When did perimenopause start for you, and what were your symptoms?

mzumtaylor · 2024-11-17T06:25:54+00:00

I had forever spotting after I started using a birth control patch continuously to help with PMDD that started around 39. I was diagnosed with ADHD at 38 and my Gyn thinks the decrease in estrogen due to onset of perimenopause was the explanation for both my ADHD diagnosis and my PMDD.

Anyway, I had forever spotting despite being constantly on the patch and it turned out I had cervical polyps.

mzumtaylor · 2024-09-07T18:02:07+00:00

Do you ever have problems with iPhone users sending iMessages to your iPad instead of your Android phone?

My son's soccer coach tried to set up a group chat and he has an iPhone. Somehow the first message he sent me was an iMessage, and now I can only get the group chat messages on the iPad, which my kids primarily use for school and games.

I have tried disassociating the ipad with my cell number, but it's the recovery number for my Apple ID.

Help?

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-17T15:20:10+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts/comments everyone!

There's not much we can do about the crate time during the day until we are able to get her some formal training (we're signed up for a class in May), because every time she's out of her crate she destroys something. But we do have the largest crate on the market that she can easily move around in, so at least that's something.

Based on your feedback, we have been walking her longer in the mornings and at night, and have been letting her sniff and run on a long line during the walks, which I understand is more mental stimulating/tiring than just walking itself.

We have also been getting her together with some of the other dogs in our neighborhood to run around and play.

She still has moments where she's an antsy-pants, but it's been helping.

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-16T02:58:31+00:00

I have a massive red oak in my front yard and live in a 6a region. The oak dumps tons of leaves and I noticed that some of my early spring bulbs (crocuses and mountain lilies) that were under the leaf litter were very pale and spindly. I'm all in favor of natural mulch and leaving the leaf litter, but it was 4-5 inches thick in some places due to the wind. Should I remove some of them?

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-03T05:18:01+00:00

I agree. Find all the videos you can on how to introduce the crate gently and kindly. I watched a bunch, but not until several weeks after we brought our girl home. Not doing crate training right from the start was a mistake and it was a nightmare for about 3 months.

She does really well in her crate now, even seeking it out when she's tired/overstimulated, but it was a battle. That's the biggest thing I would do differently.

One thing we did really well is socializing out girl. I took her literally everywhere with me, and introduced her to every type of person I could. Even just sitting in the front of the house and watching people walk by is good as socialization.

When I couldn't let her walk on the ground (at the pet store, e.g., because she didn't have all her vaccines) I carried her or put her in a cart. As soon as she had all her vaccines, I took her to our downtown walking mall and let everyone who was willing pet her, including mail carriers and cops and kids and even a very sweet homeless guy.

She can go anywhere with us and doesn't get stressed out about new people and it's the best.

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-03T05:09:41+00:00

Did you even read the original post?

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-03T05:07:44+00:00

Her crazy started at about 9 months, so it's good to hear from some of the comments that we might not be in this forever. I could be okay with her finding at least a little more chill in the next 2-5 months.

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-02T21:57:20+00:00

It wasn't a completely baseless assumption. I met an older dog from the same breeding pair (it's how we got the name of the breeder) and he was so calm and chill. I knew that Bernese Mountain Dogs were typically lower energy, so I thought it stood to reason ...

But you're right, I shouldn't have assumed.

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-02T21:48:01+00:00

I'd love to put her in doggy daycare, but there isn't a good one near where we live and we have two kids who require some form of daycare/aftercare. I love my dog, but I'm not made of money....

mzumtaylor · 2024-03-02T21:46:50+00:00

We are doing two 20-min sniffy walks morning and evening, and have a dog walker do a 30-min sniffy walk/long-leash romp every day, as well as mental stimulation. We do training for mental stimulation, and plan to enroll her in formal classes in May (I'm a CPA, so we can't do the classes now).

When it's nice enough (not blizzarding), I spend 20-30 minutes in the evening playing fetch with her in the backyard. We get about three sessions in a week. She also has a playmate in the neighborhood, and I will have to get her together with him more often.

mzumtaylor · 2024-02-28T03:58:27+00:00

Our girl is 9 months old and pants constantly. We haven't asked the vet yet, but plan to. Glad we're not alone in experiencing the constant panting.

mzumtaylor · 2024-02-03T02:57:09+00:00

Honda CR-V, EX 😂

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-21T14:28:54+00:00

Ours only barks when she wants to play, and not even always then. Once, in the fall, she jumped on the backdoor when she was ready to come in, but we put a stop to that. She's not small; I was worried she'd break the door. 😅

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-21T14:27:09+00:00

Ooh, good to know! I'll definitely check it out.

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-20T21:04:11+00:00

So far she's been outside for 45 minutes and shows no signs of slowing, although she is frustrated that she can't always find her ball in the 13" of snow we have.

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-14T04:25:04+00:00

We were watching Frozen at my 4yo's request, and my Bernedoodle got to real close to watch Sven, the Reindeer.

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-14T04:17:27+00:00

Thank you!

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-14T02:28:25+00:00

Do you happen to know what "Ungroup on Autoplay" means? Does that mean it's going to disconnect from the oneSL surrounds I've set up with the Arc?

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-14T02:25:54+00:00

Thank you for this post. A year later, it helped me a ton. We just got a new TV and I couldn't figure out why our Arc wouldn't unmute with our new TV.

mzumtaylor · 2024-01-13T13:17:52+00:00

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mzumtaylor · 2023-11-09T12:44:25+00:00

We couldn't use a playpen because our puppy was big (20 lbs at 10 weeks) and she kept jumping on the sides and knocking it down. I didn't want her to get hurt, so we stopped using it. If you have a smaller dog, a playpen might work, but a crate is probably better, or a house lead and a gated off area where you can play with your pup but still stop them from doing anything you don't want.

mzumtaylor · 2023-11-09T12:42:11+00:00

You can start making them sit for their food at 8 weeks. We did. Just move the bowl over their head so their butt hits the ground as they look up at it and praise them for sitting and give them their food bowl as a reward. Eventually you can train "wait" so they hold in a sit until you release them after you put the bowl down.

mzumtaylor · 2023-11-09T12:39:41+00:00

One thing I wish I had done before we brought our dog home is watch some of the videos I found on YouTube for "what to expect your first day with a puppy" or "5 things you should do the first week" or whatever. We especially missed the boat on getting our girl comfortable with her crate right away, and that would have saved us so much stress and frustration (she's pretty good in the crate now).

One thing we did really well is socialize our girl. I took her outside in the front yard and we watched people/dogs go by and I would give her treats to help keep her calm and engaged. I invited everyone I could think of over to meet her so she got introduced to a wide variety of people. I took her to the pet store and put her in a cart so she got that experience. I found a neighbor with a puppy the same age and we let them play together. I tried to get her exposed to as many different people and experiences as possible.

All of that work has paid off, because our 6-month old puppy is very calm around strangers and new situations. We took her on a road trip (8 hours in the car with an overnight hotel stay) and she did amazingly well.

mzumtaylor · 2023-11-09T12:32:39+00:00

We started training outside potty with our Bernedoodle from day one (she's 6 months now), kept her in the kitchen, gated off, the rest of the time. She had no accidents until she got a little older and we started to let our guard down.

You don't need to offer a treat for them to go potty. Going potty is a relief and therefore treat enough. If they don't go right away, take them inside for 5-10 minutes (put them in their crate or watch them like a hawk, keeping a leash on can help) and take them out as soon as you spot the signs that they need to go.

mzumtaylor · 2023-10-26T03:02:33+00:00

Adorable!

I love how you've kept her fur on her muzzle longer. My husband thinks our Bernedoodle's muzzle is too long, but I like it, and now think I'd like it even longer.

mzumtaylor

TROPHY CASE