Our D litter enjoy their first ever training day and a pat on the back to our puppy walker Jill and Ronny

Now that the D litter have had all of their injections we all met up at HQ Middlemoor for our first training session on a very hot sunny day.

There were 9 pups in the litter and as we only needed 6 for our program we sold 3 pups. The 3 pups  were sold to pet homes. Dot ( Now Zena ) Darcy and Dora ( Now Pepper ) have all settled into their new homes and they are having a great time. I follow Darcy and Pepper on twitter.

We started at the dog training school to see how the pups got on going up and down the steep metal lined stairs which is always a good indicator of their level of adventure and confidence. Here is Devon making it all look very easy indeed.

I have informed the 3 owners of Zena, Darcy & Pepper that although I cannot train their pups they are always welcome to meet up with their littermates for socialisation which will be good for them and I am always available to all of them for any advice.

All of the pups went up and down the stairs very easily and with confidence without coaxing which is the first time I have known that to happen. Here is Danno finding it all very easy. Obviously it is not a good idea to allow the pups to be running continually up and down stairs at home as it is not good for hips or elbows.



Then it was off to the agility area to introduce the pups to the ramps and the tunnel.



Obviously agility involving jumping is not carried out at this age but negotiating obstacles and different tunnels is good for confidence building.

We had 3 ramps of varying difficulty and a short tunnel and again they all completed every obstacle in the session. Here is Donna tackling Obstacle 1

Here is Daisy showing intense concentration on Obstacle 2.

Here is plucky Dizzy steaming up the very steep obstacle 3,

All the pups loved the tunnel and some of them like Devon wouldn’t come out because it was cooler inside than outside.

But we eventually got him out.

By now some of the pups were starting to wilt in the warm conditions.

So it was time to make our way up to the paddling pool. Show Pic’s

We then went to a nice shady area to introduce some basic obedience exercises for the walkers to practise with their pups over the weeks ahead. Using my favourite liver and garlic titbits I introduced the sit, the down, the recall, and heelwork.

We had a discussion about socialisation, meeting other dogs, the value of grooming and any general questions the walkers had.

We all then went into the pavilion for refreshments. I had planned on giving an input on how to groom their pups but the pups gave me some subtle clues that it was time for everyone to go home.

When we next meet in 2 weeks time we will introduce tracking and article searching.

A pat on the back to our puppy walker Jill and Ronny

Our puppy walkers are the glue that holds the puppy scheme together and without them the handlers would not get the quality dogs that they do.

Jill and husband Terry have puppy walked numerous dogs for us and I regularly bump into Jill in Exeter on a Saturday morning taking Ronny on her bank run which for her is easily a mile round trip from home.

Ronny is a big powerful 12 month old dog and last Saturday I saw her walking him calmly past 2 very aggressive dogs in the high street without any difficulty whatsoever. I was very proud to watch them both.

Jill maybe small and now 70 but she would put some of our handlers to shame. Well done Jill.


Next week I will update you on how all of our other pups and dogs are doing as we approach the September Initial Police dog course.

Bye for now from Lenny, Sasha and me.

The D litter have finally flown the nest on the next stage of their journey

It has been a very busy 2 weeks culminating with the pups leaving on Tuesday 19th July to go to their new puppy walking families and new homes.

They were 8 weeks old and needed to be parted as the play fights were getting much too rough. I had been taking them out on visits to keep them occupied. They are pictured here visiting the dog school roughing up the staff.

Lenny and Sasha have been brilliant from start to finish watching over them and keeping order.

Lenny has been particularly gentle always watching where he steps and not being too rough on tug games.

Watching how gentle and tolerant he is of the pups you could be forgiven for thinking he is too soft for a Potential Police dog. But you would be wrong it is called good character which he has in abundance.



My favourite video is him stealing a sock from one of the pups and allowing the persistent pup to steal it back.


Last week the winners of our name the pups competition all came around to our house to name and meet the pups.

Everyone had a great time and tired the pups out which takes some doing.
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Here they all are with their new names.

Hi I'm Daisy

Hi I'm Danno

Hi I'm Darcy

Hi I,m Devon

Hi I'm Dizzy

Hi I'm Donna

Hi I'm Dora

Hi I'm Dot

Hi I'm Duke

Two of the pups were already named. One of the pups we named was Donna who we have named in memory of our lovely puppy walker Donna Highton who sadly passed away this year. We all miss her and we did a special tribute to her in Blog 6 this year. Here is pup Donna with mum Sasha.

Pup Donna is without doubt the most disruptive and troublesome one in the group and I have no doubt that If Donna is looking down she will be enjoying watching her antics.

Pup Donna is always in the thick of the action.

You probably remember Donna was the pup who mum disciplined early on for answering her back.

The other pup we had already named was Dot. We named her because she wasn’t putting on weight in the first 2 weeks and needed special one on one feeding sessions with mum. She has made up for it since and regularly wins the tug battles with her littermates.

Last week I carried out assessments to identify the pups with the attributes we are looking for in future Police dogs.  Dizzy is pictured here already showing a very confident attitude in a wobbly wheelbarrow.

When we are assessing pups we look for the most playful, determined, and confident characters. Duke is showing a very determined attitude here holding on to a toy tug so hard I can lift him off the ground..

I had a very good idea from observing the pups over the last 2 weeks who the stand out pups were and the assessments pretty much mirrored what I had already decided.

We also look for the pups who can cope with stress. This is assessed by looking at the pups reaction to being placed on his/her own in a place they have never been before. Donna is pictured here looking like she owns the place.

Because most of our training is reward and play based we look for very dogs with a very strong play drive. Darcy is showing here she doesn’t need a toy the assessors shoe lace will do.

All of the pups did really well but because we only have a certain number of handlers needing new dogs we can only take 6 out of the 9 pups. After 2 assessment sessions I selected Devon, Danno, Duke, Donna, Dizzy and Daisy.  Dora, Darcy & Dot have gone to pet homes.

This was hard for me because Devon, Donna, Dizzy were obvious to anyone watching them but I literally could have selected any 3 from the remaining 6 pups.

The pups are all very alert and inquisitive reacting here to a noise in the garden.

During the week all the pups underwent a veterinary check up, 1st inoculation, microchip and worming. They were all very relaxed and confident.,

The week was extremely hot during the day and the pups spent a lot of time relaxing and seeking shade in the garden to stay cool.

During the weekend I got the paddling pool out to help keep them cool.

The pups tended to come alive in the early morning and late evening when it was cool.


Here are 6 pups patiently waiting for lunch to arrive.

and 3 others not so patient trying to get inside via a side door.

Here are the gang patiently waiting for me to clean out their exercise run in the morning before breakfast

So before we knew it the final day had arrived when all of our puppy walkers and new owners came to the house to collect their pups. We had TV crews and media and a huge crowd of people.

I had to open up an area which was new to the pups but the way they coped with this and the huge scrum was amazing. Sasha and Lenny were a little stressed to start with because the pups were running all over the place.

So that was it we had one final group photo of everyone before they all left to go to their new homes.

I put Sasha and Lenny away while everyone had one last play with the pups before their journey home.

I then cleaned out the conservatory to get back to normality. Sasha and Lenny are pictured here wondering where everyone has gone.

The next day I took Lenny and Sasha out for their first long walk for several weeks which they loved

I have contacted all the puppy walkers to see how their first night went. All did very well sleeping through most of the night. Over the next week I will visit them all and we will feature their development every 2 weeks.

Finally I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments and support but most of all thanks to my wife Diane for putting up with all the upheaval and her hard work.

From Lenny Sasha and me see you next time.