Skerret's posting is ok to trip balls to and read just to experience the ambience but don't expect any content. "I'm jealous of sucking major dick!"~ Kernowgaz
You know how long grass hides plants with sticky burrs and seed pods, designed to get caught in animal fur and thus spread?
Cooper has very thick, very curly, fur.
I have spent four hours picking bits of sticky plant matter out of his coat, combing him, shampooing him in the shower, and finally playing rough games of tug and fetch with him until he started to dry off and get sleepy.
I’m knackered and my arms are covered in scratches and bite marks and I’m never letting him on that particular piece of grass verge ever again.
My parent's dog Max has the same problem.
Those little little sticky balls that are on sticky weed, an hour in the garden is 2 hours of removing.
Combing and washing is no good, just have to roll them out with your fingers.
How is Cooper doing on the biting?
It does pass but I found with Clay and Max the best thing was to fold my arms and look away if they bit hard. Totally ignore them.
They both mouth hands still but have learnt the correct bite strength.
Cooper’s still very bitey. We’re trying that exact tactic – fold arms, stand up, even walk away. Remove the fun from him when he goes too far and bites.
All that sticky ball removal last night was hard, took two of us because one had to hold something for him to chew so that the other could tease out the burrs. His instinct is just to bite so that we stop pulling on his hair.
It’s not that the wee guy bites really hard, but when he gets overstimulated and loses his self control, the nippiness is too much. So we need to rid him of the habit, eventually.
He’s getting better with it, but it’s very slow progress … and he’ll probably start losing his puppy teeth and teething again soon.
Up at 5am this morning dealing with Cooper having the shits.
Past day or two there have been traces of blood in his poo. It’s not going away by itself, so I’m taking him to the vet ASAP. They open at nine, can’t do a thing until then apart from sit with the wee guy in case he needs to go again.
Poor bugger. I suspect either a parasite or something daft that he’s eaten having scratched him internally. Definitely vet time.
He should be in there right now. Sent the Mrs along, while I headed in to work.
I spent the morning with him, and the wee guy has been delightful company. Snoozing away by my feet while I worked at the living room table. With his dodgy guts though, I had to take him out every half hour or so for a (literally) bloody poo.
Had a similar thing with Dougie a couple years ago. Took him to the emergency vet at charing cross as it was the middle of the night and he wouldn't stop shitting everywhere. 350 quid just to get in the door, for them to tell me to just starve him for 24 hours, then see how he was doing.
I think that’s standard vet advice, really. Starve or feed with plain chicken until their stomachs return to normal. Reckon this is a bit different, because of the blood. Dunno. Haven’t heard anything yet.
The vet gave Cooper a thorough once-over and proclaimed there to be ‘nowt serious’. Most likely he’s eaten something a little bit poisonous – y’know, like the wrong kind of seed or plant when he’s been scoffing EVERYTHING IN SIGHT out on a walk.
So he has a syringe full of diarrhoea treatment (one squirt in his mouth before each meal), he’s had an antibiotic jag, he has a fresh round of flea/parasite treatment lined up for as soon as he’s feeling better, and I need to feed him bland stuff for a while.
The vet’s opinion is that he seems pretty chipper, so let’s not worry too much.
Guess who’s going to the supermarket for lots of cheap chicken breasts on the way home? THIS GUY! What a rock & roll Friday night this will be.