Hello!

I’m very excited this month as dad has started to prep me for my pre-course training, which is great as it means I’m starting to learn all the things I’ll need for being a police dog, but one down side of it means I can’t give hugs to everyone anymore! No one except mum and dad are allowed to hug me now, this is because I need to learn to protect and learn that unfortunately unlike you guys, not everybody is going to love me.

So for my unofficial training at this stage, I’m just doing simple things like basic tracking through long grass. This is where dad will leave me in the car while he walks a route through some long grass and leaves a ball at the end of the track he has walked. I’ll then get out the car and have to follow his route by smelling the ground where he has walked and eventually reach the ball at the end.

I’ve also been introduced to the ‘sleeve’ whilst playing which is a really thick piece of material that the other trained dogs use during their refresher training. Their handler will put it on their arm and pretend to be a baddy, then run away shouting so that their dog runs after them and stops them by pulling them to the ground by biting the sleeve on their arm. This is the safest way for a dog to take someone to the ground that is refusing to stop. At this stage dad and me are just playing with it so I get used to biting it and so I know this is where I need to bite.

I’ve also been practising building searches which involves someone with a ball hiding in an empty building and I then have to go and find them and bark at them when I find them. Dad says it’s really funny because I haven’t learnt to properly bark at them yet so I just make a whining noise when I find them. I’ll learn soon though!

With all the hot weather we’ve been having recently I experienced my first thunderstorm at home. Dad thought I would be scared but I showed him what a brave dog I am and didn't even notice the storm! I’ve also been swimming with my brothers Yeoman and George, when it was really hot we were going up to three times a day.

You’ll be pleased to hear my ears are now upright nearly all the time but dad says when I get wet they flop down again.

I have been a bit mischievous this month too… Mum is always saying how Dad needs to do more DIY around the place, so I’ve helped Mum out by taking all the wooden panels off the side of my bed box which means that Dad has to keep fixing it. I’m really nibbly at the moment too, so when I’m in the police dog van and the leads are hung down in front of the door I like to chew them. Dad says so far I’ve chewed through two tracking harnesses and a tracking lead in one week alone… Whoopsie!

My friend Michelle also came to visit me again up at the unit to check how I was getting on and to take some more photos, she’s leaving this month and I’m going to miss her very much! When dad wasn’t looking we had a quick goodbye hug.

The rest of the dog unit is gearing up for the world cup and they’re going to be very busy with that over the next couple of months. I’ll tell you more about how they’ve been getting on next month.

Goodbye for now and I’ll see you next month,

Puppy hugs (not for much longer, I’m getting big!) xx

p.s Thanks to Maxwell and Jeanette for your emails!