Day 13   -   29 September

The big excitement today was the repair man coming to fix the cooker. Lewi found it very strange having a stranger shut in the kitchen behind the gate with all the drawers pulled out and wires everywhere. And strangest of all, Lewi shut out of the kitchen. There were a couple of yaps to begin with then he laid down peering through the gate watching every move.

He has never troubled or pestered me about my food, just ignoring my eating and playing or sleeping by himself. This lunchtime was very different. I decided to have sardines on toast. As soon as I opened the sardine tin, he was in the kitchen. The smell of the sardines was certainly very tempting to him. I did think of opening a tin for him, to add to his dinner, but they do have small bones in. I have spent an evening in casualty before now having a fish bone removed from my throat. I wonder if any of the commercial puppy foods have fish. Chicken, lamb and beef, but I can’t remember seeing any fish ones. I’m still not sure about feeding him. I had read that the dry foods have the best balance of nutrients, and so decided I wanted to move him to them. But when you study the list of contents they seem to be made from a weird mix of meat products (dodgy one that) and extracts of this and that. It will be a case of looking at all the tins and packets to find something a bit closer to food as nature intended, and which he likes.

From the Puppy School website, I have found a local place that makes training treats that look interesting and they seem to use human grade food (not that that’s saying much) It’s very much a cottage industry, so I will give them a try. Actually, I quite fancy some of them myself!!

Still on the subject of food, I dropped some fish on the kitchen floor when getting something else from the fridge this evening. That had him sniffing around!

I have started getting him used to wearing a collar, I know it’s a few weeks till he starts classes and going out, but if he can get used to the collar and the lead nice and early, it will probably save traumas later on. First time I tried the collar, he was very unsure of it, especially of the little name tag hanging down. I tried again this evening when he was very quiet. No fuss at all. I put the collar on and he hardly budged, he later walked around a bit went for a drink and came back and lay down on his bed quite happily. Obviously, it came off when he went in his crate. I’ll leave it on a bit longer tomorrow, perhaps I’ll try the lead as well later in the week.

He has definitely grown; he is nearly able to climb up on the settee himself. I didn’t allow him up when he tried in an excited state. But did pick him up and put him on there with me later when he was very calm and quiet. Now, am I confusing him, or teaching him that he can come when he is calm and invited? Or am I reading too many books on bringing up a puppy and getting confused myself?

I certainly misread the signs this afternoon. I had to pop to a shop to pick up a present for my son’s birthday. I took him with me. Normally, in the crate, in the car, he just falls asleep. Today, halfway there he started fussing and yapping. The shop’s only 3 miles away from home. I thought that maybe he was just a bit too lively. It was only when I was in the shop paying for the present that I cottoned on. He really had just wanted to go to the loo. We were back home a few minutes later and my hypothesis was proved right. I think I’m the slow learner in this partnership.

Well he’s asleep in bed and I have been able to stay down stairs to write this without him waking, so it’s time for me to get to bed as well. Tomorrow makes 2 weeks!