Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - for teenage dirtbags

[Bupster]

I've buckled again, I can't take the pressure of being on page 40 😄

I’m just placemarking in the hopes of being able to lurk and look at more dog photos 😁I plan on contributing nothing of use

Thank you for the new thread!

The video I watched was actually from a guy who I do like as he’s very no nonsense and speaks a lot of sense, but it made me spiral sooooo badly. He essentially said his messages are full of people who are struggling with spaniels with aggression, and people buy cockers because they are small and cute but have no idea what they are doing with them etc etc. Which yes I do agree with, but then I convinced myself that I was also one of those people. Vinny was going through a particularly bitey annoying stage at the time and I was convinced he was aggressive.

I think I am quite hard on myself and feel like I have a point to prove, as I don’t look like a typical spaniel owner/don’t come from that world (I am covered in tattoos and piercings and grew up on a council estate in Notts 🤣) so I have this perception that others think I have no idea what I’m doing and just got Vinny because he’s a cute spaniel. Which is stupid because why should I even care. But I am dying to do a ‘HA IN YOUR FACE! LOOK AT MY EXCEPTIONALLY WELL TRAINED SPANIEL’ to those people who probably don’t even exist in the first place 🤪 I am aware I sound nuts.

@YorkshireFelix you are not one of those people!! V is lucky to have such a cool mum. Pupsy is surely sick of my gilets now. And I always look an utter disgrace.

I know who you're talking about and he does seem to get results in some aspects but I'm not convinced by all of it, tbh. How many 'aggressive' spaniels have you ever met? I think for me it's probably... zero. But you can only train the dog in front of course, as I am wont to say.

Aww that is nice, thank you. I do have one Barbour jacket which I will crack out when we finally get together so I look the part 😂

My DH is obsessed with him and wants to book a days training but I don’t think I can be arsed with it. And you’re right, I have never met an aggressive spaniel! There’s tonnes of them around here and most of the ones I’ve met have been very well behaved.

@YorkshireFelix Personally I’d save your £ for Tasha if you want to see a trainer. She’s amazing and her dogs are evidence of that. I’d take her skill over his any day of the week – plus she’s lovely and doesn’t bark rudely at people on the internet like he does.

I hate the whole inexperienced owners discourse because literally every single one of us was a novice once, even if you grew up with them. I remember saying this to someone once about a (lovely) girl I know a bit and follow on Instagram who makes me feel a bit sad sometimes cos her spaniels are so good and one of them is only a few months older than pupsy, and our mutual friend said, 'you didn't follow her when she only had one dog – she was a mess back then.' I always think of that and it makes me feel better.

I get you on the "perceptions" thing, @YorkshireFelix , on wanting/needing to prove a point.
I've always had to do it. Because I'm little, slender, hair down to my bum and traipse about in a long black frock and big black boots. Now I'm old it's even worse. These days it's the perception that I chose a cute white fluffy puppy because it looked like a teddy but now it's huge and I haven't a clue how to handle it. I even got that vibe from the dog training man 😠
It's not just because you're a new owner; even those of us who've had a lifetime of dogs can still be judged by the "Spaniel Men" and their ilk. You are not alone in that. We just have to work ten times harder to know our own dog and get the best out of it.

Okay, come on - own up! Who dumped a dirty sheep underneath my dining table? Hmmm...?

@YorkshireFelix I think I saw the post with the video you are talking about (a gun dog trainer?).
I’ve come to the conclusion that (because we have high standards) we are being very hard on ourselves when it comes to our dogs and their behaviour. I’m sure most of the dogs he was on about were expected to train themselves and then the owners wonder why they end up with problems.

Like you I’m a first time owner and I sometimes convince myself that I have the most badly behaved dog, but on the whole he’s pretty good (I just wish he would come back IMMEDIATELY when called!)

@CoubousAndTourmalet I’m happy to report that Midge hasn’t done crazy lead (and my hand) biting for a couple of months now. It got to a point when I would have been happy to leave him at the park with a sign around his neck. My hands and arms were so bruised.

I’m not sure if I did anything to help stop it; it just fizzled out. I took to carrying a hessian tug toy in my pocket to shove in his mouth if he started. I worried that this would reward him, but I think he was so over the edge in a manic frenzy that it didn’t matter and at least he could bite that rather than me.

He’s 15 months now so a little older than Brie- I’m sure you’ll find she does it less as she matures.

Thanks @Nella68 , that gives me hope!

I do have a tiny £1 tug rope from Pets At Home that I shove in her mouth as a distraction. Sometimes she'll trot along with it for a bit then drop it (in fact we lost the first one on the field because I didn't see her drop it), other times she completely ignores it. The training man was just shovelling treats down her as a distraction but that felt like a reward. I really didn't want her to be food focused anyway, I think too many treats becomes meaningless, so I've now decided to just accept her silliness, in the hope that she will indeed grow out of it.

Just posting as I'll follow although technically I think we've graduated from this thread now that pup is 2.

Although I reckon I can get away with pretending she's a 6 month old puppy for another year 😂

@CoubousAndTourmalet I have pieced a picture of you together in my head from various small things you’ve said over time and the long hair, frock and boots combo has just made it 10x better! I think your giant fluffy puppy suits you to a tee 😄

@Nella68 yes it was probably the same video. I can laugh at myself now for being so silly about it but at the time I thought I was the worst dog owner ever! I think we are all doing a tip top job in the grand scheme of things.

@tizwozliz gorgeous photo with the tulips. You always take such fabulous pics!

For those who travel via car - would you mind sharing exactly what type of set up you have? I mentioned before that Vinny has a crate in the boot which I think is a tad too small for him now, but I can’t really be sure (I’ll try and take a picture and gather some opinions). It was the biggest size I could find that would fit in my Nissan Qashqai boot. I feel like it could be a bit taller for him to be fully comfortable in there.

I bought a seat cover and one of those things that clip from harness into the seat belt plug thinking I’d try him on the seats instead. Did a test run on a very short drive today and he was terrified! He wouldn’t even sit down on the seat when I lifted him in, he just went totally stiff and wouldn’t respond to me at all. He was panting and stressed the whole time and it was awful. I don’t want to push it as he’s otherwise travelled very well in the crate and I don’t want to make him scared of the car.

I did think about getting a guard which sits behind the back seats and just have him free in the boot, but I feel like he will be rattling around in there. Or would he be ok?! He’s on the bigger side now so might be fine. You can buy dividers which halve the boot space but nowhere seems to sell universal ones so you have to get one specific to your car which is ££££ that I don’t really have.

Not sure if anyone has any bright ideas that I’ve not thought of? My MIL has a cocker and a springer and just chucks them in the boot and they are fine so maybe I’m over thinking it?

We have a backseat guard and also a mimsafe guard for the boot, but that's mainly for things like mantrailing so they can sit with the boot in but still contained. It's universal but is £££ but I didn't mind so much as know it can be transferred to another car.

They traveled on the backseat going to Denmark, we got a dog seat cover that's got a solid base which goes over the footwells so they have a bit more room. Little pup doesn't like the fact she has to have the harness on but she's fine once that's out the way.

But I think Vinny would be fine in the boot with something to stop him going over the back seats.

As usual, I suspect that my input won't be that helpful or relevant @YorkshireFelix , but it goes without saying that we are tatty old estate car with dog guard. We crate in the car up until about 4 months, after that they have enough weight not to rattle around. Our dogs have all been tall enough that they could just sit and stare out of the rear window, although on a long journey they would generally lie.

I hope you find the right solution for Vinny. Has he travelled in your in-laws car with their dogs at all? You may find that he is comfortable in the boot with a blanket or a bit of vetbed, with or without a dog guard.

Thanks both, that’s really helpful. He is tall enough to see out of the back window, which is what he usually does when he’s in his crate, but he can’t sit up fully straight because he doesn’t have enough head room in there any more. He is on the larger side for a cocker I think, so I am sure he might be ok with just a guard now? I bought a boot carpet thing from Aldi a few weeks ago and have some other bits which will make it comfortable for him. I think I might just bite the bullet and order the guard I’ve been looking at and give it a try.

@YorkshireFelix You’ve probs seen on insta before but we have pupsy loose in the boot of the green truck with a guard between the boot and the back seats. We've got a model-specific full-length guard so it fits properly and doesn't rattle at all and I'm used to looking out the rearview mirror through the grating now.

She just jumps in and out and she's absolutely fine – loves getting in, very enthusiastic. When she was very little I used to clip her in but I don’t bother now. She's smaller than V and I would imagine that your boot is smaller than mine so he'll be perfectly OK in there. She stands up and looks around sometimes and climbs up on the sides a bit when we go past sheep etc, looks out the back window. Picture of her in the green truck here in colder times.

In the red truck she’s clipped onto a hook behind the spare wheel/bench seats as we don’t have a guard in that one. She tends to sit on the bench seats in that car if she can and it's generally a bit more chaotic as she's much closer to us but usually she travels in the green truck where she's out of the way of the driver. She loves both of them tbh.

Have never put her on the back seat in any circs and I was really sure from the start that was what I was going to do as I find dogs in the back/over my shoulder distracting. She went in the boot with the back seats down so she could see us until she was four months old and then one day we randomly needed passenger spaces in the back and she had to just get on with not being able to see us and she was totally fine. Never looked back!

When she's not in the car I can put my food shopping in the boot still as I don't have a crate taking up space, and if we're travelling and she's with us the stuff just goes in the back and she's in the boot. I like the idea of a transk9 or something but this set up is so good and easy that I'm sticking with it. And it means anyone's dog can get in the car with us as they all just jam in together.

@YorkshireFelix PS, poor baby V being stressed in the back! If you haven't got a guard by next weekend we can test him out in our car no probs x

@YorkshireFelix Sorry also, just thought – I have a couple of friends who don't have guards and still put their dogs in the boot loose and it's fine... but having always had a guard I think that is the best/safest/least stressful option, especially if you have backseat passengers sometimes which you may well (I don't often as no kids). I'd rather the dogs be loose in a guarded boot set up and able to move around than clipped in without a guard, if that makes sense?

Here endth my TED talk xx

We had our guard out for a bit the other week and little pup just hops over the back seats if something takes her interest in the front. I don't think you'd be able to tether her at a length where that wasn't possible without restricting movement too much.

This is my exact fear about not having a guard! Would drive me mad.

She does apparently know what "get back in the boot means" though 😂

Hello! Just checking in. It’s been a while as I have been busy with the Federal Election (I’m a Returning Officer) which meant Rundle has spent six weeks at doggy daycare. He’s 11 months old now. Walking is much better. He’s still obsessed with the cat and dislikes the neighbour’s ESD/Poodles. Loved his intro to agility and loves to swim.

And the snow is finally gone!

@brushingbootsthank you! She looks so fetching in her fleece 😄 I am buying a guard from Argos today on the way home from work. He’s a bit of a scaredy cat so I don’t think he would even attempt to climb over but I’d rather have one for peace of mind.

This has all made me feel much better about it so thanks everyone!! I will need to work on making sure he doesn’t jump out as soon as I open the boot as we only have on street parking in our village, so not driveway buffer. I’m sure he will pick that up pretty quickly though so I’m not too worried.