It’s the weekend, so time for my morning walk at High Elms. Dennis was keen to go until I stopped by the car. He wouldn’t jump up into the boot, and jumped down again after I lifted him in…

Time to get the dog harness. I managed to attach him to one of the seat belts, and eventually managed to get the door shut without him escaping. All the way there, he was barking and trying (unsuccessfully) to jump over the seats and sit on me. Thankfully it was only a short journey!

Once at High Elms, he was fine off the lead.

He did wander off in the wrong direction a couple of times, but being so white, is easy to spot through the trees. And he did come back when called…

He was much better behaved than a lot of the other dogs there – he even got mildly attacked by a small dog and just stood there puzzled!

For the journey back in the car, I attached the harness to one seat belt fixing, and his lead to another, so he was effectively restrained within the boot area. Still lots of barking and attempts at jumping around though.

We’ve been experimenting with different foods, and discovered he’ll only happily eat dried dog food if it’s mixed with tinned dog food. Messy and smelly, but he really does need to put on weight (not often you say that about a Labrador!), especially with the amount of exercise he is currently getting.

A few days later, Dennis is finally starting to settle down with us. He is now microchipped, so I won’t potentially get a £500 fine any more. Not that I’ve seen many policemen wandering around with scanners actually checking dogs…

He is a very friendly dog, good with both people and other dogs. He seems fine with our cat even if the reverse isn’t true.

He shows no interest in dog toys, balls or sticks.

A very similar photo to the last one – this really was taken a few days later!

Probably due to his unsettled past life (and his time in kennels), he gets very worried whenever he can’t be next to the current “person of choice”, which is normally me. Even leaving him while going to the loo can trigger a round of barking.

He has now been to the pub, and did really well until he found a hole in the fence and decided to explore Orpington instead. Luckily, he didn’t go far, and came back OK. He shows no interest in crisps, so I’m starting to wonder if he is a real Labrador after all!

We now let him off the lead in parks and woods, and he’s fine. No road sense though, so pavement walking will continue to be on the lead.