Young Puppy Support Group

[DuchessDarty]

I’d been looking for one of these but the only puppy support thread currently running is for older puppies. I’ve seen a few threads recently from posters who have new puppies like me, and thought I’d start our own group as I’d love to compare notes. But all welcome!

To kick off -

My pup, DartyPup, is a female poodle cross who is nearly 11 weeks old. Very sweet, friendly, fairly calm, sleeps a good stretch at night in her crate no problem and is happy to play in the garden by herself if I’m in the kitchen/conservatory and we easily have eyes on each other. She has a lot of naps and is doing well with house training.

But- she has the usual puppy traits of being needy and nippy. She loves biting bare toes and has a witching hour in the evening (as another poster aptly describes it!).

I adore the bond we seem to have bit am finding it draining. My children are old enough to be hands on and are keen to be, but their periods of peak energy don’t always correspond with the Pup’s. And when it comes down to it, she often wants me and so will whine if left with them downstairs while I escape for a rest. If they mistakenly leave a door open giving her access to the stairs, she’ll leg it up to find me. A stair gate isn’t an option unfortunately due to the design of our stairs.

Both my kids have never been particularly early risers and I’ve always been secretly pleased about dodging 6am wake up calls ... until DartyPup.

And we need some more photos on the thread of all the puppies.

He is very very handsome.

MarvelPup (keeping the name) was up quite a lot in the night but always settled again quickly and no yowling or barking just some whines for attention. Not a single wee outside despite taking him but a couple on the floor.

I'm going to crate him in my room tonight in the hope I can settle him faster, quick question though. I have read one guide about taking a week or more to teach pup to trust the crate before shutting the door, and another who shuts the door overnight straight away.

Gut tells me MarvelPup could cope with number 2 option if I am right next to him so I do that right. And lift him for a wee during the night if needed.

Yes that's what I'd do. I have our crate right next to the bed so if need be I can stick my fingers through the bars to give him a quick stroke and talk to him, and can hear him as soon as he wakes up. Crate is covered in blankets for cosiness. Picture of my boy for cute factor.

Awwww. Look at his tummy. Thanks for replying @tinkywinkyshandbag. This is as bad as when I had a human baby to ask 'how to' questions about

@MsMarvellous I know right!!

Ooh lovely lovely little pup @tinkywinkyshandbag

@MsMarvellous it may well be too late but I locked DartyPup’s crate at night from the very first night, but was on the sofa right next to it so I did the dangling my fingers thing.

In contrast, I didn’t lock DartyPup’s crate during the day when I put her in there for a nap, but I sat beside it so she’d feel secure (and stay in!)

@DuchessDarty thanks. I locked the crate and covered it and slept in the sofa. I actually tried upstairs but he just wouldn't settle. After I got him off to nod he slept until 3:45 when we went out for him to wee then up at 6. Which is early but nowhere near as bad as it might be.

We did have to carpet pips this morning because it's raining heavily and grass is soaking. I suspect it feels more like dry grass then the kitchen floor.

How're all your bigger pups doing?

Bit late to the party, but we have Otis a nearly 18 week old pup.
Not getting the hang of nights, he sleeps downstairs in his crate, which I've had a puppy pad in since he came home to be on the safe side, but some days its wet and others not. He doesn't generally let me know he needs to go, I've had the door into the garden open most of the time when I'm at home so he's got the hang of where to go.
An early risers tho, anywhere between 5 and 6am, although I'm used to that.
Hoping to start some training classes soon, although he seems to be doing well.

Do we all have moments where we question what we've done or is that just me?

Can I join in? This is Susu, we picked her up on Friday and she's 12 weeks today. She has been a delight so far the biggest problem we have had is getting my other dogs to accept her, they are tolerating her now. She sleeps all night in the crate and only had one accident in the house. I am waiting for her to come round to living her and turn into a nightmare but right now she is very calm and gentle and takes herself to her crate when she's tired. Not brilliant in the car, although I was dreading the drive back on the motorway, dd1 15yo came with me and both of them were fast asleep by the time we got to the motorway. I'm going to have to leave her alone for an hour while I walk the other 2 today so we'll see how that goes. She seems to sleep in the crate as soon as she has had a good play and toilet so I think timing is key. She also seems to like a lot of noise so I'll leave her the radio on,

Oo @ditavonteesed do I spy another Dalmatian ❤️. She's lovely.

@MsMarvellous Marvelpup is gorgeous. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security though ...... Mouldipup was the sweetest gentlest pup the first two days we had him. On day three he morphed into a crazy ankle biter, champion chewer of furniture (currently chewing the chair I’m sitting on) and tip top slipper thief!

Here he is!

You do, there are not many of them around anymore are there? I'm going to try and take the other dogs for a quick walk while she is doing this. Mouldy gorgeous, looks like a very cute teddy bear. I am waiting for Susu to come into her own, my mum has a 15 week old poodle and she went from calm to an absolute nutter over the course of a week.

Awww look at mouldipup. So cute!

MarvelPup's chew of choice is my ears. Lots of distraction with chew toys happening there as it bloody hurts.

What age can I start giving him some fun stuff in his kong to keep him occupied while I do stuff.

This week my task is to start crate training so I can leave him for short periods. He's so heavy (just had to do school run with him)

Mouldipup is a heartbreaker!

And so is Susu!

I’m laughing in recognition at those first few days of calm. I was feeling slightly smug at what a chilled puppy we had, and how she immediately stopped something when you said “no”. Yeah, didn’t last long.

She’s become more chilled again in the last week (14 weeks today). She’s my good girl.

These pups are all GORGEOUS! tinkywinkyshandbag I love your pup's spotty tum 😃
ditavonteesed I have a 15 week old mini poodle - should I be scared?! You might have to get your mum on here!

I have a cure for ear chewing! Or at least it worked for me. I now wear quite heavy hoop earrings all the time. Mouldipup is less inclined to chew them than my earlobes and when he does it doesn’t hurt. Doesn’t save my feet and fingers though.

I’m still struggling to get into a proper routine during the day tbh. The ‘broken plan’ downstairs means that unless I literally follow him around all the time I can’t see what he’s doing. Toilet training is very variable although he is largely paper trained - I did try taking the paper away, but that meant he just p’d and pooped randomly. So I’ve put it back down and plan to reduce it gradually. He sleeps in his crate fine at night, but has no interest in going in during the day. I think the main prob is being unable to confine him in a smaller area. I guess we’ll just have to persist. At least I can take him out from Thursday - getting stir crazy. Can I ask those of you who have a routine what it is. (He’s just 10 weeks by the way.)

Honestly my mums poodle puppy is an absolute nutter, so flipping cute though. The kids have given her her own motto 'toys not toes' Susu was fine while I walked the other 2 this morning, I put the radio on as she seems to like noise. I just thought I'd lost her as she was on vet bed at the side of sofa (older dogs won't let her on sofa), she's gone back in her crate. I'm slightly scared about when she settles in and is no longer calm, she keeps trying to engage my chickens in play which is hilarious and has resulted in a pecked nose more than once.

my 8 month poodle still chews my ears. Very gently, I would call it nibbling...I find it terribly sweet..
However, I have been told by a behaviourist [that I am inviting over] that this is very bad. And I that have encouraged him...Personal boundaries seem to have blurred...

There is this bitter aloe thing that you paint on I'm told...I should have acted sooner..

Here is an updated one of PuddingPup. We’ve had him a week tomorrow and by some miracle we’ve had no accidents since Thursday. He’s very bitey so I’m keeping his antler close by for him to gnaw on.

I’ve got a lot of anxiety though about doing everything wrong and it’s stressing me out. I’m worried I’m not helping him learn to be alone the right way, I’m worried I’m not going to train him well, I’m worried about him with the kids and cats. I’m following all the advice on the FB page, but so much of it seems rigid and if you don’t do it exactly as they say you’re getting it completely wrong. It’s disheartening.

@Puddingmama2017 I reminded myself of the truth when I started with my daughter as a baby...they haven't read the book. So as long as you are being positive I'm sure you'll be ok.

I also feel like this Puddingmama2017 but then I thought that there are 9 million dogs in the UK, most dogs I meet are lovely and all those owners can't be dog whisperers, so it must be doable if you put a bit of thought and a lot of love into it. You're doing fine! Even the fact that we're on this thread shows we really care.

As long as you ar kind and set boundaries you can't go far wrong, dogs are probably the most forgiving creatures around.

Thank you all! I feel a bit better today! Going to try and write all my anxieties down and tackle them one by one.