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. 😁

Yes, the Great Dane and Doberman were magnificent.

Also liked the Sheltie over the corgi, who I felt looked plump (but I don’t know the breed standard). Are RKC trying to promote the breed?

I liked seeing the unusual breeds as well- the small Greenland husky dog and the big Pomeranian mastiff dog.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks ohhhh that is even better then if it’s the adopter! How lovely. This may be a stupid question but I tried to find out about this when we were trying to adopt a rescue before we ended up getting V - how does it work with insurance and those pesky ‘pre existing conditions?’ I assume adopter will sort their own insurance once the dog is rehomed, but say the dog had an issue with something in the past, would it mean they wouldn’t be covered by insurance if it comes up again since it would be a new policy? It’s something I’ve never been able to get my head around. I know this is a very random question but it just popped into my head haha.

I have seen with Spaniel Aid in particular they advertise the failed foster thing as a perk of fostering. So skipping the queue essentially. But obviously it could be complete chance that you foster a dog that you would love to keep so it might not happen straight away. I guess it’s a good way to get more fosterers involved but then terrible for retaining them so must be much more work in the grand scheme of things?!

I thought you just had DWS with you! Good luck then 🤣🤣🤣 I keep getting lots of Crufts content on TikTok and think I would spend an absolute fortune there.

Hi everyone. I'm still having trouble posting, so I will try going with lots of short ones instead.

With the rescue I foster for, you aren't allowed to apply to adopt your first three foster dogs. But they now do 'foster with a view to adopt' placements. The only downside is the dogs come straight from their owners so haven't been assessed by the rescue. If they decide not to go ahead, the dog is found a new home.
The rescue also covers all vet fees for pre existing conditions.

Above should have said 'doing lots of short posts'.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Hope you got your tooth sorted out. Nothing worse than tooth pain.
Good luck at Crufts. I hope DWS enjoys the experience, even though the judges are prejudiced against her gorgeous colouring.

@tizwozliz Bloomin ticks! I'm hoping this year won't be as bad as last year. I was getting several off the dogs after each walk.

@YorkshireFelix I hope V is OK. It's such a worry when they are off their food and have explosive bottoms. I give fine white fish and sweet potato for a few days if they have upset stomachs.

I think my lot fail at everything on your wish list for V. 😂
Like their Uncle Cousin, they have mastered the settling at home. Their recall is good until deer or rabbits are involved. I'm working on the stop whistle with K. Do you train sit at a distance on the whistle as opposed to stop moving? I'm thinking that would be easier. My dogs probbly range a lot further than some people would be happy with, but I don't mind that.
I used to be able to take P everywhere - to pubs and cafes and busy tourist spots. But then she became scared of the car and food phobic, so all that has gone out of the window. Must admit, I haven't tried with K.
How strange V won't walk on the lead if there is another person present. P won't let anyone else hold her lead, but she doesn't mind company. We've never really mastered loose lead walking. I don't do enough of it to put the effort in.
I think K would make a brilliant trialling dog. She's very biddable and extremely fast. But then she'd miss her home comforts. Pretty sure she'd prefer a comfy bed and sofa to being in kennels for 23 hours a day.

I hope you hear good news about the job after the weekend. 🤞

P is recovering well. Three weeks of crate rest down. Three to go.

Had a couple of eventful walks with K.
The first one was down the seafront. K was doing her usual thing of exploring the burn for ducks, when she suddenly started screaming. She'd got caught on the barbed wire and was panicking and struggling to free herself. As soon as I reached her, she calmed down and sat still whilst I untangled her. Fortunately it was only her ear feathering that was caught and there was no lasting damage. I have now added a small pair of scissors to my dog walking bag.

Second walk was in the woods. We'd had a lovely first hour and then K disappeared. She came back once to a whistle, but it was more of a fly by than a recall. She eventually came back after a very long five minutes, absolutely knackered and with a bleeding tongue. So it was a slow on-lead walk back to the car, with the occasional carry along the way.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Meant to say that it's lovely that the potential adopter and adoptee had an instant bond. ❤️

@YorkshireFelix same as with @SpanielsGalore if we know the dog has pre-existing conditions, we'll cover the cost of their treatment so new owners don't have to worry too much about insurance. Spaniel Aid do similar as well. You can absolutely choose to waive that offer though - and lots of people do because although some of the treatments are expensive if the dog is old, then people are often prepared to cover the costs themselves to ease the burden on the charity.

Trying to keep fosterers is the hardest part. Foster failing is a 'perk' and some dogs definitely do just belong in some homes. But losing good fosterers is always a blow. We have a lot of really good ones but most have existing dogs and obviously not all dogs are suitable for fostering with another dog. So for us the hardest thing is when we can see a dog is so well suited to a fosterer who doesn't have any existing dogs because we rely on them so much.

DH invited himself and Twatdog! It was originally meant to be just DWS and me. Tbh I think he just wants some bonding time with Twatdog as he's been overseas Twatdog's entire life, other than a few weeks here and there, and he always wanted a boy...I think in his mind he thought he would return home and Twatdog would be 'his'😂

@Silverbirchleaf I think all Corgi's look that plump tbh. I've never seen one and thought 'ohh that's lovely and slim.' But I know what you mean about unusual breeds! I love seeing the hound and toy groups as they're the ones I know the least about - I have such a soft spot for the Pharaoh Hound

@SpanielsGalore Good to hear from you, I was a bit worried something might have happened to P but so glad to hear she's still doing well❤I bet her first proper walk will be the happiest day of her life!

Turned out it wasn't filling pain, it was something else so I ended up having a tooth extracted at a private dentist as the pain got too bad 😩£500 + dry socket afterwards!

Poor K must have been so terrified if she was screaming but again it does just go to show how much trust she has in you that she sat still to let you detangle her! What do you recon she did in the woods to get a bleeding tongue!?

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Silly DH thinking he'll be able to steal TD away from you. We all know what a big Mummy's boy he is.

Sorry to hear about your tooth. I used to dread losing my teeth, but when I had bad tooth pain I was begging the dentist to rip them all out. I honestly think it is worse than labour. And I have 4 children, so I am allowed to say that. 😂

I thought that about K and her trust in me. As I ran towards her, I thought I would have trouble trying to free her. But as soon as I reached her, she instantly sat calmly whilst I untangled her hair from the barbs. Bless her.
She runs wih her tongue lolling out, so I assume she caught it on some brambles or another barbed wire fence. I don't think she even noticed, as it didn't slow her down.

Quite happy with the terrier group winner.

All the shortlisted dogs were rarer breeds. No Jack Russell, staffy, or border terrier amongst them.

@Silverbirchleaf I was as well! That Norwich terrier was stunning and I wish it had done better, but I agreed with all the scoring last night.

DH and I have a bet going that the Pug, Poodle and the Frenchie both place well tonight. I'm banking on a Pug win the 'toy' group.

@SpanielsGalore I did try and explain to him that Twatdog is a massive mummy's boy. I think he will realise one day. Last night it was Twatdog on my lap (aka his head, as the rest doesn't fit), and DWS on DH's and he seemed quite content. Men do get these funny ideas in their head that a 'male dog' is more likely to be their dog. Although, to give DH his credit, he's only whinged once since Christmas about being 'outnumbered'

The extraction wasn't actually that bad, and did actually hurt less than the ache before even with the dry socket! Plus it's at the back so can't be seen. But I agree, toothache is way worse than childbirth. At least that's confined to one sodding area, bad toothache causes neckache, backache and a headache!

Bless K❤Even though she can be a little shit who runs away in the woods, she trusts you enough that when she's terrified she'll just let you do whatever needs to be done. Such a strong relationship and such a smart girl - not sure mine would be still. Twatdog would definitely be panicking and probably end up getting me tangled as well.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Quick question regarding GR’s. On the sofa at the end of the show were three gorgeous GRs (were they yours?). But they were more fox red in colour rather than yellow or pale yellow. Thought it was unusual to see.

@Silverbirchleaf the darker ones (reddish or dark golden) are usually closer to working lines! They’re typically a bit smaller as well ☺️

Top tier find for little pup today in the woods. A step up from the usual ratty tennis balls she discovers. But back to full coat and woolly hat for me after walking in a t-shirt mid week.

We've had some strange behaviour around last evening wees with little pup. She's generally taking herself to bed at 9 and then refusing to go out when we let big pup out. Nothing will persuade her, and she's normally so food motivated and she goes into full on appeasement mode. I'm just leaving her to it now, she doesn't seem to be missing them in that she's not desperate in the morning or asking to go out early doors.

Horrible day with milo!!
Absolutely no idea what got into him but my husband tried to get him back on lead and milo ran off and made him slip on slippy moss!!!

Then, he ran all the way down to the car (luckily I was sat in it) I opened the door and grabbed him!

Absolutely flabbergasted. Had an awful day and hes just topped it off!
Random, awful behaviour from him today 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

@Redspaniel Sounds like a large glass of red wine sort of day.

I think it's the time of year - longer days, body clocks shifting, all the wildlife waking up and the scents changing. Bill is completely bonkers. Three weeks ago I was letting his long line trail - now it's like I've got a hairy helium balloon again.

Bill tax shows that nice, relaxed, chilled personality of his 🙄

I attempted to watch Crufts for ten minutes but the Flyball came on and he wanted to argue with all the barking dogs 😄

Ohh so pleased for the Cavalier that won the 'Toy' group last night - lovely example of the breed and a much longer snout than many. Although I do owe DH £50 as I said that the Pug and Frenchie would place (but I am really glad they didn't, as a friend in the same group said she could hear the Frenchie gasping as it walked out the arena...)

The pointless wonder and DH are still in bed, but DWS and I are off to start our day. 😃

@Redspaniel sorry to hear that! Maybe he got spooked by something?!

@tizwozliz I wish my girls found such exciting things. Usually they just bring me dead animals or, once, a used condom.😐Don't suppose you want to send little pup my way so she can train the girls up?

@Bupster Bill looking handsome as ever, I see. What a good boy.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks - not all of her finds are quite so welcome!

Obviously Bill was right and the Flyball dogs were doing it all wrong.

Had a lovely day at a local agility show yesterday. Surrounded by collies and a few other breeds including a tervuren. It was bliss.

Need to catch up with Crufts as was out most of the day.

Good morning all!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks thank you for asking about my week off and apologies for my tardy response! I have had a lovely week off, although I didn’t do most of what I had planned to do I did just relax for most of the week which was much needed after all the work stress and nasty cold!

Hope everyone else is all good! Haven’t caught up with the thread but shall try and have a read back! Pablo is 11 months old today! Haven’t been doing as much ‘training’ with him as such recently, just rewarding good behaviour displayed but he’s starting to calm down a little bit (or is this the calm before the storm 😂) no longer jumps up at my son, or the kitchen counter, automatically comes back to walk to heel on walks when people approach and has even gotten slightly better at being around other dogs - I can even walk him past them sometimes without him going too crazy and there has been a couple of incidents of him actually greeting them calmly. He bolted after a cat when off lead yesterday but came straight back to the whistle bless him!

Looks like little pup's find I mentioned is too explicit to make it past the picture review 😂

@tizwozliz Pablo is being strange with his toilet habits lately! Sent him out for a wee last night about 8.30pm and still hasn’t had one yet this morning despite being outside several times and he seems to be not a fan of pooing in the garden either. Still I guess it’s easier if he only does them on walks!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Good luck today. 🤞 I hope Eris has a good experience, even if the judge doesn't appreciate her beauty. 💖

Thank you @SpanielsGalore! DWS did as well as can be expected, but I am quite pleased with her as she was very well behaved despite DH snoring like a freight train all last night and none of us getting any sleep. All the girls that beat her were cream...it was RIGGED I tell you, RIGGED😂

I mean she would have come first or second if I had placed her in 'Puppy Minor' but that's not really competition and I am very much a believer of the more competition the sweeter the reward if you do well. I don't think it's much of a success to come first out of one entry.😀

But, one of the classes for bitches was won by a friend of mine so I'm delighted for her. And the breeder that owns Twatdog's sire won a class with one of his dogs (who is not related to DWS...so possibly already found a boyfriend for her when the time is right - he's got excellent scores including 3/3 for his hips...).

So all rather successful. I just really want a Spaniel or a Retriever to win best Gundog and then Best in Show (but ideally a Golden Retriever as they've never won Crufts and Labs and Cockers have - I think Cockers are actually the breed that have won the most). Justice for the Golden Retrievers.

@VanGoSunflowers Glad you enjoyed it, even if you didn't do all the things you planned too❤

Amazing that Pablo recalled when chasing a cat! What a good boy he is!!!! I hope you're going to celebrate his birthday next month with something special.

@tizwozliz it's loaded!!! She looks a bit too pleased with herself if you ask me... Perhaps I'll let you keep little pup for now 😂

Who’s going to win Crufts?

Clumber spaniel - a surprise (and another venerable breed). I do like them though.