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The doghouse

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Original poster

New Puppy Mummies Part 2

991 replies

SallyBear · 24/09/2013 13:16

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.

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moosemama · 22/10/2013 10:37

Picnic the cost depends on the size of the dog and whether you buy 6 or 12 month's supply at a time. I think for a full grown large breed it can be as much as £9-10 per month if you just pay monthly, but you can reduce that by stocking up in one go.

mintchocchick · 22/10/2013 11:50

Thanks picnic and moose.

I have some leftover chicken in a pot so will take this out for a training walk today at lunchtime and I'm going to leave him at home for school run as I don't feel up to it. I haven't really been doing specific training walks, only fun or functional school ones so it just needs that input I suppose. Lots of work.

We have our first puppy class tonight - no puppies allowed for first one so that will be interesting. We really need it, good timing like you say picnic.

haggisaggis · 22/10/2013 12:33

I had to get up twice with Angus last night - 1.20 then 3.40, then got up for good at 6.30 - it is like having a newborn again! He is being very good though and we have had very few accidents in the house (usually only when I leave the kids to take him out..)
Chewing - what is best do you reckon for a 9 week pup? He has being trying to have a gnaw at our dining room chairs so need something quick!

moosemama · 22/10/2013 13:03

Haggis, I was up with Pip twice a night for the first week (he was 10 weeks when we adopted him). He dropped the earliest one fairly quickly though and it didn't take long for him to go through the night.

Have you got any cardboard boxes or the inner rolls from foil or clingfilm? They were the most popular with Pip when he was tiny - and he still loves them now. Other than that, he likes knotted rope style toys. He's got a rope one and a couple just made from strips of knotted jersey.

Just remembered he loved crunching on those small water bottles knotted into one of dh's old socks at that stage too.

He's got into tennis balls more recently, but to begin with he looked at Lurcherboy like he was loopy whenever he saw him playing with one! Grin

mintchocchick · 22/10/2013 13:18

Haggis - I tried bitter cherry spray which is designed to stop chewing. Our trainer who I phoned about the chewing of our slippers etc, said to wet my hand with it and hold my hand on his tongue for 2 full seconds. He would then get the horrid taste and when he came across a small bit on slippers or chair legs, he would avoid.

I'm not totally sure if it's worked or whether it just helped me to feel I was doing something concrete. But the chewing has reduced. We just have to keep remembering to re-spray our slippers with the spray and that's a bit of a pain. Might work better for you if you try though.

moosemama · 22/10/2013 13:34

If you need something quick to deter chewing and can't get to a pet shop, try tabasco or something similarly 'hot'. I have heard of people rubbing a raw chilli on the favourite target as well, but haven't tried it myself.

mintchocchick · 22/10/2013 13:58

I'm just back from a training walk and minty was near perfect. Really intense as you have to hold the lead in one hand, the D ring harness lead in the other and reward with treats from one or other hand! Not easy but he was close, looking at me (for treats) and sat waiting at every road junction. All for treats though so I'm sure any children being nearby would have taken his attention completely.

He is very motivated by people and pulls to get near them, big wagging tail and won't walk past people easily. That needs work as well.

Moose - does it matter if I do these short training walks on my own but then do the school run walks without the D ring and without training/treats? Or should I always try for close walking and use my treat pouch even on the busy school run walks? I'm not sure I can manage training on a school run walk as DS2 goes on his scooter, there are an increasing number of buggies, scooters, children the closer to school we get. And also parents who I like to chat to. I would attempt to manage training and school run if that's best but not sure?

haggisaggis · 22/10/2013 16:28

We've got a few rope toys but he doesn't seem interested in them yet. Likes his soft toys - and balls. Will try some cardboard tubes though. He is really good but definitely don't want him chewing the furniture!

basildonbond · 22/10/2013 18:18

Mint - that sounds very positive

Haggis - cardboard in general goes down very well here - tubes, boxes, you name it :)

Moose - he's now lost interest in the sofa (for the time being ...) but that's mainly cos he's absolutely shattered after his first proper walk! Didn't last long but there were lots of lovely smells to sniff, leaves to chase and a one year old spaniel/collie x who wanted to play with him yay! Only downside was a rather barky Doberman who was coming into the field as we were leaving and he found that a bit scary but it was right at the end so hopefully won't have scarred him ... Lots of lovely lead walking (only marred by ds and dd arguing about whose turn it was to hold the lead ...sigh ...)

mintchocchick · 22/10/2013 19:48

BB - sounds a perfect first walk! Did you do any off lead time? What age is your puppy? I can't remember why you weren't on the ground earlier, but maybe it was age related.

Our first puppy class was great, really easy, lots of tea and biccies and humour from trainer BUT no puppies! So next time with the puppies will be very different - trainer warned us how stressful new people find it, but she's lovely, no pressure to perform, she expects lots of barking, weeing, over excited and also timid, shy puppies so pressure is off!

moosemama · 22/10/2013 19:59

Sounds like a great first walk basil. He needs to get used to barky dogs too and as long as it wasn't too close up he should chalk it up to experience. (In our house the dcs fight over who gets to use the ball flinger. Grin)

Mintchoc, to be honest, I'd avoid taking him on the school run until I had consistently better lead control with him, if I were you. Every time you take him without reinforcing what you're expecting of him you will be undoing all the good you're doing in training sessions.

Puppy classes sound fantastic. Wish we had something like that around here. Ours are nice enough, but a bit well, dry I suppose.

We're all very down tonight after having to cancel our holiday to Ireland. We were due to sail on Friday, but have found out that dogs now need Pet Passports to travel to and from Ireland from the UK and although mine are going in for their rabies vaccinations on Thursday it's no good, as they have to be done 21 days before travel.

I have been travelling to Ireland and back with dogs for over 20 years and had no reason to think anything had changed - until someone sent me an email today. Apparently the rules changed in Jan 2012 and we've travelled a few times since then with no problems (latest being this August) but DEFRA have decided to clamp down and will be doing spot checks. If you are caught returning to the UK with a dog that doesn't have a valid passport they will impound the dog to quarantine and you will either be fined or taken to court. We just can't risk it unfortunately.

Lots of tears from the dcs ... and me. Sad

Iamaslummymummy · 22/10/2013 20:14

Hi

This year has been very traumatic as we adopted two dogs from Romania who turned out to have behavioural problems that were beyond us. One of them bit a passer by outside my house. Police involved etc. We had to surrender them to the rescue.

We've just got an 8 week old cocker Spaniel puppy called ruby who is adorable. She makes us realise how difficult the other dogs actually were. She had her first injections today and we had a 1:1 trainer round this evening so we ensure that there are no behavioural problems going forward with ruby. She loves the clicker!

Iamaslummymummy · 22/10/2013 20:16

Sorry to hear about your holiday moose. Hope ds1 hasn't taken it too bad (I was ben10 on mnsn).

moosemama · 22/10/2013 20:46

Hello - I had no idea it was you. Welcome to the desperate puppy parenting thread! Grin

So sorry to hear about your Romanian rescue nightmare. Sadly I have heard many similar stories. So many of those street dogs are just not suitable to be homed to a normal family environment.

Congratulations on the arrival of Ruby though. She sounds lovely and I'm sure she will heal your hearts and bring all the joy and chaos a puppy should to your home. Smile

Ds1 has taken it very badly unfortunately. I thought we'd settled him, but just heard him sobbing and wailing upstairs again, so dh has gone up to see him. Bad enough cancelling his holiday, let alone at this short notice, but school is a nightmare at the moment as well and typically, today he's had his worst day ever since starting there in September. Sad

Iamaslummymummy · 22/10/2013 21:19

Oh poor him. Change is so hard for our boys. I can just imagine what would happen if that happened to us Sad

Ruby has healed us from the heart ache of having to hand them back. Still got a personal injury case going through the insurance from the bite.

mintchocchick · 22/10/2013 21:21

Really sorry about your holiday Moose. That's really tough for all of you.

I knew that Ireland had been brought into the pet passports but didn't think they ever checked. That must be new. Ridiculous change, you must be so frustrated.

Original poster
SallyBear · 22/10/2013 21:22

Yay Slummy! You made it! Clever Ruby getting the clicker training so quickly. We've never done it, but so far Toby (Labrador - fox red) has seemed very compliant with most things.

He's just turned 17 weeks and is teething like mad. Poor boy. You get the odd wimper as it hurts him. Hmm

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moosemama · 22/10/2013 21:45

Mint, that's the thing, they haven't checked and we've been over several times since they apparently brought this in in Jan 2012 - but it's all over the net dating from the end of September that DEFRA are clamping down and doing spot checks, so we just can't risk it. I can't imagine what it would do to Pip or Lurcherboy if they were taken away and stuck in quarantine kennels. It's just so frustrating that we didn't know a fortnight ago, as then we could have got them jabbed in time and there wouldn't be a problem.

Pip is showing me up tonight. No nice snoozy puppy - more completely loopy, demon dog charging around, throwing his antlers around, barking at his toys, me, Lurcherboy - well anything really. I think the emotionally charged evening must have got to him. Hmm

Original poster
SallyBear · 22/10/2013 21:45

Toby has sore gums so I thought that I'd give him a frozen frube (yogurty tube as it's called here). I thought he'd crunch it up to soothe painful teeth, but no. He's licking it like a nice lolly. Epic fail!

OP posts:
Original poster
SallyBear · 22/10/2013 21:46

Or even an ice lolly!

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sweetkitty · 22/10/2013 21:49

Moose - oh no that is rubbish Hmm

Upped her food today and she's actually left some Shock

moosemama · 22/10/2013 21:50
Grin

I keep planning to do the frozen rope toy thing for Pip and see if that helps.

sweetkitty · 22/10/2013 21:59

When do teeth start to drop out? Does breed size matter?

Original poster
SallyBear · 22/10/2013 22:42

No idea Sweetkitty. Toby started losing teeth at 15 weeks.

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LadyTurmoil · 22/10/2013 23:15

So sorry to hear your news about the Romanian dogs slummy but it's lovely to hear that you have gone on to get a lovely puppy. We'll need pictures, you know!

And moose really sorry to hear about your cancelled holiday - nobody you can leave dogs with while you go on hols? What a shame. Lots of hugs and Wine going to you via MN