Does anyone fancy a teenage dog survival thread?

[MistySparrow]

Maybe the people on the puppy survival thread would like to hide this one! Anyone else got their hands full?

Foxes I feel like I should get shares in and to get me through the next 6 months :)

If it wasn't for the fact that he is lovely at home I would have gone crazy by now as our walks are stressful. The latest is chasing every bird he sees

I bloody lost her!!!

Iv been taking hormono hound out ridiculously late due to her season and letting her have a crazy run at the local rec. Dark, hedgerow enclosed and no boy dogs about all good for the first three nights alternating between this and just a road walk (incase any crazy mad men are watching my routines) only this time she vanished. One minute she was there, snuffling and cavorting about then she was gone. Not responding to calling and whistling, no sounds at all - usually you can hear crunching and snorting. 20 minutes with my rubbish phone torch looking for her - i even shoved myself through a small gap in the hedge and fell down a ditch full of nettles incase she had made it through to the road (country lane but still traffic even at that time).

Just as i was about to phone my DH to rouse the grandparents to come and sit with sleeping boy the little so and so appeared at the top of the rec covered in mud and happy as Larry. She was taken home at speed and accompanied by muttered curses. She had better not have been out meeting boys - no one around and she has stopped lifting her tail so hopefully she was just digging.

got home and had cake

jugotmail that is my worst nightmare due to selective deafness on recall but at least I have a boy.

Is it worth seeing if the vet can give anything to stop possible pregnancy. Probably nothing happened but might be worth it for peace of mind.

Oh Bitey it was horrid - walking up the road in the dark thinking I might find a crumpled pile of fur. She has been sooo good since, prehaps it gave her a scare too.

Gone back to mad lead training and rewarding - back to basics. My pockets smell of dog chocs and duck strips but its working her brain which is all good.

oooh I get terrified just reading about that jugo, must have been terrifying. We are back on the long lead for my sanity! he has been quite good but as we get to the park and he can taste freedom he shoots off straight away (he has come back everytime but it's still terrifying)

Bitey - Mine chases birds too and the black crows are the worst as they tend to fly low and just tease him, just F the f off and let me get my dog

Jugotmail, poor you...I get stressed enough in broad daylight never mind having to walk after dark. Are you fairly near the end of her season do you think?
We had a good walk this morning out in the open again, I want a few successes now before attempting apple orchard or woods walk and then will be using the long line. Although I stayed fairly calm yesterday pup knew she was in trouble. She cuddled up to DH last night and kept giving me the soulful eyes treatment.
One new thing today which I am not sure what to think about. Cocopup rarely barks, have only heard her play growl with other pups. She is good natured to people and loves other dogs. We stopped by the park this morning and she got quite possessive about her squeaky ball. Not with the lab she often socialises with but with another older lab who ambled off quite happily when she gave him a warning growl and a bit of an air snap. I use the ball to keep her attention on me when there are other dogs about but I don't want her getting aggressive if another dog approaches.

Mixed day for me.

This mornings walk started ok, did several recalls and he turned and ran to me each time then decided near the end that he wasn't going to come back to a recall. I have to say my patience had gone and when he finally could be bothered to return he was back on the lead and we walked home with me calling him several names inside my head

This afternoons walk I decided to take him somewhere completely new as he tends to stick with me if he hasn't been there beforehand. There was hardly any trees so I could see him at all times and we spent 30 mins mainly with me running away from him in a game of chase to finish on a high. The recalls we did he was perfect for .

Hi Cocobananas - that might be a 'getting older' thing, with the ball. Poodle boy is very good generally with other dogs and, like your pup, only ever play growled at them. When he got to about 9 months or so, we noticed that he became more assertive with other dogs if they did something he didn't like eg tried to take his ball, got too close to 'his' treats . This has only ever manifested itself with growling and the occasional snap and this generally gets the message across quite clearly! I wonder if it is just about them maturing and feeling more confident about communicating how they feel to other dogs? With our pup, it has never escalated beyond those warnings and he only behaves like that if he doesn't like something - otherwise he's his normal, friendly self (ie friendly sniff, runs in mad, zooming circles to see if the other dog will join in, then comes back for more sniffing if they don't!)

Foxes do you think they know when they have passed from pup to teenage and that they can now start to give the warning growls etc? Adult dogs all seem to know when its a puppy and show lots of tolerance and behave differently in my experience so they must "know" when they get to a certain age the rules change slightly

jugotmail probably all due to hormone levels. In dogs the testosterone rises high in young males then gradually falls to adult levels. Perhaps as puppies the adults realise hormones low and no threat but as teenage hormones rise they become a 'threat' etc whilst all that teenage angst is making our puppies react back.

Jugot - that's happened to me but in the daytime. Can't imagine how scared you were at night. I thought it might have taught my dog a lesson but it really didn't so don't rely on that!

My dog is now very nearly 2 and he's definitely massively improved over the last couple of months. Well, I say that but he's currently jumping on and off the sofa with a hollow rubber ball

Hi bitey, new is good for us and open so I can see her, although we do more find it games when out in open fields. Morning walks tend to be more varied, park, lanes, training, other dogs, afternoon are more open field and woods when we need a trial...can you do it yet you silly mutt...cos you really love it BUT only if you can recall... will get there.
Have also realised she loves us cooking in the evening with some music on...Emily Sante current favourite.
Foxes, thank you...was a bit concerned cos she seems to be a total softie but obviously is starting to assert herself a bit.
Jugotmail, think we have passed pup, so get out of jail card, am wondering what will happen next because she seems so agreeable . Obviously not around squeaky balls!

My lovely lab girl and I walked with a couple of grumpy JRTs last week. One of them has aggression issues and it was touch and go whether he would be allowed off the lead. But we gave it a go and fortunately his shortness of leg prevented him mauling my hooligan. They settled quickly and had a good long walk. She has much more respect for new dogs as a result so it was easier to stop her belting off when we were out for a walk yesterday. I have realised that yelling "no" stops her in her tracks. The whistle however is a work in progress!

Willdoit, stopping her in her tracks is good, at the moment I would only use whistle when she is on her way back anyway to create good associations. With Cocopup I am finding on her regular walks with no livestock around I just melt into background for a bit and when she appears I walk swiftly in another direction to keep her thinking. Good god, having to outthink a spaniel cross😆

I took my dog on the walk to school with the kids today to tire him out so he would behave during the day.

He hated them going ahead and would whine and bark.
He pulled on the lead constantly, even once we had dropped them off. I am 33 weeks pregnant and not enjoying being pulled about or having to haul him back to heel.

But on the way back we went a different route, through a park and I let him off his lead. He was no bother then! Frolicked about happily, only getting up to about 10 metres away before turning back to 'check in' with me. I had a sit down on a park bench for a while while he played. He was good as gold.

We've now been home an hour and he shows no signs of settling down and going to sleep. He's been in the yard twice, he's barked at anyone getting too close to the house, he's pulled my hair trying to climb on the back of the armchair behind me, he's wandered about the living room a lot, he's been chewing up a blanket etc etc. Occasionally he will lie down but if I so much as look at him he's up and alert.

If I leave the room before he's properly relaxed he'll either see what he can destroy while I'm not there or constantly cry for me. I can't get anything done!

Kitsandkids I either place mine in a crate for 5 mins to calm him down but often he will fall asleep as he is manic if he is fighting a snooze. I also have a few chewy food options that keeps him occupied for up to an hour so I can do some cleaning without finding he had been searching through the bins or counter surfing

jugotmail and Bitey, I do think it's all about hormones. Pups are maturing and finding their confidence with other dogs. The only other dogs that poodle boy seems to not love are other unneutered males - go figure! He is not aggressive with them but he tends to be less tolerant of them (and they of him) and they do appear to size each other up before deciding if they are going to get on.

Bitey, can you share your chewy food options please. Ours chews on antlers but only for a few mins at a time. I have some marrowbones in the freezer which I think would keep her occupied for longer but I am worried about her breaking teeth on such a hard bone. We bought a chewing root...but she looks at me as if to say...why would I want to chew up a brick🙄

For the first time I was nervous of another dog yesterday. He was a big husky type dog and his owners was shouting to try to get him to come back but he came right up and stood over pup who was on the lead. There was a few second songs when he didn't move a muscle just stared down at pup who was in a very submissive pose. The tension was palpable. Then he growled pup whimpered and all the tension left. I'm normally good at not letting my feelings go down the lead but I was really quite nervous and I think pup knew it. The owner was all "he's fine and friendly, all you have to do is rub him" and he never growls that's so unlike him". To be honest it wasn't the growl I was worried about it was the still tension that raised my hackles.
Anyway pup seems unperturbed as this morning she launched herself across the field to fling herself at some other dogs like a loon, even the big bouncy lab didn't know what to do with her so much for the recent progress I thought I'd made on recall.

Cocobananas

From millieswolfheart.co.uk in the treats section the beef head chews used to last literally all day but I think he has now mastered how to eat them because they now take 1-2 hours. Warning, they do stink a bit when they are chewing them.

The air dried cows ears last him around 1 hour. I like them because they don't stink as much and are not fatty unlike pigs ears.

I am also about to try some of their other chewy options (they tend to put chewy/very chewy on the things that last a reasonable time)

I too find antlers are chewed now only occasionally as he sees them as a toy and he doesn't want to play with toys much now.

Coco, I get lamb neck from the butcher it keeps pup busy for about 30 mins and it is really cheep!

Thanks bitey, I will order some beef head chews. Used to have bulls pizzle sticks that lasted well but she suddenly refused to touch them ( perhaps she overheard where they come from).
Thanks wolf, ducks necks, lamb ribs etc take her five mins to chew through. I think she must be quite a strong chewer which is funny because she has never chewed a single thing in the house or her bed or any of the usual pup antics. Although tennis balls get ripped to shreds in seconds and she did chew through the air bag cables in DHs van.

This thread is so reassuring. I'm glad I'm not the only one to see another dog misbehaving and think ""woohoo! It's not me this time! "

Giraffe I'd get a soft toy especially for the dog, whether it's designed for pooches or not. Otherwise he will associate the smell attached to all your child's toys as meaning they're his toys. If that makes sense.

This is how a mad humping/biting pillows usually endshe was kindly helping me sorting out the clean washing

Yoko, I'm being "helped" to do the decorating