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.

Evening all, I'm a newbie here. I have three boys (11,10,7), wonderful DH, beautiful aged Border terrier (15 next week) who gives me no trouble, and last Sunday we bought home a lab puppy. He's 8 weeks, sleeps through, in the kitchen in his bed, is mostly house trained and knows sit, stay etc. So mostly we are doing well, however He howls like a complete twat in the car, digs for England, and bites ALOT. We're starting a IMDT training course when he's ten weeks, I just don't remember it being this hard with my BT. Please tell me I won't end up with a monster dog that drags me everywhere and is total dickhead.

RedBoo, I’m not sure if it’s any condolence, but I definitely remember thinking ‘my god this is hard’, and him screaming on a 5 minute car journey and me worrying we’d never be able to take him anywhere, he’d get separation anxiety etc but he’s great in all those areas, no issues at all. Behaviours at 8 weeks are definitely not set in place for good and are a work in progress.

We picked up our little sausage yesterday. She’s a complete delight, really sweet and loving. So much more confident than SkeletonDog who came from a completely different background.

She’s had a couple of wees and poos outside, played with some toys, and she’s eaten so that’s good. She slept through the night perfectly from 10.30-5.30am without any accidents or even a murmur which is a world away from our experience with SkeletonDog as he was a nightmare at night. The only problem is I barely slept a wink due to that hit of anxiety about have we done the right thing, this is full on, is this the right thing for SkeletonDog. He’s a bit wary of her at the minute but I do think he will come round!

Plan for today is letting her settle in and a quick trip to the local raw dog food shop to get some puppy mince for her. Maybe we’ll have a go at putting a collar on her ha. Feel like it might be quite a long day!

Thank you, I think I’m just obsessing over him and only seeing the problems. Probably tiredness I guess. Your little one is gorgeous, hope you have a good day.

Skeleton your puppy is gorgeous! I think anxiety is probably normal when you're bringing something new and life adjusting into the home. I know my anxiety will peak when we bring our puppy home (not long now next Tuesday!)

We've just spent a few days with our friends and their golden retriever, beautiful dog but blimey full on! Feeling like us going for a smaller breed is def the right decision.

I've pretty much finished easy peasy puppy squeezy so feel like I know a bit of the theory of puppy training 😬

Thank you, she is cute but she’s a little crocodile! She’s been great today, settling in her pen by herself and I’ve been trying to spot the ‘overtired’ signs! One little puddle inside today but she’s doing well. SkeletonDog is showing a bit more interest but still wary. However I took her to my nans before as I help care for her, and when we came home he sniffed her and wagged his tail which is progress!

When OH came home I took him for a walk and think he definitely bore the brunt of the witching hour which I felt slightly guilty for but then I’d had her all day!!

My main worry is she is quite shy when not in the house - at my nans she was a little unsure so just need to build her confidence. She also is not a fan of car journeys right now haha. Fingers crossed for a quiet night.

So our puppy is in the house!

He seems okay, very quiet and a bit overwhelmed but I was expecting that tbh. He had his first jabs Ystd and apparently that can make them a bit sleepy?

He is currently chilling in his crate and I'm psyching myself up to leave him and go to bed!

He had done two poos outside 👏🏻 which I was very impressed with! Had to wash his bum after the second one as he got a bit pooey 😬 how often do puppies normally poo?!

@Girliefriendlikescake how did your first night go? Our puppy seems to go after each meal.

Skeleton puppy has settled in, she sleeps well which is a relief after the trauma with Skeleton dog who screamed all night when we got him! Toilet training she’s been great too. Our main issue is the biting - oh god the biting! We have Kongs, natural chews, carrots, frozen tea towel but she has the attention span of a gnat so she will chew a chew for a couple of seconds and then it’s back onto my arm/clothes/furniture. So it’s a constant job to redirect!

She’s been lovely and friendly when people have visited which is a relief as SkeletonDog was so nervous and so I feel pressure to get it right with Skeletonpup. She’s more nervous out and about so that will be what we need to work on. She’s starting puppy class on Monday too which will be a good experience.

I have to say what has worked, in case it helps anyone else, is I mushed up some banana, mixed in natural yoghurt and some squirty cheese and froze it in some moulds like little doggie ice pops. Buys me enough time to eat my tea anyway haha!

We survived our first night, he woke us up at midnight crying but had done a wee and poo in his crate so needed sorting out bless him! Problem was I couldn't get back to sleep for ages 😫 the puppy was fine and went straight back to sleep!

Caffeine will keep me going today.

Discovered all the puppy treats we bought are of no use as are all for pups over 4 months.
Quite annoying, am wondering about cooking up some chicken and using that as a treat instead?

Chicken would definitely work! They only need tiny tiny little bits at this age.

I absolutely know how you feel about not being able to get back to sleep. The first night I barely slept at all because I felt so anxious about it and was listening out for her. It’s been much better since though so hopefully you get a good sleep tonight!

My puppy will do just about anything for little bits of chicken. Sliced hot dogs work too.

We've had a pretty good day, am so impressed at the fact that so far we've had no accidents, all wees and poos have been outside!

He's not eaten much so that's worried us a bit, I think I buggered up the routine as I stupidly fed him last night when he woke up. It did mean that he slept in until 7am but he didn't then eat until 3 this afternoon 😳 so nearly 15 hours without eating anything!

He seems happy in himself though, has been really playful today and we took him for a little walk (we carried him) around the estate.

Awww he’s very cute @Girliefriendlikescake. We have the opposite problem to you...fabulous eater, not so good with the toileting!

Ahhhh what a cute picture!! I’ve been worried about the eating too as she’s just not that interested in it, but she seems to be getting better as the days go on.

My 8 week old puppy tried to hump one of his soft toys this morning 😱 seriously already?!!!

Hello! Can I join in?! We got Toby, a nine week old Dalmatian on Monday. I'm EXHAUSTED! Toby is a long promised dog for my 16 year old, after a previous pup sale fell through 18 months ago, and I think she's seen Toby the least out of everyone in the house! I feel like I'm constantly neglecting my 3 year old, and 13 year old, who although a teenager, has Downs Syndrome, so is basically an almost man-sized toddler!😂 We've had the odd(!) accident despite me trying to be hyper vigilant, and night times are AWFUL, Toby just barks, whines and howls. Came down to the kitchen this morning and couldn't actually get in it for all the poo and wee all over the floor! We're going to try him in his crate tonight, and even then if he does make a mess, it's a contained mess! I'm so panicky about our neighbours complaining too which just adds to my anxieties! I'm trying to relax a bit with the being hyper vigilant on the toiletting front as Husband says it won't help with Toby's separation anxiety if I'm always there following him wherever he goes, so today I'll try to ease off a bit and pray for no accidents! Sorry for the long ranty introduction, I think I'm going slightly mad!

are you taking him out to go to the toilet immediately before bed urgent?

Yes we are, last night he did a wee and a poo outside, didn't make a blind bit of difference! Poo has so far been runny too since we've had him. Tried changing his food yesterday but so far no difference, hoping it's just anxiety at being somewhere new.

@UrgentExitRequiredFella oh my. Another Dalmatian. Hooray. Ours is 16 weeks today. I had him in his crate from day one and slept downstairs. It took about 3 weeks before he slept through and didn't need a loo break in the night. Here is MarvelPup to say hello.

He was in his crate the first night we got him, would happily go in it during the day too. First night he slept from 11-6.30, no problems at all, it's been a completely different story since then! Tried him in the kitchen instead so that he wasn't contained which was clearly a huge mistake! Ive put his crate back in the front room this morning and hidden a few treats in there so that hopefully he'll get a good association with it again...

If his poo has been runny it might be worth taking him for a puppy check with your vet.

I would def think the crate would be better as at least in theory they shouldn't want to wee and poo in it too much!! I would think a puppy check at the vets would be a good idea as well.

We're doing alright here, puppy went to bed about 9pm and I woke up at 3am and thought I better check on him, he was fine, no accidents in the crate so I put him out and he did a wee and poo. Then he slept through til 6am and wanted to play then!!

We've taken him out to pets at home, he looks terrified most of the time we're out but he is still tiny bless him!

We've booked a vet nurse appointment for tomorrow to check him over.

@UrgentExitRequiredFella (great username btw) changing your puppies food abruptly can really upset their tum, it’s best to swap them gradually so id stick with what puppy is used to and do a gradual change over if possible. Definitely worth a vet check with a young pup though as you don’t want to take a risk.

Nights can be so hard. Are you able to get up a couple of times in the night to let your puppy out for a wee? Might prevent some of the clean up in the morning!! You could also consider sleeping next to puppy maybe on the sofa for a couple of nights until they settle in a bit. When they cry all night it really is awful and makes you so anxious so you really do have my sympathy.

Well we’ve had a really busy day, two sets of visitors, a trip to daddy’s work and then I carried Skeletonpup in a puppy carrier for an hour and a half walk over the sand dunes with some friends. Didn’t intend for it to be this busy - both sets of visitors were unexpected. She’s been great all day but is now exhausted and my god am I paying for it. Worst she’s been, tearing around at 11pm hurtling from one naughty behaviour to the next! Biting everything is sight HARD. I’ve brought her up to bed and put her in her crate - I know she’s exhausted. She wasn’t happy at first and crashed about a bit but I think she may have just fallen asleep ...

I am really worrying about the biting. It’s constant, and no amount of redirecting onto chews or toys is helping. I think she may need some sort of reinforcement, whether that’s some kind of ‘time out’ or something I don’t know.

@Girliefriendlikescake mine looks a bit overwhelmed too whenout and about but she’s been looking more confident the past couple of times so I’m hoping it’s more of an experience thing? It’s hard because I don’t want her to have a negative experience but also she needs to get used to the world at some point’