Does anyone fancy a puppy survival thread part 3

[BiteyShark]

Continuation of the support thread.... anyone is welcome whether they have new or older puppies, just want a chat or are battling with ongoing puppy problems.

I thought I would start this thread off as I am hoping it might be the last one I need support from as BiteyPup is now 9.5 months old and we have survived the early puppy months and his teenage antics seem to be subsiding. Still working on our relationship and recall but it's getting better and can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel (fingers crossed)

Oh no Skeleton, poor pup. Hope he gets better soon.

Poor skeleton pup, hope he gets well soon.
I am feeling a bit of a bad owner today. Yesterday took Cocopup out with a friend and her chocolate lab, they are the same age and had a whale of a time playing and running together. We went quite a way and then I was intending to shortcut back home through our local woods. Lab totally refused to go through stile, not for sausage, cajoling even a bit of a push and pull. He weighs about six stone. We ended up retracing our footsteps and were out nearly two hours. My girl was exhausted, seemed fine this morning so took her for a shortish walk then coffee in local cafe. Now lying stretched out on kitchen floor looking sorrowfully at me. I really want to scoop her up and put her on sofa with me but we have never allowed her before. Am wavering, do any of you pup owners allow sofa time?

Our dogs are never off the sofa, in fact we've just bought a love seat style chair as it will fit a person and a dog comfortable 😂 I absolutely love dog cuddles but if you're worried about your sofas, could you get her a special blanket to drape over that she's allowed on?

We can walk him in a couple of days but sticking to a quiet section of beach as wouldn't want to let him interact with any other dogs just in case.

We never used to let BiteyDog on sofa. Now he is allowed up but only when invited and to be honest he often gets down himself as he prefers his bed to our sofa (suspect it is because he doesn't like leather).

What are your pups like with raw meat?

I've had dogs that will take the odd sliver but if you put it on the floor, would carry it around but not eat it.

Lexa adores raw chicken.

I put a handful out for her outside and she happily chews it down.

Going to look at getting her some chicken wings to nom on

We have just had a freezer delivered! Hoping to switch her totally to raw.

My boy gets cuddles on the sofa a lot but only when invited

My old dog used to eat raw unwashed tripe. Utterly disgusting stuff, but she thrived on it.

Ours will literally eat anything but haven't really investigated raw as seems a lot of hassle and expense to get it right!

Sorry can't help on the raw. Dry kibble with a mix of cooked egg, fish or chicken here.

I always thought chicken bones were dangerous, but a quick google states not (raw anyway) I bet they love chewing on a chicken wing.

Yes, raw bones good, cooked bones bad

Even the ones they sell in the pet shops, those huge knuckle bones, are not really ideal

Chicken wings are good. Weight bearing bones aren't (so no legs) Not sure how that relates to massive bones you see dogs chewing.
Re raw. I have a wolfie godmother who lives on a farm and will supply me. So not too expensive and hopefully not too much of a faff!

quick question about wee - how do you make sure your own doesn't get damaged if they go out in the garden? Is there a better surface for them to wee on?

TheAntiBoop do you mean how to make sure the lawn doesn't get damaged? I have stopped caring, it's either a lovely lawn and no dog or a lovely dog and patchy lawn and I vote for the dog

We have a fence which separates the grass off with a gate. Most of the time the gate is open but occasionally I close the gate and grass seed the patches as needed :)

Skeleton just remembered you have bigDog. Hope he doesn't catch what pup has .

We have a budding footballer/cricketer so the lawn isn't great!!

When we bring pup home I wanted to fence off a bit of the garden for him to use as a toilet - I was planning on grass but would a bed be better? Or the patio?

If you've got the space you could section off a section to be a toilet area and use paving/gravel/dog safe bark chips there.

Our back garden is L shaped with the shorter bit going down the side of the house and accessed via the utility room. We've had that bit fenced off and paved so it can be their toilet area. It's really easy to keep clean (always a good thing with four dogs!!) and they only go out into the main garden to play so it's not getting wee'd on constantly.

Cross post!

Personally I think paving is the best as it's so easy to keep it clean. A quick swish round with some kennel disinfectant and you're good to go!

We have a big garden and not notice it looking too bad. Ill reseed it if it does. Better than bils astro turf which is horrible to clean when their dog poops and wees on it.

towelpintpeanuts your earlier post about it being constant working through issues. Yes I think it sometimes does feel that way but it will fall into place eventually.

Cocopup is fed on Naturediet wet food in the morning and Gentle cold pressed kibble in the evening. Because both high meat content foods and both apparently compatible with raw food, we gave her raw chicken wings, lamb ribs, duck necks etc as treats. In the hot weather this seems to constipate her so have changed to a raw marrowbone once a week where she eats the marrow but not the bone. Also give kongs stuffed with a mix of naturediet with sweet potato and carrot or tinned mackerel. This seems to suit her, regular small firm poos and she still has a tripe stick or cows ear in the evening whilst watching tv!

Yeah I said that to the vet, and asked whether older dog was likely to catch it and he said he might, he might not. Dog1 is nearing 11 now and id really rather he didn't catch anything.

Well here's a pic looking like butter wouldn't melt in his new bed.

Still looking puppylike at 8 months old!