Puppy Survival Thread Part 6

[Elphame]

As thread 5 is almost full!

[Miffymeow]

Radley, it's never too early to start recall training! Our fella is 4 and a half months now, knows many tricks but recall is entirely dependent on his mood haha. Every other trick we can teach him in 10 minutes flat, but recall is a real slow burner, especially when everything else is so interesting. He enjoys biting my boyfriends grandma a lot more than coming back to me

[Desperatelyneedinghelp]

I wonder if I could see if anyone else has had the same problems with their pup.

Walter is our 5 month old cockapoo puppy who we've had since 9 weeks old. When we need to go out he's crated and generally settles down quite happily - we always make sure he's tired / well fed / toileted etc. However, we have a reoccurring problem where Walter sometimes seems to wake up randomly after being asleep for 1 hour / 2 hours / 3 hours (completely random!) and then howls and howls until we come home. We never leave him alone for more than 4 hours at a time and he sleeps perfectly in his crate at night.

We're not sure what is causing the issue during the day - it almost seems like something stirs him and then he realises he's alone. It's becoming a nightmare as it's meaning we can't leave him without fear he'll soon wake up and howl the house down.

Any help / advice on this behaviour would be MUCH appreciate!

[BiteyShark]

Desperatelyneedinghelp I am going to guess that actually he isn't that happy on his own so whilst he is ok when asleep once awake and he realises you are gone he is howling for you to come back.

Maybe you need to go back to basics and leave him for less time and gradually build up the time he is happy when awake and alone rather than trying to tire him out to sleep for the length of time you are out. If you can get him happy when awake it won't matter how long he is asleep for iykwim.

Whilst he might be happy in his crate at night it's because he 'knows' you are still in the house. In the day when you are out it's a very different setting.

[Gsppuppyowner]

Hi everyone! I really need some advice/help/place to offload! 11 weeks ago me and my fiancé picked up our then 9 week old germain short haired pointer puppy. He’s gorgous but such hard work! He needs to be crated during the day as we both work, although partner works from home for some of day so puppy is never crated for more than 4 hours at a time. Anyway, first night we crated him downstairs and it was awful. We should have known really but he was so distressed my partner ended up on the sofa with him. Since then we have tried various things (worried we are confusing him) in the bedroom on floor etc. The latest routine has been he goes into crate downstairs every night, he has been fine with this and then when he wakes up howling for toilet at around 5am he goes outside and then he comes up on to our bed from 5am until around 7am when we get up. This worked well for several weeks but last few nights the wake up has gone from 5am to 3am and then to 1am and last night midnight! He’s so loud and I’m worried about neighbours as well as him! Plus I am not getting any sleep. I know we have made a rod for our own backs every letting him come up on bed in the first place but I am wondering if anyone has any advice on where we could go from here? Ideally we want him crated downstairs. Any help would be so appreciated! Thanks

[Plumodivisilobum]

I’m having terrible puppy blues, I have looked after other people’s dogs and loved them I was so stupid and naive about having my own puppy. I can’t work from home it’s a nightmare. I train and play with her and pretend but it’s the enormity of the decision. I’m so passionate about my garden and she’s trashing it , argh.):

[HarrietBasset]

Hi, please can i join? I have a 9 week old Miniature dachshund puppy whose gorgeous but exhausting. Ive had puppies before so its not my first rodeo but she's a different beast and my first daxie....crate training is taking forever and she cries if i leave the room. I've had 2 weeks off of work and thankfully am self employed so relatively flexible though I haven't left her home alone yet as the behaviourist wants her to be 100% happy with the crate.
I lost my old lovely dog at Christmas and was desperate for another but frankly this is harder than i remembered

[BiteyShark]

@HarrietBasset join this one as it's actually more recent

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/3693086-Puppy-Support-Group-2