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

Does anyone else have a dog who tries to communicate with a glare.

I've been walking madam occasionally in the evenings if she seems a bit restless.

Tonight she got on my knee, put her paws on my chest and just stared at me as if to say "walk me!!! Walk me!!!!"

So I had to take her out even though my back is absoutely killing me. Brat of a dog

Soubriquet we have different stares for different things.

The get up run out the door then pop his head back round and stare = ball play

The creep up and lie on me and stare = feed me

The jump up on the side of the bed and put face right in front of mine and stare = get up you lazy human

The sit upright on the floor by me whilst I am sat on the sofa and stare = I'm bored, stop working

I am just glad he can't actually talk

We do get the feed me stare but it's a sit there and look and not much else.

This one tonight was a real "please understand what I'm thinking!!"

Bless her. She's in season again. It's her 3rd one and she's 15 months.

I'm expecting depression soon as the vet has said if they suffer a phantom pregnancy once, they tend to do it every time.

She gets very miserable during her phantom pregnancies. Her teats swell, she doesn't want to eat, she becomes incredibly clingy and just very anxious.

We are going to get her spayed in 4 months time now.

It's not fair on her mental state

Awww poor thing

Soubriquet we have similar. During her first phantom madam stopped eating. She curled up into a ball for three days and wouldn't move. We ended up doing bloods suggesting an infection.
I bought something from Fenland Forager. No More Phan or something like that. Second season she was eating within 24 hours of starting the drops. Worth a try?

Ooo thanks for the recommendation. I'll have a look

Oh the stares!

1. lying curled up in bed and getting the sideways out of the corner of his eye fed up stare.
2. I'm bored. In garden lying on the grass, head up and watching me indoors. Heavy sigh and head on paws. WHY won't you play with me....

It's harder to ignore when the staring occurs at your eye level. Wolfie pup is a big girl now. Still dainty for a Wolfie but over 50kg.
Bit of a nervous wreck tonight. Routine heart testing tomorrow. Friend lost her (nowhere near old) wolfhound boy earlier in the week with heart issues. Tonight I have had gin.
This dog will break me!

Oh Soubriquet she isn't on raw is she? Look up the recipe for satin balls for weight gain if she is. (I have the recipe and can post it tomorrow if it helps!)

Wolfie hope the testing is just 'routine' and all is ok.

We are having to play about with food. He's decided he only really likes two millieswolfheart wet flavours. Tried all the others and he's a bit meh about them. Just ordered some from forthglade to see if his likes any of those. I like to have at least three to rotate and despite all his stomach issues swopping wet foods every two days doesn't cause any problems.

Because cocodog loves frozen kongs and all her food puzzle toys I decided to save her wet food topping on her breakfast kibble for those and started giving her just the kibble. All fine for a few mornings and then I got the REFUSE to eat this performance. I ignored her and went out to peg out some washing. Came back in to find DH sitting on the floor trying to hand feed her. She took each bit so politely from him and then delicately spat it out on the floor. We both ignored her and it only took 10 mins for her to crumble and eat up but the offended stares, huffing and puffing were hilarious.
I have gone back to putting a very small amount of wet food or some left over cooked fish on top in the mornings because it does look boring. Her supper is plain kibble though and she doesn’t hesitate to gobble that up.

Normally I would do the ignore but some new flavours we tried he also totally refused at lunch at the daycare after refusing at breakfast which given he is hungry by then confirms he just doesn't like them.

We still have 2 he loves but he has gone off salmon which was our third so just need to find one more he likes as then he doesn't have them enough to get bored. I wonder if it's the texture he has started to dislike as the salmon is very mushy where the others are more meaty/chunky and the refusal of salmon started after his operation and hasn't got any better and I know they feed smooth 'mushy' easy to digest food at the vets so maybe it's the association.

Also the new flavours were quite mushy. Thinking about it it must be a texture association thing. I leave it down for breakfast and take it up so it isn't that he can graze either.

Oh good. It rained overnight so the mud is back.

Yeah rained here last night as well. Decided to do a road walk this morning and then will do agility later in the garden to avoid having to shower him today

Loads of mud here but it’s been so dry it’s actually welcome (winter where I am)

It’s great to read the funny poo grass stories. I really need a good laugh at the moment. Bluepuppy has decided to have a chew on a window sill After all the work I’ve done with him, the trainers, vets, daycare and medication it’s incredibly frustrating. I’m going to put a deterrant on the sill and cross my fingers it’s just a stage. I’ve been feeling so much better about him recently as well. Had my first tears about him in months tonight

Oh no blue hopefully just a phase as BiteyDog goes through periods of regression bad behaviour

We avoided the mud by going to the beach!
A celebration for Wolfie pup passing her heart test with flying colours and tolerating an ecg and scan done by a total stranger in a strange place. She was a star!
Yes it's totally routine. Wolfhounds are very very prone to heart issues. The idea is that testing annually can pick up early signs of changes and allow management. It's subsidised by the Irish wolfhound health group so we had to travel to a regional testing place.
Phew. Glad that's over for a year!

That's good news Wolfie and glad you enjoyed your celebration outing.

Interesting walk this morning! Just outside our gates with cocodog on lead we met a barking, quite aggressive GSD off lead. Owners apologised but took a couple of mins to get him under control and then set off quite happily up our lane with him still offlead. We progressed into woods and let her off lead. Met our near neighbours young lab which is never on lead ever and he knocked our dog over. She recovered and did not get arsy with him this time. I wanted to move quickly away before she got fed up with him but had son in law with me who got into a Star Wars conversation with neighbour. We moved on... suddenly two onlead barking, scrabblin JRT s , called cocodog away and she came happily. Met our local very reactive patterdale who is sensibly always onlead and managed very well, cocodog has learnt not to approach. Two workin cockers...great fun. Returned home, son in law comments...crikey not that quiet in the country is it ?

Ps, glad wolfiepup passed.
Blue, if it’s any comfort...cocodog was two last week and amazingly is more obedient and chilled suddenly. Downside to maturity appears to be that she is no longer as tolerant of the bad behaviour from other dogs that she used to be guilty of☹️

Gosh yes sounds like a very busy walk and Cocodog must be shattered.

BiteyDog has stopped pooing at his late night time pee break which meant he was waking in the early hours for one so we have just been for an on road walk to encourage him to go. Hoping that means he starts to sleep better through the night.

Oh dear, seems I have broken SquirrelDog. He is all tired and sleepy curled up in my lap. That definitely was not the effect I was going for when I took him on those 3 walks today and made sure he only got to sleep for an hour at lunch time.

Squirrel what a terrible result of all those walks. You must wake him up immediately rather than putting your feet up and having a relaxing evening