Beyond Adolescence - V

[SpanielsGalore]

New topic for a new thread, inspired by a post about poo bags.

Does your dog's poo smell?

I was under the impression that dog poo only smells bad if the food doesn't suit the dog. Same goes for flatulence.

The only time my dogs' poo smells or they have windy bottoms is if they've eaten something rotten they've found on a walk.

She looks positively dangerous there @tizwozliz , as if she has ambitions to be a pirate or something...😆But yes, agree with @Silverbirchleaf , I'd have been panicking!

I thought pirate as well.

Hows everyone?

I’m buzzing slightly today as had a suburb agility lesson, including completing a course of sixteen obstacles. We did it in sections and then put it all together. A couple of bits I couldn’t quite get, so my trainer suggested something different which worked for me. We also did a wall, which we’ve not done before. @Ylvamoon

How’s our Hooper dog doing?

What other dog sports do we all do?

@Silverbirchleaf - it's a fantastic feeling when we master new obstacles and moves! Be proud of your amazing partnership!
Agility in my house is on a back burner- been told off by DH as apparently always out! (Last one was Halloween special) I compete, and need another Agility win to grade up... but the little Lady is struggling with her dog walk at the moment. Why run to the bottom when you can fly off the top? Thanks to DH, DC and wider family I'll have to wait till new year to reinforce the running. It's sooo unfair! (We have some lovely local Winter competitions...)

Just curious, do you have a fast or slow dog? Just asking because mine is Speedy Gonzales and I often struggle with keeping up.

The fireworks have been horrendous here tonight and Brie is stressed out, despite having a double dose of the Skullcap & Valerian.
Odilon is listening but unbothered. I suspect he's just too young.

I hope everyone else is faring okay.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Just took Dog out not realising there were distant fireworks. He was okay with those.

Now home, and there’s closer fireworks. Dog was fine with most, but barked at the louder, boomier ones. We’ve brought him upstairs and he’s laying asleep on our bed as he always seems calmer there.

@Ylvamoon Dog is fast but I’m slow! He’s a lab, so not collie-fast, thank goodness.

Rory’s not even flinched at the fireworks. It’s so strange as Billy was terrified of them and we’ve not done anything different with Rory. Last year he came to watch the village display but this year I have a nasty cough and feel awful so I’ve stayed at home with Rory and DH and DS have gone to watch.

Awful fireworks evening for Pippin, she was barking the house down most of the night. I’m afraid I gave up trying to calm her in the end, nothing worked. She eventually took herself off to creep under my bed. I fucking hate fucking fireworks. What on Earth is the point of them.

Well done with your agility session @Silverbirchleaf. I keep telling myself that I should get Merry started on it, I just can’t seem to muster the energy to drag myself out of an evening. Merry would probably love it, but I am lazy. Also I don’t have a competitive bone in my body, never have done. PE at school was the seventh circle of Hell.

Something we’ve found helpful with Dog is to put a blanket over him. Seems to calm him down.

Regarding agility, I’ve not actually entered any competitions yet (although that’s mainly due to the car situation). Surprisingly, it’s been more taxing on the brain rather than my body, as I’ve learnt the different skills, techniques etc. Quite a few of our class don’t enter competitions, but go for the fun, friendship, and training element (and to tire their dog out!).

(I was always last picked for school teams…)

I'm sorry that Merry struggled last night @Struckbylightning and I hope she's okay today.
It sounded like a war zone here last night, it was horrendous. Brie eventually flaked out behind the breakfast bar so I think I just hadn't given her the Dorwest tincture early enough. We got both dogs fed, toileted and bedded down by 10, then some effing moron nearby started setting off bangers every five minutes from 11pm 😡so we were back to square one.
So yes, we fucking hate fucking fireworks and don't see the point. All three of the vets in the family want them banned for public use also.

I've only just realised that you had a Pippin and now have a Merry and I love that. Odo is occasionally referred to as Mr Frodo 😆

I think you and I are kindred spirits. I'm the least sporty person imaginable, not a competitive bone in my body either, so the thought of dog sports brings me out in a cold sweat. We'll stick with walking, but well done to @Silverbirchleaf on the successful agility session with your boy.

I'd love to do agility. It was something I planned on when I very first got a dog. For one reason or another, the first four weren't suitable. K would be brilliant at it. She's a little pocket rocket. Unfortunately the nearest trainer I can find is an hour away and I can't really afford the expense of travelling that far.

Sorry some of your dogs had bad nights with the fireworks. We only heard one go off here. K barked. They all shot up and looked around, but then settled back down.
They are trying to resurrect the big village display for next year. That will be a nightmare. There has been a few requests for them to use silent ones, but I doubt they will. It's not just people's pets. There are horses and sheep in the fields, who were all frightened by the one that was let off at Christmas.

We had an awful evening here too. V was so stressed he started snapping at me at one point 🙁 We had loads of blankets etc to make a den but he wouldn’t stay still for more than 10 seconds and was just frantic. We did use the Dorwest but didn’t see a difference, but will try again this evening as I assume there will be more fireworks. I had Radio X 00’s playing crap 2000’s indie music on full blast because it was the only thing that kind of covered the noise. I did try your suggestion of brown noise @Bupster but it made him bark for some reason!

Sorry the Dorwest had little effect on V @YorkshireFelix 😞

It was particularly bad here this year for some reason. Surprising with all the cost of living talk these days and it still perplexes me how much people spend on fireworks.

We had music on too. And yes, we're also expecting more disruption tonight and tomorrow. And we're in a farming/equestrian community so the village is a little divided on the subject of fireworks. I hope the idiot setting off bangers after 11pm on a weekday has had an earful from their neighbours this morning.

It might be too late now but one year we accidentally found out that playing the f1 loud on the TV helped Billy a lot. Must be the frequency of the engine noise.

Some radio stations play calming music at this time of year, although I agree that loud music is probably better to block out the sound.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet it was definitely worth a go! I am going to try it again tonight, maybe I gave it slightly too late so will try a bit earlier today. That’s funny also as I thought the same re the cost of fireworks. I thought everyone was as skint as us! Might as well set fire to £50 notes instead!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I can see how the engine noise would help! @Silverbirchleaf Apparently the dogs trust have released a ‘sound blanket’ of calming music to play. We did put classic fm on briefly but it didn’t block out any sound at all. The nosier music the better for us 😄

We're metalheads, but for some reason, the combination of fireworks and a heavy beat/bass makes my heart race, so we ended up playing Bach Brandenburg Concertos on repeat last night. Not sure how much it helped Brie, but it did help me.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet oh yes, very much a Tolkien theme for my dogs. There aren’t many female names in his work and the ones there are are pretty ostentatious. I would feel a real prat standing in the park shouting for Galadriel 😂. In hindsight I did get the names the wrong way round. Merry is definitely more of a Took, but too late now.

The fireworks have already started here tonight, she is trying to have a nap but keeps rushing to the door, yelling. I tried the brown noise yesterday, but that didn’t seem to make any difference, nothing much drowns out the bangs and pops. And I’m definitely not subjecting myself to an evening of F1!
You are right @SpanielsGalore, it’s not just pets but livestock as well, and imagine what it must be like for wild animals and birds. I am surprised that there isn’t more pressure from farmers to get them banned.

@YorkshireFelix poor V, and poor you getting snapped at, that’s really stressful. And we have the rest of the weekend to go…!

Yep @Struckbylightning , they've already started here also, so we'll have six hours of Brie panting, eye rolling and trying to hide. And likely the same tomorrow. It's just awful. I agree, it's horrendous for livestock and wildlife. It really needs to stop.

Metal to Bach is quite eclectic. Wonder what the neighbours think when they hear the melodious sounds of the Brandenberg concerto, compared to the usual Slipknot.

Or should that be ‘Bark’s’ Branderberg concerto?!

We're on Vivaldi tonight @Silverbirchleaf , even Beethoven was too "heavy" and giving me palpitations, so we're keeping it light.

Hope everyone else is surviving okay.

Dog has been bothered by some fireworks, but restless rather than terrified. However, he was barking at nothing again earlier. I actually went out and looked under the cars in front of the house to see if a cat was lurking there.

Hope Vivaldi is working for both of you.

@Struckbylightning I am still not 100%, so am probably about to really embarrass myself as I've sure we've discussed Pippin before...but who is Pippin?! I thought Merry was an only dog. Or is Pippin your dog before Merry? Or is Pippin a cat? Or a child (I assume not a child..).

I really hope everyone and their dogs coped with fireworks over the weekend. We had loads here and quite a lot at gone 10pm at night on Friday, Saturday and last night!😫Mine don't react, and indeed all went into the garden at night for their last wee's etc and just ignored the noises, but it was very irritating.

I think I am (finally) fully recovered from my nasty bug, but DDs and DH are still sick. Poor dogs went a week with only 1-2 walks a day and are very very twitchy. I took them out this morning and even after mile 5 they were still absolute lunatics.

A quick Q: when you all bought your puppies, did you have a puppy whatsapp group? DMums breeder has added her to one, and it's just constant. She was here for lunch yesterday and she had over 100 messages in about 3 hours. Most of which were from the other buyers about all manner of things nonsense like crate training, dog names, their kids etc

I don't do a whatsapp group for GDPR reasons and also because, quite frankly, I feared they'd be exactly like this...but wondering if DMum and DH (and me) are particularly miserable 😂

We didn't have a WhatsApp group for big pup but did for little pup.

It was obviously more active in the early days but was never anywhere near 100 messages every 3 hours territory. These days it's just maybe a photo update at Christmas or if a pup has done something particularly interesting/stupid. Like getting bitten by a squirrel 😂

I don't think we've had as many fireworks as previous years. Little pup is totally oblivious, if you didn't know she could hear a treat jar being opened from upstairs you might think she was deaf. In previous years, big pup has been more bothered. Not hugely, so no panting shaking or anything. Just wanting everyone to go to bed with her at 7pm! She's not shown any signs of being bothered this year but she is aware of them.

We had some unexpected glorious weather over the weekend, so a nice 10km loop on Saturday then a woodland walk on Sunday, followed by some Archery.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks my Tibetan has a puppy WhatsApp group.... ours was more like the puppy survival thread on here. The breeder also gave some advice as she knew the puppies well, especially in the early days. These days it's Birthday, Christmas and an annual meet up. He's 6 and we have been to 4. It's just a bit of fun organised by one of the busy body active owners. Breeder came to the 1st & 2nd with mum , but has been quiet these last few years.
Personally I didn't participate much, he's not my first Tibetan and I am pretty confident in raising puppies or taking in rescues with issues.

You can mute WhatsApp groups...