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.

We’ve got loads too! From the look of the garden table it’s about two inches. My poor, poor plants! Pupsy is thrilled though – wish I could upload the snow zooms video from first thing. Off to attempt a walk now, sans crocs, avec holey wellies as I think snow is a bridge too far for the croc life…

Weirdly we've had a decent amount on everything but the paths and roads (and my yard) are just wet and there was a pathetic amount on my front grassed garden! So no excited snow zoomies here. Hopefully it's not all melted before we can go out on our lunchtime walk.

Similar here to what YF says - there's a covering on the grass and the cars, but roads and pavements are just wet. Bit disappointing really😞

We were only meant to have sleet!

Awww, that is such a cute photo, @Bupster ❤

I tried quite hard to get a good pose out of her but she declined! It’s fair to say she loved the walk. I definitely didn’t enjoy the slip and slide on the pavements but the fields were more or less Narnia!

If anyone wants to swap their rain for snow they can have ours!

How gorgeous @brushingboots
I would happily trade for our dreary drizzle.

Loving the photos! We managed to find some which hasn't melted yet

He's such a cutie @YorkshireFelix 😍

Brie has had two snowy walks with my chap. She found a tiny drift up the lane and tried to do zoomies 😆She's loving it! She's mysteriously turned back into a Pyrenean; clearly she only goes into poodle mode after dark....🤔

I, meanwhile, am still grounded with the migraine from hell. Now on day 6. Getting really bored with it 😠

I hope all other poorly peeps here are faring better x

Loving all the snowy pup pics! Just rain and wind for us...
Hope you're better soon @PyreneanAubrie. I've had two migraines in the last 20 years and wouldn't wish it on anyone!

Thank you @thewalrus 🙂Someone on a migraine thread today said she gets 25 migraines a month 😨That's just horrific. I'm on 10 a month and that's bad enough.

Snow is still lying on the grass and the cars here. It makes a change for us to not have rain here, I must admit, we do get a lot of drizzly days.

I'm another one loving all your snow puppy pictures. No snow over here, just clear frosty nights.

From Vinny's super cozy snooze - what a beautiful face and expression he has @yorkshirefelix. I echo everyone who said what fabulous design reversible coat. Did you do the lovely unique looking print in photo of Vinny by fire too?

Great pic of Bill's mid flight run @Bupster. His collar colour really suits him. You once memorably said he has spaniel legs and lab body, too cute to see him running through the snow on those relatively little legs! He looks so unique, he's lovely. Hope you're feeling better now.

Looks like very deep snow @tizwozliz you take such great photos of your dogs from the ones with summer blooms / log poses / canoeing (which I remember admiring at time) to today's winter wonderland. Not easy to take such great photos of black furred dogs, I know.

@brushingboots looks like a great narnia walk in snowy fields for you and pupsy, can almost see her excitement at it all from her pose and snowy fur. Hope she's starting to appreciate her aquafleece.
Snood sounds just the thing for today. Reminds me of lovely snowy 80s. I might have to get myself one!

@pyreneanaubrie that was a really memorable photo of Brie's poodle impression with her puppy fur ruff to grow in to! What gorgeous fur she has, looks so cosy for her for snow.

6th day of migraine sounds so wearing and utterly exhausting though. Hope you feel better soon

On a thread that is notable for how kind and supportive it is, @LemonpaIms , that's still one of the loveliest posts I've read. What a nice thing to do to take the time to say something thoughtful and kind to so many of us. You are a superstar x

Lovely pictures 😍

When are supposed to get our pups neutered? My puppy is humping his cuddly toy constantly and he loves grabbing my arm with both fronts paws and humping it! He is crazed! Plus I think he's marking in the house. He weed on his cuddly toy last week and then weed on my bed this week. I really don't think it's a toilet training issue?! I think he was marking them as his.

My vet says 12 months but I've read online some people do it from 6 months and some much later. What does everyone here think?

I think others have more experience, but my understanding is that humping isn't usually sexual, it's about over-excitement and regulation, so neutering might help but might not. Vets often won't do it now till a year because of the health risks. There's also a risk that neutering a male dog can hurt their confidence.

Personally I'm going to leave Bill for as long as I can, and play it by ear. Mind you if he starts marking indoors and humping my head I might change my mind!

I agree @Bupster, so lovely @LemonpaIms !!

The print is years old IKEA but I do have an equally large screen print in our kitchen that was made by my fair hands (and lots others dotted around the house and our restaurant!):

@PyreneanAubrie I'm sorry you're suffering so much at the minute. The migraines sound hellish! I hope things start to look up for you health-wise very soon

@Cavalierchaos How are you getting on? Weirdly I saw someone with a cav earlier and thought of you as you've not posted for a while! No advice re neutering sorry but hopefully others can advise 🙂

Hope you are feeling even slightly better, @PyreneanAubrie! Can’t have you missing out on too many walks with Princess Brie, who I’m glad to hear has returned to her LGD form!

We had a second snowy walk this evening which was oddly bearable as the snow lit the ground so the park wasn’t quite as terrifying. But dog-dad did have to come home in the middle of the day from London to do some tree surgery as one of our trees was seriously threatening to take out both the Openreach cables and the cars! A fairly dramatic day all round. Now back beneath the heated blanket and pupsy, avec Oodie.

@LemonPalms Strongly recommend a snood! Mine is from a Scottish company called Bodhi and the Birchtree which does lovely snoods for dogs too and I’ve got a discount code somewhere. Hope Lemonpup is doing well – have you had any inclement weather your way?

@brushingboots did you know Oodie make ones for dogs!!!

@YorkshireFelix Hahahah no I did not know this and have just googled! Oh my god! Truly we are through the looking glass.

Is it a spaniel/retrieving breed thing to parade around with something valuable in their mouth? Vinny has started doing this and it's adorable and hysterical in equal measure. This evening he had a big hairy stinky dried cows ear in his mouth and he was doing a loop in a circle between me, DD and DH wiggling his bum very happily showing it off. He did it for about 10 minutes! My MIL cocker does this too, usually when he's got a toy which her other dog wants. He parades around to show us how good he is 😄

Do all dogs do this? I wasn't sure if it's a spaniel thing or not! I've been trying to google to find an answer but can't work out how to word it right...

Oh no, I was really hoping that neutering would stop the humping. His lipstick touched my hand today when he was doing it..

Aw haha, I'm getting on ok. Biggest issue right now is the insane barking when we leave the house. It has slowly built up over time, from a slight whine to a loud whine to a squeak to a bark to frantic barking that continues until we get to the end of the road!

I have tried...
-distracting with treats/toys
-reducing the number of steps involved eg making sure I have shoes and coat on and front door open before I go get him and lead him and then take him out
-closing the door every time he barks and even retreating to the bottom of the stairs.
-putting him on leash and opening the door and shutting it random times a day to try to desensitise him to the door.

None of these have worked! As soon as the key is turning in the lock and the door starts moving, the barking starts and nothing seems to distract him. Even when I retreat and wait for him to be quiet, as soon as we reach the door again he restarts the barking. I keep trying with this, been doing it about 2 weeks, but he will not make the connect that every time he barks, I stop and the door closes...
Have the door open already does work better, but even just crossing the open threshold starts him barking!

Any tips, anyone?
I'm going to try treating him every time he stops barking, but honestly I don't think anything will stop him expressing his excitement at that door opening. It is so embarrassing.

Chuckling at the fact that you guys have more snow than me! Currently -8 here though, which I’m sure it isn’t over there.

DH took Rundle to his puppy training session on Monday. I did the one last Thursday (it’s twice a week) and the trainer saw me struggling with him. He’s at least 36lbs now (just over 5months) and very strong. At the start of Monday’s class the trainer suggested a prong collar. It’s a Sprenger.

My goodness. I’m not sure I’m walking the same dog. It’s been a revelation. I nearly cried this morning, the walk was so enjoyable.