Jax's new look

It was difficult to know when to give Jax his next hair cut, but we bit the bullet and had him trimmed down so that he'll be back to his shaggy best come mid-winter. Its amazing just how different he looks cropped, and just how light he is now compared to his first close shave eight months ago.

Jax at 1!

A birthday portrait of the Jaxmeister.

Jax loves to swim now. During the summer it he was in the lake at Crown Lakes every morning. Now its autumn he wants to swim less which is fine cos it takes him an age to dry!

After his swim he likes to chew a stick.

A great wet look!

Jax in full pelt!

Jax's training is going really well. We're still going weekly to Talking Dogs training class. We're at level 1 coming on level 2 with a bunch of other critters. I'll try and get some snaps of the other dogs in his class soon.

He's still eating his Orijen food, now on adult mix of course, and mixed in with some James Wellbeloved. He still loves his natures:menu treats but for training we mix these with cheese - he likes a bit of cheese!

Viva Espania!

Viva Espania! Jax's team won! Pedro de Agua Espanols all over the land will be barking their joy at their home nation winning the football World Cup and triumphing over the disgraceful Dutch.

Carles Puyol - of Barcelona and Spain - Jax's favourite player, cos as he rightly points out, there is surely some SWD in him somewhere with a thatch like that!

Evidence!

The two bloodied seeds on the right were extracted from Jax's paws by our vet last weekend. They go right in. these two were buried so the vet had to dig around in each wound to find them. I've been frequently pulling seeds out of wounds which I can just see the tips of sticking out of the open wound. I've noticed the wounds which hold seeds for the vet to get ooze whereas wounds containing no seeds just bleed.

The three seeds on the left I pulled from his paws after his walk this morning. Before we had his paws shorn I would be pulling out 3-4 times as many per walk and they were a lot more difficult to see!

Short-lived relief?

Having had Jax's paws shorn yesterday we've now had our first day without a new incident in a week! Hoorraayy! I checked his paws last thing last night and no new seeds. I checked again this morning and again nothing. He's stopped limping too which is clearly a sign his current wounds are on the mend. But only short-lived relief I expect!

The vet told me that it really is down to the individual dog rather than the breed whether they suffer with seeds or not. She gave an example of two cockers from the same litter, one has never had an embedded seed and the other was like Jax, always getting them and ending up with her.

I spoke to our breeder yesterday too and she has never had any problems with her SWDs. So I'm inclined to agree with the vet. Individual dog and individual circumstances. Just sods law its us!

Grass seed hell continues

So, it was back to the vets on Saturday and two more extractions (again under sedation) and another vet's bill!

He's at the groomers again this morning to have his feet shawn. I can hear SWD purists cringe as I type, but there is no other option.

We've identified our garden itself is a big risk - semi wild, and even the mown areas are just mown rank grass, nit nice neat laid lawn! And we are surrounded, quite literally, by tall grasses. When I was removing as much tall grass species from the garden as possible yday, I was watching grass seeds being blown in to the garden from the adjacent field!

Grass seed hell

Well, following on from the last post, we're in grass seed hell! Jax is confined to the garden - no walks on the fen, no swimming - but I'm still pulling seed after seed from his paws. So the garden seems to be no better than the wilds around here.

The lanced abscess from Weds has healed OK, but he now has two open, oozing wounds on two paws and is limping badly - he's clearly in some discomfort as his all demeanor has changed, and he must be getting fed up of not getting beyond the garden gate.

We're back to the vet in the morning (just praying he doesn't need sedating and them to keep him in again - another £76!) and we're back to the groomer (only just been for a full clip) for her to take the hair on his paws down as short as possible.

So, I'm wondering what other SWD owners do? Or do you all have neatly manicured lawns and gardens, never go anywhere where there is any sign of tall grasses?

Talking to neighbours and other dog owners locally, no one else seems to be suffering as much as this. Most say they find the odd seed embedded, a few have never found any, and when I tell them about the now dozens I've pulled out of him - not just seeds lying in his coat, but actually stuck in his skin - they're horrified. A friend who came round today was shocked at the state of his paws.

Not a happy Jax and not a happy me right now.

Eight months old, 18kg, trials and tribulations!

Clamour over! Here he is. At eight months (picture taken 9 June - so he's now nearly nine months!) and weighing in at an adult size 18kg.

Here he's just been for a dip in Beville's Leam, one of the large fenland drains out here. He can't go for a walk without going for a swim - well, more of a paddle-cum-drink - he doesn't do proper swimming yet, but he does like water!

So, what have these last few months been like? Hell? Purgatory? Heaven? Well, definitely not the latter!

As they reach adult-size and the teenage period you start discovering all the things they don't tell you about your dog. How much time he's going to take up. How much he's going to cost. Whose going to walk him when you're not there. Do you use kennels, house sitter, dog sitter, dog walker? And in Jax's case, grass seeds!

Not once did I read about grass seeds in all my research before we got him. Oh, but once we got him and those in the know saw him, one of the first things they tell you is 'he's going to be a bugger with grass seeds'. We didn't know what that meant until this week. Well, until today actually when we got a £76 vet bill for lancing an abscess caused by a grass seed. I pulled a load of seeds form his paw last night, including a couple of well imbedded and bloody ones. I checked him this morning and the two holes had healed OK and he wasn't limping no where near as much. At lunchtime no limp but I noticed him licking one of the paws I pulled a blooded seed from last night. On checking I found a large abscess at the top of one of his toes. Straight round to the vet where I left him for the afternoon for them to do their stuff. Collected him at 5pm, coughed up 76 quid and was told that something had gone through the underside of the paw and through to the top but they couldn't find anything when they opened it up and washed it out. So the bloody thing could still be in him - somewhere!

He doesn't seem any worse for his ordeal (just our bank account does) and everyone keeps telling us how gold as gold he is and what a lovely temperament he has. Well, its all in the upbringing you know!

Jax the day before we took him for a summer haircut.

Jax the day of his summer haircut playing tug with Liz in the back garden.

The last few months have all been sweetness and light as Jax goes through teenage-hood. We have had some problems, which thankfully seem be on the mend at last.

When I went away for three weeks in mid-April he didn't like it. And he vented his anger on Liz who was left looking after him alone. And then when Liz came to join me on Lesvos for a week, her brother Martin came over from Holland to look after their Mum, Elsie (who lives with us) and Jax. He too had problems cos now Jax was doubly angry at losing both of us! Playing up was one thing, but he got snappy and bitey and bit Liz a couple of times and Martin once - proper bites drawing blood. So, serious.

Amazingly, I thought he would be fractious on our return home but he wasn't. He calmed down considerably within minutes of my arrival home. He continued to give Liz problems though and we also had the ongoing issue of his reaction to other dogs. This had reached a point where he wouldn't even walk past a couple of statue dogs in the village! Having missed doggy classes for 6+ weeks at this point we felt he would simply freak if we threw him back in to a room with 10 other mutts.

So we called in Aunty Pam - Pam McKinnon from Talking Dogs. Pam ran the puppy classes we took him too in Feb-Mar, so she knew him and hopefully he would remember her. Even in the week or so for our appointment to come round he was getting calmer. We'd viewed some Dog Whisperer programmes and gleaned some things we felt appropriate to us, but I think he was simply growing up. At seven months a week is a long time for a dog. When Pam got to us he wasn't half as bad as he had been, and Pam was actually very pleased with his general obedience and behaviour for a 7-month old hound. He clearly remembered her. Pam is one of those genuine dog people that as soon as she opens her mouth your ill-behaved hound obeys! Sick isn't it!

Pam showed us what to do in certain circumstances and how to reinforce certain messages with him. We followed this up with a phone call a week later for Liz and then went along to one of her classes for older more advanced dogs to observe and let Jax be around other dogs. The class went so well that we'll be joining it this week. The dogs are much older and some of the stuff way ahead of him, but Pam feels that its a calm group for him to gain confidence around. We'll see how it goes.

And in the last week or so he's been making more progress with other dogs. He's nearly made a friend in Phoebe, a Jack Russell-type he occasionally sees on his walks. I think she just fancies the fur off him to be honest (and who wouldn't!). And interactions with most dogs he meets, like today in the vets, are much more positive and don't see him cowering under a chair, nit even when the other dog gets nasty and growly and bares teeth - he just jumps back, but darting for cover!

We still feed him Orijen food - now mixed with James Wellbeloved. We're moving up to adult food at the end of this bag of puppy mix! Getting a big boy now.

He still loves his natures:menu training treats. Liz also makes him some home made liver treats which he loves too! He goes through all manner of other treats which are wolfed down. He enjoys rawhide retrievers which usually take him a week to get through so probably count as one of the best value things we get him!

He's been great on chewing - with very few incidents of chewing anything he shouldn't. No furniture been chewed through etc. We've only had one real disaster when I left a liquid ink pen out and he got, chewed it, squirted it, dripped it etc all over our 2 yr-old carpet. Thats ruined. I was furious to start with, not that I let him see it. I was more furious with myself for leaving the pen within reach. More furious that having never had to get anything like ink out of a carpet before I did all the wrong things and made it worse rather than better. Furious at the cost of replacing the carpet! Well, that'll wait. Now its knackered it can get more soiled before it gets replaced - and with a darker one!

And one other thing. If your thinking of getting an SWD, and maybe this goes for other woolly breeds, no-shed coat does not mean a low maintenance mutt. Oh aye, you might not have to put up with hair all over the shop, but every time you leave the house you have to understand you're taking a large ball of mobile velcro in to the countryside with you. If it can stick to him, it will. We spend hours grooming and picking all manor of seeds, grass stems, twigs from him. A twig can go undetected for most of the day - so you can understand our problem with grass seeds in vulnerable places!

But we love him! He's part of the Dudley clan all right. He's so intelligent - we were warned. He knows that three humans he lives with all have different temperaments. He's great with Elsie. At 91 she can't do much with him. but he knows this and is happy to take a toy to her and play to the best of her ability, and very gently, then turn round and with the same toy go hell for leather with Liz or me.

OK - we'll find time for an update!

OK, OK, OK! We hear you! We accept we've not updated Jax's blog and updated all our fans ;-) with Jax's progress. Sorry, but life just takes over at times. Steve has had is mad season, with him working flat out with his BOU work running up to going out to Lesvos for three weeks on 23 April (he missed a week due to the now infamous ash cloud). And since his return in mid-May, we've both been flat out with stuff. You know, life.

So, we'll be back soon with a detailed update - the good, the bad and at times, the ugly side of our SWD! And we need to take some new photos of him!

Jax at 6 months old

Well, it seems only weeks since wee Jax arrived at the Dudley household. But its been four months and Jax is now six months old. Time is getting the better of me thesedays and I simply don't have the time to post anything. Besides, he's largely fully grown and its much better being outside on the fen with him than him down stairs and me up in the office posting nonsense!

Here's some photos to celebrate him at six months and the first lot since his haircut six weeks ago!

A close shave!

Here's some pics of Jax in his shaggy pomp. He is gorgeous and everyone adores his long, shaggy locks.
That was until Tuesday when Jax went for his first haircut. Its recommended that you cut your SWD pup between 4-5 months to take off its puppy coat as its adult coat comes through. So we took him to Tracey Wilkinson at Hampton Dog Grooming (below). Tracey has done SWDs before and was recommended, so at 1130h on Tuesday I popped Jax round to her home-based doggy grooming salon. We had a good look around meeting both Tracey (below on right with Jax) and Debbie. Jax had a good sniff and appeared very relaxed. Tracey is one of those doggie naturals. Jax just took to her instantly. After 10 mins I left him there. This was the first time he'd ever been taken anywhere and left. He's been left at home many times, but never in as strange place. A couple of hours later Tracey called me to say he was ready to collect. She said he'd been a real star, really well behaved with no problems. She then told me he was currently fast asleep in the holding crate! Now thats what I call relaxed!

Tracey with a shawn Jax and Debbie at her grooming table.

And this was the result - one bare dog! He looks very sad but he really didn't seem to be bothered at all. The only difference I could see was that he he could feel the rain and was constantly stopping to shake himself. He never did that when he was a woolly rug.

Despite not being woolly anymore folk still adore him. A few days on and his coat is already growing and starting to look wavy and he is still a very handsome dog - just not as distinctive as when he had his shaggy coat.

More pics will follow to show how quickly his coat grows and curls!

Fifi (Jax's sister) gets a hair cut

Olivia sent me this pic of Fifi, Jax's sis, taken just after she had her coat clipped last week. Bless, she looks ever so sad! Jax's turn soon if we can pin a groomer down!

Sunday school

On Sundays Jax goes to puppy classes run by Talking Dogs. Let's meet Jax's classmates.

The gorgeous Betty-Boo.

The ever so cute and cuddly Alfie.

Stanley (front) and Kissy. Two Cockers with completely different temperaments - Stan the laid back man and Little Miss Frizzy Kissy.

Stanley being very well behaved as Pam (Talking Dogs) demonstrates how to do the slalom walk with our pups.

Kissy chasing Jax.

Betty-Boo biting off more than she can chew.

Alfie and the king Kong Wubba. The puppy Wubba is Jax's fave toy.

Thanks to Paul (Talking Dogs) for taking the snaps during the class!

One wet water dog

Well, with all this rain it means only one thing - a wet dog. Even if its not actually raining Jax's wandering around the fen through long grass and vegetation means he arrives home bedraggled!

The only good thing about a wet Jax is that it means we don't bring half the field back with him. A non-shedding dog he might be, but low maintenance dog he most certainly isn't. His coat is like velcro and everything and anything will stick to him. Thankfully we've learnt that he's not bad at getting things out for himself. We just remove the branches and other debris that prevents him getting through the door!

Jax's doggy training classes

Jax goes to two different classes at present:

Talking Dogs

Whittlesey, nr Peterborough | 01 733 204 118

An 8-week course run by Pam McKinnon at Werrington in Peterborough. This is a puppy only class and Jax is one of five pups -

Stanley (Cocker), Kissy (Cocker), Alfie (Lab) and Betty-Boo (Boston Terrier). This is a great class which concentrates on establishing the basics with one of the organisers to 2/3 dogs.

Fivejays Pet Care & Animal Education

Pondersbridge, nr Peterborough | 01 733 844 538

Marion runs dog classes in each week in Farcet, Eye and Coats. Jax goes to the Coates class on Wednesday lunchtimes with a whole menagerie of other dogs - should they all turn up on the same day I'm sure the hall wont be big enough! This is a much more general class, and whilst concentrating on many of the basics, its brilliant for socialisation. Jax is very nervous around other dogs and this class is gradually drawing him out of his shell.

Two different classes but very complimentary to one another. I recommend them both very highly.

Bloody hell! Times flown by again and I haven't updated all our fans :-p about Jax's progress! Well, Liz has been in the states and Steve's been busy writing the Lesvos 2010 bird report in his spare time as well as looking after Jax and 91-yr old mother in law, Elsie.

Well, there he is above on a walk along one of our local fen drains with Steve. We have water all around us but at 16 weeks Jax hasn't yet shown any interest in going in. I don't blame him, its freezing!

If we're lucky, we might get this after a walk and some play! - but it doesn't happen often yet.

Training

Jax is now going to weekly 1-hr sessions with Five Jays at Coates (general doggy classes for all ages) and started a Talking Dogs 6-wk puppy class. He's been to three Five Jays and two Talking Dogs sessions and is coming on great. He's still very nervous with other dogs, but by the end of each class he's almost being social! At Talking Dogs he's one of five pups along with Kissy (Cocker), Stanley (Cocker), Alfie (Golden Retriever) and Betty Boo (Boston Terrier). I think Alfie is the only one younger than Jax. He clearly faces the little fleece jacket off Betty Boo's back, but he's scared stiff of her! She wants to say hello and he just runs away. Alfie's quick to take advantage though being the 'daddy' of the class and muscles in! Jax is gonna have to learn soon else he's going to miss out on socialising with these lovely pups. They're all happy tangling their owners up around one another whilst playing, whilst Jax just looks on. I think he progresses more each Five Jays class for socialising as he's the youngest and although there are a couple of smaller dogs, most are much larger and not just wanting to play.

Talking Dogs introduced us to clicker training and this is helping to reinforce a few things with him and he seems to respond very well to it. On the whole he's very well behaved for a pup. he's sitting on command (from anyone), lies down when Steve asks him to, comes back when called (well, most of the time!, he's OK with fetch (but it depends what you throw - throw something he isn't used to fetching and no can do), is getting the hang of 'leave' and understands the 'off' command when he's on the sofa. He's started pulling on his lead at times and this is something we're working on each day and he's getting a wee bit better. He's off lead most of the time when out walking and so far no problems - apart from too many burrs!

Biting

This has got much, much better. When he greets us in a morning he now does so with a chew toy and nipping/biting is now becoming restricted to when he needs to go out to toilet. So all going well here.

Burrs and bits

Ah well, we live with em I guess. He does actually manage to get an awful lot out himself if left to it.

Chews, treats and food

Orijen still going OK, mixed with Burns Mini Bites and now James Wellbeloved Puppy (came free from Talking Dogs so using it mixed with Orijen). All OK.

Training treats - natures:menu rules OK! We're getting through bags of them though, but I've found cutting them in half is still working fine. If I was being really tight I could probably cut them into three!

General treats and chews - he's just about eating his way through the cheaper thigns we bought early on, but he loves the odd big treat now he's older including tripe sticks, pork sticks, beef sausage and hot dogs. We've got him some pigs ears too and a few other bits which he hasn't got round to trying yet. He doesn't turn his nose up to much!

He enjoys a slice of apple or pear most days and if he's in the mood he'll eat some carrot. I found a pile along one of the drove sides the other day (carrots and onions literally fall of the back of lorries around here) and these are in the freezer for him to crunch to help his teething.

Jax gets chipped

Well, I popped in to the vets this morning as I was passing to arrange an appointment to have him chipped and they did him there and then. Great stuff! He barely flinched and enjoyed all the fussing.

Putting on weight

At the vets I discovered our scales aren't that accurate as I made him 10kg on Sat but the vet weighed him at 9.4kg this morning.

Getting woolly

At 16 weeks his coat is now getting very shaggy and long and we're thinking about getting him clipped in the next month before his adult coat starts to come through (from 5-6 months so I;ve read). We'll just get this frost period out of the way and then get it done.

Liz comes home

It was difficult to tell if he missed Liz whilst she was away, but he certainly went berserk when she came home on Saturday evening! So lets say he did! unfortunately I think all the excitement threw him as he soiled his pen badly overnight and again on the wood floor (thankfully) on Sun morning and then didn't go again until this morning. All sorted now though.

That's all folks! More soon I hope!

Meet the family!

Jax was born on 8 October 200, one of a litter of five to Wilma and George of Folkingham, Lincolnshire. The litter consisted of one chocolate (Jax), one black and three cream pups. He is part of the Hollutrix line.

Jax's pedigree Kennel Club name is Kenine Dusted Fondant (where do they dream them up?).

This is FIFI, Jax's sister. She was the only bitch of the litter. Fifi lives in Middlesex with her human Olivia.

This is CASSIE, Jax's cousin. Both Jax and Cassie share the same grandfather, Kiucare De Ubrique for Hollutrix. Cassie lives in Co. Down (and is one of the very few SWDs in whole of the isle of Ireland! - phew - being very PC there!) with her humans Darren and Tracy.

I hope to get pictures of mum and dad and the other siblings shortly!

Training, biting and burrs!

Well, its been a while since I put anything on here. Time just flies by!

Training

Not so much puppy classes than ongoing doggy classes. Five Jays dog training classes are run in our local village (and other surrounding villages) each week and came recommended by our vet and our neighbours. They have around 6-8 dogs each week of various ages from pups upwards. Jax is now the youngest, and is their first ever SWD - now there's a surprise!

We went along to a 2-hr session last Friday. Jax entered his usual very nervous self around all other dogs. He had to run the gauntlet simply for us to get to the registration desk! He really didn't know what to do. But once the class got going, Marion, the main trainer and organiser took us to one side and ran through things for us. We observed for most of the evening but took part in one of the exercises walking around the other dogs in a circle and them in turn walking between us. Jax coped with this really well, mainly due to having treats rammed down his throat at the first sign of being distracted by any of the other dogs. The evening went really well. Jax settled down to the point of being bored, but he got lots of fuss and slowly started to lose his nerves around the other dogs. The great thing was that none of the dogs went berserk and flipped Jax out. They were all well behaved and any signs of difficulty was curbed by the owner.

I was worried Jax would find it stressful then pee all over the hall. But he had a pee and poo before he went in and then after an our I took him out for a pee, and despite having to go by a busy road junction which he found disconcerting at first, he went and we were able to return to the class with me knowing he was empty!

If I have time I'll get him to one of the classes this week, and then on Sunday we start a six-week puppy class in Peterborough.

Jax continues to come on with our own training. He's enjoying fetch games in and out the house, but he still needs to pay attention to commands when he's overexcited and starts to bite - our stop and down commands go out of the window then!

Biting

He started to bite Liz and myself again when he wants us to play with him. I've managed to suss that some of the biting is his new way of telling us he wants to go outside to pee - why he's stopped going to the french door I don't know! Coupled with the biting is increased jumping up and clawing. This culminated in him cutting my lip the other night. Not happy. Luckily t his abuse is reserved for just Liz and me - he's as calm as anything with everyone else.

Burrs!

On his lunchtime walk today Jax got covered in burrs. And I mean covered! By the time we got back home some were bedded deep in his coat. Some came out easy enough by finger, but I had to eventually take a wide toothed comb to help extract some. All the books say no combs or brushes for grooming, but I couldn't work out any other way of getting these out - especially when, as you'd expect, Jax is far from happy to stand still while I extract them! 45 mins later I got around 75% out when Jax had really had enough (so had I) and I also needed to get back to work. I'll have another go at the rest later.

Toys

He's ripping, quite literally, through some toys now. I was in the pets superstore the other day and two different couples mentioned getting baby toys from Mothercare - they are ultra safe and last much better than many of the pet toys. I might give it a try when I'm next in town.

Food, treats and chews

He continues to enjoy his Origen puppy food. I got a great deal from our local pet shop in Ramsey. I ordered one 13kg bag and when I went to collect he gave me a second at half price cos it was ripped - saved £25!

He absolutely loves his natures:menu treats and is at his best when they're on offer! At the class on Friday most people had cooked meats (sausage and chicken) but apart from not having the time to prepare stuff, we're purposely not letting him eat food we eat. This works really well up to now as he pays little attention to us when we're eating and doesn't fuss us while we are eating. So, the n:m treats it will be. I have found that splitting each treat in two works, so each bag now goes twice as far! Thansk to Gwen Bailey's book for the tip that pea-sized treats are all you need - and you do.

He's now turning his nose up at some of the cheap chew treats we got for him. I've bought some more expensive ones to see how he gets one. I'd like to get him on natural treats like pigs ears, etc, so need to know what age is OK to feed them these.

Putting on weight

Jax was last weighed on 24 Dec when he went for his jab at the vets when he weighed in at 5.5kg. So, today at weigh in he tipped the scales at 7.5kg. I can't find any info on how much a 13 wk old SWD pup should be (only weights for adult dogs in books and online).

Jax's new game is 'steal the sock'. He has always had a thing about Steve's shoes, sandals, slippers, sleeping with his nose buried in one or just laying across them. He occasionally stole Mum's bed socks, but now he's found our outdoor socks basket in the bootroom, and as you can see above, if this sock wasn't dead already, it died of hypothermia by the time Jax brought it back indoors! My cashmere socks aren't made for this level of abuse! And as Liz found out, will he give them up? Not on your life. We've given up getting them back from him and simply wait for him to leave them unguarded and we whip them away!

More of Jax's toys!

Jax with toys - typically sat on one whilst playing with another!

Rope and tennis ball

Jax's fun rating - 8/10

An xmas treat from our neighbour's he played with little else on xmas day! He stripped the tennis ball of its fluff within hours!

Football chew ring

Jax's fun rating - 8/10

Ignored at first, but now coming in to its own as he continues to teethe and he get's bigger and needs bigger and harder chew toys.

Plush toy

Jax's fun rating - 8/10

A dependable chew toy he likes to play with on his own.

We've thrown away the packet, but this toy was simply useless. It took Jax approx. 2 minutes to tear it open and render it useless.

Plush, squeaky dog - monkey replacement!

Jax fun rating - 9/10

Monkey's successor is nearly as popular, but not quite. It lacks monkey's very chewable nose.

The 'blue' chew - thrown away the packet so cant remember the brand.

Jax's fun rating - 7/10

He's already pulled all the string/lace things off which he likes to hew on their own - they get right in to the back of his gnashers.

Jax's toy fun ratings update!

Some new toys to feature shortly, but here's updates on what Jax thinks about the ones he's so far grown up with.

Kong stuff toy

Initial Jax fun ratings - 3/10, 4/10

Current Jax fun rating 6/10

Coming in to its own now as a treat stuff toy.

Striped chew toy

Initial Jax fun ratings - 5/10, 2/10

Current Jax fun rating 7/10

This goes on walks with him as a high vis fetch toy! And he's getting much more fun from it - when he's not busy sniffing that it!

Monkey soft plush toy

Initial Jax fun ratings - 10/10, 10/10

RIP

Kong wubba chew toy

Initial Jax fun ratings - 7/10, 9/10

Current Jax fun rating 10/10

This is the play time toy of choice. He and Steve have real fights with it and he just loves it all! Liz gets a little concerned thats it all too rough for Jax, but he just keeps wagging that tail and dives in for more play-fighting!

Kong stuff chew toy

Initial Jax fun ratings - 3/10, 1/10

Current Jax fun rating 1/10

Still pays little interest.

Cardboard roll

Initial Jax fun rating 7/10, 9/10

Current Jax fun ratings 1/10

he's moved on! Although, the small toiler rolls are OK for sticking treats in which takes him all of 30 seconds to shred!

Dried leaves

Initial Jax fun rating 8/10, 9/10

Current Jax fun rating 6/10

Still going! Although some laces have replaced these now.

Cereal packet / cardboard boxes / wrappers

Initial Jax fun rating 5/10, 7/10

Current Jax fun rating 7/10

We give him whatever cardboard boxes come along and he just chews them up! Plastic wraps, whatever - he loves to chew on different things at different times so these freebies are great.

Small plastic bottle

Jax fun rating 8/10

Current Jax fun rating 8/10

Another great freebie which are great for treats and good for chewing!