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.

We had to get rid of the puppy pads as was too confusing for Indy. Although he's hit 7 months and seems to have regressed on puppy training

Zivapup has gone straight to sleep in his crate tonight so why am I sitting on the sofa listening out for him instead of getting some sleep? I’ve peeped round the kitchen door and he’s curled up in his seriously cosy bed with his big fluffy reindeer. Darling little chunk.🐶💕🐶

I’m taking the plunge and asking if it’s ok to join? we’ve got a male collie kelpie cross (12weeks) and a 19 month old toddler in a very small 2 up 2 down with a postage stamp backyard! DP wanted him so badly and grew up with dogs and his parents still have four, but I have to say I’m struggling with it!! He’s a lovely boy though -

Welcome NoSws is there anything in particular you are struggling with or is it just the relentlessness of it?

I am lying awake here with BiteyDog who keeps shoving his cone in my face to let me know how uncomfortable it is to sleep in

Runny poo. Vet checked and no reason found... could it be overfeeding? I'm using Orijen dry food having weaned him off the pets at home dry stuff he came with. He gets a 45g scoop at breakfast lunch and dinner, weighs 8kg, Labrador Retriever aged 11 weeks. He seems permanently hungry though, even attempted to eat some entrails he found in the garden...

stillnotjustamummy I battled with upset tums and runny poos for months and only just cracked it a few months ago.

The problem is it could be caused by so many issues, eating rubbish in the garden, food, general upset etc.

One big thing for my dog was his food. Even though we were giving him good quality (grain and other rubbish free) kibble we eventually found that he just had a sensitive stomach and digesting kibble was too much. We still use the same manufacturers (milles wolfheart) but their wet food rather than dry food and almost overnight his poos went from always sloppy up to some point to firm and hard. Because it's wet and therefore larger volume than kibble for the same calories it fills him up more and unlike kibble he really enjoys and gets excited at meal times which he just didn't do in the same way as kibble

Obviously your dog may have sloppy poos for completely different reasons but just wanted to throw our experience out there as I could not believe the change in our dog and his poos for effectively the same ingredients just given in a different format.

Zivapup slept all night🍾🍾🍾I don’t know if it was because he could hear the wind and rain and thought ‘ if I squeak, she’ll make me go out in that’ or what but fingers crossed for tonight although I’m on. Late shift and get home at 3am so it won’t matter so much.

Aww good ZivaPup

Ziva very jealous! I had the joy of trying to keep hold of a panicky pup whilst trying to close the gate against the gale at 3.30, 4.30 and 6am. Fun. At least it was very quick!

BiteyDog is refusing to pee or poo at the moment with his enforced sock on his foot. Stupid boy is actually holding it as long as he can. The nice bit of that is I don't have to stand in the gale force winds and rain

NoSwsForYou Congrats on the pup. He is very cute.

stillnotjustamummy Dogs will eat anything. Elfpup ate his first dead mouse at around 12 weeks. He since eaten a couple more - one so rotten he threw it up an hour later.

I am under no illusions it will last! We were spoilt with previous pup who slept through from 8 weeks so this one is a bit of a shock. I made his bed super cosy last night and he had a busy day with vets and a trip to the dog food shop where he got lots of cuddles so perhaps that all tired him out.

I don’t think poor Bananapup will get a walk today, it’s so windy and as the vet put it she has yet to reach the dizzy heights of 1kg (despite being nearly 4 months old now) she’s in actual danger of being blown away.

Does anyone have any advice on stopping her eating her poo? She poos exclusively outdoors now, but I have to be poised to grab the poo as soon as it hits the deck or she makes a snack of it. DH chased her around the park the other day to get her to drop poo she was carrying off, which of course she thought was a great game.

We had being doing well with sleep and then last night was out for two wees. And my dd was also up so I’m a zombie today! Have discovered the biggest hurdle to house training is dh. Of pups 16 waking hrs I was in sole charge for 14 hrs yesterday and we had one wee when I was on my way to get him to take him out. Husband in charge for 2 - 2 wees and 2 poos in house! Hmmmmm.

Just the sheer relentlessness of it all I think!

He’s a lovely little boy and he learns quickly, but dp said he’d take the bulk of the work because he ‘knows dogs’ and lo and behold actually it’s all falling to me.

He’s had both his jabs now so can leave the house just via the front door. Previous to yesterday I was having to bundle him and poorly ds into the car and drive to find somewhere isolated for him to have his little run, at least now we can just go out the front door!! Poor ds has been missing the park

Could someone advise as to how long puppy can be out for? We’ve read that he shouldn’t be walking for more than ten minutes per month of age but he’s got so much energy!!

I admit I haven't taken much notice of the walk restrictions but I did have a chat with my vet first. Elfpup is not a breed that is prone to joint problems and I see no difference in him tearing up and down my sitting room or tearing around a field except the latter is much easier on my household furnishings! I did prevent jumping as much as possible though as that does jar the joints. He wasn't allowed to jump off my lap until he was big enough to do it very easily.

At 5 months he's getting about 90 minutes a day off lead walking - about 4-5 human miles which he manages easily with plenty of bounce left. First week was abut 15 minutes and that was plenty. Their fitness builds fast!

Brain games are meant to be as tiring as a walk - 10 mins = I hour on lead walk. I can't say it works for Elfpup though. He enjoys the games but they don't tire him like a walk does

I went with off lead bumbling and jumping about either in the garden or outside was ok as he could stop when he felt too tired so didn't stick to any rule in that situation other than monitor how he looked.

He didn't really like lead walking so we never did much of it at first

Oh dear bean sounds like you need to 'train' DH

NoSws awww that sucks with you doing the bulk of the work. BiteyDog was really my dog and DH went along with it but even with me signing up to all the work at the beginning it was still hard so it must feel overwhelming if you hadn't expected to be doing so much. The good new is they grow up so quickly. By around 10 months I noticed a real change in him calming down into adulthood and he continues to get calmer all the time.

I feel very sorry for BiteyDog right now as it's so boring that he just sleeping in between giving me the 'sad eyes'

Stillnotjustamummy, I wonder if the runny tum is more to do with injections, worming and new experiences at 11 weeks. My pups tum was up and down for quite a while in the first few months. Origen is a good food but I believe doesn’t contain any cereals which cheaper brands use as filler. Perhaps put some cooked carrots or sweet potato on top to fill pup up without extra calories. It doesn’t sound like you are over feeding.
However I am, cocodog had an explosive bum this morning and is restless. We ran out of Gentle cold pressed kibble a few days ago so I was giving her the second half of the Naturediet tray she has in the mornings in the evening. Just worked out that combination was overfeeding her by 100g a day. Poor girl. Luckily new supply of Gentle delivered a few minutes ago so hopefully I can balance her out again.

Hello. Should be picking up my new pup in a week or so. Checking in. I'm quite nervous at the moment.

She is a black mini poodle, as yet unnamed by us.

Straw poll re puppy biting, did you try to curb by a) redirecting with toy, b) saying "ah! ah!", c) stopping play, d) something else?

Also, most importantly, as I'm confused by information I've read, did you allow soft mouthing but stop at harder mouthing? Or correct all mouthing immediately?

Tia.

Welcome tobee I did the ignoring or seperating him from me with the biting as that was the only thing that really worked. For less 'bitey' moments I shoved a toy at him to mouth instead

Thanks, Bitey. Going to need name suggestions soon. No photos yet, sorry!

Don't make a noise. It can scare them or (in the case of wolfiepup) get them more excited and get you more bitten!
Keep a soft toy handy for them to murder. Remove when the game is finished.
Upset tum could well be jabs. Watch for treats too. Madam is very poorly if she snaffles a slither of cocktail sausage from someone at training.
We couldn't even do 10 minutes a month with Wolfie. Giant breeds need very little on lead walking as pups. Brain games and training and new places are tiring.

I think I'm most concerned about getting the timing right iyswim!

Timing of what? Sorry. I'm being dense!