Beyond Adolescence - part 4

[SpanielsGalore]

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

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Yes, he’s fine. He played the wounded soldier (typical man) and took it easy and then was fine.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Glad you had a good journey yesterday. Shame you had such a long wait when you arrived. Hope you all have a lovely, relaxing time. Are you there for one week or two?

P is fine. I have decided to let her go in the garden off lead. Because I'm sick of having to keep putting her on lead and walking round with her. She's been outside for ages, but just walked in with dirty paws so I am regretting that decision now.
The wound looks all healed, so we'll ditch the babygro soon too. I need to expand our post op wardrobe, so we have one to wash and one to wear.

K rolled in what must have been fox poo yesterday. An excellent choice for her first ever roll in/on stinky stuff. I thought I'd washed it all off, but I must have missed some somewhere.

Looks like the decision has been taken out of my hands. 😂

They’re having fun playing with your bloomers.

😂😂😂
I hope my bloomers aren't quite that stained. 😳😂

@Silverbirchleaf as you say, typical man.

Twatdog cries if I have to detangle burs from his fur.🙄

@SpanielsGalore two weeks! But tbh I would rather get there 6hrs early than risk motorway traffic. There's enough idiots on the M25/M11 at 8am that I wouldn't want to see it at 11am.

Sounds like K might need another bath! But at least that's definitely a sign she's fully recovered!

Look at that little face from P! Literally zero regrets. If that's not a 'what you gonna do about it' face, I don't know what is. Lovely to see them interacting a bit again though - you'd said they weren't really, so hopefully this is a sign all is getting better.

DWS is being very clingy and whingy, but I think she's missing DDs rather than it being serious. I'm trying not to feel guilty (they wanted her to stay with them), but it does do her good to learn a bit of resilience and honestly...two weeks of her being an 'only dog' is probably a very bad idea. She's getting a bit bossy, so I need the others around to put her in her place a bit. Don't want her getting any odd ideas😃

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Hope DWS is settling in. K can be a bit bossy. I often think it's a good job the other two are so passive or there could be trouble. But then on the other hand, if they'd told her off when she was being a bolshy little shit as a puppy, perhaps she wouldn't be so bossy now. It makes me think adding another puppy in a year's time might not be a good idea.

Pleased to say all three dogs have been playing this morning, so it looks like things might be returning to normal. I won't be taking any bets on how long it will last.

P is fine. Her wound looks a bit red in places, but hopefully it's OK. The worrying thing is when she pogos up and down like a twat she squeals in pain. So it must hurt her when the skin pulls. Is that going to be a permanent thing or will the skin eventually stretch a bit?

Pissing down with rain here, so my plans to cut the grass are out of the window. I might have to clean the kitchen instead.

Oh my gosh, you're still here! Yay! Hello. I won't ask what I've missed because it's clearly a lot...🙄But hi!

Oh it's wonderful to have you back. I often think of you and hope you are doing OK. How is Beautiful Brie?

From my lot, P has been on crate rest a lot. K has just recovered from a phantom pregnancy. (She'll be 2 years old next week.) N is still plodding along.

Oh I'm sad to hear that P is still struggling with her mobility @SpanielsGalore but it's good that N is still plodding on. Poor little K, a phantom is so confusing for them. We had to get Sylvie a white teddy to carry about when she had one. I'm glad K is recovering.

It's been a difficult few months for us. We both had some sort of virus in Feb which didn't seem so bad at the time, but ended up leaving me with debilitating fatigue and no appetite for weeks. Then in March Brie got a birch twig stuck across the back of her mouth and suffered soft tissue damage then had a violent reaction to the Metacam the vet prescribed. She was horribly ill for three weeks. To top it all off we lost our beautiful Maine Coon, Freija at the end of June, a few weeks after she'd been diagnosed with an aggressive sarcoma.

I'm not even going to attempt to catch up with what's been happening here and I'm definitely staying off the dog hate threads, but it's lovely to see some familiar names still appearing in The Doghouse.

Brie is now almost 2.5 years and I'm relieved to say that none of the dog behaviourist's predictions for her maturity have come to pass; she is neither dog reactive nor resource guardy. She is, however, still a lead biting demon 🙄

Welcome back @CoubousAndTourmaIet . Sorry to hear you’ve had a rough time, but glad things are better.

Brief summary , Dog (black lab) still doing Agilty’s, managed to get his weight down, loving walks, but has been sick twice today! We’re blaming the windfall plums he scavenged on the walk yesterday (if you can have windfall plums as well as apples).

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Gosh you have had an awful time of it. Sorry to hear you lost Freija. Hopefully things will improve from now on.

We all knew that behaviourist didn't know what they were talking about.

P had surgery for a ruptured cruciate ligament in February. Then two weeks ago, she cut her side on a barbed wire fence. It's one thing after another with her.

The Other Place hasn't improved much, but The Doghouse is mostly friendly.

@Silverbirchleaf Sorry to hear Dog has been poorly. Hope he feels better tomorrow.

Thanks @Silverbirchleaf 😊
Sorry to hear your boy has had a poorly day and hope it is indeed just a case of eating something he shouldn't. Glad he's still loving his walks.

Oh no @SpanielsGalore ! The cruciate is the one we all dread, isn't it? Poor P is so unlucky with her health, she's really had it very hard. She does deserve an easier period and so do you, come to that - you must be sick of the sight of your vets surgery.

I’ve neglected this thread a bit lately and missed some myself so sorry everyone but just had to come and say hi!!! I have thought about you too! I hope
you are Brie are doing well!

ETA: sorry, in my excitement I neglected to read your update. Sorry to hear you have had such a rough year and hope things have improved for you ❤️

Hi @VanGoSunflowers Thanks 😊This summer was a toughie for us. I hope all is well with you, your son and pup. Can't remember exactly how old Pablo is, sorry, but am assuming more or less fully grown now...? I bet he's handsome.

Yes, my planned one week break from being over-invested on puppy threads stretched to 8 months, for a variety of reasons. I came back hoping the puppy thread would still be active, but it's seemingly more or less dormant currently...

@CoubousAndTourmaIet he is a couple of weeks shy of 18 months now! He was particularly difficult during last winter, spring and the start of the summer but he’s starting to calm back down now again thankfully. Well, I can at least say I have more proud moments than embarrassing ones these days 😂
Do I remember that you were contemplating getting another pup? Do you think that’s still on the cards for you?

Here are some recent photos of Pablo. One of them was to prove he can be a good boy if he comes with us for breakfast 😂

What a regal looking boy he has grown into @VanGoSunflowers , he looks in beautiful condition too. Sorry adolescence was a bit of a struggle. Brie continues to give me embarrassing moments, so you're definitely not alone in that.

As I hinted, I logged in last night for genuinely the first time since Jan/Feb, hoping for some puppy solidarity, but there's no chat on the puppy thread currently. Baby arrives with us at the end of next week 😱poor Brie is in for a bit of a shock.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet oooh that’s so exciting! I have so many questions! Are you getting another female? Do you have a name picked out? Can we have the puppy tax?? ❤️❤️❤️

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Thought you'd sneakily drop that one in and we wouldn't notice?!
Details - boy or girl? Name? Photo?
You're more than welcome You'll have to post in this thread instead. It was set up for older dogs, but we aren't prejudiced.

Cruciate ligament surgery is brutal. P had to do 11 weeks of crate rest, followed by a month of on lead walks. And yes. I am dreading the other one going before her insurance renews.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Hope you and the dogs are having a relaxing time.

The sun is shining, so today will be spent dog walking and grass cutting, ready for bin day tomorrow.

I hope everyone else has more exciting plans.

Oh god, that must have been a nightmare @SpanielsGalore . Did you manage to get P out in the pushchair or was she completely confined to crate? It can't have been easy with having K&N doing their normal activity and poor little P stuck in a cage for weeks.

We've just done a morning wander through the woods. Loads of dogs out this morning. Bit misty and quite warm so a bit of a workout. I'm still not quite back to full fitness yet.

Okay, the big news. Puppy is a beautiful boy, darkly marked but will probably fade off quite a bit as they generally do. It's been a long wait for this one but only 11 days to go. I'm a bit superstitious so you'll have to wait for name and photo until after he arrives @VanGoSunflowers

We did puppy scent blanket thing at 5 week visit - but of course, being a boy, he did a wee on it, so Miss Brie was a bit disgusted by it 😄

@CoubousAndTourmaIet so glad you're back ❤But so sorry to hear about Freja. I hope you/DP are coping a bit better now - the loss of a pet is always so hard and particularly when you'd only just gone through such a rollercoaster with Brie and not been well yourself❤

And of course Brie has turned into a lovely girl (even if she is a lead ragger) and the behaviourist nonsense never came true - she had you to raise her! 😊

Such a shame you'll have to post about your new baby boy here...how will we cope? Tragedy. I hope Brie takes well to him!! Can wait to see the photo and hear his name (you always have such good names for your pets).

@SpanielsGalore DWS is doing well. Still a bit clingy but I took them all to Holkham beach today and she caught the scent of a rabbit so I spent 15 minutes walking along the beach yelling for her. In the end Pen rounded her up.

Glad to hear all three are playing together again 😊Even N?

I would have thought the wound would stretch eventually?

Very much relaxing and enjoying my holiday. My only complaint about holiday cottages is the hoovers in them are crap, and it's prime shedding season so the holiday cottage already has a layer of golden glitter...and when I tried to use the hoover it just died after 30 seconds. So I've emailed them asking if they can send me a better one, otherwise the cottage is going to be in pretty rough shape.

But the being able to eat what I want, whenever I want, is the best bit. Had chocolate cake for breakfast and then club sandwich (with McCoys steak crisps) for lunch. 😍

@Silverbirchleaf how is your boy doing today?

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Glad you are having a nice, relaxing time and that DWS is settling down. We can even forgive her rabbit chasing if it means she is happier.
We had three dogs in a holiday cottage that had no vacuum cleaner or mop once.They complained we left it in a 'doggy state'. Not really sure what they expected us to do. I wasn't going to go round on my hands and knees, scrubbing floors and finger brushing carpets.

The dogs play in pairs. K plays with both. P and N don't interact much at all. If K and N are playing and P feels left out, she'll go and fetch a toy to tease K with and lure her away.

We haven't been out yet today. But the dogs have spent two hours 'helping' me in the garden, so they're all napping now. It's quite depressing how many new holes have appeared since P was released from crate rest.

Thanks @TheHungryHungryLandsharks
You may live to regret these words if I inundate the thread with cute photos of him. I will try to revive the puppy thread - surely we can't be the only people collecting a pup in October...?

Glad holiday is good. Can't believe you're still referring to Eris as DWS though😆 Poor girl will clearly never live that down.

Vacuums are universally crap when it comes to dog hair. Big Bertha has completely blown her coat in the last few weeks and the Miele Cat & Dog has been worse than useless. My DP has had to resort to crawling around on hands and knees to rake the carpet with an old slicker brush before we can even attempt to vacuum. Obviously I can't possibly volunteer to do said slicker brush crawl because I'm asthmatic...😉Brie of course thinks it's hilarious 🙄

@CoubousAndTourmaIetSo exciting about the new pup! I am sorry you’ve had such a rubbish time this year otherwise. I have been lurking and dipping in and out.

I can highly recommend this for pulling up dog hair from both hard floors and carpet/upholstery. Very handy it’s on a long pole too as you don’t have to get down on the floor to do it! It’s been a game changer for me.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7444676

@SpanielsGalore I mean she did get a bit of a telling off, but it was more a stern expression (don't want her to associate recalling with being told off...even if the recall is just her being chased back by her mother).

Honestly, a 'doggy state,' - that's what happens when you allow dogs in a property!

P is so cheeky, stealing N's friend 😂But I am glad they all seem to be on the mend!

Ohh are they very helpful? Mine like to extract weeds from the bucket and chase each other around the garden with them. Hole digging as well, but not to Ps level.

Is it depressing though? I mean, isn't her hole digging a sign she's a bit happier? Or is it a stress thing?

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I'm sure more people will appear! Oct-Dec is very popular in terms of puppy selling. But I will never say no to photos of Brie or your new puppy!!

Good ol' DP for crawling around 😁Don't suppose you want to send him my way (or even to my home rather than the holiday cottage - DH is remarkably crap at cleaning)? I've not yet decided if DH is deliberately rubbish or actually rubbish at hoovering/dusting - I'm not sure he has the personality to weaponise his incompetence. But I almost wish he did, as being that rubbish is just faintly embarrassing for a man his age...

I mean DWS did spend several months greeting other dogs by doing nefarious things to their winkys! She's more than earned the title. 😂She still greets Twatdog in the morning by doing it. But I think at this point it's more habit than anything truly odd