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.

Gorgeous photos @tizwozliz

Yuletide Blessings to all.

Thinking today of our sadly departed Finn who was a midwinter day puppy.

Ah the Norwegian Blue parrots clearly bumping the ceiling in their attempts to escape your kitchen @SpanielsGalore

I had a pot belly until we got Brie, can highly recommend carrying a giant puppy up and down steps umpteeen times a day for three months to anyone wanting their waistline back.

God, no, definitely not a loose lead expert, far from it. At the start of the year I was convinced I was in for 11 more years of having my arm pulled out of the socket like I had with Rosie. Never cracked the lead walking with her or the first two at all. No idea how Brie has become so amazing but looking at her on lead now you could almost think she was well trained 😮 It's shocking to me. Genuinely. A relaxing walk was not a thing with any of them before.

I won't say I told you so but I had faith in @VanGoSunflowers from the start. I trusted my instincts enough to tell her to trust her own instincts. And I'm sure that's as clear as mud 😜

Home made beetroot soup awaits 😋

Stunning pictures.

Ugh. So embarrassed, wish I'd kept quiet over there now and left it to the training experts 😳

Gratuitous photo for no reason other than the fact that she looks cute lying on the sofa.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet kept quiet about what!?

@SpanielsGalore I still have a pot belly nearly 24 hours later. I feel awfully sick. Barely eaten today...so I guess that'll teach me for being a raging fatty with the self-control of a Golden Retriever in a pig-ear shop.

How can someone be having a mental breakdown because their puppy isn't toilet trained by 10 weeks???
I'm logging out before I say something stupid. oops, I already did 😠

Oh, kept quiet on the Adolescent Thread 😳 I should have. I'm just very overexcited about Brie's loose lead walking because it feels like a little miracle but I should have 🤐 and left the training experts to it. Ugh.
And now the house training thread 🙄 That poor little pup 😢

Sorry. I hate that feeling of being overly full. I hope it passes soon.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I have to say I don't contribute on that thread anymore, and have it hidden lest I be tempted to stick my nose in - after last time, I learnt my lesson about not posting where I am not wanted - so I'm afraid I can't even read what was said! I'm also sticking out of the puppy thread as I know people who prefer it when I don't post are also there and I don't want to upset them again 😫

Tbh I do think every dog is different so every piece of training advice is valuable - and you should be proud/excited about Brie's loose lead working 😊And regardless of how experienced someone is, someone always does things a bit different and it can or can't work. Dog ownership is ongoing learning and anyone who thinks differently is a bit of a twit.

Oh I saw that and commented. Really, so few people have puppies that toilet train that fast and those that do have done so through serious work (and luck) that not many others are able to put in for whatever reason.

In that photo of Brie above, she looks rather like she is judging someone...

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Why do you regret posting about your loose lead walking on the adolescent thread? Your contribution is far more valuable than mine, as your's worked. I can only say what I tried and failed.

Haven't been on the toilet training thread......yet. I will admit to getting a bit dispondant with K. P only took two weeks, so I was expecting the same with K. She took two months. But I googled it and Google told me I was an idiot, so that made me feel better. 😂

I have a theory. (Clears throat)
Puppies raised in a home are quicker to toilet train, because they have already started learning, than puppies raised in kennels, that go anywhere.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet don’t be embarrassed! I’m the most novice one here and I still stuck my oar in 😂 like we said, there’s so many different ways to train a dog and most of us have tried a lot of them in desperation and many didn’t work 😂. I still feel as though it’s like some kind of witchcraft and only briefly considered whether dancing naked during a full moon around an old oak tree might be as effective 😂

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I hope you feel better enough by tomorrow to hit the carbs again!

@SpanielsGalore I know I am completely kidding myself aren’t I? I’ll probably be back here when it’s icy saying that his lead walking has gone to shit and he’s pulled me over and dragged me down the road 😂

I already can’t remember when we had toilet training down by. I think I expected the worst and was possibly pleasantly surprised. He still pees in the house on the odd occasion out of excitement if I forget to let him out before a guest comes over 🤦‍♀️
So maybe we still don’t technically have it down now 😂

I just want to cuddle him. He’s adorable.

Dog has taken himself off to his crate. He’s not being sociable this evening.

Lovely photos @tizwozliz I hope you’re having a great time! Same to @TheHungryHungryLandsharks - it sounds like you are all enjoying yourselves.

I’ve spent today cleaning and making Xmas day gravy to stick in the freezer for a few days. V spent the whole time stood by the oven shouting at me 🤣 I am just waiting for DH to get home from the restaurant then I have a 3 hour round trip to collect DD’s birthday cake from my Mums house. I probably won’t be able to set off until 10ish but hopefully the roads will be very quiet! She is a professional cake maker and does all the grandkids cakes so it’s tradition in our house. Then I have a day of taking two tweens into Leeds on the train for lunch and shopping tomorrow. A few days before Christmas. Pray for me!!

Here is V looking like a small prawn this morning 🍤

I can understand you avoiding the other threads @TheHungryHungryLandsharks I keep walking away from puppy thread because there's a particular one there who clearly hates me and makes a big point of ignoring me. Not sure how I offended her even. She is not a doodle owner so it's not my puppy farm comments. I wish I'd kept quiet about loose lead today but it's been my only area of training success really.

Hmmm, interesting theory @SpanielsGalore Brie was house reared and pretty good, same with A. However, M was dry through the night by 10 weeks and had been kennelled, but R, who was house reared, was still weeing in the kitchen at almost 4 months. S & F both kennel pups, both good. My parents two were both kennel pups and bloody awful, still weeing indoors on occasion as adults.

Thank you @Silverbirchleaf . This was the most horribly bitey puppy for months, but has turned into such a cuddly thing now, just adorably squishy.

There's no reason why P should pull you over @VanGoSunflowers . If it didn't happen to me with Hyacinth Hippo during that horrible delinquent phase of 7-9 months, then it won't happen to you. But when it's icy, don't go out without Yak Trax.

Oh gosh, poor you @YorkshireFelix , a late night drive then a busy day tomorrow. You'll be exhausted! I hope your daughter has a lovely day.
That's such a cute photo of V all curled up like a tiny pup ❤

are you also heading away for Christmas?

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks

Yes, we're away in the Highlands all week, just me the OH and the pups.

@VanGoSunflowers I can confirm I feel better, although I still feel a bit bloated. Socius - For those of you who wish to know what could compel someone to eat 3-4 plates of food which is usually meant for one person, to eat that amount themselves...just look at that menu. How can you choose just 1-2 plates!? And how can you share!?

@CoubousAndTourmaIet yes I know what you mean! Bit gutting as I'm finding the Winky Sucker to be quite stress inducing these days, but it's fine - I can whinge about her nefarious ways here and to DMum who I think thought I was being dramatic about the Winky Sucker's ways at first and has now realised that I was not being dramatic and she is, in fact, a little toerag 😂

My worst one for tiddling inside was Clem by a mile, but even she was about 16 weeks so not too bad. @SpanielsGalore but I can't help but think that was because she's a miserable contrary old bag, who was born that way, and was doing it just to be contrary.

@YorkshireFelix V really is tiny! How much does he weigh? I wish you luck in your shopping endeavours today - you're a braver woman than me 😁

@tizwozliz that sounds like the perfect Christmas! ❤I'll stand by waiting for lots of lovely scenic photos.

I've said before to Spaniels that I'd love to go to Scotland for a holiday with the dogs, but it's 10+ hrs in the car for us and given we have to take two cars the driving would just be awful. I find Norfolk bad enough and that's only 3 hours.

I will manage to take the babies out this morning. Human babies will stay with PIL whilst my parents and I go for an amble around Holkham Beach. DMum and I have already conspired that we then we may accidentally find ourselves in Holt (40minutes down the road) getting coffee from the best coffee shop in Norfolk. Awful. My dad gets no choice, of course. He'll just do what he's told and nod along in that way that only 80+ year old men can, when they're very long suffering and know better than to fight it...

That restaurant does sound amazing @TheHungryHungryLandsharks , aside from the small well behaved dogs bit. But then again, none of my lot has ever been near a coffee shop even, let alone a posh place. I don't think I'd dare. I expect it's all Italian Greyhounds etc, refined and dainty, not a bloody big bus horse like the one living in my house. Yes, that is what I call her frequently, although it has to be said with a Liverpool accent 😁 Hope you have a lovely beach walk. Hmmm, yes, I had a well-trained dad too.

I think you should go back on the puppy thread to chat about trials and tribulations of life with the winky sucker. You can't let one person drive you away from every thread. If I did that, I wouldn't be here at all, I seem to rub people up the wrong way on every single thread I post on 😬 Doing it now with modern urban dog person and Newfie pup one 😞 I do hate myself for it.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I took Twatdog in there when he was young (about 7/8 months). The problem is the restaurant really isn't big enough for anything much larger than a Springer and even at 7 months he was completely in the way. At least with small dogs you can stick them under the table - can't really do that with a 35KG+ Golden Retriever!

It is a brilliant restaurant though. We only go 3/4 times a year but they recognise us by name, know our preferred table. Honestly, I've never had such good customer service which 100% makes the meal

To be fair, I am quite happy with this thread so I don't really need the other one. Plus I'm not use anyone would have any advice on how to stop my dog being a nasty little pervert. Goodness only knows what DH is going to think about it - he only saw her do it twice and had a heart attack both times. 😂

I think everyone winds everyone up a bit on dog threads - but no one ever really takes offence. Dog owners never like to admit their dog breed is anything less than perfect and their views on dog raising are anything other than 100% correct. People are also really set in their ways about dogs, I have found. Its a rare person who admits they made a mistake in dog ownership/raising/ choosing their breed. I definitely don't like to admit I've made a mistake and have very (very) strong views.

I wouldn't hate yourself for it, you post because you care and if it changes only one persons views about the utility/value in bigger breeds as a family pet, I think that can only be a good thing. ❤

@CoubousAndTourmaIet This is what happens when you base your theories on a study of two dogs. 😂 K actually slept through the night from 8 weeks old, but took months to train during the day. P was up in the night for months, but house trained in two weeks. I thought my first pair were trained within two weeks, but really it was me that was trained to know their signals. If I went out and left others 'supervising', I'd come home to poo under the dining table. 🙄

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Oh do come to Scotland. I can meet TD. 💖 And mine are all bitches, so there's no winkys. That's gross! Does she do it to strange dogs you meet on walks? I'd be mortified if it was me.

I don't know who all these disagreeing people are, but fuck 'em. 🤷‍♀️

@YorkshireFelix I hope you and the cake made it safely home last night. Happy birthday to your daughter. I hope you all have a lovely day in Leeds.

@tizwozliz Are you by a Loch or the sea?

So depressing. They now want to create a designer dog for urban living because apparently working dogs no longer have any useful function.

I have to walk away from it. It pains me all the wonderful old breeds in decline but no, they now want a robot dog for city life. It is so sad.

Same two people as usual.

@SpanielsGalore Yes! She greets all dogs by ducking under tummies to ascertain if there is a winky there or not. If there is no winky, she ducks back out and resumes normal behaviour. If there's a winky...well, let's just say I have had many the male owner look very perplexed and then, very quickly, very embarrassed. She makes nasty slurping noises as well 😐

It's all quite odd. I think most people just assume she was taken from her mother too soon, but she wasn't. She was one of the first weaned and barely looked at Pen after. So it's definitely not a 'looking for milk thing.'

After 5 minutes in Twatdog's company you'd be begging me to take him away! But I would happy offer you Eris, maybe she can learn some manners at the hands of P, K and N...

@CoubousAndTourmaIet "a robot dog for city life."

My answer to that is...tell me you're not a real dog person without telling me you're not a real dog person!

Give me a working dog any day, even one as pointless as Twatdog, over a robot dog.

I am happy. I have had cake and coffee and am currently sat in the coffee shop with the dogs whilst my poor father is dragged around the shops by my mother for a 'quick browse.' They've been gone for an hour so far! They walked past the coffee shop a few minutes ago and she had her hand clamped on his wrist - possibly to prevent him doing a runner. And he was carrying about six different bags 😂

Sorry but the "winky sucking" thing sounds mortally embarrassing 😳@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Having an obsessive crotch sniffer was bad enough. Bet you can guess which one...? Yup, Rosie, aka The Tart, our champion humper, digger and crotch sniffer, who was anyone's for a cuddle. But no, even she wasn't willy obsessed, thank goodness. Poor Merlin would have keeled over on the spot 😬

I know what you mean about not a dog person. Why do they want to create this multi purpose dog for the masses? It'd be like everyone driving exactly the same car or wearing identical clothes. Is this the way we're heading? Sheeple, without an individual thought. They can count me out of that.

Ah, your mother sounds like mine. Nothing pleased her more than a spot of retail therapy on holiday, whereas dad & I would rather be halfway up a mountain with a flask of coffee.

That's it with the house training, isn't it @SpanielsGalore ? Hard to know how much of it is "stupid" puppy, how much owner just not being vigilant enough. If I take Brie as an example, we only ever had one indoor poo, a couple of weeks after we got her, and it was completely my fault, because I was vacuuming and didn't hear her ask. To make comparison with a previous dog seems unfair when it's a different breed, opposite sex, possibly a different time of year. Merlin was our best re toileting, a spring pup, we got him in early summer, whereas Rose & Finn who took longer to housetrain were both winter pups. It was too cold to leave the back door open and that may have been a factor. Dunno, but I suppose I'm quite laid back with young puppies, it doesn't faze me. I like the baby stage, it's early adolescence when I lose the plot and end up hating them for a few weeks.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Slurping noises. 🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢
It's very kind of you, but I think I'll pass on the offer of Eris. K seems to copy the bad habits than set a good example.

Glad you're having a nice relaxing time, watching the world and your parents go by.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Ah yes. I didn't take weather conditions into consideration. P came home in August. K was late November during the snow. She was a tiny 2.5kg little scrap and would sit outside shivering. I couldn't blame her for not wanting to go outside to wee.

@SpanielsGalore

Are you by a Loch or the sea?

Both! Loch Ewe

It looks beautiful round there. 💖
One day, when I haven't got a travel phobic dog, I will tour the Highlands and Islands.

My chap says the same but with the word wife in place of dog 😞
I'm an awful traveller.