Boy am I a sucker for punishment.

My brother asked if I’d like to look after his dogs while they are away over the holiday season.  Their newest addition is a Labrador puppy – and he is sooooooo cute.  There is nothing cuter than seeing a little puppy romping around.  Biting your ankles.  Rolling head over heals every time he stumbles over his own feet.  So I said yes, I’d love to.  I have been wanting a puppy for ages so I felt so excited about have a puppy to play with.

So the big day arrived on Friday when my brother brought his dogs over – a Beagle called Stitch, a little on the heavy side but she has a great temperament, and the puppy who is called Milo.  Of course the puppy is now about 5 months old and stands almost 2 feet high.

So much for having a nice relaxing holiday on the couch – I have been kept on my feet all day by these two.  I am used to my own Cocker Spaniel who doesn’t do much – he just lies there – occasionally gets up to eat or move positions. I also only feed him once a day.

Guest doggies are fed more than once a day – different foods for different dogs.  The puppies food doesn’t touch sides – in fact he devours his food just by looking at it.  I can get him to sit when I hold the bowl but I cant get the bowl anywhere near the ground without him knocking the bowl or me flying!  And before the bowl reaches the ground, his food is finished.  I have tried various techniques to get him to sit and stay but nothing seems to help – even watched a few episodes of The Dog Whisperer.  But puppy still manages to get the better of me at feeding times.  I have given up now – I throw and run!

I have a patio which is kept open for my own dog – he is not fond of the rain and especially thunderstorms – which we get a lot of here.  So the patio supplies a little refuge for him.  He has his own basket and uses it faithfully.  My patio has a lounge suite and a dining room suite on it – nicely decorated with plants and rugs etc.

Knowing we had guest doggies – I have had to obliterate my patio.  I have had to pile all the cushions from my chairs up and anchor them down with  heavy objects.  I have moved pot plants and anything else which weights less than 50kg’s.

But the puppy still manages to get to things.  The first morning I got up to find one of my cushions on the grass outside – lucky still in one piece.  So I anchored them down a bit more.  Puppy had also found a plastic plant pot outside somewhere and was dragging this around – cant cause too much damage with this so I let him have it.

Second morning I found our braai brush (Long handled brush with metal and steel bristles used to clean the braai) in the puppies basket.  The cushion from our outside reclining lounger was in pieces – it had seen better days so no loss here either.  I hadn’t brought it in as it was on its last legs anyway – so puppy getting hold of it was a good excuse to finally throw it away.

Went out this morning – puppy has started to shred his own pillow in his basket so there was fluff everywhere.

I have a metal and glass coffee table outside – this has become their new resting place during the day.  If I look outside I can see the 2 of them sprawled on the table. They look so cute! (little shits!)

Been to buy some chew toys and bones and handed one to each of them yesterday. Stitch managed to second them all within 5 minutes.  Later in the day, my little Cocker Spaniel managed to get one back.  I don’t usually buy them for him as he just buries everything.  He wandered around the flower beds for about 20 minutes looking at various burial plots and then finally decided to bring it back to his basket.  The puppy was not happy with this and stood over him and yelped – and yelped and yelped and yelped.  Eventually I had to separate them – there was no fighting or snarling – just the puppy yelping at my little old dog.

I have about 6 holes which Stitch has dug in my lawn.  The gardener is on leave so the garden looks like a jungle.

It is not like they are bored – we go out an play a few times day and we have been having loads of time in the pool and throwing balls for the dogs.  Yet nothing seems to tire them out!