W/C 1st April 2019 – Window Watching

 Monday 1st April 

Dembe was as is usual on a Monday a cuddly pup all day.

 

 

Unfortunately at around 16.45 we were messing around ( Dembe and I ) and he clobbered me with his paw. It was a freak accident but due to the fact I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome my skin is extremely fragile. Whilst most people would have got away with a scratch the underneath of my eye was cut open and was bleeding. It was a bit scary and I was just very pleased that I had managed to close my eye before it connected with his paw. As I said total freak accident but I am being very careful.

I had to spend a few hours with some ice on it as the pain was really incredible. Which sounds like I am being a wimp but it really did hurt and I have quite a high pain threshold.

Poor Dembe got scared as I was crying out with the pain when it happened so he ran upstairs and hid in the bedroom. I followed him upstairs and gave him a big cuddle as I wasn’t cross with him, these things happen it was an accident.  He quickly settled and was much happier.

We had a quiet evening but out of the blue at 22:30 Dembe decided to throw up his dinner from 18:00. He had been asleep since around 20:00 and Jay had just taken him downstairs to have a wee, which he did and then came in and had a drink and then it was vomitsville. It is the first time he has been properly sick, poor baby. He woke me up at midnight and was sick again but it was just a couple of mouthfuls of bile. I managed to get my snuggle top underneath him so he wasn’t sick on my bed. He was then fine for the rest of the night.

 

Tuesday 2nd April

We got out early up the common this morning as we are waiting for B&Q to deliver our gravel and other garden bits. As Jay and Dembe got out of the car it absolutely hammered down. Thankfully as they went through the woods at Woodbury Castle they didn’t get too wet.

As soon as our delivery arrived Dembe wanted to watch from the lounge window, he was wagging his tail like mad as he watched his daddy and the delivery driver get all the stuff of  the lorry. It is the first time since he was a tiny pup that he has bothered to look out of the window. Now there is no stopping him he loves it.

After the delivery had been sorted we raced down to the vets as we wanted to ensure Kate the head receptionist got to see Dembe when we went to get him weighed and pick up his worming tablets. Kate couldn’t believe the size of him and had lots of cuddles. Whenever we go there she makes such a fuss of him. She weighed him for us and he came in at a whopping 15.1kg / 33lbs / 2st 5lbs. I asked if his weight was ok and if he is overweight as I am paranoid about him getting too heavy and damaging his joints but she assured me he is absolutely perfect. She couldn’t get over how tall he is, she has seen him from 8 weeks old so she knows what a tiny dinky dot he was to begin with.

So far Dembe has been fine with no more vomiting but I won’t give him his worming tablets until tomorrow so that I know that his stomach has settled.

This evening I attempted to do my pilates…

Dembe seemed to think that this was code for climb all over mummy!

 

Wednesday 3rd April

Dembe is barking a lot today, he is barking at noises outside the house, cars, people talking that kind of thing and also he is barking at the sound of the hail stones hitting the windows and doors.  I am trying to discourage him from doing this  as I don’t want to annoy my neighbours. It makes me laugh that so many books say that Labrador’s don’t really bark, well Dembe found his bark and now hasn’t stopped using it!

His favourite game today is running upstairs and barking – he is letting me know he has dropped a toy over the side of the bed and he wants me to get it despite the fact he is more than able to jump on and off the bed. The first couple of times when he barked upstairs I panicked wondering what the hell was wrong. Now I just ignore him and use the recall command so he comes back downstairs for a treat.

He really wasn’t impressed with the hail storms we had on and off all day. Whilst it was light hail it was fine but when it went a bit mad and the hail got quite large he ran back inside with his tail between his legs.

This evening he has had a nice walk up on the common with Jay.

 

Thursday 4th April

Dembe is enjoying standing on the sofa and looking out the window. This is something he discovered the joys of on Tuesday and now there is no stopping him! Sometimes he see’s something and he decides to bark and other times his tail wags furiously. He is a funny little thing who constantly has me in stitches. As I am writing up this diary entry he is snoring very loudly beside me on the sofa!

I am really struggling to complete my Pilates / Physiotherapy exercises as when I get on the floor Dembe thinks it is play time and crawls all over me. It is really funny but it has got to the point now where I will have to wait until Jay gets home so that I can complete my exercises without interruption!

Dembe is fantastic when the front door goes, where ever he is in the lounge I tell him to wait  and then repeat the command and open the front door. He stays where he is until the front door closes and he gets a treat. We have had some big bulky deliveries this week and he has been such a very good boy. It is strange that he doesn’t bark at the doorbell or people knocking at the door. My Weimaraners used to sound like the hounds of the Baskervilles when the front door went and I would have to shut them in the kitchen to stop their escape attempts. So this has completely blown my mind that I can open the door without worrying that he will bark / growl or escape.

We are still working on the lie down command and he is getting quicker every day. I am now trying to add a roll over to the end of it.

He is such a good loving boy. I have been reading some horror stories on social media in the Labrador groups I belong to. Pups destroying walls, running away and ignoring commands. Owners terrified of letting their puppies off the lead – so much so they haven’t been off a lead in a wide open space in 6 months which is a shame for the owner and awful for the pup.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that my darling boy stays this way forever as he is such a good boy.

Friday 5th April

Today is the day that we start increasing Dembe’s breakfast and dinner whilst decreasing his lunch. We are doing this very slowly over the course of the next 7 weeks as we will also be building up his total amount of food to his 6 month old pup allowance.  However if he is really protesting over no longer having lunch in a few weeks time we will reintroduce it – because he is a spoilt little boy!

This is all happening because my dinky little Dembe dot is now 5 months old / 20 weeks. We have owned him for 3 months and I really couldn’t imagine life without my little sausage / pudding / dumpling. He is so very affectionate and loved nothing more than to sit on my lap giving me lots and lots of puppy kisses.

Dembe has been really spoilt today not only has he received his first ever butchers bone but he has had a manic play time with Harry, Bev’s son. He will have to wait for the bone to defrost before he can have it but he simply adored playing today. The photos are with kind permission of Bev.

As Harry found out Dembe is very strong and loves a good game of tug of war!

 

Saturday 6th April

Dembe is the original nosy neighbour! he is loving standing on the sofa and watching the world go by. Our Weimaraner’s Willow and Mollie also liked to have a good look out of the window.

As Dembe’s bone had defrosted this morning I let him have it for a few hours. He was so excited he wouldn’t stop wagging his tail. Initially he just looked at it not believing that it was all for him.

 

 

Dembe was very spoilt today as not only did he have a bone to chew but mummy and daddy also bought him a swanky new collar, which has plenty of room for him to grow into. You can see it ever so slightly in the top photo, it is a beautiful soft grey leather, with silver fittings. It is a wee bit loose at the moment but as we don’t attach a lead to his collar as he is on a harness it’s fine. It also has room to grow as well so should hopefully see him into adulthood. If anyone is interested it is from a company called Dogs & Horses – we paid for ours and I am not gaining anything by telling you where we purchased it from.  The soft grey looks beautiful against his red / yellow coat.

 

Sunday 7th April

Well Dembe was a bit crazy this morning so we got him up to Woodbury Castle reasonably early. What a walk he had he met five other Labradors and was in 7th heaven.  The first Labrador he met was a chocolate one called Dexter, who was elderly but still wanted to play. Dembe was too quick for Dexter but they still had a lot of fun. Further into the woods they came across two ladies sat on a fallen tree and at their feet were 3 yellow Labradors and one black one. All the dogs came bounding over which Dembe took in his stride.

Jay tells me that all the Labrador’s then sat in front of him and shoved their noses into his Travis bag containing all Dembe’s treats. Dembe was most perturbed that he couldn’t get anywhere near his daddy for all the hungry Labrador’s. Jay shouted over to the owners to ask if they minded if Jay gave them all a treat. He was told to watch his fingers and thought he knew better, he ended up with a bleeding thumb. More walking wounded than amputation needed!

Dembe was pretty shattered after his morning walk so went straight to sleep. He has been a good boy today and had plenty of cuddles and kisses. The only naughty thing he has done is he decided he was part crocodile again today and has been nipping us which he hasn’t done for ages. A few stern no’s and he caught on we weren’t putting up with it. It’s funny how he can not do something for weeks and then decides he will try his luck again.

I keep meaning to say that he is 100% house trained now and has been for weeks. He is a very good boy and will wait at the back door to be let out.

 

W/C 25th March 2019 – Toys, all toys

 Monday 25th March

Well yesterday ( Sunday) the last of the decking and it’s joists have been removed so for the time being ( for safety ) Dembe is restricted to just the small patio in the back garden. Its going to be 6 – 8 weeks before he has a garden to play in again but so far he is coping ok. Just has got his head in every plant pot that is within biting distance.

As you can see from the garden….well mud pit it’s not a safe environment for a puppy.

He was a very sleepy boy today, probably because he had so little sleep the day before with the decking being removed and Mark coming over to help. Also because he was such a good boy he had two walks up on the common as a reward hence a knackered pup today.

Having his ginger nuts on display seems to be his normal Monday morning sleeping pose!

I managed to get this beautiful shot of Dembe today. It’s so cute his ears are always doing this.

As Jay was on an early Dembe had a nice walk on the common this evening.

 

Tuesday 26th March

As Jay is (as normal) day off today he took him up the common nice and early. He met up with Dembe’s girlfriends the two female British Bulldogs, who adore him but will steal his tennis ball. Dembe had a really good play with them.

We are having issues with Dembe whingeing in the car . He started doing it age 10-11 weeks and he is getting more and more vocal. Up until then he was really good in the car and used to go straight to sleep. He whinges if I am in the back with him or if I am in the front with him. We don’t know why he is doing it as he can move around despite being belted in. He isn’t in pain, it isn’t an excited whine it’s an attention whine or I need the toilet whine. But he will always have been outside for a wee before being put in the car. He also does it on the way home from a walk or trip out in the car. Which means he will have been to the toilet etc We are clueless but our new plan of action is to ignore him and see if that gets him to drop the volume of the whinging.

On the second trip out of the day the whingeing although still there was much quieter.  However he has now started barking at people outside the car. Today was the first day that he has ever done it. Probably because he is so much taller now he can see clearly out of the window. He does very much see his role as being the protector of the family. I just don’t want him barking at everything outside the car because we had that with the Weimaraner’s and its a bloody nightmare.

 

Wednesday 27th March

I’m usually pretty good at either writing my notes about Dembe straight into my diary for him or onto the blog in the drafts section. For some reason Wednesday is completely blank. However as a back up I always look at photos in my phone as very rarely is there a day when I haven’t taken a photo of him.

For some reason this week it has been all about his toys. The blue dinosaur in the photos was one of the first toys that I bought him. Until now it has been part of his bedroom toys. He has a few toys upstairs which he plays with for about 30 minutes every night before he settles down to sleep. He plays with these as well if we go upstairs during the day.  This week he has been slowly bringing all his upstairs toys downstairs and neither Jay or I have noticed him do it.

He has also been playing with toys that he hasn’t touched for a while. However the best game he has had is emptying the contents of his toy box all over the lounge floor. As soon as you try to tidy up and put them back in the toy box he trots behind you and takes them out again. This has been this weeks game which started on Wednesday!

Thursday 28th March

As Jay was on his only late night of the week Dembe was taken up the common for a nice walk. He had missed his two Bulldog girlfriends but he met two chocolate labs who were more than happy to play with him. He really is fascinated with Labrador’s, he likes any dog that will play with him but he knows a Labrador. The whole reason we went for a Labrador after losing the Weimaraner was that our eldest girl Mollie had always been fascinated with Labrador’s, particularly black Labs. She would make a bee line to a Lab, flirting and playing. So we allowed Mollie to make the decision for us, years ago so it feels like we have her blessing. Even though it is bloody hard trying to carry on without them.

Dembe has claimed his first pair of slippers. Jay had a pair of star wars slippers that he wore occasionally . Dembe would steal them out of Jays bedroom no matter where he hid them and sit and chomp on them. Tonight Dembe managed to chew the ends off both toes so I had to get them off him and put them in the bin. I didn’t want him eating the inside of the slipper!

My dad popped over in the afternoon to pick up some of the things he has been storing at ours over the winter. Dembe was very excited as it was around 4pm, from 4pm until 4.30pm / 5pm he can be very bouncy and today was no different. He was mad though bouncing around like a rabbit!

He did however settle really well in the evening and we went upstairs at 18.30 as we were both shattered.

It was quite funny as when Jay got home from work Dembe barked at the sound of him coming through the door. Like I said earlier in the week he takes his role of being our protector very seriously.

Friday 29th March

I can’t believe our little ball of fluff is 19 weeks old already, where the hell has the time gone? I am so glad I have all the photos of him at 8 weeks old when he was tiny, standing in his food bowl. He has grown so much in such a short space of time.

He is such a gorgeous boy and I love him so much. I don’t even mind that I am permanently covered in dog hair because he is moulting at the moment as his adult coat comes in.

He has another two wobbly teeth on the bottom next to his canines. He has so many adult teeth come through now it is no wonder his favourite thing to do at the moment is chew. His Antler chews have taken a real bashing.

Jay was on a middle shift today so Dembe had a walk around the block this morning to burn off some energy. He came across an adult Labrador that was out on a run with its owners. He was absolutely fascinated by the grown up Labrador, sadly it was on the other side of the road but he was transfixed until it passed by.

He has been very cuddly all week, he keeps wanting on my lap and being hugged. He is such a very soppy boy.

Tonight was the first time he had been up to my parents caravan. He met Maggie last week but it went much better outside at the van. Although despite just having  a walk Dembe was manic with excitement. Bouncing around all over the place and getting deeply frustrated at the fact that my parents dog a Jack Russell terrier wouldn’t play with him and was more into being petted by myself and Jay.

As soon as we got in the car to go home Dembe was out like a light. It made for a very quiet evening!

 

Saturday 30th March

Today it seems my primary role is ensuring his lordship gets fed and to hold onto his nyla bone / antler / tugger whilst he chews the hell out of it. He obviously has some teeth coming through at the back as everything is being rammed to the back of his mouth and being chomped on.

Saturday evening after Jay got home from work and Dembe had a walk we went over to my parents caravan. Dembe was much more confident this evening as he knew where he was. He and my parents dog Maggie were playing, running after the ball and chasing each other. Dembe had the time of his life and we had a very quiet evening!

Sunday 31st March

Well after running riot with Maggie today Dembe is absolutely shattered. Firstly he slept until gone 6am ( the clocks changed last night so in old money it was 5.10am)  and then after he had his breakfast he then slept until 8am ( 7am ) which for him is pretty good going. He was a bit active for about an hour and then flaked out again.

Jay took him out for a walk on the common at around 10am

He has been sleeping beside me all day . In the UK it is Mothers day today, I have had a lovely card and box of chocolates from my boy. He is such a gorgeous pup and loves his mum.

He has been very good as I was outside with Jay this morning pointing out what pots can be thrown away and what still had plants in. We had to shut him in the house whilst doing this as there was no barrier onto the quagmire which is the back garden currently! Whenever we leave him in the house alone ( when we are in the garden) he just puts himself on one of the sofas and goes to sleep. I always panic he will be chewing something but he hasn’t yet…..he is still only 5 months old and there is lots of chewing to come I am sure.

As Jay isn’t working today he has had another walk on the common this afternoon. He has come in had a drink and then gone straight back to sleep. Must be a growing day combined with too much fun yesterday, He has been so tired hardly any toys have been touched today as well.

w/c 18th March 2019

 Monday 18th March

This week has been really hard, absolutely nothing to do with Dembe, he as always is my boy and an angel. Its me, I had a medication dose altered and I’m away with the fairies or trying to function through thick fog all the time. So this weeks dairy entries are going to be a bit scarce.

For the first day since he came home with us I forgot to take a photo of him, which proves how bad it has been. He has been well looked after and as always is my number one priority. It’s just well the dosage was too much and now I have dropped back to what I was on before.

We had a lovely day together and he has been very cuddly and following everywhere, which shows he has picked up on the fact that I wasn’t right bless him.

 

Tuesday 19th March

As Jay was day off today and we had several things planned Dembe was taken for a walk on the common at around 8am. He is looking so big in the back of the car these days it is scary. He still seems so small to us.

Before they left for their walk I asked Jay to take some photos for the blog. Due to my mobility issues I can’t go out with Dembe unless it is somewhere there is pavement. I do have an off-road trike attachment but due to the issue of the trapped nerve in my neck I am not using it at present. Jay took some cracking photos.

He loves to either carry the ball around during his walk or he likes it being thrown for him. Mollie used to love having a ball thrown for her but she is nowhere in the same league as Dembe for a ball obsession,

Jay spent the next few hours getting rid of the old wood from the back garden which meant Dembe had to be in his crate for a bit as we live in a terraced house with no rear access so everything has to come through the house. A nightmare if you have pets or small children. Dembe was an absolute angel and patiently waited until Jay had cleared up all the mess before he was let out. He then had some fun as I was getting my hair done, it was the first time I had a full set of foils on my head for highlights so his face was a picture looking at me wondering what on earth I was doing. He was pretty good around the hair only taking a few curls and running off with them.

As he had been such a patient boy all day with so much going on and had behaved himself when Rachel my hairdresser was here he got rewarded with another walk up on the common. When we got home we looked in our post box and found that Dembe’s coat for when he is a bit bigger had arrived. I’m not sure what he thinks about it?

We also have a cover for his lead that says in training. We are getting the basics down. Our next major challenge is to get him to walk alongside the mobility scooter without him trying to jump on me all the time. He walks like a dream for Jay but as soon as I am in the picture he just wants to be with me. So we are going to find a local car park and for the next few Sundays in the early mornings try repeatedly getting him to walk alongside me. It maybe that we have to think of a super dooper new treat for daddy to carry whilst we do this so his attention stays on Jay and not me.

Wednesday 20th March

I have no clue where this week is going! Dembe’s new adult teeth are almost fully formed and look quite strange against his baby teeth that he still has. He has been an angel all day again. There have been things that I needed to get done and he has just put himself on his bed and gone to sleep. He hasn’t got himself into any mischief, I am sure that will happen by the bucketful in the future! I thank my lucky stars that I have such a lovely boy, especially when I read the horror stories on some of the Labrador social media groups ( not our Broadleaf one ). I do wonder though if these people thought properly about getting a dog before taking the plunge, some of the things they complain about have me in shock, they are expecting way too much from a 9 week old puppy.

As we were up early this morning 5.30am for me, my nose was being gently chewed and 6.30am for hubby we got Dembe up on the common for a good run by 7.30am. It has set us up nicely for the day as he has been asleep for a lot of it and none of his usual antics of constantly wanting his ball thrown. I think all the excitement of yesterday as well has probably worn him out.

He has been my little helper today, picking things up for me when I have dropped them – and not running off with them but giving them back to me. Nothing that we have been working on this is his natural behaviour. Very good when I dropped a load of socks on the floor when emptying the tumble dryer.

Here he is lying on the bed

He really loves stealing his dads star wars slippers. It doesn’t seem to matter where Jay hides them in his bedroom Dembe finds them and brings them into my room. He also has in his mouth his comforter that he brought home from the breeder. It’s never been washed and I had to do a slight repair job on the arm of the teddy as it had torn, he still plays with this everyday. We keep it upstairs in my room so he has it there at night.

He has been out in what we have left of the garden which is the patio and a small amount of decking as we are having a garden make over at the moment. Which is being done on Jays days off. It will be a long project, but when it is done we won’t have to do anything to it again other than weeding! Plus it will be so much safer for Dembe to run around on. The decking as soon as it is wet is lethal and I was constantly terrified he was going to hurt himself

Thursday 21st March

As Jay was on a late night Dembe was up for a walk on the common by 9am. He loves his walks up there as he gets to meet other dogs and have a play. Today he met a very elderly black lady Labrador who was very patient with him as he bounced around and tried to get her to join in and play with her, He also met a horse properly today.

Jay and Dembe have bumped into this rider a few times, she has been watching Dembe grow up. Today they met properly and she got the horse to stand very still whilst Jay lifted Dembe up and let him have a look at the horse properly. He then put him on the floor and let him walk to the side of the horse. The horse snorted and Dembe had a bit of a jump as it startled him. He was very well-behaved as normally when he gets frustrated or wants something or is frightened he will bark. ( I still haven’t got him over his fear of the printer, every time a printed page drops to the collection tray he barks and then runs away! It is the strangest thing to be frightened of). He was shattered by the time he got hoe and slept the rest of the morning.

 

Dembe  has got much better at entertaining himself if I am doing something where my attention can’t be solely on him. Most of the time he will get up on the sofa and go to sleep or put himself on his bed. I have been lucky that he hasn’t got into mischief so far. I check on him regularly to ensure he isn’t chewing or destroying something but he has been very good. He reminds me of our first dog Travis who was a good boy when we couldn’t give him our undivided attention because we were doing jobs around the house. We could trust him not to destroy things, he was just happy we were in the house with him.

As we were by ourselves this evening we were up in bed by 7.15pm. Dembe settled really quickly and only woke when Jay got home shortly after 9pm. As soon as I felt Dembe sit up I said to him it was daddy, so he didn’t bark. He got off the bed and waited patiently by the baby gate until his daddy came upstairs. He goes mental when Jay gets home and showers him with kisses.

Friday 22nd March

Dembe had us up at the crack of bloody dawn! From 3.15am he was trying it on for his breakfast. He eventually had it at 4.30am as Jay was on an early shift, he then did his business in the garden and came back to bed. I ended up getting up at 5am as my back was sore. This lazy lump then decided to sleep for the majority of the morning! If only us humans could get away with that.

I just have one question though how does something so cute and small snore like a warthog?

When he isn’t next to me on the sofa sleeping he goes on the sofa opposite me so he can keep an eye on me. He is quite a guard dog, any strange noise outside the house he will bark. The other night Jay got up for a wee and Dembe barked at him as normally Jay doesn’t get up at night. He really does see his job as protecting both Jay and I.

When Dembe was more awake in the afternoon we started back on the “lie down” command. We started it over a week ago and due to me feeling rough and not very with it I didn’t go back and revisit it. I was so surprised that he remembered what I wanted him to do. Ok so he isn’t lying down immediately but he is getting it and considering this was our second session I was impressed. Lie down is quite submissive for a dog and many of them will flatly refuse to do this. I did have Frankie and Willow trained to lie down but Travis and Mollie would never do it!

 

I weighed Dembe today and found out he now weighs 14.5kg / 32lbs / 2st 4lbs at 18 weeks old, he is roughly supposed to gain 2lb a week at this stage so I can stop panicking that he is overweight. He certainly doesn’t look fat, you can feel his ribs and see then when he turns a certain way. I can also feel his spine and pelvis without having to rummage around. Plus his waist does go in. With him being a Labrador I panic constantly in case he becomes chubby.  He doesn’t half try it on now though, he is forever sitting in front of the fridge waiting to see if any cocktail sausages fall out!

Saturday 23rd March

As Jay was on a late night Dembe got a nice walk up at Woodbury Castle this morning. Dembe had a wonderful time playing with a Collie cross called Sookie. However Sookie ( like all dogs tend to do at some point)  decided to have selective hearing when her dad was shouting at her to come back. She was having far too much fun playing kiss chase with Dembe. Jay wasn’t bothered as running around playing is as good as a walk. In the end though Jay had to call Dembe back to him – and he came back first time, the miracle that is a bag full of bits of cocktail sausages. Jay then stayed put until Sookie’s owner came and collected her. She wasn’t impressed but her dad was exasperated with her. Jay couldn’t wait to tell me when he got back to the car about how good Dembe had been coming back with his recall. I am sure when he hits his teenage years he will decide to be a plonker and develop selective hearing. We are just very lucky that we have concentrated on this from day one. I could always call Mollie and Travis back however Frankie and Willow had selective hearing. I know how scary that is so I wanted to ensure we didn’t have that fear with Dembe.

After his escapades on his walk he has been a pretty tired pup bless him. We have had a couple of play sessions to burn off any energy and we have continued to work on lie down which he is getting faster at responding to.

One thing I really do love about Dembe is he loves getting mummy cuddles as much as I love giving them to him. He really is the soppiest dog I have ever owned and Frankie was a very loving boy.

Sunday 24th March

Sunday the day of rest, that’s a laugh in our house with the garden being revamped. BY 11am this morning the remaining decking and joists had been removed and are sat on the sliver of front garden that we have running alongside the drive. Dembe was a good boy as he had to stay in his crate for quite a while, whilst the wood was taken through the house and then whilst the mud was cleaned up. We are very lucky that he really doesn’t kick off much at all when he is put in his crate.

As we knew he would have to be in his crate for a period of time today we took him out on Woodbury Common at 8am. He met two female Bulldog puppies, who loved playing with them. He also met two elderly chocolate Labrador’s who were very placid when faced with a bouncing pup and had they been a few years younger would have had a play. It is really nice now that Jay can take Dembe anywhere and not have to worry about running into other dogs. The Weimaraners were not good with other dogs, particularly Frankie who was nervous aggressive. This always caused us so much stress, now we have the freedom to choose where we go.

Dembe had been such a good boy this morning that once all the garden work had finished and Jay had some lunch he was taken out again for another run around. This time we went to another part of the common. This time he bumped into three horses, thankfully after meeting the horse earlier in the week he knew to sit close to Jay whilst they passed. All these things are excellent experiences for a little pup.

He has slept the remainder of the day bless him.