Summer 25 pups

[Lavenderdog]

Any other new puppy owners around this summer? Have been looking back at some of the old puppy support threads and can see how helpful it was for those posters to share their experiences.

9 week old mini schnauzer here - so toilet training and avoiding those needle sharp teeth are the current main activities here!

(And being tolerant of her determination to rid my garden of lavender plants. Hence my user name 😂)

@LandSharksAnonymous thankfully back to smelling like his old puppy self 😊 I absolutely love sniffing him! Especially his neck!

So how are you getting on with Eris? You’ve a foot in both puppy and adolescent camps now!

I hope everyone is managing to keep pups cool. We're struggling a bit with Miss Woolly Bear although it's only 25 here...😬Still too warm for us.

@VanGoSunflowers @MonCoubousMonTourmalet glad it's not just me who goes around sniffing puppies!

She's a total dream...so far. No serious mouthing yet, but I know that's to come. For the last two days I've had the patio doors open from about 6am gone 8pm and every time she needs a wee she just waddles off outside and does what she needs to do. Then she comes and finds me and sits there expectantly. I took her to the vets and she's 8.4kg. I don't want to fatshame her...but she's about as chunky as Twatdog was at her age😃

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet it hit 30 here at midday. It's horrible and although I will admit the last few weeks good weather was a dream for house training the puppies...I just miss rain. And the cold. Bring on winter!

Eris sounds like an angel @LandSharksAnonymous ; clearly well ahead with the house training - presumably from being in a home with adult dogs.

Wow! She's a big bonny lass at 8.4kg - can you recall what your other girls were at 8 weeks? Have you got a boy sized girl like my little tomboy here? Awww, so envious of those puppy cuddles. Wish I could have a hold of her, a sniff of her little ear flaps ❤Bliss.

I do not, however, envy you the 30c. You can keep that. Still around 25 here, Brie is lying on her back on the tiled floor, with a big fan intermittently blowing her fur.

haha definitely an autocorrect/ typo but very apt for my job 😂.

Today, Rory has been enjoying playing “wait” in the garden. He keeps initiating it by sitting in front of me and looking hopeful. I’m not sure who’s training who at this point 😂. He managed a full “wait” of our garden!

I also got Billy’s “talking” buttons out to try to teach him to press one for “treat”. Billy was not a fan of them! I could see Rory’s little brain ticking so I think he’ll get it eventually as I’d like to use one for “toilet” as we can’t see the back door if we’re in the living room and he wants to go out.

I promise I have done some work today too!

This evening, when it’s a bit cooler, he’s going on his first beach trip, I wonder what he’ll make of it. It was Billy’s favourite place on earth 🥰.

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet She's an angel so far. I give it a few weeks before I'm offering to pay people to take her! Previous girls were smaller by quite a bit - Hen was just under 7KG at 8 weeks. I'm hoping she'll slow down the growth soon, if only because I am not entirely convinced my car could take 5 Golden Retrievers all about 35KG...plus me. That'll be about 250kg 😑

Poor Brie must be struggling so much in this heat. It's just too hot. If there was a breeze it wouldn't be too bad but there's just nothing here. At least now Brie's older she's passed the foolish puppy stage where they try and run around, even when it's ridiculously hot...(at least I hope she is - mine still aren't, but then I am starting to think that other than Hen they all share one braincell and just give it to whichever one needs it the most at any given time)

@Idratherbepaddleboarding sounds like you're both training each other 😁Even as far away from the camera as he ism, I can see his little ears are all perked up - he's ready for that treat. This goes back to another thread slightly, but I do love how everyone has different signals for their dogs for various commands - you're clearly using 'hand up' to signify wait, but in my house that's emergency stop. Hope you get some lovely photos of them at the beach!

@LandSharksAnonymous Just weighed K to compare to Eris. She's 8.1kg and is built like a dachshund on stilts. 😂

Our first PMD was smaller than Hen @LandSharksAnonymous - a tad under 7kg at 9 weeks, but the others have been much bigger. I'm ashamed to say she was a puppy farmed runty thing although she reached a normal adult size eventually.

Hyacinth the Hippo was by far our heftiest girl at 9.2kg on her 8 week vaccine day and a whopping 15.4 at 12 week jabs.

It's gone up to 28 here so I've brought Brie (aka Hyacinth) into the front room because the heat is on the back of the house. She's okay but it doesn't look as if we'll get an evening walk. It's 6am or nothing at the moment. She'll get a bit of garden play with ball and tug rope. Frustrating but she's very good about missing walks. We'll definitely make up for it once autumn is here, so I'm not going to panic about a few missed walks. Her wellbeing comes before anything else.

@LandSharksAnonymous he’s definitely focussed 🥰 although we haven’t been using treats for training except for the button this afternoon, he’s too food obsessed that it all goes out the window when treats are involved and he’s happy with a big fuss and a “good boy”. I think the hand up would work as an emergency stop too as he was able to do the sit and wait and then recall with just hand signals, no voice commands so I’d be able to use it from a distance, not that he goes far enough away from me 😂.

We had fun at the beach and he was much more confident in the water than when we went to the Lakes at the weekend but I didn’t manage to get a single picture 😭, I was too busy focussing on him. Never mind, we’ll be going again! It also kept him nice and cool going in the water. He’s lucky to have a paler coat, Billy couldn’t cope with anything over 18°c due to his black fur.

It’s funny how different they are, Billy was fully swimming on his first trip to the water but Rory is much more cautious. But Billy never took to paddleboarding (because he wanted to swim) and Rory loves it! Rory is also useless as a retriever 😂 he forgets the actual bringing back part and just abandons his ball on his way back!

@SpanielsGalore is it bad my first thought was 'ohh a nice little dog. I want one of those...I'm sure Spaniels would be happy to take Eris in exchange for K.'

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet Oh bless your first girl - poor thing! Did it take until adult hood for her to reach the right size of her age, or did she catch up quite quickly once she came to you?

And 100% agree on the walks thing! I've already decided I'm leaving my bedroom door open tonight (even though I get convinced someone will murder me in my sleep when it's open - because closing it will definitely stop a murderer) because if I shut it it'll be so hot by morning we'll all have melted! Morning walks are still doable for my lot but evening walks will have to stop for the time being if it stays this hot.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding I love it when they're at the 'not going far away' age as there's something about them just trusting us so much when they're that age that melts my heart. Glad you had a good time at the beach! ❤Bless Rory for not getting treats and still coming - even now, I am not 100% confident my lot would come if I didn't have food! Mine are all terrible retrievers too, so Rory is not alone! Twatdog is the only one who will bring anything back, but I do work him on occasion so he should retrieve, but the others just run around in circles looking pleased with themselves 😄

@LandSharksAnonymous Now if you'd offered to swap for Twatdog, I'd be in the car already.
Although you might welch on the deal when you meet K. 😂

It took our first PMD about 3 years to reach full size @LandSharksAnonymous , partly because of her poor start, partly because she was our first dog and we were a bit clueless. I was only 13 when we got her and she came from a commercial kennels. She was tiny and scrawny, with terrible pigment and itchy skin, but by three or four years she was beautiful with perfect pigment and a lovely coat, and we were a lot more capable as owners. She lived to 12 years 6 months which isn't bad for a giant breed.

Same here, Brie's getting a 6am walk and we forego afternoon/evening. It's cooler downstairs in our house so I'm sofa sleeping because of summer asthma. She has 3 rooms with windows and doors open. She's just really calm and contented anyway. She was flat out on the sofa before.

With my boys I could have left the back door wide open all night and not had a murderer but with Brie I'm not sure. Might depend if they brought cheese...🙄

@LandSharksAnonymous she sounds like a clever little thing 😊 hope you’ve been enjoying sniffing her! They should invent an air freshener called ‘new puppy’

@CoubousAndTourmalet not enjoying the heat here either. Pablo seems ok but he’s staying inside save for our walks (which are either very early or very late, much to the consternation of my 7 year old 😂) I cannot wait for the turning of the season!

@Idratherbepaddleboarding Pablo is like that with treats he loves too much! I can get him to do a perfect ‘left’ with a piece of kibble or other puppy treat but if the cheese comes out he can barely control himself 😂

Im not sure exactly what Pablo weighed at 8 weeks - but going by the weights on his vaccinations record I would say somewhere around 6kg maybe. I’m tempted to buy some scales so I can weigh him now, he’s gone really quite chonk - but not fat as such, more like he’s filling out - his neck has gotten thicker and he looks more boy like if that makes sense?

Here’s a recent picture- incidentally, he’s sat in chicken juice corner in this

Hello, I’ve had to register a new username to try to resolve my issues with MN not loading but I’m sure you can work out who I am 😂.

@VanGoSunflowers he’ll sit there forevermore now just incase! They’re absolute food monsters aren’t they??

Does anyone know how to teach “down” without a treat? I could lure Billy down with one but Rory’s just like “gimme the fooood”!

@LandSharksAnonymous aww bless them, we keep telling him he’s supposed to be a retriever but he’s not buying it!

@VanGoSunflowers He looks so big already! Handsome fella. ❤️

@LandSharksAnonymous I think the same about Twatdog! You'd take one look at him Twatting about, being pointless, and run away 😂

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet Over 12 years is brilliant for a Giant breed! Definitely evidence of what good owners you were for her ❤I hadn't realised just how similar we are - one breed when we were young and we've kept that breed all the way into our adult years. I'm sure Brie would defend you if needed...even if it was just to stand up and scare them off by accident 😄

@VanGoSunflowers oh he is getting very big! How much does he weigh now? Perhaps a room spray called 'Silky Puppy Ears' is called for? We could also do one called 'Dog Dunked in Chicken' with notes of chicken, fat, dog fur and perhaps some 'ozonic' or something fancy to make it sound a bit more appealing...

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I guess if he's not a 'proper' retriever he might never retriever things like dead birds or small fury animals for you? That's definitely a positive

Absolutely! Same breed since 1977 for me @LandSharksAnonymous 😱If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They suit our lifestyle and we know how their crazy brains work. I know plenty of people who've been in PMD far longer than me - they do get in the blood. I suspect you could say much the same about GR.

Joining in the requests for @VanGoSunflowers patented room sprays. Can we have a Silky Puppy Ears shower gel as well please? And maybe a Sopping Wet Gundog scented candle with base notes of Stinky Houndfoot.

I'm very glad mine doesn't retrieve small fury animals... Is their fury justified, do you think? Brie's current obsession is small prickly animals; we had Hedgehog watch TWICE last night 😬at just after 1am and around 4.30 (at least on that trip she squeezed out a wee). Then she had her walk before 6. She is now blissfully snoozing under the table while I sit here bleary eyed and yawning 🙄

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I’m sorry, I don’t compute - get a lab to do something without a treat? 😂😂
In all seriousness, I use ‘off’ when he jumps up and it’s one of the first commands I taught him. I did use treats to begin with but recently he’s been doing it without them. If only I could stop him jumping up in the first place 😂 it’s the kitchen counter that worries me the most but since chicken-gate I think I have my work cut out for me!

@SpanielsGalore thank you ☺️ he is a handsome thing, I know I am biased!

@LandSharksAnonymous Im not actually sure what he weighs now, I’d guess around 12kgs. I can still pick him up if I need to but can’t carry him for too long 😂
Loving yours and @MonCoubousMonTourmalet suggestions for puppy scented items. Silky puppy ears range of room sprays and shower gels would definitely be a winner. I think the chicken fat and stinky soppy dog range would be a bit more niche but I definitely think it would still be a winner 😂
Sorry to be indelicate, but I think if I could bottle Pablo’s farts sometimes (especially the ones after chicken juice-gate) they could be used for chemical warfare. Or the methane could be harvested to power a small hamlet.

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet - definitely! I think I'll only stop having Goldies when I become too old to really handle them. And then I'll probably switch to Cockers 😄I have to say all the cockers on mumsnet do make me a bit broody for something a bit smaller...

A gundog scented candle would be great! I'm sure we'd make a fortune of out these ideas of we sold them.

What does Brie do when she sees the hedgehog? We have one we leave water out for and mine just like to bounce around it and occasionally try and poke it with their paws (because they are stupid - and are now not allowed outside when I see the hedgehog...)

@VanGoSunflowers not indelicate at all! Wait until he's able to get on/off furniture safely...mine all walk on/off, rather than jumping, and every time they bend their knees they all fart 😳Worse is when they all get off the bed in the morning and there's four of them making smells.

Pablo is getting so big! 12 KG 😯How big was his mum?

That is a big problem for me @LandSharksAnonymous I'm 61 now 😨and I just can't think of a smaller breed that would suit me. It's very difficult. The only dogs with comparable temperament are all big ones. I used to joke that I'll have a Chow Chow when I'm old but I'm not sure that I will. My chap says I'm PMD or nothing and I fear he's right.

Brie just wanders up and sniffs the hedgehogs then sits and watches them. She never uses her paws on them, possibly because of being brought up with the two cats; from being tiny she has learned to be respectful of small creatures, but the low prey drive probably helps too. We do leave cat food leftovers for the hedgehogs but we put it behind the side gate so Brie can't get to it. There's at least two around currently, one is considerably larger than the other.

The only time we've ever had issues with farty dogs was when they had chicken or turkey based kibble - once we switched to lamb we had no stinky wind. We're noticing the same thing with Brie - since we took her off the chicken puppy kibble and put her on lamb, she smells so much better.

@LandSharksAnonymous his mum looked like an average sized lab to me but I believe his dad is on the larger side. The breeder did say she struggled a bit during labour as the pups were much bigger than the last litter. She was about the same size at the end of her recent pregnancy as she was at the end of her first one but this time she had 7 pups whilst the last litter was 12!

@MonCoubousMonTourmalet oh yes, I remember you recommending switching to lamb on one of the other threads so it’s also good to know it helps with stinky wind! The jury is still out for when and to what food I use if I switch. I was a little spooked by that sickness episode he had and so haven’t wanted to give him anything outside of the ordinary since then which doesn’t really make sense on my part as he likes to eat cow pats but there you go.

I’ve always liked spaniels but I like them even more now, not only seeing the updates from spaniel owners on here but all the ones I have encountered around here (plus one particular one called Ruby who is absolutely delightful) have been such lovely dogs. I just don’t know if I am ‘owner’ enough for them 😂 i.e. I still lack so much experience!

Just tried to measure him out of curiosity- wasn’t the easiest task 😂 but floor to the top of his back is about 50 cm
Floor to top of head was 60ish cm
Nose to bum he is about 75cm

All give and take seeing as he wouldn’t stay still 😂

That sounds big to me although obviously it's not my breed and there's no way to know at what point he'll stop growing. But I'd be surprised if he doesn't end up on the larger side for a Lab.

I’m not sure the size of the parents makes all that much difference, we were expecting Billy to be on the small side as his parents were quite small but he was massive. He was skinny and all legs, even as an adult so I called him my little supermodel. Argh I miss him so much!

So I’m keeping an open mind about how big Rory will get although hopefully he’ll grow into his ears one day 😂.