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. 😂

We have a mimsafe variogate for our car. Expensive but not car specific so doesn't matter if we change the car

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@SpanielsGalore so sorry to hear you’ve had to deal with wanky insurance companies on top of everything else! You are definitely in for a long run of good luck now!

@LandSharksAnonymous and sorry to hear about your car woes! Hope you can make some progress with TD!

How is everyone else? I baked another nut less cake - lemon drizzle this time. Also posted a rant on the puppy thread after an encounter with an arsehole this evening. I think we should all buy a commune somewhere and just live there with no other people. Just us and our dogs and much beloved family members 😂

@LandSharksAnonymous That's always the way, isn't it? Sometimes we're so close to the problem, we can't see the wood for the trees. Hopefully TD unfreaks himself or he'll never cope with the journey to North Scotland to come and live with me.

I'm with PetPlan and until now I couldn't fault them. I think they are going to wriggle out of paying for the pancreatitis by saying it's part of the digestive tract. They should pay for the spay for pyometra. But suggesting my extremely submissive dog is aggressive has really pissed me off.

I'm going to keep P in the crate for as long as possible. It's a full hysterectomy for pyometra. She has to be strictly rested for ten days - on lead in the garden for toilet breaks, no jumping on furniture, no stairs, no standing on hind legs to sniff the kitchen sides. It's not on the list, but I am sure wrestling with your little sister is off limits too. So it will be a lot easier and less stressful if she's happy to stay in the cage.

@tizwozliz I haven't heard of that make, but it's better that they aren't car specific. It's what has put me off buying a boot divider before now.

@VanGoSunflowers Lemon drizzle cake sounds delicious. I shall pop over to the puppy thread to read about your encounter.

@SpanielsGalore I’m glad she seems to be getting on ok. It must be a relief that she’s happy to be in the crate (for now at least!). It must be really difficult if you have a dog which hates to be crated/can’t be crated for whatever reason and trying to manage them after surgery. I bet she’s enjoying the peace 😄

Sorry to hear your insurance are being dicks too. I have heard lots of good things about PetPlan so I am surprised! But agree they are probably trying to go down the digestive tract angle. It’s the last thing you need on top of everything else.

@LandSharksAnonymous that is so odd re the car. It’s funny how they can be spooked so easily!! And also not good if you need to use the car a lot either. I honestly have no advice on top of what has already been offered but hope you manage to work it out easily.

@SpanielsGalore How is P this morning? Glad to hear you have been sleeping well!

How is everyone else?

I fell asleep on the sofa last night about 9.30pm and slept for 11 hours. I was very surprised to find no puddles this morning! That’s the longest Pablo has gone without needing the toilet.
My god I am dull.

In slightly more exciting news, I’m off to Blackpool Illuminations today with some friends. I thought about bringing P but decided it would be overstimulating for him and I should give my left arm a break and he is instead going to ExDH’s for the day and overnight - the first time since about July! He will love it I am sure as he is obsessed with DS at the moment so they will get to spend some more time together 😊

@YorkshireFelix I'm surprised P has taken to the crate so well. She hasn't been in one since her knee surgery nearly two years ago. I'm hoping she feels this way for the whole ten days to be honest. It will make life much easier for me.
I'm surprised at PetPlan too. They've been so good over the last 5 years and paid out £1000s for both my sprocker and P. I might have taken their email more calmly if it hadn't arrived whilst P was having emergency surgery. When I collected P, I questioned what was in her notes to warrant the email. So the ladies on reception and in the office and I all had a nice cathartic bitch about insurance companies.

@VanGoSunflowers P has had breakfast and her meds, went outside for a quick wee and then dragged me back to her cage as fast as she could. The door had swung shut, so she nosed it open to get in.
When she was in the garden, K ran past her and she jumped/flinched, so I think she must be feeling quite sore.
11 hours sleep! What's that like? 😂
Hope you have a lovely day in Blackpool and it doesn't rain. I think it's a good decision not to take P. I go by the "Just because I can, it doesn't mean I should" mantra. I'm sure you will both have more fun doing your separate things.

@tizwozliz how much pressure do you think it could withstand?

@YorkshireFelix @SpanielsGalore @CoubousAndTourmaIet @VanGoSunflowers I tried walking him past the car this morning, with the boot closed and door closed, whilst the rest of the dogs were inside, and he went completely mental and ripped his lead out my hands. Thankfully, we have a wrap around garden and high-fencing and a gate so all he could do was run in circles.

So I shoved him back inside and did what all respectable adults do when they don't know what to do: I called my mum. Over she came, in her ford estate, and guess what? The twatty, wanky, shit-pawed fuck-muppet jumped straight into her boot no problems. So out we went, him with DMum and Satan, and me, DDs and the girls in my car...and at the end of the walk I tried to get him into my car and he refused, but then jumped into the ford estate. Clearly he has just taken against my car, but not all cars. I'll keep trying to work on it today, but honestly I don't have high hopes. It's definitely terror rather than being disobedient as he starts slathering and panting.

@SpanielsGalore we could just sedate him...😁Have they replied to your email? I'm surprised though, PetPlan usually can't be faulted in any way so I wonder if perhaps that person just got a bit carried away and over-enthusiastic?

I am so glad P is feeling a bit better. Do you think she'll manage to do the whole time on 'bed rest' so to speak?

@VanGoSunflowers 11 HOURS!? I agree with Spaniels, what's it like getting that much sleep? Enjoy Blackpool and your DDog free day (we love them, of course, but sometimes it is nice to get away...)

@LandSharksAnonymous - they're crash tested so pretty solid!

@SpanielsGalore
I'm glad P is doing well. It sounds as if she is the model patient and instinctively knows what's best for her. Sylvie was exactly like this when she had emergency surgery for GDV. She had a slit on her belly but no dressing and no bodysuit. I slept on the sofa, she lay on a sheepskin blanket on the floor and was an absolute angel throughout the whole recovery, despite us having her crazy extroverted half sister leaping around. Sometimes they seem to instinctively understand their own fragility.
Sorry about the issue with the insurance, it sounds like a bit of a misunderstanding. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will pay up.

@VanGoSunflowers
I hope you have a great time in Blackpool. Going to the illuminations every year was a big thing when I was a kid. It's probably even more impressive now. I hope Pablo enjoys his sleepover with your DS and your ex.

@LandSharksAnonymous
Twatdog sounds exactly like Brie was last winter when she suddenly took against our car. She would have still happily jumped into my cousins VW, just not our Octavia, she was backing away from the tailgate and squashing herself against the hedge at the bottom of our driveway, as if terrified. It sounds as if you will have to start from scratch, just as @SpanielsGalore has suggested. That advice has worked for us, but it does take time and to be truthful it's a sodding pain!

Oh god, sleep envy is a thing. I average 4-5 hours sleep at the moment, thanks to next door's collie barking.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet it's bonkers! Fine with one car but not with another. But yes...starting from scratch.

Interestingly, I was parked at the Pinetum earlier and this girl (God don't I sound old!?) was trying to wrangle her flatcoat into the car - it had sat down and was refusing to move, and she went behind it and hauled it up and walked it like you would a toddler (on it's hind legs with her supporting it from behind) to the car. Poor dog looked most perplexed 😂Tbh I got the impression it was a rather common occurrence.

I'm sure you mentioned a few weeks ago about that dog barking!? It's still barking!? Do you use ear-plugs? Might be time to invest? You must be absolutely exhausted...if I don't get 7 hours I am useless.

This morning as I was parking up for our walk I saw two massive red setters being put in the boot of a... Mini Cooper. Bonkers.

@LandSharksAnonymous That's interesting. I'd have to test if it's you or the car now. Will he get in your Mum's car for you? Or your car for your Mum? Looks like you might be getting a new car after all.
Which has made me wonder if changing my car would help P. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who will lend me their car to test the theory. I wasn't allowed to put dogs in the courtesy car I had while mine was being repaired.

I've only had an automatic 'thank you we'll reply in 7 - 10 days' email.

P is doing ok. She'll go into the garden for a wee, but will then pull to get back inside. K just ran to get ahead of her and it did not go down well. 😳 Her pain meds from the pancreatitis run out today, so we'll have to see what she's like tomorrow.

The car issue is a sodding pain. Brie had a moment of refusing to get in again a few days ago - just when we thought we'd more or less cracked it. The problem is that you don't want to force the issue and make things worse but sometimes there's not much choice, such as if you drive somewhere and they don't want to get in to come back home 🙄 Maybe that was the difficulty with the flatcoat you saw.

Yes, the dog next door is still barking through the night 😩I haven't really fancied ear plugs because I like to be able to hear Brie, but we're definitely starting to be sleep deprived, so I may need to reconsider. We can't help wondering if the dog is struggling with an injury or becoming deaf or confused; he looks oldish... Really don't want to complain about it though.

I mean, HOW?? I bought a new car for Bill because I couldn't even put luggage in the boot of my old Mini Cooper, never mind him.

I think he's better in the new car, but he's still a nobhead - I've been taking him for walks after daycare to make sure he gets some off-lead time every day and now he assumes all car journeys are going to end in something wildly exciting and I am literally wearing industrial ear defenders when I drive him anywhere. I mean, it's an improvement on thinking he's barking in anxiety or distress, but really not much of one.

Would love to have seen that! Not actually seen an Irish Setter for years.

We used to cram 3 adult PMD into a Skoda Fabia, which is probably almost as bonkers now I think about it...

@SpanielsGalore we're going to try and get him to get into her car for me tomorrow. Interestingly, her car has a boot you actually have to close yourself instead of these stupid 'push the button' boots - so I had wondered if it's that?

It is interesting though, I do think dogs have preferences over cars. Satan prefers my car, for example. Hen definitely prefers the estate I have to the bigger one (but sadly I cannot fit 4 adult dogs into an estate)!

Let us know what Petplan say?

Ohhh did P tellK off!? Or was it more a warning 'get the hell away you muppet' type snap? I'll keep my fingers crossed she's not in pain tomorrow ❤

@CoubousAndTourmaIet surely the owners of the dog must be suffering as well though???? Could one of you try ear-plugs for one night and then the other one? That way you can keep an ear out for Brie?

As you say, you don't want to force them but sometimes you have no choice. I have some walks nearby but the best - and safest ones IMO - do require the car.

@brushingboots There's a man on my road who squeezes two border collies into his Fiat 500. To be fair I often wonder what people think of me shoving my rabble into my car - even for a bigger car, 4 adults is a lot of dog. Lord only knows what they thought of me earlier this week what Twatdog absconded😂

@Bupster I always forget you got a new car for Bill! What did you get?

100% would agree the barking in excitement is an improvement 😃Perhaps, one day, he'll calm down?😳

It's another Mini but a Clubman this time. I love it. The boot is ENORMOUS and it has magical doors that open when you press a button on the car key. When Bill is really driving me round the bend I fantasise about running away and living in the boot instead. The air conditioning works and I'm no longer afraid that substantial bits of the car are going to fall off every time I drive further than the supermarket (I left a bit of the last car's door cladding somewhere in a cabbage field outside Ely)

I sold the Cooper for the price of the petrol in it to some friends of mine. Embarrassingly, a week or so later I saw them dropping their youngest off at the childminder with the entire family in the car - mum, dad, three kids and two dogs. I'd traded up to the Clubman because the Cooper wasn't big enough for me and Bill 😄

I reckon I could fit another couple in 😂

Funnily enough I was talking to my trainer about cars recently and she said that some dogs don’t like certain cars! So things like the sound it makes, the suspension etc. can make a difference. She wasn’t suggesting I get a whole new car for Vinny but it was interesting to hear as I’d not really considered it before. Also I don’t know how you’d purposefully buy a car your dog likes as surely you can’t test drive a load of cars with your dog in the back.

There’s an Irish setter who lives on the other side of our street and he is absolutely lovely. An impeccably well trained dog! I’ve never seen another one around here.

Can't really join in the car talk; we're poor so we've had three Skoda estates in succession and run them into the ground. As long as the boot is big enough for a couple of Pyries we're okay.

Three hours sleep last night because the collie was barking for ages at 2.30am 😩 Thankfully, Brie ignores it but all our others would have responded, so that would have been a lot of fun for people around us. We do normally teach our pups "quiet" and "shhh" and "it's okay", but we haven't needed to with Brie. Anyway, it is just exhausting having so much broken sleep.

Beautiful walk from home this morning, across misty fields filled with glistening cobwebs. We had a close encounter with a sole roe deer that stood watching us for a while, but we saw no people. If only every walk could be like that. We had Brie on the long line thing so she had a little bit of a run about on a fenced bit of field. She was very happy.

It made up for yesterday's walk, which was a weird one; dogs everywhere. We wondered why everyone was keeping to the edges of the field - turned out there was a couple hogging the middle of the field, with a ball flinger and a dog that looked suspiciously like a Bully XL, unmuzzled and off the lead. I'm reasonably clued up on dog breeds, I'm not one to mistake a boxer/bullmastiff or Staffy cross but I'm 95% sure that thing would have fitted the brief for being muzzled. Never seen people or dog before so presumably tourists. We kept our distance as everyone else was doing. I'm not stirring up hate - we do meet a Bully locally, always muzzled and on the lead; he's a lovely boy and his owners are well mannered. But I'm not convinced that dogs like that should be running off lead in a public place...

Hope everyone else is having a lovely day so far x

I got Twatdog into my car!!!!! I think @YorkshireFelix has hit the nail on the head, some dogs just do not like particular cars. Twatdog is still refusing in his own special way - woofing and running around in circles - to get into the boot. But I channeled my inner 'Flat-Coat girl' and went behind him, hauled him up onto his back-legs and then walked him to my car. And he got in! I shoved him onto the backseat and he turned around, shoved his tongue into my mouth (I thought he was about to try and escape again so had my mouth open to try and calm him), and then went to sleep!!! On the way home, he headed over to the passenger rear door and waited to be picked up.

@Bupster better you have a car you can drive safely and feel comfortable in tbh! Besides, Bill deserves it 😍How do you keep your car so clean when you have a dog though? I'm about to out myself as a bit of a grotty bitch, but the large car has moss growing on the window base and has greenery (it could be mould) on the doors. But every time I clean it off, or take it to the cleaners, it's back within a week. I blame the dogs.

@tizwozliz your dogs look particularly fixated on something? Did you have some chicken?😃

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I've been debating an Octavia when the old Volvo goes. Are they reliable? I have to confess I love the Volvo for the safety features - having so many dogs and often DDs in the car makes me quite paranoid about safety...

I know what you mean about dogs like XL Bullies. I always view them with a degree of "oh dear." I think it's slightly because of the owners they tend to attract (at least near me - it's the drug dealers) which puts me on edge. Strangely, if I see a Staffie or a Malinios - which I know lots of people are worried by - I tend not to be bothered these days.

I know what you mean about walks with no people around! Our morning walk today was bliss. We walked for about 90 minutes and saw no one but that was probably a good thing given we had seven dogs between us...

@LandSharksAnonymous Amazing! What a result! Less nice about the impromptu snog he gave you though.

We have moss on the window bases too, you’re not alone. I only tidy up when I fear someone else is going to get in it – otherwise it’s full of wellies and coats and god knows what else. I do go to a lot of farms though so I figure it’s fine. The other truck is full of camping stuff that dog-dad hasn’t sorted out so I just don’t drive it.

It was so foggy this morning that I didn’t fancy the drive to the walk I’d planned so we went to the woods where it was a bit safer and half way round bumped into a lovely lady and her daughter and with their four-month-old lab. He was a tank – as big as pupsy. I didn’t ask but thought he must have been show line and it made me think how few show line labs I must know because I almost had to ask if he was a lab. She had him off lead and he looked very happy to be there – played beautifully with pupsy and chewed her ears and she showed him how to hunt for rabbit poo. Was so nice to see such a little pup offlead and doing some training.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I love setters! I know another one round here and he’s super slobbery which puts me off but they’re basically big spaniels. Too big for me though. Was talking to someone the other day for a work thing who has a Gordon setter and he said she’s gorgeous but quite a challenge as they’re so slow to mature.

@LandSharksAnonymous That's brilliant! Must be a huge weight off your mind too.

My car is filthy inside and out. It hasn't reached growing moss standards yet, but it's covered in muddy footprints and you can't see out of the rear windows for dog snot smears.

The incident between P and K occurred at a bottle neck point. K had run ahead to the cage, but then turned around and came back towards us, meeting P head on. P did a "Fucking get away from me and my cage" lunge and snarl at K, so I quickly scooped her up. And here was me saying she's never aggressive. 🙈 To be fair, I'd probably snap at someone if they got in my face two days after I'd had a hysterectomy.

Today I have kept K and N indoors, but out of the living room, when letting P out. Then I take P out of the front door and into the garden via the side gate.
P thinks she is better and has started to whine/squeal to be let out of the cage. But she only manages a two minute toilet break before heading back indoors.

It's great that you got His Royal Twatness into the car @LandSharksAnonymous . Sometimes hauling them in bodily is the only way. Not sure about the wet kiss 😝, but we'll let that one go. Sounds as if it's the getting in and out that's the issue - exactly as it's been with Brie - and not the actual travelling. Sometimes these things are so hard to fathom. It's very much one day at a time, and you may be hauling him in and out for a while before he forgets about whatever it was that bothered him in the first place.

We're a very Skoda biased family, from long before they were popular. We had a Favorit Estate and so did my Dad, then he got a Felicia hatch at the same time as us getting our Fabia estate, then he got a Fabia hatch and we got the Octavia Estate. They've all been great workhorses; much like the old Volvo estates used to be. My chap loves the Octavia because it's a Scout, which is the 4x4 version. I have to admit though, the Fabia was my favourite and it was more reliable, although I suspect it's probably down to that being new when we got it, whereas the Octavia was already 5 years old and is now 12. But would definitely recommend them as good runarounds for carting dogs about, although I know they're really no longer a budget car.

We see a Gordon bitch locally @brushingboots . She is lovely. There was a massive male Gordon in our village years ago and also a completely bonkers English Setter boy that was just OTT hyper and always made a beeline for our Rosie. Possibly because she was a bit bonkers too. It's a very long time since I've seen an Irish Setter though, probably well over 30 years. Our breed is in the pastoral group, so even when we were showing we tended not to see the hounds and gundogs because the big shows schedule them on a different day from working and pastoral breeds. So really with dogs, it's mostly a case of what we bump into on walks, and around here that's predominantly spaniels and Labradors.