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. 😁

@SpanielsGalore That makes me feel better! Luckily so far I haven’t had anyone say anything, reactions range from “oh bless him at least he is enjoying himself” to being a bit stand offish! Luckily it’s not a massively regular occurrence! But yes I have shed more than a few tears over some of the things he has done!

How are yours today anyway? Still on count down until the end of crate rest?

@Silverbirchleaf I will have to have a look at see if there are any around and if they look suitable! Funnily enough Pablo has a habit of doing his business in bushes if we ever go anywhere different. Our normal route he always does it right by the first bin 😂

@VanGoSunflowers as you know your Pablo is very much like my Billy and he did grow out of it. And just did what you do and recalled him and put his lead on when we saw other dogs. He did bolt off in the odd occasion and then it was an apology.

Rory has zero interest in other dogs when he has a ball but weirdly we have more dogs running over to us. He’s actually rude 🤣🤣. I was quite glad when an Italian greyhound came bounding over to us on Sunday. As if Rory had gone full Labrador playing, he’d have crushed the poor thing, it was so delicate!

@VanGoSunflowers Mine are all good, thank you. P is desperate to be out of the cage. There should only be two days left, but I've had to postpone it for a week as my MOT has run out.

K and I were in the woods today and a deer crossed our path about 50 yards in front of us. She went to chase it, but stopped and looked back at me when I called her name. Then she recalled to the whistle. 😇
Five minutes later, she lost her mind flushing pheasants from the gorse along the edges of the golf course. Then at the end of the walk she flushed two ducks out of the estuary into the sea and spent ages racing up and down the beach trying to reach them. I waited in the car.

I am choosing to focus on her not chasing the deer. 😁

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding that’s good to know - that he grew out of it bless him. Also gives me hope! I think he has made my world quite small in some ways, not that I begrudge him one bit but I don’t get out of the house anywhere near as much as I used to as I overthink every little thing (will he be ok to be left alone, should I bring him, will he behave if I do etc so I end up just staying at home all the time!) and that skews my thinking on things a little maybe!

It’s funny as I always thought it was a lab thing but obviously not! Luckily Pablo is more gentle with smaller dogs and tends to bounce around them rather than on them but they really don’t like him! I’ve rarely met another dog that wants to play with him bless him! Mind you, I do avoid meeting other dogs as much as humanly possible so maybe that’s why!

@SpanielsGalore definitely focus on the positives! And I bet neither of you can wait until she can come out again! Will you have to go slowly still with her after that?

Well done K on the recall! Onwards and upwards.

Dog is funny with other dogs. He knows who
he likes, and knows who he doesn’t. Yesterday, came across a husky-type dog, both dogs on lead. For some reason, he backed away and looked visibly nervous. I couldn’t see anything aggressive in the other dog, but Dog was having nothing of it. I’m not aware he’s been spooked by one either. I was quite surprised by his reaction.

I feel like I missed so much and I was only AWOL for 48 hours!

@SpanielsGalore I pick up where I walk as lots of children tend to meander through the woods and fields to school! I am guilty of doing the Stick N Flick at Knole, but that's usually because their poo bins are sodding full and there's only four of them in the entire estate which is nearly 1000 acres. 😑

@VanGoSunflowers it happens. Adolescent dogs are bloody awful. Honestly, I would have gotten wid of the wanky twat in a heartbeat some days. They do grow out of it though. It's the boundary pushing age!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Still hangover from the cake?

Very much so! Also from the frankly obscene amount of food DH has been cooking the last two days - we had 250g steak and jacket one day and then pork chop wrapped in Parma ham with Gruyère the next day. Lots of veg as well which made it even more luxurious.

My stomach is like an over- blown up balloon. 😩 Essentially at this stage I am a walking stomach.

Gorgeous morning here

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXbRXtiDQ2W/?igsh=MTgwNDVrYzA5NDFuYw==

Regarding adolescence. With my older one, adolescence was no more tricky than the puppy stage, little one has always been an 😇 Older one was always more people focused than dogs so we never really had to train through that so I'm not much help on that front.

I try and pick up if I can find it, although the woods we go to are relatively quiet most dogs seem to go very soon after arriving so the places near where you park get quite grotty even if it is in the undergrowth. The picking up and bagging then chucking baffles me. Sometimes if I can't find my dog's poo or it's deep in brambles I'll pick up one from the path instead. So net poo amount stays the same 🤣

@tizwozliz That's one happy dog. You can’t beat a sunny walk through a bluebell wood.

This is Dog’s ‘come outside and play with me’ look, and stick fun from yesterday.

At the minute, we are allowed 3 or 4 walks of 10 minutes.
If it's like last time, we then had several weeks of 15 minutes. Followed by more weeks of 20 minutes, with 2 minutes of off lead time at the end.
I think it was three months before we were allowed a proper off lead walk. This time she'll already be 11 weeks post op, so maybe it will be different. I think it was more major surgery though.
The physiotherapist says she should be restricted to half hour long walks, with the first and last 5 minutes on lead anyway, as she has dodgy knees and arthritis. So we'll probably stick to that in the future. With maybe the odd long walk thrown in. Although last time I did that, her cruciate ligament ruptured. 🙈

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I shall keep repeating to myself that this too shall pass!
I am envious of all the nice food you have been eating lately!

@tizwozliz Oh to have a dog that isn’t as focussed on other dogs as Pablo is! Sounds like your two are angels! I do wonder if there is a difference between males adolescents and female ones or whether it really is dog to dog as @SpanielsGalore says that so many male adolescents are rehomed.

@SpanielsGalore will you still need to be heading out several times a day with different combinations of dogs? I don’t know how you do it, one walk with one dog is stressful enough these days 😂
Having said that, he was golden on today’s walk! But then he often is if we’re doing the same route as usual. It’s mainly new environments that we struggle with! Which means I need to do them more often!

@VanGoSunflowers - the nearly 5 year old did a grab and zoom and broke some expensive sunglasses this week so definitely not an angel!

@tizwozliz oh noooo 😱 this is where maybe I’m thinking they all have their little ways and it’s better to look at the bigger picture 😂 mine has never destroyed anything of mine, save for an old pair of trainers right at the beginning. Even my TV remote is still in tact 😂

Little pup has never destroyed anything, like I say an 😇 Although I can hear her barking in the other room as the OH isn't eating quickly enough. She's waiting for crusts I think 😂

Older one has a thing for the OHs sunglasses/glasses. She's never shown any interest in mine. She also likes crochet hooks, knives, hairbrushes. It's not constant, so you can leave something in reach for months and then one day....

@VanGoSunflowers there is absolutely a difference. Bill was such a monumental nobhead with the testosterone surge that you could really tell how much of his standard nobheadery was testosterone-specific - I've never seen an adolescent female with that kind of 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' attitude. It is adolescent boys that get rehomed the most and, believe me, I fully understand why. Now the troublepuffs are finally deflating, I can actually see my little sweetheart more often out of doors - and he's not really humping me indoors any more either thank GOD.

I think with him it's a combination of genetics, breeding (high arousal working lines on both sides) and the fact that we live somewhere which has a ridiculously high density of dogs. If I'd raised him in the arse end of nowhere, as a proper gundog, he might never have spent enough time around strange entire males in areas he considered his territory to decide to be a nobhead to them. Mind you, he once wanted to start a fight with a cow that looked at him funny, so perhaps not.

Anyway - here's my darling boy this evening completely ignoring other dogs while he chews his favourite rock, the little weirdo.

I have had three of each. My girls have been much easier than my boys. So much so that I don't think I'll have another male.

I think breeding plays a part too though. My first two males were from what was then called a 'hobby breeder.' My third was a lockdown puppy, probably bred purely for profit as prices had gone through the roof. They all had behavioural issues of one sort or another. And my sprocker was riddled with health issues.

My cocker girls come from a respected trialling kennel, with 30 years experience. And my springer was bred by a game keeper.

Loving dog walks on the spring, but I think Dog needs modelling tips from @tizwozliz (and me photography tips). I love finding apples that are grown five minutes walk away in shops.

My number one photography tip if you're taking photos on the phone and have a black dog is to download an app called snapseed. Then you can turn a black blob into a dog with a face!

You steal it you wear it this morning 😂

I can confirm that Twatdog is far more of a nightmare than any of the bitches I have had. Admittedly that might be down to me spoiling him and ruining him. But he's nicknamed Twatdog (and sometimes Wanky Pants) for a reason.

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather! It's my non-working Friday so I took the babies down to Beachy Head for a run. Lots of very dirty, but very happy, doggies in the car on the way home. It's a long drive, but definitely worth it for the view and for a sneaky ice-cream. 😳

That is so funny!

(and thank you for the photo tip. )

Seems fairly cut and dry that the male of the species is more difficult than the female then 😉

@Bupster how old is Bill now? And how is the implant going? Would love to hear more about his behaviour changes afterwards vs before. I suppose with Pablo it could quite be testosterone driving his behaviour but he still is a submissive boy. Although I knew someone who said their staffy was the same until he hit 18 months old and then started to become a little testy (pardon the pun, he never became aggressive as such, just lower in patience with other dogs!)

@SpanielsGalore I guess it really does differ dog to dog, maybe it’s a case of a ‘difficult’ (I don’t know what better word to use!) male is harder on the owner than a ‘difficult’ female? I did have a quick google just out of interest and it does seem on the whole that male adolescent behaviour is more ‘in your face’ than with girls!

@tizwozliz the hat actually suits her! ❤️😂

We were blessed yesterday with the first walk in what feels like months and months where we didn’t see a single soul (other than cows) when it hasn’t been raining or snowing. It felt like a breath of fresh air to be able to do that walk and not be on edge the whole time!

@VanGoSunflowers For a fair comparison/scientific study, I should get a boy from P and K's breeder. If he turns into a PITA, he can come and live with you. 😂

The only difference I remember with my girls when they hit adolescence is their recall became hit and miss.

Glad you had a nice walk yesterday. It's horrible when you have to be on high alert all the time, looking out for other people and dogs.

It's been sunny but cold here for the last few days.
P and I are on a countdown to freedom. (4 days 🤞) She's still not standing right, so we'll have to see how it goes. I'm sick of 10 minute walks round the village, when 9 of those minutes are spent eating dandelions.
Training classes are going well with K. She still won't retrieve in public places, but we're working on a stop whistle and sending her left, right or back to do a retrieve. Or in her case, to eat a treat. 😂
N is enjoying short walks and sunbathing in the garden.

Morning All! Hope everyone’s dogs are doing well.

Only three days left until Ps freedom 🥳🥳🥳 feels like the poor girl has been in confinement forever, @SpanielsGalore! glad to hear that K and N are doing well as well.

Someone called Twatdog a mongrel yesterday, and I’m still inexplicably furious over it. I didn’t actually sleep as I was so angry 😩😂