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

Welcome home steppe and so glad to hear steppedog had a good time as well.

How did BiteyDog get on at daycare?

BastardPup loved his visit - just a totally different set up from the other place, with tons of play equipment and quiet spaces. Like a nursery really, The owner was lovely with him too. Only issue is that he will need to be neutered at some point to keep going and we're not sure about that.

BunchOfBastards how did you get on at daycare?

BiteyDog was a million times better today but still rather nervous so going to arrange for him to go a few more times to get used to it but looks like we have finally found a good backup. Phew

Haha crossed posted BunchOfBastards

Is there an age BastardPup would need to be neutered for them to accept him?

She will give us until he is about 9 months so going to go for it and then see what we think.

I also went to the first Dog School class last night - BastardPup starts next week.

My primary daycare lady asked me in passing if we were going to get BiteyDog castrated but didn't stipulate anything in particular but we had planned to do it before or around 1 year of age. I noticed that this new daycare mentions the need for uncastrated males to be walked individually rather than in a group which obviously restricts things.

Whilst I know lots of people on here say their uncastrated male is fine having seen how feisty the one uncastrated make is at agility, wanting a bit of a go at some of the dogs, I can understand why now.

Make = male (bloody phone)

Well there has been a huge improvement in Bella this morning. I gave her the bed to herself last night and just popped in to check on her. I don't think she moved at all all night.
She has vets later for a wound check/post op follow up and they phoned yesterday to check she was ok as well.
Have been a bit concerned as she hadn't pooped since before the op although she hadn't eaten much either. She doesn't use the garden usually to toilet so popped her lead on this morning and had a short stroll to the park which did the trick so feeling less concerned now.
She's had a small breakfast and a long drink and she is grumbling about the neighbour moving his bin so getting back to normal I think.
Have made a note to self that any future rescue dogs will have to have been spayed or castrated before they come to me because I have found it so stressful and upsetting seeing her knocked for six.

Glad Bella is almost back to normal. Fingers crossed vet is happy with her progress.

Puppy's first big girl harness!!!!

Oh how cute is she! Hard to tell whether she is happy about it or not though.
Check up at the vets went well, wound is lovely and clean and no soreness or discharge. Back a week tomorrow to have stitches out now and then it's all over. I swear I've aged ten years over this.

Oh that is so cute! And so tiny.

Glad Bella is feeling better.

BastardPup just did the 'running away in circles and not going back on the lead' routine in the park. There were three of us with him so he had a great laugh, the little fucker.

Am watching his poo closely as he found a desiccated dead mouse in the garden last night and had a bit of a gnaw before DH noticed....

Awww very colourful in her harness Soubriquet

Ah I remember those days BunchOfBastards trying to get them back on the lead

Argh madam does that running in circles thing. Usually at the same time as barking at another dog.

She thinks it's hilarious. I'm surprised I have any hair left by the time I grab her

Feeling a bit fed up today. Just as I have started this summer to really relax and enjoy our walks knowing that cocodog will keep me in sight, will recall and generally be obedient, up pop a couple of problem dogs/owners to ruin it. First up, very boisterous choccy lab with no apparent training whatsoever. Her elderly owners have taken to lurking in the woods near my house in the hope that another boisterous dog will be around for her to run off excess energy with. We have met a couple of times in the past weeks and cocodog really makes it obvious she doesnt want to play that rough. Luckily today, owner had her on lead near the entrance to the woods just as we were exiting but Cocodog was actually hiding behind my legs as the dog dragged owner towards us. Second one is worse, we have been seeing a chap walking an elderly yellow lab on lead with a younger one offlead. Offlead one always freezes and looks very uncomfortable so we have always managed to go the other way and avoid. Yesterday, we managed to meet along a narrow track. My fault, I hoped it would be ok, owner was very affable and so passed them and called cocodog to come with me. As she tried to trot by his dog snarled and snapped, she snapped back and then he pinned her to the ground. Let her up and she ran to me, we put them both on lead. Owner was shocked but dismissed me saying that perhaps younger dog is guarding him and old dog but admitted that dog always growls and circles other dogs it meets. This sort of thing just puts me on edge, I suppose avoiding if I can and shouting for dog to be put on lead if I can’t , sigh.

By th way, I haven’t got a problem with labradors...used to have a lovely black one just with owners who are in denial of their dogs behaviour!

I have to say I pick my times and places now where we go as I really don't mind the owners that are going through the terrible teens who are trying to control their dogs as been there and bought the t-shirt but yes snappy aggressive type dogs off lead with owners that don't care make me nervous as well. It not just that BiteyDog won't fight back but also that any injury would make him more nervous as it results in vet visits and means my work is impacted as he can't go to daycare so it's a bloody big deal. It's why I am watching how snappy dog is at agility very closely .

God knows what you do about the ones deliberately using Cocodog as an exercise tool near your house other than tell them straight but then they will probably get defensive and blame you .

I am hoping for a big lottery win so I can buy fields and fields of land with a nice woodland bit at the side

Ah soubriquet!!

That's hard thegirls. It's very rare to see dogs on leads and trained round here (though they have very loving owners) and I'm sure the locals think we are being v pfb when their dogs come bounding towards Ddog and we don't automatically think it's great fun!

I just took Ddog out (btw she does always wear a normal harness when anywhere but the field but I will look into car seatbelt things thanks!!) and she was having a lovely time but then two male hikers were coming down towards us on a muddy, steep slope and she froze and was desperately clambering for an escape route. They were nice and said you go first but she won't move so they had to do an awkward shuffle past her on a narrow strip. I explained that she was a very nervous rescue dog and they were like "oh dear good luck" but I could tell they thought I was mad to be taking her out and I wanted to say "but, but, she's not always like that and she'll be happy as larry when you've gone!!"

Progress in that it's the first time she's been out on a walk proper just with me and she also went out for an hour with DH earlier too. We are feeling like terrible owners though as we went out last night for just under 2 hours with my Dsis and one of our DNs for a pizza and in hindsight we did it all wrong, having taken Ddog out for a super-long walk (so we assumed she'd done all the business she'd need to for a good few hours) and then left her with her dinner. Got home to find her in a total panic (panting like mad, finished her whole water bowl and went through another bowl as soon as we put it in front of her) and she'd soiled in the kitchen. Poor thing must have been in such a desperate state to get out and get to the loo after we'd revved her metabolism up on her longest walk ever in her life and then given her dinner and just disappeared. Rookie error and one we won't make again. She calmed down after 15 minutes but think it must have been that as she was absolutely fine when we left her for 4 hours (no panic, no poo). Felt so guilty to see her so distressed

I wonder why he walks older dog on lead, but younger dog off lead? If he’s elderly, is younger dog too strong for him to hold on to?

I was Worst Dog Owner Ever the other day. Met an off lead 8 month old dog in the park. He and SquirrelDog REALLY wanted to play - play bowing, jumping on each other, chasing. I let go of SquirrelDog’s long line (which I virtually never do, but he seemed really engaged with other dog). Lovely play for about 3 minutes, then SquirrelDog takes off for the far side of the park, followed by his little friend. ‘He doesn’t usually run off’ says other owner. Turns out he does when led astray by bloody SquirrelDog. Found them both happily gambolling around the (thankfully very quiet, residential) cul-de-sac next to the park. For added embarrassment, my dog walker lives on that street. And her mum lives on the next street. Haven’t seen that dog since, oddly enough.

I have to say I was nervous with BiteyDog and new daycare regarding recall. She did have him on a training lead to see how he behaved but said he was great and came straight back so hoping when he gets to know her more he can be off lead as he is with primary daycare.

distant I learnt not to leave BiteyDog straight after a walk as he is too hyper. We usually make it that he has a good walk a couple of hours before we leave so he has calmed down. Plus I can't stop myself from watching him on camera all the time. Wonder when I will be able to eat out and relax without doing that

Aww Squirrel I do love it when you get two similar matched dogs and they do the playbow and running about. A couple of the dogs at agility are like that with BiteyDog so we end up letting them have a quick run about as we tend to get there very early before anyone else so they can have 10 mins of fun.

BiteyDog is in bad books. Just ran myself a bath thinking I would love a relaxing soak and he decided to lose his ball under the sofa and proceed to bark tell me about it. So much for a relaxing 10 minutes

Aw, I long for the days Ddog will able to play with other dogs. There are 3 pups (4-6 months) in the vicinity and they jump all over her if we meet them when we are out but she is just now starting to show a bit of interest rather than abject fear!!

Oh Bitey - a bath, what a good idea! Hope you got to enjoy yours eventually. I'm going to run one and leave Ddog with DH who has been very tense for the last 90 minutes due to a football match and will now be very boringly texting all his friends at length about it. He has been amazing calm though over the last 3 weeks (which has meant at least 6 matches he's watched) - usually I know the score from his shouting in the next room. With Ddog in residence, he does silent celebrations/remonstrations so as not to stress her out and it's wonderful!! We do have a really rock solid marriage (work together from home all the time) but we were also commenting on how good Ddog is for us - we go out for a hike together everyday (I would often hike alone whilst he cycled) and never raise our voices to each other even when a bit cross - not that we're a shouty couple at all but when I said "ok, you're right but can I PLEASE just finish my coffee and then I'll sort it?" to him last week (I wasn't even that cross at all and certainly didn't shout as he was only sitting 2 meters away from me), she got off the sofa next to me and went to her bed. So "happy voices only" in our house!!

My AIBU post today if I'd dared would be AIBU to have bought a whole fresh chicken so that Bella can have a leg warm (her absolute favourite) because I'm feeling bad that she has had a rough couple of days and the kibble isn't seeming wanted today.
Update would be she has wolfed it down and seems to be trying Eric's response to the words "All gone!" He whines and today Bella is really trying to whine

YABVVVU not to flesh!