Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - Bark the Herald, furry angels sing!

[YorkshireFelix]

New thread to get us through the festive season! Angelic and naughty teenage pups all welcome

@CoubousAndTourmalet there's a hilarious bit in the Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy book where he tries to teach Brian Blessed to talk to his dog in words rather than sentences and it goes exactly as well as you might expect 😄

You're right @CaptainBeanThief , it is hard and I find myself constantly having to explain to people that she's "just a big puppy". When it's busy I do struggle with the anxiety and always feel judged. Brie is definitely doing her utmost to make me look like a clueless novice owner 🙄

I was literally walking at a 45° angle today trying to stop Bill dragging me over a raised bank and diving into the canal on the other side. Given that he's about a foot tall I didn't half look like a numpty (he's ridiculously strong for his size). I try to find the joy and hilarity in the ridiculousness of it all, or I'm not sure I'd leave the house with him some days.

It is crazy how strong a deep chested dog is @Bupster . Bill & Milo are both big chested - as is Brie. I also like to remind myself that, technically, they have 4 wheel drive compared to us; their traction is incredible, so we're at a huge disadvantage from the get-go.

Have to say I couldn't find much joy and hilarity on our walk today, until we got back and I sat down on the back step to take my walking boots off and she just stood there watching over me. You see the way they look at you and all the frustration becomes worth it.

Is Brian Blessed like me then (cept I'm not quite that shouty...well, not usually anyway)? Conversations with dog.
Mine go like this:
I go to the back door and say "Brie, I'm starting your lunch now" and in she comes.
I also say please and thank you. So when she's arsing, instead of bellowing "NO!!!!" at ten thousand decibels, I just pathetically say " Brie, don't do that please, it's silly".
You see what I mean about not being a natural dog person....🤔

It's definitely easier when your adolescent still looks like a puppy. We met a very handsome 20 week old Chinese Red dog in Costa today who looked very much like an adult. Meanwhile the workers were cooing over my 20 month old 'puppy'

(I only realised last week that costa let dogs in most stores now)

@CoubousAndTourmalet i do the same! I have these long conversations with him, especially when he’s grumbling 😄 then every now and then he cocks his head at me and I know he’s actively listening and I have to stop babbling…

I knew about dogs being allowed in Costa because I saw it on one of the 35 weekly dog hating threads on MN 🙄

Your girl does look quite young still... It's a funny thing, dog age. Our Sylvie used to still be mistaken for a puppy when she was middle-aged. Brie, on the other hand, looks like an adult now, at 9 months. She never went through that gawky adolescent phase, she changed from puppy to adult overnight but her brain hasn't caught up with her body yet!

Never heard of a Chinese Red Dog before, so I did a Google search. I was surprised to see it's quite a big breed. I imagine it's quite a rarity in the UK.

Oh @Bupster I'm so relieved it's not just me 😊
I've always believed that the more you talk to them, the more they learn and I think I'm going to stick with that, despite the training advice to keep it simple.

Hilarious, isn't it? I pay for training sessions then decide to completely ignore all the advice I was given and carry on exactly as before 😆

I have conversations with Milo all the time so elaborate he should be fluent in the human language by now 😱😂
I do also shout more than Mumsnet acceptable and I obviously should be burnt alive 🫣
He also comes to me, plonks himself on his back on me and rolls over me so baby like and shock horror - I LOOOVEEEE it

I wouldn't worry about it @CaptainBeanThief Mumsnet acceptable shouting is just randomly shrieking "Batshit Crazy!!!" at everyone, so it doesn't count for anything. You make your own rules.

Have to admit with Brie I spend less time shouting and more time cackling hysterically because she is just soooo funny!

@CoubousAndTourmalet or "are you on glue"
FFS that's another one 🫣
Milos about to go out for his last walk,
Rather than long 2 a day walks we tend do up to up to 5/6 20 minute walks/runs per day obviously more on a weekend.
It's just that I can't always manage a long arse walk like my husband can and I find it easier to let him off so I can sit down at periods ( because of my leg) so I think we are doing well in terms of his physical exercise. He certainly has alot of mental stimulation indoors aswell 👀
How have you been today?

@CaptainBeanThief
Multiple short walks makes sense with your health issues, plus it's good mental stimulus for the dog because it breaks up their day. When we had a multi dog household we tended to do that because of the differing ages, it was a good way to balance things so a younger dog could have more walks than an elderly one.

At the moment Brie gets a short morning walk then a longer afternoon one. As the nights get lighter she'll also get an evening one.

I'm aching all over this morning from Brie's mad antics on yesterday's walk. I've got some more medical tests coming up because of increased pain and joint stiffness in recent weeks. I think this puppy has broken me. Should have taken everyone's advice and got a small breed.

@CoubousAndTourmalet you'd have hated a small breed, you'd have wanted them to be Brie. She will come good, honestly - you know it more than most, it just doesn't feel like it right now, and it must be so much worse when you're in pain too. Everything is worse when you're in pain or not sleeping.

As you know Bill has been HARD WORK for the last few weeks, but today we had one of those days that give you back your optimism. We do our long walk in the morning, so he can muck about in the dog park with his mates in the afternoons. After yesterday, when he ran around ignoring me for an hour then pulled for another solid hour, I decided I did need to go back to basics and I read up on the recall advice on DTAS and in the Total Recall book.

This morning he actually let me sleep in till 7:45am, and then we went to a fairly closed-in place (but still full of squirrels and good smells) to work on recall. I put him on a 10m long line, and let him trot off, dropping the line, and every time he got more than 10m away I turned around and walked the other way. Honestly, within 15 minutes he was behaving like a different dog - keeping closer to me, checking in more often, and ready to play games like sit-stay, then cueing him to break and find treatos in the grass, rather than diving off after a scent and not looking back. Before we left, I did a couple of basic recalls from a distance and he was spotless. All morning he was neutral with other dogs unless I said he could say hello, and on the way back he walked to heel without being asked about two thirds of the way. He just did absolutely brilliantly (well, right up until we crossed paths with a cat outside the house, but that's another story).

He's always lovely inside the house and he adores other people, but I was starting to feel like he was too much dog for me to manage outside without bringing in professional 1-1 help. I will probably still do that to build my own skills, but now I've got some confidence back that I can actually do this, and he will become the wonderful dog I see in him. I mean, I love the bones of him now, but one day I'd like to be able to take him places without apologising 😄

Anyway, after you lot all buoyed me up yesterday I wanted to inject some optimism myself x

@CoubousAndTourmalet
Get lost!! Who wants a small breed.
If I can manage the worst breed of all, who is hard work so can you !!! :-)
You are doing a great job

So pleased for you @Bupster , that sounds like a very successful training session and hopefully it will help to restore your confidence in yourself and your faith in Bill.

I suppose when there's a zillion dogs and so many distractions around, we can't really expect them to focus well at this age. Whilst my "training" is different, I am noticing that Brie is far more stupid on busier days than she is on quiet days. If Bill was being neutral towards other dogs on your walk this morning, that's brilliant! He's proved that he can do it.

We all know it's a bit of a rollercoaster when they're young and when you clip the lead on you're never quite sure what sort of a walk it's going to be. When the good days start to outnumber the bad we'll know we're winning. But this morning sounds like a little victory for you so try to hold onto that thought when he has the next off-day.

Back to basics is probably the way to approach it, I agree. We haven't tried a long line with Brie yet. We used to with Rosie because Sylvie was always off the lead and it seemed unfair on Rose sometimes. The deer-fenced dog field didn't exist at that point so we were just on the local unfenced fields and walks around the reservoirs. Rose never had recall and we don't think Brie will either. Sylvie was unusual but she was full French breeding, her dam being from working lines in the Pyrenees, so Sylvie was aloof to the point of disinterest. She was not a cuddly pet dog like the others, but was so conscientious as a protector that she never left our side. I suspect it was less about a trained recall, more about her introverted nature.

It's funny how different they all are. I know one-to-one training can help you to learn the basics but the fact is that you also have to trust your own instincts. You understand Bill so well that you will figure out how to get the best from him, regardless of what a trainer does with him, although there's no harm in trying a few sessions. I am still pondering whether to go ahead with our final session...🤔but he won't stop me nattering to her, that's for sure...

Oh I know @Bupster and @CaptainBeanThief , you're both right. This is my breed. We know if we'd opted for anything else, we'd have ended up having to get a Pyrie as well... 🙄

I'm feeling differently about Brie now than I did even a month ago. Yes, she's pushing me hard with the rough play when we're out walking, but she is also really blossoming into being a beautiful, friendly girl. She's very bright and she has oodles of character. We will get there but it's bloody knackering while she has this gigantic body with an idiot puppy brain...

Milo is 17 months and he still has the idiot puppy brain,
I just pray for better days with him although I don't seem to being listened to currently maybe I need to shout louder?
He's been a little prick this morning he jumped over the gate and nearly broke his leg. He's a clever dog, but he does the most stupid things 😤

Bill learned how to jump into my enormous cast-iron bath this weekend. There is no earthly reason for him to want to be in the bath, but he did. He had a good sniff at the plughole. Then he jumped out again. Then whined to be lifted back in again. Then whined to be lifted back out again. After that he seems to be all bathed out, thank God, as he weighs a ton 🙄

If he hasn't done enough today he's just chewed through his harness and bolted through the front of the car whilst my husband went in the shop,
We thought the muzzle in the car days were behind us!!!
My husband has just taken him in pets at home for the 100th car harness, a basket muzzle ( I also said get some left over Christmas treats for him and the rabbits but that's another story)
He outdoes himself all the time

We've just come to the conclusion that Brie may be in season...

Yesterday, on our walk, we encountered a young male GSD that we see pretty regularly, he never takes much notice of Brie. Yesterday he suddenly turned around after passing us and started squeaking and yowling; we could hear him all the way down the road. We actually thought he'd been spooked by a tractor going past, but today I noticed Brie has a discharge... so now we're thinking that he was probably reacting to her. He did appear to be looking her way.

She's just turned 9 months but neither of us can remember exactly how old our other bitches were at first oestrus - it was 25 years ago!

Don't bigger bitches usually come in season earlier than 12 months anyway, Ive never had a bitch so I don't know 😂

I've had three and, embarrassingly, I cannot remember 😳

She is a big hefty bugger though and I think they reckon girls with a heavier bodyweight start periods earlier, so who knows...

She's going to be driving all the local boy dogs crazy and there are quite a few of them nearby 😬OMG, what have we let ourselves in for? 😱

I think it's actually smaller dogs that are likely to have their first season earlier. I know for labs anything between 7 months and 2 years is considered normal. I'm sure it's partly genetic as well as all the female pups in my dogs litters had seasons at more or less the same age.

My girls started at the exact same age to the day - 8.5 months.

Seasons were surprisingly easy to manage. I had visions of dogs queuing up at the front door as we have a lot of dogs walking past our house and people talk about how many miles a dog can smell a bitch in season but there was very little interest tbh.

Like I said I've never had bitches and that id just heard that larger breeds come into season earlier but you should be able to advise as you have a lab :-)
How is yours after the vets?
@tizwozliz