The puppies final week with me

Its Wednesday 17th July the pups are 6 weeks and 3 days and are off to the dog training school to meet everyone on their first trip out

They travelled well and after meeting everyone it was back home for an orderly lunch in the kitchen.

The weekend was spent going through 160,000 suggestions for the puppy naming competition and I finally came up with Annie, Ava, Anya, Ash, for the girls and Arry (named after my first Police dog) Axel and Argo.

Monday 22nd July was about getting the pups ready for their puppy assessments in the evening. We had a scare during the day when checking on the numbers on looking into their den only 6 were in there.

A frantic search and if you look carefully you can just see whitefoot now Anya little head sticking out of the new den she found over by the summerhouse.

During the day I prepared the assessment sheets for our assessor Graham Mabbutt at my computer and Ruby decided I had been at it long enough so came in and presented me with her ball for me to throw.

Note what a picture of health she looks

Finally when the weather cooled down our Assessor Graham Mabbutt arrived to assess our pups for potential traits such as confidence, play drive, determination and general work potential. This is carried out when the pups are 49 days old because the scientists tell us their brains are fully formed at this age.

Graham has been assessing character in puppies and adults for over 50 years and was the Devon and Cornwall Police dog trainer many years ago. The assessment has to take place in a room where the puppies have never been before and they are assessed individually by someone who is unknown to them. Normally I assess all of our pups but couldn’t do so on this occasion as the pups obviously know me. We used our lounge where they had never been before.

Graham was very complimentary about the litter and concluded that all of the pups had the potential to become future Police dogs and that the litter was the most impressive he had ever seen for work potential.

Police puppy Ava tugging in a very determined manner on a piece of rolled up carpet on a rope. Note the tight rope and the way she is dropping her weight to win the tugging contest. This demonstrates that Ava will enjoy criminal work on a sleeve when she is older. 

Police puppy Arry proudly carrying a plastic ball he has just chased after it was thrown by the assessor. This shows that Arry has a strong hunting drive as did all of the pups. 

Police puppy Axel confidently approaching an umbrella which had just been opened in front of him and placed on the floor. Note the high tail carriage denoting confidence. This demonstrates an ability to deal confidently with strange or unusual objects or incidents.

Police puppy Anya showing total confidence walking along a shiny plastic window ledge showing she is not height sensitive. The whole assessment was filmed by a Spotlight TV reporter with numerous other onlookers.

The pups were not fazed by being on their own for the first time and having a tall TV camera overlooking them. This again demonstrated what strong characters they have. I was extremely proud of them all but I was not looking forward to seeing them go in 3 days time to their puppy walkers.