General dog chat

[BiteyShark]

Anyone fancy a general dog chat thread?

BiteyDog is now almost 15 months old and it's about time we ditched the puppy survival thread for general chit chat but it's still nice to chat about our doggie dilemmas and days so if anyone wants to join me in wittering on saves BiteyDog having the listen to my incessant talking at him then welcome aboard.

How's all the dogs coping with the snow in the northern parts? I am sick of the rain and I guess fortunate enough that BiteyDog doesn't like it much either so apart from a 20 min ball run we are snuggled up in the house today.

Hmmm I must admit I wouldn't have associated it with the 'give me space' yellow stuff. I would have just thought you wanted something bright to see her in

steppedog loves this weather, he seems impervious to cold (moves too fast)
He keeps asking to go out into the garden and just pottering round. We have hardly any snow, but lots of ice. He is standing in the middle of the frozen pond, and picks up clumps of ice in his mouth and takes it off to the lawn to have a chew!

I have been out 3 time today to change the chicken and rabbits water, as it keeps freezing. Rabbit's hutch is stuffed full of a whole bag of hay with a little hole in the middle for bunny. Chickens don't seem to care!

No snow here yet. It's due tomorrow.

I am looking forward to YoungGoldie's reaction!

Oh yes BiteyDog also seems fixated with eating chunks of frozen ice. At least he is getting some fluid in him

Snow arrived in London overnight and more was added during the day. This morning's trip around the block had him whining and suddenly limping in all four paws at once in a most theatrical way

By this afternoon PestDog managed about 20 minutes in the park before he started shivering, at which point we took the bus to Pets at Home and used it as a location for a warm sniffing walk. He kindly started his own search and 'rescue' mission for stray dog biscuits and left their floors much cleaner Beautiful as it is I would like it to melt so we can have proper walks again rather than trying to keep him entertained with short walks, snuffle mats, new tricks, new toys and indoor fetch as it's driving us both up the wall.

I am wondering whether to try a walk in the snow tomorrow or let him loose in the garden to run about whilst I watch from the warmth of the kitchen. The latter looks more attractive

Cocodog doesn’t run around the garden unless someone playing with her, she mooches and sits sniffing the air. If I don’t take her for a decent walk she will probably sit in the freezing cold with her nose wedged through the paddock gate gazing longingly over at the entrance to woods. However, currently snuggled up in bed together doing work emails -mumsnetting- -online shopping-😁

Was attempting strikethroughs - another thing to add to the list of social media ineptitude😬

just home from an amazing walk.
We are west, so have hardly had any actual snow. Started snowing this morning, lovely steady, pretty snow and bloody freezing icy wind

Was outside early sorting chickens etc and decided to take steppedog out straight away before snow got too thick/heavy.
Was just going to do a short walk, but steppedog was having such and nice time, and I was well wrapped and it was lovely, brisk and fresh and PRETTY!

Ended up being out for 1.5 hours!

My face is now glowing, I have just had a big breakfast as I got in and realised I hadn't had any, and steppedog is flat out asleep, curled up in his cinnamon roll position (that's what dd calls it)

Realised while we were walking that he has only been with us for 3 months, cannot imagine life without him, and who us but a dog walker would be mad enough to be tramping through the snow at 8 am

met a lovely lady with a brown lab and we had a good natter too.

Forecast has changed for us so no more snow expected till the evening so we went for a nice stomp in the forest which just had a small blanket of snow.

steppemum they quickly become part of the family don't they

The wind here is bitter and very strong but we don't have a lot of snow. I'm wondering what other's are doing re actual walks. We didn't have a walk yesterday and dog drove me mad all evening: up and down, in and out. She loves the cold windy whether and has been spending most evening out in the garden wandering around, eating bits of ice and digging. She hates wearing a coat as she's already got a double coat and I think a coat just makes her too hot, but she's a small long haired breed and looks so small and vulnerable with the wind blowing through her fur.

pigsDOfly my cocker wont wear a coat and he doesn't actually have a lot of fur due to us keeping his legs clipped short but also because he had his belly shaved a few months ago for ultrasounds and it only just started growing back. He feels the cold when still and starts to shake but as long as we are walking or he is running about I don't worry too much.

We went for a walk this morning as his behaviour does deteriorate without one off lead walk a day but I don't think we will venture out again today.

I think I'm going to give it a got after lunch Bitey see how we go. She'll soon let me know if she's not happy: just sits down and refuses to move.

Given that she keeps going out to the garden and sitting on the ice I'm guessing she probably isn't really feeling the cold

We are SE and have a fair bit of snow and a bitterly cold wind . I took mine to our local heath this morning expecting it to be full of children playing and it was absolutely deserted . Floraldog had a lovely time running about with his tennis ball and is now asleep in an armchair .

Good idea Floral I'm going to get her to the fields and get her running after her ball. That'll keep her nice and warm and hopefully mean she's less restless this evening; very difficult to follow the plot of 'Shetland' last night when I had to keep bobbing up and down to let her out.

I didn't take madam out yesterday. The snow was very powdery and up to her belly. She was not impressed

She hasn't been out today either as the kids are off school and I can't drag them out too. My Dh will be home soon so will attempt a walk then...not that I think she will go. She keeps looking outside at disgust and going back to bed

On the way home from the specialist with a very groggy teatimetoller

The hideously expensive MRI showed lots of inflammation around the bit of his spine where the sacral nerve comes out which the neurologist said is strongly indicative of infection. He’s on heavy duty antibiotics and painkillers for three weeks then back to the specialist to see how he’s doing. If he’s responding well then he’ll stay on the antibiotics for another two months and no exercise - outside on lead for wees/poos only - thankfully he doesn’t need cage rest but near enough - dd says she’ll teach him some new tricks.

The vet is pretty confident he will make a complete recovery though so we’re feeling much happier

noitsnotteatimeyet good news even though it sounds like it's going to be a long recovery. How do you think teatimetoller is going to take to his enforced rest?

Oh dear @Teatime. That doesn't sound pleasant for anyone in the short term, though I suppose it could be worse.

It seems brain games will be the order of the day - DD teaching him tricks is a great start (he could have quite the repertoire soon! YouTube has some great videos for it) but this group is excellent for other ideas if you haven't already joined www.facebook.com/groups/canineenrichment/

PestDog doesn't do well in the cold but given multiple short walks wherever possible, going to semi warm locations (buses, tubes, pet shop, MetroBank, coffee shop) just to get out the house, extra enrichment activities and extra trick training (currently working on a sit pretty / beg) I'm pleased that his behaviour hasn't deteriorated as much as I thought it would.

Oh no. Hoping the antibiotics kick in soon.

We got out for a good hour this morning when there was just a sprinkling. Also met cocodogs mentor whilst out (9 year old GSP) so they had a little play and Coco was reminded again “time to grow up a bit, dear”😀 I love meeting that dog. Snow is falling fast and furious now and Coco is very puzzled by it. Pretty sure we will be out again later particularly since she has been asleep on my lap for the past hour and a half. Wish I had a dog that hated the cold and wet🙃
Noitsnotteatimeyet, glad you know what’s wrong now and he is being treated.

We have thick snow here now and BiteyDog decided he wasn't going far and peeded right outside the patio doors. I guess I should be grateful that he did it outside

Feeling very sorry for himself - our boiler’s not working either which isn’t helping...

Poor cold baby!
We did an hour this morning and madam played with a golden retriever. She's slept all day!

Hope he gets well soon teatime , and I hope you get your boiler working soon .