Puppy Survival Thread Part 6

[Elphame]

As thread 5 is almost full!

Toilet training woes! I’ve spent most of my time at home for eight weeks in the kitchen because our puppy cannot resist toileting on a carpet.
The back door is open all day and he does most of his offerings outside but we can’t have him in the lounge. No matter how recently he’s performed outside he will soon go again on the carpet. We don’t use a crate.We clean up with biological liquid. However much longer will this go on?

Dpup had her first visit to the vet, she was scratching her ears a lot last night and seemed frustrated. She has an ear infection in both ears possibly due to ear mites.

When we got her six days ago, she was matted and smelled strongly of urine. I was panicking the ear infections were from my care of her but the vet reassured me that the infection would have been caught whilst with her litter. I still feel bad I didn't take her straight away as she was scratching when we got her, but we thought it was just from having been so dirty and it would stop.

He also gave me better diet advice. She is to have 2 milk based meals a day and 2 meat based meals a day. So scrambled eggs, porridge and milk and butchers choice tinned food. He said her coat was full which it is, but again, I thought it was actually in good condition after the state she was in when we got her, she has had three baths and brushed twice a day. He said it will be from the kibble and pouch food diet.

So feeling a bit down, like I've got everything wrong so far, but the main thing is, I know how to do better and make sure she gets plumper and shinier.

Bedknobs, obviously from my below post I am no expert on puppies at all. My dad however has raised pet dogs and working dogs all his life. I asked him about your post and he suggested having the back door open all the time is likely the problem? He said if your pup has free reign to the garden then pup doesn't realise there is a difference in going outside or inside. He said if you start from the start with housetraining again, restricting access to the garden except for toileting, pup will learn that outside is the place to toilet and the only place pup will get a treat for going. He said it was important to treat puppy during the process of going outside and praise pup lots.

I hope that makes sense and may help.

CollyWombles don't worry we all feel like we are messing up (even now at 19 months ).

Moving forward have you looked at allaboutdogfood.co.uk to compare food brands etc. I think butchers is ranked quite low.

Oh and I agree with CollyWombles dad about having the back door open. He may be seeing the inside and outside as one big area so by having the door closed until he is reliably asking to go out may help as well as tethering him to you so as soon as he looks like he is going to go again on your carpet you can pick up and run outside.

Hi all!
I've previously posted on this thread but not for a while as touch wood our pup has been good as gold.

We have a golden retriever who will be five months on Saturday and have the opportunity to go away to north wales Tuesday to Friday. We're unsure whether to go or not as this would be her first trip away from home and don't know how she will react.

Where we would stay is a long barn with self contained cottages. I'm just concerned about her barking and disturbing others!

Any advice or experience would be great!

Thanks for toileting advice but Idon’t think the open door is the problem. Pup loves being outside in the sun and when he’s inside he never messes or wets on the tiled kitchen floor, it’s only carpets he goes on. I dare not take him to other peoples’ homes after he’s christened everybody’s floors.

My puppy was toilet trained at daycare later than at home. We have hard floors and they have carpets. You are going to have to try and enforce the difference between carpet and grass (assuming your puppy is going on grass). Whenever you have him in the house near carpet I would tether him to you and keep a real close eye on him and any sign of him about to pee (or if he pees) pick up and run outside and then praise etc.

Can I join too? We brought home our working cocker on Saturday. We bought her loads of toys (rope toys, balls, teddy bears, chew toys, toys you put treats in etc) and she’s not that interested. All she wants is my shoes!

The only game she likes is tug of war. When I throw the ball /other toy she just looks at me or gets bored v quickly.

What can I do to stimulate her interest in toys? And what other games can we play?

Silentnighttwo I have a working cocker and he loves hunting games. Throw his food/treats on the floor or hide them so he has to hunt them out.

Maybe look for some puppy gundog training classes for when he has had his vaccinations as we did them which really helped but I wish I had taken him when he was much smaller as I think we didn't start until he was around 5-6 months old.

Mine liked to drag what looked like road kill toys about (fluffy animals with no stuffing). Mine also only became ball obsessed when he was older but understanding how they hunt and retrieve is helpful to start them when young playing with a ball.

Remember it's still very early days with yours and you will find his choice of toys will change as he gets older.

Thanks BitieShark, that’s reassuring! We plan to get her gun dog training but thought the advice was to wait until they were 5-6 months, when do you think would be a good age?

We did a puppy class at our gun dog training group so any puppy that was ok to be out and about could join.

I went to generic puppy training classes before finding that one and I bitterly regret it as they did nothing for us. As soon as the gun dog trainer explained how they 'tick' everything started to make sense and I would have started training very differently had I known.

@CollyWombles your vets advice seems odd I agree wet food (depending on brand) can be problematic and maybe mean the protein is too high for a puppy but unless your dog has a dodgy stomach (and even then at this age) you should have meat based protein. Also most dogs are lactose intolerant so milk is an issue and causes smelly farts 💨. We give our dog lactose free cheese and lactose free bio active yogurt. I would recommend raw feeding (you can get rae food in dobbies or online that is complete and just looks like mush. Our DDog loved it but we changed too quickly and now we are on prescription food so what do I know . Still I know lots of raw fed dogs who have fabby shiney coats. Dogs need protein, calcium carbs and veg natural instincts is what we used.

bedknobs perhaps your puppy thinks the carpet is grass?

My pup is going to be the death of me or bankrupt me he jumped down 4 stairs onto wooden floors and really hurt himself couldn't stand or weight bare at all and was shaking and crying/whining took him straight to the vet where he was able to walk but very uncomfortably got an injections and checked over and might need an X-ray in the morning. Got back here and he has miraculously recovered. Poor soul got a fright and is still limping a bit but won't be needing an X-ray thankfully. Bloody puppy's 3rd vet visit and I have only had him for 6 weeks

Geekone, I hope your pup is okay this morning! My own Dpup learned to climb the stairs three days ago, getting another stairgate as I am afraid she will fall one day too! These pups, good job they are cute considering the stress!

I'm beginning to dread the start of the day with Dpup.she sleeps through the night now but this means she has a mental amount of energy first thing and is just biting everything that moves. The children and I always give her her toys to bite instead of us, but she still gets ankles and hands. She is only 8 weeks but because she is going to be a big dog, I'm really stressing about the biting and getting it in check as soon as possible.

CollyWombles - We are going through exactly the same with ours - she sleeps well all through the night until around 5.30 which is fine as DH gets up then anyway. Then she goes completely crazy for about half and hour, biting feet, clothes and clinging onto trouser legs. It is quite honestly a bit scary as we are also adopting the 'just stand still and ignore her' attitude in the hope she stops, but it is very hard to just stand still when you are being attacked. I love her to bits but yesterday I was just about at the end of my tether with her. She is just coming up to 15 weeks and has been like this for about 4 weeks now. I just hope it stops soon - for both of us!!

Good to know im not alone milk!

I wish it was half an hour though. She is finally settling for a sleep so an hour and a half of her nonsense! I stand up and turn my back on her when she gets too much. Love her to bits but she clearly loves me so much she wants me to be in bits!

I found mine with biting would just continue with the stand still approach as it was easier as you aren't even a moving target . I had to remove him from me or me from him for it to stop.

Bitey McBiterson.

soooooo....we bought a spray to stop our puppy daxie chewing our trousers legs. Worked a treat. No nasties in it, herbal, will try and find it.

I think we are spared being nipped with our new pup as he and the daxie run around together first thing and rough house each other! have to step in and break it up occasionally though, and he will rapidly get HUGE so will have to watch out he doesn't hurt her. She is giving as good as she gets at the moment!

Blossompup2 is waking up at 5am at the moment. Sleeping through from 10pm but the early starts are taking their toll, thankfully Dh is doing most of them. When do you think he will start to sleep later? Not a chance of putting him back in his crate after a wee, he'd wake the whole neighbourhood!

@CollyWombles he seems ok but has a limp and the vet this morning said to put him under house arrest only outside for a wee/poo on the lead and straight back to bed. Confined where possible to his crate or one room wtaf?. How do I stop a 13 week old puppy running around. He also has metacalm for a week and another appointment next week!

On another note my dog has always been a good night sleeper 10pm up at 6am for a quick pee back bed until 7.30am then yes he was bitey and crazy (mostly hungry) that stopped when we were able to walk him outside also he was starving but we didn't feed him until he was calm so he stopped being mental so he could get him breakfast. Good luck the first 4 weeks are just crazy I hated being stuck inside. My DS hates being chewed every morning and my DH get trapped. All better now (other than the new enforced confinement).
Bloody Dog

Ufff! Bailed on a puppy intro class tonight. 2nd week and there's one out of control pup attendee who sinks its teeth into all the other pups (only 6 in total) given half a chance. My boy just spent 2nd week cowering and getting zilch out of the experience. Felt it was doing more harm than good. Anyone else had to bail from a class?!

Tinkobell the first class I never went back after the first lesson as I didn't like the trainer. Trust me not all classes and trainers are equal so maybe try another one. It took three for me to find the right fit for my dog and then it was great.

Oh. Not uncommon then! Our pups pooing at night. Clean during the day but pooing x 3 at night. Any tips or ideas? I'm bringing last feed forward to 5:30pm plus using a drier feed + walk early eve?