DOGS

we’ve got two rescue dogs. One just spends all his spare time curled up napping; the other one is a bit more nervy and when my wife was out of the house, she would spend every single second sitting at the bottom of the staircase staring at the front door waiting for her to come back. She’s only just growing out of this now after two years of living with us, and now she too is starting to take herself upstairs for a nap (mostly on my pillow which now smells of mutt the whole time, ugh). They do seem to play by themselves sometimes as occasionally there are toys strewn around, but they most often use toys to engage us in games - chase me round the house is their favourite, followed by a bit of tug of war. I do worry about them leading fairly boring lives, but compared to what they would’ve had pre-rescue it’s not really so bad.

(Pre-rescue lives = both strays in an Irish dog pound, both due to be killed if no one claimed them within a week)

What kind of dogs?

some weird mix of Irish farm dogs, mainly terrier in both though

these dicks:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbKL3yGA5AX/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=ub4ny0pckcub

just wanted to add that i love dogs so much.

they are the best

Oh man, your short-haired dog on the left there has a look of my Milo. Now I'm a bit teary. He was the best dog in the world. (I am sure your dog is also very nice.)

calm I’m very pro-human names for dogs

calz*

lol! my last dog was called Dogsby.

Oh man, your short-haired dog on the left there has a look of my Milo

that's pepper! she's a bit nervous and tends to bark like crazy if she gets even a teeny bit excited about something. also she sings along to the radio in the car if like ellie goulding comes on. think she might be a jack russell x collie but who knows?

earlier my daft young dog vomited up a whole sock. Luckily quite a small sized ladies sock. But ffs it was at least as stressful as the John Hurt scene in Alien at the time. It reminded me of the time when poor Dogsby once swallowed a small bouncy ball a kid threw at him to fetch, and for a short period I thought he might choke to death. But at least that horrible incident had a very short moment of grim comic relief when he did this cartoonishly exaggerated scooby doo face - looking in both directions and where's it gone huh? Before he realised it had bounced straight down his gob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFju6GSS9Xk

seriously cute!

omg the bowing and the puppies.

Hopefully this sort of televised segment reduces demand for bosintang.

Oh god. meongmeongtang

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERz5o0LXYAAhFab?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERz689IXsAUDcJH?format=jpg&name=large

a very brief interaction with a cow and her calf, at times like this I'm tempted to go vegetarian again.

<3 Douglas

Man, Douglas is ready to be friends with those cows and that is for sure.

He's been obsessed with horses since puppyhood. He's always peeping over walls to check for horses and cattle. Although I wouldn't want to test if it is a gun happy farmer who owns them fine beasts! Also have to keep him on a lead where there is barbed wire, he has some foolish determination to run at barbed wire as if it was just string or something.

Oh, Douglas. Our black lab once ran full tilt into a fence post and properly stunned himself. Big eejit.

It's funny how some dogs are into other animals and some are not. I don't think our two original collie crosses ever saw a farm animal in their lives, but one day I walked them past a field of sheep and they were very, very strongly determined that they were going to get into that field and chase those sheep. Whereas the collie cross we have now doesn't even chase birds or rabbits, bless her.

poor Douglas ran into metal bin in the dark a couple weeks and it made a right sickening clunk and his nose was bleeding a bit, never felt so much pity for him since he ate a sock!

I suppose a lot of how they interact with other animals could be do with early exposure, but Douglas isn't too interested in humans when we are outside, he's totally focused on meeting their dogs though. He does take to people indoors and does the standard lab excitedly jumping up at guests greeting, but outdoors rules for him are basically bollox to humans! It is quite funny sometimes when other dog owners reach out to stroke him and he totally snubs them for the dog.

I’ve had Wilf to stay for most of the past week. He is very narrow and slinky, loves meeting people, and is indifferent to non-dog animals apart from SQUIRRELS. He likes nothing better than to curl up in a chair in the café while you are out having a coffee. This allows passing humans to fawn over him, because he really is gorgeous. He only likes other sighthounds and is otherwise indifferent to very small dogs. Three of the days featured play dates with other whippets and lurchers, with wildly different personalities, as follows:

Percy - a blue whippet who has been buddies with Wilf since he was a puppy. Percy is very butch for a whippet, which his owner claims is due to being Scouse. He barks to initiate play. He ‘hugs’ humans and tries to nibble their ears. Wilf LOVES Percy’s style of play, but would probably avoid other dogs.

Iris - small brindle whippet. She’s three. Lives for her frisbee, but while on lead loves to lick Wilf’s face while they walk together in lockstep. Very happy little girl.

Wolfy - larger shaggy fawn lurcher, rescue dog who can be quite aloof but not a nasty bone in his body. Happy to have Wilf alongside while they sniff every square inch of Hyde Park. Not happy for Wilf to sidle up to his backside and attempt to hump him - Wilf got loudly told off. I had to confess to my friend that Wilf tries to hump anyone who sits on the bed next to him.

so the rest of my family have decided we are getting a dog. i've never had one. but if these things go the way they usually do it will end up being my responsibility for deciding how we get one, how to train it etc. frankly i'm a little mortified and slightly skeptical. we live in london and have a little garden out back. when lockdown ends we'll be going to work and school. we have family who live outside the country who we (usually) visit regularly, meaning this dog would need somewhere to go for a couple of weeks at a time.

anyway, i'm sure all this can be sorted out. i guess i'm writing this to ask - what sorts of things should i keep in mind as a neophyte dog dude who doesn't know wtf he's doing or how to go about it?

get a dog that doesn't need to be walked for miles and miles each day (if you watch old episodes of the uk it's me or the dog on youtube 90% of dog problems boil down to people not walking their dogs so they have too much energy)

you are much more likely to get volunteers for doggie babysitting if the dog is on the smaller side

all dog breeders are scumbags. get a rescue dog

that all sounds v sensible

yeah avoid Kennel Club wankers, they are scum of the earth. I always recommend Labradors because they are most beautiful dogs in the world, but they are maybe not a practical option in London and they tend to push that human/dog bond to the limits if you ever leave them on their own in a house!

by the sound of your circumstances a small dog might be a good option, but not a small one like a springer spaniel that can go on a 10 mile walk and still be up all night!

I am biased but WHIPPET (or a lurcher that is mostly whippet). No grooming bill, not horribly vocal, doesn’t shed a lot, really good around kids and a champion sleeper indoors who needs two proper walks a day (in the morning and after work). If you have a nice park nearby, you’re sorted. Rescues have loads of lurchers and many of these are puppies. And it could always come stay in Bloomsbury while you are away (although they can still be passported and you can take dogs on certain car ferries - my friend took his to Amsterdam and Berlin for writing residencies).

kenneling/boarding expenses ADD up if you're going away for any amount of time. we were being charged around £25 per night I think, and that's cheap. imagine london is probably closer to £50? not sure but with a two week holiday that woud make it 700£ so basically paying for another person to go on holiday w.you

The other thing to do is join a holiday dog care swap group on FB or make friends with others with dogs in your area with a view to looking after each other’s pets when they go on their hols. I reckon summer hols are on hold this year if furlough is happening through October.

My friends with whippets pay me £20 per day (really easy breed and Wilf just sleeps if I have to go to the shops or out for a couple of hours) but a married couple I know use a posh doggy daycare/boarding centre in West London which is in the £30/35 range with a little discount for weekly holiday rates.

I once paid a couple I know a hundred quid to look after my dog for a week and they didn't want to give him back to me. I sent him to kennel twice and never forget the sad and betrayed look he gave me when I lead him to his prison cell and he slowly trudged in there.

I solved the ‘not wanting to give Wilf or Kenny (RIP) back’ issue by putting myself down for a rescue whippet/lurcher at the end of February (one that doesn’t mind an occasional whippet buddy staying over).

any dog who gets to stay with suzy has won the doggy holiday lottery

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX5XwlRWsAMt2DG?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

this lad has grown a bit, he's quite big by lab standards but there is a chocolate lab I see in the park who is even bigger than him.

I have to admit I do love labs. My best friend growing up had two and they were always just so solid and friendly and fun to play with. Maybe a bit big for the house though.

Consider fostering for a rescue, too. Then you get to give the dog away if it doesn't suit you! It's also a good idea to get a dog from a rescue that uses fosters, because that gives you a much better idea of what the dog will be like in a home environment. I have heard many stories down the years of rescues persuading/browbeating people into taking home unsuitable dogs, and then the people feel like they're failing the dog if they give it back to the rescue, and then nobody is happy.

Like, people will tell you all kinds of things about particular breeds of dog, but we've got a Jack Russell terrier who loves cats and small children and wouldn't chase a rabbit if her life depended on it, and we only know all that about her because she spent months in a foster home before we got her.

thank you trishy! very good ideas there

but if these things go the way they usually do it will end up being my responsibility for deciding how we get one, how to train it etc.

maybe one thing you should think about is which breeds can bear up best under simmering resentment

lmaoooo

yeah i was pissed off this morning. they all cooked it up without me and then it's like 'what will daddy say'. so i either go along with it or i'm like the meanest daddy ever. BUT I'M OVER IT NOW. MOSTLY.

OR you could look for a breed that would serve as a loyal recruit in the eternal domestic struggle for power!!!!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX5yb2BXYAEGAYm?format=jpg&name=medium

talking of simmering resentment I'm planning to get this beautiful young specimen frolicking in the bluebells castrated at some point and i'm his supposed best friend.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX5yb2BXYAEGAYm?format=jpg&name=medium

talking of simmering resentment I'm planning to get this beautiful young specimen frolicking in the bluebells castrated at some point and i'm his supposed best friend.

you could both get it done, out of solidarity

I would do it but the NHS are only strictly doing castrations on members of tory govt rn!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYuMt2KXYAEeY9B?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

you ain't speaking to this branch manager, he's the boss of branch managers!

He's got some neck muscles, bless him.

Having a very difficult time finding a shelter that has dogs that they say are suitable for a house with children.

Pets4Homes appears to be an aggregator website that pulls in animals advertised at various shelters, but also pets from breeders, 'cat wanted' ads etc. Absolutely astonishing the prices breeders want for their puppies.

It's a right racket and apparently The Rona has inflated prices and the RSPCA are anticipating a huge spike in abandoned dogs post furlough.