Puppy Survival Thread Part 5!

[GooodMythicalMorning]

Continuing Bitey's thread once more

The thread to be, where puppies grow and we meet new doggie parenting challenges every day.

Horrible day today. The sound of Elfpup's screams when he was lunged at and grabbed by the nose this afternoon will stay with me for days.

Luckily he just had a serious fright. I just hope it doesn't shake his confidence.

Elphame sounds horrible, what happened?

Kinky, if you tell yourself the excitement/ frustration is over tiredness, you will be able to ignore it. Perhaps give him a chew to settle with on a rug in front of the tv. Feeling guilty that grandma bitey and I are discussing agility whilst you all on house training and getting through the night. You will get there and then control out on walks will fill your thoughts. Top tip, set them up for success, keep them close with treats, praise and play. Use a long training lead and start recall training now in the house and garden and then out on walks. Every different walk you do needs recall training. I still blow my whistle at home to get her in from the garden for a play or supper with the result that she responds well to the whistle out and about because it could mean a very good reward.

It’s such a scary noise isn’t it Elphame, although the pitch of the squeal doesn’t seem to equate to the fright they receive. We’ve had a few screams from Zivapup when he’s been told off by big pup with only a growl and a ‘fake’ lunge, absolutely no contact but you’d think he’d been murdered. Hasn’t knocked his confidence at all.

I'm a wreck Ziva!

Bitey both were on leads. As they came within range the big dog just leapt at him, grabbed his nose and held on. I thought he was never going to let go. Pup was screaming fit to wake the dead but on checking him over there was no damage to him. It was just sheer terror, poor little chap. We even had a puddle he was so scared.

He's fine now - had his tea, put in an hour's hard work on his pigs ear and is napping in front of the fire

Elphame I'm so glad he's okay. This is one aspect of dog ownership that makes me very nervous - dealing with other dogs. There's lots of attack stories about, let alone fierce play. I don't know what I'd do. It's dealing with feckless owners too.

Thanks Coco - I can already see progress, which is great and eventually I want to think about things like agility (once he's old enough), so it is interesting to read about. Plus, the advice owners of older dogs give is really useful. I have no experience, so it's been brilliant to have people to ask. I come from a cat family, I have only had cats and DH is all about the cats, although he does seem to be rather fond of Dpup. I'm always calling and treating, and I've had him on the long lead in the garden, calling him. I'm just starting to use the clicker too. So far, so good and I feel less wired. I need to work this week, so hoping for more sleep. Thanks again .

Bless him. Have a stiff drink. I think you can be reassured that if the other dog had wanted to hurt him it would have done. Dogs seem to cope with these incidents much better than we do.

This pup is an exceptional naughty pup sometimes! I can't work out how she can hold her wee and no2 from 8 at night till 7 am next morning, but during the day its almost hourly trips to garden, 3 walks too! I'm still having to use sheets in porch as an occasional accident (wee) happens during day. She barks to go out for no2 but not for wee! She may glance vaguely towards back door or living room window for wee but not always. She is now just 5 months.

Elphame 😢. What did the other owners say?

Poor baby. Noses are sore though. Glad he's ok.
I watch approaching dogs VERY carefully. If you read up on body language you can usually spot problems. As mine is a giant breed we get a fair bit of aggression aimed at her. It also seems to work to greet approaching dogs in a cheerful and positive tone. They read me and Wolfie pup as no threat then.

Poor elfpup, that must have been quite a fright. We have been lucky really, only growls and lunges from on lead unfriendly/ fearful dogs and one pinning down by a border collie. She has other collie friends though and it is only large black dogs that seem to faze her.

DH got a good picture today. Little mister innocent on this!

Elphame I am glad he's ok but it may take you longer to get over that. During my vets visits I have seen two dogs bought in for surgery that had been attacked by other dogs and I am always very conscious that it does happen and I don't tolerate dogs jumping on mine and 'playing' roughly as BiteyDog doesn't like it and I would be the one with the injured dog. It's a bit different when both dogs are on lead like your incident as it would have happened so quickly. Poor pup and poor you, lots of and for you.

Sostenueto you mentioned using sheets in the porch. If she is still having pee accidents the puppy pads might be confusing her as it's saying it's fine to keep peeing in the house and not just the garden. I would ditch them especially at 5 months and go back to basics with cleaning all accidents well and praising outside. I had a pup that didn't bark or make any noise to go out. He used to do a half hearted paw at the door which if you didn't look you never saw. I used a training bell hung off the door handle and within 1-2 days had taught him to bash it if he wanted me to open the door. It was great because then I could hear him even if I wasn't watching him so that might be something to try as well.

Sostenueto, are you using treats when she performs in the garden or out on walks. I enthusiastically said busy girl to Cocopup every single time she went outside and gave a treat. Then gradually phased out the treats once she was completely reliable. Ignored any inside accidents and cleaned up well. I still say busy girl occasionally when I see her having a wee in the garden with the result that she will go on command now if we have a long car journey to do or before she goes into the vets.
KinkyDorito, what a cute little chap.

Aww Kinky, what a darling little pup

Oh joy I think I need to order a van load of in for the remaining week.

Dressing is off but we still can't do any exercise so still confined to the house with lots of pent up energy.

He cannot lick or nibble at his staples so he has had to have the cone on his head. He then tries to bite the cone off so I have to supervise him and try and stop him wrecking it but better he wrecks the cone and not his stitches.

He has to have a waterproof sock on to toilet but now he has no dressing he refuses to walk in it. He hops on three legs and will not walk to toilet.

It's going to be a very long week. I just hope he doesn't open the wound back up jumping about in the house otherwise I might crack

Bitey can you put another dressing on anyway or does the wound need to be open now? It's going to be a very long week.

Bitey 😢 what bothers him about the waterproof sock? Are you already off work or do you take time off? It's hard being confined with anyone ill, animal or person. I hope you get yourself some nice things in to help the process a bit.

Vet says he's fine, first jabs done and 3 weeks until we can walk out.

Elphame It needs to be open to the air but just covered when we take him out to toilet as it's a bog out there.

KinkyDorito I have no idea what he hates about the sock as it's flexible but you would think he had broken his leg how he acts . I am working from home so any work I don't get done in the day looking after pain in the arse BiteyDog means I just have to work longer at night or at the weekend when DH is home

Glad you got a clean bill of health. It's always a worry and now you can count down the days till you can take him out.

Bitey, blimey I’d be drowning in a vat of Gin by now. Am I right in thinking biteydog not particularly greedy? Otherwise I’d be tempted to periodically smear some cream cheese or pate around the inside of the cone for him to lick off. Worked a treat with my old lab who used to deliberately charge into door jambs in an effort to break the cone up.

Ooo smearing stuff around his cone would be a good idea except his stomach is so sensitive and I don't think I could cope with him having the runs on top of everything else. We are back to the vets on Friday assuming he doesn't open the wound up so I am focusing on getting to then without losing my mind.

We have just had 30 mins where he wanted to go out, so socks goes on, he then stands there and cries and jumps back in, take sock off, two mins later he asks to go out and repeat. Two hours DH is home and then I am hitting the

We’ve just got back from the vets where Zivapup has had his free puppy check they offer. He loved the attention and was very good, the vet said he was the picture of health. He’s nearly 7kg so he’ll be a big boy. They say he’ll put on approx 0.8kg per week😮.

Ziva what's his expected adult weight? Glad he was good at the vets.

Could be anything up to 40kg. His dad was a big lab and Mum a normal sized working springer.

Thanks bitey and coco for advice, will try it put. Its only the odd accident but I see it can confuse her, so no more puppy pads.