The Pod-cast

[HangingOver]

Hello PodSquad,

Thank you for being on this crazy ride with us.

Here's the OG thread if anyone wants to go back and laugh at how staggeringly naive I was adopting my first rescue pup: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/5177112-oh-my-giddy-god?page=1

Could someone please explain who this dog is in my house and what they've done with Pod? Because he's been absolutely angelic today. Truly a wonderful, wonderful dog and even coped with my DF and DPs pal coming over for Sunday dinner and sitting up getting merry on red wine.

Or perhaps the collective will on MN have given me a SERIOUSLY needed good day. What a star. 🥹

Maybe the treats weren’t smelly enough?

Can I ask his name please?

Sorry if it's already been given & I missed it or if you have already said that you don't want to say.

So he has a long lead clipped just to the back of his harness. That way he can move around finding his sniffs but as soon as he pulls I stop his and reset. Tbf he's got SO good at it already when he's calm, but when he's after something there's no reasoning with him 😂

That's the charitable interpretation... I think he's very smart but also actually quite lazy? Earlier he slithered across the sofa on his belly to get a treat rather than get up. 😂

I'd look at a walking belt and a bungee section to his lead. Whilst it might seem madness to have the dog fixed to you, having the lead clip to the waist means its much closer to your centre of gravity and you're not getting yanked in the shoulder, pulling you off balance.

The bungee section takes some of the sting out of a lunge too.

I was going to ask if you knew about ACE Freework which is almost what you've actually done there. Its a great thing for dogs, gives them something very simple, a series of easy 'wins', to keep brain ticking over but room for brain to processs in the background all the thing sthey're learning.

Chuck all the toys and puzzles you have down on the floor - grab some towels to hide treats under, crinkley plastic bag, something to step up/on, surfaces like an upturned box to put treats on.

Make sure there are free treats just for mooching around this big ole mess, he doesn't have to engage all the brain cells to find them.

Then sit on the perimeter and let him explore, if he comes and asks for help, then help but otherwise leave him to it.

There is more to it than that but you'd be better looking at some youtube vids or even better... get in touch with Tilley Farm and Sarah Fisher (she'd LOVE Pod... oh she really would!)...

Oh and I don't think he found it hard because he's thick. I think he found it hard because his brain weasels are running amok at the minute. I think if you keep doing it, it will be a very good indicator of where he is at, mentally, in that moment!

Fully agree with a walking belt. Made the pulling easier to deal with. I had a border collie and wolfhound cross on this and it gave much better control.

https://www.indi-dog.co.uk/products/walking-belt

This is Ddog2 lead. The bungee is great gives just enough to take the shock out of it but not so much it feels uncontrollable.

Thanks. I'm going to ask the trainer about this when he next walks with us. And possibly my Dr I suppose. The leash I have has a waist setting which i use occasionally if I'm tying up a poo bad or if i need to text someone. Id just need to make sure it sat in the right place as my floating ribs are like glass. I've spent more time this year rehabbing my ribs than not, actually! Bloody things.

Hanging, adopting a big galoot of a hound when dealing with a ( pretty painful sounding ) medical problem, you honestly are a very special person 💐

Galoot is an absolutely brilliant word!

The dog is asleep in the crate, I repeat, the dog is asleep in the crate! BLISSFUL SILENCE!

Silence is golden.

I've got one not too dissimilar @HangingOver
They are hard work but immensely rewarding.
Everyday is a school day and you find ways of supporting them in their transition to becoming a pet dog ever day.
Walking belts can be helpful and I use it sometimes. I use a long lead more though.
Good luck with everything, you've done a wonderful thing for that dog. You can't save all the dogs in the world but you can make a world of difference to one dog (or something like that the saying goes).

How about writing a book op? Maybe base ddog on an unruly dc? With love and care that dc can be turned around. Might give inspiration to dc with troubled starts in life..

Good, Bad and Ugly day so far...

Good because he's done some fantastic walking, especially ignoring people, and I walked him down to the dog groomers 10 mins from me at lunchtime and asked them to cut his claws as the nail file wasn't cutting it. She calmly TOOK HIM OFF ME (my baby! my boy! what if he's frightened?! etc etc etc) and in five minutes he was done. No crying or barking.

Bad because I bought him a big bag of dead animal parts from the adjoining shop to say well done and as we were walking home made the fatal mistake of swinging it near his nose so he could smell the goodies within in a fit of festive togetherness. So after he'd ripped the bag apart the only thing I could think to do was shove the whole lot up my jumper and hold it with one hand for the walk home and bribe him to walk normally with a duck foot (gak!). I'm fairly certain the people walking the other way were thinking it's brave to take on such a bouncy dog when eight months pregnant, especially when he was trying to get UP said jumper to retrieve the snacks, giving the impression he had some sort of problem with the foetus. I actually got a knowing look for a real pregnant lady walking the other way. Then he saw his first bus, and, thoroughly overstimulated by this point, poor Pod had no choice but to leap up and grab the small rip in the bum of my jeans and make it less small.

Ugly because, and can barely type this due to the horror, Pod has worms. Rescue lady said his flea and wormer was due at the end of October so I diligently fed him his tablet this morning and this afternoon he shat out actual wiggly worms, like baby earthworms. I'm not someone who scares easily. I've even been present for surgery on necrotic tissue which is famously foul but my god I thought I was going to pass out. Thing is I've never noticed this before - is this an extraordinarily punctual worm plague or has the medication somehow instigate an internal purge?

Pod is currently working off his feelings in the pampas grass while I have tea and try to be normal.

The good is very good, well done Pod!

And, yeah, worming treatment will do that for an active infestation, better out than in 🪱

I just wanted to say how brilliantly you are coping with Pod. Your posts make my day and remind me of adopting my 18 month old boy many years ago. Initially he destroyed my life and parts of my home, but 6 months in he had my heart, and I spent the rest of his life giving him the world. He taught me love and patience and gave me everything in return. Keep going, you have found your soul dog.

I think Podface is going to feel a FUCK ton better without a gutfull of worms stealing his nutrition and giving him itchy guts, hurrah for gross worms.

I can go one worse on the gross worms front though. A puppy from the past, from a rather dodgy source... upchucked on the back seat of my car.

I turned to look.. and the pile of vom.. WAS WAVING AT ME...... like a fucking medusa-spew... it was the single most disgusting thing I have ever had to clean up in my life.

Walking belts - designs vary but some have leg straps to stop them sliding up, so they stay put where they're meant to be, look at the ones designed for Cani-X, and of course theres various sorts of padding too, so likely to be far more comfy and less risky than just a lead round your waist.

On the whole I'd give that day a gold star, because the shitty bits, you know the reasons why, they're not a mystery now and you all survived them. And the really good bits were really really good!

I think he’s bound to be a perfectly well behaved dog now he’s got the worms out of his system 😊

Bad because I bought him a big bag of dead animal parts from the adjoining shop to say well done and as we were walking home made the fatal mistake of swinging it near his nose so he could smell the goodies within in a fit of festive togetherness. So after he'd ripped the bag apart the only thing I could think to do was shove the whole lot up my jumper and hold it with one hand for the walk home and bribe him to walk normally with a duck foot (gak!). I'm fairly certain the people walking the other way were thinking it's brave to take on such a bouncy dog when eight months pregnant, especially when he was trying to get UP said jumper to retrieve the snacks, giving the impression he had some sort of problem with the foetus. I actually got a knowing look for a real pregnant lady walking the other way. Then he saw his first bus, and, thoroughly overstimulated by this point, poor Pod had no choice but to leap up and grab the small rip in the bum of my jeans and make it less small.

Is it unkind to laugh hysterically reading this?

The worms sound vile, but hopefully when you've got rid of them he will feel better.

Well done Pod with the walking and nail cutting good behaviour.

@Ellmau I hope not cos I ended up with coffee coming out my nose!

It's not so much what you're writing as how you write it Hanging 🤣

Big ewwwww to the worms stories! I've been incredibly lucky not to have suffered any with either of ours and having read this I pray that lucky streak continues!

Hopefully as others have said the lack of worms in his system make make him less wiggly himself!

Eurk. Worms . Sounds horrible. Hopefully Pod will feel better now.

Well done on nail clipping Pod! I laughed also reading about your walk home. Great stuff

Not to make this all about me but I kiss Pod on the nose about four million times a day. Do I now also have worms??

I think you're safe unless you also kiss his other end!