Does anyone fancy a "puppy survival" thread part 2

[Soubriquet]

Here we are again

Just jump in and join us

[BiteyShark]

totally hope your first night was good.

Skeleton did you decide when to get your dog neutered? I was thinking of around 1 year but not sure whether to do it earlier. I am trying to weigh up protecting his bones versus his wanderlust behaviour (I know he still needs training but was thinking it might help). I am going to have a chat with my vet about it as they are very good as in will discuss rather than push but wondered what you had decided. He will soon be 8 months old so it will be this year no matter what.

[Soubriquet]

Awww he's beautiful totally

With females I like them to have at least one season if they are a small breed one be at least 2 years old for large breeds before I neuter

Males, I tend to do around 8-12 months really

[BiteyShark]

Thanks Soubriquet. He won't be able to go to daycare during his recovery period which I think is 2 weeks so having to pre plan this carefully with work as well as avoiding doing it just before holidays in case of complications.

Hoping to chat to the vet today about what they think is the right time for him.

[Soubriquet]

Yeah it's personal preference and vets opinions with males

Females are a bit different. I like letting them mature first as it does affect their behaviour

[towelpintpeanuts]

Oh vikjul: I've just read your post and it sounds like we are having exactly the same issues with our pups at the same time: SO reassuring!! Coming back later to catch up on you and some of the other questions :-) and stories!

[totallyliterally]

Night went much better than I had hoped!

She fell asleep at 9:30pm on a mat and I put her in crate and she wasn't having any of it. But I tried again and just left her and she was fine after a minute or two and slept will midnight.

Cried and I went in and it was raining so hard I just got a puppy pad as didn't have time to get coat and shoes on.

She did a wee and I put her back and she cried for a minute then was fine. Ten mins later cried again and I went in and got her out and did a poo on a puppy pad (bloody rain!!)

And then I put her back in crate. She cried for maybe 2 minutes (felt like forever!!) and then slept until 6am!

I could hear her moving about so went in and took her straight out and she did a wee.

Then came back in for some breakfast and we went out and she did 2 poos.

So calling it all a victory.

She was delighted to see me at 6am, and played for nearly 2 hours and has been sleeping now for an hour in her bed (not crate )

[bluetongue]

Sounds like your puppy is doing great totally. Hopefully she keeps it up

Bluepuppy was 'that puppy' at puppy pre school last night. We sat around for about 50 minutes listening to the trainer talking first. All the time bluepuppy was getting more and more bouncy and hard to hold. Then, we were finally able to let them off lead to play he lept around, found the biggest puppy apart from him and tried to get the puppy to play with him. The other puppy really didn't want to play with bluepuppy and I had to separate them. I let my puppy off lead again and the same thing happened.

Everyone was fine but it's now pretty obvious that Bluepuppy's play style doesn't suit the others at puppy pre school. I won't be letting him off the lead there at the last session next week.

On a more positive note, he went to doggy day care for a whole day for the first time today and apparently his interactions with other dogs there are fine.

[totallyliterally]

Busy day today...

Well busy as in looking after puppy all day alone!

No accidents so far, just taking her out lots and she actually poo'd at the same time as yesterday.

She doesn't like me leaving the room though. Full on dramatic crying! Stayed in other room and talked to her. Will get better I guess.

[CornflakeHomunculus]

I'd always try and weight until any dog, male or female, is fully mature before neutering them unless there are specific issues before then which neutering would definitely resolve.

All my whippets were castrated at around 12-14 months which was a bit early for my liking but DDog2 (despite being spayed and there apparently being no medical reason for it) is permanently ridiculously attractive to entire males. By the time each of the whippets hit about a year old they were paying her far too much attention and it was the lesser of two evils to have them castrated a bit early.

Everyone was fine but it's now pretty obvious that Bluepuppy's play style doesn't suit the others at puppy pre school. I won't be letting him off the lead there at the last session next week.

That sounds like a good idea. It's exactly this reason why it's a terrible idea to let the puppies have a free for all at their classes. Whippets can be surprisingly thuggish when they want to play, even as adults mine aren't allowed to play off lead with strange dogs because of the potential for the strange dogs to understandably take exception to them being sods.

[BiteyShark]

Had a good chat to the vets about neutering pros and cons. Currently thinking I might do it between 9-10 months of age. No urgency to book anything at the moment but I do need to plan for a 2 week recovery period of no daycare and me at home sometime this year.

[Soubriquet]

Had to leave Lexa at home on her own for 2 hours today.

My dh had been knocked off his bike by a car. He's ok but I had to go and fetch him.

When I got home, I was a bit worried thinking she might be crying or had a wee somewhere......nope. She was fast asleep in the corner and went for a wee outside as soon as I let her out.

Very proud of her

[SkeletonSkins]

Oh gosh soubriquet I really hope your show okay, what a terrible shock! But well done puppy for being such a star.

Welcome to new puppies! vikjul to be honest, my puppy went through so many stages at that age. He was shy and frightened one second and barking at everyone the next, then over friendly! Keep socialising, keep rewarding him for sitting calmly and try not to worry - behaviour at this age fluctuates so much.

bluepuppy sounds like not letting pup off might be a good plan. I was told to avoid behaviour I wouldn't want in an adult dog and to me that includes running over to other dogs for mad play! I prefer walks with adult dogs who tell pup when they're being OTT.

Bitey no he's still entire and the humping has subsided. Someone told me to do it the moment he first cocks his leg but we too will need a bit of forward planning and I'm looking at either end of summer hols (making him 8 months) or Christmas hols making him a year old. He's a small dog so is fully grown at a fairly early age.

I'm off to look at the tracker thread - I agree that I love that this thread is supportive.

[BiteyShark]

Skeleton does your dog cock his leg yet? Mine still squats like a female and shows no sign of bothering. I know some dogs don't so not sure whether that is a sign of him not being mature or just that he is lazy

Soubriquet so glad DH is ok. Bet it has shaken you both up . Good on DPup being good though.

blue to keep such young puppies sat about for that length of time no wonder yours was bouncy when they finally could play. Mine finds it hard work to keep himself under control in group training and he is much older.

[aliasjoey]

Hello, puppy people! soubriquet I hope your DH is okay?

I had to come on and post because we were doing so well and then it all went wrong... pup has mostly got the hang of housetraining, and he'd just been out in the garden.

DH was lying on the bed having some quiet time (we have had a rough couple of days and both knackered) DD and I, and First Dog, decided to join him and have some family cuddles. I felt sorry for pup being left out, thought it would be safe to let on the bed for a few minutes... wrong. He may have got hyped up about being allowed on the bed with everyone, he still widdles when he's excited.

AND he managed to trip up a small child at the park (they were both running and not watching where they were going) and I was worried her parents were going to harangue me about him not being on a lead. Luckily they didn't, instead blaming their own kid for being so clumsy lol

[towelpintpeanuts]

vikjul: just wanted to get back to you on my mini: he is also being very barky on lead: barking at people and dogs, and at the mo our barking is escalating: I think because I am stressing when he does it and he's reading my body language! He started barking pretty much straight away when he started walking on lead: but has good days and less good days (today was mostly a good day!); sometimes we can manage it and get him to stop - others it's challenging! He's definitely better if his paws are on grass and he has space around him, and worse on pavements and busy places where people 'pop out' at him.

We had a really interesting experience in the week: pup had a playdate with a lovely old lab, who he was having a ball with outside a cafe: they were running around together and he was running up to people coming into the cafe to say hello, and said hello to a dog that came past off lead too, trying to go into the cafe to explore. Then the cafe manager came up and got us to put the dogs on lead (fair enough: they'd had lots of problems with people not clearing up dog poo ;-( And immediately, he totally shifted: barked madly at anyone who came past like a total loon. Leads are a pain! Shame we live in deepest suburbia where you can't get anywhere without a lead walk first!

I have decided to pull in a puppy trainer for a one to one, which we are doing on Monday (she used to be in charge of socialising hearing dogs) - but I had a long chat today, and one of the things she said is that getting a mini schnauzer not to bark at all is a big challenge! And it made me think that one of things is that I need to work on accepting that I have a dog that will bark sometimes: I just need to be able to stop him reliably! I grew up with a dog breed that doesn't bark: so that's a mental shift for me! I'll fill you in on the advice we get on Monday so you can make the most of it too :-)

I'm also hoping to go to a dog play training session on Sunday which looks like fun :-)

[towelpintpeanuts]

Aghh, soubriquet: had totally missed your post somehow. How is your dh doing? What a scary moment, and what a star pup was!

[bluetongue]

Lexa sounds like she's doing great Soubiquet. Good thing your DH is okay as well.

Cornflake thuggish is a perfect term. It's funny because whippets look so refined and elegant but it's all a front really I think if he was actually aggressive there would be issues at daycare. As a first time dog owner I have so much to learn about training and behaviour.

[SkeletonSkins]

bitey no still very much girly wees and no sign of that changing yet so we wait and see.

Oh god, what an evening. Invited friends round to watch a film and pup just couldn't handle it. They brought their dog round who is very friendly but puppy just went hyper and his behaviour was awful - I was so embarrassed. I don't know how many times I said 'he's not normally like this, he does settle!!'. He was exactly like an over tired toddler, you know when they go hyper? He we crazy and it was so embarrassing. Eventually I gave him a chew and he settled with that for a while and wasn't as bad but my god, no more visitors for a long time!!!! Please reassure me that I don't have the most delinquent pup in the land! As soon as they left he's ran to bed and crashed.

[totallyliterally]

From the old thread I was aware of the over tired puppy issue!

And it's day 3 now and it is clearly very much a thing for us.

Not sure a great night, although I wasn't dealing with it as my OH was home after working away all week. She was up every hour / couplenof hours for a wee / poo.

I got up at 5am with her and she is now super hyper and needs a nap!

Also has an upset tummy. Bit of blood in her poo today. Breeder had said expect upset stomach and maybe even blood so will keep an eye. She is eating and drinking normally.

[BiteyShark]

Mine is definitely a delinquent when we are outside. We went to a pub a few weeks ago for a drink outside but he would not calm down or sit still so it was a very quick drink. I need to work on that more as it would be nice to have a pub lunch with him in tow at some point.

Skeleton I think it is just as you say, over excited toddler especially as he crashed straight afterwards.

[BiteyShark]

totally are you using a crate? When ours was overtired putting him in the crate forced him to calm down and he would fall asleep.

Watch the poo situation and don't be afraid to phone vets as they don't like taking chances with young pups. Ours had lots of diarrhoea with blood and we ended up at emergency vets a few times for injections/worming/rehydration medication.

[totallyliterally]

Cheers bitey - she was quite loose yesterday afternoon but fine overnight. Then that this morning so will see how she is later.

Yes we are using a crate at night.

But I think I have confused her as we had a bed on floor in kitchen too. So she was choosing that during the day. Have now removed it.

I stayed in kitchen but ignored her just getting on with tidying etc and she eventually got into bed and is now sleeping. Think I just need to explain this concept to OH!

It's interesting as when she is full on hyper you think hang on this is a bit full on and then I remembered we didnt have this yesterday as I was getting packed lunches etc ready.

I'm a bit lost on how much time to be spending on her now. I spent most of yesterday playing and watching. But I think she probably needs more time just chilling today.

[Soubriquet]

Thank you. He's ok this morning. Stiff and sore but ok

Glad everyone's dogs are doing great

[Soubriquet]

Finally got her new bed today!

I think she likes it

[totallyliterally]

Have just booked a dog trainer to come on Monday night. I'm overwhelmed with all the things we should / could be doing.

So need some pointers on what to focus on.