1st Birthday update for Tucker

1st Birthday update for Tucker. Tucker is one of Casper and Blottie's ​nine little Blenheim pups

Tucker

"Dear Jane,
How are you? Tom and I were delighted (and relieved!) to see that you were able to find a solution for the blog. It's such a joy to see the updates from Poundlane and also to read and see the updates from Tucker's siblings. Happy birthday to them all!
Tucker has been doing well. He still goes to daycare weekdays and loves socialising with other dogs. I’m still jogging with him, and it’s a lot of fun to have him running to and fro as I lumber along at a fraction of his pace. He’s so fast! Also, I swear he gets better at cuddles every month that passes.
He was castrated around New Year. Luckily it proved straightforward to find the retained testicle. I was so worried about how he'd take to wearing a cone for nearly a fortnight. We tried a 'recovery suit' for a bit, but it didn't work as well for him as it had to be quite tight to be effective. It's tricky though to get the right sized cone for cavalier-sized dogs with decent sized snouts. 
We eventually found this e-collar and it worked really well for him. He accepted it pretty quickly and within a few days it was possible to take him outside with it without a fuss, and eventually for short walks to a park up the road. He was very adept at planting the cone on grass he wanted to sniff! He also wasn't bothered about me putting it back on, as I'd give him breaks from it a couple times a day so that he could enjoy a chew without my help holding it for him. That said, it was all-in a tough fortnight, trying to deal with his energy levels when the vet said to not let him run around, but I'm grateful he handled it so well and that it's done now.
About two weeks ago, we switched Tucker from Lily's Kitchen wet food to Butternut Box. Since doing so his poo has been amazing. He's never managed consistently solid poos, but the vet didn't think we should be concerned as he's always been that way. We also cut out all other meats from treats and chews except chicken, fish and ostrich. Much like Bella (by the sound of it from the update Judith wrote), we've always struggled to get Tucker interested in eating when we'd like him to, e.g. in the morning before going to daycare. In the evening, he'd sometimes leave his food there for hours. We'd have to hide his kitchen bed (as he’d lay down in it rather than eat), sometimes spoon feed him, and switch the flavours between two Lily's recipes for novelty. He just loves Butternut Box (so far) and they do a couple of recipes with ingredients very similar to the Lily's he was having, so the switch wasn't hard (unlike previous times we'd tried switching). It's so enjoyable to see him really into his food. It also costs the same as the Lily's food he was on. I hope he continues to enjoy it as much as he does now.
Tucker has also recently graduated in a couple of other areas: he weighs enough now (approx 9.6kg) to use a Sleepypod Clickit harness in the car instead of being in a crate and he's (finally, thank goodness) decided that having a bath is a good thing. He lets you clean him and dry him a bit, then pretty much insists on snuggling under a blanket to dry off. It's too cute.
Speaking of which, much like his siblings, he is just amazing at snuggling. It's truly the best. I find it so relaxing when he is snuggled up next to us. He’s also better at staying put for longer - thought not good enough at it yet to sleep outside his crate overnight.
It's still hard work with trying to train loose lead walking and to get him comfortable being on his own. About a month ago, the behaviourist we are still working with observed that he wasn't progressing as she would have thought by his age and advised that we should focus on sorting out his tummy first, as getting that right can make a big difference with some dogs. It concerned her that he's never been especially, consistently excited by his food, or had good poos. Hence the change to Butternut Box. Hopefully now that it is going better in this area, we can make some more consistent progress with his training, even if in small increments.
Tucker is just the loveliest little doggo. It's so much fun to go jogging and on walks with him. He loves running around, and socialising. Just today he was impressing a young woman in the park who used to have a cavalier. Tucker gave her some cuddles and did some tricks for her (sit in response to a hand signal, then shake), to which she responded "we'd never get my cavalier to do anything like that!!"
Thank you so much for our lovely little doggo, and for the updates from Poundlane.
Lisa, Tom and Tucker 
P.S. The especially good photos of Tucker aren’t taken by us, but by Roma, who works at his daycare. I have no idea how she manages to get such good shots."