Beyond Adolescence - part 4

[SpanielsGalore]

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

@Lavenderdog Oh she looks so small in that photo!!! I had in mind she was a mini one (probably because my neighbour has one). Do you mind if I ask how you're finding the grooming? I think they need quite a lot of it (although I could be making that up).

Do they shed? Just thinking about us poor gun-dog owners drowning under mountains of fur at the moment and wondering if your dog is less of a shedder (and if so...do you want a swap!?)

@YorkshireFelix I hope V was well rewarded for providing you with such a good photo!

Hope everyone has nice plans for the day! DDogs and I are already in the garden working on our tan whilst DDs and DH bugger off to Rye for the day (rather them than me in this weather...it'll be so busy). It's nice and peaceful despite the games and the hole digging.

@YorkshireFelix The length that tongue! 😂 Vinny is looking as handsome as ever. 💖

K is surprising me with how well she is doing. 6 weeks ago she showed no interest in a dummy at all and now she's doing memory retrieves.
It's the last lesson next week, so he's doing a mini competition. It's obviously going to be won by the dog who could sit, stay, recall away from the dummy and then be sent to retrieve it in week one. And clearly shouldn't have been on an introduction to gundog training course. Personally I think he should judge it on progress made. We might stand a chance then. 😂

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Glad you are enjoying a nice, peaceful day in the garden. Absolutely freezing here. I have just given in and put the heating on.

My day will be spent doing multiple dog walks (P is up to 20 minutes now) and going to Tesco. Unfortunately I can't put it off any longer. The fridge and cupboards are bare.

DS flies to Estonia today for three weeks, in preparation for a 6 month tour next year. They are near the Russian border, so no communication allowed. I will miss him. Although he doesn't live at home, we message every day.

@YorkshireFelix Lovely photo and I too was impressed with the length of that tongue!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I had a mini before who did not moult at all.

L-pup does a bit but nothing like labs, spaniels etc. She was stripped a few weeks ago - not by me!
I will learn to do it when she stops being so mouthy - at the moment she’s better secured on a professional grooming table 😀

It's a beautiful day here, sunny and 20 degrees. We've been for an amble in the shady woods. Stopped at the garden centre on the way home, little pup found a bread roll under one of the plant tables so then was trying to dive under all of them to check for more!

@SpanielsGalore Is that three weeks with no comms and then next year 6 months!? That sounds really difficult for you (and for him) 🙁

The nice weather did not last long, it's back to being windy and overcast but I managed to top up my tan a bit yesterday and enjoyed a lovely afternoon of not being bothered by anyone which was lovely 😀

@Lavenderdog I can imagine grooming yours is probably a far more time consuming task than mine - I just take a de-shedding tool over them 3-4 times a twice a week and that's that. It doesn't really require any skill or effort!

@tizwozliz how are yours so good in Garden Centres?!? It's one of the few places I absolutely cannot take mine - even the girls try and way on every single sodding bush. And Twatdog embarassed me once by piddling on the fake grass. They go absolutely bananas over all the dog scents, so it's just easier not to take them there...weird as they're literally fine everywhere else, just garden centres

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Definitely no communication for these three weeks. They were told they had to hand their phones in on arrival. He thinks they are allowed to keep them next year, as they'll be in a different area. I.e. not by the border. I've already gone to telĺ him three things today and then remembered. I could just keep messaging and he'll have lots to read when he gets back. It's a long bus ride back to barracks. 😂

Weather is horrible here today too. Cold, windy and rainy. But at least we haven't had the forecast snow.

I stuck all the dogs in the car and took them down to the field by the sea front. P was glad of the change of scenery. She did 20 minutes and then went in the car and the other pair did a bit longer on the beach.

Aw that must be hard @SpanielsGalore - I hope when he’s gone for 6 months he is indeed allowed to keep his phone. I can’t imagine not having contact for that long!

We had horrendous weather yesterday but it’s lovely today. Super sunny and fairly mild. I’ve swapped V back over to walking on his slip lead as the physio said he’s got some upper neck stiffness/pain (probably from pulling like a maniac on his flat collar and lead) and he’s 100000x better on it. He just walks to heel, sits when I stop, goes and sniffs when I give his release cue and then sits back to heel when he’s finished. I think it works for him as there’s very clear boundaries of what’s expected of him, and he’s the type of dog that needs that. I know slip leads are a very divisive subject but honestly it works wonders for us.

We are starting with our new trainer at the end of the month and im so looking forward to it. It’s a 90 day plan we will do with him, and it’s totally tailored to V and what we need help with. We had a call with him a couple of weeks ago and I feel like he just really got what we were struggling with. I think our old trainer is a fantastic gundog trainer but she never really got the day to day stuff which I was finding hard, and I need someone to say ‘if this was my pet these are the exact steps I would take’ which is what the new guy is going to do for us.

So, being in the thick of adolescent dog behaviour, would love advice from others who have been through it!

L-pup has reintroduced the witching hour behaviour of leaping and biting that she did as a young pup - but of course she’s taller, stronger and bites harder.

I do crate her when she does it - but then she just barks incessantly.

I think it’s probably tiredness, she’s does get very overstimulated, she’s not great at sleeping in the day, so I’m trying to work on that.
Teeth do seem to still be bothering her to a degree, as if I hold a chew for her, she will bite hard on it, but she is usually unwilling to chew anything herself.

Am always buying various dead parts of animals for her to chew, but she rarely does, instead tries to bury them in the garden!

Had anyone else’s adolescent reverted to the puppy biting habit and if so, what worked?

Live on my own with her and it’s a bit much at the end of a long day!

Yes we went through this probably at a similar age to you. I discovered through lots of research that some dogs go through a secondary ‘teething’ phase where their teeth/jaw is setting or something along those lines. So Vinny wanted to bite and chew and it was awful. It didn’t last long though!

It also sounds partly like overstimulation too, which we still struggle with sometimes. When V needs the toilet (he will only go to the toilet on a walk) and we haven’t picked up on his signs for whatever reason he can get very mouthy and jump about like a biting puppy. It’s a classic overstimulation thing. He did it more when he was younger and overly tired and we often used to just shut the door and wait for him to get over it - which most of the time he did and would end up falling asleep.

Don’t know if that’s helpful at all but we definitely went through the same! It was awful but it definitely does pass.

@YorkshireFelix , thank you, that is very reassuring.

Every day I see a glimpse of the lovely dog I hope I am going to end up with, and on nights like tonight, I worry it’s the leaping, biting version !

@Lavenderdog My sprocker was the same. When I got P, he was 14 months old. I had her needlesharp teeth attacking me and his adult teeth chomping down on my arms. Fun times! I got him a Benebone Maplestick dog chew, which helped a bit.
Could you do time out behind a stair gate? Might help with the barking.

@YorkshireFelix I think my gundog trainer is probably the same. His dogs live in kennels and come out to train and work. All his knowledge is gundog based. If I asked him for advice about 'pet dog' behaviour, I don't think he'd have a clue. I hope the new trainer can offer some useful advice.

I'm not a slip lead fan, but if I works for V that's great. It's more the people who use them when they clearly aren't working. The dogs are pulling and straining and choking themselves.

Hi everyone. I’m back, and I’ve found the shiny new thread. Sorry for the leave of absence. Went away for a couple of days, and then mn kept logging me out. I didn’t realise until I realised I hadn’t seen any recent updates that I was logging back in using an old account so I swopped to my other email account, did the whole password reset thingabob, and here you all are, plus some newbies.

Will catch up on thread properly later, but here’s a picture of very tired Dog after a one-to-one dog Agilty lesson.

@Steelworks are you Silverbirch? I think you are, but my lack of sleep (Twatdog has been up at the crack of dawn for the last two days) is getting to me.

Hope you had a good time away ❤

@SpanielsGalore I'd just keep messaging! That's what I did whenever DH was out of touch for a few days. Poor bastard came back to dozens of messages from me about the most inane nonsense ever 😂I'm sure he'll be allowed his phone on him for the 'proper' tour as otherwise they'd all go bonkers and that would not be good for morale!

Hope you're not missing DS too much already, and that the dogs are proving to be good distractions. Was P good on about getting back into the car? My lot would never do that - they have FOMO.

@Lavenderdog I have to confess, I just shoved Twatdog at his sex elephant and let him get on with it. They're such bastards at that age. It's just a case of management and reassurance (for them and you) that it does get better.

Hope everyone is having a good day! Twatdog has, as alluded to above, been up at the crack of dawn (04:30) for the last two days. None of the others have even so much as twitched, but I can't get back to sleep once I'm awake so Twatdog and I have been doing some very very exciting early morning walks with lots of deer and rabbits and the odd pheasant. I think I might be encouraging him, but he's been so happy when it's just him and me that I can't bring myself to ignore him if he does it again😳

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Oh, well done on working out Steelworks' secret identity. Must be all your pre-dog spy training. 😁 I hadn't a clue.

No way would I be getting up at 4:30! That's not the crack of dawn. It's the middle of the night! But now you've been taking TD for 1-to-1 walks, you are doomed forever.

I have resisted messaging DS so far, but I'm sure it won't last. Hopefully he'll be allowed his phone next time. Not least because I upgraded his phone contract to a more expensive one, in order to save paying £7 a day data roaming charges.

The dogs all get in the car by different doors, so P wasn't aware she was the only one getting in. She just thought she was going first. The other two only had an extra 10 minutes before rain stopped play.

Freezing cold and windy up here. I am not enjoying multiple dog walks in this weather.

@SpanielsGalore it might not be Silverbirch...but with a lovely black lab who does agility, I'm fairly confident. Just call me Miss Marple 😁

Yes, I think I might have encouraged him by taking him out the first day. Sadly I have to go into the office tomorrow so he's going to learn the hard-way tomorrow that early wake up's don't always mean a walk.

Ohhh bless P! When you got back to the car was she there with her nose pressed up against the window/door? 😂I bet you're not enjoying all the walking in this weather...I don't know how you do it in winter tbh!

Speaking of data roaming charges and being out of touch, one of my colleagues went to Tajikistan for a posting and honestly the comms there is terrible. About the only place she had signal was in the office and everything else constantly lagged, or died. So I guess plus side for your DS is it's only Estonia and not somewhere even more far off the grid.

Is DS a dog fan? If so, you could just spam him a photo of the dogs every day. That would be the best thing to come back to after 6 weeks of no comms (at least for me)...

Big pup is 5 today! How time flies.

@tizwozliz Happy Birthday Big Pup. 💖

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks DS is a dog fan from a distance. He loves the dogs, but hates getting covered in hair. Don't we all! 😂
He seems to spend half his free time watching Instagram videos of GRs.

DS had the same mobile problem in Kenya. He could get a signal in camp, but not when they were out and about. But Otterburn in Northumberland was probably worse.

I must admit now P isn't on crate rest, we've dropped down to two walks a day. She is spending hours in the garden, so I figure that's helping to build her muscles back up.

I am trying to teach K sit at a distance with a long whistle sound and hand signal. I am failing miserably and we are both getting frustrated. She knows the long whistle means sit, but still runs in to do it at my feet. Anyone have any tips for creating the distance? The trainer says I should go towards her and 'give her a growl' (not literally, I don't think), but it's just not me.

My trainer got me to do it at little increments - so a metre, then a metre and a half away. I thought it wasn't working at all, then we were at training a few weeks ago, and she asked him for a down at a distance of about five metres and the little bollocks did it no bother. Having a place mat or equivalent might help too?

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I love the idea of someone who isn't a fan of dog hair...but watches Golden Retriever videos. If he ever fancies a Golden Retriever, I can send him Twatdog for free (+ shipping).

You're right! The RAF/military bases are awful as well. Whenever we go past Lakenheath on our way to Norfolk I lose signal. But at least it's only a few minutes and not days/weeks.

Ahh that's a tricky one as I don't use a whistle...but at that distance I use a 'hold' hand signal (so my hand facing outwards and up towards them) and then yell 'sit' or 'down.' I started by teaching the hand signal and then moved them onto the the 'sit' or 'down' using little increments as Bupster says. Honestly, I don't really need the sit or down command unless I really want them to do something specific as most of the time I just wait my hand. But my lot are insanely easy to train. Within a few days they master any command, but that's just the food drive and lack of brains to question whether if they held out a bit longer they'd get more food...

But that doesn't work for all dogs - DMum tried to teach it to Satan as it's such a useful skill, using the same method. She gave up when we realised that if you just tell Satan to' 'wait' she sits down in whatever position she fancies and waits until you release her.

@Bupster how is our (the collective 'our' for the thread) beautiful Bill? Obviously hope you're keeping well as well ❤

@tizwozliz Happy birthday to big pup! Yours and big pups birthdays are very close together...almost like fate.

@SpanielsGalore - we tried something that involved
marker posts that they weren't meant to go beyond, but it never really worked and I'm not sure how it was meant to or whether I was doing it right. What worked for us was getting the sit close, release for a reward thrown over their head, sit again as soon as they've picked the reward and increasing distance. The theory is that if they're not coming back to you for the reward they won't creep towards you I think. It did take a while to teach. I think we probably did some work with a place board along the way too. So who knows whether it was a combination or just one of those things and just eventually came together due to time. I haven't had much success teaching it to the little one though. (To be fair to her, I've not tried that hard)

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks May is definitely a great birthday month, just about perfect for puppies I think. Nice weather for toilet training, short walks coinciding with the hottest weather of the summer, coffee trips and pub lunches in the sunshine for 'socialisation', then as they're getting more confident everyone buggers off indoors for the autumn/winter leaving the outside nice and free of people for peaceful training walks. Then you have the next 6 months to get them trained before everyone appears outside again.

(Off topic, any coffee recommendations around Westminster?)

A fairly low key birthday yesterday, she's not one for toys or opening presents so a couple of walks, a pup cup and a trip to the pet shop for some bits of dead animals. Top tier snacks at the cash desk, I think they must have had £5 worth of stock - rabbits ears, fish skins and sausages.

Here she is back when we didn't know what we were letting ourselves in for!

@tizwozliz coffee recommendations!? Oh, you bet ya!

It's a bit further from Westminster and just outside Embankment tube (sort of down the side of Charring Cross station on Villiers Street). WC2N 6NS (Yes, I did google the post-code just for you). At a decent walking speed, I'd say it's less than 10 minutes from Parliament.

It's called 'Blues and Royals' and their coffee is incredible. If you're a regular milk drinker, they use unhomogenised milk which makes it extra extra creamy and very luxurious. They can be a tad slow when it's busy, but is honestly the best coffee in London.😁

If you don't want to go that far, then Nostos Coffee near St.James Park is good although a tad pretentious. But that doesn't stop their coffee being nice. It's just down the road from Farmer J's (quite a big chain and tends to have very long queues out the door at lunch) that also does a decent coffee and a v. good breakfast/lunch.

Now, back to the dog talk 😂

I agree on spring puppies from a socialisation/ownership perspective. It's really helpful for me as well to get house training sorted before they go to their homes and gets them use to grass etc. it also makes raising them slightly more bearable as the outside world is so exciting for them that I can plop them outside for an hour or so and they don't bother me.

Although Twatdog is a November birthday and that wasn't too bad, because as he was only 8 weeks old on Christmas week it meant that the little git slept through the whole thing (literally from present opening until after dinner)! DWS, on the other hand, as a summer puppy was wide awake and causing chaos. 😅

I'm glad big pup had a nice day and that little pup also benefitted and got extra treats! Big pup really was a beautiful puppy - such soulful eyes.

Only slightly biased, she is very pretty, but she's a bit of a diva, a slightly complicated character and too clever for her own good! Little pup is many, many times easier and whilst very cute, doesn't have the classic good looks.

Aww happy birthday big pup @tizwozliz

Thank you all for your suggestions. 💐

I had started teaching 'stop at a distance' the way my other trainer suggested. Arm in the air and hurl a treat at her, so she stops in her tracks. Eventually she is expecting the treat, so stops in anticipation. We were having some success with this. And I had planned to add in the whistle cue when she was a bit better at it.

In gundog lessons, we had the dog walking at heel. We stop walking and say sit. Then add in a hand cue - palm out facing them. Then add the whistle cue. So K has learnt all of these whilst at heel.

I am now struggling to unteach the heel part. We are practising in the house and can do about a metre away. Out of the house, we have some (but not much) success if she's standing still. But if she's on the move, she keeps going until she's right in front of me.

My aim was to teach a stop whistle, so I could call her off chasing deer. An arm signal is no good if they aren't facing you. However, gundog trainer says now she's chased them, I'll probably never be able to stop her. Unless I know someone with a friendly herd I can train round.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks - thanks for the coffee recommendations, I need to be at the Conrad for 8.30 so I'll see how much time I have and what the weather's doing to see if I fancy a walk along to embankment.