General Dog Chat 4

[geekone]

Apologies I just noticed the thread was running out so I am going to repost.

Aww Cocodog probably thinks well of course I have different beds. My day bed, my bed that I will see visitors in, my observation bed and my extra comfy night bed .

BiteyDog would love the spare bed to be his bed and admittedly he spends most of his time there when we are around. He just doesn't want to be on his own at night so reluctantly sleeps on his bed in our bedroom at night.

Actually thinking about it more. BiteyDog will sit on the sofa in the bedroom when I am showering. He then moves to the sofa in the lounge when DH is due home. He sits outside in one spot when he is waiting patiently for one of us to play ball. But more often than not I find him on the spare bed. It's a good job we never have guests stay over because they would have to sleep with BiteyDog

I’m sure he would be an impeccable bedfellow! When Cocodog was a pup and adult DC were staying she would try to bulldoze the bedroom doors in the morning but has learnt that they, alas, do not get up as early as we do. Went from trying to storm the doors to lying in wait in the hallway to just chilling on the sofa but has taken 2 and a half years😬

SquirrelDog once crashed into the spare room and jumped all over my best mate first thing on a Sunday morning. She maintains he opened the door. I maintain he doesn’t know how to work door handles, and I warned her to make sure she’d closed it properly.

They don’t need a formal invitation do they! Cocodog now pretends to be all cool but as soon as the door moves ajar she is there waiting to pounce with a bright good morning...what the hell time do you call this. Could have done with her when they were all teenagers😬

I love the morning greeting. As soon as the alarm goes off BiteyDog springs out of his bed and grabs one of his toys as a present and keeps wandering about between me and DH to say morning. It makes early morning so nice.

The excited wagging of tail and toy in mouth to greet you is one of the most endearing things about dogs I think. With cocodog it has to be mr Fox, DH says when she hears my car turn into the drive she runs all round the house to find him.

Does Cocodog give you her present?

BiteyDog gets really upset if he doesn't have a present to greet you with but he never gives it to you. It must just be symbolic this is what you could have but it's mine instead

Oh yes to different places at different times of the day.
He also has his own routine that he follows.

So in morning, when I open dds door, he is there ready to jump on her bed for a cuddle until she gets up (having come directly from ds bed!)

On blanket in kitchen if I'm in kitchen, on his bed when I'm working (same room) in lounge on his bed when we are in there, (always in same room as one of us) and at about 10/11 pm, he is waiting for us to let him out, and then he goes straight up to ds' bed for the night, he gets very confused if ds door is shut.

But my favourite one is when dd2 is getting ready for school, he lies on the back door mat, looking completely dispondent as no-one has yet taken him out for a walk. Ears pricking at any sign of movement. Doesn't react to dd putting her coat on, but gets more active (from mat to under the table, back to the mat etc)
dd leaves and I come back into kitchen and he is sitting bolt upright, by the back door, perfect manners, ears alert, like a freeeze frame:

arewegoingarewegoingarewegoingarewegoingarewe? arewe? arewe?

then if I pick up my welly socks, he goes NUTS!!

so cute.

Aw, I love reading all these stories as it makes me appreciate that Ddog is starting to behave like a "normal dog". And sorry steppe but I very much enjoyed your spicy poo story... if/when that happens to us (because Ddog is certainly capable of that kind of behaviour!!) I will feel less distressed knowing that it's not just us!

Had a very weird experience a few days ago. Took Ddog for a very long walk before the big snow that was predicted, knowing that the route we were doing would be cut off for some months afterwards. DH was away so I was on alert to be more cautious when we got to a remote spot where I know we have seen a couple of deer on the odd occasion and that Ddog will chase them off the side of the mountain into the abyss (took ages and much panic when DH had to go and retrieve her last time and our neighbour's dog died doing this). So I put her on the lead at that spot and within less than a minute a whole family of deer ran past. Kept her on the lead for the following 30 minutes - during which time we saw at least 25-30 deer - then let her off for the long walk home, once we had reached a less remote spot. At one point, whilst she was on the lead, I heard a pounding of hooves disappearing into the forest and then what seemed to me like a growl of some sort. I got a sudden fear and wanted to turn back then thought, "no don't be ridiculous they don't live here"... didn't mention this to DH at all and then 2 days later he showed me a video someone had taken of wolves in the area chasing deer So I told him of my experience... and was very disgruntled that he was far more concerned about Ddog being attacked than me!! To be fair, it is highly unusual for wolves to go for humans... but still!

distant that would be my DHs reaction as well, more worried about BiteyDog than me .

I once went walking with BiteyDog in the forest at night and both of us were very freaked hearing all the noises but not seeing anything. We never did it again and I definitely wouldn't do it if we had wolves

Honestly Bitey - it was probably exactly the same feeling you had with BiteyDog in the forest a night because as far as I was concerned we really didn't have wolves round here and it was my imagination running away with me.

Ddog was looking around in every which direction as we saw so many deer she wanted to chase and I had her on the 5m extendable lead, attached to the waistband of my rucksuck, so I didn't have to rely on my - fairly pathetic - hand strength to hold onto her if she tried to bolt... but it's definitely made me think twice about bowling up there at this time of the year (when all the high mountain farms are closed and very few people go walking). It was actually amazing to see so much wildlife at the time... but in hindsight.... and especially now I did have to explain to DH that if a wolf went for Ddog, I would have to leave her to it and get the hell out of there...

Easy to say but not so easy to do... we took her for a walk all together today and the (very shallow) river was frozen over. She insisted on going down to it and the ice cracked under her feet and she sank into the water. There are no deep bits of water round here but I did remind DH that people die every year when their dog has fallen into a frozen pond and they can't leave their beloved dog in peril - and so often the dog survives and the owner perishes.

Still... DH loves me alot for sure... but Ddog is the most precious princess in the house!!

distant BiteyDog went swimming once in the sea and both DH and I noticed he was swimming straight for a riptide which would have taken him straight out to sea. Both of us started to recall him and thankfully he turned round but I know that even though our head says not too we would both have jumped into rescue him .

Bitey, she likes to hold on to present and then maybe have a quick game of tug which she wins because I am wanting to put away shopping, talk to DH etc. She was left with DH today whilst I took my mum Christmas shopping to Exeter. Apparently she hasn’t been walked as far, he didn’t give her the Kong I left but she looks knackered so I am assuming he was very energetic with ball play.
Steppe, Cocodog never pushes for morning walk, often has to be called out of upside down position in bed to go...but always is on the alert at around 4pm for afternoon jaunt through woods and most importantly a game of ball chase in our garden before her supper.
Distant, was trying to imagine wilderness and wolves, the upside, I imagine, is not meeting other dogs. We meet far too many in our local woods, the downside, a distinct chill down the back!

There is something really comforting about hearing your dog sleeping deeply next to you. He doesn't know it yet as I am here that he's off to daycare soon. He thinks he's having a relatively boring day with me but as soon as daycare lady turns up he will go crazy with excitement with not even a backward glance at me

distant - I love hearing about your life - mnountains and wolves and deer sound amazing.
Where are you? It sounds like the Alps, (or the Rockies!)

25 to 30 deer would cause SquirrelDog to completely lose his mind! He’s bad enough if he spots one! (We have quite a lot round here, no wolves though!)

I can just see SquirrelDog thinking 'but but but which one do I chase'

I think steppedog would be terrified of 25 deer!

I went Christmas shopping yesterday. I may have spent more time in Pet's at Home looking at stuff for steppedog than I did looking at stuff for kids....

I have given up buying toys for BiteyDog now as he just wants replacement balls.

I do, however, have a lovely gift from BiteyDog to DH

Yes we are in the alps. Ddog came to us in August and we started walking her (rather than just doing rounds of the field) a few weeks later. I was most worried at that time of year about all the cows as, again, I'd read that a surprisingly high number of dog walkers are killed by cows in the UK because the dog spooks the cows and the owner tries to protect the dog, even though the dog has every chance of outrunning the cows and the owner does not (!) but in fact she was scared of them and also showed very little interest in our neighbours' chickens and goats and the like. Now that has all started to change... the livestock are all down in their winter homes and all the fences are down so she is loving the freedom of roaming wherever, plus she is now a lot more confident so doesn't feel the need to stick by us... so she has started chasing birds and deer and when she does that, "recall" has become absolutely non-existent unfortunately! At this stage, I'm not sure that any amount of training would change that, and dogs can chase the wildlife down a ravine/off a cliff without hesitation!!!

We're going to ask one of our local friends for some avalanche education - up until now we've either always skied on the pistes or gone off piste with a local guide in the winter, but now we want to take Ddog out for a proper walk every day, away from the ski pistes, and so we need to understand the conditions that will make a route too dangerous. During our first winter here, I would just go off snowshoeing wherever, whenever (in a way I wouldn't if on skis) until a local told me...er, no, that's really dangerous and you need to check the snowpack conditions first!

distant that sounds both lovely and scary at the same time. Wolves and avalanches would petrify me

wow.
just sounds awesome (mind you, the idea of needing to walk UP for half of my walk is less attractive!)

I had my friend's dog with me tis morning, labrador, loves water. Freezinf cold (literally) She jumoed in the lake, then ran round in the woods. Then she came back to me covered in llittle white flakes. I was just wondering what seeds or plant she had run past, when I realised that the white flakes were ice, and her coat had frozen where it had been wet!

At least with all the running about your friends dog won't hopefully notice her frozen coat .

I worry about BiteyDog in this weather because although we let his back fur grow for the winter his stomach has never really recovered from the frequent shaves the vet had to do. It's still very thin and just doesn't grow back very fast at all.

Talking of BiteyDog, he's at the backup daycare today as one of his 'keep in touch days'. The house isn't quite the same without him here

Yes, we were very naive city dwellers when we arrived here and have had to learn to "respect" nature and understand that nature doesn't care about you! Ddog loves it though, and whenever she is being a pain all the time we have to remind ourselves that she was living in a cage and now she's roaming the mountains and seems to prefer the wet and the cold to the heat of summer. That said, after her dip in the frozen river, followed by 2 hours of walking in the snow in minus temperatures, we could see by the end of the walk that her paws were giving her trouble and she was holding them off the ground one by one to get some respite from the cold. So we've ordered her some snowboots... (that match her harness naturally)... what's the betting this is yet another expensive purchase that HRH Ddog will turn her nose up at?