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PC Furlong - Puppy: Rico
January 2010
I handle Rico who is now four months old and coming along well.
He shares a kennel at home with my current police dog Axel.
They didn't get on to start with, which resulted in a visit to the vets for Rico and two stitches in his nose, but thankfully they are good friends now.
Rico has started some training. He will bark for his toy and will bring it back when I throw it for him.
I have taken him on different surfaces, including shiny or slippy floors as well as staircases, especially metal stairs. 
He has visited shopping centres and the Metro system to get him used to crowds and loud noises. In February, he will be going to his first football match. He is still a little nervous around loud noises like buses and trucks but with plenty of practice he should get over that.
Rico does enjoy his sleep. In fact, I have never known a dog sleep as much as he does. But when he's awake he is excellent.
So far everything looks good for his future. Fingers crossed he will be a licensed police dog in 12-months time.
February 2010
Rico is coming along really well. He had his photograph taken with the children who won the puppy naming competition. He looked so happy. I think he thinks he's a Superstar. Both his ears stood up and then flopped back down again. So he looks a little dopey at the minute, but that seems to be his character anyway.
Both myself and my wife found him with his head in a 5kg bag of my pet dogs food, having ate the whole bag. He looked at us with a big smile, not realising that he was in deep trouble.
As far as his training goes; he's coming along well. He likes to rag around with his toy and he will bark for it. This week we're going to start some 'run-ins' where another Dog Handler will run off, with his toy, and hide in a room. Then Rico will go and find him, bark and then he'll get his toy as a reward.
May 2010
He is now 7 months old. He spent alot of time, in April, at kennels, as I was on a attachment as an Instructor.
He enjoys the kennels at HQ because he gets to play with all the other dogs, although not all of them enjoy his play.
His training is now more intensive, but his enthusiasm is not quite as high.
He is quite docile; this is mainly because he is such a big dog for his age. He is now bigger than my 6yr old Police Dog 'Axel'. The fact that he is growing so tall, so quickly, is causing him to have growing pains. He now has tablets to help with the pain and to stop the limping.
He is enjoying the work so far, but enjoys his sleep A LOT more.
June 2010
As you can see, Rico love his favourite toy - Kong. He will do just about anything to get it.
Maggie is his best friend and he plays with her all the time.
As usual he has his good days and bad days. Today was a bad day.
Somehow he managed to sneak into the kitchen, sneak around to the bench near to the cooker where he found a recently baked chocolate cake.
He then proceeded to eat the whole cake, sneak back outside and lie blisfully in the sun as if notthing had happened.
July 2010
Rico is progressing really well. He is not quite as active as his brothers and sisters and still spends a lot of his time asleep. In fact as soon as he is finishes training, he falls asleep.
It makes no difference if he trains for one minute or one hour, he just lies on the floor and goes to sleep.
If he was one of the Seven Dwarfs he would definitely be 'Dopey'.
August 2010
Rico managed to spend nearly all of his time in the Kennel Complex, at Headquarters, whilst I was away on holiday. However, in early August I was upstairs, in my house, when my daughter asked me if Rico was allowed to have chicken. She was told he wasn't allowed anything except his normal food. At this point she told me that he was happily eating a chicken I had just cooked for dinner.
When I made it to the kitchen all that was left was the carcass. He had managed to strip the bones of every bit of chicken. It was so funny to see the look on his face. He still was told off though, but I don't think he really cared at that point.
