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.

@DuchessDarty that sounds really hard to deal with. What was his response to your question about assessment.

Is Darty pup about 17 weeks now?

@duchess that does sound like a difficult situation. I know we have all gone into this puppy malarkey with our eyes wide open but the reality is pretty full on, even if you have done it before. Is it anything specific he is finding difficult?

After some advice from puppy class about susu incessant chewing I have come back from pets at home armed with stag bars for all dogs, a yaks milk chew and a coffee wood stick. Fingers crossed.

Let me know ho it goes @ditavonteesed as I plan on trying some of these the second MarvelPup is big enough. His chewing is horrendous.

Hi, can I join? My puppy was 9 weeks yesterday. She’s a lovely puppy, she likes her crate, sleeps through the night (as long as I sleep beside her .
The thing is that I spend so much time outside waiting for her to toilet. I took her out after breakfast this morning and have been out an hour with nothing. I’ve now brought her in and she’s merrily popped into her crate and gone to sleep.
If I only stay outside 10 minutes, the minute we get back in she starts sniffing around with her tail pointing down looking like she’s going to pee so I take her out again.
How long should I be staying out each try?

New pup soon, you have to stay out until she wees I'm afraid. We are still not 100% on the house training, a couple of accidents a day. Also pics!
Ms marvellous the yaks milk chew is defiantly the winner and the coffee wood a close second. I have order more of the yaks milk for my other dogs as they all trying to get it.

@Newpupsoon I read that you should let them out. If they don't go bring them back in and sit them on your knee, not on the floor, for 5/10 mins then go back out and try again. I've been teaching "be quick" as my cue for Marvel Pup to go.

Oh. And thanks @ditavonteesed. He's so close to 4 months I might order some so we're ready.

@MsMarvellous thanks, so do you say be quick when you go out or when she actually goes?

I started by taking him out and as soon as he was weeing say "be quick". I did that every single wee outside for the first couple weeks and still reinforce now. But I started saying it more as a cue after a couple of weeks when he got more confident playing.

@MsMarvellous sorry to be a pain. What if you took your pup does a poo but not a wee or the other way round? Did you let him back in or wait for both?

I would keep letting him out every 5/10 mins to give him the chance. Essentially, rather than stand outside for ages I went with a yo yo approach. I still had to be with him every second indoors but at least I wasn't stood on damp grass for an hour at 9pm

Thanks. Will go for yo-yo too then

Aaaaaaggghhh!!! She’s just done a massive wee on my kitchen floor!!!

Newpup 9 weeks is still tiny so I would still be expecting lots of accidents, from what I've read most pups aren't 100% trained until at least 3-4 months!!

Disclaimer we haven't even got our pup yet!! I imagine we will be spending a lot of time in the garden once we have got him 🤣

Apologies I haven't read the entire thread so placemarking. I'm getting a new puppy on Sunday and it's been really useful reading some of the posts. I'm expecting the toilet training to be a challenge but looks like I am going to have to brace myself for sleeping on the kitchen floor as well!

Girliefriend totally agree. My dog wasn't toilet trained for a few months.

It can takes many weeks for a puppy to actually indicate they want to go out or be able to hold their pee/poo until it's convenient.

You also have to remember a lot of people will say their young puppy is fully toilet trained when really they simply recognise the signs and take them out when for me it meant the dog either actively came and found me to let me know they needed to go otherwise they held it in whilst I wasn't around.

You’re right @BiteyShark, so many people have said they toilet trained their puppies in three days. I agree that until she’s signalling in some way that she needs to go, she’s not done .

@Newpupsoon and @BiteyShark I agree. I consider my boy toilet trained now he knocks on the back door with his paw when he needs to go out. Before that it was just because I let him out all the time 😂

We've been looking after my dads scruffy jrt for the last two weeks and I've been impressed as how long he can go without needing the loo.

He has a walk first thing around 8am and then doesn't need to go until about 6pm! He is a 9 yo dog though so well practiced at holding his bladder I guess. Still reassuring that small dogs can be well toilet trained!!

We're going to visit our new pup again this morning 😁 going to take a blanket that smells of dd to leave with him. Only another 10 days until we can take him home!!

Morning, do you mind if I join you?

We have recently got a cocker spaniel puppy. He's now 12 weeks old and he's lovely, albeit with a few bumps in the road!

It's been so helpful reading all your posts, I can relate to many of them!

He's doing quite well generally, the nipping seems to be reducing (touch wood) although still a few accidents inside but that's probably us not being as vigilant as we should.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on stopping pup from chewing his lead? He's had all his vaccinations now and we were wanting to take him outside for his first little walks/sniff around. With that in mind, we got a house line to start practicing on the lead around the house and garden. It's been a complete non-starter

He just wants to chew it and won't budge an inch. I've tried distracting with other toys, etc. Laying a little trail of treats worked initially in that he would walk forward but once the treats had run out, he started chewing the lead again! Argh! Does anyone have any suggestions at all?

My cocker puppy is the same age as yours. She isn’t too keen on the short lead and tries to bite it, but loves the extendable lead, and walks well on that. Glad to see they keep the same hours!

@stanimal we too found trying to do lead training in the house or garden just didn't work. I took pup to a section of footpath, a bit like a cut through if that makes sense, which was quite long, but quiet and not near a road. I carried him there and back to start with and just practised going up and down the path.

Thanks Dlpdep yes these are definitely the earliest starts we've had for a while!

That's interesting about the extending lead, we've not got one of those so I might give it a try. We're having yet another trip to Pets at Home today so I'll have a look.

Does your pup have their lead attached to a collar or harness? We've just been attaching it to a collar around the house, as he doesn't seem to like the harness much, but then with the collar the lead is more "in his face" - probably harder to chew if it's attached to a harness isn't it. I much prefer the idea of the harness but he's such a wriggly thing, I can't get it on him (hopeless).

I'll keep persevering, but I keep feeling I'm not getting it right at all!

We start puppy class in 2 weeks and I can't wait!

We use a collar. We have two harnesses, one is too small the other too big. We have found that she doesn’t need them at this stage as she doesn’t pull. Like 3teen’s puppy she is a bit particular about where she walks. No interest in just going up the road a bit or in the house but once she is out on ‘trail’ type walks she loves it. We are also going to puppy classes in two weeks. She is our second cocker, our old lady passed away earlier this year. They are the most gorgeous dogs. Our other dog would nearly talk to you and this one is heading in the same direction.