Our Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (Adolescent Support Group)

[MonCoubousMonTourmalet]

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

I think little pup has kennel cough, she's been coughing on and off all afternoon.

We're going to the North West Highlands for Christmas, not yet decided whether to do the drive in one day or stop over near Perth.

Awww poor little pup. I hope she doesn't have it too bad. And that big pup doesn't catch it.
How long will your journey be? I can't remember if you've said what area of England you live in.

It's about 9 hours, we're just north of Nottingham. We do a similar sort of distance in one day when we drive to Denmark and that's after an overnight ferry.

Stopovers with dogs aren't quite so straightforward and our older one in particular can be up and down the first night we're somewhere new so not sure it's worth the hassle.

Luckily they're both great in the car, younger one did her first trip to Scotland at 5 months but that was 'only' a 6 hour drive. And they've done the Denmark trip several times.

Oh nooooo I wrote a long post and lost it!!

@SpanielsGalore we’ve booked a lodge sort of near Dunoon so not too far. I’ve been vaguely in that area before as my sister got married on Bute last year and she’s up in Oban so we’ve been to visit there a couple of times too. I LOVE Scotland and definitely want to explore more further north. It would be my dream to visit somewhere like Harris and see the beaches. The place we have booked is about a 5 hour drive from us but it’s a pretty straight forward route so will be fine. I’ve got a few weeks to try and get V used to travelling in the back seat with DD as we need the boot space. He’s such a wuss that he’s even too scared to sit on a seat so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I tried him on the front passenger seat once and he was terrified…

@tizwozliz oh no poor pup! I think you are close-ish to where I am from originally (Worksop) 😃

Yes just a bit further down the A60 @YorkshireFelix

Do you have a car seat hammock? Might make him feel a bit happier.

Here's my two admiring the scenery on Harris

Unfortunately lots of the beaches have sheep on them so limited with the dogs

@YorkshireFelix M loves being on the backseat with my daughter. He snuggles right up to her. He’s a bit big to sit on the backseat when both my children are there. I need to get him used to the boot

@tizwozliz you take lovely photos of your 2. Is it the camera on your phone?

@tizwozliz what a gorgeous view 😍

I don’t have a hammock just a seat cover/rug type thing but a hammock might be a good idea if I can find a single seat one.

@Nella68Yes I think V might like it if she’s back there with him. When I tried him on the passenger seat he was clinging on to me for dear life. Thankfully I drive an automatic so didn’t need to change gears as it would have been impossible 😂

Yes, just my phone camera (Google Pixel), although sometimes I put them through Snapseed app as it can make black dogs have features 😁 (and I can remove big pup's eye snot!)

I'm sure I saw half hammocks when I was looking but a lot of the full cover ones have a zip so you can still have a passenger on one side

That is good to know thank you!

Fingers crossed it looks like a fairly mild case, she was only up hacking a few times in the night.

When older pup had it, she had one bad night of coughing then was right as rain by day 3.

Looking online, advice on isolation ranges from 2 days to several weeks!

Jeez, so many poorly pups here at the moment...
I hope they all make a speedy recovery.

Oh bless her, I hope all is ok!

K is 1 year old today. 🎂
She's not at all the calm puppy I was sold, but she's a real character and I love her to bits.

Happy birthday K!

I don't know about you, @SpanielsGalore , but I'm delighted that K is a character, as is Bill. He has such a clear personality and preferences. I do wonder sometimes if more dogs would be like K and Bill if they were given the chance - e.g. I know that Bill likes to trot around with plastic bottles, and sit on the back of the armchair looking out of the window, and jump into stinky ponds, because I've let him try all that stuff out, encouraged him to express opinions, and respected his preferences. I know a lot of working gundogs don't get a chance to do any of that.

I'm on a working cockers' FB page and it made me so sad when one of the group experts described how her puppy was being raised without access to any toys unless playing with the handler. I saw a Mordor video (well, I read the transcript, I hate videos) where they were talking about US gundogs having their voiceboxes cut out if they whine on the peg. I can't look at Bill and imagine him as having no worth except as a tool like that - he has personhood to me.

Of course, I'm not raising him for a particular purpose, so he's not really a working dog, but even so.

@Bupster I love a dog with character. 💖 I love their energy levels - constant running on a walk, but settled in the home. I'm not sure I'd know what to do with a calm, placid breed.
We have very few house rules really. If they are wet and muddy, they aren't allowed to go and lie on the beds, but that's about it. 😂 Otherwise they have various beds, sofas and window seats to choose from and an over flowing box of toys.
They're all pretty good and don't take things they shouldn't. Except for K and the toilet roll. Although I'm sure if I left food within reach, it wouldn't last long.
I bought a book on gundog training and never got past the first page. It said your dog could never go for a walk. Every outing had to be a training exercise. Which is fair enough if you are going to work them, I suppose. But I want my dogs to have freedom to explore - even if that means they'll sometimes disappear for a few minutes at a time.
That's awful about removing dogs' voice boxes. 😭 Who performs that operation and thinks it's ethical? It's even worse than the ear cropping. I had to come off a springer page as it had lots of Americans on it and their training advice was invariably using aversive tools.
My dogs come from a trialling kennel. I'm sure they would have been good at it if they'd been kept by the breeder. But they'd have lived in kennels and probably only have come out to train. I like to think they enjoy their life with me more. As I am sure Bill loves his life with you. ❤️

Awww, Many Happy Returns to sweet K @SpanielsGalore

Oh I'm with you all the way @Bupster . Character is everything to me. What I love most about our gang is looking back at how totally individual and unique they all were, same with all our cats.

But, and it is a big BUT. I've got to admit that Brie doesn't have permanent access to toys, nor did our others beyond puppyhood. I accept that it might seem sad to you.
We do toy play every day, she'll invite me to come and get the three spiny balls out of the wooden box and when she's finished playing she puts them side by side on the table ready to go away. I didn't teach her to line them up, it's just something she does - sometimes beside the back gate, but mostly on the garden table. Then we do tug rope play later in the day. But again, the ropes hang in a cupboard, otherwise she shreds them up. We have a lot of chasing and stalking games too, she is very cheeky and likes to ambush me when I'm pegging out washing or sweeping the path. She likes a lot of physical contact - if I crouch to get something out of the cupboard, she will lean on my back so I can't get up, and when we watch tv she sits on my lap.

She doesn't get to jump in stinky ponds though - she walks around mud or puddles, she hates wet grass and isn't fond of water. But when the snow comes she'll go bonkers.
Her favourite place is up on the moors, where she can stand and gaze off into the distance like a real mountain dog. Closer to home, she loves the fields and the big meadow and likes to choose the route for each walk.
So, with opinions and preferences, I'd like to think I allow her those. She has a lot of freedom at home. I'm always with her, she's never left.
She is allowed to be who she is, and she isn't squeezed into a dog shaped box. She's my little woolly bear and my life revolves around her.

But with a dog this size, there need to be some rules. She weighs more than I do, so for her own safety, I have to set boundaries. She is naturally calm, like most dogs of her breed, but even so, she couldn't be allowed to express herself the way a small dog can, because if she did, people would label her as dangerous. So I don't honestly know if her life might seem sad to you, by comparison with Bill's life/K's life and those of the rest of the gang here... I hope not, but it might.

@Aubrielle It sounds like Brie has a wonderful life, with owners who clearly love and understand her. 💖
Comparing Brie's life to K's and P's or Bill's is like comparing apples to oranges. Their wants, needs and breed traits are totally different.

We do have rules and boundaries really. But as they're all well behaved in the home (some might argue they're well trained 😂), it goes unnoticed. Things like not jumping up at the table and begging for food, for example. They were taught not to do it as puppies, so now it's just our way of life. IYSWIM

I didn't used to have toys out all of the time, as my sprocker ate them, but now I do. K in particular likes to carry them around. She always has to grab one to take outside with her and carry around the garden, because that's her breed trait. If she didn't have a toy handy, she'd probably grab my tea towel. The little sod! 😂

Yes, agree with @SpanielsGalore - of course your rules have to be different, and Bill does have boundaries too (never getting fed from the table for example). I might have very different feelings about the pond-jumping if he was giant, white and fluffy! But luckily he's miraculously self-cleaning and I can let it go.

The toys, too - he used to shred them, but now he largely doesn't bother - he's been on Stuffed Duck Number Five for months and months, so much so that I gave away Number Six. My brother's dog on the other hand, that looks like a squirrel, wrecks absolutely everything and I wouldn't let him have free access to stuffed toys. I think what was making me feel a bit sad was that this was a deliberate choice to make sure the puppy had no free joy that wasn't earned and didn't come from its owner. I think I'd always find that a bit sad, whatever the arguments.

Thanks @SpanielsGalore and @Bupster
xxx

Happy birthday to K!

We have quite a few rules here as well- the main one is the not jumping up and it’s something that I’ve had to work really hard on. Midge is just too big and I live in fear of him sending an elderly person flying. He’d be an absolute menace if he was left to his own devices! Walking nicely is another.

When he was a puppy the trainer advised putting toys away and bringing them out to play so he didn’t get bored with them. It was far too much of a faff so his toys are now in a toy basket and he has free access. He’ll root right down to the bottom of the basket to find the one he wants. I’d love to know if this is a conscious decision and he knows which toy he wants or if he just likes throwing them all over the floor. Hi favourite is a stuffed dog which he carries around everywhere

Now I need to point out that jumping is banned here also. With the ball play, I roll it or kick it and she retrieves; no overhead flinging of ball. Likewise the rope play is kept low, no jumping.

@Aubrielle they have absolutely no idea of their size!

Exactly @Nella68 That's what people with little dogs don't realise. Ours can't get away with things that dachshunds and pugs etc can. We always have to work at keeping them calm, for their own good really.