Forum menu
Pleeeaaassse can we have some of the Chinese? At all? Even just an ickle bit?
atleast they are on the floor.
Lola jumps onto the sofa then gets her paws on the table and looks directly into you bowl. just stares at it. waiting. absolute focus.
the drool starts. then the stomping. then the jumping off the sofa and hopping, then back on the sofa. rinse repeat
5 weeks since this canine terrorist came to stay! Safe to say we’d forgotten just how hard it is raising a pup as our old boy was 14 when he left us and we are 14 years older!
Oscar came along to support us at our charity darts yesterday.
I've made a rod for my back with mine.. I give him a chicken chew treat thing in the mornings and now he expects it.
Once I'm up and about, if the treat isn't forthcoming he starts getting stroppy!
I am becoming a huge Oscar fan, he looks a great companion. Not a breed on my hypothetical dog list until you started sharing the pics on here.
Edit duplicate post
made a rod for my back with mine.. I give him a chicken chew treat thing
Having lots of success puppy training w this... Suspect also good on toast.... 
Lola has had her staples out today - all 24 of them! Two weeks after the op. Vet's very happy with how she is. Can now have short on lead walks but still no running of jumping for two weeks. She's very happy to have the bodysuit off...
Roxie has decided it's "bring myself to your work day" probably in expectation of some kind of treat.
I've made a rod for my back with mine.. I give him a chicken chew treat thing in the mornings and now he expects it.
Once I'm up and about, if the treat isn't forthcoming he starts getting stroppy!
Ah, ours is very much routine driven. If she's staying with friends or being dog-sat, we often get a call "Why is Willow staring at us?"
The answer is always, "what time is it?" It could be walk, garden required, afternoon walk, dental stick or evening pig's ear treat. The stare is the same, and rivals Derren Brown in its effectiveness.
Pretty sure the stare in Paddington was based on that pic
The lawn is unkempt cos no mow may, even if it is June
You still have a lawn? Sprocket specialises in landscape gardening - so far he has... caused us to remove four or five substantial plants that turned out to be toxic to dogs, helpfully demossed a substantial area of grass, which he has also generously trimmed, converted the space left by one of said toxic plants into an open cast mine, where he attempts to bury various toys, taken to chomping on brambles of all things, rendered the compost heap unusable by jumping onto it and fishing out 'delicacies' like decomposing corn cobs, mango stones and things that we don't know what they are. He is also using the compost bin as a handy teething chew, despite having more chew options than any puppy should have access to.
Amusingly for a wirehaired pointer, he is astonishingly nesh. This morning's toilet break in our wind tunnel-like back garden here on the edge of the Peak, was a battle of wills, which he inevitably lost. Admittedly most of his life to date has taken place in warm sunshine - he has a shock coming - and he still has his puppy coat rather than full, adult, double one, but I was expecting better from him 🙄
Back to his place bed and the radiator for a well-earned, polar explorer-styled sleep...
'astonishingly nesh' ... 🤣 🤣
I've made a rod for my back with mine.. I give him a chicken chew treat thing in the mornings and now he expects it.
I've taken to giving Sprock a couple of small cubes of apple while I'm making my porridge in the morning. He now not only expects it but when I gave him some apple as an afternoon, post-training treat, he ate two cubes, then looked away and settled down, completely ignoring the other three pieces I still had in my hand. Clearly apple only comes in multiples of two 🤣
Made the hardest call tonight. Cassie has been on a downer for a couple of months now and it’s got to that point.
Originally she was my uncle’s dog, practically bequeathed to me by his wife after he lost his battle with depression. >90% trained as a working sheepdog, she lived her first year sleeping on a pallet in a barn. When I took her home she refused to come into the house and didn’t know what a proper bed was.
She’s been the most amazing dog over the last 14 years. When my now wife moved in with me, Cass took the hump for a while and decided to move her out, distributing her underwear evenly across the garden. She was otherwise so kind natured, gentle with our kids and with a keen eye for a perfect line through the trees. She loved riding with me: particularly at night in Hamsterley where she clocked up hundreds of miles. She would hear the bike come off the rack in the house and she’d be straight there at the door waiting to go.
I’ll miss you little dog.
Sorry to hear that hot fiat. Seems she was a great dog who had a great life.
Sorry to hear that. It’s the most and worst difficult part of owning a dog, but we do it for the right reasons.
Sorry to hear that @hot_fiat - we've only had our little guy for nine weeks now and he's already brought so much joy and laughter into our lives. Sounds like she had a great life with you, not sure about the colour of that skirt though.
Omigodd, that dog over there is really, really big...
Today’s teaser…. 
That's not fair @Scapegoat but I'm going to guess fox red flab puppy ......
Any recommendations for dog friendly accommodation in the west country?
We're thinking of a week away in September and are keen to take Herbert with us for a change. From the Cotswolds over to the Wye Valley area and anywhere in between .....
Next instalment ….
Sprootlet -found this website while looking for dog friendly places for a summer break w dogs... No idea how good, but they look nice
Teef this morning. Paw is healing well although walks in the current weather direct more frequent cleansing. But she's her usual self.
@sprootlet In addition to the Kip Hideaways site mentioned above, there's also www.petspyjamas.com They seem to have many of the same properties as cottages.com, but provide details of plenty hotels, pubs, B&Bs etc
He's come out with some absolute belters since then that proved to total hipocrasy.
There was also the awkward bit when we looked at the actual facts and basically the whole claim was based on hilariously bad "science".
Meet Scout - our 12 week old lab cross.
After much debate about how our 4 year old Labradoodle would adjust to a new canine addition to the household, 12hrs in and they seem to be getting along famously.
Oscar’s big brother came for a visit the other day
We’re picking her up on Friday, so more pics incoming.
We too were wary of getting a pup, as Willow is nearly 10 now, and kind of set in her ways. She often has to put up with visiting youngsters, Tod and Dexter who are both just over a year old now and earn the odd growl as they both seem intent on burying their noses in her non-barking end.
However, she’s a gentle soul and received wisdom is to make sure they are safe from each other. I’ve never caged a pup before, but have one ready in case they need separating. No doubt time will tell
A very lazy, but enjoyable weekend has been had.
Today was a Star Wars marathon interspersed with some prep work for the coming week, lost the laptop a few times due to a rogue kick when her highness spreads out.
This one was taken after I made the mistake of getting up to make some lunch and came back empty handed.
Bregante, keep us updated on the progress please. We’re considering getting Dohball a wee bro but I have concerns - he’s a rocket!!!
So far so good. Our 4 Yr old dog Luna can be reactive towards other dogs (not aggressive necessarily just vocal) but there have been very few flash points so far and Scout seems to be wheedling her way into her space quite nicely.
Thanks everyone for the words of support. It means a lot to us. Kids are dealing with it well. Jake, our 1 year old collie is pretty down though. He has such a sad face on. I was out in the garden yesterday and he came out, wandered up to her grave and just sat down next to it. Broke my heart.
Just gonna have to keep him loved and busy.
As an aside, is anyone have issues with tics this year? Jake and Cass were on monthly fipronil, which should be enough to kill on contact, but I’m finding loads, none of which have been dead when I’ve removed them.
Tics are really bad this year.
Never used to get them at home but had to remove quite a few from both dogs.
In scotland at the moment and i haver never seen this many before. Just today we have removed 10+ from each dog, luckily before they attached.
Been using neem oil and wonder if that is helping getting them to not attach.
Absolutely loads of them due to dry weather and mild winter. We were on the West Coast of Scotland a coupe of weeks ago, Oscar’s brother and my brother’s dog kept getting them. Oscar had one on him all week.
Evening walks in sunshine with Ball (which has to be kicked because of the slobber).
Safe to say we’d forgotten just how hard it is raising a pup
I'm very much hoping to forget quite soon... It sometimes feels like we're being held hostage in our own home by a small, hairy, chaos demon, who is infinitely brighter than we are. When I tell people how ace he is, I occasionally wonder if I have some sort of canine version of Stockholm Syndrome.
At doggy day care on Monday, butter wouldn't melt etc.
The puppy phase will soon pass and you will have a (very) short window of well behaved puppyhood then the teenager years kick in. Feels like everything you'd taught them goes out the window and recall can be a thing of the past or else they become fearful of things they have never reacted to. It's a fun time ......
With that colour, if it isn't the lab then my other guesses are Vizla or Rhodesian ridgeback
Feet aren't chunky enough to be a RR and nose is completely the wrong colour to be a Vizsla.
Red lab, bringing her home tomorrow. 
The puppy phase will soon pass and you will have a (very) short window of well behaved puppyhood then the teenager years kick in. Feels like everything you'd taught them goes out the window and recall can be a thing of the past or else they become fearful of things they have never reacted to. It's a fun time ......
Oh yes, we are very much forewarned. He is though, absolutely fantastic. We had a pretty good idea of what we were getting into with a wiry - massively bright, massively goofy, lots of energy, proper stubborn streak, you have to be calm and firm and consistent or he'll walk all over you. I try to keep one eye on the full-grown dog he'll become, particularly on days when he's being full-on infuriating. Honestly though, people who have 'normal', non working line dogs, don't really understand what they're like and how hard it is to teach them to have an off-switch.
The missus thinks we've chosen a dog that behaves exactly the way I do, I have no idea what she means 🤣