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.

Pup just lost his first tooth!

Dlppup is going to the vets today for her second round of shots. We have cracked sleeping thankfully but she is not an eater. She seems to be very nasally and often breathes through her mouth which is worrying. I’ve resorted to hand feeding her little pieces of chicken which is not ideal, but I need to get food into her somehow. I think it might be linked to her breathing issues. She is also very lethargic. Hopefully the vet will have some answers today. Not the ‘crazy pup’ stage that I was expecting. She has started looking to go outside for toilet and has picked her ‘spot’.

Puppy teeth falling, how cute! Does the tooth fairy come?

I love hearing about all of your puppys’ adventures!

Event been on the thread for a while as Lazypup is growing up. Nearly 5 months now.
The more serious problems I am left with are:

1. Although recall is quite good, if he is playing with other dogs in the park it is almost impossible to get him back unless the others go in the opposite direction to me.
2. He jumps up on everyone when we are out. Some don't mind but others are either scared or quite rightly get angry. The biggest problem is small children. They run, he runs. Then they start to cry coz he jumps on them. I get acutely embarrassed and try and catch him and the parents are none too pleased.

Any recommendations in dealing with this. No small children at home anymore.

Haven't not event obvs

Can you spend some time making that recall better. I'm only just starting with MarvelPup but can see us having these issues too and he's going to be big, so I've been reading loads. Can you take him out and practice on a long line?

I used a long line at first but he never went far away so I let him off and all good. Maybe i will try a trailing shorter lead so I can pick it up quick when approaching kids.

Weekends are stressful because of all the people in the park.

Looking for advice around pup's bed. He has grown so much in the 8 weeks we have had him! The bed he has now is OK but he can't stretch out and is often half hanging out unless he curls right up. I ordered exactly the same but the next size up from amazon. So I thought because it looks the same, only bigger he would accept it straight away but now I am not sure. He jumped about on it and then did a little wee on it! I think the wee was excitement rather than scent marking as he is so young and he jumped off as soon as the wee started; but either way of course the bed smells new and has a slightly different texture as it hasn't been washed. I was thinking of putting his old one inside it tonight to try and transfer some scent?? I have sprayed it with lots of the wee wee oder killing spray and left it in the sun to dry. Shall I wash it in the machine to get rid of the 'new' smell? Or am I totally over thinking it?

3teens2cats my dog when young peeded on a new house mat even though he had been toilet trained for months. I washed it and he never did it again so I think it was the 'new' smell.

Soo... when do you stop the lunch time feed.? Teddy not bothered with it but feel still need to give him it. Needs lots of encouragement to have even a bit. He is 17 weeks and a cavapoochon. Eats brekkie and dinner ..

@moreanimalsthanhumans I have read so many different views on this. Some saying 4 meals until 16 weeks. Some saying drop to 2 meals by 4 months. I think go with your gut. Do two big meals and maybe set some aside for an enrichment toy in the middle of the day if you think it'll suit you better?

We have a similar situation. Eats well at breakfast and dinner but not interested at lunchtime. We are mixed feeding so he has wet food and kibble morning and evening but at lunch time he has just kibble which I might put in his bowl or maybe in treat toys or even hide in a cardboard box or something. Sometimes he eats most of it sometimes nothing. I was planning to drop to 2 meals at 6 months. What I frequently find is he eats his meals in 2 parts. So he will go off and have a break and come back to it in half an hour. I have heard you should remove uneaten food after 20 mins but I don't see the harm in letting him eat it over a bit longer if he wants to.

How's everyone doing today? I have one more week until his final vaccinations so I guess two more weeks until I can take home anywhere I like. Just pavement walking is torture, I want green!

Mad hour is still mad but I'm gradually getting better at managing it.

I always like my puppy best on Wednesdays because we do an hour with a trainer for a 1-1 session. Ridiculously extravagant but group classes were hugely stressful as I had to take my 3 kids along too, & I'm hoping we will get more results this way!

I think he also got stung by a bee at the weekend - he was chasing flies around a puddle in the woods when something evidently really hurt him in his mouth - continued to bother him for at least 20 mins, poor sod.

Hi, we picked up our 8 week old golden retriever puppy Sunday who is doing really well and is very very cute!! She had her first round of vaccinations Monday and didn't seem phased by them. However today she is a bit lethargic has had a bit of diarrhoea and is not really interested in her food. Could it be side effects of the vaccinations? She is drinking ok and going for wees. Thanks

@maxheadroom my puppy had a funny tummy after his first worming tablet but not after vaccines. I would call the vet for advice as he is so young. They might say give it 24hrs or they may want to check him out.

Hi everyone, not been on for a while. PuddingPup is almost 13 weeks. I’m finding it very hard right now. The biting is just getting worse. He bites my hands, legs, arms, stomach and goes for my face any chance he gets. I’m directing him onto toys but he just looks past the toy and bites me instead. Even if it’s a longer toy he’ll bite my legs. He’s 11 1/2 kg so not small and he’s really holding on and shaking. Walking away isn’t working, even if I leave the room and stand by the stair gate facing away he just whines and howls then bites again even when I start to play again.

I’m trying so hard with him but just feel like I’m getting it all wrong not sure I can keep going with this.

pudding redirecting to toys didn't work for us. What did was stopping play as soon as the biting started and leaving the room or putting him in his crate until he calmed down (I would ignore the whining/howls in your case) and literally repeating this as many times as it took. However we never continued to play with him when he started to be bitey as I found it was because he was over excited or over stimulated so once back in the same room he had to be calm and if he started biting again I just repeated leaving him alone for a minute to calm down.

Ours is the same @Puddingmama2017 bitey and furious half the time. The kids are really getting nervy around him now. Ours is the same weight as yours so it's hard work. He reaches the kitchen surfaces now too.

I’m just worried I’m doing something wrong and I’m going to accidentally reward the biting leading to him being unmanageable when grown.

He was attacked by two JRT last Friday so he’s still adjusting to going back out and meeting other dogs atm as well.

Pudding lots of us felt like we were doing it completely wrong but we got there in the end. There were many times I thought I was going to end up with a biting aggressive dog but he turned into a big softy as an adult.

@BiteyShark your username is in no way reassuring . Ha. I'm just terrified of a pulley, bitey, horror of a dog. I've read all about the positive reinforcement etc but sometimes I just have to say no and haul him away from something. I feel like a bad puppy parent at the moment.

MsMarvellous my name is in honour of my dog as a puppy. The biting amongst other things was awful

Don't feel like a bad puppy owner. If you read all the articles they definitely are written to make you feel that if you deviate from it at all you will end up with a ruined dog. I am sure lots of them are written to just make new puppy owners feel shit. The truth though is that there are many ways to train a puppy and no one way is right.

Thanks @BiteyShark it makes sense. I didn't follow all the books with my kids and they are growing up to be decent humans.

We start puppy classes next week and he has his final vaccinations too. Once I can get him out in the wide open and start working on recall and go places that aren't concrete I suspect we'll all be happier.

It's so similar to parenting in that there is so much information available on the Internet, some of it conflicting and often from passionate people who see their way as the only correct way to do it. Reading critically and picking out what fits with your family is all very well but difficult when you are in the middle of a situation and just want someone to tell you what to do isn't it. Just as an example, my neighbour yells at her dog, it's horrible to listen to and I would never do that, however I understand why she does ( his bark is horrendously loud and she is just trying to be heard). Eventually he listens to her so while I disagree with it, it seems to work for them. I have a hand signal and whisper "quiet", or just distract pup into something else when he is barking at something but he is not a big barker and his bark is not loud at all so totally different.