Day 21

Today was a very, very special day for Bran.

Firstly, his very special Auntie Loobie (who brought him to us nearly 3 weeks ago) came to spend the day with him again for the first time since bringing him over, together with her son Liam.

Secondly, he got to go out on his first ever real and proper walk. He took it all completely in his stride (excuse the pun!) and wasn't phased by the people or dogs he met. He strutted around the park as if it was nothing special at all.

Ok. So it was a walk in the park. So I'll leave you with lots of photos instead of babbling on....

Day 16

For the third morning out of 4, I woke up at 7 and before Bran. Woohoo!! We're getting into a lovely routine of waking up, playing in the garden, playing in the house, watching a few episodes of Animal Cops whilst having our breakfasts and then having a little nap ;o) And all before the children wake up!

I just thought I'd do a quick summary of what training commands Bran has learnt in his first 2 weeks with us because I'm quite pleased with him (in case you hadn't guessed that much already!). He knows Sit, Paw, Down, No, Wait and Go On Then (the command that the dogs have to take their food after Sitting and Waiting for it). He also uses his name at the moment as the command to Come which needs to be worked on, but boy does he run fast when he's called! He's also nearly there with Move (the most useful command that I've ever taught my dogs just to get them to move out of the way of whatever) and Fetch. I think that's quite impressive for a little boy of 16 weeks who has only been learning this stuff for 2 weeks.

Much excitement for me today too. I found my first puppy keepsake - a tooth!! Lots of people had told me to look out for them and to keep them if I could but I think he's probably swallowed most of the ones that he's lost so far, so I was really pleased to find one this afternoon. I can't get over how tiny it is though!

Day 15

2 weeks! He's only been here for 2 weeks. It feels as if I've know this (not so) little brown scrap forever.


Again, I woke at 7 to find that Bran was still fast asleep so I made a huge fuss of him for having slept right through again.


He had to go to the vets this morning for a follow up check on his kennel cough and to hopefully get his second vaccination done. Apparently, the decision to vaccinate whilst a dog is poorly is individual to the vet so I was very much hoping that they'd see how much Bran had improved and let him have the vaccination as he is missing out on so much socialisation.


Getting him there was fun to even start with! Because he's not had his second vax, he couldn't walk and he's far too heavy now to carry and my car is still broken. We decided to strap him into Sophie's buggy....



He wasn't very impressed! But he at least kept still whilst we were moving. He got lots of attention from dog owners in the park as we walked through and he got to see lots of different things on our journey.

He was an angel in the vets again and sat quietly on my lap to wait for his turn. The vet was sufficiently satisfied that his cough had improved enough for him to have the vaccination as he also said that at this point he was more bothered about the lack of socialisation than the cough! What a smart vet ;o) I asked him to make a rough assessment of Bran's age as his growth and development has been so rapid that I've been worrying a little that maybe the age we'd been given initially may have been off, but he concluded that yes, Bran is just about right for a 16 week old pup.


Bran was *very* happy to get home and to be able to run around the garden and Flora was thrilled to see him back. I can only assume that she thought we'd run away with him!

We went to visit my parents and my visiting niece this afternoon. My niece hadn't met Bran before so was pleased to meet him. Bran was far too busy investigating the "new" house and gardens to pay much attention to people. He was very well behaved and didn't even wee on Nanny's carpet! Neither did he try to go upstairs which was very impressive because we have a stairgate at home to stop him from going up, but obviously my mum doesn't. At home when we eat, Bran goes in his crate but whilst we were eating at Mum's I put him on his lead and secured it under my chair leg and gave him a rawhide chew. Some lab he is! He didn't even glance up to the table where all the food was :o)

By bedtime last night, I realised that there'd only been 1 small indoor puddle through the whole of today! More progress from my little boy xx

Day 14 - Friday 22nd August

Bit of a boring old day today.

My day started at 5.30 (the first time) so back to normal, but Bran went straight back in his crate and slept until 8.30. I was still on the sofa but I definitely feel as if we're making some progress as he is much happier to go back into his crate.

This afternoon I needed to go to Pets At Home to pick up some more puppy food and ended up leaving with 2 sacks of puppy food, a Rogz lead for Flora (to match her collar dontchaknow!), a puppy sized Air Kong hoop and five - yes five - packets of treats!

I also needed to get some shopping at Tesco and so by the time I got home, the dogs had been left for about an hour and a half. I was absolutely thrilled to find them both calm, but happy to see us, and both with empty Kongs and well chewed rawhide sticks :o) I am just so proud of them both but my little boy seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds xx

Day 13

Wow! Well yesterday morning I was woken at 6.30 by a puppy needing a wee who then very wonderfully went back in his crate, whilst I went back to sleep on the sofa, and he didn't wake up again until 9.30!! This morning, I woke up at 7 and realised that I hadn't been shouted at so hurriedly got up so that I could go and make a huge fuss of him for having slept through with no noise and no wees :oD

My collar dilemma has been solved for the time being!!


I've been trying my hardest to get hold of a matching collar/harness/lead set for Bran, but his neck currently measures 12" so is only 1" off of being too big for most manufacturers' Small size and going into the Medium. If I buy a Small set then he will be out of it within 5 minutes so I'm going to wait until he's grown that extra inch.


Luckily, The Refuge (dog rescue forum which I frequent on a regular basis!) houses a collar maker extraordinaire in the form of Laura elricc. She spends an awful lot of her time and money making collars to sell and the profits go to various dog rescues. She also makes collars and lead sets to donate to raise funds for the rescues. Laura very kindly offered to make a collar and lead set for Bran and I got to choose from masses and masses of materials!


This morning, the postman arrived with a parcel containing the collar and lead set that I'd requested, plus a collar in the same material but larger for Bran to grow into and a collar and lead set for Flora! How lovely is that?!?


Anyway, you probably want to see photos of my babies in their new get-ups ;o)

Don't they look fantastic???

I just need to sort some tags out for Bran now....

Day 12 - Wednesday 20th August

Today's dilemma is a rather embarrassing one for poor Bran.

At his vet visit on Monday, the vet noted that both of Bran's testicles were present and fully descended. Also on Monday, Bran started attempting to hump Flora. Flora is not best pleased at this form of attention. She's not told him off for it yet, but looks very uncomfortable when he does.

In an attempt to head off any problems, I decided to make initial enquiries about having Bran neutered. As all of my previous dogs have been older rescue dogs, they had all already been done before coming to me so this isn't a decision that I've ever had to make before!

I spoke to the RSPCA clinic (which is attached to the Bristol Cats and Dogs Home) and they advised me that they are happy to castrate male puppies who have testicles present from 4 months and that the operation can be carried out with just a week's notice. They also advised that Bran could be microchipped whilst he was being castrated.

I'm happy to know that they are confident in this approach but really don't know whether I want to go ahead with it just yet as he is still very much my little baby boy. Although, he is quite mature in his attitude and personality.

I know that the subject of "early neutering" is a much debated one that tends to force strong opinions from people and there is much evidence to both support and condone it, but I don't really have a strong opinion for or against it. My strong opinion stands as per every other aspect of caring for a puppy/dog in that whatever decision is made it has to be the best thing AT THAT TIME for said puppy/dog.

I think that my decision for now will be to leave it and see how we go. What I really don't want is for Bran and Flora's relationship to be damaged because she is getting annoyed with his new form of attention, so if we reach a point where I feel that that has become a real risk then I will be making the appointment.

I'm going to start keeping a record of Bran's measurements on a Wednesday to watch how fast he grows. I already know he's grown lots since he's been here but we'll see what happens from here on in.

Today's measurements (16 weeks):

Neck: 12"
Back: 18"
Shoulder: 11"
Weight: 9.5kgs (using Monday's weigh-in for now)

Day 11 - Tuesday 19th August

I tackled the waking up early thing a bit differently today. When Bran woke me at 5.30 (after having slept right through the night and not weeing in his crate), I took him out to the garden for a wee and then put him back into the crate. I then settled onto the sofa for some more sleep. Not a sound out of him! He slept on for another 3 hours!! I'm hoping that this way he'll get used to going back to sleep in his crate after his early morning wee and I'll eventually be able to go back to bed.

Today we had a visit from my best friend, Sarah, and her 3 year old, Zack, again.

Zack again came into the house scared of Bran but quickly settled and Bran was soooooooooo good that I didn't bother to put him in his crate for the duration of this visit - only when we were eating.

He was left for about half an hour at one point, whilst we walked to the chip shop, and appeared to be absolutely fine. There was no barking this time when we got home and his Kong was well on the way to being emptied. Clever boy.

He was then left for another half an hour or so when I took the children to visit my grandparents in the early evening. Again, we arrived home to a quiet, calm puppy and an empty Kong.

I really do still have to pinch myself to convince myself that he is actually here and is such a good boy.

I texted Fi to let her know how Bran had got on at the vets yesterday and she told me that he'd been previously weighed at his vet visit the day before he came to me. At that point he'd weighed in at 6 kilos! He's put on 3.5 kilos in 10 days!! I think he's going to be a big boy indeed!!