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.

Actually we solved the barking problem. He was barking at one particular fence and I assumed the neighbours were in the garden over the weekend - then I noticed he was crouching while barking like he does at the ironing board. Sure enough the whirly washing line thing was collapsed and leaning up against the fence - it was that! As soon as I moved it, he stopped barking. What a doughnut!

Harry sounds great fun on walks and what a find!!

We've had 2 working cockers. One who was quite disobedient but in a quiet way. Our current cocker is quite obedient but can be an absolute pain in the arse. He is ball crazy and will drop a ball in my lap 24/7 quite happily.

Teenage dogs are challenging arent they?

needa at the KFC snaffling. Cheeky boy!

mint, last night when I let Lurcherboy out last thing he barked at something, but I couldn't see what, so called him in, as last time it was a clearly terrifying hedgehog.

Let Pip out this morning, he stood nervously in the middle of the lawn staring up the garden towards the park. He often does this if there's a dog barking in the park, but eventually plucks up courage to get on with whatever he has to do, so thought nothing of it. Looked out the window again a few minutes later - he was still there, with his tail between his legs, then he suddenly came flying to the back door where he frantically tried to get in whilst constantly looking up the garden obviously terrified. Went outside ... it was a football that next door's kids had kicked over. It had the audacity of being somewhere he'd never seen a football before and also dared to be silver and reflecting the sunlight - daft dog.

I am child free - dd and ds2 have both gone back to school, so just waiting for my shopping delivery, then heading out for a lovely walk. Shame the sun seems to have deserted us today though.

The sun came out! Started off the walk in rain, so lovely empty park all to ourselves, then halfway round the sun came out and we've just spent a lovely hour doing tonnes of recall practice, ball chasing and pmail reading (and delivery ) - well Lurcherboy has, Pip is still restricted to lead walks only.

Had to hold onto Pip by his harness as he was so raring to go when Lurcherboy was off running he was leaping about like a spring lamb. I put Lurcherboy back on the lead and let Pip off, but he immediately leaped on Lurcherboy's head and hurt his shoulder again. Every time it seems better he does something daft and sets it off again. No common sense these pups.

Now that spring is supposed to be here, we have extensions being built all round us, timber buildings being put up at the end of gardens, trees being lopped, hedges being cut, chainsaws etc etc. Add to that the barking of my lab at all these assumed intruders it is like a madhouse during daylight hours! I have trained him to come in from barking when I call 'Quiet', he then expects a treat, I am now worried I have taught him to chain ie he barks, I call, he responds, gets a treat. Does this encourage barking? I need a long walk in the woods to clear my head!

If he's doing responding every time punter, put him on an intermittent reinforcement schedule, so he doesn't get a treat every time. Vary the treats you give him from some affection eg a quick ear scratch, to the occasional jackpot and sometimes nothing at all, especially if he doesn't come immediately.

Some clever dogs do learn that if they do the negative behaviour they will get rewarded for stopping on cue. The best way to deal with that is to just ignore the barking and then surprise them with a reward for stopping of their own accord. Then you can start to add in an appropriate cue as they will associate the cue with the stopping, not the barking, iyswim.

It's pouring down here again. I can't keep up with this weather. I feel like I am constantly going coat on, coat off, coat on, coat off.

I love the idea of doggy activity holidays - now just trying to work out how I'd manage to persuade dh and the boys they'd like to go on one

Ah now you see, I would definitely want to go on one without dh or the dcs. A whole week of dog related activities and no dcs - bliss.

Ds would need no persuading on doggy activity holiday!

We had a lovely walk in the sunshine and shower weather today too. Dh was off so we drove to the woods for a good ferret around. Maz has had a good few days as qe met his dog buddies for 1st time in an age yesterday too.

Tomorrow is going to be trickier. Ds has just spectacularly thrown up and is now in bed watching stampy on youtube He is only 8 so too young to leave home alone. I've text my mum to see if she can spare us an hour to sit with him. I was meant to be doing a quick swap with dh and going out as he came in tomorrow night. Typical, it is ds's first day off in over a year!

Good old mum to the rescue She can only spare me an hour but thats great.

fan, hope ds is feeling better and you managed to get your walk with Maz.

We had another lovely walk with the park almost to ourselves today. Think I will go at that time more often. Actually it was really well timed, as we've had a massive thunder and lightning storm with torrential rain since we got back - just in time for the school run as usual.

Lurcherboy was really naughty today - hyper excited and not paying attention, although fortunately it wasn't a problem as we had the place to ourselves. It wasn't until the storm started that I remembered the last time I had a walk where he behaved like that was just after we lost Oldgirl. We had gone for a really long walk encompassing road work, the meadows, woods and our favourite park, when everything went still, the sky went black and we were literally trying to outrun a massive storm as it came across the sky towards us. Now thinking he must have been reacting to the storm, as he was so good yesterday and his behaviour was strikingly similar. Makes sense I suppose, wild animals react to approaching storms, why not dogs?

Our old lab was terrified of storms - if she even suspected there was going to be thunder she would get really antsy - the one good thing about her going deaf in old age as she stopped being so worried

Oldgirl was like that about fireworks and thunder. She went deaf quite young as a result of constant ear infections caused by malassezia (sp?) and to be honest it was a blessing. She calmed down so much once she was deaf, it made us realise how sound sensitive she must have been.

Lurcherboy wasn't scared in the slightest - he was fruit loop! He slept through the actual storm.

Pip didn't bat an eyelid at the storm either, even though it was directly overhead, really loud and we had really close flashes lighting up the room. Seems the sound effects CD we used when he was small was worth the money after all.

Ds is better today but obviously I kept him off to avoid the further spread. He was in his element as it appears his friend was also off ill and also has a mother who is soft as a brush as the spent about 6 hours on X box live chatting and playing minecraft. I'll let him off just this once.

My mum called on her way home and let Maz and I escape for a swift bomb round the park.

Maz isn't bothered by storms. We managed to get ourselves stuck at the park in a mammoth thunder storm last summer. I had gone out in a little cotton dress and had to walk home after it stopped looking like we'd jumped in a lake with everyone laughing at us!

Fireworks are a different story and it is one of those situations that I hate myself for as it is my fault They'd been going off for days round us and he'd not battered an eyelid at all. So we trotted round to my mums to let off a few fireworks and I automatically just took him as I always do. Again he was indoors and not bothered but at some point a rocket was lwt off close to the conservatory. Someone opened the door and Maz was in there so he heard the whoosh nearby and was petrified It reminds me off the time when ds was a small toddler and playing up about a hairwash and I lost my rag and just tipped a jug over him...you know those moments where someting small happens but you'd trade anything to take that moment back because of the heartache the fallout causes? One was 2 years of abject fear of hair washing and the other a dog who quakes at fireworks. I ended up inside with a dog inside my dress for the rest of the night. So wish I'd just stayed at home that night He'd been his usual self and I took in for granted that he'd be okay inside

Fan - you'll have to let yourself off the hook for those things! Not exactly intentional - I've had those 'jug tipping over head' moments too!

Poor dogs though being spooked by the storm. Our storm came at 5am and dog slept through which is more than me and DS2 managed.

I was so tired I went onto automatic parenting this afternoon - you know the type? DS2 was rattling on about a book he wants to buy called Goblins V Dragons and I said "ok well we'll look tomorrow, is it fiction or non-fiction?". He looked at me sideways and said "dragons? You know? Made up stuff?" Duh I need to engage my brain more - it's one delightful thing about dogs - they just accept you being a ninny without requiring decent conversation!

I know I can't change time so no point agonising over it now...but I can't help the internal cringe when I think about my own numptiness!

I fall victim to those parenting moments several times a day. The only converations I can get out of ds at the moment that aren't about minecraft are the practical ones! I find myself replying in vaguely affirmative noises far too often whilst being mentally absent I have also been known to strop in a thats it, if it isn't actually real, in the real world now, we cannot mention it for the next hour kind of way!

Fan, we all have moments like that. Don't beat yourself up about it, we're only human.

I do get more than one type of conversation with ds1 at the moment, unfortunately it's either Minecraft or computer programming. I have perfected the glaze and nod thing now, although it doesn't matter really, as I can be yawning stretching and exaggerated pulling I'm bored faces and he wouldn't notice. I like your 'if it's not in the real world we can't mentioned it for an hour' idea, might steal that one!

Mint, who says dragons aren't real - keep the dream alive, that's what I say.

I am going out - without any kids or dogs today! Dsis is on her own for the weekend, so she ordered me to take a break and go shopping with her.

Nearly backed-out as ds2 is really struggling this morning, he has really bad abdo pain and is currently yelling and crying in a warm bath. Think it's bad constipation. He suffered really badly when he was younger - all related to his hypermobility - hasn't for years now, but his hypermobility problems have been really bad through his latest growth spurt.

Dh has told me I have to go though. I know he'll look after ds, but it doesn't feel right to be going out and leaving him when he's in so much distress. Hopefully the Movicol will kick in soon and he'll be ok by the time I leave.

Dh was supposed to be walking the dogs while I was out and the dcs were at Pokemon League. Might have to walk them myself when I get back now if ds2 isn't well enough to go.

Hey, we all have parenting moments that we inwardly beat ourselves up about. We are human. I am finding guiding a DD through the whole teenager phase is the hardest thing of all parenting so far, trying to steer through the friendship thing, the diet thing, the make up thing, the boyfriend thing, the balance between mum and friend.

DS is much simpler And both have gone past the 'auto parent' response!

Have a lovely day off moose, it will do you good.

Harry's only worry is the vet, which I understand. I do keep meaning to try and go to the waiting room and just sit and treat, but life gets in the way too often.

Talking of Harry - he was great at agility on Thursday, apart from stopping to wee on the tunnel... arrggghhh!! He also caught and killed his first baby rabbit yesterday on our walk. He dived into some bushes, I heard an awful squeal and he popped up again with it in his mouth.

Remarkably, he 'dropped and left it', all for a dry dog biscuit! I know he's doing what comes naturally, but I felt dreadful.

My oldest dog is a loon, but a character

Harry sounds great Needa, lots of fun. But a dogs a dog so we've got to expect a few squeamish moments! I would hate that happening though as I'd have to somehow get stuck in and finish the job if it wasn't quite done and I don't know how I'd cope with that bit. Hard enough wacking mackerel over the head with a wooden pole during fishing trips when I was younger but baby rabbits - ooh dear.

Agility sounds brilliant fun. Do you leave Hector at home? Can't imagine a puppy watching! Do either of your kids go?

My teenage son has lost interest in all but the cuddling/chilling side of dog ownership, though I make him walk every now & then but DS2 loves all the training, chatting, analysing and especially saying hello & chatting to other dogs and their owners. Often longer than me!

Glad harry has taken to agility so well. I think I have been raw feeding too long because if Maz caught a rabbit my first thought would be can I fit that it the freezer No chance there though as he pays furries little attention. He is keen to bag himself a bird though and keeps chasing crows despite being the same size as some of them. I'm glad he can't catch them.as I am not sure I'd bet against them!

Hope your ds is better Moose.

I live in fear of one of mine catching a rabbit, given that's what they were designed to do and they're both very fast. Not sure how I'd handle it.

Ds is much better thanks fan. Mothers' Day was a bit of a damp squib here, dh hadn't bothered to get me anything, so I ended up having to pick up something for the dcs to give me while I was in town yesterday. Then ds1 sealed it by being a royal pain in the rear, plus homework related meltdowns.

Still, we had a nice Sunday lunch and then managed a lovely walk at one of our favourite parks. Pip played with two Cockerpoos, one the same age as him one younger and said hello nicely to several other dogs, but did bark a little at a very old Lab that was staring at him intently - he hates being stared at.

I took him to the other side of the field to where dh, the dcs and Lurcherboy were and let him off - he was a sight to behold streaking across the field to get back to them, I do love watching sighthounds in full flight. I think he needs to develop a better braking system though - well actually developing a breaking system would be an improvement. It's no wonder he gets so many injuries. I was so pleased when I blew the whistle just after he arrived back with dh and he turned tail and shot straight back to me, right across the field. Clever boy got a whole tray of catfood for his trouble and was pleased as punch with himself.

Oh - and as you may have sussed from all that, his leg is finally better and he's one very happy pup to be finally allowed off-lead again.

I definitely have plenty of parenting fail moments (both human and animal) .. This morning one of the cats jumped up onto the worktops and knocked off a large metal baking tray left out by dd after making me Mother's Day cookies - I shouted at the cat (completely futile gesture) who ignored me totally. However the combination of clattering metal and me shouting was too much for my sensitive puppy who has been flinching at the slightest noise ever since

Dd helpfully pointed out that I shouldn't have shouted at the cat ....

A similar story in our house tonight BB - I hadn't quite thought about what a bad idea it would be to leave minty with nibbles on the coffee table! We had family round for drinks to celebrate DS2s birthday and while I was in the kitchen my mum came in sadly holding a bowl of olives, saying minty shoved his nose in and rummaged about in the bowl before anyone could reach him!

My fault but dog got the blame to start with!

Dpup hideously early in the morning (but the light was beautiful)

He's started losing his undercoat - I'm getting handfuls and handfuls of pale orange fluff from him every day - he's started to look a bit thin

Lovely picture basil. Fitz is looking so grown up now - and really handsome.

My new phone has arrived, so I might be able to post some up to date pictures of puppy-longlegs soon.