DOGS

Aww, Lee, that is an epic pic. Tllooks like a fantastic buddy. So sorry

Sorry about Juno, Lee. She looks like a proper pal.

the thought of how scared and confused she must've been is something that I won't be able to shake for a while, if ever

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Matthew, your advice actually helps! Naturally, we want to protect our pets from ANY anxiety, but maybe that's just an unavoidable part of life, and the best we can do is to reduce the suffering for our loved ones.

That does remind me: our family went out of town for a week, and we left Juno with an aunt to take care care of. Juno has a LOT of abandonment issues, so when we got back home, my aunt, who lives 15-20 miles away, told us that Juno had run away. I had given up on her as lost (at best) because of the distance and she wasn't chipped, but in a few days my mom was able to find her: a lady was able to corner her on an expressway (in California terms, 45-55 mph thoroughfares with traffic lights), and she did the bare minimum of finding the original owners by putting a very cropped picture of Juno on Craigslist (Juno had some recent scarring on her nose), and my mom somehow saw the post.

That was NINE years ago, so in a way, all the time that she spent with us since then was that much more special and kind of a miracle.

And yes, Juno was street tough and a total survivor. <3

💜

We got a Springer Spaniel puppy. We're calling him Woody. He's absolutely brilliant. However after reading what they're capable of I am slightly shitting it. Am fast familiarising myself with the building blocks of his training. 'Wormhole' doesn't even begin to cover it. Extremely motivated to get the basics rock solid. And it's fun! However it is slightly like teaching yourself to drive a Lamborghini by reading a book. I'm not a hunter and never will be. I have zero interest in competitions and field trials. I do have access to wetlands though, within walking distance, so I would love to take him out there. Just need to be sure he won't follow a bird for 20 miles as soon as I take him off the lead.

Sign up for puppy class, if they're still happening. The best thing you can do is get him out to meet lots of different people and dogs early on.

Yes lots of visits to the school gate, supermarket etc. We introduced him to his first real up-close dog encounter this weekend. Some friends came over with their tiny poodle/jack russell and he absolutely shited it. Tried to flatten himself on the floor. If he could have dug a hole and gone through it he would have. By the end, though, he was alright. Indifferent, even.

I see quite a few Springer Spaniels in my neck of the woods, they are beautiful dogs. Sadly one of them, Bernie, passed recently and I have only seen his elderly owner's son who says she's broken by his passing. I see this likeable idiot with one called Spaniel L Jackson (I know it's a fucking nauseatingly wacky name!) that is ridiculously fast and has insane energy levels, and is probably responsible for reducing the local squirrel population by at least 50 %! But the owner used to shit himself when he first let him off the lead because he ran out of sight at ridiculous speed and often didn't come back into sight for a 5 minutes sometimes. There was a few times I kept bumping into him he was often in a panicked state calling Jackson!! But he's more chill now and has obv developed a level of trust with his dog, and all young dogs/puppies are generally crazy.

Extremely motivated to get the basics rock solid. And it's fun! However it is slightly like teaching yourself to drive a Lamborghini by reading a book. I'm not a hunter and never will be. I have zero interest in competitions and field trials.

I know very few springers who actually go hunting or shooting. Almost all the springers I know are just pets. Admittedly pets in a semi-rural area with a large beach where they can burn off a lot of energy off the lead, but still just pets. The ones round here tend to carry round a Jesus-what-is-that-in-your-mouth-oh-it's-a-flap-of-old-tennis-ball PRECIOUS TOY and ask for it to somehow be thrown for them, but otherwise they're just the same as other dogs. We've had springer crosses over the years, and they did catch birds and rabbits and other animals, but they usually let them go again. That was our experience, anyway. I guess if you got Woody from some real gung-ho working breeder then he might be a bit more "come on, it's duck season!" but even then, their job is to bring the bird back to you, not to kill it, so you can usually persuade them to drop it relatively unharmed even if they do catch something. Could be a problem if your local wetlands are a bird sanctuary? Maybe look at muzzle-training the little chap so he can snuffle about but not pick anything up?

I used a muzzle to stop my dog eating unsavoury things (including other dogs doodoo!) and it was very effective and when I eased him off the muzzle there was no return to the bad old days!

That's very reassuring trishy! I'm not worried about him twatting wildlife I just don't want him running away, running out of control, etc.

I mean, he may very well do those things, but I don't know that he's any more likely to run away from you than another dog is. We've got a little terrier at the moment (Kitt, who I posted upthread) who just does NOT come back if he sees another dog in the distance. And now he's even got so smart that when you call him back, he assumes that there's something up ahead you're trying to keep him away from, so he looks around to see what it is, so you have to kind of sneak up on him while he's sniffing something and put the lead on him before he bolts. I assume he'll grow out of it when he realizes that the dogs over there aren't really any better than the ones he's already hanging out with.

I love it when I've just fed my dog and as I'm bending down to tie my shoelaces he bounces towards me amd licks my head and now it smells like tripe flavoured dog food.

lol tracer i had a dog of the same name growing up who was half springer!

whoa!

what was he like?

he was not very smart but a nice dog for kids. he loved to chase squirrels. sometimes across the road. he also had separation anxiety; my dad came home from work one day and could hear him inside crying to himself because he didn't hear that someone was home yet. also loved to steal bagels from the counter and knock over the kitchen garbage can. all kinds of schemes to steal human food.

part of the fun of bagels for him was just tossing them around so we'd find them under furniture

Sounds a lot like my Woody so far! :)

And now he's even got so smart that when you call him back, he assumes that there's something up ahead you're trying to keep him away from, so he looks around to see what it is

This is amazing! What a pup!

Our rescue dog is not a Springer Spaniel but some kind of black lab/hunting dog mix, but he has a lot of the same issues. We recently went to the country for a week, and the first night we were there, he slipped out of the front door when I was holding it open for a second and ran out and started sniffing around the yard. By the time I got there he had run off out of sight. I was pretty sure he was gone. I went the direction he had run off but then heard my wife calling from the yard, apparently he had run back that way. But he was too fast for us to catch him and he has zero inclination or training to come when he's called, especially when highly distracted by the presence of local wildlife (deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc. as we later discovered). The next time he ran back nearby, I held the front door open and called him inside, and luckily he ran in. Needless to say we didn't let him off the leash, except for about a minute when we were at the beach so he could swim out and fetch a stick.

Sheesh!

on the other hand a local Springer Spaniel called Bernie who just passed recently at the age of 15, he was hardly ever on the lead with his owner or her son. They just had a basic rope lead they used for crossing main roads, but most of the time he'd wander freely along the pavement and sit outside the shop and wait for them. If ever they stopped for a chat he'd start impatiently barking because his walk was being interrupted! I've got a video where I'm filming my kid playing on his skateboard and Bernie comes wandering around the corner into shot, seemingly on his own, but he often walked ahead of his owner off the lead. Although they both did say he was a bit unpredictable when he was young and sometimes would run off.

Yeah from what I've read it seems like the danger zone is kind of 8-12 months. They discover their love of the hunt and lose their instinctive need to be next to you.

Woody has done absolutely everything we've asked of him so far, he's been great overnight, he's pretty much entirely housetrained, sleeps in his crate, etc - EXCEPT for an addiction to biting - which we are trying to address.

Hopefully we can keep him onside once he turns into a surly wandering teenager

Obviously bitey puppy is connected to teething - give him frozen carrots and occasionally a frozen raw chicken wing on top of the usual ow! then turning away that trainers recommend.

yep frozen carrots is the best for teething bitey pups. My boy Douglas still eats carrots, although not frozen these days.

It also sounds like some play with dogs his own age would do Woody the world of good so he can learn that biting's not cool. Although, some dogs just lead with their mouths forever. Calzino will tell you that this is something labs love, in particular. They will just put your whole hand or your arm in their mouth and hold it there. Sometimes give it a little squeeze. Our terriers like to play biting games with us too. They don't do it to other people, just us.

What do you mean with the carrots? Like, when he starts biting you, give him a carrot? He would eat his weight in carrots in an hour!

I used frozen carrots as a regular in between meals thing to help with his teething + as a healthier, cheaper alternative to the processed chews. But perhaps not as a reward for biting!

yep Dougie loves a bit of arm in his huge mouth, but it's never a bite it's an expression of playful affection - he doesn't have a bite in him unless he's got a hambone. When he's got a hambone I don't interrupt him till he's finished, he gets a bit primal and edgy chewing on a hambone!

I wanted to get a good tug toy for Kitt, because he can be quite bitey, but decent rope toys seem to be hard to come by at the moment. I knotted up some lengths of old vest for him to yank about the place, but they don't last long.

Giving a bitey puppy a frozen carrot to bite is distraction/redirection and a totally normal part of training. Always do a yipe/no! and distract them with a toy or a permitted chewy thing. Also seconding any suggestion to socialise with other dogs who will tell Woody off the minute he annoys them with bitey face.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ei7hPYaXkAEViDt?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

rolling most 2020 dog images

I'm getting a bit of a bad rep as a foulmouthed yob in my local park amongst the posh people that drive there in SUVs. I keep telling these pricks that I'm not going to put my dog on the lead when he is neither a threat to people nor other dogs and just because their very poorly socialised dogs that never get let off the lead because they are a piss poor dog-owners - well that doesn't mean all the other dogs shouldn't have some free-running fun in this public area. I probably don't make the situation better by telling them to fuck off as my opening response and calling them entitled middle-class pricks, but I'm no good at responding calmly to arseholes. Buy your own fucking park if you want to make up the rules you fucking arseholes!

In most parks where I live, that is the rule. Still people sometimes let their dogs play off the leash. I don't make a big deal about it. My dog certainly couldn't be trusted to go off the leash. He was adopted from a shelter and was apparently not well socialized as a pup. But if other people let their dogs run around it doesn't bother me, assuming people are pretty good judges of their dogs, and the other dog can be trusted to not react if my poorly socialized dog decides to lunge and snarl (while on a leash of course).

For years, we've had dogs who walked quite happily off the lead. We had good control over them (not flawless, but really pretty solid), and we deliberately moved to a quiet area where the beach tended only to be busy during school holidays and weekend afternoons in summer. It was all great. Now that's all changed. Our beach is full of people all the time. They make faces at off-lead dogs, even though the local by-laws specifically state that dogs are permitted off the lead at our end of the beach. Worst of all, little Kittser, our newest dog, can NOT be off the lead around other dogs he doesn't know. He's wild, he shouts up into their faces, he doesn't come back, he is generally extremely annoying. It's not that he's bad with other dogs, because he's not. He's just bad at meeting other dogs. And he has absolutely no interest in learning any other way of behaving. It's usually fine, because I can spot other dogs coming before he can and get him back on the lead, but now that we're all locked down again and everyone is doing their 100 Days of Walking or whatever, the beach is just full of dogs all the time, most of them disappointingly leaded up and not wanting to play with any other dogs, never mind a crazy little Patterdale.
tl;dr: I deliberately moved to a quiet area so my dogs could have off-lead fun, and now everyone has followed me, I feel very hemmed in and walking my dogs is no fun.

I get so angry because this is happening in places I have previously been frequenting for ten years without any problems. Another bad result of the lock-down is a massive influx of new dog owners no doubt all calling me a cunt on some neighbourhood FB page! But life is shit enough as it is rn without having to get annoyed with annoying arseholes on a daily basis.

"little Kittser, our newest dog"

lol great name is that, I had a great Uncle from Kilbrew named Kittser!

the other day this arsehole got very upset that my dog and another free-running tiny Springer Spaniel he was playing with ran up to her dog - ffs! they just saying hello and she's yelling at me to keep my dogs under control and I can't be civil when people yell at me and I will tell them to fuck off 10 out of 10 times so it's never really going to get any better!

I know some dogs from shelters might have problematic behaviours and not be trusted to go off the lead or some dogs are just a bit stir crazy, but I've met owners who have brought them up from puppies, and it seems to me like they've had a bit of a mare one day or two and never let them off the lead since. For the first year with Douglas I was having multiple mares a week with him off the lead, but if you persist they get there in the end is my philosophy.

Yeah, I can't deal with any of the stress around Kitt's bad behaviour, from the noise of his constant barking to the worry that he'll try it on with the wrong dog and get hurt, or get a kick from someone, so I work very hard to make sure we don't have a mare. But then, I am a catastrophiser anyway.

I figure in another year or so he won't care so much.

But life is shit enough as it is rn without having to get annoyed with annoying arseholes on a daily basis.

Yeah, you're right. It is nice to have somewhere to have a whinge about it, though.

One thing that is quite cute is there's a guy who has a fancy radio-controlled car, and obviously his way of unwinding and getting the hell out of the house is to bring it to the beach and run it up and down at top speed. He is very happy to let my two small dogs chase it, too, so if he's down there, that'll give us a good high-speed five minutes. And there's a small kid called Jake who we meet sometimes. Jake is two, and he likes to chase the dogs around and fall in the sand. They bark at him whenever he falls over. He absolutely breaks his hole laughing at this, which is great fun for me and his mam.

lol I've bumped into a friendly big kid with high powered remote control car recently as well, although he was knocking on at least 30! On two of the days when Dougie had a mare he learned two important lessons the hard way, he learned that running into barbed wire or electric fences is neither big nor clever nor any fun.

Oh, Douglas. You prawn.

lol I had to keep him on the lead today because the fucker ran off on me twice trying to follow a little springer pal of his that was being kept on the lead due to a leg injury. When the other dog's owner said ffs! can't you keep him on the lead I was in full agreement this time. But at least she was a friendly face and added that when her dog has recovered they'll be both having a runaround together again. From now on I'm going to walk a bit longer to go where there is less chance of bumping into people, it's a bit of a pisser in the ice, mud and freezing cold conditions rn, but I think it will be worth it to avoid the dreaded humans.

the problem is there’s so little else to do. the walkers be walkin. woody is still a puppy so literally every other dog he sees he wants to play with for the rest of his life. going 50 yards can take half an hour.

thing is I'd never complain about an enthusiastic pup running around my dog, even if it is causing mayhem. It's these entitled wankers that yell with attitude about keeping your dog under control that get me on a war footing. Shit if anything I'm always delighted to see daft young pups running around like crazy!

yeah completely agree.

My dog is a big lad for a lab but he is very soft and 100% sociable off the lead, although he likes to act tough on the lead sometimes but it's a show, he will never attack another dog and more often than not he gets bullied by smaller dogs so I don't any reason he can't have a free run in the park.

Only two weeks to go before the whiplet can join the madness!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsYlAcDW4AA_3yw?format=jpg&name=large

it was nice to get away for a few days in Greenland last week.

Today's walk saw the return of the Miserable Old Couple Who Hate Dogs, who I haven't seen in ages (and had actually forgotten about). They hate anyone who has multiple dogs and/or loose dogs, so they will deliberately change direction in order to walk up the middle of your pack of dogs and then complain about the dogs "touching off" them. Today they left the path they were on and crossed to the path I was on with my dogs, and as they walked past me, the woman told me that Tess, my Jack Russell, had growled at her. Tess had not growled at her. They really are a miserable bloody pair.