They love a bit of him (Podlife)

[HangingOver]

Hello my fabulous Podsquad, here is Podcast Thread III.

For anyone that is new to this thread, it's about my rescue dog, known as Pod.

Here is thread No. 2 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/5197068-the-pod-cast?page=39&reply=141216881

And thread No 1 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/5177112-oh-my-giddy-god?page=1

for if anyone would like to go back and see how astonishingly naïve and traumatised I was by taking on a fully grown, teenaged pointy dog who seemed determined to destroy me and everything I love.

Theatrics over, here is the Pod in question (obviously I've edited the lead out - I'm not mental).

If anyone doesn't have is Insta handle and wants it, just DM me. A video of me and Pod doing yoga together will appear at some point soon.

I think so haha but I'm heavily biased. I guess if long pointy spahgetti dogs aren't their thing then perhaps he isn't that attractive.

How can long pointy spaghetti dogs NOT be their thing? I'm not even a dog person and I think he's the most handsome boy ever (sorry to anyone else's male dogs. I am sure they are also the most handsome boys ever).

Pod is gorgeous. The way he runs and his body moves is graceful and athletic. Those long long legs, the muscles that are developing and showing under his shiny fur, and that tail. That beautiful tail with its white tip bobbing along above him. One of your most recent videos of him on Insta shows him looking regal and just damn beautiful.

Rough, rough night.

I think I'm mainly writing this for myself as it'll be too long for anyone to read. But if you do read it, bear in mind I'm not especially proud of any of it.

So today my friend came over to co-work and it was her birthday so I tried to make it special for her with cards and gifts and pastries and takeaway lunch. We went to her house at lunchtime with Pod to collect her dog then walked them together. Pod was being angelic. I mean a really, really seriously a good boy.

Then (and here was my first mistake) I said let's bring her dog back with us to mine so they can spend some time together indoors for a couple of hours (we're trying to get them comfortable in each others spaces as she and I spend so much time together). They both behaved beautifully and even had a nap side by side, but understandably another dog and another person and birthday noises and giant pizzas was all very exciting for Pod. So after they left Pod was in a very bouncy mood.

I was busy trying to stick these plastic things to the corners of the walls where his scratching habit has done the worst damage and Pod was podding around in the garden.

My second mistake was hearing a gate click, and looking out to see if it was Amazon man about to be enveloped in love by Pod, but seeing nothing so thinking it was my neighbour's gate (we all have the same gates). Anyway after a bit my phone rang with an unknown number. I almost didn't answer but thank god I did because it was a man telling me my dog had escaped. I apologised and thanked him about 800 times while running over the road where he'd stopped his car and was holding on to a frankly unrepentant Pod. He said Pod ran out into the road from between two parked cars and he'd almost hit him. I was SHAKING and apologising and the poor bloke ended up asking me if I was okay. I took him home feeling shaken when, completely delighted with his adventure, Pod of course begins vigorously shagging my leg and biting me while I'm trying to Google dog proof gate locks and shoving him off with my knee. DP, with his trademark love of exaggerating, saying in a slightly patronising way "You mustn't be VIOLENT with him, you need to distract him when he does that". At which point in my head I yelled "THAT'S BLOODY EASY FOR YOU TO BLOODY SAY WHEN YOU'RE NOT THE ONE BEING ALTERNATELY SHAGGED AND BITTEN EVERY FUCKING DAY FOR MONTHS!". Of course out loud I did not say that, I just burst into tears. Not because he was wrong, he was right, but I'm just overwrought.

So then we both took Pod out for his Poo walk to try to melt the frosty atmosphere, where Pod screamed at a Newfoundland (risky, that) and, because I'm a moron and was wearing only sliders, I trod on a huge dog poo in the dark which squished over the edges into my socks.

BUT to end on a tiny win, Pod's scratchy board arrived and he got the hang of it really quickly. I don't know if playing with it occasionally will actually curb his indoor scratching but it's done bloody wonders for his claws. We played with it for ten minutes and it's taken the overgrown bits off the ends.

Hey ho. He's asleep now and I'm.... Well, tomorrow is another day.

Oh you poor thing. Pod is a sod and thank goodness for the guy who stopped, grabbed him and rang you. Your h needs to back off a bit. He could have just taken Pod and removed him from the room rather than berating you. You should absolutely say out loud what you didn't say.

You are doing great. You'll know what to do next time and what not to do.

Don't beat yourself up.

Thanks. I kept thinking what if he hadn't seen Pod, he could have been run over, his beautiful leggies all broken like a spider 😭 I'm trying not to wake him up but I want to cuddle him

Sending

What a day, but you're both ok and you've learned a bit more about what he can tolerate and also that he will escape if the opportunity presents, but now you know you can make sure it won't happen again.

It's a lot of learning for you all. You are doing great.

Let him sleep. There's tomorrow for cuddles. Is everything secure now so he can't try again to escape?

Oh dear, what a nasty experience. How lucky Pod's saviour spotted him.

Please don't beat yourself up, Hanging, it's happened to most of us ( if it hasn't, there's still time you smug wotzit 😝).

Honestly, be kind to yourself. No harm came to your boy, you are the one who has had a stressful, exhausting day. Mr Hanging, please be kind when Hanging is having a tough time, it doesn't take much effort but it goes a long way.

Tomorrow I'll measure the gate post and get the over the top thingy on order. It's got a surfboard leash wrapped around it ATM. Had no idea the little sod can actually lift the latch with his nose!

A genius Pod! Who knew the little monkey was hiding a giant brain under his giant ears😁

You poor thing, but don't beat yourself up. This is really outing, but I left DDog alone in the house for 10 minutes one evening, when I pulled back onto the drive she was standing out there waiting for me. Little bugger had managed to unlock and open the front door! New style door lock installed promptly the next day..... but opening doors is not a great skill to have!

How stressful. Your DP could have distracted Pod instead of reprimanding you. When you started crying did he give you a hug? I’m guessing not if there was a frosty atmosphere.

Thank goodness the driver was able to brake in time and then catch Pod. Pod is okay and now you can Pod-proof the gate latch so there’s no more unscheduled Pod-ventures.

Was the footwear salvageable?

Ohhhhh Pod you epic twat!

However... when you're ready to read this - and have a shout, cry, sleep etc first...

There are a LOT of extremely massive wins here particularly that he let a stranger catch him.

Even the fuck ups - none of those are a mystery without a clear solution in the long term (in the short term, yes, its fucking difficult to get a sex-pest bitey fucker off you without swearing and shoving and so on, no matter how much you know that any aggro from you will only make him worse. I haven't got a magic wand for that, I'd also be gritting teeth and threatening to turn him into glue!!)

Tomorrow is another day. Sorry about your foot, did you save it or did you have to just cut it off and hope a new one grows back?

You did brilliantly. If he'd done this when you first got him he'd still be out there twatting about.

Pod is too clever for his own good. But at least his adventure has identified something that needs fixing and is easily sorted. Better that than living with an insecure gate you don't know about.

That sounds really tough. Butt he's safe and fine and as PP have said let someone hold him until you got to him. All of us have had something like that. One day we had let someone in through our side gate. And forgot to bolt it when they'd left. Our dog got out. We aren't sure how long he had been out for. Found him two doors up having a lovely sniff and wagging his tail merrily. Heart was in mouth. It's a horrid feeling but happens to us all. And we all have the days of wondering why on Earth we've decided to share our home with a bonkers, filthy, muddy thing. It's normal and ok to have those feelings. You're being blimen amazing.

It happens, don’t beat yourself up. I thought I had it covered until last weekend when, for reasons completely unclear to me, the Amazon man failed to knock on my front door. Instead, he opened my side gate and then my back gate (multiple escapey dogs here, so multiple gates) and left them both open. The first I knew was when his smiling face appeared at my back door 🤦‍♀️ Immediate panic as one of mine was out in our (“escape proof” ha!!) back garden. I shot out to find her having a high old time on the village green, with no intention at all of giving up this unexpected freedom 😱 Until she ran into a lamp post (she’s only got one eye!) and she then wanted to come in! So, I too have reminded myself to BOLT THE BLOODY GATES.
Pod dog is fine, you are fine, all is well 🥰

Please don't beat yourself up, Hanging, it's happened to most of us

Ain't that the truth. I still remember the horror of my first dog having a near miss with a lorry when I stupidly and wrongly assumed the gate was shut and let her out in the garden. That happened before Hanging was even born.😬

Lurcher girl can can open the inside door of the porch. Fortunately not the outside door. She keeps me on my toes. God knows what my brain would be like without her exercising it!

A lesson learnt without a bad result. That's something to be thankful for.

Onward!

Really hope you got some sleep Hangin and that Pod is having a chilled morning. They really are buggers aren't they! Having an animal or child have a near miss is truly hideous and leaves you hopped up on adrenaline for a long time so be kind to yourself for how you responded, it was completely understandable.

I love you guys 😭

Reading these replies has made me so much better.

I've measured the gate for the throw-over thingy and examined the outside of the fence this morning on our walk looking for any holes (which, to other pedestrians must have looked like I was the world's worst burglar casing the joint in broad daylight at 8am). I couldn't see anything close to a hole big enough for him to get though; it's a low stone wall topped by a four foot fence topped with a hedge, so it must have been the gate.

For those asking about DP - honestly he has the patience of an actual saint with me and Pod. Yes he hugged me a LOT when I got upset and apologised and was kind. In stressful situations he is guilty of sometimes firing out 'obvious' solutions without thinking, when what's needed is a bit bit more of a sensitive approach. I apologised for being over-sensitive and touchy (which I know I am about Pod).

Morning walk was what I expected, very OTT although some great snack taking at the end. We've got enclosed paddock time, just me and him, tomorrow and Sunday, so I'll be trying to keep him calm at home and also run him off his legs and hopefully he'll calm down soon.

I also made an appointment with the vet to see if we can at least get an estimated timeline for the knackers coming off.

On top of being sick of the shagging, I don't want his urge to escape and shag things to become a habit IYSWIM. On the pod walk, I met someone whose Pod was obsessed with escaping. He couldn't enjoy the walk with everyone else because all he wanted to do was constantly check the perimeter for exit points which sounds miserable for the owner.

Pod is snoozing next to me. Tiny prawn.

Also, I suppose it is a good thing he let someone catch him. TBH the way he was acting with the man, he was so delighted to have made a new friend I think if he'd had a ham sandwich on him Pod would have happily pissed off in his car and gone to live with him.

Oh God, how scary, but please don't give yourself too hard a time over it. It happens. I'll never forget the feeling when I let our extremely nervous old boy into my inlaws' 'secure' garden for a wee one morning when we were staying with them, got distracted talking to FIL, and the next thing we knew there was a woman knocking the front door holding his collar because she'd found him in the street outside the house. Their side gate must have been left unlocked blown open - it was a big heavy gate, always bolted in the 20-odd years I'd been going there, so I hadn't even thought to check. He wasn't the best with other dogs or strange men so it could have been a very different ending.

I think the dog escaping is the same level of fear and panic as losing your toddler in Tesco 😰 It's sodding nightmare fuel!

Mine always tries to follow the postman after saying Hello to him... last time he was showing a lot of interest in his van so I think one word of encouragement and pup would have jumped in and happily away.

He also escaped recently for the first time. A woman called over the gate, Is this your dog? Makes you feel awful doesn't it? Though bless him, he was just sitting patiently outside the gate waiting for someone to tell him what to do. He thinks all humans are nice which I guess is a good thing.