Beyond Adolescence and General Chit Chat - part 3

[SpanielsGalore]

Not tagging anyone. I'm sure you'll all find your way here if you want to join in. 😁

@tizwozliz I imagine it’s exactly like that for them! I always use a harness on walks and keep forgetting to put his collar on for walks which is very naughty of me! The collar I bought him has a handle on it so thought it’d be useful in case I need to grab hold of him in some sort of dog related emergency or to stop him jumping up at visitors

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks If she could manage the car journey, you could have her!

@VanGoSunflowers Mine don't wear collars. Their ID tgs are attached to their harnesses. P used to have one, but it got lost in the woods one day.

@tizwozliz That's brilliant! Did it take her long to learn?

Just took P and K to the woods and deeply regretted it. K is so well behaved when it's just the two of us. Stays fairly close, keeps an eye on me and waits for me to catch up with her. Add P into the mix and the pair are running wild at a distance, yapping their heads off. There must have been a lot of deer around today, as they aren't usually that bad. K did recall to a whistle, but then she saw P doing a fly by so legged it before I had time to put her lead on. P ended up going on lead and K calmed down.

So P is definitely not in my good books. Doesn't help that I scraped my arm on the stair gate and twisted my foot during this morning's shenanigans. I've told her I'm not taking her to the woods again and she's only allowed out with N.

Then we drove home and she was trembling, so obviously feeling shit again/still and now I feel guilty. 🤦‍♀️

It took about 4 days before getting reasonably consistent with the tap and the catch. But we already had learnt something similar to tap so wasn't totally from scratch.

Little pup is way too enthusiastic with her tap and launches the treat miles so I end up having to pick them off the shelves/from behind furniture 😂

@tizwozliz that is honestly adorable! Been trying to do a few things like that with Pablo but not to that level!

@SpanielsGalore Im sorry you had such a rubbish walk. Try not to feel guilty, we aren’t robots! And these cute little furry fuckers can try our patience at times 😂

@tizwozliz That trick is amazing. How do you teach it?

@SpanielsGalore Ohh poor P. You don't mean it.❤Although if you did, I would be straight there.

It is lovely how P & K clearly have so much fun together that they just can't control themselves - it's clearly such a strong bond. But I can completely imagine how frustrating, and scary it is. And then the added guilt of her trembling. Do you think her trembling was genuine terror? I imagine with P it is simply because she seems to do it a lot and I don't think she's manipulative...

Sometimes when Satan is a turd and is told off, she does full body trembles until she's cuddled...and that is definitely manipulation. Switches it off and on at the drop of a hat.

@tizwozliz and @Silverbirchleaf thank you for the collar recommendations! They look much stronger than the flimsy object that came from Amazon...

@VanGoSunflowers I know what you mean about craving a walk without having to think! I find the only walks I can do like that are on Holkham Beach (my happy place) as visibility is so great you can see for literally miles if anyone is around. The only thing to watch out for are the birds or people coming out of the dunes, but in off-season I can walk for hours and not see anyone, or worry about the evil little monsters.

I get the impression I've done something wrong this morning but not sure what

Gave his breakfast a minute late?

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks They do love running together. P does her first 5 minutes on lead and K waits for her to be free and is so happy when she can run with her. Just wish she wasn't such a bad influence. 😂

It's definitely fear trembling. She only does it in the car and at loud noises. Love that Satan has everyone twisted round her little paw though. 😂

@tizwozlizgThat's definitely a look of disapproval.

Off to a great start here this morning. K jumped the wall and caught a blackbird in next door's garden. I had to shake her breakfast bowl at her to get her to come back in the end. NDN now has the injured bird inside in a cage.
Then to add to the excitement, it's dustbin day. I planned to be out for 10:45 as glass collectors always come at 11. They haven't been for 6 weeks, so there's extra glass to collect and it always makes P tremble. For the first time in 3 years they came first and were here at 8:30. 🤦‍♀️ We got through it with the help of very loud music and food.

I haven't heard from the referral vet yet. I'm very tempted to start giving P Paracetamol. N weighs 17ish kg and has 3/4 of a tablet, three times a day. P is 12ish kg. I was thinking of giving her half a tablet, twice a day. Yea or nay?

Wow, no rain and blue skies today so walked to park for off lead walk. Muddy in parts, but okay (though glad I didn’t put clean trousers on).

We found lots of snowdrops today

@tizwozliz It is not fair how fantastic your photos are!!

@SpanielsGalore Poor P. I can imagine it's really hard to stay annoyed when she's just scared rather than trying to manipulate. And then of course if you forgive him she forgets what she was in trouble for to begin with...it's a bit of a vicious circle.

Speaking of Satan, I took her for a lunch-time walk today and I got stopped about four different times by people remarking on what a 'lovely little dog' she was. One lady even called her 'utterly precious.' Just goes to show how easily some people can be fooled. 😂

Glad you managed to get through dustbin day relatively unscathed! Tbh I'm shocked yours come so late! Ours are there at about 6-6:30 without fail. I'd kill for them to be a bit later - if only so I could bring my bins in faster (they always appear when I'm out on dog walks) and not have to deal with people using my black bin as a handy deposit for their dog-poo if I don't whip it inside quickly enough. Nothing worse than opening your black bin to check the binman has been and finding 3-4 bags of dog poo in it.

Half a tablet twice a day sounds about right. Could also do a half once and a quarter once, just to be really cautious?

@Silverbirchleaf glad you enjoyed your rain free walk, even if you did get a bit muddy!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I'd be extremely pissed off if our binmen came that early. We have 1, 4 or 5 bins, depending on the week, so collections go on from 8 - 11. Most just warrant a sit to attention, but the glass shattering causes trembling. Fortunately today coincided with breakfast, so although P was unhappy and had her tail tucked right under, she wasn't as upset as usual. Perhaps I need to give her a chew next bin day.
Cheeky buggers using your bin for their poo bags!

I always knew Satan was a sweetheart really. 💖

It was bloody freezing and started to rain on our morning walk. The sea was very rough and the tide the highest I have seen it. Hopefully we will fair better when we head back out soon.

Sorry to disappoint but DH had to work some extra hours in the restaurant so not enough time for waterfall walk! We still went up on the moors though and it was lovely. We’re going to try again when we have a free day. V was a very good boy and was pooped afterwards.

We’ve just done a very wet and muddy walk down the river. I am not usually bothered by winter but I am desperate for spring to come and maybe some dry weather. He was a good boy again today - we practiced heel walking on his slip lead, off lead heel, stop whistle and lots of recall and he smashed it. Even some polite sniffs with other dogs! Here he is looking absolutely stinking filthy 😬

Gorgeous as always! Your girls are so lovely. I am sooooo impressed by the spatula treat trick 😁

@SpanielsGalore she ate her food even though she was scared? That's a good sign! 😊

It's the downside of living near the 'countryside'. Even though there's a poo bin by the entrance to the fields, people still use our bins rather than walk the extra 50m down the road to the fields - even though they're going that way anyway!! Drives me crackers.

Can't believe you can say you knew she was a sweetheart! Nothing sweet about Satan😂

@YorkshireFelix ohhhh V is such a handsome little man. He looks so happy 😍Perhaps he looks extra happy because he knows he was a good boy?

Thought for a second that every dog on this thread was black, and then looked back and saw the white spaniel’s, and how could I forget lovely Bill.

Some great photos.

@Silverbirchleaf Plus @TheHungryHungryLandsharks has five golden retrievers. 😁

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks It's in the breed description - all cocker spaniels are sweethearts. Even the ones that would rather bite you than lick you. 💖

You need to post a group photo of your lot. I don't think I've ever seen them all.

@SpanielsGalore I don't tend to share photos of the girls, as I breed from them. I've almost completely stopped sharing photos of Eris now she's getting a bit older...which I know sounds batty but I do worry about them. Twatdog is the one exception to the rule as - let's be honest - no one is going to try and steal him. They'd take one look at him wanking around and hand him back.

But here is one of Clem and Eris from a few months ago that I found. They were sitting nicely and then Eris tried to jump into Clem's face, Clem batted her away and Eris fell...

Mostly I think I manage to get about two in a photo before it all goes wrong! I'll see if I can dig up some others later once I'm back from work 😭

That is brilliant 🤣

That is hysterical!

Wasn’t really feeling dog-walking in the rain this morning. Then saw some snowdrops and decided to set myself a challenge, inspired by @tizwozliz of taking photos of Dog with snowdrops.

However, phone was on portrait mode, so snowdrops came out blurred, and didn’t see any after the first lot.

But in other news, our six month hose pipe ban has been lifted!

@YorkshireFelix sadly that position (on her face) appears to be DWS default unless she's off being nefarious with the local boy dogs. She spends a lot of time being shoved about.

@Silverbirchleaf who needs snow drops when you have such a handsome dog? 😍Our hosepipe ban was also lifted today which is amusing as half the fields here have been flooded for weeks...

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I think we live in the county.

lovely! I am going to seek out some snowdrops now.

This weather is absolutely grim. The wind is howling and icy cold and we’ve had torrential rain and sleet showers all day. V decided he needs the toilet 4 million times today so I’ve been walking round the block constantly. I wish I could train him to go in the yard again! He won’t even pee on our street as I assume it’s too close to the house.

Forecast looks just as gross for the next few days too 🥲