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.

@SkeletonSkins how old is she? MarvelPup was like this. Every evening he's spend an age tearing about be destructive, bitey, horrible and a total shit. It's noticeably improved in the last 3 weeks since he's been able to go out for walks / got a bit older (16 weeks), started to get big teeth.

Hi all,
Gosh time has flown and morton pup is now 4 months old. He's gone from a tiny portable 2.8kg to a galloping 11.9kg in 2 months (He's a short hair boarder collie cross) he seems to be in the ignore all my training and everything mum says stage. He was potty trained at 3 months but over the last week we are back to accidents at night. Just don't know what's going on with him. Did anyone else's pup do this?
He's had all his jabs and is an absolute angel at puppy school, he's so very smart but when we come home all hell breaks loose and I'm left with a stubborn bitey hound that terrorizes his dog sister (gets a firm no for this and removed from being latched onto my poor girls face regularly) he just seems to be a whirl wind.... please tell me this will get better...

Here he is, looking angelic

Puppies are basically like children in that as soon as you think you have them sussed they move on to the next stage in their development and everything changes! Our boy is now almost 5 months old and has started to not always listen. We are now not the only interesting and exciting thing in his world. He loves to explore and that means trying to climb up on things or dig under them! He loves to hide in bushes which we have had to stop after he got stuck and middle ds has to crawl in and rescue him. We have had to put up some temporary fencing in some parts of the garden just while he is young and silly. I remember having to do this with our previous dog too. Toilet training is pretty much there, had a random accident one night this week overnight though. I think that was because he drank a lot more than usual. We had my mum's dog for the whole day and he copies everything she does. So every time she had a drink he did iyswim.

Skeleton have you booked puppy classes? The ones I booked included quite a lot of useful information and I can email one of the trainers with any issues or concerns before we start (mid sept) I would want to speak to someone re the biting, I am sure it is normal (our pup has taken to nipping our feet as we walk past ) but they might have some new ideas to help with it.

We had a bad night, I woke up at 3am and put him out for the toilet which he did (still no accidents in the home but we are watching him like a hawk!!) but he did not want to go back to sleep. He cried on and off for about 2 hours, dd also heard him and woke up.

At 5am we were both sat downstairs with him, he also managed to upend his crate water bowl which we had bought especially as it attaches to the crate!!

He was up for the day at 7am and ate a big breakfast so maybe he was hungry.

He is very sweet though, taught him to chase a ball this morning which was very cute (he has some mini tennis balls to play with) and dd taught him 'sit' ystd which he picked up really quickly I think he is quite bright really.

We (dd and I) are completely knackered though!!

@MsMarvellous only 9 weeks so I know it’s par for the course, she’s just much more bitey than any previous puppy we’ve had. She’s brill in all other areas though so I’ll just have to put up with it!

@Girliefriendlikescake yes definitely going to puppy class, first one is on Monday. My older dog does agility so it’s the same club and the trainer is my friend as we spend a lot of weekends together at agility competitions. She likes the little frozen ices I made so I think I’ll try making a bigger version. She’s not quite interested enough in Kongs yet for that to work. Fingers crossed.

Does your pup have any late night supper? I tend to give ours something about 9.30 pm just to try and keep her tummy full overnight. Also I don’t know about you but we had thunder overnight so maybe your puppy heard something that spooked her?

I didn't realise your pup was about the same age as mine skeleton remind me what breed you have again?

I tried to get him to eat last night but I think he was too knackered to eat! From about 7pm he really couldn't keep his eyes open. I did give him a small snack at 3am but really don't want to encourage overnight feeds! It might have been the storm but I don't think it was scared crying more I'm bored and I want to play crying iykwim.

It is seriously like having a baby again, dreading going back to work next week! Plan is for dd to look after him (she is 13yo and very sensible) and I will work from home as much as possible.

She’s a border collie :) show-bred though as opposed to farm bred so I’m clinging on to hope that that will take the edge off her energy levels 😂

I'm so tired, puppy was up at midnight, 5am and then 6am for the day.

I know that's normal but omg I'm not used to the sleep deprivation!!

We've had a few small accidents in the house now mostly because we haven't got him outside quickly enough after a nap. This morning I caught him trying to chew the skirting boards 😳 hope that's not going to be a new thing. I'm not massively fussy around the home but would rather not have chewed skirting boards!!

@Girliefriendlikescake the sleep deprivation is a bugger. Hope you have coffee!

I have a question. How do you get your other half to take the 'spending time with and training' seriously. My DH loves our pup but is so frustrated that he doesn't want to go for a walk with him and doesn't listen to him. I've said he needs to do the training stuff, start slowly, build a relationship.

I've sent him all the stuff from puppy classes and other info to read. If I try show him he gets all defensive. I can lead a horse to water etc etc but how can I get him to engage?

MsMarvellous DH didn't spend really anytime training BiteyDog in the beginning partly because he was working more but partly because he was 'my' dog as I wanted him.

However, they are totally inseparable now and it's clear they adore each other .

I found that as BiteyDog started to show his adult personality rather than being an furry arse he liked him more. As for the training it was pointless me showing him what I had been taught as he either didn't agree or wouldn't do it quite right. What did work was getting a good 1-1 trainer to work with us both together as then he totally 'got' what we needed to do and how we both needed to be on the same page. It also showed us how BiteyDog changes his approach depending on who is doing the training as our body language and relationship with BiteyDog is different.

We seem to have taken a bit of a step backwards. For the past couple of days our 13 week old puppy has become a biting maniac. I'm not sure what has changed since he was very easy to calm down previously and now he's ramped up the biting and mouthing.

@kjhkj his teething is probably ramping up and new teeth moving around ready to pop out the baby ones.

Yeah I would think teeth as well.

Our boy seems to have discovered some new found confidence, he ran at the cat this morning growling and barking! Cat wasn't bothered but will clout him if he gets to close. He is also loving the garden, has sniffed every inch of it, I follow him about like a helicopter parent as am worried he'll eat something he shouldn't!

He had a good night though, I woke up at 3.50 and put him out and then he woke up crying just after 6. They means he went a good 5.5 hours asleep with no accidents.

Finally get to join, we've just got an 8 week old pup. This thread is so great, I'm gradually working my way through it to pick up tips and prepare for stuff. So far pup has been clean and dry at night, she is in her crate. Last night was the most successful so far, last potty visit at 10pm then in crate, fake cry for potty at 11pm I took her out just in case, nothing...but she heard an owl so a tick in the socialisation box . Then through until 4:45am, little bit of extra sleep after wee and poo until 5:45am then up. Ive just been playing a soundtrack of fireworks to hopefully avoid stress for pup in November. Done a bit of harness/lead practise in garden, can totally relate to helicopter parenting when in garden, I can't remember being this attentive when my kids were tiny but then pups move sooo fast!

Hi all - can relate to the helicopter parenting it's the speed these pups move that's the problem!

I was cutting some birthday cake yesterday when I dropped the knife and cake on the floor, Stan shot across the room like a bolt of lightning, I tried to pick up both knife and cake at the same time (it was chocolate cake of course) - not recommended. Stan got a few crumbs but I was panicking the he was going to get the knife - so relieved when he didn't! Phew.

We're starting our puppy classes next week, which I'm a bit apprehensive about! Mainly because I'm clueless and don't want to look like an idiot! But I should be used to that by now

I was thinking of doing some more 1:1 training as well, so that's really interesting Bitey about the different "dynamics" between pup and different family members. Last time the trainer came it was just me and pup, but with hindsight it would have been much better value if we'd all been there. Also as it's at home you're in the environment where issues are likely to come up so that's a definite advantage of it as well...

I think I'll see how the classes go and take it from there.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Hi blue that is a brilliant idea about playing firework noise, I hadn't thought of that! We had a storm the other night and I was really pleased I could tick that off the exposure list!!! What type of dog have you got?

This is our pup 😍

Oooo yes love the fireworks idea! Our puppy is a bit nervous of loud sounds so definitely something I need to do.

We had our first full night sleep last night! 10-6am lol. She’s been sleeping until 7/7.30 when I’ve had her up for a wee at 2am so hopefully it’ll go back to that as it’s just that little bit later.

Toileting going pretty well, had a slight set back yesterday where she did like three wees in the house in a row! But she just ran to the door for a wee a moment ago so hopefully we’re back on track.

She’s quite an independent pup, luckily I’ve been able to leave her in a room while I go and shower or sort something and she’s been fine. This is much better than SkeletonDog who still waits at the door until I come back!

Puppy class starts tomorrow. Two weeks until she can be walked on the floor and I can’t WAIT, she’s so heavy!! Will only be doing little walks to start with but hope it takes the edge off her energy. The biting is still a nightmare.

He is lovely, those big puppy eyes are adorable. We've got a shih tzu, when I'm out carrying her to the playground she keeps getting mistaken for a toy dog (a v wiggly one tho, she can't wait to be off walking after her next lot of jabs)

Do puppies have developmental leaps much like babies?! I think our pup has had one today, he has been like the Tasmanian devil 👿🤣 plus he seems to have forgotten all the toilet training and did 3 wees on the floor in quick succession 🤦‍♀️

He's passed out on the living room floor and we're all tiptoeing around him enjoying the 5 mins peace!!

Hahah I definitely think they do, we had a day like that day before last. She’s been great with house training but we had three wees inside in about one hour!!

First puppy class tonight went well but she’s been wild since we got home. Definitely overtired!!

That's good the puppy class went well, I'm looking forward to starting them, I also can't wait till we can start letting him down outside!! It's another two weeks today until we can 😫 when we carry him when out and about he is getting really wriggly and I'm scared we'll drop him!!

Oh I hear you on the wiggly puppy! And whimpering too. So much for my romantic ideas of lovely walks with a gorgeous cute puppy 😂 she’s heavy too!

To be honest, I have put her down on the beach near the sea as I needed to walk my other dog and I figured as long as I kept far away from everyone else, then as the beach gets washed by the tide twice a day it can’t be too bad. You take your risk - my other dog would surely bring any bugs back anyway.