DOGS

Widget tries to eat loads of random shit off the ground but accepts me whipping the things from his mouth.

yeah I've done the same thousands of times, the problem I have is that it turned into a game with him and he's got a very competitive game-playing nature. One day I bumped into two climbers who were practicing on old train bridge. They had a wooden hand brush which I assumed was for brushing moss off the sandstone where they are climbing. Anyway the little bastard knicks it and it took 20 mins to get it back off him and he was gleefully running rings around us all!

We just got Josie, who is a Mi-Ki. They look like tiny Chewbaccas or Ewoks:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51057693562_0993b0cb39.jpg

okay i died

so little!

It’s National Puppy Day!

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZeX6amL

Long-term ambition fulfilled. Finally got a dog.
Doonie has come to live with us.
Day 5, I'm exhausted and very happy.
https://imgur.com/a/ELLKRVK

OMG! Total cutie!

very cute.

Cute AF.

Aw

the other day this dog walker with a little Maltese type looking dog falsely accused my dog of biting her dog for the second time. I said I can't take you seriously when you lie like this, my dog get's bullied by French Bulldogs and doesn't bite other dogs, particularly smaller ones and never has. He just playfully ran around the dog when it barked at him, even with my shit eyesight I had 20/20 vision on the whole *incident*. I replied just go to the park if you are too uptight about your dog interacting with other dogs and stop trying to spoil this place for everyone else you miserable arsehole. And she replied menacingly "just you you wait till you pass my house again". And then pulls out her phone and threateningly looks at me me like she is ringing the police. I just thought fuck it I'll carry on with my walk and ignore this deranged arsehole. I walked another quarter of a mile and saw this angry dot on the landscape shouting death threats at me. And then it dawned on me she had called her thick as pigshit lump of gammon boyfriend to come out and beat me up! I have a good idea who he is and am not remotely scared of him, but because a lot of the time I'm with my autistic son, she has effectively put me in a situation where I can't bring him there anymore with the dog because you do have to do a risk assessment as a carer, occasionally. Anyway the whole unsavoury incident reminded me why I mostly prefer walking with the dog in deepest possible cuts of nature locations and avoiding bumping into as few a humans as possible.

A dog in Russia grabbed the reporter's microphone and ran away during a live broadcast pic.twitter.com/R1T8VZ5Kpt

— Ali Özkök (@Ozkok_A) April 2, 2021

Anyway the whole unsavoury incident reminded me why I mostly prefer walking with the dog in deepest possible cuts of nature locations and avoiding bumping into as few a humans as possible.

I mean, this is me most of the time anyway, but doubly so if there's a chance of drama.

I'd gotten a bit lazy in the quagmire season but am back to 6-7 miles a day now - so it isn't all bad.

We're not allowed go more than 5k from our house.

I'm talking two daily walks here so I wouldn't be breaking Irish rules either!

If you are one of those people with a new puppy, please please please get them acclimatized to having their claws clipped and their hair brushed and people putting their hands into their mouths to take stuff out and all that other stuff. By the time we get dogs in our house, they've usually been neglected to the point that they won't let you do any of those things. I had to take Kittser to the vet today to have his claws clipped because he will bite me if I try to do it at home. It took two nurses to do it, and he was so stressed out by the whole experience that he got sick in the car. He's a poor little sausage.

when Douglas had dry pads that were cracking I tried to apply some sudocrem and he growled and tried to take my hand off and that was when he was quite young. He's used to me taking things out of his mouth without getting so radged although at least thankfully not so much these days. But when I've had to change bandages on his paws he has always had to be muzzled, he feels totally attacked if you go near his paws. My last dog wasn't like this and feel like it might be quite a complex emotional trauma buried deep within his psyche or something!

Yeah, it doesn't help if their paws are already sore when you start handling them, I guess. Poor Douglas.

As a new dog obsessive parent I've been trying to get him used to everything. Brushing is going ok (it's managing his determination to see brush as chew toy rather than any aggro), we're ok around the mouth so far and I've done a bit of paw/claw handling but I'm a way away from a proper clip.

No vaccinations yet, so he hasn't seen much of the outside world - turns into a wriggler and moaner if I try to walk him out in my arms or a sling & clearly wants to be down and sniffing about. We've got a bit of a garden for him to play around in, but the sooner I can get him seeing the world, the better.

But he's a pretty confident & trusting little beast - just hope that I don't screw it up over the coming months.

Nominative DogtermiNism !

hah dogs have been near the front of my mind for a long time!

Widget at nearly six months is happy to be left for a couple of hours if bribed with some kind of bone, a scatter of treats, or (his favourite which he knows by name) BLUEBERRIES. I can do one or two claws at a time - he doesn’t mind his feet being handled at all but if the clipper comes out, he won’t cooperate.

I don't think I've ever met a dog that doesn't love blueberries.

Our AmStaff Canela's favorite meal? Beef and peas. We serve it to her every year on her adoptiversary.

Our young one is an annoying little shit and we're all still getting used to each other. He just doesn't have any goddamn manners, so it will take a bit...luckily he's very smart and still young, so very trainable.

(Also strawberries, if they're sweet. God Nela loves strawbs)

Heeeeeeere's Josie!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51102126801_c1a8e21b63_c.jpg

is that even a dog???

idk I think she's her own species

or a gremlin

She is so damn fluffy and cuddly and fun. Still working on the whole come-when-called thing though :P

adorable

"Still working on the whole come-when-called thing though"

my dog is 2 and a three quarter years old and am still working on that project, but at least now when I call him he'll stop and wait for me and wait for me to put him back on the leash which is some progress I suppose.

"just hope that I don't screw it up over the coming months."

it's just like with human kids, you should never be too hard on yourself about your failures - because no matter how hard you try they will embarrass the fuck out of you one day and that is where the unconditional love is needed most!

I'm thinking bout castration at the moment and am very conflicted, been through all this before but this time it seems a much tougher decision. I mean wtf gives you the right to surgically mutilate your best friend? I just don't know anything anymore tbh.

Very consistently-voiced "come" commands, coupled with consitently-delivered treats on arrival, was all it took to get out dog to come when called. Then again, she'd probably run through a brick wall for food.

Re: castration/neutering, if you’re not planning to breed from a dog, the stats on canine testicular cancer in lads and pyometra in female dogs suggest it’s a good idea to have a dog fixed. With larger dogs and sighthounds, it’s supposed to be advisable to wait until they’re two to let growth hormones do their job.

yes I've emcountered a dog before where the owner told me he was castrated too early and the poor lad had a very unfortunate shrill whistle of a bark. I probably would have got him "done" by now and would have done if it wasn't for the lockdown. Thanks for that bit of perspective, Suzy - it probably does probably make a lot of sense to get it done for various reasons.

probs probs!

Also with sighthounds, early neutering basically hands them arthritis due to aforementioned growth plates not closing properly. My beloved Wilf was fixed around six/seven months and at 10.5 has started arthritis meds - early for a whippet. Poor Wilf is also experiencing early dementia and macular degeneration and I well up whenever I think about it.

Widget is pedigreed (granny, aunties and mum owned by breeder all show locally and at Crufts) and I’m thinking of letting him sire a litter before having him fixed because the stud fee can be one of the pups, who would go to Wilf’s family as a gift if they lose him before Widget turns three.

I reckon I could pimp Douglas out even though he's bit of a rough diamond. When I bumped into a kennel club type he told me in quite eugenic terms what a magnificent specimen he is and the matriarch from a local farm hinted that she would be quite happy if *something happened* between him and her golden retriever. But alas I think his nuts are going to go before he gets that chance ;;

I'm very negative about dog breeding and puppies, but even I wouldn't begrudge someone a Douglas pup.

There's a setter called Cooper who lives near us who normally hangs out in front of his house near the beach and comes down to play with his dog pals as they go by. He is one of Kittser's best pals for running about with, and Kitt has even got to the stage of going all the way up to Cooper's yard to see if he's around for a run. But today we met Cooper out on his actual walk with his human man, on a lead. Poor Kitt just couldn't understand it. He ran up to Cooper and shouted and shouted at him from every possible angle to get him to run, but no joy. He was so dejected when I clipped him onto his own lead and dragged him away.

Good boy is seeing Darth Vader for the first time... pic.twitter.com/KMDvY8mBBG

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) April 8, 2021

OMG that poor puppy!

I totally wish I could adopt Prancer, but I think he would hate me:

This is the best thing I’ve read in awhile. pic.twitter.com/rdn3X6GeWH

— Hot Little Mongoose (@HLMongoose) April 9, 2021

We are having a lot of trouble with our young one. Had to really convince my partner not to just immediate surrender him today. It’s going to take a shitload of money but i love this little fucker.

That sucks. I hope you're able to get it sorted, whatever it is.

how old is he?

He’s about 3. Sweet as pie with our other dog, incredibly affectionate and wonderful with people— and seemingly wants to kill every other dog he sees.

Sorry table, that's a horrible stress and hard work. Good luck to you and the boy.

It really is. God, it's so common nowadays, too. Every other dog I see in rescue has this problem. Funny enough, one of our little dogs has a very slight version of it, in that you would definitely describe him as "dog reactive". He shouts and bares his teeth at other dogs when he's on the lead on the street, and has to be dragged away from them. He will not focus on anything else if he sees a dog in the distance he wants to go over to. He will struggle to slip his lead and get away from you to go and see a dog he wants to see. But it's all because he actually loves other dogs and wants desperately to spend his days in a big dog gang. When we are with dogs he knows and they are all off the lead together, he is so happy. But we rarely get that opportunity. I'm very lucky that he's small enough for this not to be a real issue. If he was bigger, I would not be able to handle him and we would need to really address it. I hope you can get it sorted with time and training.

i have this exact same issue with my rescue dog too, except it is only half the time. my partner and i joke that she has 2 very distinct personalities. it is impossible to predict which one she will be each time we go out so i always have to be very vigilant about other dogs approaching. when she does go for other dogs, she particularly seems to want to go for bigger dogs who generally just laugh her off as she is so small, but i do worry one day she will meet her match and a dog will fight her back (it almost hppened one time). my brother in law has her brother and he is exactly the same with other dogs but is significantly bigger and stronger and therefore it is much more of an issue. working on it with training but it seems to be a very slow process.