Duke Tolhurst

SIX MONTHS UPDATE FROM MUM, WENDY (20 January 2020)

Duke is getting on really well now.  We are off to his first training class tonight. 

I was worried about his weight initially and, looking back, I think I was right to be concerned from the way he looks now and the way he has bonded with Bono which shows how subdued he was in the early days.  Once we got to mid December, I could see he was gaining weight and seemed so much less lethargic. 

It was around mid December that he and Bono really bonded too.  They got on from Day 1 and there was never a problem between them. In fact, I think Bono was slightly nervous around him because he was so small and didn’t do a great deal, but he was very accepting of Duke.  One day in mid December, I was still in bed and Duke and Bono were lying with me.  Duke suddenly got up, gave a couple of barks at Bono and grabbed his ear. 

Since then they have not looked back. They love to play with one another, although Duke is crafty – if he yaps or makes any sound that could mean he is hurt, Bono immediately stops what he is doing – that usually just gives Duke the opportunity to grab the toy he wants!  They love playing tug together and it will often end up with Bono holding a toy in his mouth, dragging Duke along the floor. 

Jessica bought Duke a lovely red tartan bed before we got him – he was tiny in it to start with and now completely fills it – but he often opts for Bono’s bed so Bono gets the tartan bed, even though he is still considerably larger than Duke.  I definitely think Duke will be top dog as he grows.  We do have a new bed now – a couple of the photos show Duke spread between two beds! Unfortunately, I often miss getting good photos of the boys together as by the time I get the phone/camera out, they have moved!

At the moment, Duke isn’t too keen on puddles and water but I imagine that may well change as he gets older.

EIGHT MONTHS UPDATE FROM WENDY (March 2020)

Duke is doing fine – all our earlier worries about him being underweight and small are now irrelevant and he continues to bring so much joy to us all.  You can see in the photo of him and Bono sitting, how much Duke has grown.

He was 8 months on 3rd March.  There is going to be a bit of a get-together in Norfolk the first weekend of July, where several of the litter will be getting together to celebrate.  There is also another pup that Yvette Jones adopted a couple of months ago and his birthday is less than a week after that of the pups, so they will be there too.  I think there will be at least 5 of the pups there, so we are looking forward to that.

We started training with Duke but, unfortunately, after 3 out of 6 sessions, the leader had a problem.  It meant she had to cancel the rest and then she has restarted this week, offering us another 6 weeks without any further payment.  Unfortunately, we didn’t make this week, but there will be five sessions left. 

It is a very small group of three dogs – a Bernese Mountain dog, Marbel, who is a month younger than Duke and then a Lurcher/Cross dog, Sauly,  that is 18months and has come over from Romania. Duke enjoys playing with Mabel and we are looking forward to the better weather when we can move outside for the training. 

Poor Duke is so food orientated it is quite difficult to get him to ignore treats etc.  We are working on it and I can now hold a handful of treats in one hand and he will not touch them. Given the chance, he would be a real counter surfer, but again, that is something we are working on. 

His recall is fairly good – both Duke and Bono love going up through local fields to the orchards and having a run and sniff around.  If Jess takes just Duke, she tends to take a ball for Duke to play with.