New Puppy Mummies Part 2

[SallyBear]

Just thought I'd start the new thread!

Toby (foxy coloured yellow Labrador) is now 13 weeks old. Long, lean and lanky. Still wonderfully tempered and is sleeping through and no longer messing in the house.

I've just ordered a clicker :) having looked at Kikopups YouTube videos teaching leave it (and other commands) will be so much easier if you have an auditory noise that they automatically associate with a reward. I really didn't want to go down clicker route ( I have no idea why!!) but I want a well mannered and responsive puppy/dog and that's not really going to happen the rate we're going. Although we own sit and paw

We haven't had to use a babysitter yet but will at some point. I'm not sure whether to trial run first with a mum friend who has kids and dogs (just for an hour or so) is this an option?

After my whinging of the other day Ollie has been brilliant on house training (touching wood) and will now bark at the back door if he needs to go out his biting is also improving, plus he is so darned adorable and cute to look at - today I love my puppy :)

Hope your dd is better soon Moose x

Toby had his monthly Drontal and Advocate last night. One of them makes him hyperactive. Poor dog could not switch off last night. Tossing and turning and throwing himself under our bed several times. DH let him out twice, but I am sure it was the drugs as somebody on here remarked that they'd noticed something similar.

Anyone else had this experience??

Hi everyone,

Have been having a long overdue catch up with you all. to be honest I had avoided coming in here because Mabel has been a bloody nightmare (on and off) and I thought you would be in here with well behaved, rose tinited puppies when mine was not! How naive of me.

So sorry Ohalvo that you are having thoughts about rehoming Floyd. It must be incredibly hard, and I do not think badly of you at all. The reality of having a puppy is a long way from the theory. I am a VN, and have given advice for many years to new puppy owners, it has been a reality check for me to actually own my own! I hope you come to a decision that sits right wih you and your family.

So, mabel. Once a cute bundle of black fluff. Now a lean, spindly legged whirlwind machine. With teeth. She was a rescue for those who don't know, or remember, so we are unsure of her heritage. Definitely some border colllie in there, and I'm wondering if she isn't a lurcher of sorts, with the legs! they are hilariously long. Overall, she is very good girl, responds well to training, sleeps all night quietly in her crate, I can leave her for up to four hours with peace reigning when I get home. Toilet training is a work in prgogress, so long as she is put out often enough we are fine, but still the odd accident on the carpets.

Our main problem is the chewing/biting business, particularly with the kids. Just the noise of them whips her up into a frenzy. I have started crating her when she looks like getting to this point, and have upped her walks to release some energy. she leaps on the sofa, on top of the kids, and chews my daughter to pieces. Said daughter does not help, she regularly gets Mabel in a head lock and won't let her go. I can't decide if they are litter mates or two little boys playing so rough with each other! She has, on two or three occasions made aggressive noise at dd. this seems to coincide with when she is 'working', once during training, when dd came up and put her arm round her, once when there was some bread on the floor Mabel was trying to get to, once when dd tried to pull her off from leaping up at the table. Food orientated maybe, but mostly she can have chews taken away, wags her tail when eating if the kids wander by etc, so I'm not sure its a problem yet, although I don't want it to escalate. we are nearly at the end of puppy training, but I am definitely carrying on with further lessons to keep it all up.

Sorry, have to go and feed dd! (And put Mabel out, she is making awful smells here at my feet.)

Back later:)

Thanks Dharma.

I think a lot of people are resistant to clicker training to begin with, because until you see it in action and really get to grips with what the clicker signifies it seems like a bit of an extra leg compared to traditional training methods. Once you get the hang of it, it makes communicating with your dog so much easier.

Sally, Pip has both Drontal and Advocate and all my dogs have always had Drontal. Haven't noticed any hyperactivity. Advocate is pretty strong stuff though. I wonder if it might irritate his skin at all?

Hi Sebastion

Sounds like you are doing much better than us on the home alone training. Pip managed an hour eating his kongs last week, but still starts wailing the minute he finishes.

When you say she wags her tail if the kids are around when she's eating - what sort of wag? I only ask because a wagging tail doesn't necessarily mean she's happy and some dogs will tense slightly and do a slow wag to warn off people/dogs they think might approach their food.

If she's very hyper, I would have a look at Kikopup's capturing calm videos and perhaps look into doing some Tellington Ttouch stuff with her as well.

What food is she on? Could that be contributing to the hyperactivity?

Also, how old is dd? It does sound like she's very hands on with Jess, so calm time in her crate, away from dd sounds like the right way to go. We have similar behaviour from Pip, but having Lurcherboy it's all directed at him, not the dcs, (eg suddenly launching himself at him and nipping etc) so it does sound a bit like she's possibly seeing dd as a sibling. Lurcherboy is capable of telling Pip off with clear canine communication (not that he always listens ) and as your dd can't I would definitely interrupt and separate at the merest hint of that sort of behaviour towards your dd. If you can teach Jess that being calm can be rewarding (as per the Kikopup videos) and do plenty of that with dd close by so she associates dd with being calm that might also help.

Does anyone else find that your puppies can have a very sleepy day if it follows a very active day. Last night a friend came over with her dog so Finn had a great evening playing constantly whereas he'd normally doze from about 7 until he goes to bed at 10.
Today he's really tired and sleeping more than usual although eating fine and playing a bit just not in his normal manic way.
Is this normal?

Yep, totally normal.

Hello all. Things going OK with Diplodog - we had a trainer round this weekend who reassured us that most of her behaviours were pretty normal for a pup of her age, and gave us confidence that the anxiety was something we could address. She's getting better with strangers, but still very nervous when out and about. We've been advised to go right back to basics with walking on a lead which makes sense. Am thinking of trying a thundershirt - any experiences? It's looking like she might be a spaniel / jack russell mix (probably with a few other bits in) although her only terrier signs at the moment are she's quite keen on digging (which is aided by huge webbed spaniel type paws).

That all sounds really positive Dip.
We really need to get some training things down pat. 'Down' has not sunk in at all. Off, leave, fetch, sit, cross and no are all pretty much there but not down! He really is very silly at times, the times I've found him fast asleep under our bed with his back legs sticking straight out behind him! Bless his silky ears.

Its so lovely having him in our lives, and he feels like a worthy successor to Sally. Happy days.

He sounds so sweet, Sally - I love labs. Impressed at your list to training commands too. We really struggle with off and leave at the moment, but have some useful pointers and I'm sure we'll get there.

Sally - Pip thinks down means half lie down and stick yer bum in the air. Totally down to one of the dcs distracting me while I was training him and me clicking the wrong blooming thing. He's such a fast learner that it's taking ages for him to unlearn it.

His puppy classes start on Wednesday. Have emailed the lady that runs the classes to explain he's now fearful of other dogs and she said it's not a problem and they'll help us through it.

Toby thinks that down means bum in the air too! Need to keep at it! Knows what bed means! Just need to get him understand that out for a tiddle means that I'm not standing out there with him while he does it now!

Hmm .. Fitz is a bit wobbly on down too! He thinks it means flop in an ungainly manner with legs all over the place

Who is watching Dogs: Secret Lives on C4 (Monday 8pm)???

I'm watching Sallybear - good stuff on separation anxiety

Makes me wonder about Toby. He cannot sleep unless he's next to either me or DH. Just now he whinged at me, when I went to find him he ran to his bed and jumped in to go too sleep. It was as if he was saying, sit down woman I need to sleep!

I'm watching too. SA is such a hard nut to crack. I have worked so hard with Lurcherboy. He developed SA after Oldgirl died back in April this year. Initially I had about a 6-8 week period where I only left the house for a few minutes at a time while I desensitised him to my leaving cues and taught him to relax and refocus on treat dispensing toys. He's much better, but by no mean cured - aaand - now we have Pip, similar problem, different underlying cause.

Lurcherboy did exactly that. 2-3 minutes of howling then stopping to listen for a few minutes then howling again - on an endless cycle. He'd keep it up for as long as we were out.

God the "where's teddy?" Leaving cue! That's now making me wonder about the shoving him in the crate with a kong toy before I go out. I wonder if I should record him and see what he does? Do I want to find out?

The thing about leaving him with the kong is whether or not he already associated the kong with being calm and happy. You were already giving him kongs when you were home to begin with, to get him used to them and give you some time/space when he was busy. That should be similar to what they were doing with the new bed/mat - making positive associations with the kong so that it can then be used to reframe the dog's emotions around you leaving.

First you make the positive association with the kong, then you only give him one when you're out, so that he begins to look forward to you leaving so he can scoff his kong.

It's an interesting exercise to sit and think about your leaving routine and what cues you might be giving. I find it really hard, given I'm doing the same school run twice a day and found I'd got into certain habits re getting ready to drop off and pick up the dcs. Nowadays I try to do things in as many different orders as I can. I even get ready early then sit on the sofa in my coat and wellies! Picking my keys up walking around with them then putting them down again etc.

If Lurcherboy starts getting edgy when I leave now, I usually realise I haven't been switching my routine around enough.

Pip can't wait for me to go, so he can get his chops round his kongs etc, but as soon as he finishes them he wants out of his crate and starts yelling.

We're up to an hour and ten minutes now and I'm making him wait and be quiet for five minutes or so before I'll let him out now.

Ooo, look! Lots of little Tobies!

Hmm, bit of a pointless programme really. Heaping guilt on owners, even of dogs who appear to be relaxed and ok when their owners are out.

Other than getting them a new mat and kong, they gave practically no advice on how to instigate a SA programme. Surely it would have been better as a series, showing the progress of each dog and what methods their owners used to work through their SA.

We were just talking about the Kongs and treats. I swap it about with what I give him. The Kongs have different fillings in, or I stick a pigs ear in with him, I al give him those when I'm home as I was concerned that it would be a cue for "I'm going out you're in the crate". He does follow both of us around the house.

Sounds like you're doing everything right Sally. Maybe just make sure you put him in his crate for short periods when your not leaving as well intermittently, so he doesn't only associate the crate with being left.

you're

I have put him in with a pigs ear when we or one of the twins have been home.