Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - welcome to the teenage wasteland

[Bupster]

Buckled (under instruction 😄)

Sadly we have no tv licence @Nella68 so I can't watch the programme you mention. It is significant though that LGD breeds are mostly white or fawn. Livestock in general reacts very differently to white dogs. Our PMD have very often gone nose to nose with sheep, cows, horses and the animals show no fear/wariness.

It would give you some great photo ops 😂

I confess, I did look around for Landseer pups @abracadabra1980 It's possibly the only dog that could tempt me away from Pyries. Both are pretty thin on the ground these days, it has to be said.

I'm 61 so I think I've got one more giant dog in me before I opt for something less challenging...we'll see.

I just about managed to hold her still long enough for a photo; note death grip on the lead 😆 I guess this shows her full size, albeit it completely out of coat; for reference I'm 5'4". I think this is the best illustration of why so few LGD can be allowed off lead - would you like this running up to say hi to your kids or pup? She's been much calmer this week; she seems to pick up my moods so I'm working on my own anxiety as much as hers. No more trainers though, that wasn't a good decision for us.

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet she really is beautiful 😍

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet I don't think I would mind Brie running up to me. 💖

I'll admit I am quite breedist. Two dobermans racing across a field at my 12 week old screaming puppies, scary. Hearing someone shrieking 'Tyson' and turning round to see two rottweilers charging towards us, very scary. And I would be nervous of big bull breeds running at me. But I try to go by the dog's body language rather than their appearance. If they give off friendly signals, then I try to be relaxed about it.

Agree with @SpanielsGalore - it's all about the dogs body language and the owners than the breed! But, as you say, there are breeds I will naturally be more wary of.

I'd happily have Brie run up to me @MonCoubousMonTourmalet - you might find it a struggle to get her back though 😃

I always feel really sad for a few of the GSD owners near me - no one ever seems to let their dogs say hi to them. But they are probably the nicest, more mild-mannered and well-trained dogs I have met. One of them barks in excitement and rolls around on her back every time she see's Satan - yet I have watched other people tut when Satan or one of my dogs say hi, as though they shouldn't say hi simply because the dog is a GSD.

I think it's the perception of certain breeds as being a "hard man" dog @SpanielsGalore @LandSharksAnonymous

I know what you mean about GSD's, we see quite a few locally, all with long term GSD folk who know their breed inside out. Same with three Dobes we meet. The other day we also bumped into the local (muzzled) Bully XL, I have to say he is very cute, friendly, waggy, never takes an issue with Brie (unlike some of the local pugs and doxies). His owners are really nice, always considerate and I do feel for them when other dog folk go out of their way to cross the road when they see him.

It's not all about size, I know - more about perception and I do have to admit that even I would be more naturally wary of a Cane Corso than a Leonberger. My cousin has a different theory - she thinks hairy dogs have a friendlier aura than short coated ones...she says she's even terrified of Labs and Weimaraners but Brie is "not a scary dog at all" to her. It's a strange one. I always imagine the size is intimidating but your comments and hers suggest otherwise...

I'm pleased that you'd both welcome our funny girl wanting to say hi. She's had a lot of petting out and about this week and met quite a number of dogs up close. We're on a big confidence building mission and putting last weeks "training" behind us. My partner is still laughing about "Alpha Bitches" while being at pains to say he is not referring to Brie 😉

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet You have regenerated! Hope you’re feeling OK and that baby Brie is doing well. She is looking gorgeous!

I wouldn’t mind her running up to me either but like @SpanielsGalore I would be more alarmed if a Doberman or a Rottweiler of the same size ran up to us. But that’s because I know that Brie wouldn’t hurt a fly and if anything would try and protect me from danger. Same with the Bernese Mountain Dog we see sometimes – he’s such a little (massive) love, so sweet, just wants a cuddle and if he bashes into you it’s entirely by accident. Pupsy loves him but it’s fair to say they are not well-matched size-wise. Apart from the slobber, I find him a much better playmate than some of the male labs and pointers we know though – he’s much more gentle and doesn’t barge her.

The only dogs P has ever had a problem with have all been labs or lab crosses.

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet I think part of the hard man image comes from films. I grew up watching films in which dobes and rotties were used as attack/guard dogs by the villains. Which then attracted people to want them so they could look 'hard'.
Same for a while with staffies. Where I used to live, you'd regularly meet a gang of youths, wearing heavy chains, drinking cans of Stella walking their dogs.

@Nella68 Re neutrality and the other thread which I don't particularly want to post on – it might be worth looking for a nice approachable gundog trainer anyway if you can't find any other suitable classes. I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find a good one that would be happy to work with M even though he’s not working. My trainer doesn’t advertise as a pet trainer per se but she has pet clients.

@brushingboots thanks. I’ll look into it again. I’m staying off that thread now as it’s getting into usual MN territory.

Jumping up is probably M’s biggest flaw- he’s getting so much better as he gets older but he still can’t contain himself sometimes. Even my fab trainer was at a loss as he is M’s most favourite person in the world, and despite loads of practice with 4 on the floor, as soon as M sees him again he forgets all his manners

I think @VanGoSunflowers you may live relatively near to me (west of Bham), do you mind pm ing me the name of your gun dog trainer?

On walks we had one off lead and one on, but the friendlier and more sociable by far was the leashed one.

I completely agree with this. This is the earliest and youngest I've ever let off a long line, and it is simply because he isn't sociable - he has dog friends but no interest in people or dogs he doesn't know.

So I don't mind that people tend to cross the road/avoid us, as he isn't interested.

@Nella68 just send you a PM x

That was Sylvie exactly @IchLiebeDeutscheSchaferhunde , she had no interest in unfamiliar people or dogs. She had us and her half sister, plus the old boy Pyrie and 2 cats, that was her world.

In some ways an aloof dog is so much easier than one that is constantly craving attention and wanting to make friends with everyone, the more sociable ones can be hard work.

Brie at the moment (aged 16 months) is somewhere between the two, but I'm slightly hoping she'll become more aloof.

Gah I have been trying to work hard on loose lead walking (which is something I’ve always been working on but I’m putting extra effort in recently). Thought we were improving but I decided to do a loop of the park this evening to try a new route and it was horrendous. He cannot cope with going anywhere new, and the addition of squirrels was just too much. He was dragging me, I was dragging him. It was embarrassing! I swear we will never crack it. I was just saying to DH I feel like my world is so small because I can’t take him anywhere different as he just won’t walk nicely on a bloody lead 🥲

Bill is a nightmare anywhere new too. It's like he can't even slow down enough to sniff, he's so frantic. What I'm trying to do at the moment is add bits of novelty - a short bit of a new walk added to our normal one - and just accept with genuinely new walks that he's on a long line, attached to a walking belt, and I might as well be on roller skates...

@YorkshireFelix M is still like that with new routes. If I remember I will take some very high value treats to get reward him when he checks back in with me.
Also lots of changes in direction if he pulls.
It’s very frustrating and feels like slow progress, but he’s getting better.

I’m not looking forward to squirrels season!

It sounds counterintuitive - or even counter-productive - but I think my walking belt has been my best dog-related purchase. I can hook the lead or long line safely onto it and can be pretty much certain he's not going to be able to bugger off, but I can still wrap it round my hand and loop the excess up if I want him to walk on a shorter lead without swapping it. He can still yank if he's seen something he wants to chase, and has taken me out when the line's wrapped round my ankle, but I still feel infinitely safer than when I was hanging on for dear life...

I think he would pull me over! I am not very strong at all. I don’t like that you both have the same problem but it does make me feel a bit better about it. It’s just so frustrating as I’d like to go different places and the whole point of getting a dog was to take advantage of how nice it is around here. I’m so bored of the field, woods, canal and village combo 😖

Sorry, I haven’t checked in on this thread for ages as work has been mental and I dont get the time to read MN for ‘pleasure’ anymore but I was just reading the thread you were referring to @Nella68 snd had to google most of it - had never heard of an ecollar or whatever that thing was the OP mentioned!
I dunno, I’m no expert but do people ever stop and think why they are training their dogs in the first place? It might be wrong but my hierarchy of training has “to keep my dog safe” at the top of the list?! As a puppy, I feel like one of the biggest dangers to him is himself at the moment. So I don’t train to feel in control or to show off, I do it because I want him to explore the world in a safe way - to come back to me if I think something might be dangerous for example. Lower on the list is having good manners - I know that’s important- but not quite as important as keeping him safe. Surely the foundation of that is trust? Your dog has to trust you and know you’re a safe space for them - how can you do that if you hurt them in the process?

Sorry if this is a controversial post - was just opened up to a world of tools I didn’t know existed and was quite shocked by it.

It's appalling @VanGoSunflowers . Some of them talk as if you have to be a dog training genius to not resort to using aversive training and that is just bullshit. It's another reason why I had doubts about that "behaviourist" last week; she'd been spraying water in her reactive dogs face, but suddenly saw the light and has mended her ways within the last 5 years 😡Whereas I've managed gentle training with all 6 of my own dogs over the last 30 years. Because I work on what you say here. Trust.

Brie goes hyper sniffy whenever we walk a new route, but her loose lead walking is mostly pretty good, at least until we get onto the meadow, which is when the lead biting kicks in 😬Then I'm pulled around like some sort of crazed marionette 😨 And on the way back home she walks beautifully again with loose lead.

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet not only is it cruel, it feels down right lazy to me - here’s all you wonderful people putting in all this effort with your dogs and wanting the best for them, sometimes to the point of tears, and someone else is just out there blowing air in their dog’s face for a quick fix or shocking them?! I think I would rather mitigate against issues by changing my life around my dog than hurting them to fit in with mine.