Our Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (Adolescent Support Group)

[MonCoubousMonTourmalet]

Okay folks, let's head into late summer/autumn.

No worries. At the end of the day, we have different breeds with very different energy levels and needs. So what suits mine, doesn't suit yours. And vice versa.
Hope you feel better tomorrow.

@SpanielsGaloreVinny is from a trialling home too! Both his parents are FTCh which is why I put myself under such stupid pressure to do him justice, which is know is silly. He doesn’t know how good he’s got it sleeping on my bed every night as his breeder was going to keep him before we contacted him!!

I don’t know what V would do if he caught something alive. I think he would panic, let it go and run away because he’s a wuss.

@stillchasingdereksheppard Ahh that is fantastic re the recall and work you’ve been doing. Well done! It sounds like you are doing a fab job with him. The feedback from daycare is great too, you must be so pleased.

We feed V on Millie’s Wolfheart with a small amount of Wainwrights wet food mixed in and he is doing really well on it. I did toy with the idea of raw at one point but I can’t really be arsed working out what I need to do, and the kibble/wet tray combo is easy and works well for us so I’m sticking with it for now.

@SpanielsGalore Dead – she never chomps, always just carries. She has the softest mouth. She brought me a headless one in the garden the other day too but there was no blood anywhere so I think she just found it. Possibly the half-dealt with victim of the local vixen.

@YorkshireFelix That's so true. I can't imagine my pampered pair roughing it in kennels. 😂 P has already taken herself off upstairs to sleep on my bed.
I may not (definitely haven't) trained them to their full potential, but they have company almost 24/7, two walks a day, toys to play with, a garden to destroy and all the home comforts. I like to think they are happy. 💖

Can you imagine this pampered dog living in kennels?
(I don't have mood lighting in my bedroom. That's my phone taking a photo without a flash.)

@SpanielsGalore that’s one comfy pooch!

I find it so funny when they sleep on the pillow like a human 😄

Two of our big boy cats used to do that. Under the covers, head on the pillow.

Notice she hogs the middle of the bed too, so I am shoved over to one side!
I had more room when I shared with a 70+ kg human than I get with an 8 kg dog. 😂

Lord help me. I think K just eat a rat. 🤢🤢🤢
She was in the field and looked like she was about to eat something. So I whistled her, hoping she'd leave whatever it was. But no. She came running over with the rear end of some rodent type creature with a long tail in her mouth and proceeded to eat it.

Oh god that is GRIM. Could it be harmful to her in any way?! I hope not!!

We just had such a weird interaction with a dog trainer on our walk. We were just on the canal at the end of a long walk about to head home, so I clipped V onto his lead. I could see she was stood watching me, and she collared me as we were about to cross the bridge. She was nice enough, had a very cute little cockerpoo who was very chill and polite.

She was giving me the hard sell, has been a dog trainer for 27 years, and told me about sessions she does with agility and flyball and young handler sessions which I know dd would love. All fine, I took her card. I told her we see a gundog trainer but I might be interested in agility because I think V would be great at it.

She said her dog does tricks (and I was a bit ???) and then tried to get it to 'talk' and roll over but he wasn't having any of it, which was quite funny. Then showed me some 'testimonial photos' of dogs at one of her classes (which I was also ???? at because it was literally just random dogs looking at the camera and not particularly doing anything).

Vinny was pulling on the lead a bit because we were stood talking for ages, she says she can get him walking on a loose lead in one session or she wouldn't charge anything because she guarantees she can do it. She was telling me about the half check collar and waist lead she walks her dog on. I was interested in it as I haven't really seen that type of collar before (and I know you've had success with one in the past @Aubrielle ) so she asked if I wanted to try it out - WHICH I SHOULD HAVE SAID NO TO!!! but obviously I am a people pleaser so I was like 'ok show me how it works' and it was hilarious because Vinny was just so focused on me and she couldn't get him to do anything. She was saying how she teaches dogs to look at her, and he was not interested at all - she had no idea how to interact with him. She says 'Oh he is obsessed with you isn't he' and I say we have an excellent bond, then she goes 'I bet he's got separation anxiety and you can't ever leave him alone can you' and I was like WTF yes he's fine, I leave him at home all the time??? She was so impressed that he knew to sit to heel and kept talking to me like I was stupid and hadn't done a days training in my life.

Then her dog kept wandering off and she's going 'I use a whistle!' like it was some amazing thing I'd never heard of (even though I had one round my neck) and the dog just totally ignored her for the next 5 minutes and wouldn't come back. It was just so bizarre and has made me so thankful I have found a trainer which actually knows what she's doing with Vinny.

But anyway I might have been interested in agility or the young handler thing if she'd just left it at that before it got weird 😂Sorry that was long but I just had to tell someone because it was the strangest thing ever.

@YorkshireFelix That was the word the vets used when I phoned them for advice. They think she'll be alright, because it's unlikely the rat was poisoned. But said to keep an eye on her.
What a weird woman. Don't you love it when random people start telling you about your own dog as if they know them better than you? Certainly doesn't sound like she's very good at training her own dog.
I met a woman like that once. She claimed to be a trainer, with certificates and everything. She said could help me train my sprocker to be safe around chickens. Then told me her own four dogs had to be muzzled around them.

Hahaha @YorkshireFelix that is super weird. People are so incredibly strange. I met someone recently who had met pupsy for about 30 seconds before he started telling me everything I didn’t know about her – not even in a remotely doggy setting, either. 0/10, do not recommend.

I had typed out a story about my morning walk on the app but then I opened it again and it vanished. I may get up the strength to retype it later.

@SpanielsGalore Oh Jesus. Dogs are revolting. Does sound rat-like with the tail. Vom. Just vom. Mice I don’t mind but rats are something else.

I am just baffled by the whole thing! I really need to work on being more assertive but I’m rubbish in the moment and always think ‘oh I should have said this’ afterwards. I just let people talk absolute bollocks to me and go along with it because I don’t know what to do 😄

@brushingboots that keeps happening to me on the app too, it’s very frustrating.

@SpanielsGalore Wow that is terrible. Surely your own dogs behaviour is the biggest proof of how good a trainer you are. I am glad the vet said she will probably be ok after the rat incident (still feel 🤢 thinking about it so can’t imagine how you feel!)

Also the worst part is before she started being strange, she took my number because she said she can drop me a message about coming to watch an agility class if I want to get a feel for it, which sounded good to me. And she’s just tried to call me!!!!!! I’m going to have to block her and start wearing a disguise in case I bump into her again.

Sorry, I can't stop laughing at this @YorkshireFelix Brilliantly well described!

She sounds a little pushy bonkers over confident, a bit like the one I had who Brie didn't trust. It sounds as if you may never get rid of her now 😂 We use a Martingale, it's similar to a half check, yes.

Oh, not nice @SpanielsGalore . I'd fully expect her to be throwing that up later.

Was most impressed by a dog woman with a whistle earlier when two tiny terriers were hurtling towards Brie on the big field. The woman gave a couple of pips on a whistle and they completely changed direction in the blink of an eye. I think Brie was more shocked by their turn of speed than I was. It was pretty awe inspiring!

We also met a springer and a horse on the field. And then we gave another masterclass in lead ragging 🙄 But her close control pavement walking was exemplary today despite loads of distractions due to it being school time.

We have been doing very local and short pavement walks over the last week to try and keep things slow and sniffy, but thinking we will drive somewhere for a slightly different slow and sniffy and still on lead forest walk and see how that goes.

We have x-rays end of next week.

It's my youngest who is def still taking the brunt of it. I possibly need the behaviouralist to see them both together. Not always, but he can just walk out of the living room and she will jump at him and go for his hands. I can't tell if it's because she is scared, excited or it's just normal teenage behaviour. If she wanted to actually 'get' his hands she absolutely could - so what does that mean?!

@Flowerfusion I used to drive P to more interesting places when she was on restricted walks. The drive was often longer than the walk, but both of us got bored of walking round the block.
It's difficult to know why she's going for your youngest without seeing her body language. It could be any of the three reasons you listed. Can you video her doing it and send it to the behaviourist for advice?
When I had a reactive dog, we were advised to create a safe space for him which no-one goes into. That's what I thought you were doing. Perhaps you need to restrict her to the utility room or somewhere similar, when people are moving around. It doesn't sound like she's going to bite - as you said, she could if she wanted to. But I wouldn't want your youngest to become frightened of her either.

I was thinking about your girl @Flowerfusion because I thought you were at the vets on Thursday. It's good to hear that the x-rays are arranged so you can hopefully get some answers as to whether she has pain.

With regard to the biting question, I agree with @SpanielsGalore that without actually seeing your son and the puppy interacting it's very difficult to say.

Obviously we don't know if your youngest child is special to your pup or what the relationship is. Does she mouth at you or just him?
We also can't see if he's moving his hands about in some way that is making pup excited. Our body language sends them all kinds of signals.

Two of my dogs have been very mouthy. That is they continued to bite at our hands after the teething/shark stage was finished. One being my current girl, Brie (now 17 months old). She mouths/grabs at our hands or arms when she wants us to interact or play.
We've tried to discourage it since she was tiny but she still does it, with us and with other people who she knows and likes.
We have a vet and a vet student in the family and they don't seem worried. We all feel that Brie is just a particularly tactile dog. She isn't a barker and has never shown any aggression, but she is quite immature (as some larger puppies tend to be), and the grabbing seems to be a need for interactive play.

It may be something that your girl will grow out of - she is still a puppy - but I agree that it would be useful for the behaviourist to see them together, to assess the body language aspect in relation to whether pup is inviting play or warning your son away. With a dog that has any sort of pain there is always an increased risk of biting, so you are wise to be cautious about their interaction until you know what the situation is with her hip.

Landsharks always says that if a dog wants to hurt you it will. If she sees this, maybe she can respond with her own thoughts on the puppy thread.

Edited for punctuation.

@SpanielsGalore - I’m so bored of walking in the same circle!

She does have a space - the utility room - but we do have to go in there as it has the washing machine in it. She also has her crate in that space too - we’ve never shut the door, we just shut the utility door.

At the moment we have added the stair gate to the living room, but it’s surprising how much movement there is between rooms. Since the stair gate has been up I’m not sure I’ve sat down whilst we have all been home. I kind of just stand in the hallway acting like a bouncer - sending drinks and snacks into the living room, keeping the dog happy on the other side and supervising toilet visits! It’s not a great long term solution but fine in the short run.

I could add another stair gate onto the kitchen (the utility room is off the kitchen) which would then give the kids access to the toilet and going upstairs…

A second gate is probably the easiest option, then if you're in the kitchen pup can be with you and the living room gate can be open for the children. Maybe you could try moving the existing gate onto the kitchen for now?

Our kitchen has 3 doors, to hall/living room/dining area - which is a large extension with a French door onto the garden.
We have a gate on each. And a wraparound gate on the French door. It works really well.

@Flowerfusion I would restrict her access to the rest of the house whilst the children are around. The hallway sounds like a busy place and she perhaps can't relax much there. It doesn't sound relaxing for you either.
I would either restrict her to the utility and kitchen or just the utility room. It's fine for you to go in the utility room, but I'd keep the children out of there. Then she can have more freedom when the children are at school or in bed.
I know it seems mean, but it's only for the short term to keep everyone safe and happy.

@Aubrielle she is very mouthy still. It did stop for a bit but has started again - and like you are saying, it is at our hands and arms.

She does it with people she knows well.

I’ll see if we can get the stair gate onto the kitchen today. She used to always settle in the hallway hence trying to keep that space for her but it’s hopefully just a short term solution.

It does sound as though she's probably just being tactile and seeking playful interaction then @Flowerfusion , but obviously it's not easy for young children when they're being nipped or scratched.

I know I say this ad nauseam, but gates are invaluable. They make life so much easier.