Beyond Adolescence - part 2

[SpanielsGalore]

No point banning coffee, as it didn't work last time. 🙄
Haven't had any cake updates from a while. @VanGoSunflowers Have you stopped baking already? You still had 8 cakes to go to make it economical.

@tizwozliz Now I feel guilty because suggested the ‘Xmas’ game. 😢 Hopes he’s alright. Dog, being a lab, would be in seventh heaven munching through a new bag of kibble.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Slight confession, had to look up what PMD stood for, and then looked at lots of lovely pictures of fluffy white dogs.

Dog can also be a wuss and will either greet a dog or back off. He knows who he likes, and who he doesn’t. We had a girl (about four?) run up to him once and he cowered behind my legs (still cross that her mum let said child run across a (quiet) road, and took no steps to control her child). However, I’d rather that than he be reactive.

@tizwozliz - she sounds incredibly smart and cunning to have managed to eat so much and do it so sneakily before she was caught. But so good that you caught her in time and had also weighed her to make sure it was her!

How is she this morning? And how are you? You must be exhausted!

Oh my gosh, poor pup @tizwozliz 😧 that sounds horrendous! She was very lucky by the sound of it. Hope you all have an easier day today.

I'm sure I've said before @TheHungryHungryLandsharks , but Sylvie once "lost" my DP on a walk, panicked and ran home. I found her sitting beside the garden gate and 5 minutes later he came up the driveway puffing and panting. Fortunately it was early on a Sunday morning so very little traffic - she'd crossed a main road 😱

It's so true that people expect the bigger dogs to be fearless, but even guarding breeds go out of their way to avoid trouble and will back off unless really pushed. Thus far we've been lucky with Brie; she's been jumped on twice but not injured. I do get palpitations when I see off-lead dogs running towards us though.

Yes, there was a 3.3 earthquake near Carnforth last night. That's north west Lancs and we're south east Lancs, so we felt nothing.

Yes @Silverbirchleaf , I'm Pyrenean obsessed! They are the sweetest dogs for those who can cope with their impractical size and aren't averse to living in a house with a liberal coating of white fluff on everything 😬

No need to feel guilty. They're fairly good around their food normally so had got complacent. The funny thing is, if I forget to clip their normal kibble container, little pup barks at it to let me know rather than help herself. The small bag of cold pressed just sitting there was obviously too much temptation.

@tizwozliz not good! After reading your first post I wondered if she would have been able to vomit it. Kibble swells to about 4 times its size, so after eating a kilo she must have been so uncomfortable.

I got cross with my husband yesterday. M isn’t a counter surfer so that’s made us a bit complacent with leaving stuff out. Most of the stuff wouldn’t do any harm but yesterday he left an open packet of mince pies within easy reach. Luckily M ignored them.

Which is clever really, she saw it as treats not dinner so it was fair game. Like a husband kid with a bar of chocolate; it doesn't count as food in their eyes.

@Nella68 - it was fancy cold pressed stuff so in theory doesn't swell...

Well my day hasn't gone as planned. 😑
Was about to get ready to walk the dogs when DD phoned, so chatted to her for an hour. Then DS phoned, so talked to him for a while. By which time, I needed breakfast and another cup of tea. 😂

Then I took the dogs out down the sea front. Worst fucking walk ever! The dogs were little bastards and are very very very lucky to still be alive. I had to catch the little shits one by one and tie them to the fence whilst I caught the others. Then I had to drag them back to the car, as they wouldn't walk in the right direction.
They are now all in the dining room - wet, cold and shivering and I have told them it's their own fucking fault and serves them right.
And I am consuming tea and chocolate in the living room whilst I calm down.

And to round it off nicely, someone had parked in my spot when I got home. FFS (I know on street parking isn't 'my spot', but it's by my front door, so I have claimed it.)

Damn, replied to wrong post somehow. Sorry 😳

Sounds like a difficult day @SpanielsGalore
What happened to the girls? Did something spook them or was it just exuberance at being free?
It hasn't stopped raining here so we haven't ventured out at all.
Going to put a big pot of veg in the oven in a while.

@SpanielsGalore what naughty puppies! Tea and chocolate sounds like just the tonic.

Nothing so bad here - Midge chased a squirrel and got stuck in a hawthorne and bramble hedge. He couldn’t go forwards or backwards and every time he tried to reverse a branch poked him in the bum hole. I had to crawl in and extract him. We both got soaked but on a better note he’s just back from the groomers and smalls like cinnamon and apple.

Cinnamon and apple sounds good. Little pup is a bit stinky after her vet trip but I can't bring myself to subject her to a bath today as she hates them.

@tizwozliz so sorry to hear of your ordeal with little pup! I’ve often thought if Pablo could get his paws on a fresh bag of kibble he’d eat until he was very unwell! Hope she makes a swift recovery.

@SpanielsGalore sorry you had a tough walk!! I must admit I had to double check what I was reading when you said someone was talking about wanking their dog 😳😳

All this talk about boisterous dogs is why I don’t let pupper meet other dogs very often! To his credit, he did run over to a miniature yorkie once and was quite gentle but the poor thing was terrified of him and I had to apologise profusely to the owner. Explained I always put him back on lead if I see other dogs about but I wasn’t quick enough this time. We bumped in to his Spaniel friend the other day and he’s much bigger than she is now and was being quite boisterous with her so had to put him back on that time, too. He’s the friendliest dog but he is so clumsy sometimes 🤦‍♀️ and I’d feel awful if he scared or hurt another dog!

Having said that, he’s starting to get the hang of reacting calmly around other dogs now. He did me proud on his walk earlier!

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I would definitely say Pablo is my baby (not fur baby!) he’s such a mummy’s boy!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks we had always planned on stopping at one so there was never really any debate over it thankfully. I didn’t mind the baby stage so much but the toddler stage did me in 😂 I have found every year since he turned 5 to be my favourite age so far and now he’s 8, I imagine it’ll start getting tough again in a couple of years time!

Oooh the litter WhatsApp group has started up again - one of Pablo’s litter mates has destroyed his owners sofa while they were out 😳

The breeder has just replied and told her to buy him yak chews and to keep him in his crate the whole time she is out. She hasn’t asked how long he was left for or anything.

But now I’m like, damn - I let Pablo have all of downstairs if I am only upstairs having a shower or something - is he all of a sudden going to turn in the Tasmanian devil and wreck my house 😂 he has gone a bit more in to destroying stuff lately but it’s only his own toys so far.

@SpanielsGalore i’m impressed it’s only tea, and not wine and chocolates!

@Silverbirchleaf I did consider it!

@VanGoSunflowers I couldn't believe it when I read it either. But she was insistent he got frustrated and needed relieving. I would have thought there are laws against it. 🤷‍♀️

My walk story is titled 'Three Spaniels and a Heron'.
The main characters are three spaniels who spot a sick or injured bird on a lagoon and spend 10 minutes barking at it, chasing it and swimming after it.
Secondary character is the bird who swam underwater and kept popping up in different places to keep the dogs on their toes.
Minor character - a wild woman, running from side to side of the lagoon and wondering if she has to wade through thigh high water to get to the dogs on the island. Her dialogue is mainly made up of phrases like "Come here you little bastards" and "You little fucking shits."

The dogs are captured one at a time and tied to a fence. Once the third one is caught, the dogs are dragged to the car, whilst pulling in the opposite direction to return to the bird.

I can't remember ever being so annoyed on a walk before. The watching lab and staffie owners didn't help lower the blood pressure. 🙈

Oh hell, sorry @SpanielsGalore but that story does not sound like fun and you definitely deserved the chocolate.
Are you speaking to the girls yet...?

@CoubousAndTourmaIet It most certainly wasn't fun. I'm dreading the bird still being there tomorrow, so I think I'll rest the arthritic pair and take K to the woods for a good run instead.
We made up after about an hour, when they started whining for their dinner. 🙄

You don’t have bird flu there do you @SpanielsGalore? You thought the bird may be sick? We’ve got it here along with loads of warnings about walking dogs.

@SpanielsGalore I meant to ask you, given you’ve fostered…have you ever noticed how the number of male dogs that are rehomed seems disproportionately high?

I was sorting out the adoptions last night for the last few months, and of the 19 we have successfully re-homed that are no longer in foster…15 were boys. And thinking back on it, when DMum took Satan, part of the reason she wanted her was because she was a girl and there were so few girls. I looked at SA last night out of interest…and again I’d say c. 75/80% boys.

It could well be coincidence but it feels unlikely as when I think about it, it does tend to be boys we get in…

Hope your girls are less bastard-y on the wall this morning!!

@CoubousAndTourmaIet i remember you saying! Your silly girl was so lucky (and also so smart to know the way home)!

Twatdog has been jumped on several times, but he does bounce back quickly (not that he should have too)!

@VanGoSunflowers ah they’re not so bad when they become older…I say this now. DD1 has just turned 13 so it may well start soon! Crazy to think her and Hen are the same age (and one is decidedly better trained!!).

It’s freezing here this morning. Nearly skidded off the road on the way to our morning walk - was only doing 10pm, but there was so much ice. Thankfully, all is fine but it does remind me how dodgy ice can be in the dark. It also meant I then did the dog walk walking like a crab to try and stop sliding which meant I looked faintly like I’d poo’d myself. Babies are happy though. Twatdog got a bit fruity with his girlfriend, Eris explored a mole-hole and even Clem let out a woof of happiness - they do love the cold

I haven't heard any warnings, but I think it must be in the area. We're finding dead birds along the sea front every day. One dog likes to carry them around and another likes to roll on them. It's making for fun walks.
I assumed something was wrong with yesterday's bird, because it didn't attempt to fly away.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I was once told by someone working in rescue, that adolescent males were far more likely to end up in rescue than any other dog. I couldn't tell you the statistics for our rescue. We have more males up for adoption at the moment, but the majority are older dogs. Earlier in the year, we had more females.

Wet and damp here. I am going to rest the older pair and take K to the woods for a good long run.

I’ve just had one of those nice winter walks, slightly frosty but not too cold, and clear blue skies. The woods were muddy though.

Bird ‘flu has been reported here as well, with some wildlife parks suffering, but not seen any warnings for dog walkers.

@SpanielsGalore I mean it does make sense in a way - particularly as they tend to be far bigger so any behavioural issues are trickier to handle.

How was K on her walk? Did she find any deer?

I made the mistake of heading into town at lunch as I had cravings. Biggest mistake I have ever made. It was heaving. I have no idea where all these people have come from, but there are two car parks in the town centre and both were full.

I ended up parking between two SUVs that were both overhanging the space between them and climbing out through the passenger door and then back in that way again after - I couldn't get out my side as the wing mirrors were touching. I took Eris with me and the poor thing was so bamboozled by what I was doing as I had to extract her via the boot by pushing down the back seats. She was definitely judging me.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks The males of any species are always more difficult. 🙈
Your town trip sounds like my idea of hell. I can't do busy places anymore since moving to Scotland.

My walk with K didn't go as planned. Called round to see if a friend wanted to join us. He's 79 years old and has slowed down a lot recently. He's told me he feels like he's waiting for Death. He was slower than ever today and needed to rest every few minutes. So we did a very short walk - what I would have done in 10 minutes took us a little over an hour. He was very shaky too, but then told me he's only eaten one bowl of Shreddies in the last two days.
So K had a longish walk and did some running, but it wasn't as fast paced as I'd have liked. Lots of sniffing though, and no wildlife to terrorise.
I've arranged to walk his dog tomorrow (wire haired vizla) so he can stay home in the warm.

@SpanielsGalore how old is the vizla? The ones around by us are crazy. Will you need to take it on a separate walk or can you go with K as well?

Glad you avoided the wildlife!