Wees, poos, sleepless night - anyone else got a new puppy?

[bella29]

Having kidnapped hatwoman's thread about boisterous young dogs I thought it was only fair that I set up my own! If anyone wants to share hints, tips or general crises with regard to their new puppy, please do so here! You are among friends who won't blanch at descriptions of bowel movements, chewed possessions or sleep deprivation...

Hello puppy fans, another day another poop (sorry could not resist). Glad I am not the only one getting up so early, although pup manages until 6am now, half five was so unreasonable!! Pup is quite whiny this morning and I am trying to be patient. Played with her for 10 mins then DDs played with her for 10 mins. Thought she might settle down for a bit, so we could shower and dress etc. No she wants to play, took her in garden in my pjs for 10 mins. Left her in Laundry while had a shower. Now she is asleep but I will have to wake her in 10 mins as she needs to go in her cage while I take DDs to tennis school. aaargggh. Came down at 6am and the good girl had only done a wee in the corner of her cage, put her out while I cleaned up and let her in, she immediately squatted and weed on the kitchen floor. I was not happy. Out she went for another 10 minutes. She is obviously full of mischief today. Actually, I think that she does not like to go on the wet grass! Funny dog!

Hello all, we've had our new puppy now for a couple of weeks, he has a cage in the kitchen, which goes out to the back garden, he didn't use it the first night but still only cried for a few hours early in the morning, now he uses it whenever he wants his own space either away from our 16 month old dog or the children!! He didn't cry at all from the third night on, one handy tip if its possible for you to see your puppy while the breeder still has it really helps, we went nearly every other day and our puppy really knew us by the time he came home. We also used the same blanket that we used to visit him with and put that in his cage with his favourite toy.

Well, it's just been poos all day here, really... Puppy had pood in his cage last night and got it all over himself so by 6.30am I had cleaned all that up, bathed him and done two loads of washing. Then he did another big poo in the kitchen, and even managed to sneak one in without me seeing, all over my dustbuster! Still, he's been a little cherub when it comes to training, especially if I have a few bits of roast chicken to hand I've got his name down for training classes in September, which should be fun.
Hope you've all had a better day than me!

had a really good night with pup. She only woke up at 7 when I went down anyway and hadn't pood everywhere either.

I'm struggling to get her to stop nipping at peoples feet, especially me! when she is having a mad 5 minutes I will always sit on the floor and play with her and her chew toys, but now I wonder whether this is encouraging her to nip at me even when i don't have one of her toys. Does that make sense?

I think all puppies will nip as that is how they play. The advice we have been given is to firmly say no and stop playing. Return to play after a few moments and stop if they nip you but always say no really firmly. I would not stop playing with your puppy as this is the time she will be learning from you how to interact with humans.

7am though!! I am envious my pup can only get to 6am. She has been a bit of a pain this morning, lots and lots of whining. I suspect it is because it is too wet for her to go and have a good play in the garden. We are taking her for her second set of injections in a couple of hours. I am worried about the car journey as DD1 (9) will have to sit in the front with her while I am driving!! I am really looking forward to being able to take her out now though!

Well puppy lovers, I am not happy!!! Just got back from the vets. Pup had her first vaccination 2 weeks ago and was told to come back in 2 weeks for the second. So we went today, it was packed and I had to hold pup for 40 mins to wait to see the vet. I could not put her down as obviously she has not been fully vaccinated. When we finally got in, the vet refused to give her the vaccination. She said she was under 12 weeks and would not vaccinate her! I explained that the vet who gave her the first jab knew how old she was and told me to come back today. She said I had been told wrongly then and to come back in a week and a half I was furious! What a waste of time not to mention my poor puppy, who had been hoisted by me for over 50 mins by that point. She was a little distressed and very hot by now.

I have just written a really cross letter to them, which I will put through the door tomorrrow. I have asked them to contact me and explain exactly what has happened and when I should take her back!

Can anyone tell me if they were told to wait until the pup was 12 weeks. All the information I have read on the internet says it is okay to have it done now. I wonder if the vet(very young girl) is wrong. The other vet (older man) was quite clear I should come back today. Hopefully, they will get back to me, tomorrow.

Guess we will not be taking her out for a walk this weekend now. We were really looking forward to it!

Hello all!

Feeling like a bit of a zombie today so please excuse me if there are more typos than usual - not helped by our wonky keyboard after dd decided to dismantle it one day! Very envious at 7am - thought I was doing well with 6.15 am and no poos (actually, I should make it clear that the puppy had no poos - I have been housetrained for a few years now!).
Hope it all went well with your trip to the vets, newpup - you can start counting down the days until wlakies now! (Going to leave that typo as it is because I think it's quite good actually.)
Don't ask me how much it cost folks, cos I won't tell you, but I did get suckered into that 2-3 toys per day thing and went out and bought an inordinate amount of toys for the puppy which are now strictly rotated on a daily basis. I even have a chart so I rotate them correctly - it's Thursday so it's the air kong, the rope ring and the teething keys today. Had to hide the chart when my friend popped in today. Definitely need to get out more, but the puppy's happy!

Oh gosh, newpup - just read your post which must have come up while I was typing my gibberish. All I know is there are several different vaccines now & with the one my vet uses the pup must be at least 11 weeks to have the second jab (it was Nobivac DHPPi and Nobivac Lepto 2). My pup was done at 9 & 11 weeks. I would call the vets now & ask to speak to the senior vet (from bitter experience some newer vets don't really know what they're doing). HTH.

Thanks Bella. Have calmed down a bit now. Hopefully, if I drop the letter in tomorrow morning, they will get back to me asap. I asked for a prompt reply! It was just such a waste of time, would not have been so bad if we had not had to wait for 40 mins pup weighed a ton after that amount of time holding her. She is worn out and fast asleep now. The vet was very young and was refering to a book for confirmation of her opinion. I did havemore faith in the first older vet. The vet nurse on reception wrote down for me that I needed to come back today and she is very experienced and both knew how old pup was. Will let you know.

The DDs were so disapointed when I explained that we would not be able to take her out for another week yet . Obviously I do not want to give pup something she should not have but am not convinced she could not have it!! Also, next weekend we wanted to take her to see my parents dogs. I might be able to get her done by then though, will have to wait and see.

On another note, I too went and bought a few new toys yesterday.

not surpised you're cross newpup - but it's making me think that this whole vaccination thing isn;t an exact science and vets will disagree. our pup had had two injections by 9 weeks. but our vet clearly disagreed with the breeder's vet and said this was too soon - esp as there had been an outbreak of parvo locally. so A ended up having a third. But even if there are differing opinions you'd think that within one practice they would agree on a practice approach and stick to it. make sure you post that letter.

we had our first puppy class yesterday and gawd it was chaos. A - incredibly bright and well behaved at home and on walks was so excited (in more ways than one ) that he just didn;t seem able to cope. teacher was quite sharp with us owners - not always being clear and then getting a bit cross, but I get the feeling the first week is the worst. at least I hope it is...lots of gorgeous pups there - some lovely staffs, a beautiful boxer, an adorable yellow lab and a couple of fluffly things I can;t name. shame we didn't get to make a fuss over them .

Thanks for your support Hatwoman. Puppy class sounds fun. Have just left a message about one near our house. Waiting for someone to get back to me. Talking of behaviour, pup has been sitting on command for a few days now. However at the vets, would she sit when asked !! No chance But the poor thing had been squashed in my arms for forty mins I suppose.

I have to say I am slightly bias but all yellow labs are adorable!!

Hey all

Just to wish you good luck with the vet, newpup - I hope they get it sorted out and you can take your pup for walks with your parents dogs.
Hatwoman - I'm sure the classes will get better. Make sure you do the homework though (says she who doesn't always!!!).

We had a peaceful night and have now got our Friday toys out - what do you mean, you haven't got a toy rotation chart too?

my dh would never let me live it down if I had a toy rotation chart. (maybe I'll just do a secret one). Part of my homework is to keep a good play toy away from him and then bring it out for raucous play sessions and get him to drop it. which is going ok.

does anyone know how good their memory is? the reason I ask is this: if I can get him to do something at home for a tinsy treat or nothing then I will...but does that then mean that when I ask him to do the same at puppy class he'll think "for one tinsy biscuit...not likely...I'm far more interested in that luvly blonde....". whereas if I'd been giving him big treats and doing do consistently perhaps his incentive to do what he's told when we're at the class is thus increased? any thoughts?

Honestly have no idea Hatwoman! Sorry! I have been using treats to get pup into bed when I say 'into bed'. I also give her treats when she has done her business outside before we go to bed. I have been getting her to sit though without treats and she must sit before I give her her food bowl too.

I only have 8 toys and a tennis ball for pup. Will have to get a few more, I think. She has 3 more rubber squeaky ones but has not even looked at them . They are at the bottom of the garden now, I caught the cat having a sneaky look at them last night. I did buy her a puppy chew bone, yesterday but she is not that interested in that to be honest. (The cat had a few licks though}

pmsl at the idea of me "doing do consistently" . it was meant to be "doing it", of course.

Hello you mad puppy people!

Hatwoman, I should just do a chart if I were you. Never mind what DH might think (mind you, haven't told mine yet) - and it would make me feel a lot better if I wasn't the only saddo with a chart. Does add a certain frisson to my 6am starts, though, looking at the chart to see what's up for today...

As for memories, don't know but will look it up as I have almost as many books as I have toys now. What I do know is that you are supposed to reward every time until they are doing it consistently, then reward intermittently, but you gals probably knew that already.

Any luck with the vet yet, newpup? Perhaps the new young vet now has her P45 to refer to (oooh, I am awful).

Cheers, people

Hello. No no luck with the vet yet. Will contact them if I have not heard by Monday. Have had a few problems with DD2 today, she keeps encouraging pup to chase her, despite being told this is a no no. Then pup gets over excited and nips her, she only does this to DD2, she obviously thinks of her as a fellow pup. DD2 then gets upet, will have to have a big chat with her tonight as she is undermining all the hard work I and DD1 have done in stopping her jumping up and nipping. Does anyone else have this problem with overexcited children?

dds are 8 and 6 and on the whole they're been very good. Our first day bringing him home was a bit disastrous though - we spent the day telling the girls not to do stuff and eventually there were tears.... it wasn;t all out of the blue - I had done a list of rules before hand but I think it was just too much for them.

dh, dds and A have gone away this afternoon to fils's and blimey am I missing A. It's awful without him. isn;t it amazing how attached you get?

Yes, it's easier said than done persuading the children not to let the puppy chase them -it's a great game for all concerned at the moment but of course once the puppy gets a bit bigger it won't be funny. Am trying to be strict about it & tell the children to say 'stop!' if the puppy does it, but my success rate isn't very impressive. Poor you, hatwoman, pining away! I must admit I missed my pup terribly when I left him at home with DH & children for a few hours the other day - think DH was a bit put out when I gave my little furry friend a bigger welcome than him on return

Hello puppy fans. Glad it is not just me with excitable DDs then! They are 9 & 6 so are old enough to understand and both very sensible most of the time. We did a list of rules before hand too and I have explained numerous times that what is fun with a puppy will not be so much fun when she is a great hefty full grown lab!! I gues DD2 is just so excited by her. We have a rule that we do not chase her or let her chase us and we say 'no' and stop playing if she nips. Which works well for dh, dd1 and me. She has never nipped DH or me. I guess we have to keep going.

She was so funny yesterday, spent ages just watching the washing machine go round.

Have just noticed that during the night she has come up in a vivid red rash on her tummy Will have to watch that today. Vets is open at 6pm will take her up if not gone by then. Any ideas?

How is she now, newpup - dod you have to go to the vets? Sounds like some kind of allergy or something. Hope she's okay anyway.

Hi Bella. Puppy much better this morning rash gone down and not very red anymore. She does this funny thing where she lies on the grass on her tummy with her back legs out behind her and commando crawls across the grass!!! I wander if she crawled over a patch of thistles (which I have now removed)and that might have been the cause. I will keep an eye on it and if it is still there when I take her back to the vets for her vaccination will ask them.

Thanks for asking How is your little fellow?

Oh ,that's good news - my boy's fine thanks, getting quite big now and learning all his commands quite well. Must be something about labs and washing machines because my pup loves to curl up next to mine & fall asleep. So funny to watch him vibrating away when it spins, but he never wakes up!

Funny things labs!!! Pup has been with us for 2 weeks today and I can not imagine the house without her now! I was downloading the pics from the day we brought her home this am and I can not believe how much she has grown in 2 weeks! Hopefully, vaccinations permitting, we can take her to my parents next weekend to meet their old boys ( black, like your boy).

Are your lamps fixed yet?

Lamps making slow progress (i.e. none!).

My DS (6) got nipped by the puppy today while playing that-chasing-game-I've-told-them-not-to. He was quite upset at the time & I tried to remind him that if he runs away the puppy just thinks it's more fun and chases more, but of course his instinct now is to run away. I'm sure it hurt - the pup drew blood on me the other day being over-enthusiastic when getting his treat: who said labs were gentle family dogs?!

By the way, this'll scare you all: in my book (Perfect Puppy) it says the first chewing stage (3-6 months old, during teething) is followed by another, more destructive phase starting at 7 months. And it's worse in gundog breeds (e.g. labs). Lock up your sofas!