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.

NCIS, glad the whistle training is going well - they really enjoy it don't they.

Sorry I disappeared last night, had to take my migraine back to bed.

Sweetkitty, doesn't sound like a very nice class. Especially the kneeing. As you said though, good for socialisation though.

BB, what time does he have his last feed. Could you give it a little earlier perhaps? Maybe come up with something super tasty to reward poos in the garden during the day as well, so some back to basics reinforcement to back up what you want him to do?

We did have a crate divider in with Pip until we were sure he wasn't going to toilet overnight. Just enough room for him to lie in his bed and stretch his legs out if he wanted to. Having had a dog in the past that regularly went in her bed we didn't want to have to deal with it again.

The lady that runs our dog club has a toller and she's lovely - Pip was quite taken with her and spent more time watching her than all the wriggly puppies in the class.

Well, I still have a migraine and dd is devastated to be missing book day, dress up today. She's still not right at all. Dh stayed home and took her to the dr's yesterday and they said they couldn't hear anything on her chest, so put it down to a virus, but her cough is clearly chesty and she's still having temp spikes. Bit worried, as both ds2 and I have ended up in hospital with serious pneumonia because drs missed chest sounds. We were told that for some reason they just can't hear anything through stethoscopes with ds2 and in the end the infection was located by old fashioned chest tapping that younger/newer trained drs simply can't do. By the time we saw the dr that found his infection he was seriously ill and we nearly lost him - he was the same age as dd and it was about the same time of year as well, which isn't helping the worry. He has a red flag on his medical notes now that says they have to give antibiotics at the first sign of a raised temp with cough. If she's no better today I'm taking her back for a second opinion and will insist on the the senior dr that ds2 saw.

That's a good plan Moose, i would do the same. Small kids can get ill very quickly and you know the history and the signs to look out for. My youngest dd ended up in Hospital on bonfire night when she was 5 for exactly the same reasons you say. Fingers crossed all will be well.

A jarvis update, he's just 4.5 months now an a lovely puppy. Housetrained, doing ok with recall, pooh's the right colour and shape and altogether he's fab. But he hates walks and hates traffic. He would be happy staying in 24/7 and I dont like persuading carrying him out of the house. He's ok (not ecstatic) when he's actually out but it's the walking on a lead he hates. I have never, ever known a spaniel like this.

Good to hear Jarvis is doing so well Awks. My sil's Cocker is similar. She likes her house and garden and my PILs house and she's happy enough in the fields or woods if driven there, but she hates lead walking and road work.

I suppose, if you think about it, fields and 'cover' is their natural environment and tarmac, concrete and traffic probably feels very strange and unnatural to them.

Moose. Percussive tapping is definitely the way to hear those lurking bugs. Can I suggest that you help DD clear it by doing your own percussive Physio on her. This is how I manage DD's chest. Also after the Physio get her to huff deep down to clear the muck. If you have a Ventolin inhaler get her to take a puff of that to open up the airways and then start the Physio. (Percussive Physio is done laying on your side with a towel covering the chest. Using a cupped hand and a stuff wrist rhythmically hit her. Do it for at least two to three minutes each side and then get her to sit up, take a deep breath and to huff really hard.

I hadn't thought of doing that Sally. I know how to do the percussive tapping, as I had weeks of it when I was hospitalised with pneumonia and then my Mum had to keep it up for ages after I got home.

Awks - can you try treats to get him onto the pavement and starting the walk? Then maybe the sniffing / interest in other dogs, people will take over. I find our puppy refuses to move onto the pavement from drive, sits on his bottom and like you I hate dragging him. So I treat him, then lure him with more treats until he's got into the swing of the walk. A bit taxing on my back but it works.

BB that must be horrid with big clean up needed each time. Very rarely our puppy poos in night now but we're still leaving newspaper for him and as he use that the clean up is now easy as it just lifts and out. Maybe you'd find it a backward step to put newspaper down at this stage? We have wees very morning on the newspaper but I prefer that to the barking we had at 2am when we forgot the newspaper!

basil I would check when you are feeding .Sometimes I go around the block in the evening for a walk. I read that exercise gets things moving along!!

Awks keep at it as my little pup was like that for ages. I thought I was the only person that could have a dog that doesn't like going for a walk. I think it is to do with attachments that they get to the home. Mine never went out from the breeders house. So you are trying to break that routine. Mine doesn't want to come in now and looks at me like is that it if I am too busy to take her for a good long walk.

I have been working on getting ready to go out routine today but not actually going. It seems to be working. The first time I picked up my keys and put my coat on she was running around following me not knowing what was going to happen bless her. Now all I am getting is a head looking up slowing as to say do you have to keep making a noise with those keys lol

That's a really good point Moose about a spaniels natural habitat being cover. He is happiest in long grass carrying a twig We do try hard with our dogs don't we? it's a pleasure to read how much everyone cares.

That's a good idea for BB lucky - as soon as we actually get started on a walk, after much bottom plonked on ground stubbornness, we go three houses down and puppy stops to poo! Every time, but of course could be used as a positive thing last thing at night, I hadn't thought of that.

I agree, going for a walk is a great way to get those bowels moving.

Sure fire way to get Lurcherboy to poo is to put on his harness and lead and either step off the end of the drive or put him in the car drive somewhere and get him out. He never fails to poo as soon as we get out of the car, which is actually quite helpful, as it means we can bin it before we set off and not have to clean up and carry smelly poo bags with us all the way round.

He does the same on local walks, poos two doors up from home, so I can just turn around and put it in our wheelie bin before we set off properly.

Not much to update in here, I've been out the whole day so DP as dealt with her.

She's so greedy though started trying to jump up on the kitchen work tops now

Just wish I had kept the baby gates from DS now

Is she really tall Sweetkitty? Sounds like it if she's jumping up at work tops. Not sure our puppy has figured out anything much happens up there yet but he is well into jumping on the sofa when we're out the room and scavenging for treats down the cushions!

What are people doing with their puppies in the evenings if they want to watch TV in peace? It seems we don't get any peace in the evening - hyper puppy leaps at us and I end up spending my evenings clicker training for staying still on his bed, or dragging him off DH or DS1 and putting him outside but I can't relax and do this. Feels a long time ago that I watched an hour long TV programme in 1 go!

Pepsi has kennel cough!. She doesn't seem ill at all, but was coughing and as she had chewed the skirting board!! I was worried she had something stuck in her throat. She is only coughing every 3 hrs or so, and still has the same appetite and energy so I think we've caught it early. The vet gave her a jab and tablets..

No idea where she caught it, as she didn't actually go to puppy class this week, but I guess easily picked up from a dog we've met on our walks.

She is still (16 weeks tomorrow) very jumpy and nippy. Seems worse at the moment but maybe that's because she isn't feeling right.

Toilet training going really well, as is sleeping through the night. She is getting better at walking on the lead although is starting to ignore us when we call her, sometimes not even bothering to look up. I think we need to go back to basics and start again as she is very determined...

Will now go and read all your posts to see how everyone is

Pip tends to crash out at about 8.30/8.45. The dcs usually go up at 7.30 for reading time and lights out at 8.00. The minute they go up Pip decides to have his mad half hour, ragging Lurcherboy, barking at him, chucking his toys about and charging around like a total loon etc. Then I get fed up of the noise and chaos, grab him haul him onto my knee for a cuddle. I have learned that he zones out when I scratch his chest, so a few minutes of that and he tends to calm down enough to be put down and that's it for the night.

Most nights he takes himself off to sleep in Lurcherboy's bed in the kitchen, but tonight I have both dogs asleep at my feet, effectively barring my ability to get off the sofa. Which wouldn't be so bad if one of them (not sure which) wasn't emitting the most foul smelling wind I've ever smelled.

Aw, poor Pepsi.

Hope she only gets a mild dose and is feeling better really soon.

Sob .. A walk in the evening would be great but he's STILL not supposed to go on the ground

I think I'll try to bring his evening meal forward a bit but it's quite tricky fitting it all in! At the moment he's eating four times a day, 7:30, 11:30, 4:30 and 8:30 which was the routine at the breeder's house. He wakes up at about 6:30 for a wee and a poo, goes straight back to bed and dozes until breakfast, comes on the school run at 8, then is quite busy and happy for a couple of hours starts getting sleepy at about 10:30, will often have a bit of a doze/quiet time then goes into his crate with a couple of kongs containing lunch, happily scoffs them and then has a proper sleep of a couple of hours, another happy/busy period when he wakes up, pick up dd from school, tea, and then gradually gets more and more manic until about 6:30 when he goes into the crate for a much-needed sleep while we eat. At the moment I usually have to wake him up at about 8, he gets a second wind after his evening meal and then conks out for good at around 9:30. I was getting him out of his crate at about 11:30/midnight to do a last wee/poo but he was soooo sleepy the last few times he didn't do anything but just tried to go to sleep again in the middle of the garden (in the rain).

We had been doing so well until this week - he had his jabs on Tuesday and ever since there's been poo in the crate come the morning. Thankfully his poos are very compact and not at all sloppy/smelly so pretty easy to clean up but still ...

Any suggestions to get us back on track?

Poor Pepsi - hope she gets better soon

Mintchocchip - yes she is tall she's very gangly just all legs.

Our problem of an evening is that the cat comes downstairs into the living room and of course Nala is there so she barks at the cat which is very annoying, if I try and shut the cat put he miaows loudly, Nala spends most of the evening asleep and farting on me where she is just now.

BB, even a carry around the block might help. Dh used to carry Pip around the block last thing to make sure he was tired when we put him to bed. Everything looks and sounds different in the dark, so it's good socialisation and should be stimulating enough to wear him out.

If it's only been happening since his jabs though, it could well be related. Perhaps give it a couple more days and see if he settles down again.

Your evenings sound good Moose. I might try cuddling and tummy rubbing.

What is it with the farting though Moose and Sweetkitty?! Never heard or smelt our puppy fart, think he's very unsmelly!

Toby has been scratching for weeks. DH took him to the vets y'day as I wondered if it was earmites. The vet said that it was unlikely but she thought his ears looked iffy, so she gives DH ear cleaner. Poor Toby has bloody ears that hurt. Back to the vet tomorrow to ask for something else. Oh and he had the trots for the first time since we stopped the Burns, culprit is the bolognese sauce that DH gave him instead of the huge lot of casseroled minced beef and veg. Sigh...

Mint, Pip only seems to do it at night and only since he's had peanut butter in his afternoon kong. I would stop the peanut butter - but he loves it and his kongs are taking longer to empty.

Poor Toby. Did he react badly to the ear stuff then? Oldgirl had atopic ears and a chronic skin condition caused by yeast overgrowth. She used to have something called Surolan which was really soothing.

Probably the tomatoes in the bolognese. A lot of dogs don't do well with tomatoes.

Tomatoes or onions! Honestly!! I don't know what he was thinking! A small bowl of bolognese sauce leftover from last nights dinner versus an enormous feck off le Creuset full of casseroled mince and veg (without onions or tomatoes I hasten to add!). Men.

I still think he's got some sort of mite that advocate can't catch. Not happy with the vet we saw. He yelped when scratching his ears and then drew blood. He looked ever so upset.

I 've had only small dogs and they have never farted that I heard nor smelt.

My little girl I have now did do a lot of scratching and biting the day I brought her home. But because she is very thick coated it protects her skin from bleeding.
Trouble is she pulls out lots of fluffy/downy undercoat which I find all over the carpet.
She is not so bad since changing to Royal Cannin derma dry food.
She was groomed and bathed on Thursday and seems much calmer now.
She too has one ear that produces too much wax and nothing seems to help, so just have to keep cleaning it . She has very hairy ears which groomer plucked out.