Does anyone fancy a 'puppy survival' thread?

[SkeletonSkins]

Just wondering whether anyone else has got a puppy recently and in the same boat as us? Interested to hear how how others are getting on.

We've had our 8 week old puppy for a few days now and things are okay... he's a complete cross of lots of different breeds so enjoying trying to work out what in him!

House training seems to go great and then at night he just sits there in the middle of the grass not wanting to even walk around! Never mind wee!

Our older dog isn't particularly impressed but has been good with him so far. Just looking forward to him sleeping through the night without needing a wee. Completely forgot how having a puppy completely takes over your life for a little while!

Lion our puppy is 3 months now, his little legs seem to be growing all the time!

Really getting there with house training and think in another week or so he'll have cracked it. He definitely knows he's supposed to go outside and runs to the back door. Only very very occasionally will he have an accident indoors and it tends to be when he's held it for a while, been for a big wee and then doesn't quite finish so ends up needing it again a few minutes later! One thing he hasn't quite worked out is that you can wee on a walk so he comes home from walks desperate for the toilet bless him!

Trying to walk him in places with people/dogs/new things and he's growing in confidence which is good.

The main problem at the minute is he is very determined to start his day at 6.30 which is fine on work days but slightly more painful when I'm off work!

SkeletonSkins do you have a word for pee or poo that you say to your puppy. I found that he would eventually go on that command and thus I could say it to him when out for a walk and as soon as he went he got lots of praise again. After that he seemed to understand he could then toilet on walks :)

Skeleton, Tilly hasn't worked out to pee on walks yet, either, though she's only been going out for the past four days Biteyshark, I've just started using a word when she pees, peepees which I hope she'll start responding to.

Yeah I always say 'hurry up' to the older dog so hopefully the pup will get the hang on that too! At least there's some nice weather to be stood around in the garden in now!

While we're still having accidents inside, I can tentatively say that Tilly seems to have learned to pee on command. She knows "outside" and runs to the door to go out.

That's good to hear Owlish! I feel like we make great progress and just as I think he's cracked it we have a series of accidents. Definitely not one of those who manages to house train in a week, that's for sure!!

Pup has settled into the routine of staying at home while I work much better than I expected. He's on his own for about 3 hours, with our other dog, and so far has chewed a bit of the sofa but other than that he hasn't cried etc which is great, as when we first got him he cried if you walked away from him!!

He still needs to gain some confidence meeting people out and about - he runs away sometimes haha! Going to walk up and down the high street a few times this weekend and perhaps make a visit to Starbucks as have just found out they welcome dogs.

That said, the 6.30am starts every day are killing me!

Tilly's the opposite with people, goes bonkers when she sees someone, anyone, and pulls to get to them and tries to follow them. It doesn't help that she's so tiny and cute and people want to stop and pet her. We had a walk in nearby fields today, she was off lead and was very well behaved.

Owlish I feel your pain. I have two 30kg Goldens who, if they decide they want to go play (which is all the time), pull like a train!! They forget how big they are and steam roller other dogs and small children!!

I love reading all your updates. Hope everyone's pups are doing well. We are picking ours up today! I keep switching between mega excited to 'what am i letting myself in for?'

Do you mind me asking what you use for treats? So far I've brought some sprats (yuck!) And dried chicken hearts which I'll break up into smaller pieces.

Ive done so much research but I'm panicking I'm going to get it all wrong!

We couldn't live without cooked cocktail sausages! Constantly have a pack going in the fridge as they're so easy to break up and not gross to touch!

Horrible day here so won't be getting out and about much. Also puts the puppy off going outside to wee which isn't ideal!

I love cocktail sausages so normally always ahve some in the fridge, so that really helpful, thank you!

So puppy is home! We didn't get back until about 8pm. He had a little sniff around, wee on the floor, I fed him, then he took himself off to his crate and has been asleep ever since. So far so good! I can't stop looking at him he's so beautiful.

It's not very nice here either. I was really hoping we would ahve a few nice days to get house training started. Schnauzers don't like being wet apparently.

Did anyone else get really emotional when taking their puppy away from the breeders? I felt so guilty! I was really holding back tears.

Aw I've had my first proud puppy moment!

Just decided to go up to bed and heard puppy whining so let him into the garden. He had a quick sniff, did a wee and came back in!

Good Lion puppy

I'm still at the emailing the breeder stage but hopefully will be able to visit the litter soon.

I've heard that Whippeys can be little terrors as puppies. Is there ant Whippet specific advice I need or just treat it like any other puppy? I'll be working on recall as soon as possible as I really want to be able to let my Whippet off the lead at times, especially as I live bearish to dog friendly beaches

Nearish, not bearish

Awwwww Lion what a good start! Hope you had a good night and it's not too rainy today.

No advice specific to whippets but definitely let them off as soon as you can when they're little, as they don't go very far from you and it develops good habits for recall.

How exciting blue! Just to warn you, the next few weeks will draggg

Lion pup is having a good first day so far. It's not even 1pm and he's on his third nap of the day. He slept all night and woke up at 5.30am I hardly got any sleep though as I was worried about him all night. We've had 50% of wees outside so far.

What's your pup been up to today skins?

Skeleton, it's obviously not always the case that they don't go too far away. The little white dot in the photo is Tilly She's actually very good off-lead, much better behaved than when on it on the path.

Hahahahahaha I take it all back!! At least she's having a fab time!

How are all the puppys today? Its sooo windy here and lion pup really doesn't like the wind which is making it very hard to get him to stay in the garden for more than 20 seconds. I don't want to keep him out when he scared but at the same time, I want to get on with house training. I'm only 2 days in and I already feel like I'm failing!

LionSock you will worry about everything and anything I am sure over the next few weeks as I think most of us did but you are not failing. Think of it as a marathon not a sprint and if your puppy doesn't like the weather a few days in the long term it won't matter :)

Thanks shark. i know it won't really hurt in the long term, I just don't want to get it wrong. My youngest DC has been ill since we picked up the puppy so haven't been able to take him out and about yet so that's another thing I'm worrying about! Although I suppose at least he will be getting used to the house.

So much information out there suggests if you don't do x then you are going to end up with an unhappy badly behaved dog so is it any wonder we worry and panic about doing the right thing. Don't worry about failing as you will have good and bad days but you will get there in the end and as this thread shows everyone finds their own way of doing things and some things come easier than others depending on your dog.

Lion when we got out pup it was that storm, and he absolutely wasn't up for going outside! I honestly thought we wouldn't get there as if it was cold, dark, raining, windy or even just had been raining recently he awouldn't go outside!! Now though he's really good and he's got a lot more confident. Don't worry about it!

As for getting out and about, we didn't get out much in the early days and to be honest everything was very overwhelming for our boy so a trip outside for ten mins would wipe him out for the day!! It depends what sort of place you live in but I found it helpful even just to stand outside/in the front garden as my pup found traffic very scary to start off with.

I'm just home at lunch time to let puppy out and have a play. I know many people would say it's unfair to leave him while we're at work (3 hours, lunch break for an hour, 3 hours) but to be honest we've found he has settled into the routine perfectly. My OH takes him out in the morning before work (both dogs), I come home at lunch for a play and another walk and then when I'm home from work at 3.30 we have another walk or go somewhere for socialisation. He seems to sleep the rest of the time with our older dog. I think if you can come home at lunch time it makes a big difference.

Puppy training for us tonight!!

He's a complete mix as was a rescue pup - I can definitely see staffie in there though! His head appears to be going brown rather than black which could be interesting!