Adolescent Dog Survival...Sharing Tips & Tails

[BrodiePup]

Moving on from the puppy survival thread, this is for anyone with a hormonal teenager 🤪

Brodie is just over 7 months now, and is a fun loving pup who is (mostly) a pleasure to be around. My main issue is still walking him which can either be almost a pleasure, or like having a Tasmanian Devil doing breast stroke and bunny hopping down the road 😡. There seems to be no reason for which dog gets attached to the end of the lead, but at least it shows he can do it if he's in the mood!

We've also had our first proper tummy upset this week 🤢 no doubt due to some rubbish he picked up and swallowed before I spotted it. Thankfully it seems to have passed now.

Hiya, how's things? Are you feeling any better?

So what pup will you get? Bigger or smaller? Boy or girl?

(Sorry for all the questions, am just a nosy cow 😆)

@PyreneanAubrie
I'm thinking smaller, Milo has a friend who's a border terrier, has been friends for ages same age called Peggy and they love each other.
I don't know but I can't go through a cocker again I've barely survived this time and I'm still hanging on by a thread.
When are you getting a new pup for brie yourself

@CaptainBeanThief

Awww, Peggy & Milo 💘 Hope there's no rivalry if you get a lil Peggy dupe....

Might be a long wait for us. We have to get through Brie's first season and then there'll be several months of..."heated debate" whilst I convince my chap that Brie absolutely does need a male PMD that she can beat into submission...😏

We are a long way off ourselves but we i am are thinking about it

@CaptainBeanThief

Ah. I get the picture.

With us, I very much have to prove myself as regards walking...which I am still failing miserably at.

Sadly, there is now photographic evidence of me being twirled around like a demented rag doll by Brie when she had an attack of the zoomies mid-walk 😳

I'm working on it.

@CaptainBeanThief @PyreneanAubrie I'd love another but I would only go spaniel – can't imagine having anything else now. I'm thinking springer but am quite taken by a black and tan cocker. But most of this is in my head because really it's not practical and I don't want to ruin her life by introducing another dog permanently to the luxury dog hotel that is our home.

@brushingboots
It's not that hard, honestly. Believe me, if I can cope with two/three then any of you here are more than capable of it.

I agree, the black and tan cockers are beautiful.

Just to prove I'm not fibbing 😉

@brushingboots
I do say I would never have another spaniel but in a few months I bet you I post a cute picture of an 8 week spaniel 🫢😬

@PyreneanAubrie I interviewed a keeper this week who has 15 dogs and I was just in awe of it – and of the range of breeds he's got. I know he's a keeper, but even so, 15 is enough for a whole rugby team. Think of all the food!

I reckon I could cope with two (mostly) on my own but it's more that I don't want to disrupt our lives I think. One is easy to ask someone to watch for the day, or take to the pub, or to a farm at work etc. Two is just so much more somehow. But I would love to train another for the intellectual challenge, and to run two gundogs together would be fun, teaching them stuff they need as a pair but not individually – release to name etc. But it is pie in the sky. Suspect I'll have a human baby before another pup, and then maybe another pup.

So serene! They're just gorgeous.

You will, I have no doubt 😁

We had these two girls and an older boy then just these two then got a pup, so three for about 8 years in total! Don't quite fancy 15 ...😱We had no kids though....

Ey up!
Gorgeous photo @PyreneanAubrie they really are beautiful dogs.
I'm pretty certain that B will be an only dog. Twice in my life I thought a pet would like a friend...once a dog, then a cat... both times were a disaster! The cats in particular loathed each other.
If I did however, it would absolutely be a spaniel, mainly because I'm a masochist 🤣.
No kids for me either...still don't feel ready!!

@BrodiePup
Hello 🙂

Oh never say never - there may come a time when you feel ready for a pal for Brodie. We were gluttons for punishment in our younger days 😜3 cats and 3 dogs at the same time. Later it was 1 dog with 6 cats for a few years.

The dogs actually got along surprisingly well and would all eat together, sleep snuggled up in a big pile and there were never any issues. We'd love to have two together again, but probably not three as we're twenty five years older now with achy backs and dodgy knees!

Multiple cats, no, we wouldn't do that again, there was a lot of friction, always. Cats are much harder work in many respects.

I know what you mean about kids, I never felt grown-up enough to go through it!

I didn't say never 😜 but it is doubtful...as a friend kindly pointed out, I've got to consider my age and how long a dog will live.
note to self
I need new friends!

I would hope your friend was joking.... but know what you mean. I think it's why I'm thinking of a second dog already. I'm 60 and I honestly wasn't even sure if it was fair getting Brie but we're doing fine. I just feel that if we don't get a second dog in the next 2 years then we probably shouldn't and more than likely won't.

Anyone had any experience of getting through fireworks season? Or secondary fear periods? Or God help us both together?

I was pretty sanguine about Bill’s capacity to get through this, but for the last week or so he’s getting spooked at shadows - bin bags, women in hoodies, unexpected noises from outside when he’s dozing, etc etc. if I’m super-lucky he’ll come out of it before the fireworks start (thank God I’m not still in Cambridge where they never bloody stop) but just in case, any advice? Thought I’d try desensitising with quiet firework noises while he’s sitting on my lap in the mornings chewing something vile. We also have brown noise on when he’s napping in the day. Anything else?

I've only had one pet in the past that didn't like fireworks, and he only got nervous with the whistling ones...so fingers crossed our pups will be ok.

We put a YouTube video on the tv of last new years fireworks and played it at full volume, and Brodie never twitched a whisker, so maybe try that?

Brodie hasn't had a fear period yet that we've noticed and he's coming up 8 months. When are they supposed to hit?

I think the most important thing you can do is to stay calm yourself. If you get tense worrying if they're going to be ok, they pick up on it, so it's a bit of a catch 22.

I'm slightly apprehensive about it. I keep meaning to try to desensitise Brie somehow. She was initially fine with noises when she was little but lately she's been a bit weird about a few things; a noisy motorbike with popping exhaust, loud radio in a van and a rattly farm trailer... So I think she might be terrible about fireworks. It's in that area of 6-9 months when they can apparently develop fear of traffic and noises and it's worrying me.

@Bupster This was probably a weird way to approach it and I’ve no idea what she’ll be like this year, but last year during fireworks seasons I literally walked her round the roads when they were on with the idea that that way she could see where the noise was coming from. When she looked at the noise I just clicked her on with my tongue, as I do all the time anyway, and just walked on. It seemed to work ok as she didn’t appear remotely bothered. And then when we were at home I just ignored any reaction she had, as I kept reading that you shouldn’t fuss over them if they get upset by the noise as if you say ‘it’s ok, you’re fine’ or whatever it reinforces them feeling that it isn’t ok. For ref she was six months old in November last year.

Agree with @BrodiePup that you need to breeze through it and pretend it’s not there as they will pick up on any reaction you have. I find that applies to most things dog, to be fair.

Re fear period, I prepared for one and I’m not sure it ever came in the end. But I don’t know if that’s about her or me as I am generally quite brisk and unworried about a lot of stuff and so to the extent to which you can do it with a dog have channelled a kind of jolly, unfussy resilience.

Excuse my mess of a sofa,
Blame Milo 😂

" Nah fuck you I ain't going for a walk" 😂😂😂

😂😆😂

OMG...the pose, the expression and the harness... it's just...totally surreal...
I feel like Milo wants to be some sort of movie star...

@PyreneanAubrie
My husband put his harness on and he just threw himself backwards into that pose and refused to move until now 👀
He turns into a lazy little shit at night 😂

@CaptainBeanThief
This photo should have been on that rain thread a couple of weeks back where they were all being so effing pompous about walking seventeen miles in torrential rain, because you owe it to your dog and your dog wants to go even if you don't...

Milo's opinion: "Nope, this boy ain't moving...!"😆