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

I suppose they always know home and routine, I just know that she is happy at dog sitters when there is a good balance of dogs, always tired but happy. When there is an unhappy/ nervous dog around then it certainly affects her. I am not going to worry because we don’t leave her very much but I still may look for other holiday care. Best option for us may be quid pro quo care with a friends dog.

Some dogs just take things in their stride done they but sounds like Cocodog is similar to BiteyDog and is quite sensitive to her surroundings . Having another option is always good.

Brilliant. I shal package up DefectiveSquirrelDog and dispatch him to be Cocodog’s friend right away.

Only if they can both come back for holidays😁

Bit weird having a sensitive dog. Our black lab was very laid back and Lancashire Heeler was probably best described as a “character”
I think little missy is just very clever and has wound DH and I around her very expressive paws🙄 she is certainly our first dog to have gained sofa and bed privileges and a, no kennels for her, policy!

BastardPup came back from daycare on Friday and slept til Saturday morning. We had to rouse him for his tea!

He was a bit of a bugger yesterday though. I could do without the nipping stage completely

Oh I know that BiteyDog has us wrapped around his paws. I think the other dog owners at work think I am too soft

BunchOfBastards daycare will tire him out until he gets used to it. Make sure you up his food to take that into account as they burn lots of energy running about with the other dogs all day.

I also think Ddog could do with a companion but no way would we cope at the moment! HRH takes up enough of our times, thoughts and energy as it is!

So 5 weeks to the day after getting her and we just took her on a 3 hour hike OFF THE LEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME!! She loved it. She was fabulous, doing some zoomies up and down very steep banks in the forest at first and then sticking to the trail but loving her freedom and running ahead but checking in with us every now and then. We are taking advantage of her fear factor attachment and the fact she will always come back to us at the moment but will definitely need to get some obedience training in soon as the bolder she gets, the less I trust madam to come back to us when called so easily!

It was so good though - first time she was able to be "a proper dog" and she has been rewarded with a gross pig's ear so I have decamped to another room as it stinks!

Oh I love my dog

so yesterday, all a bit lazy, so at about 10:30 I said to dh, lets go for a walk with steppedog?
We pottered out with dd2 and dog, and went somewhere we haven't really been to before. I never think to take steppedog there as there is a wood with a nice path round and = 20-30 minutes.
I had forgotten that there is also a lake and you can also branch off and do another loop.
So nearly 2 hours later and we wandered back to the car. Steppedog LOVED it. He was in full spaniel sniffer mode and running round and behaving like all his birthdays had come at once. I think he is bored with our daily walk!

I lit the fire for the first time last night and he really wanted to lie in front of it, but it was a bit too hot for him.

I think that is why I don't mind forking out £250-£300 a month on daycare as it's like having lots of companion dogs for BiteyDog a few days a week. I actually think the home daycare environments are good for him and his confidence totally ignoring the larger daycare disaster

distant it's so lovely isn't it seeing them off lead enjoying themselves. Dogs don't fake happiness

Cocodog and I had a lie in this morning, she was still tired from boarders and was proper snoring. On our walk met her border terrier pal, yellow lab pal and the grande dame pointer who presides over them, all in one stretch of the woods. Was quite a party!
Steppemum, are you in the uk? Fire, really...we are sitting outside this evening and last night had a bbq. We are in the south though.

Omg steppe a fire! I'm sat here feeling quite hot in a t-shirt with the windows open and this is perfect weather for me.

Ha, yes spaniel sniffer mode is amusing to watch. It's like an invisible line they have to follow.

Aw, sounds like lots of MN happy dogs on their walk this weekend

Wow, Bitey you really do push the boat out for Biteydog but he is of course worth it!!

Have to say steppe - even up here in the mountains where the temperature drops at night no matter how hot the day has been, we're so not ready for the fire yet!

BastardPup had some off lead running today. He loved it. Although he did take off after a jogger at one point...

south of UK,
was chilly fri night and sat night, enough to light the woodburner. What we do is light it and just let one log burn, it takes the chill off.
Not tonight though, too warm. Certainly not warm enough to sit outside and BBQ

I don't blame you steppe if it was chilly enough - real log fires are so lovely. Sadly we have to be quite prudent with ours as there has been a pollution question here (not UK), otherwise I'd whack ours on at the slightest chill too!

steppe you are very restrained with burning one log. The problem is my DH becomes king of fire with the log burner and can't stop at one. BiteyDog and I have to decamp elsewhere as it gets far too hot. DH never learns

BiteyDog has started his annoying nightly trips around the bedroom again. I am having to pretend I am asleep so he eventually goes back on his bed but it's very hard when you have a wiggling spaniel trying to shove one of his toys in your face.

Well filthy morning here but had to go out early because of food shop delivery. I am so glad I went though because Bella came back wet and filthy so needed a shower which provoked her very first zoomie here. It was great to watch her so obviously happy with her lot. She's been showered before but I think the combination of a walk in the mud and rain had tipped her over. Expect the coming autumn weather to make her one happy dog. Might have been so pleased I replaced some of her kibble with chicken breast this morning as well

Ah flesh, that sounds lovely (no shame on the chicken breast!!)

How do you "shower" Bella? We have had - and are still having - such a ridiculously long, hot and dry summer here (most of the waterfalls and streams are bone dry, though it's worked in our favour as the river at the end of our walks is much shallower and slower-moving than normal so Ddog is taking advantage) - it certainly will change though and then we're looking at a big mudfest so were wondering about how to clean her when the time comes...

Because she's tiny I just pop her in the bath (shower is over bath) I'm not sure how you manage if you have a big dog though.

We have a bathroom which is now the 'dogs bathroom' so BiteyDog gets lifted into the bath and we hose the mud off with the shower attachment.

Cocodog is a medium sized dog and goes in the utility sink for paw and undercarriage washing. If she is really filthy I have to run the bath for her because our shower head is fixed. We have an ensuite walk in shower with a detachable hose but I wouldn’t fancy the carnage and clean up in there if I tried that, at least she is contained in the bath😬
Our dog sitter hosed her down outside once last winter when she was staying over, apparently this was not a big success.😁

Oh dear - Ddog is medium-sized and we were hoping for "hosing down outside" solution)!! At the moment there is barely any mud - you literally have to seek it out... guess what madam does? Fortunately it's been so hot and dry here that it's all gone or light brush off stuff by the time we get home. The temperature drops so much here after the summer I think it'll have to be an indoor shower... That will be fun....

I hose SquirrelDog down outside, because I am a big meanie. He's about 15kg, so while I could just about carry him upstairs to the bath, It's not something I'm about to start doing regularly!