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.

Toby is in the doghouse. Yesterday DH took DS3 to Warwick Castle as a birthday treat with two friends. DS3 came back with a wooden sword. This morning I get woken up by DH swearing at Toby, as the sword now resembles a dagger. DS3 though disappointed is being very brave.

happygolucky
Pleased to read your Shitzu is loving walkies now. Your breed and mine - Lhasa Apso -are known to be stubborn where recall is concerned. Mine is on automatic 'deaf ear mode', but is much better when with other obedient dogs as follows them. I only feel she is safe when running around with perfect recall dogs. Otherwise she is always on a long lead.
Good luck with that. The best chance is if she is food orientated - mine is not.

Oh dear sally - the mantra in this house is keep anything you don't want chewed out of puppy reach ... Doesn't stop ds1 from leaving his beautifully smelly trainers in the middle of the kitchen floor every single day

Don't know what's got into Fitz today - normally it takes him ages to get going and he dozes off and on for a couple of hours which is great as it means I can get some work done but this morning he's been fizzing with energy and being very naughty ... Keeps taking a flying jump onto the sofa and he's worked out that he can climb onto the crate from there which is a Very Bad Idea .. I seem to spend my life saying off and strategically dropping treats or toys on the other side of the room

I chucked him out into the garden and he had a mad zooming session but he still has a glint of mischief in his eye ...

Should I be upping his walks now? His breeder was very stern about not over-exercising him so I've been taking him out for one walk a day about 5 mins pavement walking and 20 mins or so running around on grass, plus we play with him in the garden and house and do short clicker training sessions but I'm wondering if he needs a bit more?

And last question - if he sees something he's not sure about when we're out he sits down and watches with his head on one side e.g. Yesterday he got told off quite mildly by an older dog who'd greeted and sniffed him but then didn't want to play and walked off, Fitz followed him and got snapped at. After that whenever we saw another dog in the distance he sat down and watched - he did the same thing when he saw a tram - I'm assuming that's normal? Should I let him sit and watch or try to move him on?

BB yes that's normal to watch. Toby does that a lot. I've just given him and mum's dog Ella a rawhide chew each. He tried to nick hers and got snapped at. Rightly so. He's now by the back door with his chew.

I wonder when to start two walks a day. I think one longish one and then a short round the block one mid afternoon would be good. He doesn't like walking in the dark, but realistically there are days when that is going to happen. Nights drawing in etc.

Anyway he's 18weeks today. Gorgeous boy!

BB, watching is the best thing, a really good choice for him to be making. Just let him sit and watch at his own pace. It's actually what they try to get reactive dogs to do with BAT training. Basically the dog decides how much he can cope with and watches from a distance he feels safe at. As he gains confidence the distance will get shorter and shorter. You can treat him for calmly watching, so he starts to gradually associate the 'scary thing' with positive things.

Exercise advice is usually 5 minutes per month of their life for lead/road work, plus free running on soft surfaces. With all the rain we've been having he's fine running on the grass for longer on top of his 5 minute rule time.

Sally, god to hear Ella has started putting Toby in his place - important life lesson not to pinch another dogs treats.

Not impressed with the clocks going back. Pip woke up at what was essentially 5.30 this morning for his morning wee. Wonder how long it's going to take him to adjust.

Got up to Finn at 6am even with the clock change, obviously I have a gifted dog who can tell the time

How have everyones pups reacted to the wind? Finn is over excited and very jumpy, I've had to put him in his crate for an early nap.

Toby

Still got huge feet Sally. He's gorgeous.

NCIS, Pip is a bit unsure about the wind. Ok, if a little skittish in the garden, but looks to Lurcherboy for reassurance.

Wow Toby is beautiful

Pepsi is not liking the wind at all. I took her outside earlier to do her busines.... usually does on cue these days but she got so distracted by the noise then leaves blowing around and then got hyper and started digging and jumping up at me barking. Had to bring her in to calm her down. I am anticipating a puddle in the kitchen sometime today if this carries on.

Pepsi hates being walked in the dark and seems nervous apparently. DH takes her then so I don't see but she is really reluctant to go.

She is funny when it's raining as instead of coming straight out with me in the garden she stops at the back door and watches me standing in the pouring rain waiting for her!

Hope everyone's puppy is well, not had a chance to read up, looking forward to reading about all the new puppies too.

Pepsi is 17 weeks old now and doing really well on sleep, toilet training, feeding, sitting, staying, leaving food and toys on the floor when told but doing terribly at jumping up, nipping still, pullling on lead, recall got to pot at times, other times good.

Long way to go but I can at least see the improvement.

Weighed him and he's 15kg. Ella mum's 9yr old labrador is 25kg.... Hmmmm their feet look the same size. Doubt he will be as tall as Nala it Pip, but I think he will be tall for a working lab.

Sally my old girl used to hop out the back door and then hop back in if it was raining! Loved the snow. Used to turn her positively puppy like. Looking forward to seeing Toby's reaction to snow when it comes!

And thank you! He is a bit gorgeous!

Toby is beautiful Sally

Vicar we need photos of Barney, love the name, it's perfect for a GSD.

Off to take Finn for his first walk, should be fun.

First walk went well, he was very good and came back when called and kept turning round to check we were still there. From memory, border collies do like to keep an eye on their families so they can round them up if necessary!
I've put a couple of pictures on my profile.

That sounds like a great first walk for Finn - my parents' old collie used to round us all up on walks so would keep a very close eye on everyone!

Hope your first full day with Barney is going well, vicar

Sally - Toby is gorgeous

And moose - thanks for the sound advice - you are a mine of doggie information!

New photo of Fitz on my profile - the light in the garden was a bit odd as his fur normally looks much darker

Digard... Yes she loves going out now. So you was right. Yes they do like to do what they decide. She was good today managed to call her when she could see four or so dogs in the distance that she was thinking of running to in exchange for a treat. Quickly got the lead on her.

SallyBear Toby is really cute.

Jess is ok with the wind it doesn't seem to be bothering her, but then she likes to try and sit in the rain.

NCIS, I can't see your profile. Great to hear he had a lovely first walk.

One of the things we found best about having our Border Collie x girl was that she was always safe off lead. She never wanted to leave the family and made sure we all kept together like her own little flock of sheep. Mind you, she wasn't like that as a pup. Her recall was dire and she had me in tears far too many times to recount. I can remember standing hopelessly waiting for her while she careered around the flood plain in the fields behind her house, knowing I didn't stand a hope of catching her, so all I could do was wait until she'd had enough and decided to come back. It took months of really hard work to develop her recall to anything approaching reliable. She was a super norty pup.

BB looks so cute, I love his fluffy ears and little white toes.

We've just been for a long walk up a very windy hill! Dh found out about a good place for off-lead walks near his office, so we went to try it out. Good points, loads of space for the dogs to run around off-lead, nice sensible dog walkers and beautiful countryside. Bad points - lots of cow poo - which Pip has decided tastes nice - and apparently often cows in the fields. There were some today, but we managed a walk avoiding them, as there's lots of routes. I have a bit of a thing about not walking in fields where there are cows - hangover from summers spent running wild through the fields in Ireland as a child.

Pip was quite skittish about the wind to begin with, but soon forgot it when he realised how much freedom he had. He did go all pathetic and start whining when it started to rain though. Wish he'd forgotten about the cow poo. Had to put him on the longline on the way back, as once he'd tasted it there was no stopping him.

Hopefully sorted out my profile?

Lovely pictures. Really like the one of him in the stream of sunlight.

I see both his ears are already up. My girl had one ear up and one down for months and months, then just when we'd decided she was always going to be lop-sided, the other one suddenly decided to pop up. Rather ironically, she then needed an op as an adult that resulted in the other ear being permanently floppy.

I love all his speckles. Another forum I'm on calls them 'norty spots'.

That's my favourite photo too. His speckles are the reason we chose him, we could pick him out of the litter.

I can't believe how much he's grown, his tail is now long enough for him to notice it and chase it, hours of endless fun for us and him, he will be busy playing with a toy and then suddenly catch sight of his tail which obviously needs to be subdued. He then wags his tail and can't understand why it's out of his reach.

My Lhasa is so nosy/inquisistive. When she sees dogs she doesn't know, she stands and looks at them waiting to see if they come to her. She turns a deaf ear to my " Come on" command unless the strange dog ignores her. The only few she gets excited around are a beautiful gentle rough Collie female, a Jack russel female and her big crush - a male golden Retriever who is also gentle. She made me laugh when another male retriever got aggressive with her beloved and she charged after him - on the lead- to tell him off. All 3 were on leads on the pavement btw.

Lovely photo of Toby:)

Thanks Raspberry and Moose for the reassuring words. I'm sure Legend will improve with the classes over time. We have been practising the training at home and he can do it at home no probs, just obviously very distractable, which as you say, is quite normal and will improve.

Sorry not sure who mentioned their pup not liking rain, but Legend is the same. the only accident we're had indoors for 3 weeks now was when it was raining and he point blank refused to go outside. I have to say he is proving to be rather stubborn at times :D There is still no way he will get in the boot of the car, but I have officially given up and he has been sitting on the seat with a car harness:) Already getting his way!

On the other hand, I really cannot complain, he is pretty lovely! The other thing we have been working on with him a lot is appreciating and coping with 'touch'. He now enjoys a good rub from all of us including the children:) He will also allow the kids to hug him! We do hug & treat. He will still kind of growl at them if they do it for too long, but he is getting better & the growl noise sounds different to me. It used to sound pretty aggressive but now it sounds kind of less so, if that makes any sense! We also continue to do a 'puppy roll' with him, so the kids gently get him on their lap and touch everywhere, like feet, mouth etc and treat. He does seem so much more tolerant with the kids but it is rather tiring having to supervise his every move with them.

A question for you all! Where do your pups go when you are eating? We put Legend in the kitchen where his bed is and have the stairgate closed, so he can see us but cannot get in. He is generally very good and slopes off to his bed. On Sundays we do a roast though and he has been barking and growling in the kitchen and generally annoyed to be shut out. We have cut up some of the meat for him as treats but intend to use it with training. He is so, so good normally but it is like he loses all his manners when meat is around! Tbh, I feel so mean as he has to endure the smell of it cooking and then he watches us eat:( Doesn't seem very nice.

Do you eat first and then feed pup or other way around?

Lovely puppy photos of Toby Finn and Fitz! All gorgeous. I can't seem to add any more than one photo at a time and if I do, my previous photos disappear?

We have this same problem with eating our family meal. Evenings in weekdays are fine as we eat in the kitchen at a high breakfast bar with minty lying on his pillow on the floor, not bothered. Weekends though we sit at a table in another room and he gets unsettled and cries which has had DS2 in tears as well at times. But we've been strict and told the kids to ignore and we just put the radio on for minty and ignore him. He now settles after 5 mins of crying so I imagine that'll disappear soon. I've been using the kikopup video on 'capturing calm' basically throwing a treat whenever you walk in the room and puppy is lying quietly. I think it's been helping a lot and minty now looks expectantly for his treat and stays on his pillow almost every time I come in the room. Makes it easier negotiating stair gate with glass of water or washing! Maybe try that?

We had a fabulous walk today. Thanks to you lot for encouraging the off-lead walking! We did two lots of off lead with me calling and shaking treat tub a lot and giving treats not back on lead when minty came back, which he did every time I called him. Mind you I must have overdone the treats which were liver bites from the vets, as he had several very runny poos on way home and the tub was empty . But I wasn't anxious, DH being there helped as he's very calm and we really enjoyed it.

Minty has zero interest in retrieve games but we discovered he loves hide and seek. DH held him while the kids ran off behind a bush, then said 'go find' to minty letting him free and he dashed off after them chasing them out of the bush! Very funny, kids loved it and we did it several times before needing to stop as minty had done so much running! As soon as he'd chased them out the bush he came bounding over to me (looking for treats probably) but it felt like he was wanting praise from me for finding the lost children, he was so pleased with himself!! He slept all afternoon with kids desperate to go again! Finally, I feel we've got something right.

Well done mint. Sounds like you had a good walk today.

Yes Digard these little dogs are very good at the deaf ears when there are distractions!

Picnic I think it is just trial and error with the car. My pup started on the back seat but barked so much I couldn't think straight. Transferred her to the boot and she is great in a crate there, so that where she sits .
Same here with eating. I did start feeding her at the same time when she was younger. Some days we are starving and I am sorting hers out and not ours ! As it maybe getting late and I don't want her eating too late . She does seem to be less interested in us eating now. I think because we never give food from our plates may be helping.

ok....ready for pics of cuteness to die for?

barney bear

he is so good! he has virtually housetrained himself. he is a poppet.

Vicar he's a lovely fluffball. Gorgeous!