Just out of interest, do you know what he is crossed with? :)

Lindsay
x

Just out of interest, do you know what he is crossed with? :)

You may want to visit the forum www.itsaspringthing.co.uk - plenty of Springer owners there who may be able to give extra advice :)

As for attention etc., try hand feeding Toby as a reward for exercises well done. Give him most or all of his food in this way, after a few weeks you should notice his attentiveness etc improve.

Lindsay
x

An exhausted dog,is a contented dog :)

hi keeley,
ive mostly skimmed this thread myself but have read most of it .. i can fully sympathise with you and your situation with toby..
i myself have experianced a similar problem with one of my dogs .. i have 4 rottweilers ..all of whom have at least 2-3 hours walk per day split between morning and evening .. but i dont work so i have the time to do this at my leisure .. but one of my girls is a right houdini and no matter how much she has been out for walks or had play she would jump the fence or dig her way under it at every given opportunity and goes mental if i try putting her in a run (to the point she would jump the fence even while we were in the garden with her :-O

For all i do not work i have a set routine for days when i visit my parents and do my shopping etc .. and therefore my dogs are only ever left alone 2 days per week from lunch time to around tea-time .during this time they are kept indoors as they dont like being shut outside ...i have found that the tv or radio has to be left on or they howl the house down .. unfortunately for me the way my house is arranged i have to allow 3 of them to have the living room and hall while im out and the other has the kitchen and dining room ..which means that by the time i get home they are all sprawled out on my 3 peice suite :-O this alone means i go through a 3 peice suite at least every 18 months hence i never buy a brand new one lol ive resigned myself to the fact that with 4 dogs that live indoors i will never have a nice house .. not that i would ever change that :D:D

time out for us is virtually impossible as our 2 girls have to be seperate as they dont get along at all and therefore me n OH are usually in seperate rooms when home so that no-one gets left out.. but oh what i wouldnt give to be able to put mine in the garden and just shut the door for half an hour but i have to watch 'houdini' like a hawk when she is out there ...:D:D

none of the other 3 ever try to escape therefore i am of the honest opinion that if a dog has the inclination to be an escape artist then it will be one . no matter what you try. :( .. it has cost me a fortune trying to 'houdini' proof my garden .. now she cannot get out of there but i wont even take the chance on leaving her out there unsupervised as im sure one day she is going to make a liar of me and get out if i do ..

I got abit carried away with longwinded post and what i really wanted to say was i fully understand your predicament and hope you find a solution that makes you and little toby alot happier :D
Cazzie xx

WOW Keeley :-) you have a lot of replies to read through today :-) i dont see you getting any work done today :-D :-D :-D

You're not kidding!!  I'm going to post a new topic to let people know how Toby was last night.

lol....pleaseeeeeeeee No :-) no seriously :-) how did he get on....did you manage to discuss this thread with your husband :-D

have a look under my new thread!!!  It's all explained there!!  (now I've finally finished typing it!!)

lol.....will do :-D

>our 2 girls have to be seperate as they dont get along at all

Can I go slightly off topic and ask how hard it is to manage like that? My 2 boys after 3 years have decided they hate each other (probably not helped by new puppy bitch arriving!) and we don't want to rehome anyone, but we have to think of the dogs as well as our own desire to keep them all.

it is extremely hard .. we have had some real nasty scuffles between the two of them to the point.. i thought they were going to kill each other :(
they were great for the first 4 months that they were together but both girls are very dominent and always want to be in charge ..typical women really lol
I was always told the problem i would have would be with having two males but they are brilliant together ,, my problem is with the girls :(:(
the only way for a peaceful house and safe dogs is to keep them apart which is hard . i always have to keep 1 girl in when letting the other out to go toilet .. they have to be walked seperately etc one has the kitchen and dining room and other has living room and hall .. the way we break this up is to swop them over to give them abit of time with the other dogs.. we have considered rehoming one of them but it just wouldnt be fair .. 1 girl ive had since she was 8 weeks old and couldnt part from her and no-one in the family would allow it ..and the other has already had 4 homes so far so it really wouldnt be fair to unsettle her again :( its just a case of alot of hard work and sacrifice on both mine and OH's side to ensure a happy house ,,, its definately not a situation i would reccomend to anyone :(:(

Sounds similar to my problem - I can't rehome my Cav boy as he's my show dog, and I can't rehome the American cocker as my OH would never forgive me (or the 2 Cavs!). I can generally walk them together as long as I keep an eye out to make sure the puppy isn't getting them exciting, and if I am sitting quietly on the sofa they are ok together, in fact yesterday they were both cuddled up together on the sofa. But as soon as they have to actually walk past each other the trouble starts - and they've drawn blood in the past so I can't risk it happening again. I was warned this would happen bringing a bitch in, but I thought they just meant squabbles while she was in season, not serious fights from when she was only 5 months old!  :-(

Hi there

Having read these last few posts, it seems to me the thing you all have in common is bringing in new puppies.  I had a bit of a problem with my 2 males when I got my Bracco pup but it did seem to calm down pretty soon.  I would hate to have to go through what you are going through.  It must take all the enjoyment out of having dogs.  I admire you for your dedication.

Kind regards
Annie

Locked until I get time to branch the thread.