Improvement all round!

Here he is - our little puppy, well not so little anymore!

He's growing at a rate of knots in height, length and appetite too!!

Improvements are:

• Walking on the lead
• Socialising with other dogs
• Not taking the tea towel from the AGA rail
• Play time
• Not biting so much
• Doing his "Do's" outside!!

And not only that.

Due to not having any heating one recent night, as our boiler went down, we didn't feel that it was fair for him to sleep in his usual room, so we invited him upstairs to our bedroom.

He played about for a bit, nicking slippers and suchlike, hiding things under the bed and running a little mad, he soon settled down and slept right through until 7am, when the alarm clock went off, without a wee or a poo in sight.

Hooray.

Scrumpy HATES the rain!

Yes, we have discovered in the last few weeks, Scrumpy hates the rain!!

He pats the door to go out, but once he sees the rain he turns back and comes back inside again.

We have had to go through the following steps to get him out in it:

1.  Pushing him out of the door - which just results in him sitting on the step and not actually doing what he's meant to do.

2. Going out with him, underneath an umbrella - which just means that he sits at your feet under the umbrella too and not doing what he's meant to do.

However 

3.  Going out with him, without an umbrella, getting wet and having your hair go all frizzy, to show Scrumpy that the rain won't kill me (has he been watching too much TV??) seemed to do the trick!!

As you can see, he likes home comforts

Loves to sleep a lot

And loves the AGA

And the open fire!

He also likes to stretch out in one of his 5 (yes 5 - as we had 2 dogs before so we accumulated a few) beds

And he loves being picked up for a cuddle

He also likes to walk on the Trailway

Above is a view of the River Stour which runs along the Trailway - it's banks have burst in recent days

Here he is looking for his next stick to pick up

And these are my red wellies which have come in REALLY handy for dog walks in recent days

Scrumpy is coming on leaps and bounds in the last few weeks.  Things he used to do, like pulling cushions off the sofas. tea towels off the AGA and eating lumps of coal from the fire, he no longer does!

However, one thing he is still doing is having a wee and a poo in his room overnight.

I suppose that he's still young at 15 weeks and he will grow out of it, although we do feel that he's protesting at being put in his room, rather than being allowed to sleep in our room!!

Could there be some truth in that?

Mystery Solved!!

Thanks to Daisy's (Daisy is Scrumpy's Sister) Mum who was even more curious than us as to what our dogs are, she had a Doggy DNA test carried out and it turns out that one of the parents is a Greyhound and the other is a mix of a Dalmation and a German Wirehaired Pointer!

So that explains his build, his markings and his wirey hair that seems to be appearing all of a sudden.

When Scrumpy first came to us he was a little puppy weighing 4.5 kilos.  He's now reaching the 7.5 kilo mark so he's putting on weight - hooray.

He doesn't like his latest medicine that the vet has prescribed but I have become a dab hand at syringing it straight to the back of his throat, which is good as every other method resulted in white chalky liquid going everywhere.

Daisy

& 

Scrumpy

Over worried puppy parents

Today we took scrumpy to the vets as he is still coughing and when he did a puppy poop indoors (on puppy pad) overnight I noticed a little blood so to be on the safe side he went for a check up.
The vet did all the listening to his chest, looking down his ears, thermometer up his &@:;%{¥ etc and gave him a clean bill of health.
To be on the safe side after listening to his history to date she gave him some liquid medicine to combat both worms and lung worm for the next 7dsys just in case.
On another note he has now chewed through my laptop cable so I am a little limited to blogging, tweeting and www until I get a new one.
On another note again we have nearly finished our kitchen and as we were working in there today he came with us to keep us company. He went straight for the aga!
We also went on a lovely walk today.

Dog house

Yes that is where scrumpy is! He has in the last week chewed through
1. Wii cable
2. Play station cable
3. My laptop power cable

That is why I am blogging from my phone.

It's hard to be angry with him as he is so cute.

Scrumpy is growing!

He looks like a much bigger dog this week

Must be all the good food he's getting

Here he is playing with his new Penguin

And here he is searching under the wardrobe for something!

Ah yes, this is the penguin that we bought him from a charity shop - brand new, a bargain at £2.99

We removed his lovely hat and scarf before we gave it to Scrumpy to play with.

Here he is fast asleep on me last night

He was snoring away gently

We have been going on little mini road walks to get him used to a bit of traffic.  

As we live in a rural village we are lucky to have both a main road, which is fairly busy if you walk one way from the house, and if you walk the other way you get peacefully quite country lanes, so we are taking him on both.

We are only going out for 10 minutes at a time at the moment - 5 minutes for every month is the rule of thumb, so as he's about 2 months old, 10 minutes is perfect.

He is also doing his "doggy do's" outside on the whole now, which is great.  He's such an intelligent little thing & does pick things up really quickly.

Scrumpy Plays Football

He loves it and I am so glad we have these soft footballs. 

It certainly knackers him out!!

How to puppy proof your lounge....

Stuff any papers and magazines, tightly between the back and the bottom cushions of your sofa....

Or balance them on top of the back cushions

And put cushions up high and remote controls stuffed tight between sofa back cushions

You have to "think puppy" at all times, especially when you have to leave the room at quick notice e.g. to answer the front door etc.

Or this could happen to your TV guide!

One top tip that was passed to us, is to put extra newspaper on top of your Puppy Pads - this way the newspaper absorbs some of the "wet" and your expensive Puppy Pad will last longer!

We are taking Scrumpy for his very first walk today, but we are going to go to the pet shop first to buy him a  Puppy Harness as we think he might escape the collar that he has on.

We didn't get very far - after about 4 minutes he sat down and didn't want to go any further, so I picked him up for a short while & when I put him back down he walked all the way home!

Well done Scrumpy

Scrumpy on video

Isn't he just the cutest?

Today has been a normal puppy day with escapology, new training & more cuteness oozing out of Scrumpy!

Training today is to sit and wait whilst his food is put into his bowl.  It only took him 2 goes and he's got that bit.

Tonight I was cleaning his play pen, which means that I have to totally open a hinged side to it.  I then decided that I would leave it open - there's at least 12 inches, so plenty of room for him to escape from, and then I put him in his bed in there.  He's sitting there quietly, with no fuss at all, and has been there for about 10 minutes so far.

No Batteries required!

This picture says it all doesn't it?

This is exactly what we have to put up with, with Houdini - sorry Scrumpy.

He escapes his playpen time and time again, whether we are in the room with him, as I was when I obviously took this photo or not.

Now that his Kennel Cough is going and his inoculations have worn off from yesterday, he's more mischievous than ever, but on the whole he's being a very good puppy really.

His puppy pad training is superb, he sits before we put his food down and he's so intelligent that we are confident that he'll grow up to be a very excellent, loyal and loving dog.

If anyone has any tried and tested puppy training methods then please do feel free to share them with us all.

Thanks

Training and vets visit

 Last night Scrumpy risked life and limb to climb his play pen walls and I found him in his lounge bed when I came downstairs this morning, with no damage to the rest of the room, so it's good all round!

I have been putting him in his play pen for a few minutes at a time today, leaving the room and returning with lots of love and a treat each time.

It didn't take him long to settle down for a little sleep, so that's good.

Here he is with his favourite toy - a grouse 

The next challenge today was taking him to the vets.

My husband couldn't come with us as planned, so I have to put him in the back of the car by himself, with his comfy sweater, well my comfy sweater actually, and I also put a kong in with some peanut butter in it to "help" the situation.

He did make a fuss for the first few miles, but he did settle - just in time for our arrival at the vets.

He was very well behaved and had his 2nd jab and got microchipped to, so he was a very brave little puppy .Again on the car journey home, I took the long way back, he soon settled and went to sleep.

So, so far so good in the Scrumpy household today.  

We have been invited next door for dinner tonight, as we have no kitchen at the moment, so hopefully he will  not escape his play pen.  I am about to give him some more training now - he's a quick learner - he's not a stupid puppy at all!

More later folks

Scrumpy or should I say Houdini?

He's loving his lounge bed now

And he loves me & I love him

How can you be angry with him for long?

Exactly!

You just have to laugh really don't you

Not only did he jump out of his play pen last night, but he crashed out of the door gate too!

Last night he howled and howled, even though he was every so tired before we went to bed as we kept him playing for as long as we could.  At one point he was chasing me around and around the play pen, which he thought was great fun.

So with all the howling going on, we took the advice of a friend and took the puppy cage up to our bedroom, kitted it all out with a bed and water bowl and switched the light off.

He howled very loudly, so we took him back downstairs.

I put the fleece that I was wearing in his bed in the play pen and he was quiet for the rest of the night.

However, when I came downstairs this morning he was outside of the play pen, looking like butter wouldn't melt - I checked the room out - no damage can be seen (yet) and his lounge bed felt warm.

This is our friends Pointer - fully grown 

Will Scrumpy get this big??

Probably at the rate he's growing!

More later!

Afternoon Update

Well Scrumpy has been sleeping for most of the day - he's got up a few times to have a little wee / poo or play, but then he's gone back to his lounge bed and gone back to sleep.

He hasn't been trying to get up on the sofa!!

He now sits before he "goes" for his meal and he's eating his antibiotics out of my hand which is very helpful!!

Now to meet Scrumpy's Sister - the lovely DAISY

Isn't she just adorable?

They really are siblings and once all their jabs and kennel cough is well and truly over we are going to meet up for little puppy walks together!!

Evening Update

We went to the local pub for exactly 1 hour tonight to grab a quick bite to eat.

We put Scrumpy in the play pen with my fleece and a pigs ear before we left - about 15 minutes before - and he seemed content when we went.

When we came home he had escaped his play pen and we found him in  his lounge bed.

Fortunately there is no damage to anything in our room so we are very impressed with Houdini - sorry Scrumpy!

Puppy training starts today

Scrumpy let us have about 4 hours sleep last night!

So Puppy Training in all seriousness starts today & we both know it's going to be hard work

We are trying to get him used to going into his lounge bed instead of spending all the time on the sofa with us

You see, he associates the sofa with sleeping all the time in true "couch potato" style, so by trying to get him to go to his bed will be a good start.

If he can get used to associating his bed with a safe place and is able to sleep there will be a step in the right direction.

So, we have started to say "bed" and pointing to the bed - sometimes he jumps in there and sometimes he has to be put in there but he gets a small treat each time.

It's working 50-50 at the moment.

More success to report now - Scrumpy has fallen ASLEEP in his bed!

He has slept for 2 hours, has now woken up, had lots of love and cuddles and is now playing with his toys / a kitchen roll tube in

HIS BED!

Later tonight is going to be another story I think, but I have a plan.

I am wearing an old sweater that I am going to take off and put on his bed in the play pen tonight.

We have also taken up insurance with Animal Friends 

http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/

It's 8.05pm now and the magic is working. Scrumpy is going to his bed when he's feeling sleepy rather than our sofa and he's even staying quite quietly in his play pen for a while at a time!

He really is an intelligent dog.  He's been here a week so far and we are very impressed with his progress so far despite the sleepless nights to date. 

Now that his kennel cough is going, we are noticing that he's more "puppy" like, more playful and more full of beans than he was before, including grabbing my wool from my Crochet Basket

If I put Scrumpy down on the floor now after cuddles, he's going to his bed.

Scrumpy's Snotty

We were a little concerned about Scrumpy's cough this morning, so I phoned the vets at Natterjacks.

The Veterinary Nurse assured me that it will get better, now that he's on antibiotics and that he has to finish the course + we can go back to giving him a little cough mixture if we think that will help.

Basically - don't panic

It's like a human having a cold - a snotty cold that is as that's exactly what Scrumpy is today

SNOTTY

We can only hope that it's all coming out of his system now that he is snotty.

The Heartbeat Pillow arrived today and Scrumpy thought it was a new toy at first.

But he soon realised it had a mystery  component

And he fell promptly asleep on it

Here he is pulling his toy grouse apart

Poor Grouse has just lost a leg!

Claire, if you are reading this I would be very interested to know how Daisy is getting along.

Thanks 

A stormy night.....

...Scrumpy has been a top dog!

When we went to bed last night he did yelp for about 10 minutes, but then settled down and was quiet.

That was until about 2.30 am when the storm outside raged and he hollered some more.

I did go down to reassure him and he was pleased that I did.

It took another 10 minutes for him to settle again, but once he did we didn't hear a peep out of him until 7am!

Just in case, and I wish I had thought of it before now, I have ordered him his very own heartbeat pillow, as he's still so young and probably missing the comfort of not only his mum but his siblings to sleep with at night too.

If you want to buy one too, here's the link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370645353032?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_964wt_699

I will of course let you know how Scrumpy gets along with it as soon as it arrives!

His Puppy Pad training is going superbly well.  He now knows that he gets not only a little treat, but a massive amount of fuss when he gets it right, which is 100% so far today.

More later....

LOL 

That 100% has now been reduced to 80%

We had to go out for dinner tonight, due to having NO cooking facilities as our Aga was moved today and we don't have a cooker other than our Aga, so we were barely gone long & I am sure he howled the place down for a while but when we got home he was very quiet and there was a wee in the right place and he was rewarded for that!

However, once let out of his Play Pen he did a wee on the floor!!

I went to put my handbag away and did a Houdini style escape over the baby gate across the door, went behind my back, through what will be our new kitchen and into the sun lounge.

Once there he did a huge poo!

Thankfully it's now of the solid variety so it was very easy to clean up, but he looked pleased with his escapology, the little devil.

He's still coughing but the vet assured us it would clear up now as he's been "injected" and is still taking his new tablets.

And they call it Puppy Love

Just a few photos from this morning to start off your viewing pleasure. 

More later

I got home from work, changed out of my uniform and got a load of laundry into the basket

& 

Here is Scrumpy who enjoyed a ride down the stairs in the wash basket, 

which he promptly fell asleep in!

And here is his new food - Purina Puppy Sensitive which he didn't like so much this morning, but I mixed it with a little Chappie, that we are trying to wean him off, and it worked as you can see....

His new fleece arrived today, so I wrapped him in it as he snoozed on the sofa

You see we have to leave a door to outside open today as we have some work being done indoors (kitchen floor tiles are being sealed) so we didn't want him to catch a chill

And here is his very smart dog tag that arrived from EbaY today 

It's in a matching purple to his collar and lead so he looks VERY smart!

He is making us chuckle as he keeps on trying to bite it when it jingles around his neck when he walks about!!

The Evening Edition

I am pleased to report that the antibiotics that Scrumpy is wolfing down from my hand or the floor (amazing) are taking effect.  He was a little docile before but now he's full of puppiness, jumping around, playing with a soft football, going for little tester walks in the garden on his lead, nicking cushions from the sofa and slobbering all over them.....

....the list goes on!

We had to put him in his play pen earlier for about 15 minutes, whilst we dealt with some builders issues.  He did yelp a bit at first but soon settled down.

Puppy Pad training is going VERY well too.  Not only is he making the pad 90% of the time, but we are now getting more solid "smelly presents" from him.  It must be the added Purina that we are mixing with the Chappie.

Slowly, the Chappie will get less and less and the Purina will eventually totally take over.