We have now owned Buddy, the Labrador, for three months and he has become quite a dog.

If a puppy could talk I am sure Buddy would run around announcing, with tremendous pride: “I’m a big boy now!” He is now five months and one week old and has mastered all sorts of puppy skills. He can sit on command, and does so immediately (you should see how proud he is when he does that!). He is totally housetrained and does not make any mistakes in the house at all. This was achieved without a cross word, no spanks, and God forbid no ‘rubbing his nose in it” (a disgusting, and unnecessary habit of some humans). Buddy has also become a pro going up and down the stairs. Remember how in the last article he had just started to learn how to cope with the stairs in the house and was terrorized to go down them alone. Well that has all changed now. He pounces up and down the stairs rather like a tiger climbing a tree in Sumatra! That’s our Buddy!

He is now totally integrated with the big dogs. He is grown-up enough to understand the body language of the older ones. This does not mean that at times they don’t get really rather cross with him and I will hear Spats (recently turned 12) barking at him for being a nuisance and causing Spats “stress”, remember, he is just a little kid! Sometimes Abba gives him a good telling off, too. He is often afraid to pass by too close to them if they are sleeping in the doorway, for fear of getting into trouble, so he will stand in the corridor and bark (a very demanding kind of yap) until one of us (humans) come and walk past with him. I can now put them all in the garden together and the only concern is that they will teach him the fine art of digging up all the plants in the flower bed.

One thing with Buddy is that he has not yet learnt about barking in the garden or at people. His present bark is still a puppy yap. I am sure that the big boy woof will kick in soon. His puppy teeth are almost all gone now. The “tooth fairy” has been by lots with chew sticks under the dog bed!

Buddy’s love affair with the water has flourished and he now takes a flying jump into the swimming pool, even in the deep end and will literally “swim laps”, he knows exactly where the steps are, it took a few days to teach him that. At the beginning of his jumping in stage he would panic after a few minutes in the pool because he couldn’t remember how to get out. I never let him go to the pool area alone until he had learnt how to get out. I would let him jump in and swim a bit, when I saw that he was looking for the steps I would leave him for a few moments, then, I would stand by the steps and calmly call him over. It only took a few days for him to catch on! I still find him a pest at the beach as he is far too inquisitive. When he has fully learnt the command to come and is totally reliable, then, he will be more fun to take to the beach.

Buddy has put on a lot of weight but still has not become as tall as we would have expected, I guess Labradors can come in all sizes. His parents looked big. It would be kind of fun if he stayed smallish, that would make him a bit more portable than all the others.

We are starting to teach Buddy to fetch. He is terrific chasing down the toy / ball / stick, but not very good at bringing it back yet. The fun is all in the chase; he then picks it up and wanders off a few paces, drops the toy and runs back to me wagging. Definitely more work needed in that direction!

We take him on frequent car rides, and he is learning to sit quietly. Fortunately, he is not like Chief and does not get car sick. Every now and then the pure joy of being a puppy overcomes him and he tries to sit on my knee whilst I am driving. I have to pull over and gently but firmly make him return to his spot in the car and then carry on.

He is rather like Star in respect to the car, he loves to sit in the passenger seat, besides the driver, though this is very cute it is probably not a good idea, because, if there is an accident, all be it a  small one, what would happen to an unprotected dog if the airbags deploy? I have not seen a study in this regard, but I would guess that the result could be devastating. The dog could suffer severe injuries due to the force with which the air bag deploys and also burns from the bag. I do intend to research this and will share the results with my readers, soon, I hope.

Buddy still has lots of growing up to do. He continues to prefer my shoes and the Persian carpets over his own toys. A good chew on my desk is far more fun than a dreary old chew stick.   He is very quick to pick up on any of the other dogs bad habits, rather like a child who remembers only one word out of the entire sentence, the bad word, the one that you did not mean to have slip out!

Basic table manners have improved. He no longer digs in his water bowl, which is a blessing, because my kitchen looked like a tsunami had been through at least four times a day at the beginning. He is still a “sloppy” drinker; you can follow his trail after a drink of water by the water droplets! Cooking for Buddy is very gratifying indeed. He is a very avid and enthusiastic eater; three meals a day are scoffed down with veracious pleasure. Three scoops, three times a day! And he is not an ounce fat, between the growing and the running around the garden, plus playing non stop with Chief he burns up every calorie that he consumes.

When we go out we still have to leave him somewhere safe. I still cannot let him have the run of the house unguarded, there wouldn’t be much of a house left.

Whilst writing this, Buddy has been sitting in my Study with an angelic look on his perfect little face. At times he has got up and come over to me to say:   “Hello, I love you!!! Or, so I thought, silly me, he was actually coming over to check in to make perfectly sure that I would NOT get up from my desk and check on him! When I did finally get up, I saw what my little darling was hiding, he had got an entire roll of toilet paper and chewed it up and strewn it ALL over the study (the bits of the room  I couldn’t see)  

“BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…But that’s another story!

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About the author: Kim Aranha grew up in the Berry Islands with her first dog, a beloved potcake named “Friendly” (who was anything but!).  First educated at home, and then in boarding school in Switzerland, Kim moved to Rome, Italy in 1974 to pursue a career in the dramatic arts and ended up working as an interpreter.  She moved back to The Bahamas in 1980, and now lives in Nassau with her husband Paul, and their two teenaged sons.  Kim has 3 dogs (soon to be 4), 5 fish (1 Beta, 4 Goldfish), 10 turtles (6 babies, 4 adolescents), 1 Asian box turtle and 4 Budgerigars. Her idea of relaxing is being home to take care of all her pets. Kim is a member of the board of the Bahamas Humane Society. Kim can be contacted at kimbva@coralwave.com