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

and make it look like i've done no training whatsoever with him

Been there and got the t-shirt. With our older one I booked a 1-1 when she was about 2. By this stage she'd already had at least 5, 6 week blocks of group gundog lessons. She acted like she'd never had a days training in her life. Gave up on the gundog stuff with her at that point!

@CaptainBeanThief oh no now, this is very sad! You are a crucial part of our coven. If it was me that – definitely inadvertently – made you feel that way, I'm very sorry. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that none of us want you to vanish xxx

@lookwhatyoumademedoo another vote for JR pate from me! I also love the pates from Bodhi and the Birch Tree, which is a lovely indy shop, and have a 10pc discount code for there (WINNIE10), and also the pates from Monty's Natural Treats, as pupsy particularly likes gamey flavours and they usually have pheasant, partridge, and ostrich.

@CaptainBeanThief I hope it wasn't my big scouse gob. Goodness knows it gets me into trouble enough on MN 🙄

@lookwhatyoumademedoo Catching up so apols for multiple disjointed posts. Don’t feel anxious! He’s still just a baby (my favourite phrase, I know) and they do have a knack of making us look like we’ve never taught them anything but if you find a lovely nonjudgemental trainer they’ll have seen it all. Honestly, I bet he’s not half as 'bad' as you worry he is.

Am aware I've just posted a load of times in a row but just wanted to add, in case anyone needed some consolation/a dry laugh that we just went outside for pupsy's pre-sofa/tv time evening wee, on which adventure she insisted on taking one of her favourite toys, Big Ted. She promptly then weed on Big Ted's arm so now Big Ted is in the laundry basket inside a dog blanket bag ready to go in the wash tomorrow. She tried to bring Big Ted back into the house by herself but obviously tasted her own wee and spat him out, so I had to carry him. Nice. Dogs, eh.

Anyone else got a male dog who pees all over themselves every time they cock their leg? Dog is 11 months and he’s useless at peeing. He even managed to get it all over his harness strap 😫I’m fed up on the smell of dog wee. I can’t wash him every day as he’s a poodle cross and matts if he gets wet all the time and takes forever to dry. Plus as soon as you wash him he does it again. Wish I could train him to squat up wee again. Also does dog wee from unneutered males smell differently to neutered males? It stinks of chemicals.

Does your dog not clean himself @timeforachange999 ? Our males did but I can't remember at what age they became aware of washing...

I do sympathise with this though. Brie is very furry and when she was small she kept weeing all over her pantaloons. At 4 or 5 months old she was very smelly and had a lot of staining underneath. We would sometimes try to clean her with warm water on an old bit of towel, but she was still horribly whiffy. Now, at 9 months, there's no smell and no staining, she washes herself really well. Perhaps your boy will start cleaning himself a bit more as he gets older.

I think all dog wee (M&F) is pretty stinky to be honest but none of ours have been neutered so I can't really say if there's a difference in that regard.

Someone has very clear ideas about the prime purpose of my lap, and it is not to rest my laptop on. WFH is going to be slow this week 😄

@CoubousAndTourmalet no I don't think he does clean himself really (he probably does his penis but it goes all over his tummy and legs as well. Must be too lazy. Also when he does lick himself it tends to just make his fur matt. The groomer said she can do a sanitary cut on the insides of his legs so hopefully that will help.

Slightly envious of those with cuddlers... I have a wild one that wants to live in a snow hole rather than snuggle indoors, hence me being outside at 3am in pyjamas, coat and wellies ❄😬⛄
Right now she's lying beside the garage, doing a spot of birdwatching.

I suppose with a curly coat it is more difficult for them to self groom. I'm sure it'll be a common problem so hopefully the groomer will know exactly what to do. Fingers crossed that it sorts out the issue.

@CaptainBeanThief sorry I am just catching up on posts here. Really sad you are leaving as I love seeing Milo and hearing about his escapades. You are very kind and give great advice. I hope you will come back to us soon 🙁

In her natural habitat! 😍

Vinny is being mental today. He didn't get walked yesterday because of the ice, which I think is why he's being a nob. He is chewing everything which he's not done for a few weeks so I think he's bored. I tried doing some games with him yesterday to entertain him a bit which he seemed to enjoy! One I saw on TikTok was putting kibble inside an egg box but he opened it straight away, shredded the cardboard (his favourite activity) and ignored the food 😄 I'm going to try and teach him 'go back' today which @brushingboots kindly explained before, if I can find the post.

DH is going to walk him this aft and hopefully let him have a run about somewhere and let off some steam. The ice here is really bad. Our village is all paved with big stone slabs which are slippy just in the rain, never mind when it snows. It's lethal outside! I was hoping I could drive him somewhere as it seems to be less icy towards Leeds but can't even get the bloody car out.

@timeforachange999 Midge’s legs get a bit wet too. I think it’s the curly hair, but he does lick it. He’s off to the groomers next week and they’ll give his undercarriage a good trim! It’s 10 weeks since his last trim and he really needs it. He loves having his ears, head and back brushed, but isn’t so keen on having his tummy/ inside legs brushed.

I can empathise with the boredom issue @YorkshireFelix, we're having that issue too. I do empty cat food boxes with kibble in, so we frequently have shredded up cardboard all over the kitchen. Sometimes rattling a box of bits is a quick way to get her in from the garden. She's wrecked all her toys; another one went in the bin yesterday so she only has three left now, I really need to search for robust toys. The Kong Wobbler was meant to be sturdy but it only survived a few minutes of rough treatment from Brie 😬

It's snowing heavily again here right now so my husband is going to have a working lunch then we'll get her out on the field for half an hour. Hopefully after that she might sleep for a while. I hope you can get Vinny to settle too. We really need some dry days...

Bill is being a nightmare too, it's like there's something in the air. He had a decent walk though not a long one, but he just can't settle. He normally conks out for an hour and a half in the morning so I can work, and spends the rest of the time looking out of the window while I hold a horrible chew, but today he's managing about 20 minutes of napping then an hour of whining. I am exaggerating but it is driving me a little bit nuts. Trying to remember he's not winding me up, he's just struggling for a reason I don't quite understand, but it's a struggle for me today too.

@YorkshireFelix Just found it by advance searching myself in case you haven't! If not clear do shout as I might have botched the explanation xx

Would also suggest the gundog ‘back’ – I say ‘go back’ but it’s the same thing. In the field it has a specific purpose but at home it’s handy for picking up toys that they’ve left behind somewhere. I use it for that all the time.

There will be YouTube videos of this I’m sure but the way I taught it was – put a bowl with a few treats/kibble allowance in it a few metres away – can start doing it inside but a low-distraction garden probably works best.
On lead walk him up to it and make sure he has a good look at what’s in the bowl. Walk him back to where you want to start from, sit him next to you, and crouch down a bit pointing with your hand towards the bowl, and say ‘go back’. Can either let him go to it with the lead dragging or you can unclip. He goes to the bowl, takes a treat, and then you recall him back for praise. He should get that pretty quick. You want to be pointing directly at the bowl, be clear with your instruction and your hand direction – that opens you up to another good training bit which I could write another essay on! You will likely need to keep replenishing the bowl but you can practice his sit stay while you're doing that so it's a two in one.

And then practice, practice, practice. You might have to do it a few times with the bowl – the bowl is useful as then he can see where he’s supposed to be going ‘back’ to. Eventually you can send him back for toys he’s left.

@CoubousAndTourmalet ooh I wonder if the snow will move across my way. I think we are forecast to get some more but I'm hoping not!

It's funny as V doesn't wreck toys at all but loves to shred cardboard/paper. I think a lot of spaniels are toy destroyers so I was expecting him to be the same.

@Bupster definitely must be something in the air. Me and DH are trying to work as I didn't get much done yesterday between Vinny and dd's school being closed and it's very annoying. Our neighbour is shovelling snow in the back alley and he's going crackers over the noise 😩 So you have my sympathy!!

Ahh thank you!! I was going to scroll back like an absolute idiot 😂😂😂😂

@brushingboots We do a similar thing with Midge, but I can’t remember how we taught it. I think (sure) it involved food and trampling the grass to make a trail and then with a jackpot treat at the end. When he got the hang of it we substituted the food for an item. On walks I’ll drop my keys in the long grass and ask Midge to ‘seek back’ (it is important to hide them somewhere I can find them!). He enjoys sniffing them out and it’s useful to get him to go and find his toys when he drops them in the park!

@Nella68 Yesss, that's more like how you'd teach a scentwork drill (if I am imagining it right) than a gundog 'back' per se, but also a really good exercise. I haven't done any proper scentwork or anything with keys with pupsy yet but this has made me think I ought to as I know she'd enjoy it.

I find 'go back' so helpful even at home as she understands that it means both 'go back and get the thing you've taken outside with you that belongs inside' and also 'go back and get that bird/dummy that's dropped 50 metres away'.

We taught back the same way. With my older one with a food bowl it was easy, but it must have taken me 3 months to get her to turn and walk away from a dummy when we graduated to that.

V has just been sick 5 times in the past 30 minutes. First two was fully undigested food food, then he drank some water and was sick another 2 times which was just water coming back up, then sick again and it was just kind of slimy clear liquid. I have been googling and apparently the content of the sick isn't concerning but I am worried as it's been so many times in quick succession. He's not been out since Sunday to have had the chance to eat anything bad, but he did have an egg for the first time last night so maybe that could be it?

Should I just call the vets or is that dramatic?

He had been asleep for about 40 minutes beforehand and now keeps laying down looking a bit sad 😭