New Puppy Owners

[kid]

I know there are a few of us that have recently picked up new pups.
Were your puppies lovely and calm when you first got them or were they mental straight away?

I can't believe how calm Teddy is being so far. He has slept a lot but even when he is awake, he just nibbles gently on your fingers or rolls his ball with his feet.

He has not had any accidents in the house yet which is a miracle.

I am wondering if this is the calm before the storm?

Fetlar was fairly calm and well behaved for the first two weeks. Then once he had his feet under the table he went mad.

Oscar is very calm & lazy , are you going to add more pictures of teddy to your profile kid ?

I can't add them from my iPod or phone and I'm too lazy to sort out the laptop charger.

I will keep taking photos and will add some in the next few days.

Let me try and add a link here for some pics that are on fb
m.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4947711&id=592751723&r4ee2d521&refid=2

no idea if it will work!

Lola been with us since Sunday now 10 weeks old, as you know kid also a springer. More or less calm and easy for a couple of days. Now has periods of crazy figures of eight round small garden, and inside chasing a ball literally bouncing and skidding off the walls with the speed. She has also started nipping, chewing everything, and we are having to learn fast, just started clicker training to give her some more to think about..!

She's so predictable tho, lots of sleep, seems very happy, almost housetrained, can't wait to take her out properly (roll on next Friday). Haven't managed to take any photos yet, think I wil go outside right now with camera!

Teddy is now wide awake and don't we know it. He appears to like feet and ears!
We have a teething toy with bells in which he loves. I am amazed at how he throws the toy for himself and rolls it with his feet! It's really cute to watch.

~We have had Rudy whippet for two weeks today, he was sooooooo easy to begin with, now he is a swine

How about making this a new puppy owners support and survival thread?

Sounds like a good idea!
I was just Reading your post about your puppy not liking the rain.
Trouble is, once they get a fear it's really hard to break. Not sure what's been suggested but if your pup is in mid wee, I'd grab him and put him in the garden.
Can you carry him around in the garden? Maybe just spend some time playing out there so he learns it's a fun place to be?

I'm getting on very well with teddy. He cries occassionally which is quite sad but he'll get used to his mum not being here.

oh god yes WTWTW, I have no useful advice re Rudy but love idea of new owners support & survival thread! I've asked enough Qs for now... Wet day, me and DD stuck in house/small gdn with Lola, 6 more days to wait to get out properly, lead practice not going well (eats lead) but will read other threads on this recurring issue!

Poppy was very calm to start with, and very quiet - we were quite worried about her. We had to hand feed her too because she wouldn't eat out of her bowl.

We've had her two months now and she got pretty manic pretty quickly! She has settled really well but still chews everything in sight and always goes crazy in the evenings!

Lead practice lol! If Poopy is feeling a bit lively she chews the lead as we go...I've found that the best thing is to just stand still and say absolutely nothing. She does eventually get bored and drop the lead and then I praise her and off we go. She has a harness rather than a collar as she tries to pull the collar off.

Will upload a pic onto my profile!

me again, really feel can't start new post, but what do I do? DD age 12 has become target for frenzied 'attacks' of ankle nipping - has become upsetting.

We all do the right thing, one loud squeal, stand stock still, arms folded. Works a treat for me, puppy goes into submission mode. DH doesnt suffer these incidents at all.

DD tries her best to remain calm, but her efforts sometimes make no difference, dog just holds on tight with teeth. DD tries 2 squeals at least, stands there arms folded blinking back tears. I end up crouching down, hold dog firmly, say that's enough v calmly, DD vacates room. Help, IDEAS??? (DD wore wellies all day yesterday, this just caused L even more excitement as she could worry the rubber to death...)

My sense is that Lola needs company of an older dog/puppies to calm her down, that she is bored. Unfortunately the two calm dogs we know are on hols!

My kids are hopeless at following training instructions, they drive me mad!
I found that a loud, deep voiced 'U' (as in the start of up) works so much better than the squeal. All dogs i've ever met thinks squeals signal to bite harder.

Teddy is still being super. He us responding to his name a bit now and comes running towards me when I call him in the house. He can sit on command even without a treat to bribe him.
He won't eat out of his bowl so I am putting his dinner on a plastic plate. He got hold of dh's flipflop earlier and left some teethmarks in them, oops lol

Still no accidents in the house (I'm stunned)

Hmmm, first sign of problems tonight but nothing major yet. I went to the toilet and everyone else was in bed asleep. Teddy started to cry/whine/howl. I came out of the toilet and ignored him. He carried on briefly then just stopped the noise. He is now fast asleep on
his bed.

He loves me the best already lol
well it's not surprising seeing as I feed, walk, cuddle and train him. Everyone else just cuddles him! Oh well, I don't being loved by him!

Can I join in too? Rory the labrador was 10 weeks old on Saturday and we have had him for just over two weeks now. Some things are getting easier, some aren't!

iloverhubarbcrumble - I can sympathise. Rory is very bad for playbiting too. It is getting slightly better, but slowly. It happens mainly now when he is over-excited, and I am getting a bit faster at fending off attacks. Again he never goes for dp, just dd(12) and me. From the 2nd day after we got him I have resorted to wearing an old sweatshirt and old holey non-flapping tracksuit trousers in the house. I get changed about 10 minutes before leaving for work in the mornings..... He misinterpretes my squeals and yells too. It is very difficult to ignore a 7.8kg puppy hanging off your arm....

At least dd is being targetted now too. I spent the first few days listening to comments like "Mum - does he think you are just a big chew toy?" "Mum - you are moving your hands too much..."

On the plus side - for the first time since he arrived home I was woken up by my alarm clock at 6.00am. That is the longest time he has gone through the night so far! Hopefully I can gradually stretch it out to 7.00am over the next few weeks!

rhubarbcrumble we had the same problem with Poppy and DD2 who is 10. The good news is that Poppy is much better now at only just over 4 months old. Like your DD, DD2 couldn't seem to maintain an aura of calm around the puppy, and of course, when she started squealing and wriggling Poppy thought she was playing and bit harder. Also Poppy got into the habit of jumping up and grabbing and pulling her clothes, particulary if she was wearing anything loose like the long swingy t-shirts that are in fashion right now. I lost count of the number of holes I had to sew up...

The only way we could solve it for DD2 was to train Poppy to sit before getting any treats. Then DD2 would carry a bag of kibble around with her everywhere and if Poppy bit or grabbed clothing, immediately tell her to "Drop" followed by "Sit" and treat her. Poppy is so motivated by food that the treat was far more interesting than the ankle or clothes! On top of that, Poppy will somehow magically do whatever DH says , so he was keeping a close eye and telling Poppy very sternly to drop every time. But the treat bag was invaluable for when he wasn't there.

My lab is just over 9 weeks , on day three at home - the last two nights have been awful - I knew that she would cry at night but didn't expect the yowling and how long it could go on for !

Any idea how long this will go on for ? I am wearing an old t shirt today so she can have it tonight , anything that helped you out would be appreciated .

Other than that she's pretty chilled - i think because she is knackered from yowling at night

rhubarbcrumble it's hard isn't it? Ds (6) tries hard with the folding arms, turning away etc, but it does always deter Rudy in full mental mode, also dd (2) has no chance and is frequently mobbed, sometimes a sharp 'no' 'off' is in order from an adult, when he gets very silly and excited around the kids when they are playing he gets put on the lead which I sit on, then every time he sits/lies down and is calm he gets a click-treat, he is learning....

kid it sounds like both you and Teddy are doing brilliantly, try and persude the kids and your oh to do some feeding and training too.

Where to start with Rudy?

Well it's raining so his is on toileting outside strike again, his delicate little whippy paws far too fragile to touch water it seems

I had a chat with the behaviourist who's puppy classes I will be attending this morning and she gave me some really good advice wrt leaving him and has also told me to get a pheremone collar which I have duly ordered, will report back.

On a positive note he is now sleeping from 10pm until 8am, there is something to be said for a lazy whippet.

Hope everyone else is coping.

Well as expected, Teddy's toilet training didn't go as well today. I fell asleep on the settee and was woken by 'Muuummmmm, Teddy's done a wee in the hallllll!'
I wasn't happy, nothing to do with Teddy, I was annoyed at the yelling!

He has since done 2 more wees in the house, but each time he has been whining but was ignored. He is doing a bit more whining which is why we ignored him. Think I'll stick to putting him the garden for whining for a while longer. No damage done though as we don't have carpets so nice and easy to clean up!

He is sooooo clever and yes I know I am bragging but I think he is amazing. I reckon its just because springers are easy to train, nothing to do with me. He can now sit, lay down (with a treat held to the floor) and he also responds to his name now.

He still hasn't attempted the stairs.

I have left the crate open in the front room with a bed in (he has 3!). He sniffs near it but hasn't ventured in so when he settled down for a nap, I put him in the crate with the door open. He stayed there for over an hour until I called him for dinner.

I am so lucky to have him

oh lovely, replies!

Oh dear Avantia sorry to hear this, no advice just sympathy, Lola didn't howl.

Wild Things. Rudy rain fear has made me laugh out loud - so sorry - how helpful. Heavy rain showers where we are today and Lola has shown her spaniel instinct for getting very wet and loving it... Impressed with 10-8 sleeping tho - I never thought of whippets as lazy!

DD much better today - full mental mode describes it well (dog not DD) - there's a certain manic excitement in the eyes. MusicPosy Click/ treating the floor is working - straight away! Bloody hell. I feel a certain lightening today generally..

Purplefrog I wear flappy trousers to save my actual legs!

Lola doing fab retrieval of tennis ball now. Brings back, doesn't really like to let go but she works it out in the end! Oh dear I'm sounding abit twee.

And kid thanks for the tip re midnight and 6 o'clock toilet breaks - I have now stopped getting up at 2.30am thanks to you. Bloody obvious when you mentioned it!

As you can tell L has now gone to bed for the night... Clearly there is nothing lese happening in my life at the mo, not exactly PFB, but certainly first timer type mentality

Teddy just did another wee on the floor! Blooming pest but he is so lovely I'll let him off. I had a feeling he would need to go out as he had just woke up but I wasn't quick enough.

He has had 2 dogs round today to play with, he is so funny. He is watching Dog Bounty Hunter at the moment lol

Avantia did you have a better night, hoping for you that she settles down soon.

rhubarbcrumble good work with the clicker, I love clicker training.

kid did Teddy actually play with the other dogs? We had our friends round for dinner and they brought their springer, Rudy wasn't very interested at all, not frightened just looked vaguely bored But then it is the first dog he has met that wasn't a Whippet.

We have peeing progress he is getting much better. Fingers very crossed for more dry weather.

Am hoping his collar will come in the post this morning, dying to try it out.

I brought him a oinking piglet from Sainsburys, it is his new best toy, all puppies should have one.

Have a good day everyone

Am i the only.one who got a lunatic puppy?! He has been full of beans and shown no fear at all about anything. He is 9weeks today and my 8 m old springer plays and fusses over him like a mother hen.

Not as many accidents with Eddie as we had with Dora, which is good, but his overnight crate training is going to be a battle i can tell, esp if last night is anything to go by!

Still took puppy a while t settle last night - one hour of crying , howling etc but she then settled and I didn't hear her until my DH gt up for work and let her out in garden- wee and poo straight away although she did wee in the night in the room she sleeps.

I put my tee shirt with her last night along with a cuddly toy and a night light [ blush].

No weeing accidents etc in house today so far and she seems more than happy to go out in garden.

With paper training, its meant to be harder to get them house trained as you have to teach them twice (once to wee on paper and then again to wee outside) so alot of people advise to dump the paper and stick to outside every hour.

I did use paper for Moby and I dumped it straight away but put new paper in the same place.

I can't stop going on about Teddy, he is just amazing and no-one else in RL has got a puppy so I know I am driving them mad. But you know what, tough! lol

I went out today adn left him on his own for 2 1/2 hours. I hated it, I just wanted to get home to him. Before we went, I took him over the park where he had a run around with a rottweiler. I was worried about the size difference but Teddy was fine.
When we got in, I put the baby gates up to stop him getting in to the living room and i put his crate to block off the street door. He was so tired that he just crashed out on the floor so I left him there.
When we got back, he was in his crate (which is covered with a blanket) and didn't even hear us come in! No accidents in the house either all day.

He plays briefly with other dogs by prodding them with his paws and running from them.