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 officially hate Dropbox. Never works first time for me!!

db.tt/SKyNl2F7

I disagree though - puppies can definitely taste the difference between your favourite £££s shoes and the cheapy high street ones you don't really like.

It sounds as though most of your puppies have been with you for several weeks now - does it get easier? Do you find you get more sleep? Have life less dominated by puppy dilemmas?

We brought Zebo home yesterday, 8 week old english sheepdog and he's lovely but we're all following him around trying to stop him weeing/pooing inside, talking about him constantly and the kids are lovely with him, but totally obsessed!

He has slept so much today- out of every hour, he's slept half of it! Is that normal? I'm worried he won't sleep well tonight but he seems to have lots of little 15 minutes sleeps then pottering around, then back for a sleep.

He ignores the kong which I was hoping to leave him with for school run tomorrow, but he ignores it unless kibble is spilling out, then it's too quick.

Also I can't find a bag that he feels secure in and that doesn't throttle him around his neck. Any ideas?

Hi mintchochick

Yes, it does get easier. The first week is pretty intense as you constantly shadow their every move trying to catch and interrupt toiletting accidents and try to teach them to go outside. Sleep deprivation definitely gets to you too at first, but that settles down as well, as pup settles in. Pip was up at 2.00 and 4.00 to start with but now sleeps 10.30 to 6.00/6.30 ish - excluding the last two nights when for some reason he's woken at 4.00 am, but has thankfully gone back to sleep until 8.00 after a moonlit toilet trip.

Puppies sleep around 20 hours a day at 8 weeks and tend to play for a bit, sleep for a bit ... and repeat. Ideally he should be getting a few longer naps in, so it's important that the dcs understand that he needs quiet time and naps just like human babies.

You need to teach him how to use the kong, play a game with him getting it to roll around and bounce a bit so that food falls out, then show him the inside and hold it for him while he tries to excavate the contents.

I don't carry Pip in a bag, I feel more secure holding him and having his lead around my wrist - just in case he wriggles free. I think I'd worry about him jumping out of a bag, so basically I have him just under my arm, with my hand supporting his chest. He's getting on for 8kg now, with ridiculously long legs and I definitely think my right arm is now longer than my left!

We're just back from town, where ds2, Pip and I sat on a bench and listened to a rather good busker, while dh raced around with ds1 and dd getting various jobs done. Met some lovely people today, including a lovely lady who was so gentle with him and said she could clearly see how much love there was between he and I.

That's sweet moose. You sound like you know what you're doing and have a lovely puppy there.

Thanks, that's very reassuring about the sleep. When Zebo isn't sleeping, he does leap around and skip about so he seems healthy and happy but I hadn't expected 20hrs sleep! Last night was a disaster and I've been up since 5am so I'm hoping it will be slightly easier tonight.

I'll try your idea with the kong thanks. It is lovely to see how much my kids love Zebo - there are no shortage of helpers when I think he needs to be taken into the garden. They both want to be the one who helps him pee and poo outside!

I've got a quick question moose. In the night Zebo is in a crate downstairs. The perfect puppy book says if they are crying in the crate, say at night, you should only go to them when they have stopped crying, else you will positively reinforce crying behaviour. But how do I get him to stop crying, so I can open his crate and let him out?

He loves our fluffy slipper boots and has been playing, grabbing them and mouthing especially tab the bobbles on mine! It's so funny but not good teaching so I've made the kids grab a toy to give him as soon as he starts on the slippers. But he them stops playing altogether and just stands looking at us completely bemused!

I am just very old mintchoc and have had dogs for about 24 years now. I still manage to fluff things up on a regular basis though and still found the first week or so with our latest pup pretty hard going.

I took a slightly different route to getting Pip to sleep well at night I'm afraid. I'm not one for letting them cry it out. I slept on the sofa with the crate next to me the first and second night, then we moved the crate to the other side of the room and I stayed on the sofa, then dh and I alternated who went on the sofa for a week or so until he was happily settling when we starting our going to bed routine. At that point one of us started sitting with him with the lamp off until he was asleep, then sneaking upstairs and now we just get him into bed while we have our washes etc (downstairs bathroom, which helps) and he's usually asleep by the time we're ready to go up. (We've had him four weeks last Friday.)

If he does make a fuss in his crate when I need him to be in there for any reason, I do wait until he's quiet then use a clicker to capture that behaviour before letting him out as a reward.

When we were sleeping downstairs with him we reinforced the cue 'settle down' by waiting till he was awake, but lying quietly and saying 'settle down' 'good boy'. Now if he starts whingeing in his crate I say 'settle down' and wait for him to be quiet, then click and let him out.

I also used the Kikopup 'home alone' method to get him used to being left alone in his crate. To begin with he'd scream if I even approached the door, but now he'll happily stay in there while I move around the house and since last week has been home alone on my 20-30 minute school runs (with the help of kongs and treat toys).

Other people on here have done the pup in crate and ignore the howling things and it's worked for them though. There's no one-size fits all solution really, as all dogs respond differently and my boy was poorly and very needy when he first arrived.

Re the slippers, try being really animated or using a squeaky toy so that he gets the idea that it's more fun to play with his own toys than it is the slippers. Either that, or you could start working on 'leave' - best advice I can give you on how to do that would be to watch the Kikopup videos on it on either the same site I linked to above or YouTube.

Oh ... and we want photos you know. OES pups are beyond cute!

After most of her first week being really easy, Beryl the Border has had a challenging couple of days. We have had to keep the back door closed with the rain, so she has randomly peed half a dozen times in the house. She also sneaked up to the bathroom and has turned what was a dent in the plasterboard into a four inch hole! Little angel.
And, when she has a poo, sorry if tmi, she walks around leaving a long trail of poos to be cleared up.
Hopefully tomorrow when it's just me in the house she will be more settled and I can keep a better eye on her.

Will try pics - never done that before!

I'm also hoping that with kids at school tomorrow I can be more focused and less confusing for puppy!

Whippet puppy does poos really well in the garden but once she is in the squat 'pose' she seems to get confused as to when to stop and normally ends up waddling round the garden like a crab for a couple of minutes , I don't think she likes the sensation of having a poo at all. Nibbling has started in earnest though, I seem to spend half my life retrieving things from her mouth and my favourite bush in the garden is not longer so pretty as she decided to jump up and down on it then hide underneath whilst whippety boy played tag with her.

I'm on top of her all the time she is awake (fortunately whippets as a breed don't do a lot of being awake ) so she is out as soon as she wakes up, out after every meal and out again every 45 minutes or so. She knows to go and have a wee if she wants to come back in and gets lots of praise but I worry that I'm not giving her the opportunity to ask to go out or is she just too young to start that yet?

I think she sleeps really well though but as I am deaf once the hearing aids are out at night there could be a house party and I wouldn't notice. Here are my two they don't look like they are planning any parties.

mintochick and LostinWales All your dogs look gorgeous. When I read your post lost I thought you'd written "spend half my life retrieving thongs from her mouth" so got completely the wrong picture Your whippets look as if you've been polished them with a chammy (sp) leather!

No, no thongs . Whippets plus oily fish equals super shiny costs. They are super models after all (not very bright but lovely to look at ).

The day has arrived! En route to get Floyd the wheaten now! He is 9 weeks today. Will be sure to keep everyone updated! X

Yay, lots of pics please. Good luck.

How exciting. Can't wait for lots of Wheaten puppy pics!

Woke up this morning with the smell of toxic waste as Beryl had crapped all round the bedroom. DH had let her out first thing and fed her, but hadn't gone back out to stand in the garden saying 'toilet' in a firm voice, so that's what happens. Was a horrible way to wake up.
On the plus side, it's the first poo that has stayed firm all the way to the end, so cleaned up easily.
I have now ordered a carpet cleaner, I can see it being needed quite often.

Simple Solution will be your friend.

Hello!

We are home after 9 1/2 hours of driving! After a couple of ours of incessant biting, pooing and peeing (inside only!) little floyd has fallen asleep! Knackered already!!!

We have been taking him out after he goes to the toilet inside but will that defeat the purpose? He is in his pen now - dragged his blanket from the crate out of it bough and napping on the floor outside it. Shall we let him sleep there tonight or put him inside the crate? He barked and howled like mad when we first locked the pen but hoping will sleep tonight!

Poos are firm so that's something! Hoping no accidents during the night but we shall see!

Vet at half none for second injections and micro chipping.

Encouragement welcome!! Thanks all! Hope puppy life going well! X

Sorry for multiple typos!!

I'm only on day 3 of puppy being at home so can't give much reassurance about the longer term! I am sleep deprived, exhausted, headachy, can't imagine when I'll get to shower, wash AND dry my hair again in peace (without a child running upstairs to get me to deal with latest accident!) but it is all worthwhile when I sit on the floor with puppy for a cuddle.

I took him on school run this morning and it took me three times as long and I made loads of new friends - everyone just wanted a cuddle and chat!

Gosh, what a long day Ohalvo. Glad he's home safe and sound.

If you are wanting him to sleep in the crate in the long-term, it's probably best to start as you mean to go on.

I'm a softie and slept next to Pip's crate for the first few nights, then moved his crate across to the other side of the room and took turns with dh sleeping on the sofa. Can't remember how long it took us to start sneaking upstairs when he was asleep, but he was quite high needs due to being poorly when he first came to us and having only just got our older dog over Separation Anxiety which involved howling at night, we were also worried about upsetting the neighbours.

We've had him for just over 4 weeks now and he sleeps on his own, in his crate, usually from 10.30 pm to 6.00/6.30 am. (Although he woke at 4.00 am over the weekend and it took a conversation on the Pointy Hound thread for me to realise he was probably cold, with the temperatures starting to drop, as he has zero body fat. )

mintchoc hang in there, it does get easier - I promise. I swear I felt worse than I did postnatally after the first few nights, but we soon got to know each other and got into a bit of a routine and things improved fairly quickly after that.

Ohalvo - your puppy looks adorable. You might find he is really, really tired tomorrow after his big journey. We did a similar journey on Saturday and our puppy was wiped out yesterday and today. All the changes just take it out of them so much. His favourite place for falling asleep seems to be on top of my slippers as soon as I stand still!

Thanks Moose, you've been a fabulous source of support!

Mintchocchic thanks so much! He seemed so so full of energy today but is fast asleep now and cuddling into his hot water bottle! Hopefully he settles over the next few days!

Moosemama we are planning to sneak up to bed a bit later and hopefully he won't wake up! :) been a long day and could do with a few hours sleep!

Will update you tomorrow with a new photo!

Thanks ladies xxx

Ohalvo. How was the first night??