Beyond Adolescence - part 4

[SpanielsGalore]

Didn't realise we were that close to the end of part 3. 😂

@SpanielsGalore I know what you mean re, not wanting a dog on crate rest forever. It’s one of those things where you can do it a few times, but not forever as it’s just not fair on the dog! Poor P she’ll get there I’m sure. But perhaps letting her out in the garden alone first would be the best thing - give her at least a few possible hours of being normal!!

No new thread is complete without a photo of Twatdog!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Gorgeous boy. 💖

This is P's 4th bout of crate rest in the last 2.5 years. She's actually spent half a year crated in total. Which I know means she's had two years of freedom, but I bet half of that has been on restricted walks due to arthritis, tendinitis and enlarged ligaments.
It worries me that on the short walks, she still stands off balance and her leg trembles. I'm trying to convince myself it's down to muscle wastage and lack of use. We'll find out soon anyway. (40 hours.)

I haven't got a recent photo of all three together, so have a gratuitous sunset picture instead.

@SpanielsGalore Only a day left now. Fingers crossed it's good news.

Its entirely possible it is wastage and I am sure there are things they can do for that though. It's hard though when it's such a young dog. Poor P and poor you.❤She seems to be happy otherwise though from everything you have said which is the most important things.

Beautiful sunrise!

I had a horrible night. Clem woke me and DH up shaking and panting again. So off we trotted to the vets, only to get there to find she had expelled what looked to be a squeaker from a squeaky toy, all over the boot. £250 to be told she was fine now. 😑I didn't even get a cuddle out of it (unlike last time). And whilst I know I should be pleased it wasn't serious, I am also quite annoyed there was no cuddle as she always gives me one when she's sick.

Then when we got back the other dogs were so worried by her being carted off that none of us got back to sleep. 😴

@yorkshirefelix - how was your first day at work!?

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Oh no! Hope Clem is all better now. That was an expensive toy. Very mean of her not to give you a cuddle for your troubles.
I hope it's a WFH day today, with the possibility of a sneaky nap. In your lunch hour obviously. I wouldn't be encouraging sleep during work hours. 🤥

P and K had a spat last night when we went outside for bed time wees. It was all over something and nothing. Usually P would have ignored K being a dick, but this time she didn't. I really hope the almost three months of separation hasn't damaged their relationship. They were fine afterwards and have been alright this morning, so hopefully it was a 10 second blip.

Need to get my car back from the garage today, ready for tomorrow's big outing.

@SpanielsGalore definitely working from home and no one got a morning walk as I didn't leave the sofa until 9am. DH got DDs ready for school and I wallowed in self-pity and ate some Dairy Milk for breakfast.

I'm already on my lunch break but I won't nap as I'm a bit worried I then won't sleep tonight! Clem has nudged me a few times in the leg today in a 'hello' type way, although every time I have tried to pat her she has waddled off...so I suppose that's something?

Oh bless P and K! I imagine P is just a bit sick and tired of being cooped up and seeing K not being cooped up. As they're fine this morning, I'm sure it was nothing serious. Mine have spats all the time. It's the one downside of having more than two dogs, I think - more chance for arguments and tiffs. What did K do to upset P?

Will keep my fingers crossed for your car having no more issues.

Just tagging a few of the others on the off-chance they have not seen the thread! @tizwozliz @silverbirch @vangosunflowers @bupster @brushingboots @idstillratherbepaddleboarding

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I put the agility tunnel out yesterday. K forgot it was there and barked at the foreign object in the garden. P barked because K barked. So K came charging over to bark at P and it all kicked off. Normally P would have ignored her. But I think, as you say, she's fed up of being cooped up and her patience has worn thin.
They were happy enough sniffing the same patch of grass afterwards, so I think they got over it sooner than I did. I'm probably over worrying, as after her second stretch of crate rest, my sprocker badly attacked P and she became frightened of being in the same house as him.

Glad you have had a peaceful morning and Clem is being sort of friendly. Chocolate for breakfast sounds amazing. Alas, I am on yet another diet.

Hello, I found you!

@vangosunflowers you were asking about Rory’s weight a bit ago and he went to the vets on Monday and is 24.7kg. I don’t think he’s put much on since last time and I’ve been worried he’s getting too skinny but the vet said he’s just right and we’re all used to seeing fat Labradors 🤣. Has anyone else’s vet offered an extra parvo virus injection? Apparently it’s going round here and they are offering extra vaccines to dogs under 18 months, so Rory had his.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I haven't heard anything up here. But all my dogs are over 18 months now.

Morning all! Thanks for the new thread @SpanielsGalore and for the tag @TheHungryHungryLandsharks
I has the worst nights sleep last night stressing over deadlines so I am in zombie mode today 😂

@SpanielsGalore is today the day??
@TheHungryHungryLandsharks TD is such a handsome fellow! Also I can’t say I’ve ever noticed dog hair on my toothbrush but I’m not the most observant 😂

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding he’s nice and lean then according to the vets that’s good to know! How old is he again now? I seem to remember him being a bit younger than Pablo. He might have another little growth spurt yet. No extra injections have been offered here either 🤷‍♀️

@SpanielsGalore let us know how you get on today!!! Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you and P.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding they've mentioned it to me, but DWS is still a bit young for hers so we'll probably wait to see how it's looking once she hits 12 months. She's still just a baby, after all. Although, admittedly, a baby that weighs more than Rory 😳

@VanGoSunflowers Oh no!! Have you can have lots of coffee to wake up. TD being a handsome chap is the only reason he gets away with leaving his pesky fur everywhere.

It's beautiful here again today. Bit windy, but lovely and sunny, so I will be retreating into the garden once the patio gets the sunshine. Ddogs are already out there sleeping under various bushes. They didn't go out at all yesterday so I walked their paws off this morning. Not heard a peep from any of them since about 8:30 which is just how I like it first thing 😁Means I can eat my breakfast and answer emails in peace.

I have to go into the office tomorrow and it's due to be 25 😷

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

P has been discharged from the vets. Everything is healing nicely. No sign of pain, limp or inflammation. We have to do four more weeks of on lead garden trips and walks, which increase by 5 minutes each week. And then she'll be allowed off lead. But she doesn't have to be crated anymore and is allowed the freedom of the house. I have popped her in the cage for now though, so she can sleep off the sedatives in peace. And I think I will crate her when I go out and can't keep an eye on her.
We are both very relieved. 😁
Did I show you all her x-rays? It's a brutal operation. The amount of metalwork they put in!

@VanGoSunflowers I hope you meet your deadlines and sleep well tonight.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Glad you are having a peaceful morning and enjoying the lovely weather.

I'm going to take K to the woods. We haven't been for two weeks, as my car was without MOT. Hopefully she behaves herself.

Had a lovely drive to Aberdeen. Started the car to drive home and the engine management light came back on. So that's going back to the garage for another diagnostic test. Cars are great until they go wrong.

@SpanielsGalore brilliant news!!! I am so pleased for P and for you. It must be such a weight off your shoulders! Only one more month until she can race around on walks again- she's going to be so excited.

That's a huge amount of mental-work though - what a champ to be recovering so well ❤

How was K on her walk? Hope she was a good girl and didn't let the side down...

I feel like cars reach a certain age (usually about five years old) and suddenly everything that could go wrong, does go wrong and no mechanic can ever diagnose it properly.

I'm desperately trying to find a way of wiggling out of going into London tomorrow. Sitting on a hot, sweaty, train is not my idea of a good time. 😫

@SpanielsGalore yaaaay well done P!

@VanGoSunflowers yeah I honestly think he looks too skinny but the vet said not. I was also worried he had sore ears as he’s recently taken to rubbing them on us but she said they’re fine and he must just like it. She probably thinks I’m a neurotic dog mum! I don’t mind though as he has a pet plan so the checkup and vaccine were included in that. Rory will be one in exactly a week! I need to get shopping for his birthday 🥰.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks how old is DWS? I haven’t heard of any poorly dogs round here but it’s better safe than sorry as he’s just started day care 2 days a week, so is in contact with more dogs.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks it was definitely an extra caffeine day 😂 and hope you manage to get out of going to London!

@SpanielsGalore yaaaay I am so happy for you both!! Excellent news but wow at those x-rays!! What a resilient girl she is ❤️

Agree on the cars thing! My Corsa is 13 years old and cost me £600 to get it through its last MOT! I should upgrade it really but I can’t get excited about a car so I’m putting it off 😂

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding is Rory a tall boy or is he a bit shorter? Pablo is quite ‘tall’ I think for a lab. He’s just slightly taller than my friend’s female GSD. I also think they bulk up a bit more with muscle after they hit one don’t they? Good that the vet said he was perfect though 🥰 and yay! Birthday celebrations 🥳 hasn’t the time flown?!

Glad you got the news you were hoping for @SpanielsGalore

The long weekend has already started here. It's my birthday tomorrow so I'm taking the day off. No cake ordered but instead gluten free Danish pastries at great expense. Looking forward to enjoying one for breakfast.

We've had a lovely sunny walk this evening, the dogs are now garlic infused 😂

Hoping for more sunny walks over the weekend, and hope everyone gets to enjoy a sunny long weekend too.

Oh, and PSA, if anyone uses forthglade trays they're 3 for £3 at Morrisons at the moment

Ooh excellent thank you!

Just typed a long post and then lost it all. 🤦‍♀️

Thank you all. 💐 P is half happy to be off crate rest and half doesn't know what to do with herself. Or maybe she's enjoying the freedom to roam. Either way, by 11pm last night I was threatening her with the cage if she didn't settle down.

It's a shame she can't be off lead in the garden, as I have been leaving the back door open with the nice weather so the other two can roam in and out. It will probably be raining again soon though. Three days of summer is usually our lot. 😂

Gundog training was fun last night. Before we even started, K flushed a pheasant and took off after it. And since we train in open ground, she had a good long way to run. By the time I got her back, she was fit for nothing. We did introduction to gunshot. She was too hyper to even hear the noise, let alone be scared of it.
But by the end of the lesson, she had got her focus back and did a perfect retrieve. Waited to be sent, shot out to pick it up and came racing straight back to deliver to hand. It's the first time she's retrieved in a public place, so I was chuffed to bits. Even the trainer was impressed. 😂

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks K was good enough for me on our walk. We saw two deer, so she did get very excited. But she managed to change direction and stick with me whilst running in frenzied circles, so I'll take that as a win.
What are your lot like on walks? Do they run, charging through the woods, or trot nicely along the path with you?

You are probably spot on about cars. Mine has just turned 6 and the light has been on for a year.

I hope you managed to get out of going to London today. It started out lovely here, but has clouded over now my washing is ready to hang out.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Can't believe Rory is one already. I was thinking he was about 9 months old.

@tizwozliz Happy Birthday. 🎂 I hope you enjoyed your pastries and have a lovely rest of the day.

Glad I found the new thread - towards the end of the last one I decided I needed to make an official complaint to the Thread Authorities about the general consensus that boy adolescents are worse than girls. If anyone would like to swop and take Merry for a while, you could test your hypothesis!

I was reading @VanGoSunflowers‘s comments and feeling great solidarity, particularly when you said that your world was feeling small. Merry is really lovely, but bloody hell she’s hard work. Out on walks, not so much usually, but in the house she only has 2 settings. Fast asleep (lovely) or awake and overflowing with beans. She wants me to play with her constantly and it’s exhausting! I had an online meeting the other morning so was trying to ignore her and she played absolute havoc. She got into my knitting and chomped the needles to bits, nicked a toilet roll and scattered it all over the house, came galloping in from the garden with a broom. Finally she settled down to digging 2 massive holes in my flower bed. Bloody nightmare.

I do of course do training every day, play games with her, try to teach new tricks, but it would be nice to sometimes have a quiet cuppa without being pestered. First thing in the morning, while I’m trying to regain consciousness is the worst; I end up chucking a toy for her while I drink my tea and scroll my phone, but then I wonder if I’m making a rod for my own back (hate that phrase)? She never seems to just chill.

On the other hand, she is quite good on walks. She does like to greet every person and dog, but she’s still quite submissive so rarely gets any negative reactions. If the other dog isn’t keen she just moves away. Her recall is pants, but her ‘stay’ is excellent so I use that a lot. Having said that, last week I took her to the woods and she totally lost her mind and spent the whole walk crashing through the undergrowth and charging about like a loon. I was genuinely scared she was going to hurt herself or pass out with exhaustion. She was half dead when we got back to the car!

I am constantly second-guessing myself, but I really don’t know if that is mostly menopause-induced anxiety. Sometimes I dread her waking up from a nap, which then makes me feel awful guilty. But then I get loads of comments about how good and adorable she is. Maybe I’m the loon?

@tizwozliz happy birthday!! Hope the pastries were lovely (Photo please), and you had a lovely day

@SpanielsGalore I did not manage to wiggle out of going into London. BUT DH proved he was worth marrying this afternoon when he detoured into St. James' Park when we left the office and bought me a Mr Whippy. I wouldn't have gone if I had been alone (mostly because I refuse to pay such an extortionate amount for a sodding Mr. Whippy), but if he's paying I'm happy to go 😂

They play, but not that much. They tend to run alongside each other and near me looking a bit dim but happy. They don't really run off, or even stray that far away, as they're all pretty clingy - they panic if I stray too far from them. Even at home they follow me from room to room. I think I've said before but Twatdog was about 18 months before he let me shower in peace.

Glad K was good! ❤Clearly without P she can be trusted more! Although that does mean more walks for you (but also more cake as you can eat it guilt free, so I guess it's a very small win, as we've said before).

@Struckbylightning glad you're back, I had worried you were sick of us 😁

You're not alone. They are absolute monsters at the age that Merry is at! I have found boys to be worse, but that's probably simply breed related for me - Golden girls are easier in general than the boys (in part because they are smaller so more easily managed). I still think Merry will calm down in time - she's just a baby still afterall. Although I know with her size and her intelligence it probably doesn't feel that way. Is she old enough to perhaps start agility or similar (not sure if you mentioned doing that already)?

On the throwing a toy, I know what you mean. DWS tried to start that with me during my morning coffee, but that was quickly knocked on the head by me not engaging and ignoring her until she got the hint. Although I'm not sure it would have worked for a more persistent or intelligent dog and it did take her several weeks of being ignored to get the hint.

It is so horribly hard when they're that age, as it just feels constant as they don't even sleep as much as when they were puppies or when they get older. I'm sure DWS is only sleeping a fraction of the amount the others are - she's always mooching around causing trouble.

Don't feel guilty about dreading her waking up! It is honestly the same with every adolescent dog. When Twatdog was younger, DH went as far as to stay at his parents house during one of his weeks back from overseas just so he didn't have to be in the same house as him - he claimed it was to 'help with renovations.' He even took DDs with him! Not that I still remember this and seethe angrily.

I didn't take a photo of my pastry I'm afraid. Here's one of my lunch instead which was excellent.

Little pup got a thorn in her paw on this morning's walk, thorn was entirely buried in her pad but she was such a good girl letting me dig it out. Glad I spotted the very subtle limp and so examined her paws closely as it was easy to miss.

Then this evening I've had to remove a tick from big pup 🤢

But it's been a lovely day otherwise, walk first thing, then a quick rest before a walk into town for an iced coffee. I forgot it was market day so it was heaving but I successfully walked two dogs past the pet treat stall with an iced coffee in hand so definitely still improving with lead walking with the little one. Then out for lunch without dogs and an afternoon chilling in the garden and maybe a little nap 😀

@Struckbylightning with my older one I used to enjoy driving some distance for walks as the drive was always quite relaxing as it was the one time I didn't have to keep an eye on what pup was up to.

Fantastic news re being discharged @SpanielsGalore I am thrilled for you!

Thanks for everyone asking about my job. It has gone ok - it’s VERY corporate compared to my old arts and culture job but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Dd not coping well with the new routine so we have lots of work to do there. I feel completely drained after this first week but it’s been very lovely wandering around York in the sun on my lunch break. I’d not been for years and forgot how beautiful it is.

@tizwozliz happy birthday! Food looks amazing. I am very impressed with your walking two dogs with iced coffee in hand!!