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.

Hello can I join? I have a 10 week old lab puppy. We have had her home for two weeks today. She goes from 10pm at night ( I wake her to go for a wee at 11pm) until 5.15 am in the morning. I might try and go to 5.30am tomorrow. No accidents at night at all! She is not our first dog but it has been 11 years since we had a puppy. We lost our old girl last Summer.

I remember how hard work a puppy is but I am exhausted none the less. My DDs were small last time we had a puppy but are nearly grown up now so much easier now I have help. Both are home from Uni and school for the Summer so that is great.

Puppy is fab, really good, not too excitable and hardly any nipping. Only a few puddles in the kitchen, toilet training is fab so far. She is in the kitchen with a crate and a baby gate on the door. We take her outside regularly and in the evening she can come into the lounge with us if she is sleepy and settling, if she starts to leg it around she goes back in the kitchen! I have left her twice for an hour each time and she has settled in her crate no problem but is really happy to see me when I return.

Lovely to hear all your experiences, I remember when we got our old girl 11 years ago I had lots of advice on here!

Just leading on from pups needing their sleep. Now our little chap is quite happy to be left alone for a few hours I find he is actually better behaved on those days. I think it's because he sleeps more. On days when everyone is home and it's really busy he barely naps sometimes and by evening he is pretty crazy. We are also a family who lost an elderly dog earlier this year. You just forget what those first few months are like, love him to bits though.

Hi can I join please, I put a deposit on a little Jack Russell/yorkie mix puppy today! He will be ready in about 4 weeks.

My dd is 13yo and has been begging me for a dog for as long as she could talk, I grew up with terriers and wanted something small but sturdy!

Am reading the thread and taking notes!!

Bugger. The. Item nippy phase has just taken out my favourite Selfish Mother sweater that I treated myself to last year. I've big hole in the cuff. Gutted. How many more months of the incessant chewy biting on an evening . That and the fact he's had accidents indoors for the first time in 3 days today because of the rain. He just doesn't like being out!

On the other hand he's getting the hang of being left which is a massive improvement for my days

He's 12 weeks on Thursday and a pretty happy dog all told. Just a rat bag on an evening.

My 4 month old pulled his bedding out & started humping it this evening. Seems a bit early?!

My 4 month old keeps chewing holes in the gussets of my (human) 14 year old’s pants, because she keeps leaving her knickers on the floor and her bedroom door open. Which meant that she had to go off to her date with her boyfriend this lunchtime wearing shorts and under them, almost-crotchless knickers

This whole chewing everything except chew toys even when chew toys are constantly swapped in is doing my head in

I am just sat here saying Susu no and giving her chew toys every 3 seconds. It's getting a bit tedious. Yesterday she ran off and was trying to get some treats off the side and she actually turned the cooker on. Think it will e a long while before she can be left not in the crate. Ms marvellous are your nights getting any better?

@ditavonteesed thanks for asking. They are. And last night he slept through. In crate at 10pm and instead of a 5:15am wake up he didn't murmur until I came downstairs at our usual time of 6:30!!! It's amazing 😂

I've been practicing hard with the crate though. Treats and shutting him in when I pop upstairs to take washing. Shutting door when he's asleep even if I'm around and only opening it when he's awake but calm. Lots of treats in crate. Games in crate etc. Seems the effort is starting to pay off.

I was planning on starting some recall today. Have my primula cheese ready. Short lead first!

Also - does Susu not just get bored of her toys. We have tons thanks to some fab friends and their gifts. But he just plays and drops them. No favourite yet. 4 more weeks and he can start having antler etc. I suspect food chewing may be more his scene.

Yeh susu is def big on the chewing. I got some new treats from the puppy class we went to and she will literally do anything for them so I've dug my clicker out. I think her toys seem more interesting to her because the others nick them. She will settle in the crate for hours with a Kong with peanut butter. I worked a night shift on Sunday and I was dreading Monday as I though I'd get no sleep but she slept all morning, got up for lunch and a play then went back to sleep till the kids got in from school. I was so pleasantly surprised. But yeh this chewing is getting out of hand and because she's so tall nothing is safe.

Oh the height. MarvelPup can get his front paws on the kitchen benches now. It's a slippery slope from here!

Our pupparoo came early - we were expecting to collect her on Friday but circumstances changed and we got her yesterday. OMG, she is just the cutest thing ever.

@Dlpdep pics or it didn't happen

Aw I can’t post up pics or people will know who I am! I have to leave her now shortly as I have an appointment at 11.

I have a 3month old cocker spaniel. He's brilliant with commands. Has been going through the night until a week ago needs to poo at 4am every morning then thinks it's time to get up. Is fed at 6pm and poos after so not sure how to stop this! Don't want it to become the norm?
Walks either pulling like mad or jumping up our legs to be picked up(I don't do this obvs) I think this is an anxious thing?
Nipping much better but when excitable does it hard so bruising or a little blood, he is a lot better than before and it's hard to stop the excitement as it comes on so quick! But I don't want this happening around the DCs as I don't want it to be OK when he has big teeth! I was told not to let him get excited but that's pretty hard as just happens at random sometimes has a mad five minutes. I guess as he's got better with putting toys in his mouth and timeout to keep doing this???
Great thread guys

Morning all and hope everyone is doing OK? Checking in with progress with update:
Good - I swear Babspup is growing by the day! Longer, chunky little body and as always, just beautiful.
Knows her name and recall is good.
Learning stay and leave it and not too bad at all with these.
Bad - still extremely clingy. Can't leave her at all. Put a filled kong in crate (which ahe loved), left her alone. As soon as she realised she was alone she camw looking for us, crying.
Crate training not going well. I've made it warm, cosy, fun etc. If she falls asleep in the day, we put her in with the door open. Put it downstairs 2 nights ago. Cries for over an hour until she settles. When I get her out, she's totally wound up and frantic. It's awful. Torn between carrying on or just using her bedding in the same spot with a little penned off. She has to be able to settle alone day or night as Ill be going back to part time work in a few weeks and she be alone fir a couple of hours 4 mornings a week. I don't know whether the crate is making her clingyness worse now. Stuck now.

Can anyone recommend a good puppies for beginners book please? Want to do some reading before he arrives in a few weeks!

Hi @Girliefriendlikescake what a gorgeous pup. Through Mumsnet I have bought and read Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy which was fab and also joined this Facebook group

www.facebook.com/groups/374160792599484/?ref=share

Which has also been amazingly useful.

Are all puppies very snuffly? Ours is and seems to breathe in her nose and out her mouth. We are going to the vet on Monday anyway for shots so will have her checked over. Also she does nothing but sleep! No interest in balls at all yet.

Morning everyone. Lovely to see lots of new pups on the thread. We are officially 4 months old today! I am thinking of letting him off lead for the first time this morning..... Around the house and garden his recall is brilliant. He can be right down the bottom of the garden and comes straight away. Yesterday he was following the cat and still came! I of course understand that out in the big wide world is another story but don't want to wait until he is hitting the over confident teenager stage. At the moment I (and probably dh too) are the most exciting things in his life so I feel now is the time to get the recall firmly established. Just to add, I am going to take him to a massive playing field to try it so it will be as safe as it can be and far less distractions than the woods etc.

@3teens2cats that sounds brave and exciting. I still need to find the treat that MarvelPup likes so much he'll actually come back for it. I have ham and chicken for this weeks recall training I think I'll take him out with the long lead this week to have a go.

Let me know how you get on!

I can report back that we had a very successful off lead session. Dh and I called him between us a bit and then he happily followed us as we walked together. Had a little play with another dog and then before we knew it the 20 minutes were up and we headed back to the car. Very pleased indeed with the clever chap.

Mouldipup got stung on his paw by a bumblebee yesterday. Poor little boy. He did cry. An hour later he was right as rain - not so the poor bee.

He had his first trip to the beach this week. Loved it, although he wasn’t too sure about the sea. We let him off his lead part of the time and he was fine. Wouldn’t let him loose in the woods though!

Toilet training getting better although we’ve still not cracked it completely. My fault really because I like to have all the French doors open in the summer so he’s going and out when it suits him. He has been known to come in one door, wee, and then straight out through the other door! We’ll get there. Eventually.

Poor Mouldipup, bee stings are never fun. I bet the beach was great. And great news on the recall training 3teens!

MarvelPup is coming up 13 weeks now and is doing great on toilet training. He's doing less well on not chewing humans and managed to take a chunk out of my finger yesterday. This is a work in progress. Also OUCH.

He also managed to face plant on the patio and has grazed his face. Poor fella.

Otherwise all is good. Except DH is finding it all really hard work.