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Woof! Bark! And also Whiiiiiiiiiine.

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Red Ant Sep 2016 7:49pm, 5 Sep 2016 3,629 posts	0 Red Ant Awww bless
halfpint Sep 2016 8:13pm, 5 Sep 2016 21,229 posts	0 halfpint Poor Charlie. I can't imagine how hard it must be to prevent a dog from rampaging. We have discovered pig's ears. 10 minutes of peace. I might as well not exist. I can leave the room, pee in peace...
D2 Sep 2016 10:14pm, 5 Sep 2016 8,973 posts	0 D2 Good to hear Charlie is recovering, Indi has to go through that indignity soon too, obviously its going to be easy to keep him calm and quiet... though I too will be employing pigs ears; five minutes of heavenly quiet.
Flatlander Sep 2016 3:25pm, 7 Sep 2016 581 posts	0 Flatlander I'm not a dog owner and don't follow this thread so apologies if this subject has already been covered or you already know about it, but I came across this article telegraph.co.uk that may be of interest and concern to those of you who walk your dogs in the countryside. I hope I don't alarm you further but there has also been a lethal outbreak of babesiosis (a tick borne disease) so far confined to Harlow in Essex theguardian.com but there is the possibility that it may spread to other parts of the country. Hope your 4 - legged friends stay safe.
BaronessBL Sep 2016 3:37pm, 7 Sep 2016 5,884 posts	0 BaronessBL Worrying article - dogs can also get lungworm from slugs themselves - a dog locally was extremely ill with that, transmitted by a slug... I'm not sure if Suffolk has a worse problem with slugs than anywhere else in the country but because of the local case we are very cautious when out and about... there are loads of slugs around at the moment and so it would follow there is probably a lot of poison about too I guess.
Alice the Camel Sep 2016 5:43pm, 7 Sep 2016 2,920 posts	0 Alice the Camel Thank you for the information Flatlander. Certainly something worth being aware of.
BaronessBL Sep 2016 12:54pm, 9 Sep 2016 5,897 posts	0 BaronessBL We have asked a different local dog walker to our regular one to walk Wanda for us one day next week when we both have to be out for much of the day. Because I am currently paranoid about everything to do with walking her, I invited him over yesterday to accompany him on the exact walk I want him to give her... his first question when he arrived was - was this the dog that bit Mrs *** recently? I explained what had happened as I think the story he'd heard had been embellished somewhat sigh Anyway - after asking him to read a detailed document about what he may and may not do when walking Wanda (I know it sounds OTT but if we are to be challenged about whether or not we are responsible owners I felt it was a sensible approach) we went out for the walk. At one point an elderly man with two yappy fluffballs on extendable leads was coming towards us - we had a lot of space to move to the side which we did and for good measure I asked the man if he could please make sure his dogs didn't come very close to Wanda 'Oh don't worry - they're fine' he said as they yapped and snapped towards her extending their leads ever closer. This of course totally freaked Wanda out.....nothing bad happened but I still don't get why if you see someone deliberately move some distance out of your way, sit their dog down to allow you to pass and politely ask that your dogs don't approach theirs......people think that it is absolutely fine to let their dogs rush up yapping and snapping - they may look cute to humans but the body language may not be the same to another dog...... Sorry rant over - anyway I think the dogwalker will be fine with her and she seems to like him too so fingers crossed!!
halfpint Sep 2016 1:57pm, 9 Sep 2016 21,236 posts	0 halfpint It's good that you feel confident with the dog walker. I feel quite cross that the story has been embellished but it sounds like he is sensible enough to draw his own conclusions. I am constantly baffled by other dog owners. We meet loads of people who proclaim their dogs to be 'just playing' or 'really friendly' as they snap and snarl at Ernie. Are they in denial or genuinely think that is friendly dog behaviour. We had an interesting encounter today with a collie. Ernie was having a grand time at the beach but after a few friendly encounters with other dogs he was a bit boisterous. Anyway he took a shine to the collie who was also friendly but he was so excited he would not recall. Rather than giving me a chance to get a hold of E by stopping or recalling her dog, she continued walking in the opposite direction and throwing the ball for her dog. It made it nigh on impossible to get him back. I suspect she was disapproving of me not being able to control my puppy He had been quite good until then, playing with the other dogs but coming to me when I called him back.
Helegant Sep 2016 3:59pm, 9 Sep 2016 3,402 posts	0 Helegant I wish I knew the answer that question Baroness. The yellow collar/harnbess/scarf/lead is supposed to help but people tell me it doesn't. Sproget used to ask people to stay clear of her dog because it was very nervous and people would reply just as you describe, "My dog's fine", to which she would reply, "My dog isn't". It didn't make any difference. I sometimes make a point of standing between Jet and the animal that I perceive as a threat (usually a small child with waving arms - Jet is very tolerant, but I'd rather not find out how he reacts to a small finger in his eye). It's good news that Wanda likes the dog walker.
BaronessBL Sep 2016 4:20pm, 9 Sep 2016 5,906 posts	0 BaronessBL Interestingly Battersea advised us against using the yellow ribbon because in their view it gives the 'wrong' message - ie 'I've got a dog with a problem but I am not doing anything about it'. I am not sure that is the case - horses that kick often have a red ribbon in their tail (or used to anyway) and it was a warning not to get to close. I'm not sure the dog world is quite as familiar with the yellow ribbon thing meaning give me some space but for those that are familiar with it I would have thought it was another useful thing to have. However I suspect in the case of this man and his two dogs I could have been walking in front of Wanda waving a yellow flag and he'd still have done exactly the same