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.

Sorry - they allow dogs uncrated!

We used to take our family dog when I was a teenager and my mum and I walked him locally/pottered while my dad went off on long solo hikes with his sandwiches in his backpac! There are loads of dog friendly walks as lots of forestry commission land so no sheep/lambs there.

Pubs also very dog friendly so maybe we could be out as a family more than I'd imagined.

Sounds like perhaps going halves is a possibility or how about telling the boys you can only do a weekend (if they'll take short break bookings) if Minty comes too?

That sounds the right idea- you won't get the time back.
Maybe by next year you can share a cottage again- Minty will be more steady by then hopefully.

You might still consider teaching Meg's name trick. Maybe the boys could do it.

DH doesn't think we can ask my parents to half fund a second cottage when they already pay the annual maintenance fee and then open it up to all 4 of us freely! He has felt slightly awkward since we had kids that we invade the place with our noise, muddy boots, cycle helmets etc and then apparently I tend to share out the child-related jobs amongst all four adults

So I can see his point though my parents always say they love having us there. No way we can afford a week but they do part weeks so I'm going to explore that.

And local dog sitting. The thing is I wouldn't mind upping the daily walks and doing two big ones assuming minty would then sleep in between and in the evening. But I think he's too young for that (maybe I should ask vet) and when he was younger we worked out that he was most hyper when he was over stimulated. His trouble has always been locating his off button - he tends to have a silly hour in evening just when me and DH are sitting down to relax and he'll leap around, bring toys to be thrown, bark at us, then finally settle and flop at our feet - but it will be 9pm by then and my dad is going to bed at 9 nowadays.

Maybe we need to spend the next few weeks working on a down command to my dads name and more self control around playing/ settling in evening. I find training him easy when it's just me and him but even one extra person in room has him all excited and skittish.

Really not wanting to place a downer on any ideas of taking him mint.but really think long and hard (and I know you are ).

I'm just thinking of how my grandad was in the last year. I saw very little of him as he couldn't even cope with toddler ds. I know he would have struggled with dog.

I know the idea is perfection meaning you all go together (my destination plans have moved from padstow to filey to better suit the dog!) but this could be very important time with your dad too.

I think I'd only do it if there was a way round having the dog in their house else I think your nerves will be shot.

I know fan I get what you're saying.

I am worried about us trying the training route and finding it goes well at home but less well in a new place especially if I'm tired after the journey. It's our first car journey with dog and as this is the first year my dad can't drive we are trying to persuade my mum that me and DH will share the driving of their car with her so me and DH will be doing more driving than usual, plus dog issues. Me being tired is a worry as I'm the one the dog listens to most.

But my mum keeps saying "it'll all be fine, we can't leave minty behind" and she is insistent that he's part of the family now. But she is a big dog person and she doesn't get that my dad is not, she's not being unkind to my dad, just thinks he should enjoy 'normal' life without lots of change.

So I'm stuck between kids/mum and dad with DH unsure too. DH thinks we could make our bedroom the dogs domain as the cottage is on a hill so you can access bedrooms by climbing short hill and going in top door so no stairs. But he settles less well without us - he really needs company not bring shut in a room. He lives in our kitchen and it works fine because there's always someone in the kitchen and when my dad comes for tea he stays behind stair gate and we eat in another room.

Could the big compromise be that someone stays in the bedroom with him at all times other than mealtimes? With the kids taking turns too?

I know it isn't ideal but I think a perfect solution is going to be hard

Yes I can see that we would need someone responsible at all times - maybe we could use his indoor lead all time (currently use it if he jumps at someone) but it could always be on and someone tasked to hold/train him
All time that he isn't lying sleeping.

Sorry to dominate and thank you for some really good ideas - let's chat about something else now!!

Hope you manage to come up with a solution that works for all involved Mint.

Pip has had two lots of pills and eyedrops and has been a right pain-in-the-rear all morning! He must have been feeling rough poor thing, but other than intermittently pink eyes (which we thought were probably an allergy) there was no clue he was poorly. I daftly thought he was maturing a bit and that's why he'd been a touch calmer than usual.

Feel like such a bad owner, especially as Lurcherboy has the same thing and it's more than likely that's what's behind his odd behaviour.

My only excuse is that I have been ill for weeks now and perhaps if I'd been well and more on the ball I'd have spotted it myself. Still feel awful about it though.

Mint (will shut up after this!)
What about one of those hands-free cross body leads for indoors? And anchor him with a boy? You could start getting him/them used to it before you go.

Get well soon, the Moooses! at bad owner!

Dh has also gone down with nasty cold and is convinced that both him and dogs caught it off me.

Typical male reaction Moose! Doesn't sound like you could possibly have spotted that type of illness in Pip if red eyes/slight oddness were the only symptoms!

I've never seen cross body lead free harness but I'll look online, thanks.

Barbarian - just learnt a bit about salsa dancing there during my search for 'cross body lead'!! But I did change it for leash and get there in the end. I'll shut up about this soon too - looks good and has got me thinking that maybe we could get his harness out and start training him that in the sitting room at home, harness goes on, attached to chair leg say and his job is to settle. Maybe I could clicker train him to settle when harness is on? That and really sharp control though Megs down command might make a big difference.

How you doing Moose with your dog walker? She sounds so much better than some out there judging by the dog walking thread.

Give yourself a break Moose! You're a fantastic down owner by the sounds of it, have had a lot to cope with recently, they'll be fine

mint - sorry, I have missed contributing to the situation, I hope you get it sorted, it's hard that you are juggling that many folks wishes at the same time.

moose - give over, you are a fab owner, and hindsight is a wonderful thing. At least you knew to consider a medical reason first before going down the behaviour route.

Puppy party for Hector today, who spent almost the entire time under a chair, venturing out sporadically to sniff bums!

He's a lot shyer with dogs than Harry, although has no issue at all with any sort of person that I can introduce him to, but I need to up the ante with other dogs. Trying hard, we are meeting lots of dogs daily but I know I don't have all that long to keep going with this before 16 weeks.

So, I took them to the public park again and he was quite brave with 4/5 new dogs, shy sniffs of bums.

Harry was manic, having had so little exercise and knocked the scab off his paw, just superficial though thankfully. Revved up by the lady with the labradoodle who has no recall whatsoever but still lets her off lead, steals my dogs toys and chasing them all over the park, rolling Hector twice.

Did meet another couple with a small terrier, who bent down to pet the puppy and Harry ran up and stole his hat, I was mortified!! This has stemmed from DH thinking this is hilarious to let him do this to himself... luckily he did drop on command. The guy just laughed though thankfully.

Then, Harry ran over to a stone monument where this poor toddler had scattered loads of bread for the birds and stole some of the bread. He did recall on command, but with a huge mouthful of bread and a devastated toddler.

Told you, it would be me the next walk!!

Sounds a hilarious day for you needa! You're going to have great fun with those two.

I wouldn't worry about hector - as long as he's seeing dogs daily he'll gradually come out his shell. He's got big brother a protector too!

We've had a lovely walk today, for the first time the flag was down on the ranges so I could walk up there. It's totally fenced in and acres of heather and woods for mcsquidgygorgeousness as Finn is nicknamed to bounce around in. Felt so lucky this afternoon, beautiful weather and the sound of birdsong and my little loon bouncing through the heather.

We only saw one other person who had a very dignified dog with an elegant coat who looked utterly disgusted at this scruffy collie leaping around the heather like a jack in a box after a crate of red bull! He didn't go near her though so all was well.

You are all too kind. I am a long way from the perfect owner - but I do try my best.

Needa, you sound like you've had a fun filled day! Our best friend's brother is a gamekeeper and trained his first Working Cocker to leap up and take people's hats off on cue - it was his party trick and very popular by all accounts.

Lots of my dogs have started off under chairs at puppy classes. Oldgirl famously ran under a stack of about 100 metal church hall chairs at her first class and didn't come out until everyone had gone and there was only the trainer with her Border Collie pup (Oldgirl's best mate) left. The next two weeks were similar, but thankfully with her under our chair instead of the big stack. She soon came round, although was never all that fussed by other dogs. She had great communication skills, never had a cross word with another dog in all her 14 years and would generally say a nice hello, but that was it - she preferred to ignore other dogs if not approached. Bloody great from a dog walking perspective, as she never ran off after other dogs or got into altercations.

I was laughing this week in relation to needa's post from a few days ago about poo bags everywhere - even in work bags - I was at a work meeting yesterday rummaging about in my bag for a small thing of post-it stickers - came across a little scrunched up sandwich bag with few scraps of old sausage chunks in! Must have been from weeks ago so glad no one noticed any smell emanating from me! Or maybe they did and too polite to say.

Just changed minty over to Simpsons salmon and potato after researching whichdogfood website and finding a fantastic indep dog shop where the owner is trained in dog nutrition and only stocks really good makes. So will see if it calms minty down as his previous food was science plan which is full of maize.

Mint please tell me what the new food is- we need to change here too. Hard to know where to begin but Meg is turning up her whiskers at Burns (she is 50/50 kibble/proper food) and very far from calm.

PS those cross shoulder leashes- saw them being used at puppy class- have never tried them myself though.

Mooses, hope you are all feeling much better.

Have taken Fitz to vet this morning for his op - poor little thing bounded into the surgery as they always make a big fuss of him and give him treats - wonder if he'll be so keen next time??

Barbarian - we are trying Simpsons puppy sensitive salmon and potato. We are aiming for the Simpsons 80/20 meat/veg (it's all grain free) but shop owner thinks we need to use this one first as it's lower protein so is a step in between the Science plan and Simpsons that we are aiming for.

The owner has an 11 mth old lurcher that she rescued from Ireland (or from a UK rescue that had brought the lurcher puppy over from a rescue in Ireland where it was about to be PTS) and he was used to scraps so very underweight. She has built him up using Simpsons puppy, now Simpsons adult and really rates it highly. Her lurcher is gorgeous so clearly it's working.

Why are you changing Meg?

Poor Fitz. What time will you get him back?

Changing Meg just because she only eats it as a last resort and I feel sorry for her! (I know, I know, but in the interests of research I tried a bit myself and I could see exactly what she meant).