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.

My first whippet puppy had a horrendous tummy when he first came to us and I despaired that he had colitis and would be broken forever, he pooed horrible liquid, stinky poos and passed a lot of blood, I was so sad for him. He is absolutely fine now, being a new owner I was mad darting from place to place and trying different things but in the end I found a nice plain natures diet tray and stuck with just that, no treats or bribes and he was fine after a while. I so hope that the new puppy will not go through this phase!

Lost I've just chatted to the breeder. She kept a pup from the litter, and hers is doing the same thing. She said that she'd never used Burns Puppy before and three days ago started moving her bitch over to Skinners and is already seeing an improvement in poos. No blood or mucous and more formed. She thinks its to do with the meat content of the feed. I'm going to follow suit and try Toby on that or either of the following; James Beloved or Eden Holistic Pet foods. Both are hypoallergenic. Scared me witless until I spoke to her just now!

Wellbeloved!

Sounds colitis-y to me Sally. I would just give him one food source for now and let his digestive system rest.

Colitis isn't always a long term thing, some dogs only ever get one 'event' and settled down as their digestive system matures, especially if it was triggered by eating something unsavoury.

If you're worried, call the vets for advice today, rather than waiting until tomorrow. Better safe than sorry with little ones.

Pip has been really good today, which is lucky, as I had such a lot of stuff to get through today. Have just sat down for the first time since getting up at 7.30 am. He's slept in nice long chunks and played nicely with Lurcherboy in the garden with me watching from the kitchen window. He's also being really responsive to his training sessions, although being a Lurcher, they are numerous, but very short and sweet, as he has a very short attention span.

Dh slept in the living room last night - but not for Pip's sake, for his own. I've been keeping him awake as a result of not being well and being in pain at night and he was exhausted so decided he'd get better sleep with a snoring pup than he would with me rolling around all night.

Pip's going 6-7 hours from bedtime every night before waking and needing a wee now and is usually sleeping downstairs on his own these days. So we're very pleased with him. He's also much better being left in the kitchen with Lurcherboy than in his crate, so we're looking into how we can better puppy proof the kitchen, so I can leave him in there for school runs. It's so cute when he curls up in Lurcherboy's bed with him for a cuddle.

Ds1's best friend is coming over this afternoon, so that's someone new for Pip to meet. Downside is they want me to make Macaroni Cheese for their tea and it's too hot to cook.

Just remembered I read something on another forum about lots of people having problems with Burns recently. Wonder if they've changed their recipe.

James Wellbeloved Lamb always worked well for our previous pups, but I've had a look at Eden at that looks really good too - very similar to Canagan in composition and nutrition.

Despite the what the breeder said, I would still advise taking a poo sample to the vet with you if you can, there are so many things it could be, especially if there are others in the litter affected and better safe than sorry.

Thanks Moose. My poor old Toby. He seems quite flat this afternoon. Hope that all this tummy trouble isn't something else other than his food not agreeing with him

Glad the breeders pup seems to be responding well, I'd forgotten about the horrible straining until you mentioned it, poor sad puppy. Anyway, what moose said (she put it much better than me) one food source and nothing else and let him rest. Our vets recommended plain chicken and boiled rice for bad tummies. I didn't realise that colitis could sometimes be a one off thing, that would have made me a lot less worried at the time!

My breeder is recommending Harringtons complete which you can get from Tesco handily enough. She has 30 years experience and also used to work in the pet food industry and is very insistent on correct protein levels and not having colorants and additives so I'm hoping this is a good one.

Toby has been knackered today. Eaten well but slept lots. DH thinks he's tired because he is growing. I hope so. A bit worried about flat pup.

mohave just caught up reading everyone's post, phew you lot have been busy too.

I'm knackered, had completely forgotten just how time consuming having a puppy is.

We are having a problem with Pepsi nipping, especially DD (9), DH and I can handle her and she doesn't do it to us, but DD panics and forgets what she is supposed to do.

Have tried

1. Ignored (as quoted in a few books), feck that tbh, when I turned around and folded my arms as suggested, she nipped my calves.
2. stuffed a toy into her mouth instead, which mostly works for us along with pushing her down (did try pushing her away but she thought that was agreat game, so I pushed her down (gently) whilst stuffing her toy into her mouth.

So I've told DD to always have a toy to hand when she sees Pepsi is going to nipp, but she panics too much and flinches away and forgets to hand over the toy!

DD has got better, therefore Pepsi got better but at least once a day she gives a painful nip.

Anyone else suffering similar, or got any advice? please as apart from this, she is great fun to have around.

Only pooed inside once and weed 3 times in 5 days.

Have the usual puppy issues, crys when we leave the room, didn't eat at first, crys in the pen at night but worked on these and have got so much better.

Haven't actually left the house since Saturday though so aim to go and leave her for 5 mins tomorrow and work up it leaving longer during the week.

Still on the sofa, last night she cryed at 1.30 and 5.30 which isn't too bad I didn't think, so I got up to let her own both times and she was fine.

Sally, hope Toby is feeling a bit brighter.

Oddly enough dh and I have just been having a conflab because Pip has been far more sleepy than usual today and also seems very flat.

He did have fun playing outside with our dcs, ds's best friend and his brother and sister just after lunch, but then he slept for the whole afternoon, which is unheard off. He even slept through two feeds.

We were just saying we thought perhaps we should call the vet for advice, when he suddenly decided to perk up and start biting Lurcherboy's tail - and everyone else's toes.

He seems to be growing at a rate of knots though (I'd swear he's an inch taller since yesterday) and as he's eating, drinking and pooing normally, so I'm hoping his lethargy is down to that.

I was reading an article the other day that said pups should be sleeping 18-20 hours a day when they're Toby's age. So maybe he's just been over-excited with everything being new and now he's settling in, so can relax enough to catch up on his zzzz's.

Really hope it's that or something equally as benign. Finger's crossed.

Heifer, sounds very similar to our first week. Absolutely agree on how time-consuming, well all-consuming having a pup is at first, but it does improve quickly. We're just coming to the end of week 3 now and things are so much easier now we're into a bit of a routine and we've got to know each other, iyswim.

Re nipping, we've found it best to have lots and lots of toys, cardboard tubes and chews spread around the place, so there's always one nearby to grab if he decides to have a go.

Pip's not too nippy anyway, but has definitely improved since week 1. He played nicely with 6 children in the garden today without nipping anyone, despite them all running around and flapping etc, which I thought was amazing. Mind you, he then made up for it by 'tasting' everyone's toes when he woke up from his nap.

If your dd doesn't remember to hand over the toy. Could she perhaps try having a pocketful of treats so she can drop one or two of those on the floor instead if Pepsi starts to get OTT? That might change Pepsi's focus from nipping to snuffling for food and give dd a chance to regain her composure and grab the nearest toy.

I'm taking Toby to the vet tomorrow afternoon for his last vac. A friend has been panicking me slightly about parvo, but I'm inclined to think that the breeder is right that its burns puppy mini that is the culprit. We had also bought the burns puppy and its interesting to see the percentages of the ingredients.

Burns Puppy Mini
Brown rice 43%, chicken meal 23%, white rice 12%, chicken oil, oats, peas, sunflower oil, fish meal, vits and mins, seaweed

Burns puppy
Chicken meal 30%, brown rice 21%, white rice 21%, oats, peas, chicken oil, beet pulp, sunflower oil, seaweed, vits and mins.

The breeder said that she was moving Mavis onto a higher meat meal feed. Skinners apparently.

I have a possibly v stupid question about socialisation trips out before they're fully vaccinated - what do you do if they need to do a wee?? Our last few dogs were all older rescues and I can't remember what we did with the puppies we had when I was a child..

Sally Jarvis was on Burgess supadog puppy when he came to us and he had horrible pooh. Yellow and bloody (one day). I took him to the vet and he got antibiotics and advised 5 days poached chicken/boiled rice then we swap to the hypoallergenic version which we did. He appears fine and dandy now though yesterday I was worried as he was flat but bugger me, he's made up for it today. Its 22.15 and this is the first time he's laid in his bed all day. I am knackered too

basildon I just put Jarvis down and reckon the risk of one 30 second wee is worth the socialisation iyswim

Ah, Sally lots of dogs don't tolerate rice well and brown rice in particular can often cause problems, that could well be the answer.

I make it a rule to never feed anything which has an ingredient list that starts with anything other than meat as the first ingredient - other rules I apply are: absolutely no 'meal' or 'meat/animal derivatives', plus of course no flavourings, colourings or fillers.

basildon, we keep trips short until they can hold their bladder a bit. So pop out for an hour maximum, having made sure he's just gone before we left. Now Pip can hold it for several hours a night we can stay out longer, but I always have a puppy pad in my bag to put down in case he starts to show signs of being desperate.

We've sat down this evening and worked out that Pip seems to have a quiet/flat day with lots of sleeping, followed by a full-on crazy day, then another quiet one etc.

He's currently curled up in bed with Lurcherboy, who pretends he resents it, but if you peek when he doesn't know you're looking is clearly enjoying having another dog to cuddle again.

Thanks - I suddenly had a momentary panic!

New photo on profile - going for a visit at the weekend

Toby seems to have slept nearly ALL day! I've moved him over to the Burns Puppy until I can get out to see what PAH stock. DH went to Jollyes this evening and they didn't have James Wellbelove which a vet friend recommended. Never had this issue with SallyBear, because unless she had a dodgy Labrador tum, she never ate rice. Poor ickle boy. DD is off to GOSH tomorrow and my sister is babysitting for me. Difficult to whizz out to PAH with Toby.

Honestly speaking I don't think he's very well. Trip to the vet tomorrow is well timed.

Thanks for the tip about feeding them treats in the car. It helped today when we went for a short trip. Will keep working on it. I have a morning off tomorrow as she is in my son' s bedroom tonight bliss!!

Aw, basildon - what a cutie!

Sally Hope he perks up overnight and does that thing kids do with doctor's appointments and acts right as rain by the time you get him to the vets.

Hi all! Sorry to read of poorly pups My old retriever could only tolerate James Wellbelloved sally

Crate training going better now and Aulay is actively choosing to spend time in there.

We have discovered he is scared of the dark. And trains. (we live right under the forth rail bridge...)

We have 4 weeks free insurance through our vets with petplan so reckon I will stick with them.

I have been trying to get Aulay used to lots of different visitors. He is doing great and is fab with all of dd's baby friends. He met the 6yr old boy I look after every so often today and had an ace time chasing him around the garden. He even went into pointing mode and displayed a cracking line, so there is hope for his shooting career yet!

Sally hope he's ok x x

Hi! Hope everyone is having a wonderful morning with their pups!

Quick question, have found two insurance packages that suit us - both lifetime both around 7000. One includes accidental dental only the other all dental - but that one is a bit more expensive monthly. I know it's hard to say but which do you think would be more worthwhile? Pup is currently 7 weeks - getting him in 10 days! Thanks! Xx

Missmummy1 great to hear the crate training is kicking in! :) hoping to follow your lead! Heard you can play tapes of trains for a few days to help with that fear - but not sure if it works or not!

Taking Toby to the vet this afternoon for his last vac. He is definitely perkier today, in fact quite naughty! Poo is still troublesome, but he's only had three feeds of the new food so hoping that the change will start to correct it. I've put him on just Burns Puppy as its rice content was lower and meat was higher. I think that I will see how that goes and if its still dodgy, put him on a diet of chicken and potatoes for a few days until I can get my hands on some hypoallergenic food. Being housebound is really bloody troublesome!!

So thank you all for your good wishes. Its like being a mum all over again!

MissMummy, you can actually buy downloads of sounds for desensitising from Itunes if you want to give it a go. You play it almost inaudibly for a very short length of time at first and build up very gradually, always keeping within the dog's tolerance and rewarding calm behave.

Ohalvo, I think it depends on the breed. Lurchers and sighthounds have a propensity towards dental issues in later life, so for me I'd go for the full dental cover, as having had a dog with dental issues in the past I know how expensive it can be. If you have a breed that doesn't have that potential though and you make sure you take care of their teeth, accidental would probably be ok.

Sally, so glad Toby has perked up this morning. I hear you on the housebound front. I haven't left the house since last Sunday. Sick of having to order online and pay express delivery for things I need quickly. I've spent a fortune at VET UK on probiotics and Fish 4 Dogs treats in the past fortnight.

It was Lurcherboy that had us up in the night last night. Us sleeping on the sofa and never going out without him over the past couple of weeks seems to have triggered a touch of his SA again and he started whining then howling about an hour after we went to bed. Dh was oblivious to it, (even though we had the baby monitor set up in the next room for Pip) honestly, he could sleep through anything that man. SO, I got up to see if there was a problem and he was just standing behind the kitchen door looking dejected. I'm afraid I wasn't very sympathetic, told him off and put him back in his bed and thankfully didn't hear from him again until we got up this morning. Just praying he doesn't start up again when I'm doing the school runs next week now.