dog training – The Dembe Diaries

Monday 18th January

Posing beautifully for me and then he did this

When I woke up this morning Dembe was downstairs asleep on the small sofa in the lounge. He was really shattered and I had to wake him up to give him breakfast at 9.30am. He isn’t an early morning dog. He had a huge breakfast.

As Dembe has been refusing to eat his Kongs ( he gets these when we have jobs where we want to keep him out of the way) I thought maybe he would try them with Brussels pate in. Yes I know he is a spoilt bastard. I used to do him ham and cheese Kongs but he steadfastly refuses to eat them now. He went crazy for the the Brussels pate. So at least I know have something I can put inside his Kongs and he will eat them. He does have expensive taste.

Jay nipped home for lunch and walked Dembe around the block. Dembe saw Ben next door for the first time in a few months and was doing the play stance and barking at him trying to get him to play. Ben was playing football with Dembe in the summer. He obviously remembers.

Jay finished at around 4pm and Dembe got taken straight up the common for a walk. He settled very quickly this evening.

A Facebook memory came up this morning of Dembe when he was tiny and loving to sleep with his head in Jays slippers.

He still likes sleeping on his dads slippers

Tuesday 19th January

Jay is day off today, he took Dembe out early and then again at 9.20am. He took Dembe up to the model airfield and met up with a colleague from work (observing social distancing) and his dog Whisky.

Initially Dembe and Whisky were a little wary of each other

However after 10 minutes or so they then started playing chase which as regular readers will know is Dembe’s favourite game

Apologies for the bad language at the end of the video, my husband forgets I post the video’s on here!

Both dogs were running around like mad for the whole 75 minute walk. We expected Dembe to be knackered after his walk but no he kept going and going.

Jay took Dembe out up the common again in the afternoon for a shorter walk. I am sure that due to Jays early shift he has lots of energy left over on a Tuesday after the Monday. Thankfully he settled down in the evening. I had a migraine so went to bed early and my pup came with me to keep an eye on me.

Wednesday 20th January

Dembe is being spoilt this week with 3 walks with professional dog walks. He has two with Martin from Happy dogs and one with Sophie from Creature Kind.

I got up at 7am and Dembe was not impressed, refusing to get up with me. He did saunter downstairs around 20 minutes after I got up and graced me with his presence.He brought blue dinosaur with him as well so looked ridiculously cute.

This one was taken last year but shows his blue dinosaur

He refused his breakfast this morning so went without. I have had to be quite hard when he starts messing about as he is such a fussy eater and will try it on. I am sure he would love ham, cheese and Brussels pate for every meal but it isn’t happening! I did discover later that it was the bit of chicken roll on his breakfast that stopped him eating. When removed he ate the lot!

He had a lovely walk with Martin from Happy dogs. The weather was absolutely awful as Storm Christophe had hit the UK so windy and rainy. He came back covered in mud but that was easily sorted with a hose down in the garden – I am talking about Dembe not Martin LOL!

After he has been out for a walk he likes to lie on my lap for a bit! Getting me damp from his wet belly.

He had a long nap after his walk!

Thursday 21st January

Dembe surprised us this morning by climbing onto the coffee table in the lounge. It is the first time that he has done this and out of all the dogs we have owned only Mollie climbed the lounge coffee table. Travis used to climb up on the table in the garden but never the one inside the house!

Of course as soon as I went to take the photo he started to come off. We couldn’t help but laugh at him as we were so surprised by him doing this.

Today he is going out for a walk with Sophie from Creature Kind and her crew. Whilst they were out Sophie sent me this photo of Dembe, which I now have as my phones home screen.

He loves having a swim on the common. Apparently he took every body to the pond so they could have a swim!

As you can see he has a wonderful time out on his walks. I swear this dog has a better social life than I do! He did however let himself down at the end of the walk by refusing to come back to Sophie. He decided to extend his walk a bit by running off and going to play with some smaller dogs. The dogs owner wasn’t impressed. I was mortified as normally his recall is spot on. Sophie was really good about it. Next week I am going to give her some cubes of cheese to take with her to see if that gets him coming back to her better. He is far too clever for his own good sometimes.

He was ravenous when he came in and had a huge dinner! No problems with him eating it.

As he fell asleep really early I managed to get us up to bed before 7pm.

Friday 22nd January

Dembe is being spoilt again today as he is having another walk with Martin from Happy dogs. He wasn’t massively energetic before Martin arrived.

When Martin arrived I let him know that Dembe had been a naughty pup with Sophie the day before. Thankfully when Martin dropped him back he said Dembe had been as good as gold. The relief! I hate it when he is naughty with people. As Dembe had been by himself for this walk Martin had taken him through some basic training, so recall, walking to heel off the lead etc so it was a really good mental session for Dembe as well. He wasn’t too muddy either, I was expecting him to come back pickled!

Whilst they were out Martin took some great photos of Dembe

Photo Credit Martin Pashley Happy Dogs. Dembe having a treat thrown to him!

Martin said that Dembe was fascinated with the helicopter going over head. I told him about the Chinook going over us when Dembe was a little pup and how he had been into watching aircraft ever since!

He was very tired after 4 long walks this week, 3 with professional walkers and one long one with Jay on Tuesday. He was starving today and demanded his dinner at 3pm which is crazy early for him to have his last meal of the day. He scoffed the lot without looking up and I gave him a huge dinner due to the amount of physical activity he had this week.

I think he was over tired as he was very unsettled and whingey for the rest of the afternoon. He did conk out at around 7pm and that was him asleep until 4am when Jay got up.

Saturday 23rd January

Jay was on an early shift today, unusually for Dembe he was raring to get out at 4am, normally Jay would have to drag him out of bed. When they got back Dembe raced back upstairs to bed with me.

After jay had showered and dressed, he came in and sorted out what toys needed to go downstairs, as over the week Dembe had brought up so many. He took down sprout and carrot. Around 5 minutes later Dembe went downstairs, picked up carrot and brought him back upstairs. Dumping him on my head.

As he was a such a good boy whilst I sorted myself out this morning, I got his fish toy out for him. His Auntie Heather bought this for him last year.

He has slept the rest of the afternoon and when he has been awake he has been exceptionally cuddly.

Monday 28th September

It is the first day of Jays holiday, well it should be. Due to the road traffic accident in August he had to take two days off work, as a favour to his employer he is working overnight tonight. So it is going to be a bit confusing for Dembe when his dad leaves the house at 10pm and isn’t back until the morning. He has done it before but it has been a while.

Dembe is not a morning dog and will happily go back to sleep after his early morning walk. Every morning as I get dressed / sort myself out for the day he sleeps on the bed behind me. Tells you something about how long it takes me to get ready if he goes to sleep.

Dembe spent as much time as possible draped over his dad today. He is always the same when his dad is home. Although he does split his time equally between us, he does enjoy the time he gets to spend with his dad.

On his walk with Jay on Monday afternoon

Dembe came up to bed at around 9.30pm, I had been upstairs since just after 7pm. He came up on my bed. We were both asleep when Jay left at 10pm, although Dembe got up then and went into his dads room and slept on his dads bed. He came back into me at 3am and stayed there until his dad got in just after 8am. He was very well behaved.

Tuesday 29th September

Dembe got picked up by the dog walker at 9am, as he was being taken out by Martin today as Jay will be sleeping for a few hours and at least this way Dembe will be tired out and will let his dad sleep.

Unfortunately Dembe was a sex pest on his trip with the dog walker. For whatever reason he decided Shadow the Collie was up for it. At 13 years old and spayed Shadow was most definitely not up for it. She snapped at Dembe in the back of the van so Martin had to pull over and check what was going on. He said Dembe’s mouth was pouring with drool and he was panting heavily. Obviously Shadow had put him in his place. It didn’t last long though as he annoyed Shadow on the walk and she had to put him in his place again. I was mortified when Dembe was brought back a little earlier than normal as he wouldn’t stop bothering poor Shadow.

Dembe had obviously tried to wake Jay up in the morning when he had got back from his walk as Jay woke up with three of Dembe’s toys by the bed. He brings in toys when he goes in to wake Jay up. Obviously they were abandoned when Jay didn’t stir. He finally got up at 1.30pm. I was going to wake him at 2.30pm if he hadn’t woken up.

I was working on the computer today trying to write a blog post for my sister site The Myasthenia Kid and Dembe was having none of it. He kept jumping up trying to get me to hold his cows ear so he could chew it. A huge new box of cows ears arrived today and he had to have one as soon as they got here.

It was quite hilarious as I was writing a post about him at the time.

This evening we had dog training, it was a good session.

Dembe was absolutely shattered, after training, he slept all the way home in the car and went straight to sleep when we got home.

Wednesday 30th September

Dembe was wiped out after last nights training session, which was just as well as Jay and I were working on putting in the flooring in his room. Jay did all the heavy lifting and I did all the measuring and showing him how the laminate boards went together. We didn’t get as much as we wanted done but we made a start. Dembe was such a good boy either sleeping in my room on my bed or lying out in the hall watching us. We used the commands sit and stay a lot to keep him out of danger. So chuffed with what a star he is.

The only photo of him awake on Wednesday bless him

Thursday 1st October

October how the fudge did that happen? It was March just a few weeks ago.

Dembe decided this morning when he had his breakfast that he doesn’t like peas! It takes a certain amount of skill to be able to avoid eating peas mixed up with your kibble and cooked meals. He has never left his peas before so we aren’t quite sure what is going on. He is eating a lot better than he was which is good as he did become a bit of a nightmare a week or so ago and we ended up having to starve him to get him to eat.

We had another day of DIY, doing Jays floor. Dembe was a good boy again and only a couple of times had to be removed from the room we were working in. He was funny as every time I was leaning forward measuring stuff he kept coming in and giving me a kiss with his whole body wagging as his tail went.

Dembe was a bit put out as he didn’t have Jays bed to lie on and watch us as it had been tipped up and put at the end of the room. When we finished for the day and the bed went back down he went crazy, grabbing a toy – his hedgehog and diving on top of the bed. His tail is a blur.

He has slept a bit on his wicker bed that normally stays upstairs in Jays room. He keeps going in it and turfing all the cushions out then sleeping on the base …weirdo!

Friday 2nd October

We are taking a day off from doing the DIY, I am on my knees with fatigue and pain.

I had a lady over today to pierce my earlobes ( a third hole so 3 in each lobe). Dembe was a little crazy when she arrived and then settled quite quickly. Jay kept him out of the kitchen whilst she did them. She was used to dogs as she has a black Labrador herself.

We are having a very lazy day

Dembe was more than happy to curl up on the sofa and have cuddles all day. He is so good at adapting to the pace of the household.

Saturday 3rd October

Jay is off down the road to see his family today, his niece and nephew begged him to bring Dembe down but he can’t as he would have nowhere for Dembe to go whilst he saw his parents ( who aren’t into dogs ). As a consequence of his dad going out and not in work uniform Dembe has been quite unsettled this morning and a bit barky.

At around 11am I saw Dembe’s ear was very red – right hand side, so I gave it a clean with the stuff the vets gave us. Unfortunately that made things worse, Dembe was constantly shaking his head and then he had a huge drink. Which promptly got spewed all over the lounge floor. I rang the vets and got an appointment for the afternoon and then had to ring Jay to get him to drive back home.

Dembe was a very good boy at the vets, let John weigh him, he came in at 35.1kg . John the vet then had a good look in Dembe’s ear and he has got a fungal infection deep inside his ear. So he has been treated today with some drops and we have to go back in ten days and have more drops put in. When we go back they will do another check of his ear and see how he is getting on.

I had to stay in the car due to the Covid-19 rules, Jay was allowed in as long as he was wearing a face mask. I’m glad that he was able to go in with him. It has been pretty awful throughout the UK with owners not being allowed to go in with their dogs / pets on their final journeys and having to say their last goodbye in the car park. I don’t think I would have coped with that at all.

So we are having a quiet day now whilst Dembe chills out after his fun at the vets.

He is starting to feel better as he has just tried to snarf mine and Jays dinner!

Tag: dog training

W/C Monday 18th January 2021