New Puppy Mummies, Part 3

[DharmaLovesDraco]

New thread, because quite frankly I can't do without you all :)

I'm a raw food covert although I cheat and use the balanced minces from Natural Instincts. I've used it since mine was eight weeks old and it's been great. Bonus of very small and none smelly poos! I do also give some tinned sardines etc.

Hi, I am new to this thread as we have had our (now 13 weeks) Labrador puppy for a week. Overall we are having a lovely time with her (the usual chewing/nipping stuff notwithstanding) but I have a question about poo. She is in no way housetrained, is this normal at 13 weeks? She does go outside but more often than not inside. Also she does at least 3 poos overnight. I am going to try a better quality food to see if that helps but it is such a grim start to the day!
Am I expecting too much re: housetraining? I take her out regularly (after food/playing etc) but it happens so quickly and often 5 minutes after coming back in from the garden!

Hi Reikezin, I'm no expert but are you crate training? And if so, can you hear her if she squeaks (Meg, our puppy squeaks) to go out? Meg(border collie) was clean in her crate after the first night or two at about 10/11 weeks but I had to get up to let her out in the night at least once and often twice. It only took a few minutes and she went straight back to sleep again afterwards (I found out very quickly that you have to be very boring to your puppy in the middle of the night and save playing and fuss for daylight).
Moose will know more!

Hi Reikizen - I have a Labrador he's 7 months now. My breeder told me to move his water bowl and food out side. It took a few days but we started to turn a corner. Also food reward everytime your pup does a wee/poo outside and make sure that you're taking him out lots. He will come to associate outside with wee/poo the more times he does it. I would also make sure that you're using simple solution to clean up messes. Bleach masks the smell but doesn't remove it so they just go back to that spot each time. Wees in the house, take him straight outside even if he's in the middle of it. He will get the message! Also lots of poo can mean that you're over feeding. So I'd say that at 13 weeks you should be feeding 3-4 times a day.

I have another question....

Have de-flea'd the cats today. Have dog frontline but pup is only 1.1kg and you have to be 2kg. What can I do?

No idea pickled. Vets today so will ask

I cannot wait until he can be walked. It's 9 and I'm knackered already.
Nothing. I mean nothing is safe. He's just used my sewing box to climb onto the coffee table, then onto the sofa and onto the back and then onto the desk!

See previous thread entitled 'help please- 9 month puppy not toilet trained '. Someone called lilcamper posted an excellent toilet training post.

Use diluted biological washing powder to clean up whole floor now to get rid of odours.

TWTCJ Mine is six months old and snoozing on my feet now so it does get better. I found doing some training little and often helped when he was really small, if his brain was tired he'd sleep. I also enforced naps in his crate after meals as I found being overtired made him more hyper, bit like an over stimulated baby/toddler. Fortunately our house is reasonably quiet having only got teenagers.
Your's looks very like mine, all freckly and unbelievably cute!

Thewomantheycall - I'm exhausted too. Long days !

Reikizen, I would say that much poo, especially overnight isn't typical. What food are you feeding and how much? Also how are her meal spaced, particularly the last one of the day.

I'd look for a food that excludes grain, (rice, maize, wheat) to begin with and see how she goes with that.

As Sally said, you need to clean up after her preferably using a specialist biological cleaner such as Simple Solution or Pets at Home's own brand. You need to clean up any waste as thoroughly as possible, then literally douse the area in the cleaner and give it a few minutes to work before dabbing off the excess. If you use anything else, even if it smells fresh and clean to you, she will still be able to smell it and be inclined to go in the same places again.

If it's happening within minutes of coming in from the garden, it does seem she hasn't got the message that it's more rewarding to go outside. You could try taking her out on the lead, making it really boring and then massive praise and treats as soon as she finishes going.

... but definitely go and read Lilcamper's post on the thread Racerider mentioned - it's excellent and comprehensive.

PickledMoomin what worming treatment is your pup on. If it's Advocate you don't need an additional flea treatment, as it covers several types of worm and fleas. The only things it doesn't cover are ticks and tapeworm.

TWTCJ, sounds like you have a little livewire on your hands. Life will never be dull in your house now! NCIS's advice is spot on. Lots of short training sessions and enforced nap times are the way forward.

Just managed to upload another photo of my leggy little darling so you can see what you have coming to you TWTCJ

Oh, he looks like a little, long-legged badger cub! He's very handsome.

Yes, definitely enforce naps. Our puppy came in from our morning walk (he was carried, the springer needs walking) and was hyper at all the things he had taken in, jumping up at Harry and being a nuisance. Popped him in the crate and he was asleep in seconds.

Also, I am teaching a lot of self control commands, to help him bond well with Harry and for basic manners. Sit, 'leave it', wait etc. Clicker train for a few minutes lots of times a day, he gets it so quickly its freakish. Then make him sit before eating, ignore if he jumps up etc. Hector follows me round the kitchen offering behaviours that may get rewards

I used a cardboard box yesterday that had been a delivery of wine. Put a few small bits of liver at the bottom and taped up. The dogs were occupied for about half and hour, then zonked. Plastic bottles and kongs etc are good too.

No reason why you can't carry him about outside. I do this a lot, because I have another dog. The sights and smells and general new stuff will tire him. We walked past the school this morning at drop off, loads of noise and kids and cars etc.

First small chicken wing yesterday, took Hector about half and hour to eat it, but no way was he giving up, he loved it

Drontol. It came as part of a puppy package with the frontline. Vet friend told me you can use the frontline spray so I'm going to track some down.

Toilet training going quite well. If she has an accident, it's on the puppy pad/newspaper in her crate (and this is only ever a wee when we've been out/overnight). I'm worrying she'll associate the crate with a toilet later on.

I thought badger too adorable

Vets went well. He behaved himself. The vet said he was in lovely condition and was going to be a big intelligent boy. The receptionist had to have a cuddle.
We've just got an orka stick and they've had a mad ten minutes with a dog on each end. He's now crashed out in his crate
We do take him for potters about. He sometimes meets the children off the bus. He struggles to get down after about two minutes though. Vet says one week then he can go out properly. Yay. I'm going to take a ring sling with me and stick him in it when he's had his share so I can walk them both at once.

Call me Jayne btw. It's easier to type

Pickled in a rush here, but if crate is much larger than puppy block off part so it is just big enough to sleep comfily- that cured Meg of using a corner as a loo over night.

Jayne - he is so cute! What a poppet. Mine is too big to be cute now, he's just a big hairy mutt who covers us all in mud! I suggested tentatively that I might have him on short clip for rest of winter and DH and sons went mad, defending him from the clippers! Was very funny and I know how to wind them up now. I have to say both my sons are reluctant to have their hair cut and have long Harry styles type hair and I have long hair so we 'match' our dog! Anyone else have this!

Has anyone been to a 'Dogs Unleashed' event? Just seen one advertised for near us in the early summer so I think we'll go as there looks to be loads of fun dog agility, displays, swimming for them to have a go. Seems to be a national touring event.

Aw, Minty is really cute. Such a huge-great, hairy fluffball!

As for looking like your dogs. Lurcherboy is greying and a right scruffy mutt, so yes, in my case I do look like at least one of my dogs. I'd rather look like Pip though - supermodel thin with legs that go on forever!

Haven't been to a Dogs Unleashed myself, but know other people who really enjoy them.

Right, the rain has stopped, so I'm heading out with my two before it starts up again.

Hello, have had a stressful 24 hours with pufflepup. She had blood in diarrhoea yesterday and the vet kept her in with an iv drip as she was dehydrated. I'm waiting for a call to see if I can pick her up today and hopefully it was nothing serious. Typically the pet insurance didn't cover her first two weeks with us ( which ends tomorrow) so I am going to get a hefty bill. As long as pup is ok though it will be worth it. Will she have forgotten us do you think?

Thanks barbarian. Will give that a go. She looks tiny in crate!

Hope pufflepup is ok.

Both RooDog and I moult constantly and I'm sure Griff will too. Can't imagine having minty fur to cope with!

Our first dog looked like dh in reverse. Apparently RooDog is a bit like me, suspect Griff will be more similar to Dh

Fingers crossed for Pufflepup. Hoping it's nothing serious and she's able to come home today.

Not quite an hour for our walk this afternoon. I'm exhausted, everywhere is so wet, with inches of water standing on top of the grass, thick mud everywhere else and it started to sleet half-way round.

Ended up doing a training walk, rather than lots of off-lead time where they would get literally plastered in mud. (Couldn't face the clean-up today.) Lots of heelwork, both were much better today than yesterday and walked really nicely the whole time - thank goodness. Yesterday I took them on a new route and the pair of them decided to alternate having a go at pulling, which is out of character for both of them, but fortunately seems to have just been a blip. It was very windy, so perhaps that had something to do with it, though I suspect it was more that Pip's teenage attitude rubbed off on Lurcherboy and then there was a touch of showing off involved. [grin[

Also did a fair bit of 'leave' and 'watch me' training with Pip to try and counteract his obsession with birds. There were seagulls and crows all over the grass in the park, so we stuck to the path and kept cueing and rewarding him for turning away and/or watching me. I was really pleased with how well he did.

Both dogs are however seriously unimpressed. They are both staring at me with a disgusted look on their faces, clearly feeling they've been short-changed.

Thanks Moose! I do think so myself of course!, just get bit exacerbated with the mud, seems to be sand in the house most of the time but not sure where it comes from!

It's awful out there isn't it? Wet everywhere. I'm afraid I skipped the morning walk to school despite us all having waterproofs but I just wimped out! I will have to do it in reverse at 3pm so hopefully it'll be dry.

Puffle - on no awful. Really upsetting when they're ill.

I've just re-read your post Moose - you mean you did training on-lead for majority of walk rather than off-lead running about? That sounds perfect for us today! I just think I need a small break from the mud but of course feel guilty not giving the usual daily run in woods - but there would be no need to feel guilty if I do lots of training on an on-lead walk as it's then stimulating in a different way. Brilliant, thanks moose though I doubt minty would thank you as he's a bit 'meh' about doing any training these days!! Teenagers eh?

BTW - this teenage thing - minty has obviously started as he's beginning to cock his leg, sort of half mast at the moment and has started getting worse with recall, so two and two together, he must be into teenage stage. He also started approaching dogs in a down, stalking way when we are walking head on into them - he does it as soon as he sees a dog coming towards us and will go down slightly then walk slowly towards dog as if about to hunt and pounce on them. Is that a teenage thing too? It looked weird the first time and I called him away in a 'don't be silly' voice which of course he ignored! One woman looked a bit worried for her cockapoos though they were all playing within seconds.

I have the guilts about it too mint, but they both fell asleep not long after I posted, so it wore them out mentally, if not physically and there's only so much mud I can take outdoors - or in the house!

Pip is acting teenagery but hasn't cocked his leg. I'm told it can take up to 18 months in large Lurchers and may not happen at all if neutered before maturity, which we may not have any choice about if the rescue refuse to extend his neuter-by date next month.

Not sure on the stalking thing. Lurcherboy does it too and I have to say I'm not entirely comfortable with it, but he's a really friendly boy and as you said with Minty, always seems to end up playing nicely, so I don't think it can be a threat. Might do a bit of research on it though, because I'd like to know the answer myself. (Just had a thought, it could be related to the sheepherding part of their genetics, as that's how they approach sheep isn't it. Lurcherboy is 1/4 Border Collie.)

Almost everyone in the park looks worried for the dogs if mine approach, even on the lead. A man in the park asked me if Lurcherboy was an Irish Wolfhound yesterday - er ... he's about 10 inches too short for that!