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

Such colour variation. How amazing.

@YorkshireFelix This one is for Sylvie xxx

She is thrilled thank you!!! She is obsessed with dogs and I've told her all I've learnt about livestock guarding breeds from you 😄

Aghhhh -
I meet my new psychiatrist at 9.30 and I have no one to watch Milo so I have to leave him home alone, I'm anxious about it because I know he's gonna bark, howl and go on with himself no matter what I do :-(
My neighbours all hate us ( for no apparent reason, just because we are young and don't take everyone else's bins out and our dog isn't a "small" on 🙄) so they will probably ring the police RSPCA and council after ten minutes 😬
Send SOS or is anyone free to babysit 😂😂
Oh yeah I'm awake as I have to take my husband to work at half 4 😕

Hes being a big baby

@CaptainBeanThief
Hello You 😃
Sorry I wasn't on here at 3, I frequently am...
I wish I could help, wish I was close enough to Milo-sit while you go to your appointment, I know how important it is.
Sorry about the neighbour issues, that really can make life miserable 🙁
I hope your appointment goes well and Mr Milo behaves himself. I doubt there would be any repercussions unless he was barking day after day, so try not to worry too much. He'll be ready for cuddles when you get back.
Take care xxx

I hope your appointment goes well and he is an angel while you're gone. Must be so hard with pissy neighbours!! I second that I'd have sat with him in a heartbeat if we were close by.

We have an L shape sofa from Ikea and down the join between the two lengths, there was a small rip in the lining fabric. Vinny is obsessed with digging down there and he keeps pulling the stuffing out 😩 I've been removing him from it and using our negative marker word but he is completely obsessed and just goes back to it all the time. I tried covering with a blanket and stuffing it down the join but he just pulls it out. It's only a cheapy sofa thankfully and we are due a new one but I was hoping to hold on until next year. Not sure if there's a solution really, he's just being a twat.

Oh my god.
I went to my appointment and as soon as I parked up at home and got out of my car I could hear Milo barking up the street, I locked him in the front room but he jumped over the baby gate so he was behind the front door, he bolted as soon as I opened the door onto the road, I was scared angry and embarrassed.
How have I raised/trained such a badly trained dog.
I can't bare to be near him right now. I am angry. I was fragile enough as it is but I just can't keep doing this.

@CaptainBeanThief

Oh no 😧
When is your husband home? Can your Mum help? Sounds like you need some quiet time away from Milo right now...
He's just a big puppy, I know it's difficult to remember that right now, but adolescent dogs are little shitheads.
You will get through this.
xxx

@PyreneanAubrie
I would never usually leave him on his own because we are not at that stage yet where I can go out for an appointment, I can pop to the shop etc,
However, my husband started work at 5 and my mum couldn't mind him so I had no choice to leave him at home. I knew he'd be bad but not that bad.
I just feel like I've done the "right" things but it's all so wrong.
I'm so so stressed and tired. My husband is doing 5-1s and I'm getting woken up as well, I'm fed up with Milo everything is being put on me, I feel like I'm not getting any support or time away.
I feel like a failure.
I've been withdrawn and in myself anxious since what happened with my mums car and I'm finding it increasingly harder to cope with day to day life.

@CaptainBeanThief
You're not a failure. You've got a lot to deal with health wise and the incident with your Mum's car was really the last thing you needed. Has anyone addressed the possibility of PTSD following that?

I do understand how you feel though, MH stuff does that, it makes you feel worthless. I'm like that with Brie atm. I can't walk her now cos I physically can't hold onto her, no idea where I've gone wrong but I have...🤔So if you're a failure then I am too, for sure.

Anyway, you're in a tough situation. Are there any positives from today? How was your therapy session?
I wonder what you can do to get a break, what would make you happy...?

Wish I could help more...

Oh hell @CaptainBeanThief, I’m so sorry to hear that. I would feel all of those things too. Do you not leave him alone at all? (No judgement whatsoever intended, just curious.)

You’re not a failure – you’re a woman with an awful lot going on, so give yourself a break. If you were closer to me I’d gladly have him for the weekend to take the edge off for you. Can you find some daycare for him locally, so that you can at least have a day off the mental (and physical) load of it? Or a dog walker?

@CaptainBeanThief here joining the failure parade! Bill can't be left alone either at seven months, and is a horror walking on the lead, and puked on the carpet this morning after eating poo on his morning walk. You sound absolutely exhausted. No wonder you're feeling like crap. Have you had any sleep at all?

If I had been in your position Bill would have been just as bad being left. The only advice I have is preparing for next time, which probably isn't what you need right now, so I'm going to put it in brackets so you can skip it. I hope you get some sleep tonight and he's not too much of a hooligan.

[can you find an excuse to spend £15 a week on getting out of the house for an hour? Or a bit more on putting him in daycare for an afternoon? Once he's used to being with a random person for a short while and they're used to coming to you or him to them, then you have a fall back when there's an emergency]

But you have reminded me that I have to start doing alone training with him properly, and loose lead, and everything else. I've had a pig of a month at work and he's had hardly any of my attention and I'm feeling so guilty especially with him being ill.

Failure here too. Ours is never left either. She screamed blue murder this morning when I was on the loo.

Makes me feel a lot better, @PyreneanAubrie - thanks!

None of you are failures!! I just couldn't function if I couldn't leave pupsy, and there's no way I'd have got her to 18 months without doing so.

@Bupster you don't need to feel guilty – he's doing fine, and the sickness is random and not your fault, bless him. They can't have our undivided attention all day every single day because we must live our lives too.

The weird thing with Brie is that from 4 or 5 months she was quite independent minded. But all of a sudden, this last couple of weeks, the guarding has kicked in big time, and (exactly as with Algy) it manifests as separation anxiety. We are the flock, we must be watched over at all times, because that is their job.

So now, when my chap tries to take Brie out for her late night wee in the garden, she comes back into the kitchen to get me before setting paw over the threshold, because the big bad wolf might get me in her absence. She won't go outside unless I go; if I don't follow her cue, she gets hold of my hand. Even if I'm in my pyjamas I have to go traipsing outside so she can see me. And since the dog training man came into our house and upscuttled her even more, I'm back to sleeping on the sofa so she can keep an eye on me... And now today I'm not even allowed to go to the loo without her yelling. Algy was much the same.

Never mind "A Dog is for Life", for some of us it seems to be more like "Get a Dog, Have no Life" 🙄

@CaptainBeanThief I'm really sorry. I echo what has been already said, you must be exhausted. I don't really have any advice but always happy to listen.

Happy as a pig in shit sat on his Dads knee today 🤣

@YorkshireFelix just a baby!!

Gimme pheasantses, says pupsy

Seems like nobody is having a good time of it at the moment. Poor pup was meant to be spayed yesterday, got as far as being shaved, under anaesthetic and a small incision this time before an equipment fault halted things. Not sure when we'll be able to reschedule. I'm shattered as she insisted sleeping on my head most of last night! Also the food they gave her at the vets was converted to noxious gases overnight!

On patrol!

Oh gosh how frustrating!