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.

Oh gosh @Bupster that doesn't sound good. Poor Bill. I hope he's over the worst and you can both get some rest.

I got about four hours sleep checking on him. He had a lovely restful night and has been an agent of chaos since he woke up. In fairness he's still a bit subdued, in that he's not eaten much breakfast and is already asleep again, but he's so much better than he was, thank GOD😍

Dogs really do make you a hostage to fortune, don't they? Like I didn't already know how much I love the little hooligan.

@Bupster
Awww, poor Bill and poor you, I hope you both have a better day.

Oddly I also have a squidgy tum pup since yesterday but it's the other end 😬

Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh 😖

Having one of those self-doubt days 😩

Apparently I'm an unfit owner because I give The Dogchilde rawhide chews which are going to kill her any minute now so I had a 😡and did a pathetic flounce from another thread. It seems I am better off killing her with an ostrich bone because it's Mumsnet approved 🙄I'm now contemplating whether I should just let her eat the dining table instead because it might be simpler...although I'm not sure if it would be a MN approved dining table so I need to check that first 🤔

Oh I know - rawhide is bad bad bad, double smack on head for me 😬But what do you do when your dog has massive jaws? She can't really nibble daintily on one tiny little piglet lug for half an hour, it is gone in 10 seconds. I dunno, you get a lecture and even if it's well intentioned it's kinda like they don't visualise the ginormous wolf teeth, because their dog is a quarter of her size, so it puts me on the defensive a bit 😧

Deep inside I feel clueless. 8 dogs in and I'm still not getting it right. And I know it. I really do, despite all my blah blah blah, I'm hyper anxious about Brie all the time. She's turned out bloody massive (she's bigger than one of our boys was 😨) and sometimes it's hard because she's not even 7 months yet.

Anyway, this week we tried a tiny bit of a different kibble that's lamb mixed in with the regular chicken stuff and now puppykins is doing squirty 💩 which got all over her pantaloons so we've had to wash her umpteen times since yesterday when it started. So now she's wet and smelly and I have the guilt of the rawhide issue plus giving her something that wasn't rawhide but still upset her tummy (most likely Wainwright's kibble) 😟So yeah, self-doubt, self-hate. Guilt.

Aaaarrrrgggghhh 😩

@PyreneanAubrie One of my friends has a Great Dane and has exactly the same problem! Last time I went to see them I brought her an entire beef trachea, which lasted about ten minutes, but I think she was nibbling daintily for show. Meanwhile Bill can make a dried rabbit's ear last weeks.

Honestly MN ends up with so many threads like that - everyone's having a lovely time then Judgey McJudgeface lands to explain why nobody should own a dog except them.

Re squirty bum, I'll see your stinky poos and raise you two hours of vomiting. It's absolutely not on you (well, not literally I hope). We just can't know what their tummies are going to tolerate. I tend to forget Bill has a puppy tummy as he has such a Labrador attitude towards food, then something like last night happens and I have to completely reassess my approach. I thought I'd just about got it right with a mix of kibble and wet, plus treatos, and pastes for licky mats, and occasionally letting him try other proteins for the joy of the variety, but now I'm having to go right back to boring kibble and very slowly reintroduce the rest and he's miserable and I feel so bad for him. He has the heart of a garbage disposal but the stomach of a six-month-old, and it's not fair.

@Bupster areyou sure it wasn't a bug? I would have thought vomiting multiple times would be due to a bug rather than food and I'd think he'd been fine to go back to what he was eating before once he is feeling better.

@Bupster Thanks. But a defensive (okay, guilty) me is snarky and now I'm thinking nope, I should have 🤐Rawhide is horrible but I'm terrified of splitty splintery bones and my vet cousin warned us off Antler and Yak as having no give...

Ummmm, stinky poos or vomit...? Well at least it hasn't been both together (yet) 😨

Ah yes, that's the problem, isn't it? As regards digestion, we do tend to forget they're still just babies and we do expect a lot. As someone said on the Pod dog thread, the foods we think are the best aren't always the ones that suit our dog. We've had to put Brie back on the Purina Robust she was reared on - at least until her tummy settles 🙄 I hope Bill is back to normal soon. Now, do we dare risk a walk...🤔Might be unpopular with neighbours though...💩

@newusern9999 yes, the vet thinks it's a bug, though he doesn't seem to have the upset tummy any more so it must have been quite a fast bug. But she said to keep him on the plainest food that he was used to - so just kibble for himself, with a tiny bit of boiled chicken, at least until tomorrow.

@PyreneanAubrie You’re not an unfit owner at all – and you’re not clueless! I didn’t know about the dangers of rawhide when I got pupsy and my parents merrily gave it to their dogs (and her) so it didn’t occur to me to check – once I had, I admit I threw it all out. But then again I have a dog with a small mouth and you have a very different set of challenges with what you can and cannot give Brie. I don’t think anyone was intending to shame you on the other thread – I didn’t get that sense anyway. Few of us appreciate what kind of dog she is and it’s easy to happily suggest things like ostrich bones (which I always recommend myself, in good faith, because of their structure) when your dog is of average ish size and bite strength and you don’t know anything different.

How big do you reckon she will end up being, if she’s already bigger than one of your boys?

Sorry to hear about your bad poo experiences. Feeding is so frustrating! I had such, such trouble until we went onto raw (and kibble) and genuinely all of my problems evaporated overnight, but I know there are many reasons why people don’t want to/can’t feed raw and it doesn’t suit all dogs anyway. But I do sympathise because we had a lot of issues with food to start with. Which one have you tried that’s given her a bad tummy?

@brushingboots Thanks. I'm struggling. I just lost my Mum a couple of weeks ago and I'm spending way too much time on here because it's a distraction from all the stuff I have to deal with. But my moods are all over the place 😔

I feel like I want to chuck the rawhide out but then I don't know what else to give Brie. She has those massive rawhide rings and they last for days but when it gets to the point that it's a small piece that she could swallow, we always distract her with a walk or some outside play so the small bit goes in the bin. We've never left any of them unsupervised with chews; we take all toys up at night, we are careful. I know people talk about bleach and glue and formaldehyde or e-coli, salmonella etc in rawhide but they can get the latter two from bones, and the other treats must be preserved with something. I don't know how much of it is propaganda/scaremongering, that's the problem.

She's big but her mum is a very big girl and Brie was the biggest puppy; there was a boy of similar size but all the other pups were quite noticeably smaller. The snow photo I posted was one of our boys and Brie is a lot bigger than he was at this age. She is already (at just under 7 months) bigger than our three girls were fully grown! I worry that she's too heavy so we've slightly reduced her food intake but she's also quite tall and broad backed so I don't think her size is just down to overeating, but we did maximise the fast growth period by shoving a lot of food in! Their teeth are always huge but again, her jaw size is more like our males were, hence my worry about other chews.

Raw feeding is good if you can do it. We fed our Maine Coons on raw for years but the dogs have only had it occasionally. Your girl will be very healthy for it though, I have no doubt about that. Brie was started off on Purina Robust puppy but it's chicken based and high in grains so we wanted to wean her off it and onto something better. We've tried very slowly and gradually introducing other kibble a few times First Vitalin, which was also chicken but seemed like good ingredients but it disagreed with her no matter how minimal the amount. Then we tried Millies Wolfheart duck (at MW recommendation) but she wasn't very keen on that. Nourish Salmon & potato she will eat but it made her poo soft and now Wainwrights lamb & rice has given her a really bad belly. So she's back on the Purina again until it settles. It is not the easiest breed to feed, they aren't particularly food orientated although they love anything home cooked. I suppose the type of dog they are means they've been fed on scraps a lot while they're up in the hills with the shepherds, so they're not really big eaters for their size. Anyway, we'll figure it out but really no idea what other food brand will suit her. I've lost days just researching every brand of kibble in existence... any thoughts?

Sorry for the essay again 🙄

With my oldest, feeding was the thing that stressed me out the most as and she's a lab!

We didn't hit on a winning combination until she was around a year old. No issues with things disagreeing with her but just getting her to eat it in the first place.

And of course, with female dogs you never know if there's hormones in play if they go off their food etc.

@PyreneanAubrie
Sorry to hear about your Mum, I've lost mine recently too, it was a blessing but it still hit me hard.
Did all your other dogs live happy healthy lives? I think the answer is probably (definitely) yes.
I gave all my past dogs rawhide, it's all there was. They loved it and like yourself I supervised them and removed the last bit.
We did just fine before the internet and information overload, in fact it was a darn sight less stressful.
Stay away from other threads, ultimately it does you no good at all.
God bless social media!!

Sorry about your Mum too @BrodiePup . It was not unexpected with mine but it has indeed hit me hard.

I hope you've had a lovely week away and had no more incidents with unruly dogs.

The rawhide thing hit a nerve - I do feel guilty - but you're right, of course, we used to do these things without feeling judged.
Now, everyone has opinions about everything dog related and they don't always take into account that what works for a Shih-tzu isn't necessarily going to be ideal for an Irish Wolfhound.

I will look for alternative safe chews for Brie but meanwhile I'll allow her the big rings under supervision.

Good point about the hormone aspect @tizwozliz One of ours, Rosie, was a nightmare to feed; she was so hormonal - she'd stop eating before every season and go scrawny but once it was over she'd want to gorge herself.

Brie is approaching 7 months so her first heat may not be far away. I had hoped to get her settled on a decent food long before that but we'll just have to keep trying until we find one that suits her and that she'll happily eat without getting loose.

Oh @PyreneanAubrie , I'm so sorry about your mum. There is never a good time for it to happen even if you're expecting it, and it's always going to knock you for six. So sorry about yours, too, @BrodiePup . I lost mine many years ago but still remember it literally knocking my breath out.

I'm like you and disappear into forums when life is getting a bit overwhelming. It feels like somewhere you can navigate and contribute when doing the same in the world feels like it's a bit much, actually. But when you're still a bit raw, the carelessness of other posters can take off another layer of skin. I do hope you're okay. I hope you both know how valued you are here.

Thanks @Bupster It's been harder than I expected.

I should just stay in the safe harbour of these two threads instead of navigating the dangerous waters of AIBU where I am well out of my depth...😨But the chewstick one was dog related so I thought I was safe. Then again I thought that about the Irish Wolfhound one and look where that one ended up 🙄

Can you carry your dog? Apparently it's essential...😜Don't go there!

Thanks @Bupster

@PyreneanAubrie Carry my dog?!
Not a hope and he's not even that big 🤣.
We've had a lovely break thank you. B had his last run on the beach today, he's not going to be happy when he's back to his usual routes.

We gave up on his travel crate on day 3 as we decided it was a bit small. He seems to have decided that the best place to sleep is wedged down the back of my pillow... that's not happening at home either!

@PyreneanAubrie I shit you not, my trainer at my gym dug out a special exercise for me - it's called a Zercher squat but she calls it a lurcher squat. You hold the barbell across the crook of your arms, and she set it up so that it weighed the same or a little bit more than Bill 😄 It nearly killed me! But I can still just about manage him leaping up into my arms so he can lick delivery men on the nose. I don't know what the MN police would think of that.

(don't try it with Brie ffs!)

Awww, bless him, it sounds as if he's had a wonderful time. Not surprised at his new sleeping arrangements, they do love to find a comfy place to sleep. Give em an inch, they take a mile!

Brie has started loafing on the sofa - yup, we said we wouldn't allow her on the furniture but that lasted all of 5 minutes. She saw Freija stretched out along the sofa back and decided the lower level was just for her 🙄

The dog carrying comment was a reference to a thread where someone said they wanted a Wolfhound and was told, in no uncertain terms, that it is highly irresponsible to have a dog that you can't pick up and carry in the event that it is taken ill on a walk 😆Someone else very dryly replied saying that she'd better stop going for a walk with her husband then because she can't pick him up and carry him either 😂

@PyreneanAubrie
That makes me almost tempted to read other threads 🤣
Heck, knowing the amount of space B can take up, does that mean you and your husband are now sitting on the floor? 🤣

@Bupster Nope, I'll give that one a miss with Madam - I might just about manage cat weight.
It's pretty impressive that you can manage Bill leaping into your arms! He's quite a big lad.

Ah no, Two large sofas, a rocking chair and a big footstool. When you have a lifetime with Pyreneans you adjust your living space accordingly. Buy them a ginormous squishy bed that takes up half the kitchen, they never ever use it, but a big sofa - oh yay! That is their place 😁Mind you, she's not averse to shoving me off the footstool and plunking her big arse on there when the mood takes her. She is hilarious. Real giddy sense of humour.

Oh @PyreneanAubrie I’m so sorry to hear that. I think you can be forgiven for being however you need to be, and you can always chat to us <3

The only kibble I have any positive experience with is Skinners and I definitely can recommend it, but I don’t know if Brie needs larger sized pieces? The adult food is bigger than the puppy, that I do know, but I’m not sure if giants need ‘large breed’ (or similar) kibble? Out of interest how many grams does she eat a day? Just trying to visualise her size in my mind through another medium!

We met a beautiful ex-racing greyhound tonight on our walk and little pupsy didn’t even reach his withers. I went out a bit late and spooked myself in the dark imagining serial killers in the trees which was really bloody silly.

(Re essays: I am literally a professional writer so essays are very much my jam, so to speak.)

@PyreneanAubrie I absolutely love dogs with a sense of humour. Bill's bestie is a Lab, a trainee assistance dog, and she is just too clever and funny for her own good. She's taught Bill to try to steal balls out of her mouth (and vice versa), and she will outright lie to draw him off - the other day she pretended to dig because she knew he'd want to know what she was digging for, then doubled back and nicked his ball.

One of my old friends has a rescue Great Dane and they wouldn't let her be adopted unless they could demonstrate she'd have her own sofa.

PS Bill is now 20kg. I've been plotting his weight on one of those growth charts and he's due to top out at 27kg or thereabouts, so I need to keep going to the gym 😄

Re sofas, I have recently bought a second heated throw so we've got one upstairs and one downstairs and it is no coincidence that pupsy has spent most of the day snuggled on the sofa one! She is cat-sized so doesn't take up much space, but of course now I am also on the sofa, she is lying as close to my face as possible without actually being down my jumper. Had a shower when I got back from the walk and she promptly licked my clean feet. Dogs, eh.