The magic of human bed… Cooper can sleep in it for hours. There’s always a moment in every day when he asks me to take him to bed where he stretches alongside the pillows – tummy up, paws out – and naps and naps and naps. And so we stay together – me, working on my Mac in peace (and boy, when you have a pup every minute of it counts!) and Coop – sleeping beside me. It’s idyllic. It feels like a soft cloud of pure happiness.

Perhaps, when the boy is older and can jump up and down, he will find other spots to enjoy, including his own bed. Oscar certainly did. For now, he is a happy little boy and I am planning to keep it that way.

And as far as the whole “don’t let your dog sleep in your bed” thing… I don’t care. I love my dogs more. Besides, he often has more showers and blow-dries per day than any humans in our family, and I never actually let him under the duvet… or on my pillow. We have an agreement about that.

Oh, yes! This puppy is now 4 months old. He is almost 8kg, lost 4 teeth, leant a few tricks and has grown so much that the basket he arrived in is just about big enough for sitting up right.

People say that pups grow too fast, but frankly, I cannot wait for mine to get to 6 months, be stronger, braver and, lets not forget the important bit, sleep until 6 or even 7 in the morning.

I know we are moving in the right direction, though. For example, right now we just returned from a wonderful walk on a golf course where Cooper (and me, of course!) run wild until Cooper decided that he had enough and promptly walked back to the car (not sure how he remembered where it was or which one was his, but hey, he did walk back and he did pick the right vehicle!)

We drove home. He had a shower, blow dry, quick run to the garden and around the house, and is now napping next to me, so I can type this like the good old times when Oscar, who never left my side, shared our bed and my life of blogging.

Over the past two weeks we have been going on walks both in our neighbourhood, as well as parks, woods, golf course and quiet town streets, meeting people and dogs. Interestingly, unlike Oscar who loved dogs and women, Cooper was incredibly friendly with all people (he already met and was stroked by little kids, men, women and older folks), but a bit shy when it came to dogs. It took Coop a couple of days to start approaching the animals, but once he did, there was nothing stopping him.

He is also indifferent to cars, bicycles and runners now – again it took him a couple of walks and a few cuddles to understand that all those huge noisy things are alright and not worth his time.

And, of course, the toilet habits… He is finally doing it during his walks as well as in the garden. Once in a while we get a little accident at home, but no more than 3 a day, which is pretty much nothing.

The plans for this month…

… continue with training (He knows “sit”, “down”, “stay”, “come”, does it all wonderfully at home, so now needs to be able to focus when out and about. Since I am not a huge fan of training treats made of all kinds of “stuff” I have been using some of his daily food allowance or pieces of plain cooked chicken breast, and from now will also include Thrive chicken training treats for the sheer fact that it’s dried and can be stored and used for a while without the need to cook fresh every day, it’s plain chicken, low in fat (again, cockers are prone to weight gain and I don’t want to go down this road), free from anything remotely bad for my baby, plus gentle and suitable for pups.

… get him walk without the lead when we are in a countryside because, honestly, it feels so good to have a happy pup running free (we did it today – he had a lead attached to him, but I let it go and everything was fine, but I know it’s still early days and we need to practice more)

… introduce Cooper to passata, just 1tsp every other day, as it’s good for his teeth.

… continue with Royal Canin Junior, plus carrots, cress, beetroot, parsley, chicken and occasional eggs.

… take him to towns, so he is used to busy’ish streets and learns to walk on a lead calmly.

… take him to the seaside because it’s glorious, fun and he gets to experience all the new smells and textures.

… go for longer trips in a car (right now he is happy to travel for about 45 minutes without complaining (he just falls asleep) and we would like to see if he would be happy to travel for over an hour one way).

… try to convince him that staying in a room without mummy is ok (so far we both fail – he doesn’t like being alone and I hate leaving him even for a second)

… continue with cuddles and kisses because he is the best and sweetest little thing imaginable.

Despite my intentions of keeping a daily dairy of Coopers life, I failed. I had a feeling I would – and my brain and gut agreed. Sadly.

The time is flying by. One day Coop is a shy little pup scared to get out of his plastic bed – and before you know it, the boy is stomping up the stairs (yes, I know!), barking like a pro, running around parks and gardens and losing his teeth.

As of today, our routine is pretty straight forward. Get up at 5 for a toilet break, sleep until 6:00, then get out for a walk, come back for a shower and blow-dry, have breakfast followed by a quiet play time (doggies do need their 30-60 minutes of post meal calm as nature intended, after all), nap, play, lunch, play, nap, training, play, nap, dinner, walk and proper run, shower, little play and bed time.

I must admit, the walks are such a blessing. Cockers are naturally mad, sweetly mad, but mad… Multiply it by 100 and that’s a kind of energy bust a cocker pup is dealing with on a daily basis. Being house-bound meant a constant and intense search for ways to burn that energy up. It was exhausting… I didn’t think I’d last much longer. Luckily, the quarantine was over and we ventured out. For us it was a much-needed relief. For him, a happy way to tire himself out, release that energy and explore the world.

Coop adores being out very much (still doesn’t really do his business outside and waits to get back to the garden, but hey, he doesn’t do it much indoor either, brilliant pup!). He also loves his shower after each walk and is now happy to be blow-dried. The latter took me a few baby steps to make sure that he is happy and comfortable, but we got to the point where the boy finds it rather relaxing and almost falls asleep by the end of each “session”.

He also lost his first two teeth and is going through the chewing stage, so some furniture had to be sprayed with bitrex and Cooper got a fresh supply of toys to destroy: his favourites are definitely the rope (the hemp one failed, but cotton is brilliant), his Giraffe and Owl (I had to re-order these two), Kong Bear and chews with a plastic bottle inside. I also ordered him Wild Duck – fingers crossed he will enjoy the textures. Admittedly, Coopers interest in toys changes every day, if not every hour, so I have to be constantly inventing new games and rotating everything he’s already got.

And this is pretty much it for now. Oh, yes, and he does sleep next to me at night – shoot me, I know it’s wrong, but I love seeing his little face (and sometimes his bum) just before I close my eyes and as soon as I wake up in the morning.