Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - get teenage licks right through the night!

[Bupster]

I've buckled and started the new thread - welcome to the horror of adolescence!

Bill has started talking in his sleep. I always love his sleep wuffling, and his elaborate range of awake grumbling, but now he seems to be grumbling in his dreams. Obviously I’m stuck where I am on the sofa and can’t move until he’s done.

Gorgeous!

He looks tiny here! Like he could be a corgi 😂

Oh joy! Just had my weekly mn kick in the head.

I seriously think I'll delete my account. It all just feels so pointless. It's definitely affecting my mental health.

Oh no! Please don't do that. You know MN is bonkers except here xxx

Beautiful 😍

If you ever fancy a swap, I’ll gladly exchange one of mine for yours!!

@Nella68 @Bupster, anyone else – Fish4Dogs have got 10pc off for the next week x

Hah! definitely an artefact of the camera angle. He is a muscular little chonk, a barrel of dog. He's pulling so hard on his morning walks I feel like I've roped a bear. He's also so full of testosterone at the moment he's just a walking bollock 🙄.

@brushingboots thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out

Gaaah another sleeping on the sofa evening last night. We tried leaving him to sleep outside of the crate again. All good, we went to bed at about 11.30, then at 12.50 he woke up so I thought I'd try letting him out for the toilet. He did a poo so I brought him back in then went back to bed, but he started doing a solitary bark then whinging every 30-ish seconds. I laid in bed for 20 minutes watching him on the camera, but eventually it turned into more of a very loud howl so I couldn't let him make so much noise any more. I relented and went downstairs and he curled up and went to sleep immediately 🙄

Not really looking for advice as you all gave me lots when I first mentioned it but just wanted to share my frustration! DH is going to take him for a quick walk when he gets home from work at around 10.30 then going to put him in his crate again tonight, but assuming it won't make much difference as it didn't last time...

@YorkshireFelix could something have unsettled him and made him a bit scared? I’ve heard about fear phases maybe he’s in one now and needs reassurance of you being there?
I hope it does last long and normal sleep resumes x

Possibly, I honestly have no idea! I am working on the assumption it's a phase otherwise I'll just stress myself out 😄

He was a shit on his walk and did not listen, but he looked pretty cute.

Spay is like a distant memory now, hair just about all grown back

@YorkshireFelix and @tizwozliz what beautiful dogs you have - and nice forest too!

She's so shiny!

Forgot to say we have been doing the hiding treats and sniffing them out game and Vinny loves it! I can't quite get him to sit and stay in the kitchen whilst I hide them in the living room as he creeps round the door to look at me when I go out of sight (which is annoying but also hilarious because he looks so suspicious), but we are working on it. We did it again just now and he's immediately crashed out on the floor to snooze 😴

Well, today has been an absolute horror so far. I took him for our long walk on the Common that we do once or twice a week. It took us 25 minutes to get there (it's a 10-15 minute walk) as he was yanking me so hard I couldn't give him any leeway, and I had to stop every time or he'd have pulled me over. He managed to come back to heel once in that journey. I can't let him off the long line at the moment as his recall is so bad, but today even his very basic stuff had gone backwards. I had to ask him to sit six times to swap his lead, and 12 times later on so I could untangle it from a fence (yes, I know you shouldn't repeat commands, but I knew damn well he could hear me and by this point I was feeling pretty bloody stubborn myself). He nearly had me over several times and I'm nursing a sore ankle, a sore knee, and am counting my fingers. On the way home, when I know he can trot like a show pony, he managed about 20 metres of walking to heel in that 15 minute walk. He whined all through my breakfast and is now having the zoomies and whimpering so I'm going to have to check his paws in a moment just in case. God help me, if there were a kebab van in the vicinity he'd be a goner.

The only redeeming feature of today so far is that we met a friend of his from daycare, who's 17 months old, and his owner said they have good days and beagle days, and the worst beagle day was when he got spooked by a train and did a runner for SIX HOURS. Although a tiny renegade bit of me is thinking 'six hours of peace!'

Photo of the bloody hooligan having a marvellous time. Note the absolute state of those legs.

He's finally thinking about napping. This is what traps you, that little soft head in your lap and you forgive everything - even as you can see the state of the carpet and your eyelids are falling off from exhaustion.

How do you get through this, you lot who've come out the other side? I don't want to take away all his joy, I want to let him be a dog, and dig, and sniff, and run, but how do I do that and keep him safe when he can't recall and has days when he can't even sit? I mean how do I do it without absolutely losing my shit?

@Bupster 6 hours of peace made me laugh 😂

Sorry you're having such a tough time with him at the moment. I am having similar with V. He pulled me over for the first time a couple of days ago - I was trying to pick up his poo and he yanked me onto the pavement and now I've got grazed knees like a 6 year old. Thankfully he didn't pull me into the shit so silver linings and all that.

We've also had similar with pulling on walks and his recall was absolutely shocking yesterday. I am losing him to the fun of running around in the woods and he just fucks off for ages and doesn't come back to me. I was so frustrated yesterday. I genuinely have the patience of a saint but he's really pushing it at the minute. I'm going to contact the trainer we did the puppy course with and book a 1-1 session, and when his new harness arrives he's back on the longline and we will have to do boring visits to the playing field instead of the woods. I have put so much work into him and it's all come unravelled, which I knew was going to happen and fully expected it, but it's still disheartening.

I bumped into one of my DD's friends Mums yesterday. She has a gorgeous golden who is exactly a year older than V and said she went through the same with him. She was gutted to have to stop doing their usual walks they enjoy but she said he did come through the other side and he's great now. It was when I was walking back from the most horrendous walk so it made me feel a bit better.

Sorry I don't have any advice but just sending my solidarity!!

Ahhh @Bupster @YorkshireFelix, they are both being proper teenagers, aren't they?

In truth I didn't have it as bad with pupsy. She was tricky but she wasn't that tricky, and her tricky period was quite short. Or at least that's how I remember it – maybe I've internalised the horror. There was a day when she bogged off up a field after flushing a partridge and I was quite worried she wouldn't come back, but after that I was just totally on her every time we went back to that field and she didn't do it again. When she did mess about I got the long-line out and kept helping her to make good choices – but I guess that was because she wasn't too bad to start with, in that the longline could be used as a teaching method as she didn't need it all the time, if that makes sense.

All I can say is keep doing what you're doing and it will pass. I'm sorry not to have more wisdom x

My further general thought on all of this, as these are gundogs, is, as I often say, to try and work with them and, if you like, lean in to what they're testing you by doing. So if hedge diving is the order of the day, make it fun and something they can do with you. So you chuck a ball in a hedge and ask them to find, etc. And with recall appeal to their natural instincts and run away so they chase you or have to find you; hide behind trees etc.

I appreciate that all of that is easier said than done though when they are being totally awful and won't listen and worse still, simply do not care where you are and what you're doing. That's the trouble – that they don't care because they're in their teenage brains. But I think what I tried to do was channel her natural instincts into something useful.

@Bupster @YorkshireFelix
I have no words of advice as I could have written both of your posts! I would love a 6 hour break- that’s one advantage of the groomers.

I’ve noticed that since I have been giving Midge more freedom off lead (he’s been doing well coming back when distractions are no more than a crow), he’s become increasingly pully and sniffy on lead. We went to the local woods opposite us and he was a nightmare and got very excited about seeing other dogs. I’ve been going to the old golf course for his off lead/ recall and I only see dogs at a distance.

I had to get into the bed with the little delinquent and pretend to be asleep as it was the only way he would nap. Now of course he’s spotless, offering all kinds of lovely behaviours, rowling around on his back like a little puppy.

The problem when we’re out is I have so little opportunity to do fun things with him as half the time I’m hanging onto his longline for dear life. I barely manage a few recalls, sit stay games, maybe hide a ball or dummy once or twice - the rest of the time is endurance. Like the others, I feel I might have to only go to boring places, but then how do I teach him to cope with novelty and smells etc? Today he saw swans and they hissed at him (and obvs I warned him they can break your arm, a swan). I’m glad we did that, but he nearly pulled me down a steep bank on the way back and is that worth the risk?

Thanks @brushingboots, as you say it's easier said than done as he's literally not interesting in me running away or playing with him when we are out and about. The patrolling for birds and squirrels and following scents comes way above how exciting I could ever make myself. I think my plan for now is be really strict and just go to the field and do lots of training instead of a 'walk.'

I am having to be careful with him at the minute as we're getting him checked over by a physio next Friday because of an intermittent limp he's had on his back leg. Strictly no jumping or chasing balls until we have seen her apparently. And no slippy floors which is pretty much impossible since our whole house is solid wood floors! AND the fact he will no longer sleep on his own at night. Why did we ever get a dog 😂

But I will say it's not all doom and gloom. We are working really hard on his sit/stay and the past couple of days we've had one or two instances of him sitting to heel and staying there even after he's had his reward. So at least something is getting through to him!