Bentley’s beginning

It was November 2020, just a month after saying ‘I do’ as husband and wife in Scotland, and we felt excited that the lockdowns hadn’t stopped us from getting backyard chickens, getting married (more of an elopement really as it was just Peter, I, Mia & Eliza and my mum Susan) and they couldn't stop us getting a puppy either… The sticking point was really which breed and how much were we willing to spend.

Peter had his heart set on a golden retriever- the perfect family dog by all accounts and so gorgeous. However, lockdown had sent costs spirally for any puppy- not just pure breeds or those that were KC registered. £3K was way above what we were able to spend on a golden retriever puppy- but we even explored the option of buying one in Slovakia, having peters family train it up and then collect it months later post lockdowns? Too much hassle we decided.

As we walked together one day, I suddenly realised just how good Peter would look walking in the fields near our new house with a black Labrador walking beside him. The Barbour jacket, pipe and a lab- I could just see it now! A stereotype, but still more in keeping with the new countryside lifestyle we wanted to pursue after moving away from town.

I did a little research and found puppies of this breed were currently much more affordable - we knew we wanted a dog, who could maybe one day stud or we could breed from with another Labrador.

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We ended up getting incredibly lucky with Bentley. I found him listed by a guy in London, who claimed he had bought two puppies and couldn’t handle both. On reflection, it seems a lot more likely that Bentley was a stolen pup- either this or he was badly treated before we picked him up. We met his ‘owner’ on some street corner and were kept waiting until he appeared. This guy claimed we were meeting outside of his grandmothers house. I’m no detective, but either his grandmother keeps the company of various young men with handbags, or the house was some kind of drug headquarters (the second seems more plausible). When the owner eventually arrived, Bentley had no papers, his chip wasn’t registered and he had no records of vaccination. He was a gorgeous puppy and we hadn’t changed our mind, so we got into the car with him on my lap.

But he was too quiet, and hardly reacted to anything. He didn’t even flinch when we tried clapping near his ear or blowing on him (usually gets a reaction from all dogs as they find it annoying). Was he deaf? What if we had just paid close to £1K for a dog that had some serious illness?

When we got our new puppy home, he refused to eat his puppy food or even milk- thank goodness we had steak in the fridge, because we were desperate for him to eat something hours later.

Of course, he ate steak.

And has been pretty spoiled ever since!

This poor pup didn’t even know how to play and we spent about 3 hours one evening throwing a ball back and forth before he finally got it and started to skip a little bit and tussle with us.

He was also nervous on walks- whining until we got back home.

Whatever his beginnings, we felt Bentley was meant to be our dog. With two loving 9 year olds who had been desperate for a dog for some time, he had no end of cuddles, new toys and was allowed to sleep on the sofa as soon as he was toilet trained.

As a puppy, who whined when we went for walks, we had to carry him around in a backpack when we went out once a day or so for food shopping. Luckily, no one in the supermarket ever minded and he got a lot of attention.

When we moved to our countryside base in early 2021, Bentley hid in our new closet and tried very hard to persuade us he should now be allowed to sleep in our bed.

Although that attempt failed, he had a whole new garden to explore and protect. He has done this job very well from the beginning, chasing several Amazon drivers down the road and barking at anyone new who dares to walk past his gate.

Since then, he has mellowed considerably and is quite famous in the village for being the only dog who will lazily watch passers-by from his favourite bench or while lounging on the doorstep in the sunshine.

He still gets his fair share of every steak as well. Alongside a good amount of cheese, ham and although he doesn’t sleep on our bed, he sleeps underneath it which is almost as good…