New Puppy Mommies in here *blerk*

[Awks]

Got our new puppy on Saturday. I was in tears this morning and I'm a pretty experienced dog owner. Its just so hard moaning cow that I am He is a 9 week old cocker and is a beautiful, cuddly boy but is a massive shitting machine. And not in the garden either.

So any new puppy owners want to weep in here then please do.

Our boy is crated... he is 2 now and still sleeps in there - and trots off there at key parts of the day - 10 min before school run etc, it is very handy as it reminds me to go get the kids!

We don't shut the door any more, but like that he sleeps in there because it makes trips to hotels/cottages (where we do shut it at night) etc a lot easier and less stressful...

Sebastian, we are totally useless pet owners!!!! The crate has been a bust, he howls and we cave in and let him out during the day. He is only 9 weeks old, and in a week has sussed out that we are stupid people and we will do anything not to upset him or the kids. Ultimately we will pay the price while you all have brilliantly behaved dogs!

He comes to his name, sits, does down, off is nearly there and we are working on heel off the lead. He is very smart. He mostly goes outside. We have had six accidents since Friday, so I'm confident that in another week he will have cracked that part at least. He sleeps longer now and manages about six hours overnight before needing to go outside for a wee etc. As for the school run... I have a 50 minute round trip to drop off/pick up 4 kids to 3 schools twice a day. DH works from home mostly, but there are days when he will be away. We will be working on separation once the kids are at school as its too complicated at the moment for a variety of reasons. So that will be a work in progress. We have both been away from the house this week and left him with the kids and he's been good as gold, how he'd be with an empty house I don't know. My house is always noisy so I'd be leaving the radio on for him at least to keep him company.

Philadelphia and ham hock mixed together and shoved into a Kong toy is very popular! Toby has finally calmed down. He'd been having a mad ten minutes and I have unwell people here this morning. Peace at last....

Ohalvo, is he a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier? If so, they are awesome dogs.

I had a Wheaten girl for 13 years, but sadly lost her to cancer two years ago. She did her bronze, silver and gold good citizen awards before she was 12 months old and was an absolute star at heelwork to music. She was the cleverest and easiest to train dog we've ever had and was loved by all who met her.

Unfortunately she had colitis, after eating a pack of Nature Diet puppy food (which is what she was weaned on) that had gone off before delivery so had a very sensitive stomach. She was fine on James Wellbeloved and eventually went onto a raw food diet, which suited her best.

As for going out at night, our current pup, Pip, was 10 weeks when he came home with us and went at 2.00/2.30 ish am then again around 5.00 ish for the first week, but is now sleeping from 11.00/11.30 to 6.00/6.30 am. We took turns to sleep on the sofa with him in the crate in the living room until a couple of nights ago and now we just wait until he's asleep then go upstairs and don't hear from him again until he needs a wee at 6.00/6.30 ish.

Sally, sorry to hear you have poorly people at home today. Hope it's not dd and that she's continuing to recover well.

It's me that's unwell in our house this morning. It's been coming on for a few days, so we were expecting it. Very bad night last night (me not the dog) and struggling a lot today. Dh is working, but has taken ds1 with him to try and lighten my load a bit. Unfortunately Pip had other ideas and was completely manic for the first hour, but has now crashed in his crate, so I finally have some peace.

Moose I hope that you're resting on the sofa when you can. It's very hard I know x

I have no choice today Sally, but have been doing too much really and knew this was coming as a result. It's just so frustrating, as I have so much to do to get everything thing ready for the dcs to go back to school, let alone chasing Pip around.

It's my own fault though, I should have known better and paced myself more.

Can I ask what you all think about putting puppy into kennels for a night as part of socialisation? Ushi will have to go into kennels for a month in the summer when we visit PIL abroad, there's nobody else to watch her, or will it not make a difference to how she likes it in future do you think?

I am planning to take Pip for a few 'visits' to the kennels we use when he's a little older. The first time he will just get a tour and lots of fuss from the kennel hands. The next time we will get the kennel hands to take him off us for 10 minutes and eventually we will leave him for an hour, then a couple, then half a day, then an evening and overnight with early pick up etc, so that he gets used to the idea without it being scary or stressful.

I would say lots of short, positive trips and stays are advisable to get him used to it gradually before you have to leave him for a long time.

Morning all.
Autum is doing great. Sorry I don't have time to read back. How old us she? I have just been taking Jessie out in the car lots everyday. Sometimes just a mile to a field. She is quite settled in there now. I have a material crate on the back seat and sit her in there. I put treats in there everytine she goes in.
What was it like we're she was born? Jess come from a family with kids so seems quite use to people. She is abit scared of dogs. But they are all bigger than her so not surprising!! She met some pups at pet at home yesterday and enjoyed being with them.
I have just let sleep next to my bed . Sigh... I am too scared of upsetting the neighbours. At first she was waking around 2 and 5 but after a few nights she stopped doing that. She is 12 weeks. She slept last night from 10 till 6.30.
Still got to work on being able to leave her without her stressing that's my goal for the week!! Any tips wecolme!!

Happy you sound in a similar situation to me. I need to get Toby better with the car. It makes life a lot easier in the long run.

Callie seems better today, at least, I stayed up with her for most of the nigh until there was a visible improvement, so no emergency appointment, but still a concern. Flute is healthy, she's the eldesr one and a bit bigger, which helps! Yep, have been dewormed, and are due to be dewormed soon, at 4wks

A wheaten! They're lovely dogs- I had a few as a child, and they were amazing.

Hope you get better soon moose

Glad to hear Callie is a little better today, Roasted. Fingers crossed she continues to improve.

Happygolucky, lots and lots of very short periods separated from you to start with. So literally step out of view and then straight back in, in and out the door, then shut the door for a second. Walk from room to room without her following you etc. When you get back, don't make it an event. Just say 'Hi Jessie, good girl' (if she's been quiet) and go about your business to let her know coming and going is just part of everyday life and not big deal.

Click treating her for being in her crate (or wherever you want her to be left when alone) is another good starting point and very simple. Just sit near the safe space, give her a chew or kong, click and treat her every few seconds for staying there. Then try standing up, continuing to click and treat, then step away, then stand in the doorway, then step through the doorway, then out of sight etc. Very gradually build up the length of time you're out of sight for before click treating. If you don't have a clicker, just say something short and sweet like 'Yes' to mark the good behaviour before treating.

I totally understand you going for her sleeping in your room, rather than upsetting the neighbours. I have the same fear, hence us only just starting to sneak upstairs when he's asleep two weeks in.

Pip has obviously picked up on me not being quite right today and has apparently forgotten how to sit on cue. I should have known better than to try and do some training with him when I'm not right cognitively, so have knocked it on the head and aiming to just keep him out of trouble for the rest of the afternoon insteaed.

I am still working on his positive interrupter though, as we really need it now the greengauge tree is in full fruit and dh didn't pick all the fruit or fence it off over the weekend like he promised. (I can't do it as I have a morbid fear of wasps and there's tonnes of them all around it.)

The other thing he's having to work on today is asking to go out, as I've had to keep the back door shut so he doesn't constantly head out there and up the top of the garden to find more fruit.

Lost my post pain!
Thanks for the info moose . Jess is sleeping in her crate with the door shut with me in a differant room yay!! With no tears!!! I was prepared for a lot of noise but lucky she has just settled to sleep. A break .....lovely as she is it has been awhile since I have had someone following my every move.

Clever girl Jess!

Pip has just had a major panic attack. Came screaming in the back door (and I mean literally screaming) as if the hounds of hell were after him for their dinner. Started spinning and whirling around in the middle of the kitchen and scrambling in and out of the dog beds screaming the whole time.

When I eventually managed to grab him and see what the problem was, he had traumatised himself over .... a rear-end cling-on, iykwim. I had to call dh in to hold him while I cleaned him up, then disinfect the kitchen floor and now have both dog beds on a hot wash in my new washing machine. I did however make dh do the final rear-end rinse, as I had had enough by that point.

Honestly, I have never known a dog scream like he does. It scares the Bejeezus out of me every single time, as it really sounds like he must have sustained serious injury. He did it earlier this evening as well, when dh was outside with him. I went limping running out only to see him sitting there looking a bit worried but none the worse for wear. Apparently he ran full pelt into dh's legs when he was chasing Lurcherboy.

I hope he grows out of it soon. I'm not sure my nerves can take much more of this.

Ha ha that did make me laugh moose.
Well I spoke to soon as Jessie didn't manage much longer in the crate. We went to the park and met my cousin with her two staffs. And Jess managed to get covered in mud quite cute!! I don't think I could manage a pup on my own she has so much energy.
They say walk for 15 mins only for a 12 week old. Is that at a time ? As we are doing that three times a day and still doesn't seem to wear her out. I need to watch some training videos to learn how to get her worn out mentally I think!!

Oh poor Pip .

Well Stanley's spent the majority of the day terrorising his big brother aka my 11yr old Yorkie Wig...he has no manners whatsoever, and just ignores Wig's warnings even when it turns into a full on snarling bite. Unfortunately Stanley is heavier and stronger than Wig so can escape easily when Wig tries to pin him down.

I can't wait for him to have his next vaccination so I can start socialising him with bigger adult dogs; hopefully they'll teach him some well needed manners!

I've loved reading about all your pups.

We bring our old english sheepdog puppy home on 7th September so very exciting and unnerving!

I'm at home in the day so school hours are fine but I'm wondering what to do about the chunks of time I go out to take kids to swimming lesson and cricket nets - my DH won't be home from work and I'd be gone about an hour for cricket nets or nearly two hours for swimming. Maybe I need to skip the swimming lessons for the first term?

How long do you all manage to leave your puppies for? We have a crate and the breeder has got the puppies used to crates so we can use it from the start.

Hello mintchocchick.

Could you maybe take him with you and just not stay to watch the lessons for a couple of weeks? The car travel alone would be great socialisation for him.

I haven't left Pip at all to go out yet. We're building up to it by working on good crate association and treat toys, but he's quite a clingy boy and hated to be left for a second when we first brought him home. He's happy to be left when he's tired and sleepy now or if he has a kong or treat toy to play with, but other than when he's asleep, he starts getting noisy after about 20 minutes and I have retired neighbours who are always home. A bit worrying bearing in mind the school runs start again next week.

Thanks moose

I'm not sure about taking him as the pool car park is in the basement and I'd have to leave him in the car while I took DS2 who is 8 to get changed. Also you aren't allowed to leave the pool. I think I need to skip a term.

For your school run, couldn't you take your puppy in the car, or carry if you walk then have good socialisation chance at school gate?

I don't drive and the school is a short walk from our house, but it can take 20-30 minutes sometimes, as they're not terribly prompt with the bell and this year I'll have to walk all the way around the campus to get dd to reception on the far side.

Dogs aren't allowed on premises and as I have to take dd in myself, unfortunately that means I can't take Pip with me.

Frustrating, as last year I could easily have taken him and dd could have just gone down a short path from the entrance to nursery with her best friend's Mum.

I think you should just go if you have a crate. Maybe leave it a week and use that week to get him used to the crate for short periods. How old will he be though? Jarvis is 12 weeks now, been with us 2 weeks and I leave him for 2 hours at a stretch and it's fine

That's tricky moose, especially with a reception child as you never know whether you'll be needed to help with hanging coat, unpacking bag etc.

I don't want to spend the £60 on a terms swim lessons and then not use them or get stressed about it but also don't want puppy to take over completely!

He will be 8 weeks when we collect him and I work in a room upstairs so I'm hoping to leave him from the start for 30 min chunks several times a day. Maybe that will help as puppy will never get used to be with me every minute of every day. We are in a semi though with retired neighbours also so bit worried about crying/noise

Morning! Toby woke up at 3am to go out for a poo, so that was great that he let us know. Just a trifle tired this morning.....

He does seem to have a dodgy tummy, and I'm wondering if its schmackos that are the cause. Treats in his kong have been peanut butter, pâté and Philly with ham but we've been using schmackos for training. One whole strip broken up into tiny morsels. What do you think? He likes apple and carrot, so I'm thinking of changing the treats to that to see if that helps at all. I've also got some bits of chicken and ham hock that I can also use.