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!

@Bupster Did the bugger not even have the courtesy to sleep on the way back?! I am astonished. He should have been knackered.

Oh bless you, I know you've always struggled with him in the car. I agree that it's so normal to want to push it but it's not the right way to go about it, as excruciating as it is.

Yes the physio thinks a bit of cruciate ligament damage, but he did it around 4 months ago and just has an intermittent limp every few weeks. So it's not fully healed as he's always on the go. He's not actively in lots of pain but I think just a bit uncomfortable sometimes? The physio also said it could also be 'pain memory' too, so he's hurt it and now it feels ok but he's more cautious about his leg because of the previous injury, if that makes sense. She likened it to the fact she broke her ankle once and now she always goes down steps cautiously even though it's fully healed. It could be that this is why, but since the injury happened so long ago and he's only stopped sleeping in the past 2 weeks I'm leaning towards it not being linked.

Funnily enough I've just seen a post on one of the WCS groups from someone who has a 7.5 month old girl who has suddenly stopped sleeping too. I was going to screenshot and post it here but obviously I can't. As I suspected there's some 'leave them to it' comments and someone saying they would just 'tell their dog off' but I have no idea WTF that means. I think if I told Vinny off he wouldn't give two shits.

I think you're probably right about having him upstairs. It's just been a nightmare every time we have tried though, and it pisses me off that DH is such a deep sleeper so any disturbances I have to deal with. I do have a couple of rugs which lived downstairs but I removed them when he was toilet training, and they need professionally cleaning 🤢 I do have my own Bissel upholstery cleaner and have gone over them a couple of times but I swear they still smell a bit dog pissy. I've just got them rolled up in storage at the minute. I can't sleep on the sofa again though because it's killing my back!!

Nope, @brushingboots , he got himself so worked up that we had to pull over five minutes after leaving the car park so I could untangle him from the seatbelt; and then he did the same 10 minutes before we got home, but I didn't realise, poor bug - he'd trapped himself at the back of the seat and couldn't move. I thought he was just barking - I can't tell you how awful and guilty I felt when we got home and I realised. He's exhausted now.

Still woke up after nap number one demanding to go to the dog park to steal squeaky balls off his bestie, so not completely traumatised, but honestly, if I could wrap the pair of us up in a duvet and not move for a week I would. I feel terrible.

Also I'm glad you both had a lovely walk!

I walked V around the village earlier and let him stop and sniff everything and he was actually ok. The physio has told me to walk him on his harness every time instead of just his collar, just to minimise any strain on his neck and spine as he can pull so much. He walked quite nicely and any time he did pull it didn't yank my shoulder as much. AND he didn't bite me as I was clipping his harness on!

@Bupster Dear god. It’s so weird because he is evidently happy to get in the car, and he can’t have been frustrated to get out again as he’d just had a super walk – so it’s not ‘get me out, I want to go and run’. You have nothing to feel guilty about – nothing. You bend over backwards to accommodate him and his bizarre whims.

I couldn't manage sleeping on the sofa for any length of time either. I need my bed and a good night's sleep. I think you get to a point in life when sofa days are basically over unless it's an actual emergency.

I'm sure someone's posted on DTAS recently about a similar problem and they've said the same - teenage pups can just collapse in confidence. I wonder if that's part of Bill's thing in the car, he's swinging wildly between "who the hell are you?" and I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW HERE NOW, and he has no impulse control or frustration tolerance at all (at least with me).

@YorkshireFelix Glad you had a good walk too, especially on-lead – hopefully he will get used to it.

I really feel for you about the sleep and wish I had some kind of answer. I agree that it doesn’t sound like it's related to his pain, and I also agree that telling off doesn't seem right either as it's not clear what he's trying to communicate with you.

Would his crate upstairs be better than a bed upstairs – I don’t know if you’ve tried that? Then he would be contained but near you so not messing about/making a noise. I hear you on always being the one to deal with disturbances. I have that role here too, 99pc of the time.

It might not be a bad idea to post on DTAS for ideas actually, thinking about what @Bupster says. It is a really good group and they aren’t anywhere near as judgy (and frankly mean) as the cocker groups, provided you have read all of the guides! For you shalt not pass if you have not, etc.

@brushingboots yes we tried crate upstairs and he hated it. I just find it so odd since he will happily snooze in his crate if I put him in there in the daytime. I tried him in the crate right next to where I was sleeping on the sofa last night and that was a disaster too. It's just bizarre.

I might give that a go re DTAS. I read the whole separation anxiety guides a few days ago and found it helpful to kind of understand it a bit more, but equally I really don't understand what's going on 🥴

@YorkshireFelix I read the DTAS posts and have the book which have been useful. I suspect their answer will be to let him upstairs with you and into the bed if that is what he wants. I have read advice where they have said to ignore the dog if it is in the bedroom with you but still being a pest (and prepare for a few rough nights.
I really do feel for you; lack of sleep is horrendous.

@Bupster and @brushingboots I’m a little envious of your walk (but not the car journey)

I had Midge on the longline today in the park behind my house (next to 2 very busy roads and no barriers). He was prancing around with a ball in his mouth and I noticed he had dropped it. I asked him to ‘seek back’. Big mistake. He zig zagged around then suddenly lunged towards the ball which was beyond the extent of the line. I went flying and let go and he thought ‘woohoo, I’m FREE’ and went charging off in the direction of the road. Fortunately he came back on the first call, much to my relief. I think the recall training is having some effect!

Thanks everyone. I've written a very long post on the DTAS group so hopefully it gets approved. I think you are probably right @Nella68 that the answer will be to put him upstairs with us again, as much as I don't want to do it. He chewed a hole in my duvet cover last time and I'm sick of all our stuff getting destroyed 😩

Also not so great on the going flying but really great on the recall!!

We tried him upstairs again last night. He wouldn't settle then I remembered I had stuffed his stinky hoof and frozen it which worked a treat, so I cannot thank you enough for the recommendation @Nella68 !!

I have some Loop ear plugs so I wore them and we all actually slept through until 7.30. So I think upstairs is the way to go 🙏🏻

Brilliant, @YorkshireFelix – what a result! Hopefully he will be able to graduate back downstairs again at some point if you want him to, but at least you've finally had some proper sleep.

I am about to head out for a walk with pupsy and it is absolutely chucking it down, so I am definitely considering my life choices today. Pre-dog I would have had a whole day inside on a day like this.

Thank you, I am thrilled and hopefully it will continue. If he ends up in our room permanently then I might have to buy a cordless vacuum so I don't have to keep lugging my Miele up and down the stairs 😄

Weather is grim isn't it. I'm actually glad we're on lead walking only as it gives me an excuse to just stay on the pavements. It's going to be so glorious in the spring and summer when we have some nice days and evenings, I can't wait! Hope your walk isn't too cold and wet.

@YorkshireFelix I’m glad the frozen hoof helped and it sounds like you all had a better night!

The weather here is horrible too. I am fed up with the mud. I realised that I have worn wellies every day for the last 5 months. Thank goodness I went for the more expensive neoprene lined ones; at least my feet are warm.

My fingers get cold though. I don’t really want to get the fish bits out when I’m wearing gloves as they’ll end up smelling of fish. The Fish4dogs treats are working for M’s recall but they don’t half stink!

Talking about recall, I was really happy today until he took off after a scent and I lost sight of him. There was no way I could run over to him so I had to rely on him realising I wasn’t there and panic, which he did. Once he had spotted me I ran the other way and he returned. I had to tell him what a bad boy he had been in a squeaky high happy voice and stuffed him full of fish.

I’ve watched a couple of the Mordor episodes on YouTube so have been aiming to hide and run away randomly. I’m glad there wasn’t anyone else at the golf course as I must have looked an absolute crazy lady.

@Nella68 Strong agree about the mud. It is very tiresome and I fear we have quite a bit more of it to come before it hardens up again – if indeed it does at all. I was in gore-tex trainers this morning which were fine but it was still a bit of a mud slip’n’slide in our regular fields.

Glad the Fish4Dogs treats are working! Running away randomly definitely works. Sometimes I say to pupsy that I am like the queen in chess – I can move in any direction.

Funny you should mention Mordor, guess where I’m going next week…! (cc @YorkshireFelix)

OMG tell Charlie I would die for him.

@brushingboots are you going for the stay and learn thing? The accommodation looks amazing. I would love to go there but according to Google it would take me 6 hrs (more with breaks).

I’m getting so fed up with Midge wanting to sniff all the time and then lunging towards a particularly interesting smell. I find when he is in his sniffing mode he has absolutely zero interest in me and does not check in at all. I saw that Mordor use slip leads and a quick ‘nudge’ if the dog isn’t paying attention. Do you use a slip lead?
I’ve started attaching one end of the lead to the front of the harness and the other to the collar, which seems to help but wondering if a slip lead would be better.

@Nella68 No I’m not, I’m just going up for the day as it’s for work. The plan was originally to drive up there with pupsy and stay in the cabin and he’d see her but not as a client, just as she’d be coming with me. I’ve now decided just to go up for the day and dog-dad will WFH with her as it’s also six hours each way for us and I don’t think I can bear that in the car on my own. I would love to go for stay and train but only if we could both go to split the drive, and if we were going to see people en route up and down, as it is SO far.

I don’t use a slip lead because I didn’t start her with one and now 99pc of the time when she’s on lead it’s because we’re on a slow, sniffy lead walk and I want her to be able to enjoy the environment through her nose. But I have now got to a place where we can do that without being yanked everywhere and that has taken a while.

If I started again with a new puppy tomorrow I would definitely start off with a slip lead though – that’s the main thing I’d do differently: I’d never use a harness and just use a slip lead, so the pup never learned to pull in the first place. I’m sure Charlie will tell me next week that I can start again now if I want but I’m happy with how we’re doing it now. I think I use my lead and collar in a similar way to a slip lead though, I suppose – I ‘correct’ her if she pulls ahead with the same kind of tiny nudge. The day I stopped using a harness was the day her walking got so much better, in truth.

@brushingboots I agree with walking better on a collar rather than harness. I think it was you that convinced me to try it all those months ago! But I will caveat this with saying I've moved back to the harness as the physio has asked me to for these next 6 weeks and both walks yesterday were brilliant. I believe this is more Vinny improving his loose lead walking than the equipment we are using though, if you get what I mean. I've not been taking him down to the woods or field as I know it will trigger him to want to be off lead and he will pull like crazy, so we are sticking to a couple of shorter very sniffy walks around the village. Very boring for me but he doesn't seem to mind.

Night 2 upstairs and he settled after about an hour and went to sleep. But he did wake me up at 4am barking and growling as he heard dd go to the toilet. I am hoping it didn't disturb any of the neighbours. I've also woken up with swollen itchy eyelids which is nice! Think I'm going to have to make sure I take antihistamines every day if we're having him upstairs. I don't usually react much to him but I assume upstairs being a dog free zone must have inadvertently been a bit of a fire break for me.

I posted on DTAS and they said about secondary fear period and said I should get a full pain check at the vets. Which I am not going to do as I think it would be a waste of time and money to be honest. Im not going to say that though as I'm sure they will boot me out for being unruly 😄

@YorkshireFelix Totally understand what you mean – I think pupsy would be the same now, if I put her back on a harness. It’s the work we’ve done that’s helped, not the equipment. I’m so glad that he’s doing well on it again while he’s on lead walk rest, and that he doesn’t mind too much.

Every single day I wonder whether our walks are varied enough for pupsy. I presume they are as (I think?) she seems happy enough. But then I think about some of my friends who don’t ‘walk’ their (gun)dogs at all, and sometimes don’t take them out at all on any given day and they are all absolutely fine and still sleep all day. This morning she pushed her way through about ten metres of dense cover to flush a lovely cock pheasant who had been camped out in it and then stopped after a pace or so, and in so doing flushed a lovely rabbit and stopped, so I was quite pleased.

Good and bad news about last night for you! Not ideal about your eyes at all, nor the woofing but at least he did sleep. Secondary fear period does sound likely, especially if he’s barking and growling with movement in the house at night – he’s obviously on high alert, bless him. That can’t be fun for him.

I got up for the loo at 5.30 this morning and woke pupsy up. She had a little woof or two while I was downstairs so I went to get her as I didn’t fancy getting up for good at that time. Woke up again three hours later with her on my pillow licking my ears. Nice.

@brushingboots why do they love ears so much?!

Yes he's been extra barky at every random noise recently so it all makes sense. And he goes mental over the vacuum cleaner too even though I've used it every day since we got him. I've just read a thing about the secondary fear period and it looks like we are doing the right thing by not trying to force it. So I guess I'll just have to be even more patient than usual 😄

I think your walks sound fab and that Pupsy loves them! She is so good and gives me tonnes of hope for a year down the line!!

Also Vinny has taken himself off to his crate for a nap twice today so maybe he's just trolling us 🙄

@YorkshireFelix Haha the ear thing is real! I’m glad to say she isn’t a mouth licker, unlike a dog I met the other day that jumped up on me and fully snogged me. Vom.

How does he find hairdryers? I only blow dry my hair about three times a year so pupsy isn’t accustomed to it at all – I did it the other day and she went mad, bless her. Just totally freaked her out. I suppose these things are very, very loud for them.

I’m glad you think so! As we’ve previously discussed it is hard sometimes knowing whether or not we’re doing ~enough~… I guess that’s the case for human babies too.

And yes, he's a little troll. It's that wise old man look in his eye, plotting his next monstrous move...

He doesn't like the hair dryer either. Although I have got a Dyson recently which is significantly quieter, and he was a bit freaked out by it when I was doing DD's hair the other day but he got used to it quickly. He REALLY hates my upholstery cleaner but that's mega loud so I have to wait until DH can take him out to use it (which isn't very often). I've resorted to scrubbing the sofa with a cloth like I live in the olden times.

Weirdly he reacts the worst to the vacuum when I take the long pole off and just use the short sucky one. He goes absolutely nuts! He also doesn't like the sound of people moving wheelie bins down the alleyway or when someone walks past pulling a suitcase...