General Dog Chat Part III

[BiteyShark]

A new shiny thread for general chat.

Old or new, big or small, everyone is welcome to pop in and chat

Hello, was just wondering if anyone knew how to judge how high a dog can jump/scale something? We have a new dog (think 1 year old lab cross with not sure what!) - she's really not a particularly big dog at all but today we practiced leaving her alone for one hour (we have to leave her for potentially up to 4 hours late next week and thought about "building up to it" over the next few days)... put in a 110cm high pet gate this morning and came back to find her on the other side of it!!

distantdog I suspect it's more to do with inclination than height. I know my dog could jump over the baby gate if he wanted but he has always accepted that he stays behind it.

Does she stay behind it normally when you are in the house? I wonder if she just sees it as a barrier to jump rather than somewhere to stay if she isn't 'used' to being behind it.

Doh just seen you have only just put it in. Perhaps get her used to being behind it generally when you are in the house and treat her for staying behind.

Thought I would show how big puppy is compared to the sky remote

Her last weight in (thursday) she was 1.2kg

Thanks Bitey - I really thought it was too high for her to get over! We have a lower one (only 1m high) across our bedroom door which has been working very well for the last 10 days... we now realise she could easily have scaled that any time she liked - she certainly had us fooled!

She's tiny, I would be scared of treading on her.

distantdog maybe in her head she thinks the bedroom one she has to stay behind as you have conditioned her to do so. But the other is new and she thins why is that there, I know I will just jump it.

I have a playpen that opens out and we use it to cordon things off with. BiteyDog can get over it as he did when young but he now knows he should be behind it and never bothers to jump it even if he is on his own.

I have done once or twice

Luckily she's stronger than she looks

distant have you tried putting a small one across the door to see if she still jumps it?

Aww tiny pudding!

Aww she's so tiny!

I think maybe Bitey is right and that she knows she's not allowed in there (will sometimes edge in if I'm in the room alone and haven't closed it properly - though so far will not if DH is in there even if gate is wide open) but I think we will have to make sure the bedroom door is closed if we are out now just in case as I did come in one day to find her on our bed before we put the gate in! And see the other gate as a work in progress....

We live in a bungalow and keep spare bedroom doors shut but cocodog is allowed everywhere else. When we go out and overnight she always has been in the kitchen with a comfy bed with the door shut. I think she associates the shut door with time to relax with no disturbance. When we are at home I sometimes use the gate between the kitchen and hall to keep her in the kitchen if drying off after a wet walk or to answer the door to a delivery driver for example. However, she is now 2 and so well behaved that rules have been relaxed this summer😁 She can tell by the shoes I am wearing whether I am going out or staying home I think. The other morning DH and I were getting ready to go out, we had just taken her for a walk and she settled as usual in the kitchen then hopped up with a crafty expression and legged it into the living room and curled herself up on the sofa. We left her and returned a couple of hours later, still on the sofa and didn’t bother to greet us straightaway...very pleased with herself. So we are now giving her run of the house when we are out but with bedroom doors closed but she will still sleep in the kitchen at night.

Haha crafty Cocodog seizing her opportunity to grab the sofa

BiteyDog has commandeered the spare bed but for various reasons we can't leave him there when we are out. DH has to sometimes carry him from there to the kitchen when we go out and he looks very sad

Sad times for BiteyDog being lovingly carried from one bed to (I am sure) another comfy bed. Wish that was my commute.

I keep the spare room door shut, because it’s full of all manner of tat I haven’t unpacked since moving in important belongings. Otherwise SquirrelDog has the run of his my house when I’m out. He’s very good, tbh (and even resisted ‘unwrapping’ a parcel that was delivered through the cat flap yesterday).

Oh yes he's just like a big sleeping baby

Not sure BiteyDog would have left the package Squirrel as most parcels are for him and he knows it

It's so helpful hearing about what other people do as this is our first dog of our own. We also Iive in a bungalow and naively put the gate in between the living room and the (doorless) kitchen thinking it would be like a super-big "crate" with her bed in the living room and give her security when we were out... but that actually also blocked her off from the hallway/front door and now thinking that's her place of security as we find her there (either awake or asleep) when we are not in. Will keep the gate as just discovered it's very useful for when the kitchen floor is being swept and mopped but think a second bed by front door might be the best way to keep her happy when we are out. Our "no sofa" rule lasted exactly 2 weeks. She's currently snoring away next to me on the sofa! We so far have at least got it working that she's only there when we put her blanket on it, so "by invitation only"... wonder how long that will last!!

We started with by invitation only but I got fed up of settling myself down with a cup of tea and my iPad /book and becoming slowly aware of a pair of beady brown eyes staring longingly at me. Had to jump up and get the flipping throw😁 . In the end was easier to cover one end of sofa and let her decide for herself. A few days ago I washed the cover and wouldn’t let her on the sofa, only told her once and she made no attempt to get up there until cover was back in place. She will often choose her basket in the living room or the floor in preference to the sofa, I think she gets hot!

We just allowed BiteyDog on the sofa when we thought he was old enough not to hurt himself getting on and off. I have fond memories of him trying to get to the sofa before DH did as he liked to steal his place

Talking of annoying DH, I am sure BiteyDog knows it winds him up to stalk and snap at the bees in our garden because he does it and then 'looks' to see if DH has noticed

Hello :) pleased to say ReacherPooch is actually doing so much better! No where near as stiff! Pain killers definitely working!!

Does anyone know if you can rescue a dog without a garden? We have a communal area with a bit for each house but it's not secure- however you can only access it through our basement door and we only go out there on a lead so it's not like an accidental escape is possible? 🤷🏼‍♀️ we're hoping to get a second dog, would love to avoid a puppy if we can but if we can't rescue I guess that's our only option :(

So glad ReacherPooch is doing better. It's so hard to see them in pain.

When we looked at rescues they seemed keen to see secure gardens with 6ft fences. I think you might struggle with the big rescues as they have lots of blanket rules. The smaller rescues might have some leeway.

BastardPup has decided that the sofa is his. I have just had to wedge my fat arse into my usual space because his skinny arse was overhanging it.

BastardPup has decided that the sofa is his. I have just had to wedge my fat arse into my usual space because his skinny arse was overhanging it.

BastardPup has decided that the sofa is his. I have just had to wedge my fat arse into my usual space because his skinny arse was overhanging it.

We removed an armchair from our living room to make way for the dog bed so only have the one sofa - to be fair it's big one that can fit the three of us (but with the dog on too I can't lie on it with my feet on DH as was our habit) - so we were adamant that she wasn't going to be a sofa dog... two weeks we lasted!!

Jack - we don't have a garden but we do live right next to a field where we take her out "to do her business" in addition to walks further afield. She's an overseas rescue (we don't live in the UK or that would have been our first port of call) and we didn't have a home check (though I think that's purely because they don't have anyone in our location and we did have quite a lot of exchanges about whether our location/lifestyle would be good for the dog we were interested in). I imagine there are varying opinions on overseas rescues on here (I'm' completely new and probably less than 10 posts in, though must say how wonderfully helpful I've found all the responses to those posts)! So far so good for us...

BunchofBastards...well you obviously are well wedged together since you have pressed post three times in a row😁 Nice to have a cuddle though😀
We have been out for a walk with friends who have the most enormous chocolate Labrador, six stone. Cocodog ducks and dives and basically runs rings around him. We had drinks in their garden before heading home...cocodog inspected their house, made friends with their daughter home from uni, was introduced to their tortoise(big consternation) , eventually conceded to lie down. Home now with one exhausted dog!

Oh my what did Cocodog make of the tortoise?