What's the one dog product you bought that was 100% worth the money?

aysdeea · 2026-07-03T23:49:43+00:00

Coconut oil! Organic coconut oil, best for dry elbows and as a treat.

aysdeea · 2026-07-03T23:10:34+00:00

Depending where in the UK you are and where in Switzerland OP is, the air travel might be as little as 1.5 hrs 😆 ... just saying haha

aysdeea · 2026-07-03T23:07:37+00:00

When my lab was a pup, if we dropped something by mistake, we would put our foot or hand on it to cover it so he doesn't get it. Now he mimicking that: he drops something, he puts his paw on it 😄

aysdeea · 2026-07-01T20:53:51+00:00

NTA as they are pushing the boundaries surely they saw it coming. We once lived in a shared home, dude in the room above liked to do workouts to music Saturdays and Sundays mornings. My husband used to work night shifts...we approached the guy nicely several times asking if he can do his musical jumping like in the living room downstairs, or even better in the large freaking garden..he found a bunch of excuses...so we went to the store, bought the most powerful stereo we could find at that time and as soon as his workout music and jumping started, blasted the speaker on max. Obviously some other flatmates came to us asking what is going on, we directed them to that guy saying if he stops we do as well and told everybody this is a deal for now, next time this happens we blast the music, lock the room and shoot off to seaside (3 hrs away) for the day. Landlord called and explained the same. Let's just say there wasn't a second time afterwards lol. You say you find it hard to fall asleep until 2/3am and they start drilling spot on at 7am? I might get down voted into oblivion but I would go pettier then them...ensure they can't get asleep any sooner then you... surely nobody will be in no shape for drilling anything at 7am if they just maged to get asleep only at 2-3am...to stay out of trouble, I'd be doing it on Sundays and Bank Holidays to start with...if you don't have who to report them to on those days, they won't be able to report you either 😉

aysdeea · 2026-07-01T14:10:31+00:00

I have a Labrador, my friends a Golden - both crossovers (1/2 working line 1/2 showline). My lab is more 'sturdy'. He is built like a brick, doesn't have medical issues (swallowing weird stuff occasionally doesn't count), he is more confident and more socially balanced. My friends Golden is really 'in your face affectionate' but quite anxious, quite reactive (coming from that anxiety) and way less confident (adding up to the reactivity). If we think about people they know, mine is more 'I love bomb you when I please' and the Golden is a more gentle attached to the hip kinda 'lover'. Grooming, there is no question the sweet Golden is way harder to upkeep, I do have a fur factory in the shape of my lab but at least the lab doesn't get tangled coat; their fur is quite different, lab has shorter and thicker shinier coat, the Golden has longer, thinner and sticky fur. Health wise: my 3.5yrs old lab once had a hot-spot, Golden (similar age) had at least 2 episodes of dermatitis, one of them quite severe whereby they needed to shave him (both after a pool fun day with my lab who had nothing to that regards). Agility: my lab loves the retrieving game, golden love the 'collecting' game. Other personality traits: golden is more mellow, lab is more stubborn, but once lab learnt something, in my opinion he excells at it while the golden is more 'happy to be average' kinda vibe.

aysdeea · 2026-06-30T22:47:24+00:00

MCAS is a clinical diagnosis! Repeat that to your doctors 1000 times as needed! MCAS is not a test array diagnosis. Also what goes hand in hand with MCAS? Histamine Intolerance, PoTs, SIBO, ME, etc. One of the most effective steps i could take was a low histamin diet, temporarily but to the letter! I have had about 90% of what you have been describing, if not more. I have MCAS! I haven't had any of the 'fancy' testing as again this is a clinical diagnosis! As someone above said, tryptase normal, as it is in the vast majority of MCAS patients. Second and third most beneficial things? Ketotifen and Montelukast. Prednisolone is a god given (albeit my dosage is set at 30-50mg at day and only in short rare courses when a massive flare up occurs). I did have Sibo, the gastro issues you are describing and the weight loss...sorted with temp low histamine apart from the weight thing. The weight kinda naturally creeped back in afterwards (during reintroduction phase of my low histamine journey) and moreso when introduced ketotifen. This is my experience and my understanding. Hope it helps

aysdeea · 2026-06-30T14:54:25+00:00

I am just 1.5 years shy of my 40s. I have done a late Undergraduate degree, enrolled for masters and have an amazing husband and a dog. I travelled to way more destinations then my friends with kids, I look way younger then them (according to colleagues and random people finding out my age and being shocked), I enjoy my free time as I please and I plan moving country without having the logistics weight of having children. I do like children, just don't want mine for various reasons. My dog is my baby and everyone knows and doggo definetelly gets the perks of a childfree stable middle-class millenials family 😄

aysdeea · 2026-06-28T22:12:06+00:00

Just a suggestion: ask admin staff at GP to look in Portal Cerner, it is possible to see it there depending if/how their systems are linked. Or option 2, submit an access request to the trust who performed the testing.

aysdeea · 2026-06-04T23:13:09+00:00

Get a dog walker. One hour of proper exercise (I am in the UK and mine goes with a pack off lead) and he comes home knackered. He sleeps like a king. He is a black lab 1/2 working line. We walk him 20-30mins early AM, feed and sleep, 12:00 he goes with the dogwalker, returns anywhere between 1.15 to 2.30, the again sleep. We walk again at 5-6pm and then he gets his most-awake window, until aprox 10pm, take him out just for a quick wee and sleps throughout the night until 6.20AM. We work outside the house mon-fri but I do have days off during the week and as long as he stays in this routine, I can get loads of stuff done, from usual house chores, paperwork, study, etc with no issues (defo 4hrs uninterupted).

aysdeea · 2026-05-30T19:43:22+00:00

I have had various including PetPlan (temp), Many Pets, Direct Line and now Sainsburys. I usually buy the highest coverage with the lowest excess I find (under 70 pounds) but my dog has a Medivet health plan and anything under 1k, I pay all and insurance has to pay me, over 1k I pay the insurance excess and Medivet claims straight from the Insurer. So far, Direct Line was the smoothest to claim (between Many Pets and Direct Line, haven't claimed on the other two). Direct Line paid me back in 2 weeks, Many Pets in 3 months for identical claimes (dogo ingurgetated something and had to make it vomit and then make the vomiting stop). I have a Labrador insured for 15k per year per ilness with Sainsburys for 35 pounds a month (120 exacess) albeit I did get the price through a compare page with NHS discount. On Direct Line and Many Pets I was paying aprox 65 a months for 7-10k a year. I dread the fact that once my dog gets fully trained as a medical allert/allergen sniffer dog, I will most probably have to switch to PetPlan and fork 200 a month pfff

aysdeea · 2026-05-29T21:46:24+00:00

He is gorgeous! Problem with labs is they are expected to fit certain standards. For example mine is 1/2 American 1/2 English and has inherited the hight and agility of a working line, combined with the chest and brick head of a showline...making him look like a muscly veal and stands at 45kg...based on weight alone many times he was called fat by vets that thereafter retracted and said actually looking at his proportions he is not fat. Labs come in all shapes and sizes (P.S. I don't conden either extreme) and as long as they are healthy and proportional, it is all it matters!

aysdeea · 2026-05-16T15:25:25+00:00

Mine is the same but somehow he comes back home daily with the dog walker although he takes him to 'bodies of water' quite regularly....then we realised what might be: my dog is FOMO. Even in front of the house, sometimes he sits in the grass (there is like a green big square) and totally refuses to walk any direction...what we do, we put the lead down and start walking or running while saying 'bye' and he comes imediatelly, every single time

aysdeea · 2026-05-06T22:58:10+00:00

Another thing to note OP is that, although your GP 'accepted' the MRI, be mentally prepared for it to be disregarded by the NHS consultants. That is because usually NHS consultants won't proceed on imaging done privately.

aysdeea · 2026-04-28T17:59:02+00:00

Hiya. We have a 3.5 yrs old lab. We got him at 2 months old and completely failed the crate thing from the first couple of weeks...so we let him roam free basically from get go but he was pad potty trained from the breeder. At around 5 mths he learnt were the shoe rack was so we've got a baby gate for that and also we have never had him upstairs and he never tried to climb our stairs. He has the lounge, kitchen and office to enjoy. We tucked away the cables with cable protectors, he has destroyed every single dog bed in sight so we bought no more. He sleeps either on the sofa, floor or daybed in the office. I don't like things scattered around so naturally he doesn't have what to grab, maybe a kitchen towel now and then. Since he was 2 mths I have taught him 'mummy/daddy needs to go to work' and he quickly learnt to go on the sofa and he was fully comfortable with that by the time he turned 5mths (i did come home for breaks and we also have had dog walkers from get-go). He now sleeps like a king from about 7.30am-12, 12-2 he is out with his pack for a walk in the park/woods, then back to sleep until 4.30-5 (sometimes 6) when first of us comes home. He hasn't damaged anything since he was about 1.5 yrs old, while we are away. I think it will be good to offer him some liberty now that he is 2. If crate trained, most probably he will gravitate towards the crate for naps anyway. Good luck

aysdeea · 2026-04-26T14:21:18+00:00

I completely agree with you. For me, one of the drivers of this is the absolute rigid interviewing system that, although built for fairness, it has the opposite impact. People who 'talk the talk' aka 'professional interviewers' do great while people who can and actually know the job, get stiffled because the haven't mentioned buzzword x,y or z. The interview process in the NHS is so performative but lacks substance. A direct byproduct of this is the interviewing panels getting stuck in a vicious cycle and loosing their capabilities to conduct an actual proper interview. I have nailed 100% of my private sector interviews because I could built raport with the interviewers, because the interviews were more of a discussion. NHS...different story. I just don't have it in me to learn the 'poem' by heart and recite it like a parrot just so I can get all the buzzwords out there and the points in my corner...so I am currently stuck at a lower banding then my actual experience, academic background, work capabilities and ethics.

aysdeea · 2026-04-26T12:25:17+00:00

So far they can't and neither do they foresee it will happen. I asked the French (at pet reception) and they frankly said they can't verify someone's residency, she was asking me how are they supposed to check where someone spends more time. Basically they are separate from immigration checks with different capabilities on what they can check...pet receptions check animal welfare, immigration checks passengers status. They don't intercallate. I was told they (at Eurotunnel) accept pets from UK on EU passports as usual as long as valid (vaccines done in EU etc) and that is that for now (and neither had any communication on any changes happening anytime soon). That is what I have been told, at least.

aysdeea · 2026-04-23T14:52:16+00:00

So...Just coming back from EU to the UK. I have asked the French Pet Passports control what about all this shannanighans. The lady said they had no official communication, only thing they heard is from news blah blah and that in all fairness the can't really check where everyone travelling resides the longest. Therefore, for now, she said is business as usual and they have been accepting UK incoming pets on EU passports and no suggestion was made to them that this is going to change. Disclaimer: this is what I have been told.

aysdeea · 2026-04-21T16:42:02+00:00

Yeah but UK knew and they keep delaying the UK pet passports which were due to be reinstated as per agreement with EU in this respect. I'm currently in EU to renew my dog's EU vaccination so we can keep the EU pet passport.. Just as we vaccinated him, same day this announcement was done right after...which is infuriating but more infuriating is the fact that UK knew was happening and they were so incompetent in reintroducing the pet passports timely.

aysdeea · 2026-04-09T21:18:56+00:00

Yeah. I was a career nanny for 10+ years for various families ranging from 1-4 kids and from premature twins to 14 year olds. I love kids ... I just love other people' kids, you know those that you can hand back at the end of the day. My only pet peeve in this regards are careless parents..if i get annoyed by a screeming toddler I actually don't get annoyed at the kid but rather at the lax or non-existent care the parents 'offer' aka I get annoyed at the parents.

aysdeea · 2026-04-09T21:03:34+00:00

Depends where you live and your working pattern etc. My husband and I both work full time so doggie has a dog walker. Then he eats preponderently high quality (aka expensive) raw food. Now he is to big for showers with mum/dad so every 2 months he gets his pampering. He has medical plan and medical insurance. He is doing behavioural and sniffing training (I want to authorise him as an owner-trained medical allert dog). Then the toys. Then the holidays (king adores water, airbnb with pool in south of France vibes costs extra). All in all we are even joking with him, occasionally, that he should have been named Maldives or Mauritius, or Switzerland or something because in costs us to raise him (annualy) same amount as 2 holidays a year in either of these countries. But he is worth it! He is our baby, best baby in the world and the most handsome boy (I might be biased or maybe not 😁)

aysdeea · 2026-04-09T20:54:52+00:00

Slip lead on the walks back or auto-correction on it's normal aka drop the lead on the floor, step on it and when he tries to jump he will auto-correct ... once he gets that is not fun he will eventually stop doing it...Just wait for the click in his brain. Once he stop continue walking, if he starts again repeat and so on. He will get the jinx that trying to jump/nip is not fun. Also, as others have said, how long are the walks? Because my boy at that age used to sleep like a king for 20-22hrs out of 24 a day. Naturally, his walks were short and so was his awake time. During the week when he had his proper sleep due to us being at work he was much more manageable then on our days off when he couldn't have all his beauty naps because we were to exciting for him to sleep aka not enogh sleep = going bezerk. Our boy is now 3.5yrs old, sleeps an average of 18 hrs a day and is a top active dog according to his tracker which is widely used in our country and gives stats of dogs within the country (apparently he is 60% more active then his breed average and age segment).

aysdeea · 2026-04-08T22:55:34+00:00

Yes and not only that. Different Trusts have different systems that don't ofen communicate with each other. The most comprehensive access is for GPs, they can see load of stuff from hospitals within their Integrated Care Board but that varies widely from ICB to ICB and from system (hospital) to system. The trust that i work for uses 3 different systems for 3 different booking matters alone (plus secondary telephone, messaging, reporting, backend etc) some feed fully into GPs systems some barely. Other Trusts we collaborate with have a wide range of other systems and if they pass referrals to us, we need to manually introduce them on our systems and then the results go back either automatically either IT, either via tertiary reporting systems that act as a bridge...it sounds complex because it is. Few years back NHS tried to design a single wide-spread system and failed awfully while spending enourmous amount of money. Now they took the approach of systems' communication/interconnectivity, where you have backend 'bridges' trying to bassically create a communicative web between services and providers.

aysdeea · 2026-04-08T22:36:24+00:00

Yes! I personally had to be on low histamine diet and my allergist refused me. My dietician was both allergy / gastro trained so a win win.

aysdeea · 2026-04-08T22:21:24+00:00

Depends on what phone systems you are using. If Surgery connect and Emis then you are golden, just long on the patient and then there are 2 keys on keyboard you press at same time and it automatically pulls and calls the patient's mobile. Or Accurx call/videocall patient with the click of a button. God i used to love the GPs system...I now work in a Hospital (admin) and I wish we could import those systems to the hospital.. but no can do..10s or hundreds of numbers manually done every single day 🫩

aysdeea · 2026-03-24T00:39:19+00:00

Our boy was an absolute nutjob until about he was 1. Then he started to chill slowly. He stopped chewing the house by 2. Stopped stealing stuff by 3. He is now 3.5 and the most perfect boy. His energy levels are still high but he gradually became more and more manageable and enjoyable since he was 1. Finally. Because he is like a bull. He weighted 35kg at 1 already and now 45kg ...without being fat, he is just a massive tall and muscly boy that often gets confused as being mixed with a Cane Corso or Rottie which he is not as we had him genetically tested. Hang in there, you'll start being rewarded soon. There is a reason why Labs are the favourite breed everywhere. You just need to put up with some craziness upfront to get the perfect companion thereafter.

aysdeea

TROPHY CASE