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.

I think i have made my profile public and uploaded a photo moosemama

Oh everlong, have they no other clues at all? Are they going to refer?

How awful for you to be on your own in Sainsbury's and to get a call like that.

Glad you can bring him home this evening, at least you can give him some tlc and won't spend all night fretting about him being on his own at the vets.

I was thinking, there have been a few things in the papers recently about odd seasonal dog illnesses that are never identified, but seem to resolve after some tlc and supportive care. Iirc, they're prevalent at this time of year. I'm starting to wonder if it's some sort of airborne virus or toxin, as it seems to occur in localised areas for the most part. Not sure where you are located, but here's the details. They have a certain number of study sites, but I believe there have been cases identified all over the UK.

Ohalvo! He's absolutely scrummy. It brings it all back. I have some gorgeous puppy pictures of my girl, but their on the back-up hard-drive and I can't get to them to upload them to my profile.

I might get chance over the weekend, once all the back to school chaos has settled down.

I love the way Wheatens have the ability to look so grumpy, whilst simultaneously acting daft and loopy! Gotta love those beardy faces.

Everlong you must be so worried, hopefully it'll be nothing serious and he'll bounce back before you know it.

I finally feel I'm turning a corner with Stanley; this time last week I was seriously considering returning him to the breeder .

But he seems to have clicked re toilet training; he's taking himself out for a pee and we've had no accidents for 2 days. He's such a happy, independent little thing; he's happy to be left in his play pen while we go out, he's always pleased to see us when we get back but he's nice and calm, usually still half asleep! He's dry and clean at night too. He's a dream in the car, he just lies down and sleeps the entire journey.

I know I'm boasting, but I just wanted to reassure the latest new puppy mommies - when it all gets too much, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Been popping in to see how Enzo is doing, hope he's on the mend soon.

I'm now stressing about how the pup will get on with our cat. The breeder has 2 cats she's seen cats the cat has never seen a dog! I've been reading my Gwen Bailey book about how to introduce them never to allow the puppy to chase the cat etc.

Hope Enzo is picking up everlong, hope he's having happy doggy dreams at home

Buttons, great news about Stanley. Just goes to show that dog training isn't at all linear, it's a bit of a rollercoaster but it looks like he's turned a corner.

Bit of a drama here today, Luna went to the vet for her check up. She was a bit mucousy and snuffly and the vet thinks it's kennel cough (although she's been vaccinated) and hopes it isn't distemper. She's also got coccidiosis which is common in pups although she has no symptoms (they took a stool sample). She's on antibiotics so no vaccinations today.

OK, so we get home, vet said she could run in the garden but must not meet any other animals. Luna acted like all her birthdays had come at one, bounced along the lawn, explored every inch of the garden with the kids. She came in with a rapidly swelling eye, very pink muzzle, belly and paws. So we took another trip to the vet today. The vet thinks she was stung by a fire ant or mosquito so she had a huge shot of antihistamine and seems much better now.

This puppy owning is more stressful than having babies ....

Lovely news to wake up to Everlong!!!

Yay for Enzo! Boo for snuffly Luna

I've never bothered having insurance for my pets and I've never had to take any of them to the vets...you lot are making me consider otherwise!

Glad to hear Enzo has turned the corner. I hadn't bothered with insurance for my older two dogs but had a look at quotes for Beryl. Petprotect offered me a life time policy with no excess, I presume because she is young and has had no problems. I am expecting it to change as she gets older but I thought it was worth the peace of mind to begin with.

I think we have been incredibly lucky to get Beryl at 4 months instead of the normal 8 weeks. She is big enough to stand up to my older two when they play with her, and has been very easy when I hear the challenges everyone is having. I did feel like a circus act on the school walk this morning with three of them though...

I am soooo pleased to hear Enzo has turned a corner. He's been on my mind constantly.

How did you get on at the vets this morning?

TMB, Lurcherboy is almost 8 and had never been to the vets for anything other than vaccinations since we had him - until this spring. Then he got a water infection, that spread to his prostate and he had to have course after course of antibiotics and investigatory surgery - it cost us a fortune. We also had Oldgirl, who had a longstanding skin condition, but was otherwise healthy and rarely needed the vet. She was diagnosed with bone cancer at the same time Lurcherboy was taken ill and we saw of about £2,000 in vet bills over less than two months! Hence me being a bit stressy about getting my two insured asap.

Off to read back up the thread now - have had a truly horrible morning getting ds1 off to his new secondary school thanks to LEA transport cock-ups this morning - so this is the first chance I've had to check in.

Oh moose thats utterly rubbish, they forget that at the heart of it a child is being upset by all their stupidity.

Sneaking in to see how Enzo is, so pleased that he was bouncy this morning, I've been worrying!

Can't stop long, I'm doing a degree with OU and for the next week or so my courses are overlapping so in theory I should be doing about 24 hours of study a week, which would be great if I didn't have children, a house, the internet to mess about on. Have spent the morning finishing my last assignment for Welsh with two dogs asleep at my feet on a big fleecy blanket. Made my heart feel very happy.

TMB, not boasting at all, just a nice reminder/reassurance that it does all come together if you stick with it.

Sweetkitty, I'm sure it will go fine if you take the introductions steadily and follow GB's advice. Plenty of dogs live really happily with cats and vice versa and it's supposedly easier to sort out with puppies than it is with older dogs.

Butterflies, poor little Luna. Hope she's feeling better soon.

Pip is doing fine. This morning Mum came to sit with him while I did the school run, but she says he didn't even glance at her and set about emptying his two kongs and treat dispensing toy with gusto. (I stuffed his breakfast into them) Mind you, he didn't get his 6.30 am feed in preparation, so was absolutely starving by the time we went out. I put them in his crate with him, so he gets used to that being part of the morning routine.

I got back from taking dd at 9.05 and he was still scoffing without even noticing I'd returned at 9.35, which isn't bad, as I gave them to him at 8.40. So I'm feeling more hopeful about him being quiet for school runs now.

He's also been sleeping a lot more now the dcs aren't here to constantly disturb him, so it's been a quiet day, dog-wise at least, so far.

I am only going to give him a mini feed at 2.00 as well, so he's good and hungry for the afternoon pick-up and will put a nice big feed into his food toys again, although Mum is popping back just in case and will do the same tomorrow.

I'm going to do it a few times over the weekend as well. Just give him kongs etc and pop to the local shop with the dcs or something and then we're going to try leaving him without anyone here on Monday. It's just been impossible to organise leaving him completely alone while all 3 dcs have been home, so fingers crossed this will work.

Poor Toby didn't cope well with me doing the school run. He'd pooed on the pad and then (boak) ate it. He also weed in the kitchen. Poor old thing looks exhausted now I'm back. I'd left him with a stuffed kong toy full of ham hock. Which her emptied in the 50mins I was gone. Feel sad for him. Poor baby.

Everlong, so glad to hear he's being mischievous. They're like kids aren't they, you know they're feeling better when they're up to no good!

Sally, I left two kongs loosely stuffed with kibble and chicken - a puppy one and a medium sized adult one and 2 busy buddies stuffed with kibble and fish4dogs treats plus a few larger bits of chicken and it took him from 3.05 until 3.40 to empty them this afternoon.

I packed the food in tighter and left one less busy buddy this morning and it took him about 55 minutes.

Both times I made sure he was ravenous but not giving him a full feed the meal before.

Did you leave him in his crate or loose?

Sorry, this is a busy buddy. Very cheap and easy for pups to get the hang of.

happy.
As I am now an older lady, I did not buy a puppy, but was lucky enough to find a 2 year-old.

I have met a 4 month-old shitzu on our walks who was given a hair trim just a few days ago by her owner. She is female, friendly and sweet, but they keep her on the lead. At 3 months they get much more exercise running about the garden off the lead.
We have wonderful dog walks and open fields just round the corner and there are many dogs of all different sizes and ages , off the lead.

I did have puppies when younger and at 3 months they are rather scared of traffic noises while walking on pavements. so took them to a quiet grassy/wooded area which had lots of lovely interesting smells for them to get used to the idea that the lead means "exciting walkies".

Yours is very young still - it will come when she sees the lead and gets all excited at her walks

Er the fact that he ate his poo! I think that would indicate a slight element of stress . He won't tolerate being shut in the crate. I've tried. I've left him in there with a treat, shut the door and walked away. A few minute later he starts crying, 30 seconds later DH has gotten him out. Honestly I'm fighting a loosing battle with DH. Toby won't sleep downstairs because he cries and could wake up DS4, so he HAS to sleep in our room. Sigh. Honestly he never used to be this soft with dogs! Because DH doesn't believe in the crate, he won't put him in it. We had the castration talk yesterday. Honestly you'd have thought I'd mortally wounded him when I suggested getting him done at a year!

I know you weren't everlong. Just pissed off that it happened as DH knows best about dogs you understand..... He's in Munich for two days, and Nijmegen next week so yours truly is left to get on with it. I've been cooped up since 15th August. Just got a little bit of cabin fever!