New Puppy Mummies, Part 3

[DharmaLovesDraco]

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

Any news puffle?

Pup didn't finish her lunch and isn't very interested in dinner either. Feeding her 30g x 3 per day. She usually finishes a portion but maybe I'm over feeding her?

What food is she on Pickled? Some foods go on predicted adult weight and others by current puppy weight.

Weinrights. They go on predicted adult weight and then give a guide for the range of weeks. 80g is the lowest daily amount and I'm offering 90g

Stalking seems to be very much a BC trait, my old one used to do it. Finn just squirms up to other dogs, wiggling and trying to look ingratiating, he then rolls over on his back, generally in a patch of mud. Seems to make him acceptable to grown up dogs, we've not yet had a bad experience touch wood.

Yes! It's the herding thing, of course. Minty looks just like a BC in front of sheep. How funny, I had never imagined that. I was worried it was threatening which would be so at odds with minty as he is a big soppy thing and always wants to play. But I thought he might just be getting the body language wrong as human teenagers sometimes do when they're trying new ways of behaving.

Lurcherboy must be herding too! I am going to enjoy watching that next time. NCIS - does Finn take it anywhere or does it just disappear when he then greets another dog? Do either show other herding behaviours? Like if there are four of us humans on a walk with him, minty can't tolerate any deviations from the group and will bark at the stray person - usually our 8 yr old gone off to collect leaves - but he gets herded back pretty quickly!!

Sorry NCIS - you said it was your previous BC not Finn! My memory is dreadful right now, think it's my hormones on the move!

How do you occupy a BC without sheep?! Is Finn really full on between walks or does he sleep happily after a walk?

My mum's collie herds the children all the time. She also circles around you when you're alone walking here.

I've never seen her tire, even after walking for hours.

Finn is really chilled at home so long as you don't show him a ball! He's happy to potter around and sleep on my feet on my lap . So far he is a truly brilliant dog, when I take him to pick up dog food they always say how calm he is particularly for a Border Collie. Even the vet nurse said what a calm dog he was when I took him to have his nails clipped. He takes himself off to his crate now when he's really tired and the teens aren't going to bed early enough for him. Old before his time

My aunt had a collie x lab when I was growing up and it's mum was a working collie. She's used to round us up if we left the room. Our collie x lab never did it but Griff is definitely showing the bc traits. Walks in front of me, does the collie crouch whilst pointedly looking at my feet.

Morning pufflepup is home and well. She has antibiotics but it seems to be a precaution. The vet think she must of eaten something that upset her rather than picked up an infection. She was in isolation for 24 hours so is now a bit wild and won't leave my side, I even have to take her on the school run, although she did sleep in her crate overnight. Her toiletting seems to have suffered too, she pood on my gym bag this morning and I didn't notice as am full of a cold! A lazy day for both of us I hope.

Thanks for all your positive wishes.

Oh I'm so pleased she's ok Puffle. Definitely a rest day for for the pair of you I think.

Hope you feel better soon.

Glad it's nothing serious Puffle ,mine had a similar problem when he was about 3 months old. I gave him some watered down live goats milk yoghurt with a little honey in it on the advice of my trainer. It's supposed to help their tummies after the antibiotics, not sure if it did but it didn't do any harm.

Just had v strange walk - pouring with rain so I thought we'd have a quick walk down to the woods - as we were walking down the road some workmen were banging and Fitz was terrified - he started shaking at every noise, car going past etc and then a passing patterdale growled at him :(

He was ok once we got to the woods but scared again on the way home - he's never been scared of noises before (was fine with fireworks etc) - he was so scared he wasn't interested in treats

Any ideas what might be going on inside his head?? He's 6 months and extensively socialised

Probably/possibly a fear period basildon. He'll be fine, just give him an easy couple of weeks, nothing too new or stressful, keeping to his routine and usual walks and he'll come through it.

They tend to happen anytime from 5/6-14 months, although can be later and can last up to three weeks. All normal puppy development. Just be very confident and matter of face, lots of happy sounding tone of voice, reward him when he's confident and his he's fearful or barks at things, give him the space he needs to get over it (eg allowing him to sit and watch from a distance and rewarding him for being calm and non-fearful while he's doing it.)

Some good advice on handling it here

Thanks moose, that's v helpful

It just took me by surprise as so far he's taken everything in his stride, usually with a big grin ..,

I am fed up with him attaching himself to the bottom of my trousers

Me too, Jayne!

The distracting with a toy doesn't seem to be working as well. I tried ignoring her yesterday but she hung on to my trousers and stepped on her. Yelp!

I've tried a few days of high pitch yelping. No difference.
A few days of detaching him and saying no sternly. No difference
Last few days I've been 'making like a tree' which kind of works in that he detaches himself but as soon as I take another step he reattached himself.
This morning I tripped me over while still attached and ripped a hole in my jeans.
I tried spraying the bottoms with the bitter apples but it doesn't seem to work.
The only thing that seems to work is if he does it while I'm washing my hands I flick my hands at him. Would using a small misting bottle be cruel?

*he reattached

How about asking for a sit? Seems to be working for Hector but my caveat is that he isn't a biter at all, so might be too low key.

I can't see that it would be Jayne. Do you give a positive command immediately afterwards? I found giving the command 'off' followed by 'sit' and then a treat seemed to work even though mine didn't do a lot of nipping after we had another BC to stay who instilled manners in the little upstart.
I found it worked when teaching mine to stop barking, I would say 'quiet' and then 'sit' followed by a treat. It worked so well I have to be careful what I say, if quiet comes up in a conversation I suddenly find a black and white blur as he rushes to sit at my feet and look up expectantly.

Jayne, if he is detaching when you're being a tree, then you need to quickly get a treat to him and reinforce it. Then cue an alternative behaviour, like sit and reward that.

(Try to make sure you always have treats about your person - even if it's just some of his kibble - so you can capture and reward the behaviours you want to reinforce. It's much easier to capture and reinforce a behaviour that they've done naturally than it is to try and teach it from scratch. Either a clicker or marker word such as 'good' or 'yes' said in a particular way will work.)

... just read needa and NCIS's advice after typing that ... what they said!

I have chicken in my pocket at all times*

I think he's too clever because when I get him to detach and sit and then give him a reward he then reattaches as soon as I move again. I think he's learned he can then do it all again and get yet another treat.

It's like trying to deal with ds1. I need to find a way of being mentally at least five steps ahead of him

*its currently in a sandwich bag. Does anyone have one of those treat bag things?

Just started our fourth thread over here