Our Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (Adolescent Support Group)

[MonCoubousMonTourmalet]

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

@cashmerecardigans welcome. I love his fluffy head!

Have you needed to housetrain like you would a small puppy? Looks like you have the right sort of floor for any accidents

@Nella68he’s been pretty good so far, we’ve had a couple of accidents overnight but I’ve started taking him for a late walk before bed and that is helping

@cashmerecardigans ahh you found us! I did think afterwards that I should have posted a link. I shocked myself on your thread because I almost sound like I know what I’m doing 😂

Welcome, your boy is lovely.

@cashmerecardigans Welcome to our support group. 😁 Your boy looks lovely. ❤️ I haven't replied about recall on your other thread, because @YorkshireFelix gave much better advice than I ever could. I have continued to let my little hooligan off lead, but avoided areas that she finds overly stimulating. We did lots of 'this way' and changes in direction to try to keep her focused. She now mainly runs in big circles around me, but will occasionally run off after a deer. I also use treats and reward every recall and voluntary check in to encourage them to come back.
But I've had my girl since 8 weeks old, so I appreciate it might be quite nerve racking when you've only had him a week.
I'll be interested to see how you think a springer compares to a cocker. I had a sprocker and I always blamed his springer genes for his naughty side. 😂

@SpanielsGalore so funny you say that as I'm convinced that cockers by their awkward, opinionated nature are harder than springers! It depends so much on what your starting point is I guess. I think if I got a springer puppy now I'd be imagining an 'easier' dog that doesn't cock its head at me and ask 'are you definitely sure about that?' and more of an undying slave! But they're all so different.

@brushingboots You'll have to get one and put your theory to the test. 😁
I used to be on spaniel FB pages and it was a regular argument as to which was better/worse, more biddable etc. Everyone always voted for the one they had. Since they started as the same breed and were originally split by size, you'd think there wouldn't be much difference really. But I'll stick with cockers to be on the safe side. 😂
(N is an absolute dream dog for a springer , but she's 10 so had a few years to calm down.)

@SpanielsGalore hahah I would love a little black and white springer bitch! One day!

My MIL has a 3 year old springer and he is absolutely gorgeous. Just so happy and eager to please. The one she had before him was a lovely dog but had massive issues with shadow chasing, which they didn’t realise is a big problem so they never worked to do anything about it. I read that it’s quite common in spaniels.

Weather is so weird today. It was almost too hot for V on our walk really, but the sun didn’t come out until half way round. He had a little plodge in the river to cool off. There’s a big festival on in the village this weekend so I’ll be avoiding it like the plague because we get thousands of visitors and it’s a nightmare!! Our usual walk should be ok I hope, and it’s meant to piss it down anyway so maybe that will put everyone off 😄

We’re just back from a walk by the river. He’s been brilliant, lots of mad bounding around in the grass but not too far. We steered clear of many dogs and I took a load of ham for recall treats 😀.
I had a moment of real joy. Just watching him run around was so lovely. I’ve missed that so much since we lost our adored Sprocker last year. Although it’s been an emotional week too as I missed my old boy all over again.
So on the whole a much better first week than I could have anticipated. Although I’m sure it won’t be plain sailing. I’ll be back at work next week so wfh as much as possible, but he won’t have anywhere near so much attention

Fantastic. There really isn’t anything I love more than seeing Vinny running about being a happy spaniel so I can imagine how nice that was for you!

Does he seem to settle ok in the house or is it something you may need to work on? I WFH all week so V is very used to it now and he largely gets ignored all morning until our long lunchtime walk, then ignored again until I finish or DD gets home from school. He just snoozes the whole time mostly. I think teaching him to settle in the house as a pup was one of the most valuable things we did.

@YorkshireFelix I wholeheartedly agree with teaching how to settle. M is used to being ignored during the day when my husband works from home. I went back to work part time when M was 4 months old. During that time my husband would work downstairs in the kitchen - taking M out for the toilet as needed. He now works upstairs in his study and pops down occasionally for drinks and lunch. Midge loafs all day. When I get home he usually just opens one eye and goes back to sleep! He is quite a lazy dog.

@YorkshireFelixthats the bit I’m unsure about. He’s pretty good at relaxing when I’m here, but he does move with me, so he’ll sleep next to me on the sofa or on the floor but if I go next door he’ll follow. He is doing way better than I expected though, so let’s hope he copes reasonably well

@cashmerecardigans That sounds like a good walk, and great that he’s coming back for the ham. He’ll see you as the source of all things good!

@Nella68can I ask how you taught Midge to settle? I’ve read that it’s so important and although I accept it’ll be harder to do with an older dog, I’d really like to try. He isn’t crated though, I’m not sure if that makes life harder or not. Midge sounds adorable 😀

@cashmerecardigans I’m not quite sure how we did it. I think as a family we were very careful not to razz him up when we came in the room/ got home, so we don’t make a fuss of him immediately.

When he was a small puppy I just let him sleep wherever he wanted and he’s never been crated in the day (the door of the crate is open and he does go and nap there as he wants). He would just crash out on the floor. I would spend time going from room to room so he got to know that I would be coming back. He couldn’t follow me (baby gate) and initially he would give a couple of whimpers but that stage didn’t last long. I found Julie Naismith’s book ‘be right back’ really useful for tips.

I also read about how the dog gets to recognise when it’s not playtime. For us it’s my husband on the laptop. For me (when he was small) it was getting my phone out or cooking in the kitchen. He soon realised that he wasn’t going to get attention at this time so would go to sleep. I know some people have a bed that the dog is taught to go to, but we’ve never found that to be necessary as he likes to sleep in different areas.

M is a very chilled dog with the family and rarely gets excited when he sees us. If he can be bothered he’ll plod over to say hello, but more often or not he just turns over. He was super excited when we picked him up after our summer holiday, so I do know that he loves us really!

Haha that is so funny re Midge just meandering over to say hello @Nella68 - Vinny is the complete opposite and acts like he’s not seen you for 10 years when you’d just popped upstairs for 2 minutes!!

@cashmerecardigans We did this from when Vinny was a pup so I don’t know how relevant it is to an older dog, but our gundog trainer literally told us to do really over the top strokes when he was already calm, and say ‘settle’ over and over again. I thought it was rubbish and a waste of time until it actually started working when I said the word a few weeks later.

I am not sure if you are on Facebook or Instagram, but the Ladies Working Dog Group have just done a free ‘settle challenge’ this past week which includes exercises you can do to help teach your dog to switch off. I think it might be really useful to have a look at it if you can. Their FB page is here and I think you have to comment and they send you a link to sign up for all the info (hopefully link works!) - https://www.facebook.com/share/19azWd3fLL/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Ok thanks so much, this is so helpful. @YorkshireFelixfunnily enough I started following the ladies gundog page so I’ve seen that course. I’ll do the strokes and the settle word, can’t do any harm.
@Nella68Midge sounds awesome. I try to not overdo it when I come in but I may have to get my DH to calm it a bit! I did do a lot of pottering when he first arrived, a bit of healthy neglect 😂

Jeez the weather today has made me reconsider my disdain for waterproof trousers!!

My pup was never crated, but she was with us from 8 weeks which obviously makes a difference. She didn't have a bed, but her night-time sleeping place quickly became a mat under the dining table. I tend to work at the table during the day, so I taught her "settle" that way. I'd sit down, give the cue word, as soon as she lay down I'd give lots of praise.
At night her cue word was always "sleepytime" and we'd sit with her until she settled. We use gates, she had kitchen and rear extension/dining area initially from 8 weeks, now access to the living room also.
She's now 17 months and will settle to command pretty easily in various spaces around the house or garden.

I had to try to work on very calm, low key greetings with Brie, because of her size (over 50kg). We'd try to avoid excitement. Even when she was tiny I'd tell visitors to our home, no baby talk, no silly voices. Lots of encouragement, cuddles, praise but just try to keep her from getting overexcited. She will do an enthusiastic greeting and paws on shoulders with us, but more often it's just leaning her full weight on us or lying down for a chest rub.

The rest of our training won't be relevant, because it's all lead based with the emphasis on loose lead walking and close control.

Bloody awful here too. The rain has not let up since 6am, and it's blowing a hoolie. The girl has been snoozing pretty much all day.

Bill actually refused a walk last night!

I don't blame him. Yesterday was not inspiring.

We went for a walk down the sea front yesterday and just as we got to the furthest away from home point, the heavens opened and it hammered down. K was a drowned rat and I was soaked to the skin. We popped into the local shop on the way home and K refused to come back out. 😂
And I've discovered it's not the lead walking around the village that spooks K. (She was absolutely fine on day 2.) It's the gale force wind.
Very wet and windy here again this morning.

@Flowerfusion How did the vet visit go? Did the x-rays show what the problem with puppy's hip is? (Apologies if I have missed an update somewhere. I have looked on both threads and couldn't see one.)

That’s when you know it’s bad!