full grown Labrador he is still tiny. He is quite tall and when he jumps up, which isn’t very often his paws are at my waist height and I am 5ft 8in tall. He is very long as well now.

His food portions are remaining the same this week as we wean him off his lunchtime meal and down to just two meals a day. Breakfast and Dinner are 120g of food whilst lunch has been reduced to 55g, plus he has 10g of food in his frozen kong every day.

He still comes into the shower everyday and loves nothing better than playing with the hosepipe outside. He still sits on my lap every morning and chews the ties of my snuggle top as he did when he was just 8 weeks old. Although now he takes up the whole of my lap.

He has such a sunny disposition he is always happy, his tail wags constantly which always make Jay and I laugh as we aren’t used to dogs with a full size tail. He is very loving towards Jay and I but when he is out on his walk he is growing in confidence and will walk further away from Jay than he did when he was first out walking.

Today I managed to find Dembe’s wobbly tooth. He was sat beside me on the sofa and was desperately trying to dig something out from behind the sofa cushion. I put my hand in the gap and felt something which I thought was a biscuit crumb. It wasn’t until I looked at it that I realised that it was his wobbly back tooth! I am so pleased as we hadn’t been able to get any of his other teeth as they have either been swallowed or hoovered up.

Dembe had two nice walks today and Jay managed to get some lovely photos of him.

Saturday 20th April

The weather has got very hot and poor Dembe with his double layered coat is not enjoying it. Once the garden has been revamped we will be getting him a paddling pool.

The little bugger woke me up at 5.30am this morning by throwing his head across my neck. However at 6.30am as he was fast asleep on the sofa and I was struggling to stay awake so I went back up to bed taking him with me. He played for around 10 minutes and then went straight to sleep. This is the first time we have done this so it was nice to know he would settle back down again. We both got another hour of sleep.

Mark came over to work on the garden digging trenches for the french drains. Dembe loves Mark and goes all silly whenever he is here. I had to spend a lot of the time getting Dembe to leave him alone so that he can crack on with the task in hand.

Thank goodness for the marrow bones as that is enough to distract him from his bromance!

Sunday 21st April  Easter Sunday

As the last few days have been so warm Dembe was up the common this morning nice an early whilst it was still cool. I heard the Cuckoo, which I haven’t heard in years due to the Weims being walked so early in the morning. I always manage to hear the Cuckoo between the 19th and 21st April. He was calling away.

Dembe has pretty much slept ever since his walk this morning.

The rest of the day was spent pretty quietly as Dembe wore himself out yesterday flirting with Mark all afternoon!