Tuesday 25th December 2012 – Happy Christmas to you all

A very merry Christmas to all our readers and those of you watching our gorgeous puppies. I was wondering what sort of Christmas message I should be giving this year. I’ve already written the letter to the puppies I don’t want them to be bombarded by advice. To be honest, if I hadn’t donned the Christmas hat it wouldn’t have felt very much like Christmas at all.

Some of you will have had puppies for Christmas, so it is you I’m going to talk to instead. Your puppy will be the best friend you’ve ever had as long as you keep your part of the deal and take care of him, every day without fail. Most puppies want to please you. When they get things wrong it is normally because you haven’t taken the time to teach them the right way to do things and not because they are bad puppies. If you let your children wrestle and play rough with the puppy then you only have yourself to blame when the puppy gets bigger and plays rough in return. Never leave your puppy unattended with young children. They all need to learn the rules and the boundaries and if they do then they will all grow up happily together.

Take time to toilet train your puppy. If you are disciplined it is not difficult to do, it just takes time. Don’t be angry when he goes in the house if you haven’t taken the time to take him out regularly and built up the time he can manage between pee stops. We are clean animals by choice. We won’t go in the house deliberately if you have taught us where we should be going and take us out as often as we need to go. Remember to feed us properly. Don’t give us scraps regardless of the contents. Oh yes, we’ll beg for all your food but please learn the things that are toxic to us and don’t give us any of those. We can’t have chocolate, Christmas pudding or onion or lots of other things you think are nice. To us they are poison and will make us ill.

If you give your puppy a toy that looks like a shoe then don’t be surprised when he picks up your shoe to play with. How is he supposed to know which shoe is ok to chew and which one is your favourite that you were planning to wear?

It isn’t difficult. We’re simple souls. We will love you until our dying day. We will follow you to the ends of the earth all we ask is just a little understanding in return.

With love to you all, Alfie.

Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind alfie@alfiedog.me.uk

Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA

You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com