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 that’s a good idea about keeping a log- we did one for the first few months so I could keep track of sleep/ wees/ poos etc.

We had a better day too. A sniffy walk in the morning and then I dragged the teenagers and my sister to the dog field. It was great to see Midge galloping around but it made me realise how stressful I have been finding dog walking when there’s a chance of encountering an off lead dog (pretty much every where!). I was fine until the boxer dog incident.

Midge is a little bugger. We used the time in the field to do recall etc. With my daughter he’s like he’s performing in an obedience championship; he does everything she asks. Straight away. She was even getting him weaving in and out of the agility poles and jumping through the tyre. I guess that shows I’ve taught him some stuff and he’s a bit cleverer than I think he is!

@YorkshireFelix enjoy your dog free trip. I’m already looking forward to our fortnight in France (end of August)- just got to get the sister in law to commit to looking after him, she’s offered, but let us down last year….

@YorkshireFelix we need pictures of the blanket-running 😄

@Nella68 it's a completely different experience when you're on high alert yourself, isn't it? I've started getting up earlier and priming myself with lots of coffee so I can get him out earlier but still be able to focus - the days of lovely relaxed walks where I can let him do his thing and be confident he'll be okay are pretty much gone for the moment. The only time I can take my eye off him I'm scanning the horizon for 'threats' - other dogs, cats, bloody squirrels 😄- honestly it's exhausting, but if I spot them I can move him.

We had a good morning but by the afternoon he was struggling again and we kept running into dogs we couldn't avoid. I do worry now that every time we have an encounter like that, it's filling up his bucket and making it even more likely he's going to kick off the next time. Though we then saw his old mate again, and a big black Lab he doesn't see that often, and he was fine with both. His bestie is in season so they had a 'through the barricades' moment over the fence 😭

Daycare for a couple of days tomorrow so he'll be exhausted. I've a friend visiting with her female dog at the weekend (staying in a hotel just in case they don't get on) - I sort of wish she wasn't coming but how can you say to a friend not to visit in case your dog is tired? The world thinks I'm demented enough already.

@brushingboots how was your visit to the wilds of Scotland?

@Bupster was Bill interested in the dog in season? Midge went a bit funny the other day after a trip to the park- he was very whiny and couldn’t settle. I wondered if he had got a whiff of a dog in season

They were both trying to dig a hole under the fence! But after she went home he was okay - he doesn’t seem to have a super high drive in that direction (yet)….

Vinny is being a grade A shit today. I've had to chase him to retrieve many things from his mouth that he absolutely shouldn't have, he's whinged so much, broken free from his penned off area in the yard and run riot, chewed the corner of my nice wool rug that I only put back down in the living room a few days ago. I don't know how to fix that and now he keeps pulling the frayed fibres out 😩

He was a shit last night too and chewed a hole through another duvet cover and was humping said duvet for the best part of an hour before DH just took him to sleep on the sofa downstairs.

This is my punishment for going out and having a nice dog free day yesterday!!

@Bupster It was excellent, thank you! Would I have a dog from him? Absolutely. Can I afford one? Definitely not. But they are gorgeous dogs and I’d 100pc recommend him and all of his team to anyone training-wise. Just outstanding. He is as super as he appears. When the two pieces I’m writing about him are out I will update here in case anyone wants to read. Am v happy to be quizzed privately in the mean time, obv.

@YorkshireFelix Oh no, typical. Are the things he's stealing actually dangerous or just 'ideally he shouldn't have that'? Sounds like attention seeking and I am always inclined to completely ignore it unless it's a chocolate button or a battery in which case it's a 'give that bloody thing to me right now' situation. Is he beginning to go mad without walks?

I had a miserable start to my walk this morning which has put me in a bad mood. I will caveat by saying that I am really, really tired, haven't had any time off work at all for about a fortnight (including my trip to Perth which was nearly ten hours working on the train plus a day there being 'on') and thus I woke up feeling quite low. I was standing just chatting/moaning to my friend and pupsy was playing with her dogs, all fine, and we were just moving off when a lady we know with a dog that can't even move properly without being fixated on his ball and accompanying chucker appeared. Her dog dropped the ball as he ALWAYS does, pupsy picked it up, I growled at her (a la my friend in Perth) and grabbed her saying, quite crossly, 'put the ball down, we're going this way' and the woman said 'you don't need to be so cross with her'. I snapped, 'she's my dog, I don't want her doing that,' and carried on. It was rude of me and now I feel sad that I was rude, but also: don't tell me how to parent my dog, thanks. I put a huge amount of effort in with her, I have paid a lot of money to get help doing so, and I don't want her doing undesirable things. Saying 'drop the ball please' in a softy voice does not endear pupsy to do anything except dance around with it and piss me off more. I definitely don't want her taking other dogs' balls, even momentarily, and most of all I do not want her anywhere near a bloody chucker that does nothing but hype her up.

Shortly after that I bumped into a friend with his kids on half-term who suggested we went somewhere else so we found a bridge to play poohsticks on and that made me feel better. But I am still a bit cross and sad.

@YorkshireFelix Oh no! He must be going stir crazy with being lead bound. As brushingboots says, I would be inclined to (try and) ignore his stealing of items. If they’re dangerous/ precious I will trade them for a treat. I do think I’m on the slippery slope of him pinching stuff to get a treat. I’m paranoid about him becoming a resource guarder and I’m constantly telling the children not to prise things from his mouth.

@brushingboots Getting Midge to retrieve and drop is something I’ve struggled with. Any tips? Sounds like you had a fab trip. I would love to go there.

Sorry to hear you had a crap morning. I get cross with people who let their rude dogs come up to Midge when he’s on lead. They must think I’m a right miserable so and so, but I’m trying to raise M to be a polite steady dog and not a hooliganism.

I went out with my husband today and M walked beside him (off lead) like a perfect dog; checking in, no pulling etc. I’m starting to think it’s just me- familiarity breeds contempt etc..

Here’s a picture of the human in a dog suit checking for cats

@Nella68 I would recommend a trip up if you ever get the chance – he is genuinely so not judgemental and his dogs are superb.

I feel the same way – I can’t bear it when offlead dogs rush us either. I think my general feelings are exacerbated by the fact that I’ve been writing about dog training solidly for the last four days and I’ve been working really hard with pupsy on a few things suggested by my trainer, so I’m not in the mood to hear unsolicited advice from people who I know can’t be bothered to do more than chuck a ball for their dogs for 45 minutes twice a day.

Is it the retrieve and drop as a combination that you’ve struggled with, or both individually?

My top tip for the former is to find a quiet bit of distraction-free corridor/passage/alleyway where you won’t be disturbed, and sit/crouch on the floor with a ball or other desirable object – balled-up socks are really good as they smell like us. Then have him next to you and send him to do tiny, tiny retrieves – like, a metre – encouraging him back into your arms and praising when he comes in. The corridor bit is key because it needs to be somewhere where he can’t run around you – you need to be the dead-end so he is forced to bring it back to you.

Don’t worry about delivery and how he gives it to you – if he spits it out or puts it in your hand – just make sure he does. Don’t snatch it off him (key), but let him hold it and then you can ask him to ‘drop’. I say ‘dead’ but it doesn’t matter what you say. Make it super fun, like you’re teaching a 10-week-old pup, and only do a few reps at a time or else he’ll get bored and there’s nothing worse than a dog that is bored with the exercise to ruin all the headway you’ve made on something. When he's got it with a short retrieve, just keep building it up, and you can build on it in different, harder areas.

If he won't pick it up and bring it back and you can't work out why, as you've got a longline and harness anyway, pop them on with the longline clipped on the front and then if he goes to bugger off somewhere else you can give a gentle tug and turn him back to you with big praise when he does it.

@Nella68 Also, he's so tall!! He really is a human in a dog suit!

@brushingboots great idea about the corridor. I will try there and report back.
It’s both individually, although we did have a modicum of success yesterday whilst playing drug detection dog. The children were hiding a ball and he went to find it and brought it back so they could hide it again. It was really good practice for his sit and stay. He did really well sitting in one room waiting for them to come back and tell him to ‘go find’.

I’m just waiting for the trainer to come and give me some support with trying recall with distractions. He’s late, so I hope I have the right day!

@Nella68 Ahh that’s brilliant! Those games are super fun and how nice that you can get the children involved too. Pupsy loves it when I hide stuff for her and ask her to sit and wait while I do so.

To work on the individual drop too just go back to puppy basics – sit on the floor and put something down for him to pick up, ball of socks again maybe. Let him pick it up and praise, then let him hold it and don’t grab it back, and then let him hold and ask for it back gently. Just build up the process tiny bit by bit. I think sometimes we accidentally make things too hard for them and then they space out and can’t do any of it, so then you have to break down into tiny bits what you’re asking them to do and make sure they can do each one really well before they move on. Some of those steps are minuscule, like just looking at something calmly, but they all fit together.

We are working really hard on not chasing moving objects again and my trainer gave me an exercise with a dummy where I just hold it over pupsy’s head. She is marked and rewarded every time she is calm when it’s there, and then when I move it up, down, side to side etc and she remains sitting and calm. We’re building the steadiness on the ground as it were, just looking at the thing, before we rebuild her being steady when it’s actually moving – if that makes sense? And the same applies to the drop and retrieve. It’s really easy to kill the retrieve drive by not making it fun, as I’ve found to my peril as she hunts up and picks things really well but then gives up retrieving them halfway back to me.

@YorkshireFelix I know it might be different for you - there's only me and Bill and my house was a wreck before he arrived - but I also don't take anything from him unless it's actively dangerous or I really need him to not chew it. So I do swap for treats, and he will always swap, but that means I (a) have to always carry treats, even in my bathrobe and (b) I'm pretty sure the little sod raids my bag for the car keys just to get treats. Everything has chew marks and I store my leather boots on top of the wardrobe, and my socks in a sealable tub. But he does have a spotless swap and I never have to chase him; if I don't come after him he brings the stuff back 😄

@brushingboots I can't wait to read those pieces, seriously. And thank you for the advice on teaching a retrieve. I've just started doing exactly that, though the drop is very much a work in progress. I've been using the word 'give' to distinguish from 'swap' and using his squeaky ball when we're out, as he still gets a 'reward' from me throwing it again, but trying to get the little sod to drop anything else... I've made a bit of a rod for my own back with the swap, but I was also paranoid about resource guarding. I'll keep working on it 🙄

I'm sorry you've been struggling with pupsy. I know you hold yourself and her to super-high standards, which I absolutely admire. Bill and his mates steal balls from each others' mouths, and his bestie has been known to steal the ball thrower too (which was absolutely hysterical, though the owner of the ball thrower was less amused).

@Nella68 , that's a bloke in a dog suit.

Thanks everyone. I do think he's going stir crazy without proper off lead walks. It's only been 2 weeks and I've got another 5 to go!! He is stressing me out so much though and I'm so tired, so I just have no motivation to do anything else with him bar go for sniffy walks. I am going to ask dd to look online for some brain games we can do with him. We had some success with hiding treats for him to find, and also hiding his favourite toys to sniff out. He won't sit unless I am still in sight though which is annoying, so he creeps around the corner and sees me hiding things 😄

The stuff he had was a plastic fork which I know he would chew and end up with sharp shards in his mouth, and also some packets of salt which are also not ideal. I usually don't have stuff laying around at all because I'm a neat freak but DH hadn't taken a bag out to the bin yet from our takeaway we had last night, so he saw his opportunity and took it...

@brushingboots that woman was rude so she deserved to get some rudeness back. I would have told her to fuck off but I am gobby, so she got off lightly in my opinion 😂 I hope you manage to get a proper break from work soon!

@YorkshireFelix

Does he know how to tidy toys? For some reason both of mine love that. Also pushing doors/drawers shut.

He doesn't but I could probably teach him! His physio was telling me she taught her sprocker to collect the other shoe to a pair if she's been wandering around the house with one, and to put the dirty washing in the washing machine 😂

He is just a menace at the minute so I don't know what he will or won't do without getting all worked up, but I can give it a try.

@tizwozliz I’ve been a complete failure with teaching the other members of my family to tidy anything so I might try to teach Midge so he can set a good example!

So we had a good training session. The trainer gave some tips on how to avoid being pulled towards smells and to put ‘go sniff’ on cue. He reckons he was picking it up. I just need to practise now. Midge was walking like he was at Crufts, so it shows he does know how to do it!

We went to the woods by us where the dog attack happened as I said I am now really nervous about going there. There was the usual quota of rude dogs and the trainer commented that no one made any effort to call their dog away from midge (who was on lead). Midge was pretty good at disengaging and didn’t seem to get so over aroused.

The trainer took Midge off and we went to the other side of the field so we could call him from a distance. He said M started to get worried when he couldn’t see us. I’m glad to say he galloped back to us when we called. He was quite happy with his recall.

I think my standards are very high and I’m disappointed with myself when M doesn’t meet them. I’m also realising I’m a bit of a control freak and I don’t like it when I’m feeling out of control when M is being a bugger!

That is interesting re the 'go sniff' cue. Is it an easy process to try and teach? I think it would be good for V as he CAN walk nicely on lead but will pull towards lamp posts, corners of walls, wheelie bins, any random other stuff he sees and wants to investigate. I think that is our main problem with on-lead walking.

Sounds like you had a fab session though. You are doing really well with him, even if you think you aren't!

The trainer we did the puppy course with is doing a beginner pet gundog course in April so I think I'll sign up for that, as V should hopefully be good to be off lead by then. I do worry that he will just hugely show me up though!!

@YorkshireFelix how he did it was (as I recall):

When dog pulls towards a scent stand firm and keep the lead tight not moving/ saying anything until dog looks back and returns and the lead is slack (the dog needs to release the tension). Then move on swiftly with a breezy ‘let’s go’ and after a couple of paces say ‘go sniff’ and let him have a sniff. Then another ‘let’s go’ and move on. He said it’s good to have a few places where he can sniff e.g. dog poo bin etc, so when we approach them say ‘go sniff’ and then repeat the process as above. I think that’s the general gist.

That makes perfect sense, thank you. I'm going to give it a try!

@YorkshireFelix I think my walks are going to take a lot longer until he gets the hang of it!

We are back to square one with the whole sleep issue. He won't settle in our bedroom any more and just seems stressed in there. He either pants and paces around or is obsessively chewing and humping our duvet. DH tried to get him to stop the chewing/humping last night and he did a very possessive snarly growl and tried to bite him, which he's never done before. DH has taken him to sleep downstairs with him on the sofa the past few nights again and he settles down there immediately.

I honestly don't know what to do. I think not getting a proper off lead walk to let off steam is exasperating the issue. I'm going to try walking him a longer route today and look up some training I can do with him indoors. It's hard as I need to minimise his physical movement as much as possible, but obviously he is young and if he gets over excited he likes to zoom around.

I am so worried that we have gone drastically wrong somewhere and have caused him to have some huge issues that are going to be impossible to sort out 😞

@YorkshireFelix I remember when the twins were small wondering whether they would ever have a full night’s sleep or settle. I have to drag them out of bed these days. I know they are human and not the same but I’m sure this will be temporary for Felix as it is for babies and toddlers. Lack of sleep is shit, but small comfort may be the thought that dogs mature much more quickly than human babies.

When M was being a pain and wouldn’t settle we would cut rabbit ears into tiny pieces and throw them around the room from the comfort of the settee. We would aim the pieces for the inside of slippers, fold of the dog towel etc. All the sniffing would wear him out.

Midge usually sleeps well but woke us up at 5 this morning for a poo and then kept woofing at things outside so I have much sympathy with you x

Thank you, I just feel so stressed which is probably making things 100% worse. I've messaged the trainer we did the puppy course with to see if I can book a 1:1 with her. I'm hoping she can give me some guidance of different training things I can do with him which aren't very physical. I've sent her the longest message in the world so she probably thinks I'm nuts but I like to be thorough!

I am sure when he's older we will look back at this time and wonder why we were so worried. You are right, it is the same as having a baby/toddler!!