Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - for teenage dirtbags

[Bupster]

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

I hope all you spaniel owners enjoy your meet up!

@YorkshireFelix I'm sure he will be fine tomorrow! We bathed pupsy last night especially haha so she doesn't look (too) scruffy.

@Deanthebean It's only me and @YorkshireFelix!

Omg I am about to give Vinny a bath right now too 😂😂😂😂

Ahh all of this sounds brilliant. It sounds like you definitely know what you are doing! I can really see how the work you’ve been putting into him is starting to pay off. It’s funny how when you’re in the thick of it and really trying (but seemingly failing), you think they aren’t taking anything in, but then suddenly they turn a bit of a corner and you realise that actually they WERE vaguely listening that whole time. That’s how I feel with V sometimes at the minute. DH just joined us for a walk, which is a very rare occurrence, and he could see a huge difference in Vinny’s engagement since the last time he walked with us. It made me feel like I am doing something right.

Yes you are right, this is something I always try and remind myself of. I can’t even get him to do it in the house so we have a long way to go yet 😄

Well done Midge! He is doing a great job recently. Glad to hear you are enjoying your classes too ⭐️

The situational thing is very real for us – even down to different patches of woodland with some exercises. Sometimes she appears to have never heard of a sit stay, and that reminds me to keep doing the basics in different places all the time so that she generalises each step better.

As I've also discovered, she won't necessarily do the same exercises for her dad as she does five days a week with me, either. That's fine because I do the training but it's interesting to observe.

It's her birthday today and she is two!

Happy Birthday

Oh, happy birthday, gorgeous girl xxx

@Nella68 apparently they won't chew through wire wool, they hate it. They'll chew through pretty much anything else, which seriously gives me the ick. We've been out for an hour and come back and he's had a quick sniff but not much interest so I don't think it's been back. Fingers crossed it's a goner....

@brushingboots Happy birthday pupsy!

I’ve just seen your article about Mordor Charlie. My niece is a nanny and works for some very well-to-do families, one of which were getting a pre trained dog. It sounds very tempting to get someone else to do all the hard work, but you would need very deep pockets!

@Nella68 Ahh, the Spear's one? I have done a piece partly about him for The Field too this month.

I can definitely see the upsides of getting a ready-trained dog but it's been such a joy getting to know who pupsy is and knowing that everything she can do I've been more or less responsible for – and equally knowing that all her faults are mine! I sort of think it's cheating but his (ready-trained) clients are not, in the main, people with time to allocate to dog training, so they just pay for it – and fair enough. I talked to a few of them and it was fascinating to hear their perspectives.

Vinny and Pupsy being angelic this afternoon 😇

Awww, sweet. How did their (and your) meeting go?

@brushingboots and Pupsy are both just as lovely as I expected! We had a nice walk and Vinny was on his best behaviour. He was a bit nervous so they won’t be getting married just yet but I’m working on it 😄

Awww, he's just a boy overawed by the older woman. Glad you two got along. Was Bill not there?

Edited to add - older woman refers to Pupsy, not brushingboots 😆

No but I was saying how much I am dying to meet Bill (and @Bupsterof course!!)

Aw, that looks like such a lovely day. It would be brilliant to have a day together.

We had 1-1 training and he was great - only about 20 minutes chasing swallows 🙄. Seriously, I'm feeling so much more optimistic about where we might be in six months than I could possibly have hoped. Then he came back home and insisted on taking his (appropriated) plant spray out for a walk.

@Bupster glad you are feeling positive!!

We had a gorgeous time! @YorkshireFelix is a treasure and V is an absolute credit to all her hard work ❤️

Just had a lovely long walk on the Common, actually let his line trail a couple of times as he's doing so well. I did have it back attached to me in the danger zones, luckily, as a horse gave him a dirty look so he had to bark at it, and when he wanted to chase a swallow. And he very much couldn't be arsed with any retrieving. But we had a lovely time and he otherwise did really well, loads of engagement and perfect recall, even when he was sniffing for fieldmice, so I'm taking that as a win.

And I actually got enough sleep! Still knackered, but for the first time in a week I didn't feel like I was just phoning it in. Does make me wonder what life would be like if I slept enough every night 🤔 Maybe he'd be Lassie? If Lassie were a hyperactive lunatic that trotted around with a plant mister for three days.

We'll just mooch around now for the rest of the day - I'll take him up the dog park with his squeaky banana later, and maybe go to the allotment to cut the grass tonight. That sounds just about ambitious enough for me.

@Bupster six hours later, I am curious...how did the mooching go? 😃

We over-mooched a trifle, and didn't even make it up to the allotment. Did make it up to the dog park though, so he's now completely zonked, and I managed a 25-minute bath with him snoozling on the bath mat before he farted so loudly he woke himself up and barked in outrage 😄

Oh Bill's a little charmer isn't he? 😁

Jesus, if I could have barked in outrage I would, it smelled like he'd summoned a demon.