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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

General Dog Chat 5

845 replies

BiteyShark · 21/02/2019 14:37

A thread for general chit chat about our wonderful but sometimes pain in the arse dogs.

New or old, feel free to join. Everyone's welcome.

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Thread gallery
32
bluetongue · 06/05/2019 10:30

Argh, Bluepuppy currently is sporting the cone of shame Sad

With the change of weather to cool, windy and rainy here he has suddenly been bouncing around with extra energy.

Thought I’d rush him down to the dog park after work before it got dark. He was jumping out of his skin, running around, through bushes and egging the other dogs on to chase him.

He had a bit of a rest between runs where a group of owners were gathered and another owner yelled out that Bluepuppy had a cut on his back. Sure enough he had a fresh cut big enough to need a vet visit.

Of course Bluepuppy has no idea that anything is wrong and still wants to keep running but I take straight to the vet.

I’ve opted to get the wound stapled rather than stitched. Hope I’ve made the right decision. Of course Bluepuppy is just fine but I’m feeling a bit stressed. I can’t work from home so I’ll probably have to take tomorrow off to try and keep him quiet. Why do I have to have the craziest 2 year old whippet in Australia!

bluetongue · 06/05/2019 10:35

Oh and the cone of shame isn’t slowing him down at all Sad

Original poster
BiteyShark · 06/05/2019 10:54

Oh no blue, they have no self preservation do they Sad. We have banned BiteyDog from certain boisterous walks as he has no common sense.

Probably best to have gone straight to staples given that BiteyDog managed to easily open up a wound secured by glue before.

Hope it heals soon sends bluepuppy virtual tranquilisers to keep him calm Wink

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bluetongue · 06/05/2019 13:49

Bluepuppy is fast asleep now Smile

All this has happened at the same time I was already worrying if I was a good enough dog owner. I was trying to do the right thing by him when I took him to the park and then he got injured Smile

Then I feel bad about taking a day off work. I’m going to tell them the truth about why I need a day off. The last thing ai need is feeling guilty about taking a sickie on top of everything else !

bluetongue · 06/05/2019 13:50

Whoops, second happy face should have been a sad face Sad Grin

Original poster
BiteyShark · 06/05/2019 14:41

All this has happened at the same time I was already worrying if I was a good enough dog owner.

Why the worry blue?

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GrouchyKiwi · 06/05/2019 17:27

Oh blue. These things happen. Your dog is well looked after. Hope he heals quickly.

Puppies are indeed difficult. I'd like our next dog to be a rescue greyhound. Just have to convince DH...

bluetongue · 06/05/2019 22:29

Bitey I worry partly because that’s just what I do.

I know that he has it pretty good compared to most dogs but in an ideal world his life could be better. Even just having a bigger back garden and having a whippet brother or sister to run around with would make him happier.

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 06/05/2019 23:07

Oh poor Bluepuppy and his self inflicted injuries!

Worrying about whether or not you're a good enough dog owner is a good sign that you're probably pretty good. The crap owners don't spend much time worrying about it, and they're definitely not involved enough to be posting on MN!

Every dog owner on here can identify something that would make their dog's life better. IMHO so long as the DDogs are sufficiently happy, exercised, sheltered, fed well, played with and loved then they've got enough; anything else is just tinkering.

Original poster
BiteyShark · 07/05/2019 06:42

Oh blue of course you are better than 'good enough'. Perhaps a better way to think of it as we are all just doing it differently and there isn't a 'best' way.

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bluetongue · 07/05/2019 07:15

Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone Smile

Today has been a better day. Bluepuppy and I had brunch at a great hipster place near the beach (delicious French toast) before a walk. Then home to catch up on Call the Midwife.

Tomorrow I’ll have to go back to work but at least I know he’s doing okay and seems comfortable enough. I keep telling him how he’s such an inspiration because he can still do so much with his cone of shame on Grin

Original poster
BiteyShark · 07/05/2019 15:17

Glad today was a better day blue. It's very stressful when they injure themselves especially when you are then thinking wtf do I do about work.

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AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 07/05/2019 23:14

Took PestDog to a big local show yesterday. He behaved impeccably who is this dog and where is the real PestDog He did start to feel a bit overwhelmed at one point and make the excellent decision to be asked to be picked up instead of engaging in one of his less desirable behaviours.

Friend was holding PestDog's lead while I chatted to a stallholder. He took this as an opportunity to pick PestDog up, casually sneak up beside me and let him lick out my ear. The stallholder looked horrified that not only had that awful dog owner allowed it to happen, but he hadn't even apologised. I had to explain that it was my dog Grin

Original poster
BiteyShark · 08/05/2019 07:16

I like PestDogs ear licking greeting Grin.

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merryMuppet · 08/05/2019 22:32

Hope blue is on the mend and you were ok back at work bluetongue.

PestDog sounds like he’s doing really well and am laughing at the stall owner and the ear licking avocados Grin

I am feeling totally mortified tonight and like a complete failure as a responsible dog owner. I do admit to having been feeling really really proud of MuppetPup just before The Incident of Shame. He’d been doing really well with his recall and trotting to heel and he’d even managed to wait and not eat his dinner straight away after I’d put it on the floor although he was quivering with the effort of not eating it. I only got him to wait for a few seconds. But now I’m wondering if I need to go back to square one on recall.

He is a whippet and I know this is the command I need to nail more than anything else so have been really careful to only use the command when I know he’ll obey and I watch for other dogs to get him on the lead quickly so I don’t set him up for failure.

He was running with his older dog friend and I saw two dogs on the other side of the field so called MuppetPup and he ignored me. Not only did he ignore me but he went tearing over the field to the other dogs and I saw the owner put one of them on the lead. With my old hound the fastest way to get him back if he ever ignored was to run in the opposite direction and he’d panick and come after me. Not MuppetPup. The pup who I can’t even leave alone in the house for 10 minutes totally didn’t care even when I hid behind a tree SadSad He was having such a good time and I felt so so bad. He eventually came back after a good few minutes of recall failure. I didn’t treat him and ignored him a bit which is probably the wrong thing to do too. The other owner I was with was very reassuring and said it happens to all of us sometimes but I’m worried that now he’s learnt he can ignore me, I’ll never have the great recall I was hoping for. Am considering getting a whistle and starting again with recall and being more careful not to fail. Or is it just a blip and he can still be ok. If the dog he’d approached was nervous or old or aggressive it could have been tragic and all my fault! He’s now snoozing next to me like a little angel pup and he did amazing heel trotting on his lead on the way back and I feel like I’ve failed him.

Original poster
BiteyShark · 09/05/2019 05:55

merry I only ever took my dog walking on his own. The dog walker said he tended to stick to the other dogs but during his teenage phase but even then he used to run off sometimes.

So I am not sure if running around with another dog first and then being too excited and too far away maybe had something to do with MuppetPup not listening.

For recall we have an acme whistle which means you can get multiple that are guaranteed to be the same tone. I use 4 pips and we tried to make sure BiteyDog was never too far away from us (with spaniels if they are a long way away you have already lost control as they are bred to work closely with handlers). I practiced recall when we were on our own and no other dogs around and did the walking about and changing direction and hiding when he was in his 'deaf' mode.

I had months of recall deafness and honestly it was the worst time in the world so lots of WineBrewCakefor you.

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drinkswineoutofamug · 09/05/2019 09:15

Morning , muppetdog sounds just like mugdog. Recall is hit and miss especially when she focuses on one dog and flies down the field to get to them , she has both whippet and greyhound genes so I'm buggered. She rolled in something funky yesterday and had to have a bath. And she had he first and last bus ride. She sat on my knee all of the journey so she could look out of the window , much to the amusement of the other passengers.

merryMuppet · 10/05/2019 15:26

That's great advice about the whistle and matching the tone Bitey - thank you Smile. He's been behaving himself since although I'm trying v hard now to only set him up to succeed but think a whistle would definitely be a good idea especially when they're some way away and there's lots of other noise.

I met a dog walker this morning who was still feeling traumatised from when her dog went running off yesterday and went for quite a way before she managed to get him. He went right out of sight so she was having to ask people if they'd seen him. He ended up out by a road and just wouldn't come back. Eventually she saw a car heading down the road and he was about to step out in the road! She screamed 'Stop' with real panic and he finally looked at her all like 'What on earth is wrong? What's all the fuss about?'. Talk about giving her a heart attack. So no more off-lead jaunts for him for some time.

I love seeing dogs on trains and buses. How big is Mugdog to sit on your lap? I remember my old hound was pretty big but somehow always managed to get up on my lap which was a bit of a struggle with all his long limbs - very funny. He was scared on the bus though and sat on the floor pressing himself into me quivering and crying now and then and so we generally avoided buses.

How's Bluepuppy healing blue?

Squirrel26 · 10/05/2019 15:58

I took SquirrelDog on a catamaran once. He seemed fine, although he did want to get up on the seat and look out of the window.

drinkswineoutofamug · 10/05/2019 16:01

Mugdog is a bit bigger than a whippet, smaller than a grey hound but very stocky. She just pure muscle!

Original poster
BiteyShark · 11/05/2019 06:10

I have to restrain myself when I see dogs out and about as I just want to tickle them Grin.

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Squirrel26 · 11/05/2019 10:52

One of my friends ran a marathon the other week. She said she got through it by stopping to stroke dogs!

Original poster
BiteyShark · 11/05/2019 11:54

For all the years I didn't have a dog I used to console myself by stroking everyone else's. The best dog I met was when walking through the woods. Gave him a good fuss and when I stopped he would bop me on my leg with his nose to get me to fuss him again. This went on for some time until his owners caught up with him Grin

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Purplecatshopaholic · 11/05/2019 18:14

PurplecatDog and I were with a trainer last week to work on his issues with other dogs. We are doing clicker training and its working really well. He is a large boy, solid muscle, and has pulled me over on occasion so to have him calm round other dogs is amazing. He would say Hi but is snoozing at my feet, lol

Original poster
BiteyShark · 11/05/2019 18:30

Purple, BiteyDog would say hi back but he's snoozing on the sofa as well Grin

Glad the training is going well. It's so nice when you see results.

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