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.

Something the West Pennines gets far too much of lately 😩

@CoubousAndTourmaIet It's a three week turnaround on made to order coats. I can't remember when you ordered yours. I know I haven't got round to measuring mine yet. 🙈

I've just checked and it's two weeks, so hopefully it could be on its way this coming week. I can imagine it being a busy time for them though, so we'll just have to be patient. I'll post a photo when we get it.

She's just got absolutely drenched. Fortunately she's really good about being dried off. Sadly the drying robes don't come in a big enough size for her, they only go up to GSD size, so we just wrap her in two gigantic beach towels as soon as she comes in. I shut the gate to restrict her to the extension room when she's wet and dirty. We've had washable puppy pads down in there for weeks to absorb the water and grit off her feet (fortunately she doesn't associate them with toileting), they're brilliant for that and so quick to dry after washing. I could not be without puppy pads although they are widely disapproved of, I know.

Sadly the drying robes don't come in a big enough size for her

I'm sure I've seen ruff and tumble coats on a Shetland pony before....

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks he is absolutely fine today thank you for asking 🙂 totally unfazed by his little adventure!

He usually does a run right at me when he’s got the zoomies on walks. Usually worse after a splash in the river or a muddy puddle. Luckily I’ve managed not to topple over yet 😂 the scales at the vets showed he weighs 24kgs now! I’m fully expecting him to pull me over in the mud at some point but at least I will be wearing my trusty dry robe when he does.

Oh, that's interesting. Thanks.

I think it was Lucky Paws that I was going to get but they weren't big enough.

I hadn't properly looked at Ruff and Tumble, but seemingly, they do have a Giant Mountain Dog size. I'll have to think about it... At £75, it's quite a considered purchase for me at the moment though. It's twice the price of the Lucky Paws giant size one.

I think you've said you're getting something to keep the worst off so a drying coat might not be a worthwhile investment. We only really use ours after swimming and I don't think Brie's a swimmer.

I imagine they're a very worthwhile investment for dogs that swim, but you're right - PMD absolutely hate water. We've ordered her a waterproof coat so we'll see how she gets on with that, but I will keep those Ruff and Tumble in mind, so it is worth knowing about. Thanks for mentioning it.

@VanGoSunflowers so glad he's better. Of course he won't have learnt anything from the experience at all.😀

I've been having a bit of a quieter few days (no MN related arguments - woohoo) as I can't put my finger on what it is but something isn't quite right with Hen. I can't see anything particularly wrong with her as she's still eating and wants to go for walks, but my gut is telling me something isn't quite right. If she's not improved by tomorrow I'll take her to the vets. Clem's been sticking to her like glue, which is usually the first indication that something isn't quite right and is actually what tipped me off. The miserable old bag (Clem, not Hen) even got on the bed last night which resulted in a five way tussle for the duvet.

It's so hard when you sense something amiss @TheHungryHungryLandsharks 😔 and particularly difficult at this time of year if you need a vet.

I really hope she's okay...

@CoubousAndTourmaIet spoke too soon about no arguments (the soup thread)!

Honestly, I think it's probably just age and her slowing down. She's an old girl now. But still, I do worry about her as she was my first baby.

Hope Brie is doing well and it's stopped raining near you! We've had three days rain free...

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I hope you get to the bottom of it. Honestly. If we're not worrying about one, it's the other.
P has taken her anti - socialness up a notch. She no longer joins us in the bedroom at night, but sleeps in the spare room instead.
ETA - how can you argue over soup? 😂 Is it the thread about one tin being too much? If so, the answer is it isn't.

@SpanielsGalore it is! I said it was enough, depending on the size (and of course the quantity and quality of ingredients - if you get rubbish that's basically flavoured water of course it's enough), and you didn't need bread 😀And when I say that (given what a fatty I am), you know that it's a lot of food!

It is really the downside of multiple dogs - one of them is always causing problems! I just want one day without them giving me a headache.

Poor P! Do you think her slightly increase in anti-socialness is related to her other issues? Or perhaps someone has started snoring...

Awww, bless her @TheHungryHungryLandsharks ❤ We're reaching that stage with Freija.

God, you're lucky with the weather! Pouring all day so far, flood warnings for our area. Thankfully, our house is on a hill and above street level, with steps front and back, but the lower end of the village will have the sandbags out.
Brie tiptoed outside for a wee mid morning then ran straight back in. The garden path was underwater at that point.

The soup thing is bonkers. We often have home made soup for our evening meal and it's plenty. We're both a healthy weight. All that thread shows is that most people eat far too much!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Just seen the soup thread. It's a different one. The other one was someone saying a tin of soup was too much for one person, but not enough for two. So she always ate two thirds and threw a third away.

So far today I have had a bowl of Cornflakes and two Pringles. 😂

No idea why P has suddenly decided to sleep in a different room. She's shared with me since she came home at 8 weeks old. I have given up trying to understand her.
I'm also a bit depressed that the supplements are more long term than I anticipated and I can't really afford to keep up with them all. Plus the expensive food they want her to switch to too.

I discovered this morning that K's cat hatred is territorial. Three doors down's cat regularly comes into the garden and the dogs go mad. K will jump the wall to chase it off. This morning she was at the vets for vaccinations and met the resident cat. The cat stood there whilst K had a good sniff. Then it bopped her on the head and sauntered off. 😂

He was very sleepy today. I knew he was ok, I think he just needed to sleep. I’ve had a day like that too. So he slept from about 9am until 2ish - only waking up for food, and he’s back to his normal goofy self now bless him.

I love soup. I don’t think I have ever argued about it though. I like to get one of those big pots of fresh soup and have half of it with half a pack of microwave rice in it. I had that for my lunch today.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I hope Clem is ok!

And hope all other puppers and cats are doing well too. It’s been raining all day again here but I don’t mind it. It means we have dog walks to ourselves!

Oh you'll be fine @VanGoSunflowers , you're not breaking their rules. Apparently soup is fine for a light lunch, but is considered inadequate for dinner 🙄

The persistent rain is making me grumpy so I should probably stay off mn this evening 😬

@CoubousAndTourmaIet it's hard when they get older isn't it? As I said, Hen still goes on long walks and eats and plays, but she does spend most of her time asleep now. It's not dissimilar to having another puppy really, only this one isn't a winky sucking fiend.

Has Brie been back outside again yet?

I agree about eating too much! I always think it's rather like how so many people don't think their dog is fat...but it is. I freely admit my diet leaves a lot to be desired, and I could definitely shed a couple of pounds, so when I think something is a lot of food it's usually because it is 😂

@SpanielsGalore You're not a soggy cornflake person are you?

Are the supplements and food having any noticable effect on her? Or is it one of those things where they claim it will help at some point in the future? I have to say if they weren't immediate i'd be sceptical (but then I am in general)

Bless K for being a good girl 😍That's the sort of dog/cat behaviour we like to see.

@VanGoSunflowers It's Hen (my eldest), but Clem is being clingy with her. But thank you ❤

Bless Pablo! He must have been wiped out. I must say I'd love Eris to give me that much time to myself and be peaceful. When she's not bothering me, or making a noise, I'm still at the stage where I worry.

I'm glad you're appreciating the rainy weather for what it is: an opportunity to dog walk with no one else around 😂That being said, continual rain would wear me down. Particularly heavy rain.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I am not. I don't like milk on cereal. Or gravy on dinners. Or custard on puddings. There's probably an official name for it now, but I'm usually just called a fussy eater.

I put far more effort into feeding my dogs a quality diet and keeping them at a good weight than I do myself.

I haven't noticed any changes in P at all. She's still neurotic and scooting. Three of the supplements have run out, so I need to buy more. And the nutritionist wants to change her food to a more expensive one - £75 for 10kg.
My neighbour was saying in humans they reckon it can take months for supplements to show any benefits. So I perhaps need to have a discussion about how long P needs to be on everything. Short term, it's affordable. Long term it isn't. If I add up everything I paid out for P last month, I had £7 left for the rest of us.

She stepped outside while I was cooking dinner @TheHungryHungryLandsharks , about 90 seconds later she was at the back door waiting to come back in. I don't really mind rain, it's not so much the actual quantity lately as the frequency and duration. It's like a persistent heavy drizzle rather than a sudden downpour that stops within a few minutes.

Food threads on here always shock me. I used to think I was a fairly average eater but the massive quantity that some on here claim to eat in one sitting is just staggering.

The food and supplements situation for P sounds frustrating @SpanielsGalore , doesn't seem as if it would be easy to pinpoint which of them should take priority if it isn't all sustainable long term. Have you checked for a Working Dog version of the food? Essential is now £75 but the working £62.50, which is just about doable for me as her main food but it's still quite pricy, especially as you have more than one dog to feed.

My dad was like you with food, he preferred everything dry and hated what he called "slop". He once refused to eat a spag bol I'd made because he informed me that "it wasn't the correct ratio of wet to dry". Those words have stayed with me for 30 years because that was a man who never cooked a meal or washed a dish in his lifetime.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet It's a special hypoallergenic type food. I'll have to email the nutritionist to discuss budgets. The joint supplement things need to stay. But perhaps I could feed grated carrot and apple instead of powdered. 🤷‍♀️

I cover everything in ketchup or salad cream. 🙈 😂
My ex said my cooking was substandard and it was the same old dross all the time. Another man who never cooked a meal in his life and couldn't come up with any suggestions of what he wanted for dinner when asked.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I’m so sorry, blame my lack of reading comprehension 🤦‍♀️ how is she this morning?

@SpanielsGalore I’m sorry you’re struggling with all the supplements - which ones is she on? Do any of them have food alternatives or can we go down a collective rabbit hole together to find a complete food with some of them in? Sorry that’s probably not helpful as you know far more about dog nutrition than I do. It would be frustrating to think you’re having to spend a lot of money on something that you’re not sure how necessary some of them are or if you can get cheaper alternatives. Did the nutritionist tell you to use certain brands or just the supplements themselves? I know a bit about human supplements - depending on what they are, some take months but some can be much quicker than that (my health turned around practically in 2 weeks after taking a decent iron supplement, I was like a new woman!)
Also, sorry to be blunt but your ex sounds like a prick.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I always get told I eat a lot but I’m little and often and a healthy weight so I don’t pay attention 😂 hoping for a dry day for you today! Also, I am a third of the way through Quicksilver and it’s a very good book! It’s a bit spicy but not too much and well written!

We had a busy day mantrailing at the weekend so the girls were super tired yesterday and the OH have them their only walk yesterday so I escaped the rain. It's not so much the rain that bothers me, more that it doesn't actually seem to get light on these days

Just had notice through that the claim has been paid for pup's gluttony so that was all very straightforward as didn't involve me at all, other than providing my policy number.

Christmas tree is up, stolen bauble count is currently at 1 (nearly all our decorations are crochet or paper so thievery isn't too dangerous) Here's big pup modelling the crochet scarf I made at the weekend.

@VanGoSunflowers she’s okay. Still quiet and sleepy. I needed up having to go into the office so I’ve left her with DMum and Satan. She still ate breakfast, did a decent walk and leapt into DMums car when I got to the station so she’s okay but not okay IYSWIM. My parents will take her to the vets today though and see if they can find anything. I do just think it’s old age though and there’s not much I can do about that.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I don’t blame you! I’d rather heavy short bursts and than drizzle all day as well. Fingers crossed it eases up soon!

@SpanielsGalore that’s so much money for £10kg! I see what you mean about supplements - long term benefits are great but the costs are just astronomical, and if it’s not making an immediate difference it’s hard to justify. Poor P.

No gravy on a roast?! Everything else I can fully support…but no gravy on a roast I couldn’t do.

And agree with Vango! Your ex sounds like a dick. Which I suppose is why he’s an ex!

I’ve just realised it’s only 4 days until we all bugger off to Norfolk. Only 8 days until DH is back (and yes, I am making him drive to Norfolk upon his return and am not waiting for him- not missing precious Norfolk time). Three weeks (after today) until I have to step foot in London again. 😀