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.

[Awks]

Basildon your toller is a real beauty. They are lovely dogs and I bet you can't wait.

The rain is a pain isnt it but I'm glad too I didnt get a new pup in January. That must be miserable for the owner and the dog?

Sally bet you are counting the days!

[moosemama]

The sun has come out here now, thank goodness aaand Pip has discovered a new thing to be fascinated with ... slugs. Urgh! Good job his last worming was done with Advocate.

Just having a 5 minute cuppa after cooking and bagging up all his feeds for today and tomorrow. Now the rest of the Moose crew are haranguing me for lunch, honestly, if it's not the pup it's the dcs.

Just looked up the letter detailing ds1's first day at secondary and he's only going in for two hours - right across Pip's first Puppy Class. Dh is going to have to book the morning off and take him. I've already paid for the class and have very strong feelings about socialisation, after having a dog that developed fear aggression from missing a lot of socialisation due to illness.

[TooManyButtons]

Well Stanley's here, and seems to be settling in very well. We went to bed at about midnight last night and he didn't stir until 6 this morning.

He's been bounding round the garden happily and is generally delightful. Our Yorkie, Wig, isn't overly impressed; Stanley keeps trying to play with him but is a bit rough, bearing in mind he weighs more than Wig

Stanley had his first jab this morning, then we took him to Pets at Home where I spent about a million pounds on toys, treats, and a very smart new collar. We were stopped every few steps by people wanting to fuss him because he's just so damn cute

I'll put a new picture on my profile.

[Awks]

Jarvis likes snails too, they are minging sometimes.

And Stanley is gorgeous, he looks a bit like Jarvis who's on my profile too. Glad he is settling well it will be good to compare pups and do a nit of stealth boasting

[MissMummy1]

Argh feeling a bit stressy. We are meant to be picking Aulay dog up on Tuesday. Been in constant contact with breeder every few days via email. Yesterday she emailed to say all of his sister will be going to new homes tonight/tomorrow to which I replied we could collect him over the weekend too (would actually work better for us). Since then no reply. Tried calling, no answer.

She is probably just busy, isn't she? I am being a neurotic mess over nothing, aren't I?

I also spent a fortune on PAH today . Appalling customer servive though..

[moosemama]

Aw, Stanley is gorgeous TMB. I'm very of how long he sleeps for at night.

Have picked a coat for Pip, his royal blue puppy collar really suits him (although goes around his neck twice so am currently looking for something the same colour that I can get small enough) so am ordering a royal blue waterproof one with striped rainbow fleece lining. Hopefully that will keep him going for a couple of weeks. Didn't want to order too big, but obviously need to consider how long it's going to last, especially as he seems to be having a growth spurt at the moment.

MissMummy, don't fret. I barely have time to answer the phone with one puppy at home, so she's probably run off her feet with a whole litter, plus preparing puppy packs etc for the ones that are leaving today and tomorrow.

You're right about PAH. I only ever use them if I can't wait for delivery from somewhere online. I find smaller, family run business much better for customer care. Although to be fair, when we were buying a Thundershirt to try for Lurcherboy's separation anxiety, there was one member of staff that couldn't do enough to help. I always get the impression the staff are on minimum wage, probably zero contracts and generally treated really badly. They always look so unhappy.

[MotherOfGirls]

Can I join too, please?

Awks - Jarvis, Cocker Spaniel, 9 weeks and 11 Aug 2013
Everlong - Enzo, Italian Spinone, 9 weeks, brought home 9/8/13
Moosemama - Pip, Rescue Lurcher 10 weeks, 9/10 August 2013
TooManyButtons - Stanley, Cocker Spaniel, 8 weeks, 15 August 2013
MissMummy1 - Aulay, Spanador, 8 weeks, coming home 20th August 2013!
SallyBear - Toby, foxy coloured yellow Labrador, 8 weeks coming home on 23rd August
Cogdat - Ushi, Sprocker, 9 weeks, 2 August 2013
Basildonbond - Fitz, NSDTR, born 16/7/13, coming home mid-September
MotherOfGirls - Ollie, Rescue Collie x, 12 weeks, arrived 7 Aug

[MotherOfGirls]

So good to know I'm not alone! We have a two year old rescue sprollie and wanted a friend for him - and completely forgot about the early days! To add to the fun Ollie ate something in the garden on Day 5 and stopped eating. Ended up on a drip at the vet's for 30 hours and only returned home yesterday. Such a worrying time but he seems fine now. Back to playing and nipping and generally being all we can do or think about!

[moosemama]

Pip managed to fall/roll down a little incline in the garden this afternoon in his haste to hang off Lurcherboy's beard. He screamed as if he'd broken his leg and wouldn't get up, then when I stood him up was limping badly.

I was beside myself, scooped him up, brought him inside and checked his leg, no sign of pain. Then, quick as a flash the little monkey leaped off my lap and shot off up the garden again.

I should have known, Lurcherboy is a really big wuss when it comes to pain as well and it's quite common in sighthounds. His foster mum even told me about a similar event in their garden that really scared her.

I'm looking forward to the weekend and having dh home to tag team on watching him. Not to mention dh has said he'll do the night shift tonight and tomorrow, so I will finally get a decent span of sleep.

He's definitely improving. He doesn't scream when I'm out of his line of sight anymore and will happily trip off up the garden or the living room or kitchen on his own, so is clearly feeling more settled and secure.

Hoping to move things along next week a bit more quickly, as by September I really need him to be able to be left in his crate for at least 20 minutes without screaming the place down, so I can do the school runs. It would help if I could stuff a kong or give him a treat toy in there, but just being on white fish and chicken, it makes it a bit more difficult.

[MissMummy1]

I was worrying over nothing Aulay dog will home in 2 hours

[moosemama]

great news MissMummy1. Hope you have a good night.

I only just 'got' his name.

[binger]

Lol I remember my cocker's puppyhood - she's 2 - with terror. House training was easy but omg, those teeth! That was not fun.

So envious though, I'd love another cocker but common sense stops me, love them so much though. Enjoy your baby.

[moosemama]

I'm not sure I've got it right, but I think - as he's a Spanador it might be a play on the word Ole, given that Spanador sounds so Spanish.

On the other hand I could have got it completely wrong and be making a total idiot of myself?

[basildonbond]

Sally - our first ever dog was a foxy red lab - Topaz - she was the bestest dog ever - we got her for my 4th birthday and when we lost her to cancer 14 years later we were all devastated

I think part of the appeal of the Tollers is that their colour and size remind me of our first dog (she was v small for a lab)

Moose - one of my parents' collie x used to be a tremendous wuss in the face of the slightest pain, until he heard the treat tin being opened which would almost always effect a miracle cure ....

And awks - Stanley is v cute

All the Tollers we've met have not only been beautiful but also have had a lovely temperament - friendly and playful but not ott (they have an 'off' switch!). I don't know why they're not more common ...

[basildonbond]

Eek sorry awks and buttons - getting my spaniel puppies mixed up - they're both cute!

[sweetkitty]

We're going to visit our puppy on Sunday she's 4 weeks now so will be bringing her home middle of Sept. we know which one were getting now too.

She's to be called Nala after the female lion in Disneys The Lion King (DC choice) after her African Lionhound heritage.

Very excited

Trying to make up a list:

Water and food bowls
Food she's weaned onto Burns puppy will keep her on this
Crate
Vet bed
Collar and lead (what kind and size) don't want to spend loads on a puppy one as she'll grow fast.
Toys puppy kong, what else?

Not going to bother with puppy pads going to try to train her to go straight outside, oh poo bags.

[Awks]

MOG that's very scary but glad he's ok now. They're just so helpless.

Aulay's scottish I think, there was a bar in Dunfermline years ago called it, after the landlord's name.

anyhow, a quick poll. Do you let your dogs a] upstairs and/or b] on the furniture

[birdmomma]

Hello! Can I join in? I have Birdpup, a 13 week old border terrier XX. After 4 weeks of crate training at night, we gave up because although she had stopped crying piteously, we could tell she dreaded it. She was still wetting her bed each night even though we took her out in the middle of the night. She is now happily ensconced IN my daughter's bed and sleeps through, no mess. Oh dear, Gwen Bailey would not be impressed.

Other than that, toilet training is improving - she gives us 30 seconds notice by briefly running to the back door, and if we fail to notice this (unlikely as we all watch her like a hawk ALL the time) she runs off to another room and does it there.

I love her like she's a new furry baby. God I love her.

[birdmomma]

PS - to the poll - Birdpup has wormed her way on to all furniture, our laps, in the beds and basically everywhere. My bad.

[Awks]

Jarvis hates his puppy Kong, that was a waste of £6 so far. His fave toy is a blue fluffy bone with a squeak inside. The Kong is too heavy for him to carry far but he will probably grow into it.

[moosemama]

Oh, well in that case I still didn't understand his name. I really like it though. Wish we'd come up with something more interesting, but the daft puppy chose it himself.

As for the poll. My dogs aren't allowed upstairs or on the furniture. Our first two were, but dh is actually allergic to dogs, so keeping them off the furniture and out of the bedrooms seemed like the sensible thing to do. Fortunately, all the exposure to our dogs over the years has desensitised dh and they don't seem to affect him any more.

We did have to squeeze Finn's travel crate into our bedroom for a while when his SA was at it's worst, as I couldn't leave the house at all for fear of him upsetting the neighbours, but other than that, he's always been kept downstairs and he doesn't even try to go up.

[Awks]

birdmomma Jarvis does that, the all of a sudden panicky run to the back door. If i miss it, I spend the next 10 mins cleaning it up.

We've never let our dogs upstairs or on the sofas but I'd quite like a snuggly spaniel on my lap. Dh thinks it's minging though and as he didn't really want another dog i think I'll have to suck it up and be strict.

[sweetkitty]

Our puppy is a Rhodesian Ridgeback so she will be a big strong pup so thinking about toys that she won't destroy

Am going to allow her on the furniture but she must know that she has to move if people want to sit. Don't know about beds yet have a funny feeling she will be sneaked upstairs by the DC at some point.

[SallyBear]

Guess who's coming home to live with us on Sunday??