General Dog Chat Part II

[BiteyShark]

A place for nattering about our canine friends.

Old or new, feel free to come and chat any time

@ealing - your post reminded me of when I was a kid, we lived in Ealing and I used to walk our dog on Ealing Common. (and the bugger never, ever came back when I called him)

Yes we are lucky, we live in a town which has dire horrible town centre. It is a town that is always joked about on panel shows, but most of it has been built in the last 30 years and they have worked hard to build in paths and cycle ways and small parks. So in the car I live near the centre of large unattractive town, but round the back on the footpaths I can literally go for miles and miles weaving through housing estates on linking green spaces, along a canal, through a big park etc. And we do have the nature reserve, a surprising space, about 2km x1 km, totally wild in the middle of town.

Ah steppermum; how lovely to hear this was your childhood home. I think EC will have changed very little since; and still sends dogs crazy with its long grass areas!

Being from the West Midlands originally, I can understand that once stepping out of the town vicinities; the landscape changes incredibly. Newish town or not; your dog has the best of both worlds; and any town centre/High St is not as it’s best these days regardless of where it is.

But that’s a whole different thread altogether!

We live on the corner of a rural lane right opposite woods and loads of footpaths around but an awful lot of livestock and wildlife. I vary our walks according to the season, for eg, avoiding where the young pheasants are kept in shooting season or sticking mainly to the woods in lambing season. Once a week we take cocodog into a big park in our nearest town, plenty of trails and a few squirrels but no deer etc. It is a walk we really look forward to and in terms of learning her doggy manners and to be calm around joggers, excited kids, prams etc has been great. So I think town and countryside can offer equally much, congealed vomit aside(thanks for that avocados😂).

Ah we don't get the vomit round here but my poor dog day care lady had to wrestle a decaying deers head of BiteyDogs mouth a few months back [boak]

I think Steppedog and SquirrelDog are definitely related! He also has to make do with me hiding him down in the garden.

Hiding? Hosing. I got distracted by himself appearing at the top of the stairs with my pyjamas.

During evening walkies I found PestDog drinking from what can only be described as a fetid swamp, hidden within long grass.

After coming home, the furry little idiot has been making wretching noises and is now sat on my lap whining softly I'm not sure I'd want to bet on us getting through the night without him vomiting on the bed

Oh crap. Have you got anything to settle tummies?
One of the reasons I'm glad mine sleeps on vet fleece in a pen downstairs (giant pups can't do stairs!) She once swallowed most of a turkey neck and it made an overnight reappearance.
Dogs are grim!

--I haven't got any dog first aid stuff at all, truth be told. Even my human kit is a bit useless unless you want a thermometer where the batteries may have run out, some out of date vitamin C tablets and codeine the hospital dispensed ages ago.

He's clearly not a happy dog - he's panting and whining simultaneously--

Scratch the above, when I was midway through writing this post I discovered what was actually going on. He'd drunk so much delicious fetid swamp water that he really needed to pee, less than two hours after getting in from evening walkies. How did I discover this? A warm, wet feeling on my lap Took him outside and he peed rivers.

Totally out of character - he routinely holds it for 10-12 hours - and by some miracle the whining has stopped

Hopefully the nasties have left his system.
I have a varied collection of stuff.
Leucillin and iodine and salt to make saline for washing.
Tick remover. Somewhere. I think!
Trimmex after a disasterous claw clipping
Colloidal silver
A million and one things that promised (and failed) to treat a sore foot
Piriton.
Meant to buy some stomach soothing stuff but my cupboards are a bit bunged!

It's not been a good week for first aid with him - especially not after he ended up with a very minor puncture wound on his muzzle, delivered by an underwalked and undertrained border collie (handler, who was not the owner, had told me so) who decided he wanted the ball that was in PestDog's mouth. Hauling a soaking wet collie (pond water) off my dog is totally ideal, obviously

After realising that this is a dog with more toys than a lot of children (I should be taking out shares in Kong) I'll be moving onto the first aid kit next

He's currently flat out asleep on my bed, so I'm 90% certain that the only real nasty was a vast quantity of liquid. I suppose I was right about bodily fluids being emitted tonight, but wrong in the finer details...

Better a pee outside than a vomit on the bed. Isn't that a Confucius quotation?
So far this week I quicked her a tiny bit when nail trimming
She ended up with a mouth full of blood. Rough nylabone or I hurt her when I took it out of her mouth?
The foot is still red and sore looking but not actually bothering her.
Actually not entirely looking forward to a walk tomorrow. What else can go wrong?!?!

Well, apart from the large puddle on my legs! And to think those jeans were clean on yesterday...

Hope the rest of the early hours was uneventful Avocados

Apart from a 4.30am face licking because he needed the loo AGAIN

How much swamp water can one dog ingest? I'm starting to wish I'd weighed him after his walkies yesterday, I'm sure he would have been about 2kg heavier.

Phew, could have been worse . I would like to think they learn from their mistakes but I bet he doesn't Avocados

stories from steppedog (honestly I could write a book)

1. He needed fleaing, so got stuff for dog and cat and yesterday scooped up all dog and cat blankets/beds etc for the wash and stripped kids beds (where they sleep), cleaned everywhere, fleaed animals, all good. Steppedog's bed is a giant squishy cushion thing with cover and couple of fleeces thrown on top. I had taken the fleeces and cover for washing, leaving the inner cushion.

return to the dining room, to fine steppedog has shredded the inner cushion. It turns out the stuffing is green and fluffy, and that there is a lot of it, so my dining room was now green and fluffy.
he looked very happy about it, it is HIS after all and he is usually allowed to shred his own toys. He couldn't understand why I looked cross and said
IN YOUR BED, very sternly.
Then I realised what I had just said....

He spent the rest of the day sulking, apparently none of his bedding/blankets/toys smell right now because he is avoiding them all and slept on the back door mat.

1. a couple of day ago he came into the lounge liking his lips, hmmm, went to the kitchen but oculdn't find anything out of order.

Then dd comes in, she's found a margarine/spreadable butter tub under the kitchen table. He had eaten the whole tub.

For the next 2 days I confess I didn't pick up much poo. It wasn't that I didn't want to, it is just that the effects of the margarine meant he did 500 tiny, greasy dollops, instead of one poo. Let's just say he was 'well lubricated'

1. Dh took him for a run one evening, he had had a good walk in the morning, but nothing out of the ordinary. dh let him off the lead after first 2 km, as usual and he sat down and refused to budge! Put lead on, he ran alongside for another 1-2 km, tried lead off, sat down and wouldn't budge. Once dh had run 5 km, he let him off the lead and walked. At which point steppedog sprang to life and ran round the fields

just read that back, and this:

stripped kids beds (where they sleep),

sounds like I m explaining what a bed is!
(I meant where the animals sleep obviously)

Haha sounds like steppeDog is keeping you on your toes .

BiteyDog has been for a road walk, had several ball plays in the garden and is now out for the count on the bed.

Cocodog is curled up on the sofa beside me quite bemused. Since seven this morning she has had a very boring 40 minute walk mostly on lead and got ignored at lunchtime when we usually have a play. I am trying to keep her quiet because she is off to her dog sitter later this afternoon where resident dog and her will play manically let alone who else may be there. Think a bit of boredom has done her good...she is fast asleep now and making little whiffly contented noises.

I've missed lots of activity since I last posted! Radiodog has had a grumpy week as I've been away for 3 days on a conference, she was so excited to see me when I got back tonight. The screeching was loud.

Before I left on Tuesday, however, I had made the decision to book her in for another dental with the vet.

Her breath has been akin to the stench of Satan's arsehole for a long time, but obvs the vet can't actually look in her mouth while she is awake. I can't get near her to brush them either. About 2 years ago I insisted that they book her in because I could see heavy scale (and she stank), and they eventually agreed. They found some very worn, loose teeth, and took out 14 - not the big ones at the back, but all the little ones at the front, top and bottom, some of which were broken.

They de-scaled the rest and I've used plaque-off and a water additive religiously since, but a couple of years on and I've noticed that when she chews her toys there is occasionally some blood spots on them, and her breath is bad again. I hate putting her through the drama and the fear and the GA and the discomfort, but I daren't leave it any longer - especially as I can't clean her teeth. I mentioned the blood on the toys and he said "that usually means there's some pathology there." I don't know exactly what that means but I must be something like, don't ignore it.

I just feel like such a terrible dog owner - I've been so caught up with her spinal pain and aggression that her teeth got neglected - and I know the bloody vet receptionist was judging me.

The thing is Radio we do BiteyDogs teeth but I can still see plaque building up on a couple of them so think we will end up needing a scale at some point anyway. I know when he's ill all brushing etc goes out the window as it's much lower priority so don't feel guilty as it natural to put that kind of thing off when there are bigger things to worry about.

PestDog's teeth don't get brushed either as if I tried my fingers would be collateral damage. The vet says raw meaty bones are the best toothbrush anyway. Time will tell!

@RadioDog Is it possible that she has toothache and that's contributing to the aggression? Years ago the family dog had to have most of his teeth out because they'd never seen a raw meaty bone or a toothbrush before. He got on absolutely fine without them, though he was switched to wet food. It also meant he couldn't inflict any damage when the otherwise extremely mild mannered little dog took a strong dislike to bouncy puppies in his late old age

I went to sleep last night lying in bed like a normal person with SquirrelDog curled up next to me on my right.

I woke up (at 5.21am) horizontal, with my head hanging over the edge of the bed. SquirrelDog was still on my right, but he was on his back with his legs in the air, occasionally reaching out to kick me in the face. He must have gradually shifted me round overnight!