Beyond Adolescence - part 4

[SpanielsGalore]

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

That’s the etiquette around here also., ie on lead - be cautious and put your dog on lead.

i was also taught that, before you let them off, do a scan of the park or area to suss out what other dogs there are (and owners) and whether they’re friendly such as labs, retrievers, spaniels etc. Also, that there are owners within reaching distance of their dogs.

Thinking about being on lead, definitely on road walks, near a sheep field, and a stretch of footpath where’s there’s a lot of large badger sets. Also if I hear any farm machinery in the orchards I also call Dog to heel and either hold his collar or put him on the lead if there’s people walking towards me along the footpaths.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Both my DSs like GR. DS1 says he'll get one next time he's in a position to have a dog. I can't see DS2 ever getting a dog with his aversion to hair.

I don't/didn't have anything special lined up for N's birthday. She can't have a treat, because of her dodgy stomach. And she's not interested in toys. I took her out for a short 10 minute potter and now she's limping really badly, so I feel awful.

@tizwozliz Ouch! That sounds painful. Glad you didn't have too long a wait and hope you are feeling alright now.

@VanGoSunflowers Mostly a success is good. Sums up most of my walks. 😂

My two chase rabbits and hares. P has managed to catch, kill and devour four or five of them. They also chase birds and deer. I don't think they've seen any squirrels.

@Struckbylightning P is 5 this month and K is 20 months. There is exactly 3 years and 3 months between them.
N is 11. She's a foster dog. She joined us 6 weeks after K, so I went from one to three dogs in a very short space of time.

@Silverbirchleaf When I breed my fictional puppies, I will be sure to post lots of photos. Free advertising and all that. 😂

I read the thread about the dog in the playground when it was first posted. I haven't read any updates. I don't think I'd be admitting to soiling myself though.

On lead/off lead etiquette.
If the dog is on lead, I either put mine on lead or change direction to avoid them.
I let them say hello to all off lead dogs if all dogs want to greet each other. When K was a puppy, I checked with the owner first to make sure their dog was puppy friendly. They usually all have a quick sniff and then go on their ways.

I always have mine on lead near roads and when we are passing sheep fields. They've never shown any interest, but I know they can get through the fences so it's not worth the risk. We don't really walk in places where children play.

Mine are rarely on lead, but I think it depends on where you walk. We are always in woods or along the sea front. It's rare that you meet an on lead dog round here.

The Cocker/cava poo thread grew whilst I was away from my screen. Think I'll bow out of that one now.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks she was eyeing them up but controlling herself. She has that intense collie stare and was quivering with excitement but I told her to ‘leave it’ and she did!!
@VanGoSunflowers she started chasing a squirrel the other day, I shouted ‘leave it’ and she swerved away. I was very impressed (and surprised!). Some of you may remember my despair at the times she legged it after pheasants/ squirrels/ whatever, so it’s really great that she now (sometimes) does listen to me. Pablo does sound like he is doing really well. Merry and I love a friendly dog coming over to say hello, though I understand not everyone appreciates it.

Merry is still fairly social with other dogs, but it tends to be a small sniff then back to ‘work’ with her toy. If it’s a little tiny dog she gets flat on her belly to greet them, it’s very sweet.
That’s horrible that you get mansplained all the time. I don’t remember anyone doing that to me. I think you all need to move to Somerset where the locals are lovely and smiley. Today on the canal path I said hello to a foreign man with a spaniel on a lead, who stopped me to ask what the rules were for passing people/ bikes/ joggers. Maybe he was from London and he thought there might be a ‘stand to the left’ rule like on the Tube, bless him.

@Silverbirchleaf yes the event seemed very jolly and friendly. Not a fascist in sight. I think they also had cake, but I was on the wrong bank.

As to the always on lead question; Merry’s recall is pretty shit still, but her ‘stay’ is excellent, so if I need her back, I tell her to stay and go get her. It’s not ideal, but better than nothing. I would always have her on lead next to a road, or near livestock because the idea of her chasing sheep makes my blood run cold.

@VanGoSunflowers mine are the same! Other Golden Retrievers are the biggest draw, but they love a gun dog and particularly a Spaniel!

Yes not sure I would shit myself! But I’d be devastated if one of mine was hurt because I took my eye off them or similar.

Mine are always on lead along roads, and 10-15 meters away from a road. So if we’re coming out of the woods I put them in the lead a fair distance before we get to the car park etc. Also anywhere there’s livestock or anywhere that mandates dogs on leaves (NT properties near me, Holkham Hall in Norfolk etc). I trust them not to chase or bother wildlife, but the rules are there for a reason and I’d hate to be responsible for encouraging others who think ‘oh she flouts the rules so can I.’

But I do try and be cautious and reasonable, as with @Silverbirchleaf i check before I let them off and if I see a dog nearby I’ll wait.

@SpanielsGalore poor N I get she considered it to be worth it though!!

Oh I gave up. The defence of Donna the puppy farmer, who breeds six different types of dogs and can’t remember her breeding licence number and has two different dog breeding businesses, got a bit tedious. I did have to smile when the cockerpoo breeder said they’d health tested and implied that you could test for luxating patella, and only backtracked when others said you couldn’t 😃 (and yes I knew one couldn’t test for it, but I thought I’d make the point about the sheer disinformation).

@Struckbylightning oh wow that’s such incredible control from Merry! And leaving when she’s mid-chase. Particularly given her age and the fact she’s literally bred to heard and chase…you must be so proud of her. What a good girl 😍

DH and I are off to do our favourite activity this morning - go to the farm shop. We go once every three months (it’s a long drive) and order ahead of time and do our meat buying. They do incredible kebabs of various types of meats and flavours which we’ll have with salad for lunch and dinner the whole summer. This way I can kid myself I’m healthy for having salad twice a day whilst eating cake and pastries. 😂

Think I am sticking to this thread in future and ignoring everything else.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Hope you had a good trip to the farm shop and that everyone else had a good weekend too.

DS came to visit on Saturday. It was lovely to see him and have a catch up. He's moving to a specialist unit soon, so is enjoying army life a little more.

P and K are fine. N is not good at all. Her diarrhoea has finally cleared up, but she's limping very badly. (That's a poorly structured sentence.) I have restarted the NSAID today. Hopefully that helps.

@YorkshireFelix Just in case you are reading and not posting, I hope everything is alright with you and your family. That the new job is going well and V is behaving himself. I think you'll have seen the new trainer by now. How did it go?

@SpanielsGalore we spent a fortune, but it's fine as we don't need to go back until September now. Freezers are full and dogs are happy as I got a ham and cooked it up for them - so they have nice scraps coming their way.

Sounds exciting for him! It must be quite an interesting time to be in the forces given all the hoo-ha in the news about it.

Glad to hear N is feeling better in herself. Fingers crossed the medication stops the limp. It's so hard in older dogs though - if it's not issue A, it's issue B and if it's not issue B it's issue C. Or a combination of all three.

I plan on spending this evening sifting adoption applications for the latest dog we've been asked to help re-home. Another family where they've had a baby and the dog can't cope. I know it happens. But the dog is less than a year old ffs. And, of course, utterly ruined and it'll take years to get her to a place she deserves in terms of being confident in herself.😟

Hope other's have more exciting plans!

And echo @SpanielsGalore, @YorkshireFelix hope all is okay with your family and V and the new job (found any good coffee shops in York?)

Couldn’t sleep so skimmed read the cockerpoo thread the other night, whilst keeping an eye on the Scotland match )(well done Scotland!). As soon as the op said there were multiple litters, you knew it was a puppy farm!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Is the farm shop you visited in my direction or the other direction? We used to have a lovely butchers in the village where we got our meat from, but it closed sadly.

@Silverbirchleaf it's my direction - close to Reigate.

https://prioryfarm.co.uk/butchery/ It's not too bad though, only 30(ish) minutes if you go down the M25 but DH and I go through the villages, given how bad the M25, which makes it about 45mins. They also do collection options if you're getting a big order.

We do only go there for their butchers counter although their coffee shop is very nice (terrible queues if you get there in rush hour). They do lovely marmite sausages, which are a staple in our house, as well as the usual bits and pieces and the nice kebabs/meat skewers.😍

Hope you're not too tired after not getting much sleep!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I know Priory Farm. Though for the dog training rather than the shop.

Did you narrow down a prospective home for the young GR?

I made the mistake of taking the cockers for an extra walk last night. (It was either that or go to Tesco.) P and K were both attacked by an aggressive shit of a dog. We'd followed him and his owner along the track and caught up when we got to a field. The dog approached K, sniffed her and then went for her. Fortunately all noise and snarling, but K was on the ground squealing and he didn't let up. It was probably only 30 seconds or so, but it always feels longer at the time. Then he moved onto P. She hit the ground as he approached her, but he still went for her too. I managed to get both dogs and we left the field and went back onto the track. Fortunately no harm was done to the dogs. They recovered a lot quicker than I did.
The dog's owner was old and frail and was nowhere near physically capable of stopping his dog. He just stood there shouting at it. I very much doubt it was the first time something like this had happened. No apology or asking if my dogs were OK. The dog really shouldn't be off lead, but I suspect it would pull the owner over if it was on lead.

@SpanielsGalore oh no! That’s awful! What kind of dog was it? I agree it should never be off the lead if that’s how it behaves. I hope P and K are ok and that this doesn’t affect them too much. Also hope you’re ok!

@VanGoSunflowers I think it was an old fashioned mongrel. Maybe a staffie cross. A bit taller than P but thicker set.
The dogs were fine within minutes. Chasing pheasant scents is a wonderful cure all. I spent the rest of the walk wishing I'd gone shopping. 😂

@SpanielsGalore dog training?! I didn’t even know they did that! But then I literally just go for their meat!!

Goodness!!! I hope they’re both okay today and you are as well! Must have been terrifying. I often find people with aggressive dogs to be the worst for lack of control and lack of lead use - far more likely to see a better trained dog on the lead (out of caution -concern it might be attacked) than an aggressive one on the lead! At least near me 😞

We’ve got a few homes in mind. Hopefully she’ll be in a new home by the end of the month after a few familiarisation visits. Don’t want to rush her but want her to have a stable and happy home soon.

I didn’t get any dog walks today as I had to be in the office so early and only just getting my lunch now! Hope everyone else had nice walks today (and if so tell me so I can live vicariously through you). 😃

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I walked P down the harbour for half an hour. Then I walked K along the sea front. She flushed lots of pheasants, ran into the fence chasing them, had an adrenaline dump collapse and needed to be carried to the Burn for a cooling dip and drink. Are you jealous? 😂

Glad you have some suitable applications for the young dog. Hopefully one of them will fall in love with her and give her a fantastic forever home.

@SpanielsGalore oh no how scary! I hope you had a nice calming (large) glass of something this evening. I can’t believe the guy didn’t apologise, well I can believe it actually, because people are arseholes.
@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I did have a nice walk today, went round the meadow which is alongside the river. Merry had a lovely play with a sweet something-poo dog and then a swim in the river to cool off. Then I took her to the RSPCA charity shop to choose some new toys. (I’m not forking out for brand new toys when she just keeps throwing them in the river 😂)

Good morning all. I have been awake since 4am. I have a vocal dog living next door and he is often barking at all times of day and night but this morning it was continuous between 4am and 5am! So I decided I may as well get up and do some work so I can at least finish early this afternoon when I will likely crash! Getting to the point where I’m going to have to say something to the neighbours I think.

On a separate note, if we are still doing book recommendations I am currently reading The Poppy War and it’s absolutely brilliant.

@VanGoSunflowers 4am, that is grim, I would be so cross about that! What kind of dog is it? How can people live with that? It’s so bloody selfish. There is dog somewhere near us which barks from about 6-8 most mornings and that is bad enough, there has been chatter on our local facebook page about it, but I can’t even pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from.

@Struckbylightning I was pretty cross about it! He’s a dachshund and he’s extremely vocal, none of us can go out in the garden without him lunging and barking at the fence. I feel sorry for him, he’s had two operations in his short life due to slipped discs in his back followed by long recovery periods and I never see them walk him. It’s possible I just don’t see when they go but I spend most of my day at my desk in the living room so I would see them go past.

I don’t know much about the breed but maybe that’s why he’s barking so much! It’s always either 4am or 5am or sometimes midnight. Pablo just ignores him 😂

@VanGoSunflowers That would annoy me so much. Were the owners out?

My neighbours have a dachshund. He barks at anything and everything. He also has SA, so barks when left home alone. I think they have a reputation as being a barky breed.
You're lucky Pablo ignores him. I think mine would be barking back.

It's finally stopped raining here, so I am going to walk the cockers. What's the betting it restarts by the time we've got ready?

@SpanielsGalore I hope you’re okay and treated yourself to something restorative afterwards. What’s the human equivalent of pheasant? G and T? Scary. I saw a red setter go for a pomarian today. I wondered if it thought it was a fox, but it really chased it hard. Both owners grabbed their dogs and Pom was okay, but horrible to see.

Looked at dog boarders yesterday. Dog was intimidated at first, having all the dogs around, who were curious about their new playmate. However, dog boarder lady scattered some treats in the garden and they all settled down. Dog found a ball so was happy. Only caution I have is that Dog had to give a warning bark to owner’s dog a couple of times who invaded his personal space, so to speak. But I know I’m a precious-first-time-mum when it comes to Dog!

Loving the sunny weather.

Dashunds are the worse. I complimented a lady the other day who had two, off-lead daxens who were happily going about their business, without terrorising the neighbourhood.

Have you seen the thread about dogs to avoid? Beagles are getting a bad press. Haven’t read it all yet.

@Silverbirchleaf I'm a precious-six-time Mum. It never gets any less worrying. 🙈 😂

Do all the other dogs belong to the dog boarder? Or does she take dogs from different homes? If so, I'd be a bit concerned about her mixing unknown dogs together. It's also a big risk to scatter feed strange dogs together. That could very easily result in a squabble. I can do it with my current three, but I couldn't have done it with my last pairing.

I haven't read the whole of the 'what breed wouldn't you have again thread?' I stopped when I realised it was a year old. Plus, I have only ever owned spaniels so couldn't really contribute.

I am regretting my decision to not buy chocolate when I went shopping last night. Had a traumatic day and need to comfort eat junk food.

I walked P and K down the sea front this morning. Finished the walk and put P in the car, but couldn't see K anywhere. It took a minute or two, but then I spotted her little head in the sea. She must have swum out to try to reach the birds. The sea was quite rough and she was struggling to swim back to shore. I think she went under a few times. When she got close to the beach, a big wave broke over the top of her and started sweeping her away. I had to go in knee deep to grab her. I don't know which of us shook for the longest. The vet said to keep an eye on her and if she starts coughing to take her in. Fortunately she seems fine.

Think I might hire the private field tomorrow, so I can have a stress free walk. 😫

@SpanielsGalore oh no, another stressful walk. Think you need something stronger than hot chocolate, or put some Baileys in it. Lush!

@SpanielsGalore oh no! Especially after the awful walk you had the other day! You definitely need chocolate! Hope K is ok after her ordeal and you as well!

@SpanielsGalore oh no! Silly K! Is she all okay now!?

@VanGoSunflowers Ohh I'll add that to my reading list! Suitable for 13 year olds, do you think?😁Always looking for things to palm off onto DD1 (I live in fear that she'll pick up DH's crime thrillers...).

I am finally managing a WFH day this week - and I plan on doing no work. I am going to sit in the sun and throw a massive pity party. This has been the week from hell work-wise. I don't know why I haven't won Euromillions yet. I feel like after this week I really REALLY deserve it 😂

DDogs are happy though. They have spent all day this week at my mums being fussed over and treated like royalty. Even Satan was nice to them. I rather got the impression yesterday that they would have happily stayed there...but then my mum is a soft touch and is very much of the 'oh you want a treat, you get a treat' mindset.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks it’s definitely not a ‘spicy’ book, but it does contain some graphic descriptions of what can happen to civilians during war (but sympathetic to the story, she doesn’t overuse violence IYSWIM) and also depictions of drug use as it is loosely based on the opium wars in China.

Sorry to hear you have had a shit week! I hate it when work interferes with my mood! What would you do with the money if you won the Euromillions? That question is to everyone because we’re allowed to dream a little 😂