General Dog Chat 4

[geekone]

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

I hadn't realised how much rain we have had recently until our walk today. We had to cross a few fords and a river and they were so high and fast flowing.

yes, our river is full to overflowing too. Friend's dog jumps in, usually lands on her feet. This time it went over her head, gave her a bit of a fright!.

Dh left steppedog alone in the lounge with a full plate of pizza on the coffee table last night.

Fair game really

He is coming with us to my brothers for Christmas day, and staying over, that should be interesting. They have 2 cats, but a big house, and the room we will be in is downstairs. I have warned kids, that steppedog will be on the lead by me/dh all the time.
He is calm a sweet and lovely like that!

DHs loss steppedogs gain .

I sometimes encourage BiteyDog to go swimming to get rid of the mud but had visions of me having to jump in and rescue him so didn't bother today. A young lab though was having a great time swimming across.

Do be careful - a couple of months ago a young adult dog was swept away in a river after high rainfall up in the valleys. Absolutely awful - the owner had to be restrained from jumping in afterwards and the dog's body was eventually found several miles downstream a couple of weeks later.

That was my fear Avocados. Fortunately BiteyDog never goes in on his own unless I encourage him and I just called him away and put his lead on so we walked past the river.

Usually it's so low I can wade through with my knee height wellies but today it was so high and so fast it was almost at the height of the foot path bridge I am not sure I would have been able to stand straight without it knocking me over.

The lab made it look fine but I have seen the difference in how labs handle water compared to the smaller spaniels. BiteyDog would have found it tough going.

Gosh yes, the river was in full flow here today too (both the rain and some snow melt) and Ddog ran down to it which worried me as there is a huge stretch of riverbed that she loves to run along but as it's now covered in snow I was a bit worried that the edge would sink into the water and carry her off... so I called her back and she came straight away, which made me very happy. Then called her back as we neared a farm where I know there is a feisty collie and I like to put her on the lead, and she came back straight away... fabulous!!

And then on the way home she disappeared up into the trees on a steep bank, after a few minutes I called her back, she came back down straight away but had something large in her mouth, which turned out to be an animal skull (no idea what, a fox maybe)... well that was the end of her excellent behaviour as she was no way going to drop it or even let me get near enough to wrestle it from her, so she stayed within a 5m radius of me but each time I approached would jump up the steep bank knowing I couldn't follow her, all the while crunching away In the end, the only thing that worked was me literally running away from her in the direction of home as she then dropped it and ran to catch up with me!!

Poor distantDog probably thought you wanted a munch as well and didn't want to share

I'm most cross about the fact that I had a 20 euro note in my pocket that also had emergency treats in should recall not work... of course as I was in a flap about getting her to drop her treasure and was fumbling around trying to tempt her away with treats to no avail, the 20 euros fell out Another thing to add to my list of "unexpected expenses of having a dog"!! Of course she is now curled up next to me on the sofa being very cute and making it impossible to be actually cross.

Fast flowing rivers makes me think back to early dog owning and the new relationship blossoming between me and my DH post my divorce and his first Christmas with my 2 DC and my parents, 20 years ago! Christmas Eve had seen us knee deep in flood water carrying the children to our village church to be in the nativity. Christmas Day, we took black lab for a walk after lunch. Soon to be DH and very new to dog ownership, lobbed a stick into the fast flowing river, Dixie charged in confidently and then panicked, swimming hard against the current. I panicked, my father panicked...my children screamed...soon to be DH threw off his coat and dangled himself off a branch and grabbed Dixiedog and towed her to the bank and safety. He got very wet . If he hadn’t, he probably wouldn’t have become DH and very good stepdad.😬

Awww your now DH clearly passed his 'test' with flying colours rescuing DixieDog

Well. I think he had many tests to pass taking on young children, my feisty father plus dog But we are here today with adult DC, my parents elderly but still here and Cocodog. He loves dogs and all animals but has not got a scooby doo re training etc and does leave it all to me. I don’t mind because he does fall in line with what is going on and more or less follows the party line! He has also supported me with reservations but then wholehearted support with our recent foray into raw feeding!

Aw lovely story! And sounds like it's not just Cocodog you've got well-trained

Ha, well trained indeed! And so is distantdog in that she caught you up not wanting you to get too far ahead even though she was being naughty😬

DH was always not bothered about getting a dog and was more of a cat person. Couldn't have cats as I am allergic to them, coughing and red sore eyes just from sitting in a house with them

However, now we have BiteyDog I think DH loves him more than me

Bitey, I have been trying to convince my DH that we need to replace some of our furniture, without much success. I may try wearing a faux fur coat and staring at him in mute appeal rather than nagging😏

That would definitely work in this household .

We are cooking the turkey today and have just picked it up from the supermarket. BiteyDog is very interested in the package and is sniffing the air around the kitchen island. I think I might have to take him for a very long walk whilst DH does the cooking.

We have been having ridiculously early morning wakings again with Bella after it had stopped for a few months. Dd suggested I put white noise on the Echo and see if that helped. I got up at 7am this morning and Bella was still asleep a whole two and a half hours later than she has been for the last ten days! Obviously it could have been a fluke but will be trying the theory again tonight in any case.

We use a white noise machine anyway as I find silence deafening iykwim. It does have the benefit that it helps muffle the sounds for BiteyDog otherwise we get the growling at stupid o'clock when he hears the wildlife .

BiteyDog had a few moments recently of wanting to toilet in the middle of the night but seems to have calmed down again. He still gets up occasionally in the night to change position after checking on DH and I but I find that quite sweet.

Hoping it wasn't a one off here Bitey. No idea what has set her off again, I have non sleeping ds here but she ignores him at night generally and definitely ignored him last night when he was a complete pain in the backside. I will try again tonight anyway. I know if I let her sleep upstairs she would be no trouble but I can't bear the thought of her sneaking in to my bed and I'm an insomniac anyway and would wake every time she moved. Going to persevere anyway she is as good as gold mostly so if the early mornings are the only problem then I'm counting myself lucky tbh.

I undestand why it might not appeal, flesh, but the ONE concession we will never relent on is Ddog on/in our bed (DH v allergic to cats but can tolerate dogs - whom he adores - but dog hair on our bed would be too much)... and the baby gate across our bedroom door works a treat at keeping her settled. She feels that she is sleeping "with us", can see us, but cannot sneak into the room. I'm prone to insomnia so DH and I switched places so that he is in the place that she can see so that she doesn't see me reaching for my phone to listen to my audiobook etc. and I don't see her if she decides to move either... have to say we have all been sleeping so well with this arrangement... may well not be a possible set up for you but it works for us.

I think unbroken sleep is the one thing I miss now we have a dog. I don't think my age helps as I find sleeping much harder now but his snuffles, sighs and moving positions wakes me up and although I don't hold it against him I sometimes think I would love a good nights sleep.

BiteyDog has had his turkey now it's cooked and we have frozen him a few portions for next week .

BiteyDog sends his good wishes to everyone. Happy Christmas 🍾

BastardPup took all of half an hour to destroy his Robot Chicken chew toy which was allegedly extra tough. He's a bit over-faced by it all but going to take him out again in a minute. I love the fact that a dog gives you the perfect excuse to escape the chaos for a bit.

Ah yes the tough toys that take 10 minutes instead of 5 to destroy .

I went for a road walk earlier whilst DH cooked I would have happily just have nibbles but DH wanted a dinner so he offered to cook so how could I complain.

I bought DH a present which requires us to take paw prints of BiteyDog which will be moulded into a key ring. Now we are trying to work out how to get those prints. Sedation would be preferable

I don’t think any dog toy is actually dog proof

My chihuahuas can destroy a Labrador proof ball