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.

@BackToLurk I feel your pain! I don't want to be sexist but it is ALWAYS men of a certain age. Always. Without fail.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet let's not push it...I do not love her warts and did, in fact, get a mouthful of crusty wart when she headbutted me to wiggle free!

So I did treat myself! I got a Sprayway, which is what I used to have. I bought my last one before DD1 was born, and only replacing it as it was ripped at the arms by Twatdog when he was a baby. It only just covers my bum, but it's perfect for days where it's not cold or not pouring with rain, but a bit drizzly. The hood is perfect as well, doesn't fall off or slip back which is excellent as if my hair gets wet it gets frizzy. Dog related things (and food) are the only things I spend good money on. I do still need one for when it's pouring and super windy or absolutely freezing, but the Sprayway is surprisingly insulting.

That's interesting that it was the dog that was slightly different coloured to the rest that had ear problems. Perhaps there is a genetic element to it?

@SpanielsGalore Does she make eye contact when she poos? Mine all do that. I'm undecided if it's a 'peasant, come pick up my poo' or a 'why are you watching me, you weirdo' or even a 'this is nice. Thanks for watching.' Fingers crossed you see some improvement in P❤£400 is a lot, but worth it if it all works - and even if it doesn't at least you have tried.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks £400 is more than my monthly income, so it better bloody help her. 😂
I hope it does though. She went outside and hid under a bush in the garden, because I had Cornflakes for breakfast. 😞 Takes me ages to persuade her to come back in. She'll get as far as the doorstep, but then runs off again. It can take four attempts, even though all food has long since gone.
P always looks worried if I make eye contact with her whilst she's pooing, so I try to avoid it.

I've had my heating on for two hours. Only I haven't, because the boiler had lost pressure again. 🤦‍♀️ It's 13° in my living room. I'm going to walk the cockers to warm up.

Top tip - if you want to remove any trace of dog smells in your house, spill half a bottle of vinegar. 😷

I’m also a big fan of wearing a cap under a hood. It’s the best trick to keep your hood up and out of your eyes. Also I’ve recently discovered wearing a cap if it’s raining and you’re a glasses wearer - no more rain on your glasses!

I bought a cheapy long puffer from Matalan as an emergency purchase just before we went to Scotland and it’s been great! I am tempted to upgrade it to a decent one but might wait until next year. It looks ugly as hell zipped up but it does a good job at keeping me warm. The only thing I don’t like about it is the inside of the hood is the same fabric as the outside so it makes that awful swishing noise in your ears when you have the hood up. But for £40 I can’t complain really.

Ah well, that was very timely talk of waterproof coats, hoods and wet dog smell. Brie is currently the wettest she's ever been 😬 We've rubbed her down with 3 big towels and she's lying under the dining table looking rather sorry for herself.
My hood was up for the entire walk and yup, I love my Plant Hunter very much.
My chap has a Sprayway jacket and rates it @TheHungryHungryLandsharks I don't think his is insulting though...😉 (sorry)

Honest truth; first thing I said to DP about photos of Brie as a tiny babe was "look at the pigment on this girl!" In white dogs, pigment is so important. S had itchy skin issues as well as ear problems and aside from her, we've always gone for pups with more colour.

Hopefully your investment in supplements for P will pay off @SpanielsGalore it does sound as if she's in a lot of pain currently and as we've all said countless times here, pain has such a massive impact on them emotionally.

This one comes to tell me when she's done a poo in the garden and stands over me, supervising, while I bag it up. If it isn't moved immediately, she huffs and puffs and won't settle, so even in the pitch black, pouring rain it has to be shifted within moments.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I have to go out with mine and pick up straight away or K eats it. 🤢🤢🤢

Rosie used to, particularly if it was frozen, I'm sure I've said on here before that we called it poopsicles.

@SpanielsGalore I hadn't realised just how scared poor P was! Poor baby!

P is the opposite of Twatdog and Hen! They both like eye contact whilst they poo - and whine in they don't get it. They seem to think as it's what they want, they can also peep around the door when I use the bathroom. Little weirdos.

@YorkshireFelix I'd have thought the cap would force the hood down? How does it help it stay up!?

@CoubousAndTourmaIet ohh frozen poo is quite the delicacy in this hosuehold (if you're a dog). Rosie would have gotten on well with my bunch.

I managed to skilfully evade the rain this morning - poured whilst I drove to dog walk, stopped whilst I walked, and then poured down when I got back in the car. Perfect 😀And didn't see a single soul.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharksi think it’s a combo of giving some friction for the hood to ‘stick’ to (rather than sliding about on your hair) and a little shelf with the peak of the cap gives it something to rest on. I get annoyed now if I forget to put my hat on before a walk!

For me it's either beanie with hair down or just a hood with my hair coiled inside. It can't be hat and hood. Partly because I have too much hair, partly because if my head gets too hot I get migraine.

I have been suffering with terrible beanie hat hair. It's curly and goes kind of matted

Drizzly here again this morning, so we weren't out for long. Hoping it'll brighten up after lunch for a proper walk.
I got a series of photos of Brie stalking me from halfway down the garden, last pic is a blurry one of her pouncing on me 😆 She's a cheeky scamp ❤

Hope you all have a good day x

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks It's such a shame. She used to be absolutely bomb proof. We did a 10 drive to the Cotswolds to visit DS1. Visited busy tourist attractions and went to pubs for lunch. I was planning on touring the Scottish islands with her. Then her leg issues started and she became car and food phobic. I've got rid of the toaster and bread bin, as they are massive triggers for her. She can cope with me pulling the freezer drawers out now, so there's been some improvement.
I looked into getting a behaviourist out to see her, but it was £500. And I'm not convinced they would be able to help as it's so strange. If I eat alone, she'll be in another room. If DS2 is here, she'll sit alongside the table and stare at him throughout the meal. 🤷‍♀️

You know what they say. The family that 💩 together, stays together. 😂

I agree with @YorkshireFelix. It's the friction that keeps the hood up. I wear a beanie/bobble hat. If it rains, I'll put the hood over the top and it stays up. Without a hat, it keeps slipping off my hair.

Well done on avoiding the rain. Pissing it down here and blowing a hoolie, so we haven't been out yet. The physio said cold and damp is the worst weather for arthritic joints, so we are waiting and hoping it clears up.

Must measure the dogs and order Equafleeces for them. Not that I can afford them now. 😂

I feel I am alone in the non-hat wearing club! I just have frizzy hair regardless 😀

@CoubousAndTourmaIet sorry you get migraines if your head gets too hot ❤Must make it so hard when it's cold as you lose so much heat through your head! I'd love to see some photos of Brie's stalking!

@BackToLurk mine just goes matted even without the hat, so I envy you!

@SpanielsGalore Perhaps DS2 needs to move back in? That is rotten for P though, and for you! I agree though, £500 is such a large amount of money when you're not 100% sure, particularly when the issues are so unique and possibly linked to health.

It is true - our poo closeness has bought the dogs and I closer. I'll take the win that Twatdog no longer chins on my knees when I use the toilet! That was quite uncomfortable. Who was it who's dog jumped on them in the bath and nearly drowned them? It was either you or @YorkshireFelix I think?

No coats for the dogs here - but that's more just sheer cost more than anything! Buying one for a large dog would probably set me back £100...let alone four (five once the tiny evil monster is fully grown).

The dogs frozen food orders all turned up today (speaking of horribly expenses) so I had great fun trying to squeeze it into the freezer amongst the sausage casserole (best meal ever), chilli (second best meal) and ice cubes.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks it definitely wasn’t me because V is terrified of water!!

I always look at Equafleeces but I think V would try and remove it and rip a hole. He did that with his drying towel but thankfully it was just an Amazon cheapie.

I thought it was @Bupster , it sounds like Bill to a T.

I have had a Maine Coon join me in the shower a couple of times and another that sat on my lap while I was on the loo.

I mostly just wear a Seasalt handyband on my head for dog walking @TheHungryHungryLandsharks , unless it's snowy when I sometimes wear a beanie, but it does usually end up shoved in my pocket. I'm another that gets matted hair from hats, like you and @BackToLurk are saying, it's why I so rarely wear a hat these days. They dry my hair out horribly.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet ahhh yes, it might have been @Bupster who was nearly drowned!

I love that we all have bathroom buddies. Pets really are the best. Not sure I'd feel quite as 'awww' about the whole thing if it was a human who was displaying the same creepy behaviour...

I think you have fairly long hair like me, don't you? Perhaps @BackToLurk does as well? That might explain the matting. I keep saying I'll cut mine, but never do. Mostly because if I have it short, I just look like an egg.

@YorkshireFelix Sorry for unfairly maligning V by suggesting he was training to be an assassin!! 😀Perhaps when V is older he might be less determined to chew everything?

It suddenly just got very very dark here, and I have had to turned all the lights on in the study. Ten minutes ago the sunlight was blinding me...I can't keep up with today, one minute I'm being blinded and one minute it's pouring!

I've never bothered with coats before. But N and P are both on short walks, with on lead sessions at the beginning and end. And N plods a lot with an occasional jog. Plus they both have arthritis. So I worry that they don't move enough to keep warm in this weather.
The physio said (and the nutritionist agreed) that whilst their energy was going towards keeping them warm, it wasn't going towards helping their bodies heal.
So I figured it was worth a try. Equafleece seems to be the only company who do warm coats with four legs in. I just need to get round to measuring them.

K won't be getting one, as she runs like a nutter. I will get her a drying coat though, as she shivers once she stops.

I remember my Mum making our GR a coat out of an old picnic blanket when he got old. This was back in the day before dog coats were a thing. I found it hugely embarrassing as a teenager.

Suddenly very dark here as well @TheHungryHungryLandsharks

Yes, very long hair always, I too look wrong with it short. I think I'm right in saying that my fellow rebel girl @VanGoSunflowers has long hair also... Right now mine is horribly tangled, which always seems to happen at this time of year. If I can ever pick through the knots I'll start plaiting it again to keep it tidy.

We're off out. There's blue sky behind the dark clouds so hopefully the showers will be short lived. Fingers crossed...

We've joined the dogs in the wars club. Really, we're very lucky, this is our first non routine vet visit in 3 years. Underneath of her eye is quite swollen (you can't see at this angle) Vet has ruled out a foreign body or a scratch so hopefully it's just something that will clear up with some eye drops. Luckily she loves the vet.

I don't get accompanied to the bathroom as that is where the bath is and they won't risk it!

@tizwozliz Poor Pup. Hope the eye drops help.
I thought you were going because she'd got green paint up her nose.

I've messed up. 🤦‍♀️ P's pain meds have nearly run out, so I need to order more. Her insurance renewed three days. Should have done it last week when they would have been free.

I can’t go to the toilet alone either. It’s like having toddler in the house again.

i tend to wear either a beanie or bobble hat. In the evening. I gave a beanie with a light in it, which is really useful.

Bill has jumped into the bath, yes, but not yet when I've been in it, though I wouldn't put it past him in the least. He does eye it up sometimes and I eye him back and tell him to go have a snoozle, which has so far worked, but I'm not counting on that continuing. He is a dog who very much likes contact...

@SpanielsGalore that all sounds absolutely rotten. Can you get your vet to refer a behaviourist? Would it then be covered by your insurance? Mine is covered by PetPlan though God only knows what my premiums will be next year, and Bill is still a nobhead.

Today a squirrel ran along the garden walls across the road, and it was the MOST exciting thing ever to happen on this street since the house at the bottom of the road exploded. Here is his nobness and his magnificent arse guarding the front window just in case it comes back.

@Bupster I see Bill is looking as happy as ever! I also see the Mini you bought him is looking clean (how is this awful weather?!)

I’m sure if you explained to Bill that if he jumped in it whilst you’re in it he might drown you, he might decide not to bother! 😂

@tizwozliz i don’t know if it’s my phone screen or not, but your girls nose looks bright green?!

You’re missing out on the bathroom companionship! Nothing more relaxing in this world than minding your own business and hearing a loud huff from the door, glancing up and seeing beady eyes glaring at you.

It's the eye drops they gave her to check for scratches. What's odd is it goes in yellow, and when you wipe it off it's yellow but comes out her nose bright green!

@tizwozliz oh good, I’m glad it’s not just my eyes or my phone screen! Thought I was going crackers and that dogs now snotted like green! How is she this morning?