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.

PerfectPuppy has destroyed every toy that we gave her for Christmas already. I should know by now that only Kong toys will withstand the chewing 😬 Actually have a look at tug-e-nuff online too...their tug toys are brilliant. She goes absolutely wild for the sheepskin things - I save them for special recall games!

I'm currently feeling guilty about how much we restrict Dpup's access to the house. She has a baby gate across the kitchen door. It's a really big space so not worried about that, but would love for her to be able to potter around with us. She used to settle well when we brought her into the sitting room in the eves, now she goes completely bonkers & is constantly stealing things she shouldn't have. My plan is to bring her in & out on lead and ask for a short mat settle (she'll do this easily in the kitchen) lots of times through the day for a while. Might that work do we think?

Just gonna add I have grown up with dogs so thought I would be fine but obviously wasn't the one the training them it was my parents. Didn't realise how hard it would be.

Sorry bumchin, cross posted! Sorry to hear that you feel as though you're struggling. Puppies are HARD work at that age & exhausting enough without being pregnant. If you read back through some of the puppy threads you'll see that lots of people have had real puppy blues. I'm not sure what to suggest other than say that it's really early days...i found that it does start getting a bit easier once you've cracked the toilet training....

Welcome Bumchin101 I am going to be honest it took many weeks to toilet train my puppy and I really didn't like the puppy months (felt overwhelmed and like I had done the worst thing by getting a puppy). Obviously you are pregnant which is another complication. I worked full time although I took the first month off felt shattered and pulled in every direction.

So that's the negative done with. The positive is that the puppy months don't last long. Yes you then get the teenager months but again they grow so quickly that if you can hang in there you get a lovely adult dog. I would not swop mine for the world now but it was hard.

For toileting I am not a fan of puppy pads as you are saying it's fine to pee and poo in the house. A puppy is going to find it hard to work out what you want let alone that you want them to do it on a Matt but no where else in the house. Saying that some people love them but it doesn't sound to be working for you. Could you ditch the pads and go straight outside and do the usual stuff of out after play, eating, drinking, sleeping and frequently in between. Praise like mad when they go outside.

As for your 4 year old could it just be that the focus is on the puppy and not them so that will pass when the pup gets bigger and is a 'friendly member of the family' rather than a demanding puppy?

PerfectlyChaotic I restricted BiteyDog to the kitchen for months as he would go crazy when let into the other rooms. When he started to grow up he then was allowed more freedom but any 'naughtiness' in the other rooms he then got put back into the kitchen to calm down. He is now allowed to roam about (within reason) in the other rooms but he had to earn that privilege iykwim.

Thanks Bitey! That makes me feel better. She's never (touch wood) chewed/destroyed anything in 'her' room, other than toys. I guess it's the novelty of different things to explore & her continuing to push the boundaries 😬

PerfectlyChaotic I also wonder whether the reason BiteyDog isn't very destructive is that he was kept in the kitchen which is dog proof and then was actively supervised in the other rooms when he behaved. Obviously I don't know for sure but I think it helped.

PerfectlyChaotic Elfpup is also heavily restricted.

We have a babygate across the kitchen door so we can keep him in there at night. 90% of the house is out of bounds for him. When out of the kitchen he can access the hall and a sitting room only (to be fair I spend most of my time in this area too).

Hi bumchin, can’t add anything re toilet training to what bitey has said. My sympathies though, the early puppy days are quite lonely when partner at work, things may look better when you can go for walks etc. Of the” everyone” you mention, is there someone you trust not to make you feel bad and ask for some support, playing with your son or pup watching while you get out and do something else for a while?
Perfectly, from an early age I played with Cocopup in different rooms, gave her a Kong or chewy in the living room on a mat, in the kitchen on her bed, hid treats for her to find in all areas other than spare bedrooms and bathrooms. Placed treats on the hoover, my shoes, DH slippers, anything scary, anything that makes a loud noise. Seemed to help, she is a greedy madam. She has never chewed or stolen anything since very young, doesn’t attack the hoover and is very confident BUT the rooms she has limited access to will get the pillows flung all over the floor off the bed if door is left open.😗😗

Thanks for the reply guys. We're going to ditch the pads and start outside as everyone I have spoken to has agreed the pads aren't great. Hoping she is some what house trained before little one is here and has also stopped the nipping too. Didn't realise how hard the puppy stage was. DP very reluctant to 're home too.

Bumchin feel free to keep posting. We are all here because we are battling with 'something' and just being able to vent can help relieve the pressure.

I had 2 hours yesterday of pure misery trying to keep one pissed off dog for going crazy. We haven't left the house other than for pee visit and vets since the 24th. He is very annoyed, hates his cone, hates his boot and I think dreams of escape .

Hi everyone! Hope it's going well for anyone.

The not so little GSD is testing me to my limits at the moment. She's into EVERYTHING and I'm unable to tire her out. She's also going through the teenage not listening won't recall stage.

Please tell me this will pass

Thanks Bitey. Feel awful feeling this way as this is DP first dog and was very excited. We live with his mum too so trying to get her on board with the training is hard. Ddog has also been sleeping in our bed at night as mother in law cannot stand the whinning but DP and I have both said Ddog needs to stay in kitchein from now on as we get no privacy and my DS cannot creep in for a cuddle in the mornings due to Ddog nipping :( can see mother in law giving in though and grabbing Ddog. I don't think we really thought this through.

Your dog sounds very active Bitey :) how long has he got to have the cone on for?

Bumchin no sure how long to go. We are back at the vets tomorrow for them to asses his paw again. On one hand I want the staples out but then I would hate it to open up as we would have to go through this again and then I would crack.

I think you might need to get DPs mum on board with training etc as it's hard enough without someone doing something different

Grey BiteyDog was awful and if you look back to the older threads he would run off on 'every' walk. It was shit and thank god I have miles of countryside here so he wasn't in any danger during his deafness. One time I honestly thought I would have to pay someone to walk him everyday as I couldn't cope with the stress. It does pass and now he doesn't want to leave my side during a walk and recalls straight away when there are other dogs and peoples about.

Bitey she is awful at the moment. Constantly chasing the cat and finding trouble wherever she goes. She's lost the puppy lisence with dog1 who is starting to really tell her off now as she won't stop biting him as he runs.

I've slacked on the training so I think I really need to pick it up again really!

Grey The only good thing is that once she gets over this you are then into adulthood and calming down. I think I put over a stone in weight on during that time through comfort eating

Hey everyone. Only posted for the first time yesterday on this thread. Feeling sad today because puppy has a condition that's been diagnosed. It's not serious but, for various reasons, we've decided not to continue with buying the puppy.

Oh tobee so sorry to hear that for both you and the puppy.

I must spoil my pup, she goes everywhere in my home, even follows me to the bathroom. She loves going everywhere and has never messed anywhere other than the pad in my he porch of the back door. I've removed that the last couple if days and though she was always vocal when wanting a no 2 she is now beginning to be vocal about a wee rather than a glance at the window so no accidents hooray!

We don't have anywhere to isolate him. He's totally savaged me this evening and I don't really know how to stop him. He went nuts - mad five minutes became mad thirty and he got over excited and really bit me a few times. I've put him in his crate. I know we aren't supposed to use it like this but I'm a bit lost at what else to do. He's slept a lot today so don't think he's generally overtired. He's had play and training, plus I gave him egg boxes to find treats out of, which he liked. At a loss.

KinkyDorito some people don't advocate using the crate for anything negative like timeouts but I did and it didn't put him off going in it when he wanted to get away or to sleep. Quite frankly anything to calm him down and to stop him hurting me or myself at that age.

The evenings are definitely worse for behaviour so even if you think he has slept lots he may still be overtired or over stimulated.

KinkyDorito, we had a dog trainer round the other day- mainly in the hope of training my 5 year old that he can't wind her up and then expect her to understand 'stop'-however, she said she has a 3 strike rule. Ignore biting 3 times, and then it's in the crate. If they're that excited, they need a space to safely calm down.
Bumchin I thought toilet training would be easier. I feel like it's 2 step forwards and one step back. Every time I take pup out, she wees, so I bring her in, and she sneaks off for a secret poo. But I have faith that it will happen. Think of all the poorly trained dogs you know, nearly all of them are at least toilet trained. I also have small children and am pregnant. Its exhausting.

Oh my goodness the mud!!! Feel like sobbing as I get my mop out for the third time today...

We also used the crate if evening zoomies got out of hand, once she had had a little sleep, came out, had a cuddle, a brush and then either a pizzle, dried tripe stick, pigs ear to chew on a mat in living room. The nipping and zoomies stopped long ago but the evening brush and cuddle followed by a chew of something lives on. Cocodog knows that this routine draws a line under her day and so relaxes in front of tv or in her basket if we go out until bedtime. Sounds easy now, totally hideous in those early days. You will come through it

Lovely, thanks again everyone! I felt so fed up putting him the crate, but I'm really pleased to hear it's fine. He's shattered now and so am I.

My garden is apparently covered in tiny slugs. I never knew this until tasked with collecting them from around the house where they've dropped off Dpup. That's the ones I get before he eats them...