Day 12  -  28 September

I decided to take advantage of the nice warm weather today. Lewi was not impressed. All his bedding from the cage and his day bed went in the washing machine. I have a spare cage mat which went in there for a bit of comfort for him, but he did sniff it very suspiciously. His day bed was in a terrible state where he’d been playing in the garden and getting dirty. To add insult to injury, I weeded and cleaned the patio. He did not like that at all. Barking and rushing in to pick out particular leaf treasures. He made it his day’s task to mess the patio up again!

He’s in one of his quiet moods at the moment. He was napping in the middle of the lounge floor. When I stood a few moments ago and went out of the lounge to fetch something, he very quietly, got up and went into his cage to sleep. He obviously feels safer and more comfortable there when he’s on his own, even for a moment, even with clean bedding! He still loves his Snuggle Puppy and will curl up next to that in his cage. I had to but new batteries for the heart, but got them cheap on the ‘net.

I must admit to breaking one of my rules again today. When he was in a quiet mood like this earlier on I lifted him up onto the settee with me. It was a nice quiet bonding moment, snuggling up together in comfort. I used the opportunity to do another inspection, looking for any return of the ectoparasites, inspecting all through his fur, between the toes (yes he allowed that!) and in his ears. No unwelcome visitors there. His coat does seem to be changing, I think. A lot of thicker fur underneath and a slight lightening in colour in areas. This, of course, may be imagination as seeing him all day, every day, it is impossible to judge really.

It’s now late evening and we’ve just said goodbye to our visitors who’ve been here most of the afternoon and evening, he had a lot of fuss made of him and it seemed to tire him out so he has had an early night. He is much more settled going to bed now. Not that he was ever a problem. There is no fuss at all when it’s time for bed, he may decide to go and play with his toys elsewhere when he senses I am about to put him to bed, but once I put him in his cage and turn off the light and say night-night, he just snuggles down and goes to sleep, not a sound. In the morning, though, he is beside himself with excitement when I come down and open up his cage.

It’s in these very excited states that I do have the problems with him. He still has this thing about shoes and laces. Whereas before a sharp No sorted it immediately, he is beginning to answer back. I must admit, he’s not so bad with mine – when I’m wearing them - but it is very difficult with visitors. It is a habit I have got to break. At one stage earlier, he was in such an excited “showing off” state that I had to just shut him in the kitchen for a while to calm down. When he had stopped his barking, then whining and complaining and was calm again, I fetched him back through and gave him some gentle fuss. It worked for a while. The puppy version of the naughty step. The problem was that he was not responding to the sharp NO. I felt that it was almost making him more excitable. It is one of the things I will have to bring up at Puppy School. I know that it is something that I am doing that leads to the excitable moods so it is me that will have to adapt to correct it. It is not a continual problem, most of the time we can play relatively calmly or even very actively, even playing tug and fetch without him going over the top, but then, sometimes he just loses control of himself. What worries me is if he gets like that when there is a young child, or slightly nervous adult around, or if he is like it when adult. I know he is only a baby as yet but I have no real measure of whether it is just normal puppy behaviour or the result of me over stimulating him at times.

Time for bed.