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

(One of my friends has something called a 'flower shower' - it's a plastic bottle you fill with water, prime it by pumping a handle, then it has a shower head thing. She uses hot water, puts it in the car, then by the time they've finished walking it's warm & she can get the dog clean before he goes back in his crate. One shower-full just about does a medium sized Spaniel.)

No, not a meanie, they get used to what you do. I just find warm water and the confinement of the sink to be easier for getting her clean enough to comb and brush when she dries. Prone to matting fur if not groomed regularly in winter.

Used to have to haul our 28kg lab up the stairs for a bath on lead, it was the only time she was allowed upstairs and so she knew it meant the hated bath😬
Current aspirational princess dog lives with us in a bungalow (or as I like to call it..a single storey building😜) and has free run other than our guest bedrooms. DH left the door open this morning and I have just tracked Cocodog down sitting innocently on the bed in the middle of my daughters lace wedding dress which I had laid out on the bed last night awaiting a box to pack it up in.

DH has beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen!

Oh no, hope the wedding dress is still intact and not muddy thegirl

Fortunately with hosing mud off BiteyDog we have two bathrooms and live in a bungalow so we just use the bathroom that isn't really used by anyone else and close to the main door. Hence why it's now the dogs bathroom as it contains all his leads, harnesses, towels and washed tennis balls

Seeing as geekpup is 30kg with another 15kg to go (at least)! We have to shower outside with the watering can filled with lukewarm water. My DF has a hot and cold running tap with removable shower attachment outside for his spoiled pooch!

Ha ha, what a minx - off course she had to do that when the wedding dress was there! We currently only have one bathroom and no bath so I can just see that being carnage and bathroom cleaning duties are mine (DH has kitchen cleaning duties) so I've just had a look at the portable "shower" things and one of those with warm water might well do the trick - though I imagine DH will commandeer it for cleaning his bike (his second love, behind Ddog and before me)!

Our hallway and living room have been taken over by Ddog's two beds, 3 harnesses, 4 leads, toys and a whole range of different dog snacks for different occasions... but we've managed to keep her out of the bathroom and bedroom and will try to stick to that and she's still too scared to go into DH's "office" den of junk

well, I am a meany,
steppedog comes home black with mud from the waist down all winter. the place we walk was impassable in huge chunks without wellies all last year, and has a river through it.

There is no way I could get muddy dog through the house to the bathroom, without needing to hire a carpet cleaner, so he gets hosed down. It is only stomach and legs, but still.

If I have to actually shampoo him (after fox poo rolls) then he gets his upper body and head wet, so then I use a bucket of warm water for most and finish with the hose.

There were a couple of times last year when I had to check the hose wasn't frozen, as there was ice on the ground. But fortunately he doesn't get muddy running in snow.

But cuddles and rub down afterwards, but it has to be done. One day when he was very wet, and even after rubbing down with the towel he looked cold, I got out the hairdryer. He was a happy man!

BiteyDog runs a mile with the hairdryer. He won't even let the groomer use theirs

I don’t use a hairdryer on me, I draw the line at getting one specially for SquirrelDog!

Dogs really know how to embarrass you sometimes don't they? DH is away and I'm slower than him climbing the hills, so she was pottering ahead of me, always waiting to see that I was indeed following her telling me to get a move on , and I was intrigued to see there was someone in front of us - the first time we've encountered someone else whilst she's been off the lead. I thought she'd come dashing back to me in fear but she decided to gently trot behind this woman and I was really impressed with this display of bashful bravery... so of course the woman turned out to be someone who didn't like dogs. Fortunately I was much quicker than her up the hill so we overtook her in no time but not before her telling me that there was a sign saying dogs should be on the lead and I wasn't allowed to have her off lead there (from my heavy English accent she will have assumed I was also a tourist - as she was - for sure). Ah, no, I said - I live here and it's certainly allowed and all of us locals walk our dog off the lead here! She tried to quiz me about where I lived and what annoyed me was that she wasn't actually scared of Ddog at all (I do completely understand that some people are scared of dogs and respect that) and was so busy quizzing me she was actually blocking Ddog from passing and us getting on our way.

Nevermind, I thought, we had a lovely walk and then got down to her favourite spot at the river at the end where she loves to do some pretty mental zoomies in and out of the water. She had a great time, all was well... and then we encounter a really lovely old bloke who was chopping a tree for wood. Of course Ddog now refuses to walk past him or get within 5 meters of him, even though he was so sweet and was saying "don't be scared my sweetheart, you can go past me" and not trying to approach her at all. But no, Ddog only wants to get near to the one person I've ever met here who doesn't like dogs!!

Really interested in all the different shower/bathing tips by the way... (a hairdryer had never even occurred to me)! Next up I'll be asking for tips on hair shedding and keeping the house relatively hair-free (have just ordered a "furminator" and a lint roller for the soft furnishings but all experience and advice much appreciated)!

No damage to wedding dress, it is still draped over the bed and still waiting for acetate box that my dd has apparently ordered. She got married in 2015 and dress has been hanging behind the door ever since! She was in two minds about keeping it or selling it on.I shan’t tell her about Cocodogs attempts to turn it into a basket🙄
, Cocodog has a dog towel that goes over her neck with a Velcro band to anchor it around her tummy in the car after wet walks. I also use it if she looks cold after a wet walk, soon know if she doesn’t need it cos she rolls around the floor like a mad thing. She apparently is fine with the hairdryer at the groomers but doesn’t like mine!

It would make a rather luxurious basket, the girls!

That velcro towel sounds great - I'll add to the ever-extending expensive list of purchases for HRH.

Just read back my super-long post... sorry! Didn't mean it to be that long. Should stress that there is absolutely NO sign saying dogs have to be on leads - we're not just saying "we're local and can do as we wish"!!

Anyone else have a problem with dog hairs in the washing machine after washing dog throws/blankets, and any solutions?

Yes to hairs in the washer afterwards. I tried a dog washer bag they was meant to contain them but the bag ripped after the first wash so now I just wipe the seal a bit afterwards.

I saw an advert somewhere for a product that you put in the washing machine and it dissolves dog hair - but I have no idea what it was called, sorry.

My entire house, car, all of my clothes, everything, are covered in dog hair and horse hair. I even dreamed the other night that I was hoovering out the car!

You could try a washer bag designed for horse rugs, I think they're a bit heavier duty than the pet ones.

I've got one I use for my gang's harnesses/jumpers/etc., more to protect the drum from metalwork than anything else but it definitely does catch hairs as well as bits of grass and other general dog related detritus. I've had mine a few years now and it's still going strong.

I haven't tried using it for throws as I could only fit one in at once and my lot don't shed that much but it might be worth a go.

Ha Squirrel - maybe we are just being naive in thinking there is an escape! She is some kind of labrador/French hunting dog mix and from what I've read seems to be shedding like a labrador. We have fully tiled floors throughout the home here and our lovely huge thick pile rug is stowed away after Ddog toilletted on it twice in the first two days she was here - thankfully we'd thought to roll it up so it was easily cleaned off the underside (to be honest don't think she would ever do it again now she's settled but want the whole memory/idea well out of her head before we restore it)! A rubber broom is doing the job nicely on the floor to stop us having to get the hoover out every single day (way better than our standard bristle broom) but the washing machine is a whole different matter - I wiped out the seal and did a quick wash empty cycle and one of our towels still came out with a small matted clump of her hairs on it! I am actually more worried about wrecking the machine than anything else! Will look into those heavy duty horse bags, thank you Windy.

Funny thing is, I grew up with dogs like this and just took dog hairs as normal as did DH... maybe we just need to get over ourselves and embrace what we've always known and stop thinking we could do better!

The way that I get our dog to stay calm in the shower is peanut butter on the bath so he can lick it off whilst I shower him 😂

Brilliant idea newyoiker, cocodog will do anything for peanut butter😁

I do dispair about the state of all of my belongings- and that’s without all of the winter mud atm. I have replaced ALL of the exposed soil in the garden with slate this year though, so fingers crossed that will help.

SquirrelDog was a bit quiet this morning, and didn’t get up till I finally hauled us both out of bed. Then he didn’t eat his breakfast (not unusual though, since I started scatter feeding him & hiding his kibble in his blankets he basically CBA unless there is absolutely nothing else going on). He was as enthusiastic as usual about his walk though. I’ll feel better in half an hour if I haven’t heard from the dog walker because she will have picked him up and she’ll let me know if she thinks anything is wrong!

I would love to give Ddog a peanut butter kong but as the vet said she was at the absolute max of her healthy weight I've been looking for healthier fillings for her (though she is now doing so much more walking, and off the lead, I imagine her weight will start to drop quite quickly). I feel bad as I was quite smug the other day when I'd made a salmon and spinach thing for dinner and stuffed the kong with the leftovers and she loved it so thought that was a good healthy treat... but of course it had salt, onions and a small bit of cream in and am now discovering that all these things are very bad for dogs.

I have no idea how our family dogs lived so long - we gave them leftovers from family meals all the time.

What's the rationale with "scatter feeding" Squirrel, out of interest?

@distantdog scatter feeding means the dog has to work for food. There's a Facebook group if you're on Facebook called Canine training and enrichment, helps you get some ideas on how to make your dog use it's brain to get food.

Our dog was a bit of a chunk so we started putting his food in kongs, either freezing then with natural yogurt or water and that takes ages to get out, or just literally put his kibble in his kong and let him eat it from that.

You can put the food in grass outside and that will take ages for the dog to find all the pieces of kibble or we use this it's a Kong wobbler and it dispenses kibble randomly whilst the dog paws at it, it don't use these things if your dog is very hungry as that's just cruel, maybe give her a third of her meals in a bowl and the rest in toys?

By increasing his exercise and using food toys we've got our chunk from 25kg to 15 in a year sorry for the essay!

Oh no please don't apologise - all information gratefully received!!

So dairy products (the natural yoghurt) is fine for your dog? I've just been reading that you shouldn't give milk products, although another vet says cheese is ok because the processing removes whatever... argh - it's all very confusing...I wish I hadn't looked! But I love this scatter feeding idea, possibly half meal in bowl as standard morning and evening (don't want to mess with her routine too much) and then the remainder in a kong wobbler/in the grass.

I think it depends on the dog, it can make them a bit regular or loose, but I use natural yogurt full fat and just enough to bind it together. He definitely enjoys using his brain to get food it seems to tire him out a lot!