Dog thread 🐾🐶🐕🐾

We got back from our evening walk, and after a bit of a Potter about someone came burrowing in for a snug spot.

Sadly missed the shot of him popping through like a jack in the box when my gf brought me a cookie.

18 Likes

Not a fan

15 Likes

There is a sofa and a dog bed in this room, and our eldest is off school in the other room on the sofa under a blanket, but apparently this is the place to sleep this morning, right under my desk

She also looks like a tank in that picture but now we’ve got her food ratios right she’s in great shape, finally.

Bought her an advent calendar on Sunday and ordered her a coat for her Christmas present. Haven’t bought anything for my youngest human child yet :grimacing:

13 Likes

Starting a new job soon and will need to send Molly to doggy daycare once or twice a week. Never done this before so looking for some advice.

Anything in particular I should be looking out for when choosing one? Gonna ask around and take some recommendations from local people but any tips welcome.

How flexible are they? Do you have to commit to x hours/days per week like a nursery? Or can you ring them the day before to drop them off? I have no idea how they work :rofl:

Daycare which keeps the dog at another site other than it’s home should be licensed with your local council - ours has a scoring system so you can compare providers.

It depends what you think she needs. Options here are daycare based in someone’s house (most here were already full and had lots of conditions about which dogs they’d take which put us off, or outside kennels which seemed the opposite of what we were looking for), collection in a van to go to a secure field with a load of other dogs and run around like mad for a couple of hours (option to do that for one or for two sessions a day, the two session dogs stay in the van while the one session dogs are dropped off/collected, which might be a consideration if she doesn’t like the car/being crated in a van) or a walker who will come and take her out solo or in a much smaller group than the field runs, and/or pop in to give her some company.

Our dog didn’t cope with the big “pack walk” style - she had not had much exposure to dogs before coming to us and her play style is very rough (albeit friendly) so she barrels and boxes and chases and nips and pins (I know that doesn’t sound very friendly but there’s no aggression in it, just absolute numpty-ness). She has no off switch and is a powerful dog. So in a group scenario she would be a nightmare for other, more placid dogs. Fortunately the people who took her out for a trial run recognised it straight away and were very honest with us, which I appreciated as it meant they clearly had all the dogs’ interests in mind and were content to lose custom to keep everyone happy and safe. For that type here, you let them know on a Sunday what days you want the following week and they slot you in and invoice monthly.

Ours copes pretty well at home alone for a few hours when necessary. So for us, a dog walker who comes and takes her out solo and then sits with her for a while to have a fuss is the best option, when my in-laws aren’t available to pop in. She’s then happy enough til one of us gets home. She’d be content without the walk part tbh as long as she had a human to feed her, let her out for a wee and give her cuddles in the middle of the day. Luckily we found someone with staffy experience who also runs a home boarding so we use her when we have to as she only walks dogs solo or in carefully matched pairs and it means doggo is familiar with her if we ever decide to use the boarding option.

Most offer a free trial and will come meet you first so you can get a feel for what they’re like. For unlicensed you might want to check their insurance and pet first aid training is up to date, how many dogs they have at any one time, that kind of thing.

2 Likes

18 Likes

That’s beautiful. Autumn suits your doggie!

1 Like

This popped up on my phone again the other day (as a ‘2 years ago today…’). Reckon it’s my favourite photo I’ve ever taken.

22 Likes

Take Scout along to dog daycare for a few hours occasionally just to give him some socialisation and us a break to get some stuff done more efficiently!

This is him (the border collie lying down) with his pals.

17 Likes

Oops. Nearly ended up with a goose for Christmas… :grimacing:

Ozzie was being a very good boy off his lead in the park - walked past ducks, geese, other dogs and people and he was fine.

Then he chased after a magpie. Straight into the middle of the geese. The geese scattered and he started chasing them round and round and eventually grabbed one of them. Thankfully it got away and I grabbed the dog.

Naughty boy! He’s banned from going off the lead for 2 weeks now.

3 Likes

Misty has started doing the cat thing of donking her head against you when getting scritches :pleading_face::sob::heart:

18 Likes

So what is the name of the law that states that your dog will expand to fill the sofa space available to it?

12 Likes

A rare photo of me with both my bears that Mr s_w managed to snap…Samson is always very needy, but Destiny thought there might be room on the sofa for her to cuddle too (which is a fairly rare occurrence). :joy:

25 Likes

I’m so jealous! :heart::heart::heart:

2 Likes

What are their personalities like generally? Are they quite serious or goofy? Friendly or guarded? They’re such gorgeous looking dogs.

1 Like

I am tempted, ngl

10 Likes

These are amazing! It was jumper weather here this morning and so many people had a smile to themselves as we walked past

8 Likes

Thankyou!

So they’re both very lazy dogs, and like nothing more than napping.

They’re both affectionate, Samson, the bigger one is especially affectionate and always wants to be touching. He’s super friendly with people too and loves being fussed. He’s very goofy, not at all serious. He’s a teddy bear haha.

Destiny is a bit different, she’s a rescue we adopted from Romania so while she is getting more and more affectionate with myself, Mr s_w and our dog walker/sitter she is quite a nervous girl so shy with new people (but loves playing with other dogs).

3 Likes

Having fun with my sweet boy today

Always breaks my heart how sad he looks though :broken_heart:

Not sure if those have embedded properly but yolo

15 Likes

State of that nose

19 Likes