Tips for surviving puppy motherhood? 🐶

[GinThereDoneThat]

Hi all, a new poster here and wondering if you have any "pro tips" for a puppy coming to join our family in early May.

I haven't had a puppy for a long time despite being an experienced dog owner, and I'm feeling a bit rusty

That's wonderful Gin. Sounds like she's going to be an easy pup.

She has been as good as gold so far really but I still feel overwhelmed - I hope the puppy blues don't come for me

Having a new animal is always scary I think, well it is for me, and when my dog is unwell, as she has been recently I get into a terrible state over it. I think it's just the way some of us are.

If the puppy blues get you, you just need to come on here and cry. I think a great many posters on the doghouse can empathize and offer support. But hopefully you'll be fine.

Most of her day has been spent like this lazy pup! She can't even be arsed to stand up in her crate and just army crawls to her bowl of water

@pigsDOfly I think I will be coming on here to cry if needed! Thank you

She's so cute :)

Mine was fine during the puppy stage, an absolute dream. It was the teenage stage that got to me.

Oh god. Can I skip to the dog phase when she's no longer tiny?!

Amazing @Gin .....very very Impressive. We had a westie before Bonny Cockapoo...real characters but not easy to train! The Cockapoo is mega smart and a very fast learner. Got clickers from AMazon and our little girl is now doing WAIT, COME plus NAME, FETCH. When too bitey or out of control, we are doing STEADY and disengaging. She's doing very very well.

@Tinkobell that's incredible! My pup has to have the crappest attention span ever

She won't even eat her dinner her attention is so rubbish - 4 mouthfuls at best before she wanders off on another sniffing adventure

Gin a good tip is to use the part of her food ration for training. Just little things like if she follows you or runs to you, plays nicely with a toy or even sits! You won’t be giving the commands of course, just starting to reward her when she does things of her own accord that you would like to encourage.

Mine was a rubbish eater (moved him to a raw diet when he was older) and this really helped get his nourishment in!

@ToothTrauma thanks very much!! I think that's what I'll have to do to get her to pay attention to me

Tried putting her to bed a little bit earlier tonight and she didn't like that, so calmed her down but now she has fallen asleep inside the crate after me staring her in the face while she cried to get out.. I am horrible bless her.. now I need to somehow stand up and relocate to the sofa

And it was all going SO well.....well it still is, she's just being a bit of a minx in the garden. Starts trashing flower borders, tugs washing off the line, digs up leather-jackets and eats them! I've tried blanking and walking away which is sort of effective. Tried scruffing and raising finger and saying 'no'.
Any tips of dealing with naughty unruly behaviour out there?!

Also curious - this one likes to eat grass and dandelions and socks and wood etc

Tinkobell I blocked off access to a lot of the garden until mine was a bit older and understood that he couldn't dig/trash the flower beds. When he was very young anything I did just washed over him as I think it was too much fun being out there.

I suffer with Fibromyalgia and in turn with this comes anxiety and depression, and since the pup came home I have felt physically sick and like it's a mistake! I know it's still early days but my cat hasn't come past the top step since the 2nd day and so hasn't eaten. It's so much responsibility to juggle with uni exams and being the only one present with her at time, I'm beginning to feel we haven't thought this through

Gin it's the puppy blues. Very very common and I suffered from the 'what the hell have I done'. If you search you will find lots of people on here felt the same.

If someone had magicked my puppy away at the beginning I would have been relieved. I didn't love him until he started to develop into adulthood. And now I can't stand to be away from him and the house would be empty if he wasn't here.

So it's perfectly normal to feel like that and it may take a while but keep going. They grow up very quickly.

@BiteyShark I thought I would be besotted and in love, after visiting her at the breeder I was, but I just don't feel anything apart from anxiousness! I have been crying on and off all day and have no idea why as she's been quite a good pup today and since getting her there have been no real, big problems.

I just feel like the constant supervision is too much, I can't get ANYTHING done and I know I will be flamed for this "what did you expect" but I knew what to expect, I just thought I was ready for it and I'm clearly not

Yes all of that sounds familiar and a lot of us on here felt the same. Trust me they grow up quickly and slowly you will be able to get more things done.

I never left the house for the first month. It was awful and all I could see was this demanding bitey puppy. Now he sees me getting the cleaning stuff out and just jumps up on the sofa as he knows it's boring time and sleeps.

It will get better. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Gin I've been there. Couldn't eat. (Sooooo unlike me!) Constant knot of near panic. Exhausted and unable to take my eyes off her for an instant. I was a mess. I kept telling myself all the hard work would pay off. Well hoping!
She's 18 and a bit months now and a complete joy. Love her to bits.
Hang on in there!

We’re picking up our mini schnauzer puppy on 20 may. Can’t believe it’s so close now been nearly 2 years intge planning - the nerves are starting to kick in now though!

When the puppy is at the breeder and it's all cute and everything is just so exciting it's easy to get lost in the loveliness of having a puppy. But once this little creature becomes your responsibility it can seem totally overwhelming.

You look at other people with their puppies and think they make it look so easy. But I suspect many of the are like ducks, they're all fine on the surface but paddling like fury underneath. If my dog, when she was a puppy, had a particularly well behaved walk, which she did sometimes, I'd think people would look at her and think she was so good, little did they know. I lost count of the times I said to her as we were leaving the house, 'please don't embarrass me on our walk today'.

I think if you're a worrier, you're going to worry about any animal you have. Try to enjoy her Gin rather than worrying that maybe you're not getting it 100% right all the time.

You're doing your best and it sounds like you're doing great. Puppy blues definitely is a thing. It will get better.

Thanks for the support everyone, really comforting. I just keep having to tell myself she will grow out of it, she WILL gel with our family and she WILL settle in to our lifestyle eventually.

I feel so guilty because she's good as gold really, just doing normal pup things

Gin it is completely normal to feel like this. The puppy blues are REAL and they are brutal.

Have you read The Happy Puppy Handbook by Pippa Mattison? I absolutely swear by her books (she has great books on recall training and on labs in general) and this one is brilliant for the early days. It’s so reassuring. Why not give it a read and see if it helps?

The constant supervision is so wearing but it will NOT last forever. At the moment all you need to do is keep her happy and safe. Have you been taking her about for socialisation? She’s too young to walk on the floor but we found carrying her into Pets at Home (you’ll feel like a famous person), up and down the road, and even into the pub was great.

@ToothTrauma thanks so much for that I will have to give the book a read! She's having her second jab on Monday so not long to wait until she can be taken out on a lead, but I might try walking up and down the road with her in my arms for a little bit before that.

Currently testing out how she is being left alone in the house - I'm upstairs and she's in a pen downstairs, she cried/whined for a little bit and then seems to have settled now!