Where the Wild Things Are

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

I have an eight month old Border Collie called Meg. She is far from perfect (and so am I).
Today she has been about 60/40 good. The 40 included chewing up my camera memory card which DH is sure he put safely on the mantelpiece. Every time I look down at this screen she takes a quick munch of the coffee table with her eyes on mine. This despite a 2 hour walk which included much in and out of streams.

I don't think it's possible to wear out a collie,I'm afraid,our old one would chase a ball from morn.till night if you threw it for him.

I've got a 3 year old one and she's still bonkers. Not as bad as when she was younger, but not perfect in any way!

Ours started chilling out a bit when he was about 12!

Having said that, he was still saying 'go on, throw the ball...!' the day before he died.

He truly was the best dog in the world

Signing in. Great idea to have a support thread for people who have teenager dogs.

Pip will be 9 months old on 1st March. He's generally pretty good but like, many teenagers, has moments of selective deafness and erm, questioning whether he really has to do what I say.

He's back on the longline at the moment. Used to have great recall, but has decided on occasion recently that he enjoys his freedom too much to have it curtailed by me, so better safe than sorry.

Have to agree about not being able to wear out BCs. they are just designed to go on and on ... and one.

Oldgirl was a BC x Belgian Shepherd and she was still full of energy when she was nearly 14 and we had to make her slow down when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. We knew the end had come when she didn't want to run around like a fruit loop anymore. I was just watching at a video of her haring around the garden with Lurcherboy a month before the cancer was diagnosed.

People would regularly ask us if she was a pup, right up until she was around 10 years old.

Crikey Blackbird 11 years and 4 months to go. We had a border collie so idle you had to roll him off the sofa to get his breakfast. He used to dig himself caves to sleep in all day. He watched a lot of telly too. I can see him yet. My mum had one sunbed and he had the other and when he was hungry he used to stagger off his chaise longue and go to the pantry where the tins were kept and pick one of dog food (he could read- he could tell dog food from peaches) and drop it on her head.

Ok, where do I fit in?

16 months old Springer and 13 week old cocker, I can't straddle two threads!!!

My Springer is 6 and is fab in the house. Now.

Why did you choose a working dog?

Needa, I'll still be on both. I'd feel bad if I decamped and left the newer members.

Exit, even within breeds dogs differ greatly in their development and behaviour. As barbarian said, they've had a BC before who was nothing like this one in character and behaviour.

Barbarian does a lot of training and work with her dog, many people have issues at around this age and their dogs, with the appropriate amount of training and exercise, turn out to be fantastic, well mannered members of the family. The dog I mentioned upthread was the nightmare puppy from hell, but turned out to be one of the easiest, best behaved dogs we've had. She took her own sweet time to mature, but with time, patience and consistency she got there in the end.

Cool, I will inhabit both then Moose too.

Our Springer is and always has been chilled, the cocker is showing worrying signs of having rather more energy, but also is exceedingly quick in the brain department, already outwitting his 'brother'.

Personally, I don't mind the energy levels and exercise needs, most of the time!!

Just asking.

I just like BCs Exit, Meg is the 3rd, although the 1st bitch. !st was the lazy one, second a rescue that we got at about 2 so didn't see the puppy months with him. I wasn't being serious, we all adore her. (DM anyone who wants to see Meg learning to load washing machine!)

Moose, thank you- they are all different and all fun and PLEASE don't leave us for the little puppies!

Fabulous - a teenage thread. Thanks barbarian for creating one and love the name!

I have a 7 month old English sheepdog asleep by my feet right now but frequently challenging in terms of behaviour!

Recall is really tricky but most other things have improved and settled except barking which is worse. He likes to make himself heard and gets easily wound up by the boisterous 8 yr old in the family!

I took heart though recently when I was walking with a very experienced dog owner - had 5 at one time and lives on a farm with horses - a real no nonsense woman, mum of a friend of mine. We walked for 40 mins and she watched our dog tearing around, coming back 80% of time and at the end of the walk she said what a lovely dog he was, that he had a way to go but that he was going to make a lovely well behaved dog. I was dead chuffed!

How do people that do very little training/rule setting manage teenage dogs?

I know one of the answers to your last question, Mint, they give them to their mums to look after. My friend with house lined with pale cream carpet has just been donated a large black only slightly trained 7 months old spaniel from her lovely dd!

No! That's terrible! I made my DSs start going to puppy classes with me - the teenage son was very reluctant - just so they'd be aware of what was involved.

I seriously hope neither dump me with a half trained teenage dog to mind!

Exit, my apologies. Just re-read my post and it did sound snippy. I didn't mean it to. Actually I read your post wrong and thought you were saying you had a perfectly behaved 6 month old Springer. Doh!

Sorry, I'm not firing on all cylinders at the moment.

Barbarian, I know someone else that did exactly the same. Kept her as a handbag dog/baby until she became a teenager, then basically dumped her on her parents whenever she couldn't be bothered with her.

Poor dog is totally unsocialised, completely untrained and snappy with both people and other dogs.

Interestingly, she is also a black spaniel.

Do I count with a 2 year old Lab? He is almost through his teenage phase but not quite

On the positive side - you can really see the personality come out in a teenager! I was wrapping a couple of parcels today with duck tape so noisy. I was standing at the kitchen counter next to dog bed and wondered my the dog wasn't lying at my feet on his bed as he usually does.

Then I noticed him, he'd squeezed himself under a kitchen chair and was staring up at me scared at the noise I was making! Only thing was he's too big to fit under a chair so was half under- well, head only with 3/4 of him sticking out!! He did look funny. But I'll remember he doesn't like duck tape!

He also stands and barks at the kitchen bin if the lid is up - he just barks and barks until someone flips the lid shut!

I think spaniels can be as hard work as collies actually, Moose. This one (nice, not snappy) came to her first season and that was that. But she is in a good place now.

Yes of course you do, Lilcamper - the more the merrier!

I know what you mean mint. As you know I've not been too well. Pip has been so sweet with me. He's changed from his usual gung-ho "come on Mum, let's play" mode to coming and putting his chin him my hand or his head on my lap.

I was just thinking how extra sweet he was being when he came up and rested his chin on my shoulder yesterday - that was until after a couple of seconds, the little darling reached round my neck and yanked my ponytail! Cheeky little monkey! He was so pleased with himself too!

We've just bought a new bin. We keep ours in the back porch area and h'd learned that he could ask to be let out, wait a few seconds until we'd left the porch, then let himself back in and have a snack. He seriously doesn't like our new metal pedal bin - too clangy and it doesn't dispense treats as he believes all good bins should!

You know that if you flip the lid shut every time he barks he's never going to stop don't you? Clever Minty, has you all very well trained.

Glad she's in a good home now barbarian.

The spaniel I was talking about is show-type and absolutely tiny. I've never seen one so small. She came from a backyard breeder and has had endless health troubles. It breaks my heart.

She doesn't live with the parents, but is constantly shunted back and forth between the two houses and spends more time at the parent than she does with her owners.

She's getting on now and is always at the vets. Her owners are already talking about getting another dog - large, highly unsuitable working breed this time.

Oh sweet Pip. It will be interesting to have a 2 year old Lil, something to aim for!

Meg climbed on my lap and put an paw round each side of my neck and her head on my shoulder when I was sad the other day. How do they know? BC1 used to go and fetch his old blanket for miserable people and drape it over them. Very endearing.

Ha ha you're right Moose he does!! There's no end to his control over us - he stops our conversation mid flow by barking, gets us to leave shopping by the door and go and fuss him by barking, brings me downstairs when I'm settling DS2 into bed by barking, gets me up off the sofa by barking and on and on!

BUT you can't ignore a big deep old English sheepdog bark, you really can't. It's penetrating and we're in a semi detached. Hopefully our training is complete and he'll start to leave us alone soon!

Pip sounds so sweet and loving.

When I was a teenager and prone to bouts of desperate crying over boys/friends/random existential crisis, my dog used to sit next to me on my bed and lick my tears! We adored each other and I confided in him totally. Dogs can be so loving.