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

Well, our friends are a bit gung ho and when the tortoise appeared I was feeling a bit anxious...our friend held it and cocodog sniffed it...a lot! ...I was worried she might think it was a Kong and a challenge. But tortoise went back into its run and she kept going over to look at it but no growling, barking etc

I can imagine your anxiety I would have been holding BiteyDog back as he does have a habit of 'playing' with creatures he finds (slow worms and beetles are his favourite) so god knows what he would have made of that.

Cocodog has been known to snaffle a shrew or two here or there, postures at squirrels, fine around cows , horses but I never would trust her around sheep, so she stays on lead around them. But she is really good around ducks and swans and with birds in general. Her choccy lab pal is really dim but I think she took on board from him that tortoise wasn’t a threat in any way shape or form.

Had a bit of an "oh shit" moment earlier when we met two police horses coming towards us down a path in the park when PestDog was off lead. Frankly the last thing I was expecting to see. Thankfully he has good recall, as a dog snapping at the heels of a police horse wouldn't have gone down well 😬😬

I'd trust that dog around livestock about as much as I'd trust Jimmy Savile on a children's ward, personally.

Oh no! Now I am imagining Pestdog with a big cigar and manic eyes 😬

Anyone know how to check a dog's pulse?! TropicHound is now a BritHound, and settling in pretty well after her flight, which all went smoothly. Didn't take her long to relax in our house (!) The thing is usually upside down as pictured. Main challenges have been greeting other dogs on lead (in Africa everyone was loose)... and it seems she's a frustrated greeter. This means she meets dogs politely, but may go bonkers if she sees one, and for some reason can't sniff it. Any tips?!
For sure she's never met a horse! Police, or otherwise. Glad that went well for you Avocados.
Kong-tortoise made me laugh the girl
Other than that, I already bought TropicHound a jumper, as she positively shivered on a particularly 'cold' day but i think she'll aclimatise. Still can't believe she's been on a plane

SquirrelDog looses his tiny mind around squirrels (obvs ), cats, birds, rabbits and deer, but is totally indifferent to sheep, cows and horses. I can see that cows are not like squirrels, but it does confuse me that deer are object of massive excitement but sheep are not worthy of notice...

oh dear, that reminds me of when DH and I were invited round to a client's villa for drinks. We were stood on the terrace, politely smiling at the golden lab, some distance away in the huge garden, chewing on a rock... client emerges with the drinks, looks baffled for a moment, then horrified, and dashes off to rescue what turned out to be the neighbour's much-loved exotic tortoise! Amazingly, the tortoise survived.

Can’t remember if I have told this story before (probably). I met a lady at a training class once who had gone with her family and the dog to a garden party for someone’s birthday. The hosts though they had securely shut away/ hidden their chickens.

It took 15 minutes for her dog to find them and kill them.

Bloody hell. The cats bring in all sorts - luckily they usually leave their presents in the kitchen and BastardPup is not allowed in there, otherwise he might get a taste for squirrel...

We had a successful (ie no puking) car journey today and did some off lead recall work in the park. I love the big silly lollopy run he does when he is coming back to me.

I think BiteyDog is having a behavioural regression day. Jumping up when someone stroked him outside, pulling on the lead lots, zoomies in the garden including trampling all over the flower beds. Arggghhhh I need

Mines a large Sauvignon blanc thanks😁 we don’t seem to regress as such...new behaviours emerge such as being a bit over protective of me and being a dreadful diva with her male pals, rules them with a rod of iron☹️ Generally good with her female pals though!
She was so tired today after her excursions yesterday that I was really grateful we met nobody on either walk. I think we need a couple of quiet days!

for you thegirl

I think we need to find time to do a bit of training on the good old obedience again. I really wish people wouldn't just stop and fuss him when we are out (the groom he has makes him look like a young puppy) as it hypes him up and is making the walking training 10 times harder. We have been concentrating on the agility training which is coming on well but that means the other training has slipped a bit

Yes, we have been making big progress on not jumping up when we have visitors but several local people fuss her over our five bar gate which means she jumps up to rest her paws on the gate. And then she regresses. I think it is very hard to achieve consistency on jumping up, especially when DH forgets and encourages her up absentmindedly 😡

@thegirls That's what I like to call behavioural whack-a-mole. You batter down one problem and another one (or two) pops up in its place.

I dealt with him being a frustrated greeter and then motorbike reactivity popped up. I've mostly dealt with motorbike reactivity so resource guarding around other dogs has popped up, along with leg humping and foot biting when overstimulated.

One day I'll find some problems that are socially acceptable (or incurable, which resource guarding around other dogs tends to be) and stick with that for fear of what might come up next 😬😬😬

SquirrelDog has rediscovered one of his antlers that has been lying around entirely ignored for months. This is great, except that it’s one of the big flat ones and he’s now walking around with it in his mouth clonking it on all available hard surfaces.

Arghh Squirrel I feel your pain. We have hard floors so the dropping of antlers and dragging along the floor goes right through me

@avocados, I feel Pestdog has good reason for his behaviours although am strongly hoping that you will win through in the end. Cocodog has been raised as a pup with us and lives in peace and quiet in rural tranquility with exciting agility training and days out plus training and fun ball games. To be fair on her, it took us a long time to get her dog manners right, she was the over exuberant one and now I have problems with over exuberant dogs we meet wanting to get in her face, she is reacting badly to those but an angel with calm dogs, fine with her known doggy pals and comes away instantly from dogs on lead. Not sure where to go from here though!

To be honest I don't blame Cocodog for not liking other bouncy dogs in her face. She probably thinks 'I have had to learn some manners so you should too'

BiteyDog is the opposite and is so submissive and just takes anything and typically is the one being bullied. We have a dog at agility who is rather snappy and seems to want to have a go at the other dogs so I have to try and keep our distance as he won't tell him off like some of the other dogs do when he starts.

No, I don’t blame her either. She is often submissive to strange dogs she meets or sniffy but calm. She loves her doggy pals who vary from large Labrador to very excitable border terrier. When we go on new walks she is generally impeccably behaved. It is on our local walks where we run into the same dogs who are very boisterous or who are barking at her usually with their owner trailing 100 m behind that she is reacting to. I try to avoid but you can’t always. I call her on to pass with me and she does but not without a growl and air snap first!

He might have excuses, but he'll milk the sympathy vote for all its worth - especially if someone will through a tennis ball for him (anyone who won't throw balls is irrelevant to him).

Adaptil plug in arrived today. Early days yet, but he's adopted the "dying cockroach" position for the last five minutes, which is a very rare occurrence and does rather suggest he's feeling quite relaxed!

Have you started packing yet Avocados or is it too early?

thegirl I know you don't particularly want Cocodog to growl etc but I kind of wish BiteyDog would do that to put other dogs in their place. I am waiting to see how it pans out at agility as snappy dog is new but it has changed the atmosphere as all the other dogs are friendly and I don't want to be on my guard all the time when we are waiting on lead for our turn.

Feeling all pfb at the moment as trialing out a back up daycare center. His panicked face whenever I have to leave him anywhere breaks my heart. Just hope he has now forgotten that and is playing with the other dogs.

Cocodog is a bit of a diva though and it worries me that she will get involved in something that could end badly. Boisterous choccy lab yesterday just looked surprised and I called her away quickly but the GSD we meet looks like if he didn’t have a ball in his mouth...it would be Cocodog. He isn’t boisterous just always off lead on the lane outside our house and charges up when he sees her, it really bugs me that they won’t lead him on the road.
Bitey, at our agility there are a couple of reactive dogs who go into the playpen if there is a new dog in the group who will run up to them and upset them.

The issue at agility with new snappy dog is that it isn't other dogs running up to him. If we are all waiting and the dogs sniff he may suddenly turn so I keep BiteyDog physically away but the real issue is I don't have a lot of faith in his owner to control him when he's off lead and we aren't. Another person mentioned how snappy the dog is without any prompting last week so I know I am not the only to be thinking the same thing. If he looks like he's sticking around I may drop out and go back to single private lessons