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.

@LemonPalms Oh he's lovely! Glad to hear you sounding cheery.

And yes @tizwozliz your girls are baby-faced! Bless them.

@YorkshireFelix We had a similar thing with our Apple TV remote at about that age – she just wouldn't leave it alone. Weird though, cos it was metal, so must have been cold in her mouth. One day, she (I think accidentally) held it in slightly the wrong place and broke the tracker wheely thing, leading to the remote's ultimate demise. We are still yet to replace it and I faff around using my phone instead which is stupid.

I keep saying we'll replace it but they're £60 odd and this weekend I bought an Equafleece for her instead, for drying off in the car after a wet walk and for almost the same price, cos I'm an indulgent dog mother. It's fair to say she hates the fleece but tough luck.

@brushingboots £60 for a remote!! I wouldn't buy a new one either. But equally would drop £60 on V or dd no questions asked 😂

I forgot to say I bought a £1 squeaky dinosaur from Pets at Home last week off your recommendation and he loves it!!

I'd be terrified of my dogs picking up a remote because plastic, small bits of rubber and metal, battery....😱Your pups must really have the famed gundog "soft mouth" I guess.

Oh joy. Another MN dog hating thread this morning. Just what we needed 😬

The loonies were out in force yesterday as well. Dogs stink more than anything else on the planet, and you're an uneducated peasant if you believe perfume gives you migraine 🙄
Meanwhile having four degrees will instantly make you a good dog owner... and if a vet offers constructive advice about not buying your child a high energy working breed as your first ever dog, she's just a weirdo.

Sometimes it's like a parallel universe on here. How do you cope?

@PyreneanAubrie yes definitely a soft mouth 🤣

MN is generally crackers. I have been here since I was pregnant with dd (almost 12 years ago!) and it's progressively got worse. I read a lot of the dog threads but generally keep my mouth shut. Apart from recently where I gave someone advice about stopping pulling and she scoffed about the fact V is a puppy then took the exact same advice from someone else 🤷🏻‍♀️ I keep out of it now as I just get wound up! I feel like this thread and the puppy one safely house the sane people...

@YorkshireFelix hooray for the squeaky dinosaur! Really useful as an item to hunt for and for recall – I have about six in various coats and cars.

@PyreneanAubrie I’m in an inheritance tax hole – which one is today’s horrorshow?

I only de-lurked on here after years of skulking in the background in protest against the poor advice @BrodiePup had received and now I only ever post on The Doghouse and even then sometimes it is absolutely batshit. Happy to stick to our little covens though I am sometimes triggered by spaniel threads where clearly someone is stuck and I just can’t help myself, though as if I’m an expert at all! Hardly.

I hope if/when I have kids I don’t feel tempted to post as I can’t see that helping at all.

@brushingboots that was very kind 😊 thank you!

I only started using MN during my early puppy hysteria when I stumbled upon it. I quickly learned not to read other threads, some folks attitudes and opinions make me sad, and the world feel an unpleasant place.

This thread and the people who participate has been a godsend though, so I'll be forever grateful. We've done an excellent job of keeping it nice.

Thanks for the reassurance
@YorkshireFelix @BrodiePup

And @brushingboots - yes, I can well imagine that the child rearing threads are a battleground at times. Go carefully when you do enter that arena!

I think it's because I'm so new here (although I had lurked on the Toast thread for a while before discovering The Doghouse). I clearly haven't yet learned not to give my two penn'orth on every dog related thread 😬It is a pointless exercise, I know, and I regularly make myself look like an idiot...but then again, nothing new there really 😳I have, at least, learned to stay off AIBU after getting a bashing for saying I would return a lost pet without claiming a reward. That was fun 🙄

Hopefully, I will eventually learn to 🤐

Now I'm off to take the donkey for a walk...

@PyreneanAubrie Good luck with the walk... I won't be far behind you.

@BrodiePup <3

Totally agree – this is a lovely, nonjudgemental space and long may it continue. I hope others who only lurk can see that too and know they are welcome. And how amazing that @Bupster and I have made actual friends out of it.

Apparently, we're all like Hitler, Mussolini & Putin because those are the dog lovers of choice on today's loony thread 😂

I think I shall bow out of there now and stay here where it's safe 😊

Oh @PyreneanAubrie , now I'm going to spend hours trying to hunt the crazy 😄

I agree with others, these two threads have just been wonderful - so supportive and just about the only place I've had at times to say I'm drowning - because I knew there would be people who would understand and would respond kindly.

And actually getting a real-life friend out of it is just the best, @brushingboots 😍(and for Bill too!)

Oh don't @Bupster . It sucks you in. I think I've descended to the depths and become one of them 😨

It's lovely that you and @brushingboots have become proper friends and the dogs have too 😊

Good Morning All!

Here's a new pic of the girl doing her thing. Some might call it loafing, I call it guarding but it may well be both, that's pretty normal for a Pyrie.

We had a nice walk up the moor again yesterday and took pics but I can't post those cos I'm on them 😬

Gorgeous @PyreneanAubrie 😍

oh she is beautiful @PyreneanAubrie !!

Thanks @YorkshireFelix and @lookwhatyoumademedoo 😊

@PyreneanAubrie Baby Brie! She is just so beautiful. I always think she's just like a massive goldie, but no, her face is quite a different shape.

@YorkshireFelix Just got an email about a 'doggy Christmas Eve box' containing, among other items, doggy milk and carrot strips, presumably to leave out for Rudolph. I thought of you, my fellow indulgent dog mother. The world has officially gone bonkers. I restrained myself as I think that is perhaps a bridge too far.

@brushingboots I can't let dd get wind of that or she will insist on it 🤣 I'm sure he will have a gift pile as big as hers on Christmas Day!!

Thank you @brushingboots

Yes, their head is very different. They have a lot less stop than a Goldie or a Newf/Bernese, they have a more gently sloping muzzle altogether.
The ones in the US tend to be a little heavier boned but the dogs from French bloodlines are quite refined and elegant.
In reality she is beautiful, though I may be slightly biased 😉

I just left Vinny at home alone for the first time ever! It was only for 15 minutes but still. He looked out of the window for a bit then just laid on the sofa. This gives me hope that I can maybe nip out to the shop when we run out of milk and not have to plan my whole life with military precision 😄

That's good, @YorkshireFelix If he was calm, not doing squeaky panicky barks it bodes well with regard to gradually increasing the length of time you're out. He sounds very trustworthy if he was lying on the sofa. What a little star!

@PyreneanAubrie Yes he wasn't bothered at all! I've found I can disappear to hang the washing out or tidy up upstairs for 10-15 minutes and he will just lay on the sofa and chill now. At one point I thought I'd never be able to leave his side!!

He still sleeps in his crate overnight but naps outside of it mostly through the day now, and doesn't really like to be in there unless he's sleeping so I'm happy for him to have free reign of the living room and kitchen.

He's very chilled 90% of the time in the house - not living up to the mad spaniel stereotype haha. I'm going to test going to co-op this weekend (less than a 10 minute walk away) and see how he fares 🤞🏻

All that's brilliant @YorkshireFelix, honestly, especially as he's still so young.

Brie isn't too bad about us going out for 20 or 30 minutes, but our previous dog was terrible. He used to bark and howl as soon as we went down the front path so we'd usually have to go out separately or take him with us. I wouldn't mind but he was the biggest, most imposing and loudest of all our dogs, he was just a complete Mummy's boy 🙄