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.

@Lavenderdog Lavender dog is A-Dor-Able!

@SpanielsGalore yes, Merry is now just over 18kg, which the nutritionist said was her ideal weight. She is still a skinny hinny but is less boney. Some days it’s a struggle to get her to actually finish her meals, she likes to slurp all the gravy (I still mix it with water), then she seems to rummage around for the ‘best bits’ and then leave about half. She does often go back and finish it later, especially if I add more hot water and a sprinkle of grated cheese. I think it’s because she feels too ‘busy’ to eat. For some reason she always scatters one mouthful around the floor. No idea what that is all about!

I’m another who can’t imagine her going into kennels or dog care. A few years ago DH and I went inter-railing for a month and my folks came over from Suffolk to dog-sit our old dog. However, they are both in their 80’s now, and Merry is A LOT. She seems off the scales in being a one-person dog. She doesn’t even come to life until I get up in the morning. DH might get a slight tail wag when he gets up, but she won’t play with him, she won’t even be bribed with a treat. She only gets out of bed when I come down the stairs. And then the chaos begins. This seems very sweet, but i sometimes find it a bit…smothering? It seems a big responsibility to be so important to someone, if you know what I mean. What would happen if I had to go away for some reason? I think she would be ok with my dd, but she lives up North and works full time. Ds lives at home, and she happily goes for walks with him, but he works weird shifts and often overnight. DH is always working.

@Lavenderdog he really is adorable! Merry also has an unbridled love of life, in fact it often gets mentioned by people on walks ‘what a happy dog!’, which is lovely, but it is also rather hard work sometimes. Thank goodness she sleeps like a log and settles really well in the evening. Otherwise I would be forced to run away from home!

Awww Lavender Dog is very cute @Lavenderdog with that adorably whiskery face, and looks so full of character.

Merry sounds like a complete sweetheart @Struckbylightning , she possibly has that typical shepherd dog mentality of food not being the main priority by the sound of it. As you know I'm very much a pastoral breed person, and they do love you with all their heart ❤ Although I'll likely be told the same is true of gundogs...🤔

We had another sleepless night. No idea what we do about that, since we can't just suddenly move to a bungalow. But one positive today is that Odo is finally actually enjoying his food, waiting for food, and no longer leaving half of it in the bowl. So, I'm taking that as a good sign that his tummy is starting to settle. He is clearly enjoying the lamb.

The one thing that has shocked me about this foray down the dog food rabbit hole is that with Royal Canin Giant Puppy, his recommended daily amount is 500g. With the Calibra it's 240g. WTF? Cannot get my head around that.
Speaking of food - how are your girls, specifically K, getting on with the new food @SpanielsGalore ? Is it going down well?

Finally, I have a question I'm asking here and on puppy thread:
Where do I start with an exceptionally clever pup?
Not doing my usual non-training spiel, I just want ideas for training, teaching, games, anything for this phase where walks are a bit restricted. And, also I guess, for wet wintry days indoors. He's very bright and that's part of my struggle right now, keeping him occupied when he doesn't settle quite as easily as Brie or the others did. Any ideas please?

@CoubousAndTourmaIet so sorry to hear about your sleepless nights, that must be so hard. I found Merry as a pup such hard work that I thought I would go bananas, but one thing I can’t complain about is that she was fabulous at night. I can’t give any tips though, because it just seemed to happen. Same as the toilet training, I didn’t have to work on that either.

I might be able to help with training though, Merry is extremely clever, diabolically so even! I did my head in trying to find brain games and tricks. A really good foundation to lots of other things is something called Vitos Game (don’t ask me who Vito is/was, possibly an Italian bloke). I won’t try to explain it, but look it up on YouTube. There are lots of spin-offs, so look for ‘original Vitos game’. One of the main things about the original is that you shouldn’t be giving any verbal cues, the dog has to work the trick out on their own. There is food involved though, so it’s good that Odo is enjoying his new food.

As well as the usual sit, down, paw, spin, middle etc, stay is a good one because you can progress it into finding games. I taught Merry the names of her toys, then you can play hide and seek. I can tell her to ‘go find froggy’ and she has to rush around sniffing out the right toy.

I also started the herding directional games indoors when she was little. Using 2 soft balls she learned ‘come by’ (clockwise) and ‘away’ (anti clockwise). With yourself at the middle, direct the dog to go around you, with the ball as the lure. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I got the idea from a mad woman under the name of Collies with Yen online. I refused to pay for her full program, but I got the idea from the short videos she puts on social media.

Also, you can’t beat a good old fashioned game of tug, as crazy and lively as you can, preferably with a toy that has a squeaker in both ends. I used it to teach a drop, stop, gettit, stay etc. Even now, Merry brings me her tug toys at least once a day, and it really seems to wear her out because it’s physical, but also forces her to use her brain and listen to my commands.

Hope some of these help! I could probably go on…

@CoubousAndTourmaIet K came home on Eukanuba. Weighing 2.5kg, she was expected to eat something like 180gms a day. She barely ate one meal, never mind four. Switched her to Orijen and she only needed about 40gms a day.
It's probably a sweeping generalisation, but they say the better quality the food, the less you need to feed.

K is enjoying her new food. She has the odd softish poo, but it's not smelly. I'm hoping that will improve when she's had a few weeks on it. She eats so much crap out on walks, it could be that that upsets her. At 40p a day, we are definitely going to persevere.

I'm assuming Odo is in the kitchen/utility with Brie overnight and not with you. If it was me, I'd have him sleeping alongside me until he was settled through the night and then work on moving him into the kitchen. We had an inflatable mattress that was very comfortable.

I can't afford anything to @Struckbylightning 's training ideas. We just do the usual obedience stuff with a bit of gundog work thrown in.

When Dog was younger, got something like this off Amazon and set up courses inside and out.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skylos-Agility-Equipment-Jump-Training/dp/B0GZP7M1GF/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?adgrpid=162089719918&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fpTYqLu_fgJyl2Fpk5i9vdlvwuUbx4jLGQ5u-gppwTDU6fufBJBQmmUrHHp24qVA6aoh1myHd3UgdZfDClyySY0TCUrgauUwWpHa3-N28MzT-Uv-PiIhwFhPyw9n6YTYeZCy6OJqIb1uO2TGlxLX5ZcrK2PmUxpoZ_V2ROMglbbSf3VpcMl6efUGOB5ayGKG.HLxJyvgFNtT0uapHUesvjqcukZtVaQZ5NfCxbko2yyQ&dib_tag=se&gad_source=1&hvadid=772475575088&hvdev=m&hvexpln=70&hvlocphy=1007056&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=6065744032989834324--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6065744032989834324&hvtargid=kwd-1115937361592&hydadcr=17314_2302365&keywords=dog+agility+equipment+amazon&mcid=5405c86d5e1336c8ba5714aadac56ea8&qid=1792588248&sr=8-1-spons&aref=9gdhThq3Xf&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1

(holds record for longest link on thus thread!)

(Probably shouldn’t have done it on wooden floor in retrospect etc).

Rally obedience - found cards on YouTube with demonstrations of actions and doing a few at a time. In fact, just done that with Dog.

Just discovered this site where you can download the signs, but if you search on YouTube, there’s people demonstrating the signs.

https://www.rallynews.co.uk/signs.html

Hide food for them to sniff out. I get Dog to sit and wait in one room, scatter a couple of smelly treats then get him to find him. Only scatter a couple if treats at a time so the game lasts longer. Also do it in the garden.

Little pup was attacked by a squirrel on today's walk! She screamed, ran back to me and tried to jump into my arms. Not sure whether it was a bite or a scratch but she had a bloody lip. I think she'd gone up to have a sniff of a squirrel that must have been injured on the floor. So both in the wars this week. (She's absolutely fine now).

Keeping big pup on the lead quickly went out the window, as did trying to keep any sort of sock on her when on a walk so settling for a salt water soak post walk. She shows absolutely no signs of it giving her any issue.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet - once we'd mastered sit/down/stand we used to do find it games, hold, tidy (picking up an object and putting it in a box), impulse control (can use a toy or food for this), heel position and pivot. Failed utterly on ever getting either of mine to roll over on command. I also taught big pup 'speak', supposedly as a precursor to teaching quiet but that never happened so perhaps don't follow my lead there. Although people were very impressed when we were on holiday and in a place called echo valley and we could get her to bark and hear the echo. If pup likes shredding then treats in toilet rolls with the ends folded over can be more engaging for them than just treats (obvs only if he can be trusted not to eat the cardboard)

Thanks All!

@Struckbylightning We've never had sleepless nights with any of them until now and it's exhausting!
The training ideas are great. Thank you. Naming the toys would be the best one to start with - I said on puppy thread earlier that Odo surprised me today by getting the puppy Kong when I mentioned to my partner that I'd done a kibble filled Kong. So that would be perfect. The directional cues sounds good too.
They're both tug obsessed and I get tug ropes brought to me umpteen times a day! But yes, I could definitely work more on the commands.
I couldn't quite get my head around Vito's game 😆

Isn't it weird about the food amounts @SpanielsGalore ? Very odd. The massive bowls of Royal Canin completely overwhelmed him and it's huge kibbles. He's much happier on the Calibra. Glad K seems to be doing okay on her new diet also. Hopefully the poo will firm up once she's used to the new recipe.
As regards sleeping - Odo is in kitchen and half of the extension (which opens onto the garden). Brie has the other half of the extension and one of the living room sofas while I'm camping out on the other. The weird thing about Odo is that although he can see me through the dog gate, he takes no comfort and reassurance from that and wants me inside his space. But I just don't feel Brie is ready to room share, nor do I feel I can trust him in a room that isn't fully puppy proofed. Too many things to chew, too many wires etc. So I'd need to sleep on the kitchen floor to share a room with him (because the extension has no heating and is freezing at night). There is no way he would tolerate being crated unless I slept in the crate with him. So, either he learns to shut up or my partner and I will have to work dog minding night shifts for the next 12 years.

Aaah, @Silverbirchleaf , that does look like fun, but giants are not allowed to jump or run around while young. Hence why I'm looking for brain games rather than anything physical. Rally obedience looks interesting for when he's a little older though, or even for Brie. Thanks.

That was a strange experience for Little Pup @tizwozliz . Glad Big Pup is doing okay with her foot. We couldn't persuade Merlin to wear a sock either when he had the same injury. Similar problem when Rosie had surgery; flat refusal to entertain socks.
Is it possible to teach the opposite of "speak"? That's the one I need for Odo, otherwise I'll have to buy ear defenders for our neighbours. He is very very barky and that, for me, is the most difficult thing to deal with. Really hope he grows out of it quickly. It's hard when you're used to quiet dogs and suddenly have an exceptionally vocal pup.
Brie had a terrible habit of eating toilet roll/kitchen roll tubes, so I haven't tried Odo with one yet.

But thank you all for the suggestions. I'll start working on a few training games while we're in a rainy spell. In theory, walks can start next week as long as we avoid puddles and water...but we'll see how it goes.

Sorry for the essay 🙄

Everything I read about teaching a quiet command suggested it was easiest if you taught a speak command first. So i did that, it took about 2 minutes one evening 😂

Never worked out the quiet bit!

Big pup will tolerate the sock, insists she can't walk with it on in the house, but out the house is ok but it just falls off in about 3 steps. They're these sort so in theory are decent

Dog has just demonstrated his Labrador genes by stealing a lump of cheese out of the fridge. I’m hoping he chewed/crushed it rather than trying to eat it in one gulp. Having that ‘I-hope-he-doesn’t-choke -and/or-get-obstruction panic.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet - if you just want to do a bit of conditioning & exercise besides teaching tricks you can try some dog cavaletti with the cones & poles that @Silverbirchleaf has suggested. There is a lot you can do that's not jumping! I agree, getting your dog to think and work out what you want them to do is far more tiring than just coaxing them into position or desired behaviour.

@tizwozliz good Lord, bitten by a squirrel, that’s crazy. Poor little pup. I think I read once that a lot of dogs don’t like doing roll over because it makes them feel too vulnerable showing their bellies. My old girl definitely hated doing it, so I stopped trying it.

@Silverbirchleaf did he actually open the fridge? Hopefully cheese is soft enough not to cause a blockage. Might have an interesting poo in the morning..

We taught our previous dog ‘speak’ as a precursor to ‘quiet’, but it didn’t work, she was quite vocal at times. So I definitely won’t be doing that with Merry. There is a whole guide on Dog Training Advice and Support website about barking, that might be worth looking at @CoubousAndTourmaIet?
This was the video I used for Vitos game. She has an annoying voice, but she does explain how to do it and why it is such a useful game to play. I found it fascinating watching Merry’s brain whirring into action trying to work it out.

Thanks @Ylvamoon , that wouldn't have occurred to me, but I can see it's low impact so I'll bear it in mind. I'm not sure we've had quite such a bright (or precocious) puppy before and I'd like to make the most of his capacity for learning while he's young. He's already picked up a lot of words and names.

I'll have a look at the DTAS barking advice @Struckbylightning . Thank you.
That was the video I had looked at earlier, oddly enough. I think she's Canadian.