Sorry, whinge time! This might have something to do with having an 8 month old puppy, being 34 weeks pregnant and the fact that the weather is crazy hot (still mid 30s at 8pm) but I'm feeling very negative. Ella was awful at the vet tonight, wouldn't stay still, didn't want her ear looked at, flying around like a nutter and I was even worried that she was going to nip the vet at one point. I've mentioned in another post that no one can cut her nails, I can't get her to put her front paws on the car (to help her get in without me hauling all 23kgs of her up off the ground) and she's still jumping up at people on occasions and gets mouthy when over excited. Yep, she's passed a number of obedience classes and that's fantastic but I feel like she's regressing in so many other areas. Am I getting this all wrong? I worked on touching various parts of her body as a small puppy and she was always great so I didn't focus on it anymore and now she's hopeless. Do these things need to be trained everyday forever to prevent going backwards? I feel like if I make a list of everything we need to work on or maintain the OH and I will need to quit or jobs and become full time trainers to cover everything! Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little but I did warn you that I was going to whinge . Oohh, it's just started raining so I'm going to take Ella outside, get soaked and hopefully cool down and get out of my bad mood! Rant over, I promise ☺☺
Deep breath I was pregnant when Riley was young too and there definitely came a point where lifts into the car had to stop. Will she jump in for food? If she likes her dinner or breakfast take it to the car, put it at the back so she has to get in to get it and let her work it out Don't worry about the vets I'm sure they've seen worse. Try and check ears and paws after walks every now and then. It's a good habit to get in. I've never checked feet so often now I've got a spaniel who seems to have permanent grass seeds attached. She will get better honestly. She's just a puppy in a big body and that can be a little trying
Don't worry about your ranting Emily if it make you feel better, we don't mind. We all have these days. Just work on one thing at a time. Good advice off Barbara, I would work on that first. Chin up .
There's nothing better than a good rant. I don't really have anything to add. Just wanted to say hi and hopefully the weather will cool down soon. There's nothing worse than being too hot. X
Yes, she's old enough to jump in the car herself now - a nice tasty something should do it, and teach the command 'up' My Tatze won't let anyone put drops in her eyes. We can look in her eyes, but get the bottle out and nothing will persuade her so I know how you feel at the vets
I know that feeling too! Just too tired with a dog who want to have so much attention, and when not, going for mischief! When I had Finn the first month I cried a lot! What did I do, why did I want another Labrador for? This one was such a handful. The others I had were so easy compared to Finn! He is still a handful even after 2 years. Always on the look out how far he can go! He needs a steady strong and loving hand, both my husband and me must draw the same line, if we say no, he tries one step further. For example, if he is not allowed to swim, he will run like crazy to the pond and right on the edge he stops.... He put a paw on the carpet on which he isn't allowed to, just to see if we can see him doing it, otherwise next time he will put his second paw also on the carpet and in no time he will sleep on it! It is also rather demanding for you being pregnant and having a young lab to take care for! Your hormones if you don't mind saying me this are all over the place, probably crying quite easily if I remember my 4 pregnancies! So no worry to rant, here you can rant if you want to! You will get so much good and loving support! Annemarie
I think with a young dog, you've got to pick your battles really. There are just loads of things that I could get Charlie to do better, but there are only so many hours in the day. I think you make your list, pick the ones that are the most important and concentrate on those. Once you've cracked them, they do go on a 'maintenance' list but this isn't as onerous as it sounds, because it's no trouble to do the things that have been trained.
aww you're having a tough time which is making you focus on all the negatives. Make a list of positives, no matter how small and trivial. Try and list say, 20. Then add another 10. You'll surprise yourself. And rant away. Everyone's here to listen and most have been/are going through very similar xx
Poor you, you are overwhelmed by it all. You are hot, tired and fed up of waddling around and this dratted dog insists on showing you up. The simple truth is that you have a teenage dog. I would describe it as 'hell on four paws'. You are quite right, they do appear to regress. It is soul destroying, you work hard to teach them something. You bathe in the happy glow of your success, then it seems they have forgotten it all. You need to just keep plugging away with the training, it will eventually come right. And I know that is the last thing you want to hear right now. A Labrador is quite a large dog and Ella is well on the way to full grown, so of course you notice it when she plays up. If you had a smaller dog it would just be laughable. Teenagers are a pain. The good news is that with a Labrador it only lasts a few months, with humans it lasts MUCH longer and as you will learn human teenagers answer back. Come and rant. It will do you (and your blood pressure) good
As it has been suggested she could be coming into season. How much excercise does she get? I realise the weather is not helping. How about water exercise thsi certainly takes the edge of their Boisterousness. As for training this needs to be maintained, in fact going back and starting over again helps.
I feel ya. You are tired and the pup is making it worse. Eat some ice cream or shaved ice. Rome wasn't built in a day. Everything will be fine.
Ella has been desexed, so it's not an impending season I think everyone else has said it all.... Just wanted to say that it'll get better!! The awful heat doesn't help at the moment.... She can definitely learn to jump into the car now. Your back is important too
Hope you're feeling better after the rant and the rain . It does seem 1 step forward sometimes and 2 steps back but Ella is doing really well and considering the heat and a sore ear it's not really surprising she was not her usual self at the vets. Best advice already given but I would just add, turn the page today is done and look forward to tomorrow. Other than that just take a little time each day touching paws, ears while stroking her, I found it has helped Juno with me checking her paws as she think nothing of it
Thanks everyone! I've had a good night sleep in the air conditioning and am feeling much better! In answer to a couple of questions... She's been desexed so definitely no season ☺and she usually gets lots of exercise and training but the heat of the last few days has limited what we can do which I know has definitely added to her craziness and my meltdown haha! We have another 41 degree day today and an expected low of 28 overnight so I've managed to book Ella in at daycare for a few hours so she can have a nice air-conditioned play as I'm not sure if it will be be cool enough for a walk later. Thanks for the suggestions re training. I'm going to make a list of the most important things we need to work on at home and go from there. We'll be able to get working on some of the smaller stuff inside so we'll focus on making a good positive start over then next few days until it (hopefully) cools down and we can get back to our normal routine. Im also making a whole load of frozen treats for Ella and I think I'll buy a nice big tub of icecream for myself too ☺☺☺ Thanks again for everyone's kind words, it's so nice to know the support is out there ☺☺
I don't think I could cope with pregnancy and a hooligan teenage puppy. You deserve your ice-cream. I hope you have a better day today x
Hope the icecream helps We're having icecream for dinner tonight because we're too old for our parents to tell us not to (and because new icecream machine arrived yesterday and because it'll be 37 today). The stint at daycare sounds like a great idea too! Bring on a cool change.....
Oberon It would be wrong not to use your new icecream machine! ☺ Yep, bring on the cool change tomorrow arvo! Keep cool up there in Canberra ☺ Now... Back to stalking the daycare Facebook page for photos...
Sympathies about the heat ,I have to work around it but not with the added challenge of a pregnancy , you must feel really drained by it X The daycare sounds a great idea ,when it's hot and you and you need to excercise them you need to draw on the resources available.... Ella will come good,you've put time and training effort in with her...she's just at that age where it feels like she is pushing her luck but she can't really help herself. 2 things I'd like in my life 1.A bread maker. And 2. An ice cream maker ......but the potential for overindulgence holds me back!!!!! Chris And I are Greedies!
