Puppy Survival Thread Part 6

[Elphame]

As thread 5 is almost full!

I’m joining the thread 👋 we picked up Albus yesterday lunch time. He’s a 9 week old cockerpoo and adorable. We lost our young dog earlier this year but he was 13 weeks when we got him and already used to a crate. This little fellow is brilliant at toilet training but not keen on sleeping in the crate in our bedroom. I was waiting til he was sleepy last night and then snuggling him in and sometimes he would settle for a while but often he would wake crying again. We let him sleep some of the night in our bed in the end 🙄. I’m working on getting him to rest in his downstairs crate in the day and giving him plenty of treats in there. Is there anything else I should be doing? Thanks

Thought I'd pop my head in and say hi. My puppy is now over 5 m8nths old somehow and I've got to a stage where I'm not really enjoying her. I do love her and would never get rid of her but it's so relentless! The kids are off school and lead walking her is a nightmare if there's a 5 year old nearby and recall is getting worse, not better. She's also still jumping up at everyone and barking at everything. I feel on edge with her all the time whilst out and feel like we're being judged by perfect dog owners. Next lot of puppy classes start next week and they are outside and off lead! I know its what we both need but I'm dreading it!

Fannyfanakerpants once the first few puppy months are over you start heading into teenager mode aka selective deafness and stubborness.

My cocker was lovely between 5-6 months of age and then we entered his teenage stage and the next few months after that were hell, especially recall which went from 100% to 0%. The good news is the stage after that is adulthood .

Keep at it as it's so worth it in the end but yes I did need lots of and

Bitey I do remember reading about them becoming teenagers on previous threads but I just didn't quite expect everything to go backwards and it happening so quickly. Everything's on her terms at the moment. I will keep going, I really have no option and watching friends with their very disobedient dogs is a good driving force. I will enjoy having a dog one day.

Smaller breeds typically mature quicker than the larger breeds. I have to say around the age of 8 months was the worst. By around 10 months I realised things were getting much much better. Recall returned and he doesn't leave my side now.

He's 18 months old now and yes he has his moments as he's still a young adult but I think by the age of 1 I finally felt I had the adult dog I always dreamed about.

Oh gosh - where to start! Picked up our Old English Sheepdog puppy last Saturday. She is very, very sweet and seems to be settling well. What I didn't appreciate was that you need to be watching them EVERY single minute apart from when they are asleep! I posted on a separate thread after her vaccination on Monday when I was a bit worried about her, but she is fine now. But oh the lack of sleep!! As luck would have it, I have a horrendous cold/cough/wheezing chest this week and am having trouble getting any sleep at all - coupled with getting up with her 2/3 times a night, I am an absolute wreck. My DH has been working away from home this week too, so it all falls to me! When can I realistically expect her to go through the night without waking? And does anyone have a good remedy for a wheezing cough???

MilkTray Mine took many weeks to go through the night but all pups are different so you may find yours can hold it sooner. I was a walking zombie for many weeks with sleep deprivation but the good news is they do grow up relatively quickly.

Hi- congratulations on your puppy! Mine is 10 weeks now and I’m getting up once at 4 am (he’s in his crate 10.30-7 ish) to let him out. I’ve been gradually movin the time forwards by 15 minutes so eventually he’ll be sleeping through. It’s so exhausting watching them all the time but if you need a break perhaps you can have him sleep in his crate for a nap whilst you lie on the sofa?

Hi Milktray no help but same here. My nearly 12 week old wakes lots in the night, last night it was 12am, 3am, 4am and then he was playing up a bit from then I think he's up and ready. I'm bloody not! So I keep him in crate until 6am but can hardy sleep between 4-6 due to him winging and trying to eat his crate....

And yes to watching them every single minute, I used to have a playpen but after a week or so he outgrown it (it was only small pop up thing). I now have stairgates separating his area, it made life a lot easier as if he has an accident at least I roughly know where...
He also trying to eat everything in sight so it's for his own safety too (he ate a bit of bristles of the welcome home mat and pooped them out!)

I think my puppy is housetrained. We are nearing the end of week 2 with zero accidents. We are still taking him out regularly but he will now also ask to go out (woofs at the back door if we forget). He sleeps 10pm - 6am in his crate without getting up. He is 18 weeks old.
This seemed a million miles away 6 weeks ago and I wondered if we'd ever get there. The moment I left him with hubby he pee'd on the floor as hubby never got the hang of his cues. Now they can hang out without me all day without either of them crapping on the carpet!

The biting is improving. The kid is no longer terrified of him. He no longer pesters visitors to the house unmercifully for hours on end. We can leave him alone in the car for a couple of hours without there being an issue.

We now need him to learn to be left alone in the house (that is next week's job). We also need to work on his recall - he has none! He does come back EVENTUALLY when he gets tired or just to check on you but he certainly isn't under control off the lead - he is a little sod!!!!

Hi all,

How’s everyone doing? We’ve been away for a week (the fluff monster went back to the breeder). I fully expect tonight to be a complete sleep car crash!

Our pup has slept through the night since she hit nine weeks and has learnt Sit and Here and Beg. She pees outside unless it’s raining but it’s rained almost nonstop. She sometimes goes on her puppy pads but often doesn’t. It’s frustrating knowing we’d easily house train if the weather changed and meanwhile she’s got the habit of peeing and pooing inside.

Hideous. It was just hideous.

Oh no ThisIsThe, what happened?

Madness pup is 23 weeks now. We took him away with us for 4 nights to stay in a farm cottage - big mistake, he didn’t sleep at all . Thankfully he’s slept through the night again without a squeak since we got home.

Ok we pick up our puppy this morning!

Any top tops for the first few days/nights?!

No sleep. Yapped all night. Not sure how best to go forward with this.

Yeah - took our pup in the caravan. The first time he didn't sleep at all and got me up on the hour every hour all bloody night. I dealt with it by grumbling and threatening to take him to the canning factory - which he ignored. Have taken him in the caravan twice more since and he settles faster now!

He is currently lying by my feet in the office farting and stinking having just eaten the knuckly bit out of a pigs ear. He is very happy and finally drying out from this mornings walk. Will take him out later and get him soggy again!

Mine sleeps in his travel crate by the side of my bed. He has slept very well since the second night. I very much doubt he'd settle in the kitchen and he doesn't bother me in his box in the bedroom so we've settled on this. I assume when he is too big for this iteration of the travel crate he'll sleep in his dog bed on the floor..... Maybe!

We are trying to get her to sleep in the kitchen, she was doing so well before we went away I really don’t want to cave and sleep downstairs with her (her going upstairs isn’t an option for me). Her crate is dry in the morning so it is just company she is after.

I guess we try again tonight and if it is awful again I crack open the air bed.

How old is she ThisIsThe?

I expect she is thoroughly unsettled by being "returned" to the breeder. We had some problems with Elfpup after we went away for a week and left him with friends (although they were food related rather than sleep).

Speaking of him - the blood results this week were much better than the vet expected. It looks like whatever caused the kidney problems may be resolving. Another set of blood tests on Monday may confirm or deny this. I'm going to be a wreck til they come back.

Just need the Kennel Club insurance to actually pay up......

Fingers crossed Elphame for Monday's results.

Thanks Bitey. He is drinking and weeing much less now and his appetite seems to be better as well as the blood results. Less lethargic too.

I can't be 100% sure that it was the new flea and tick treatment but the timescale fits. He certainly won't be having any more of the systemic insecticides.

She is 18 weeks.

So pleased Elfpup is on the mend.

So my plan for tonight is that i’m not going to sit down all evening (she tends to follow me round) and I’ll going to put a frozen treat in her crate tonight.

Hopefully being a bit more tired and have a lovely lamb spine 🤢 to nibble will keep her occupied.

Fingers crossed for you - hope she is nice and tired! I haven't given Elfpup a lamb spine. He had his first bowl of tripe today. I made him eat it in the garden!

He loved it. Me? Not so much! I'm finding the raw food thing quite difficult at the moment.