New Puppy Mummies, Part 3

[DharmaLovesDraco]

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

Meant to say as well - my puppy info from breeder includes advice to move to 2 meals a day at 24 weeks.

Hi all, nothing much to report here - he's teething so biting has increased a bit, and also believes he's allowed on the sofa (he really isn't!) off lead walking is going well, his recall training is in progress but very early stages.
We met up with a lovely collie x from puppy classes and he absolutely exhausted O, was quite amusing.

I'm the same as you Mint, when things are mad I just remember the other side too, and he really is lovely.

Picnic, that sounds promising, did you get an accredited behaviourist in to see him?

We are progressing slowly, very little biting now but lots of barking which is a bit exhausting. Thank goodness we live in a detached house on a busy road so will not disturb the neighbours.

All fairly quiet on the puppy front here too :), although Fitz is having a minor op today to flush out his tear duct so he's been nil by mouth and is Not Impressed by the lack of breakfast ...

Very little biting any more but teething has started and he chewed a hole in the sofa cushion when I thought he was asleep .. He loves going for walks and has got a couple of puppy friends he meets quite frequently. He's very sociable with people and most dogs although is still a bit nervous of big, barky dogs (sits down and observes from a distance but is not keen if they come close). His training is coming on - we're working on sit/down and stay plus recall - recall mostly good but goes out of the window when there's a puppy to play with ...

All in all he is a delight and has brought a lot of joy into the house (going through a rough patch with my parents' health so joy has been in short supply for the last few months)

My sisters two dogs go home today and I think training will be easier without them here although they are lovely and I credit them with teaching him not to nip and his lovely doggy manners when he is approached by other dogs.
Having one very tolerant dog and one who is less than impressed by a naughty puppy(well she is 14.5) has been brilliant for him.

NCIS your BC and my Meg are ridiculously alike in markings! Would you mind telling me how big he is? Meg, 21 weeks is 10kg which seems very small to me. She was smallest in litter but I am wondering if she will ever catch up.

Recall good, but lots of jumping and bouncing that turns nippy quite easily. Housetraining okayish, except she needs to know a way to ask to go out. Never had this problem before- any tips on how to teach her? Tried bell on door but she was much too pleased and rang in continually.

Will let you know when I've weighed him,he's four months old and was 6kg but is growing like a weed. Mum was quite small but Dad was huge so I expect he'll be somewhere in the middle. Vet said he was a healthy weight as I was concerned he was too small although not the smallest in his litter.
He's also on raw food which I understand makes them grow slower although I may be imagining that.
Housetraining is a bit like yours, good if I spot him going to the door but he doesn't ask.
We are having problems with recall, excellent in the house but if something spooks him outside he wants to go back to the car. Any ideas? We give him high value treats but all this seems to slip his mind when scared. He's not scared of much but it can be random things so difficult to plan for. Would like him to see us as his refuge not the car.
Apologies for huge post

Fitz is 19 weeks today and weighs 11kg and will be medium collie size when fully grown so I don't think 10kg is that small...

Reprieve at the vets! We saw the head vet who's much more conservative so didn't want to put him under today - he's given us another course of antibiotics and we need to massage the year duct - if that doesn't work he'll refer Fitz to an ophthalmic specialist

Is there anywhere you can take him to practice recall within walking distance? That's how Meg learned to run back to us, not car. Or perhaps even with car well out of sight would work. Meg will do almost anything for a squirt of Primula cheese which is only available from us, and I keep it as top value recall treat- lesser things for everything else. Am teaching "outside' and 'in' at the moment so Meg hops backwards and forwards over the doorstep. Hope to progress to 'outside' with the door shut and then maybe she will woof to get it opened and then hopefully, hopefully housetraining will move one step forward.

He can't see the car but can find it! We do have somewhere I can go where we drive up a track so at least he's no where near the main roads. He has beef jerky as his really good treat but will try primula.
I'm hoping it'll get easier when my extra dogs (lovely though they are) have gone home as he is easily distracted by constantly available playmates.

NCISaddict, I bought that 'Instant Recall' book, & am trying to follow it, but are in the early stages. I will have a look in it and see if it says anything about your issue.

Dharma, yes we at last have a proper accredited behaviourist now:) Such a relief to have the support of her more than anything & its all positive stuff reward based, so I feel happy its all things I can do, but she did say it wont change overnight so not to expect instant results.

Mint, thanks:) I will definitely try to remember the good bits like bounding over to mum. It is hard though isn't it?
I think you asked about where his problems stemmed from, well they were evident from day 1 as we were discussing it with the breeder during the first week he was home. They weren't particularly helpful because I think they just didn't understand why it was happening. For me, it is very clear (and has been clarified by the behaviourist) because his problem area is so specific - fear of people without dogs (no problem when dogs are around). We picked him up later at 13 weeks, he was one of two litters, plus the breeders have about 10 dogs of their own & dogs boarding with them! Basically he just spent way too much time with dogs and not enough with people I think. He was also very bonded with his sister & followed her around, slept with her etc and I think he just fell apart when she was homed several days before him as he was a wreck when we went to pick him up.
I think he is naturally (genetic) fearful/timid too, as his mum though lovely etc is very placid/calm.

I can see my relationship with him getting stronger everyday though and whereas before he just didn't seem to care, eg not a people pleaser, I see that is changing. At training they say he is extremely intelligent too, combine that with sensitive and fearful and its complicated. I do believe he has been picking up on my stress & now I am beginning to feel relaxed as I have the right person working with us on the problem, I can see that he is also starting to relax. Hope that makes sense!

Basildon, our recall seems to go out the window when there's another puppy to play with too!

Apologies for my absence, I have a lot on at the moment, but wanted to pop in and say I am really pleased things are looking up picnic. You sound so much happier and more positive. He is a very lucky boy to have you.

Pip had an injury last Friday. Somehow managed to puncture his foot, on the top - just below the ankle, whilst having a mad puppy zoomie session in the garden. Blood everywhere and fountaining out of his foot every time he put it to the floor - very scary. Fortunately, it was deep but not too damaging, so a few days of rest and he's pretty much back to normal now.

They weighed him at the vets for his antibiotics and he's just shy of 18kg now! He's also 23" to the shoulder and has big lurchery thigh muscles - where did my frail, skinny puppy go?

He passed his puppy course last week and got his certificate and rosette. We start the next course up tomorrow. A lot of it is outdoor training though, which isn't great in this weather.

Thank you moose:) Nice to hear from you. You all keep me going on here, I just couldn't do without this thread.

Poor Pip! How scary for you too. Crikey he is getting big! Legend is too.....I really noticed it today when he was playing in the park with a puppy friend and bashed right into the back of my legs!

Congrats on Pip passing his puppy course! We have one more week of our beginner group. I really want to carry on classes, even though I don't enjoy them much, I do think we need them! Outdoor training sounds like a fab idea, cold but really useful.

We finish our puppy course this week but I don't think theres a test, at least I hope not! The trainer says she's going to do some ad hoc fun things over the Christmas break as the next level course doesn't start until January. Looking forward to those, off to get some primula for heel work and recall.

Picnic, Pip has 'lurchered' both my boys. (Lurchering is when they fly into you at full speed and literally knock you into the air.) Ds1 flew up in the air and forwards, landing on his face in the mud and dislocating his shoulder (they're hypermobile so easy to pop out). Ds2 was running away from him and he kind of knocked him sideways, up then over backwards all at the same time 'twas most spectacular. Ds1 - ever the drama queen then lay on the floor screaming "Don't move me! Don't move me! It hurts! It REALLY hurts! ... My back! OW! OW! My back!" scaring the life out of me, until I mentioned going straight to A&E and he promptly got up saying he didn't want to miss computer time.

We did have a test at our puppy class. Trainer called out each exercise in turn then went round the class to observe each of us doing them. The stay was only 10 seconds long, but it felt much longer!

I don't enjoy my classes either, in fact I hate going and moan all evening the night before and all morning before I have to go, but like you, I know Pip needs it and I'll regret it if we don't go and he doesn't get past his fear of other dogs.

I agree about outdoor training. It will be good to do some recalls and heelwork out and about around other dogs he's comfortable with - think I need a new warm short jacket though. Realised today that I can't clip on my treat pouch when I'm wearing my big winter coat.

NCIS, I bought some primula with ham and Pip loves the stuff. The other thing he can't get enough of for high value training treats is chorizo. I bought a little tub of ready cubed stuff from Tesco when it was on special and he will do anything for it.

I've got the beef jerky stuff from natural instincts which he loves but i thought the tube of primula would be easy to hold for heel work.

Finn is an endless source of amusement to us atm, today he was having a mad five minutes with my sisters younger border collie and raced into the sitting room to dive underneath a chair not realising that the 14.5 year old dog was snoozing in front of the fire, the expression on his face was priceless and the all four feet off the floor leap he did to avoid treading on her had us in stitches. She is very patient for her age but does not take kindly to being stepped on by puppies who should know better.

It's moment like that, when they make you laugh, that you remember why you wanted a puppy in the first place.

Pip has just had ds2 in stitches, as he swore he heard him say "Ho Ho Ho", when he was having one of his Saluki-style chatty moments.

I almost feel a bit of a fraud posting on here now - Stanley (cocker spaniel) is now 22 weeks and it feels as if he's been here forever - I certainly don't feel like a new puppy mummy any more!

I take my hat off to those of you still having problems with your puppies, you must have so much patience and love for your dogs. I've had it so easy!

We started raw feeding him this week, we're using Natural Instinct minces to start with as they're so convenient. So far so good, he crunched happily through a chicken drumstick last night for his tea. Not sure I'll ever get used to the smell of raw green tripe though

The one thing I've really been struggling with is his pulling on the lead. He weighs 9kg but seems unbelievably strong and was hurting my shoulder every time I walked him. I wanted to avoid using a control collar, but enough was enough, and I invested in a gencon head collar. It's like walking a different dog! I'm still going to concentrate on teaching him loose lead walking, but this means I don't dread walking him any more.

We have problems walking on the lead, I've found stopping to treat him not'instant' enough so have invested in primula today so we'll see how that goes. He's asleep on my feet at the moment, little darling

We have had a nippy day today. She gets super excited and has started mouthing me around the arm and nipping DC feet.

I'm going to ask at puppy training on Saturday but does anyone have any tips for the next few days? A 6 month old Rottie nip needs nipping in the bud!

Have you tried the really high pitched yelping when she even goes to nip. We found that Finn stopped nipping me and DD because we did this every time his teeth touched us. DH was much less consistent so biting took longer to stop.
The best way for us though was three weeks of two well socialised visiting dogs, no biting at all now.

Hi all, really lovely to hear your news Picnic. Sounds really massive progress - I think you'll end up with a super dog in the end, and you'll look back at this phase and wonder how you managed to get through it. But you are doing so well.

Never heard of the word 'lurchered' before Moose, but fantastic way of describing it! I was lurchered by my friends lurcher/wolfhound cross - knocked me to the ground smack on my bottom. Very sore!

Minty is doing fab - so much calmer at 20 weeks and I just adore his fluffiness and silliness! Less nipping though we all have holes in favourite clothes.

Red - the only thing that worked for us with biting our slippers, knees whatever has been bitter apple spray from pet shop. You have to spray liberally but they hate it so it works if you use enough frequently. Minty barks when I get the bottle out as he knows that's the end of him chewing!

Pulling on lead - we have this really badly, been training loose lead walking at home and in class and our trainer finally said we needed to use a gentle leader - thing like a halti with strap over muzzle. I got it fitted by the local pet shop owner, minty hated it for about a week of daily 10 min walks, now he is fine and NO PULLING! What a transformation. He is at least 14k so I really was starting to struggle but he's lovely walking close to me with this on.

Can anyone share their routines with me for their puppy's to avoid the 5.30 wake up call please? Or am I expecting too much. Puppy is sleeping 11pm - 5.30 then up for a poo. She's 16 weeks old.

I don't think you're expecting too much - Fitz is 19 weeks and has been sleeping through from 9pm to 7pm for several weeks now

When are you giving your pup the last feed in the evening? Maybe if you bring it back a bit earlier shed have her final poo before going to sleep

She's fed at 8 12.30 and 5.30 but doesn't poo before bed time. We do take her out before we go to bed but she only wees . Might bring it forward a bit and see what happens.