Beyond Adolescence - a thread to chat about grown up dogs, cake and anything else, excluding coffee.

[SpanielsGalore]

Not going to tag everyone as I don't know who wants to join. Welcome everyone. 😁

I have had two roofers here this morning. After the initial barking at heads appearing over the ridge, the dogs have been so good. They've sat in the garden and watched them working. Greeted them every time they came into the garden and didn't once try to bolt out of the gate. I heard one of the men telling them to 'stay' as he struggled through the gate with a bucket full of water, and then telling them they were 'good dogs'.
They've just finished and as they were leaving one commented on how calm my dogs are and not like 'normal spaniels'. See. Not all working cockers are 'high on crack' and 'manic'. 😇😇😇

Beautiful weather here today. 🌞 I unexpectedly got my car back yesterday. 🥳
Off to the woods to walk the adolescent nutter until she collapses in a heap. 😂

See labs can look like this, then a good shake and they're all gone! Remember meeting someone with some sort of doodle in this area. They said it took them an hour after a walk like this to get the seeds out!

@brushingboots We train with a springer, height wise very similar to my little pup but a few kilos lighter. Plenty of 5month old labs would be her size or bigger - she was 20.5kg at last weigh in.

It's pretty bad with our breed regarding goose grass sticky bobs, burrs, anything spiky or spiny - thistles etc, random bits of pine. They have a very dense coat and all kinds of crap works its way in. Their back feet are very big and hairy and the burrs tend to tangle in the fur around the double dewclaws. It can be a big job picking all the stuff out of their pantaloons and tails particularly. Even when she comes in from the garden she leaves a trail of twiglets and leaf mould.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I bet it's a full time job managing Brie's coat with regards sticky things. It's bad enough with just ears and a bit of feathering. Do you ever stroke Brie and get spiked from a bramble hiding in amongst the fur? It's how I usually find stuff in my pairs' ears.

@tizwozliz Yep. I'd be picking those out over a cup of tea when we get home.

I should stay off the dog hate threads @VanGoSunflowers . It is starting to scare me every time I walk out of the door in case I get reported for having a dog that someone doesn't like the look of. Because if you believe half of MN, that is all it takes. Your dog looks scary.

It's why I'm so strict about how I can't tolerate any bad habits at all. They cannot growl or bark or be overexcited like a smaller puppy can without being labelled as dangerous. And it's why they have to be on a lead all the time. It's because of people's perception of large powerful dogs. And I know Brie might look "cute and fluffy" on a photo but up close is very different.

I really should stay off those threads 😞

@CoubousAndTourmaIet When I lived back in England, the worst dog over the local park was a Patterdale x JR. (Or some such cross. It was bought as a JR but clearly wasn't. It was a tiny thing and only had about 3 inch long legs.) It regularly attacked everything and would come away from the totally, non- reactive GSD with a mouthful of hair. But it got away with it and everyone laughed because it was 'cute'.

I don't think the other thread is too bad at the minute. Most people are being pretty sensible. I think I've come across the duck person before as being an anti-dog shit stirrer.

@brushingboots I'd describe mine as 'bred to be pointless.' Wankypants (Twatdog's less affectionate nick-name for when he's annoyed me) was basically bred to be Pretty & Pointless. He does it very well. But yes, whilst mine are v. high energy, they have no drive...

@VanGoSunflowers We did Libya (before the civil war), and Iraq pre-2003. We also spent time in Iran. DH and I lived in Rome (pre-dogs - I always joke I gave up my career for the dogs, and it’s 100% true. Moving every few years to a new country isn’t something you can easily do with multiple dogs). DH has lived in Syria, Moscow and Turkey as well and I’ve gone out to visit him. We’ve both also spent a fair bit of time in Azerbaijan, which is beautiful.

We definitely wouldn’t have done all the travelling we did without DH’s language skills! But he’s had to learn Arabic and Russian for work, and living in Ankara meant he picked up enough Turkish to be able to understand basic Azeri which was useful for Azerbaijan (although if you can speak Russian you're absolutely fine as well tbh). We always laugh about it, because I was meant to learn Italian for our posting in Rome and I was absolutely shit - took my four years to pass the 'exam' I should have sat before I went out. DH meanwhile...mastered Arabic in about 18 months.

I have to agree about the night sky and no pollution though. COVID was absolutely awful, but the lack of pollution and the clearness of the sky was incredible Would you go back to Africa? Or are holidays off now that you have Pablo? 😃

Sigh. Is there really another anti-dog thread? Don't these people ever just take a day of silence? Perhaps we could do a sponsored silence for them...

I think I have been relatively lucky with dogs from the sounds of things. I’ve been around a lot of them, have always been out walking around here and must have met a ton of dogs but I have never witnessed one being aggressive, to human or other dog! So maybe my perspective is a little skewed on that one. Apart from one time, my friend’s dog bit me when I was about 12 but that’s because I was being a twatty kid and putting a scarf on her head so I deserved it 😂 and it was just a warning bite that didn’t puncture the skin!

Sorry to be indelicate but I just witnessed a rather large erection 😳 (it was Pablo’s, don’t worry!) he was humping his sex dog - which isn’t out of the ordinary for him, but I’ve never seen it out that much 😂 for a second I was concerned it wasn’t going to go back to how it was! He does seem to be doing that a lot more lately. Shall I just let him have at it?! He’s never humped anything else!

@LandSharksAnonymous would you say the amount of time you have spent in these places have given you much more of a sense of what they’re really like? When I was travelling, we rarely stayed in one place more than a few days so we were typical ‘back packers’ in that sense. How did you find Rome and Italian culture? I bet the food was glorious - and of course, the coffee 😀

Ive always wanted to speak another language! Spanish was my first choice, and I got ok at it but I’ve forgotten most of it now. I find it such a beautiful language!
I would go to Africa again in a heartbeat! Obviously not now but at some point in the future, I would love to go back. It’s such a magical place to me.

Can recommend half spaniel, half Lab (or a sawn-off Labrador as one of my sitters once described him). Miraculously self-cleaning, short-arsed Labrador body, velcro like spaniel, nose like spaniel (mostly on ground or down a hole), occasionally believes himself to be a terrier, or perhaps one of the three little pigs (now building a nest out of bricks). Beautiful soft coat that never really needs grooming. Someone told me once that Labs come into this world half-trained, and spaniels leave the world half-trained - I've still not worked out which Bill is. Half-wit certainly.

Every time I imagine him on an actual shoot I recall that quote from the Duke of Wellington: "I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but by God, they frighten me."

@VanGoSunflowers I'd let him have at it. But I have a very relaxed attitude about doggy sex appetites. Unless Twatdog is going around bothering other dogs, he can hump what he wants - most of the time it's pure excitement and joy rather than sex anyway. Plus, as they get older, it does tend to slip out anyway...which is unfortunate.

Rome was beautiful, but I hated it in summer because of the tourists. We had a beautiful flat with a charming shared courtyard and it had such a sense of community. I don't know if it's still like that as this was just over 20 years ago and I was v. young, but it felt a bit like how I always imagined England in the 1950s post-war felt - everyone was really happy and everything was nice.

Spanish would be amazing to learn, but I don't my brain is wired the right way for it 😞Do you think your DS will want to go travelling one day?

@Bupster This page of this thread so far has 'Wanky-Pants' and 'The Halfwit' which sounds like a rather shitty band. If we name Pablo (sorry @VanGoSunflowers ) 'the Baby', it sounds like a slightly better band: The-Halfwit, Wanky-Pants and The Baby.

He's getting so big now! He must be fully grown and nearly fully bulked out?
I was about to type 'he's got a big boy body' but it sounded weird. But I've typed it anyway hoping you'll understand what I mean😂

@VanGoSunflowers I’d let him have at it too. After @LandSharksAnonymous recommendation of having a designated sex item (🤢) I’ve now assigned a specific cushion which is stored away, and when V starts to get a bit antsy I say to him ‘do you need your pillow?’ and he sits nicely next to where it’s stored and then happily humps away when I get it out. It’s actually stopped him humping anything else at all. Before he would pull all the cushions off the sofa and hump them, try and hump our legs and arms, the duvet, blankets. Whatever he could get his willy on!

@Bupster I love that half trained quote - I say it to people all the time! It makes me feel better about life 😄 Bill is looking as squishy and gorgeous as ever.

All of this is why I will never have a boy dog! VILE!

Not all of them are though, I swear it. Merlin & Algy were both very discreet with their boy bits.
Girls are more smelly.
But I sort of love both I suppose.

@brushingboots P humps way more than my boys ever did. She has a particular fetish for my slanket.

I'm going to see if I can get her in at the vets tomorrow, I think. She's not getting any better. She's been doing a lot of lip licking/smacking today and seems more hunched up.

@LandSharksAnonymous any excuse to post more pictures of Bill! Yes, he’s pretty much his full chonk now, though he is still bulking up a bit and he is putting on weight still, though it’s slowed right down - he looks like pure muscle most of the time. Except when he goes downstairs and you can see his little rabbit bum waddle, or when he’s relaxed and his legs splay a bit like a puppy and he looks like he’s wearing wrinkly baggy socks.

Sorry that P is not doing so well @SpanielsGalore , it must be worrying for you.

I can confirm that our first two PMD girls also humped far more than any of our boys @brushingboots

If anyone wants a Golden Retriever - you can have Twatdog for free. In fact, I'll pay someone to take him. He comes house trained, trained to walk to heel off lead, and he's very handsome. The only issue you might have is him LAUNCHING himself out of the boot as the boot is closing, resulting in all the other bloody sodding freaking dogs also absconding because his squeak of terror when he got clipped by the closing door terrified them. I have just spent two HOURS wrangling the dogs back into the car because none of them would get in the bloody boot and they all kept trying to escape out the car again whenever I tried to get the next one in.😡

The only one who didn't disgrace herself was Hen - who I think didn't partake in a carnage because she just can't be bothered. She's an old girl now. All she wants in her bed.

Sigh.

@SpanielsGalore will you let us know how P gets on? Fingers crossed.

@Bupster he really is a handsome little man! His teeth are lovely and white as well...

@YorkshireFelix maybe I should start that line of doggy sex toys that I think we previously spoke about! 😂Sounds like Vinny has turned into Twatdog though - he goes to where his elephant (or duck) lives and waits nice to hump. And, like you said, it keeps his grubby little balls of everything else which is a bit of a win!

That sounds like a bit of a battle @LandSharksAnonymous and not what you want first thing in the morning. Tempting as the offer is to take Twatdog, we already have a rear exit boot launcher of our own, so I'm afraid I'll have to pass. Given that neither of them is Westie size, I feel that two of the things hurling themselves into my arms might be a bit much for my rapidly ageing body.
Matriarch Hen is clearly above all that hooliganism from the young things, and, to be honest, I know exactly how she feels. Life is exhausting 😩

Yes, I was also thinking about P and I hope you manage to get her checked over @SpanielsGalore

@LandSharksAnonymous Two hours! Bloody hell. I'd have been a bit shouty after the first ten minutes.
I'd offer to take TD , but K is in season. Maybe next time.

P has pyometra. I have left her at the vets for an emergency spay. 😭😭😭

Oh no 😮
I am so sorry to hear this @SpanielsGalore . Poor P, what a rotten time she and you are having. My heart goes out to you.
I hope all goes well with the surgery x

@SpanielsGalore Oh no! I am so sorry! When will you hear back about the surgery? I hope P (and you) are alright - you must be so worried ❤

@SpanielsGalore I’m thinking about you and P, and hope the surgery goes well and she’s feeling better soon. She really has been through the wringer x

Thanks everyone. I'll hopefully hear soon. They said they were going to sedate her straight away, but I have no idea how long the operation takes.
I've asked them to x-ray her leg whilst she's under too, as that's not getting any better. They wouldn't do it before as they didn't want to give a GA whilst she has pancreatitis. So might as well do it now.
I'm going to set a crate up for when she comes home, so K can't jump all over her.

Will catch up properly with the threads later but just wanted to say @SpanielsGalore I am so sorry to hear that, will be thinking of you both today and hope all goes well x

So stressful for you @SpanielsGalore , it's such a horrible feeling when they're having surgery. Hopefully you'll hear something soon x