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.

DH found one of DartyPup’s teeth on the floor of the kitchen today and messaged me a photo of it. Cue mad google dash to see if that was normal (Spoiler: it is). It’s one of her erstwhile particularly sharp side teeth, quite possibly the very tooth that ‘cut’ DS’s ear a few weeks ago when DartyPup playfully nipped him, causing us a trip to A&E for ear repair. So there’s some poetic justice in that - a tooth for an ear.

PS: is it batshit that I’m seriously considering have the Puppy Tooth Fairy pay DartyPup a visit tonight?

Skeleton that's exactly the same injections our pup has had! I think by next week we will start putting him down in less risky places.

I had a mini meltdown tonight, think tiredness induced but not helped by teenage dd who has been massively unhelpful and rude to me all day. Think I shocked her by bursting into tears as she hasn't come out of her room since. It's hard when it's just me doing all the night wakes and early starts plus managing girliepup, work and dd and her ridiculous mood swings!!

It's not pups fault but God this bit is so hard! I find myself wishing the next month away!!

Ah @Girliefriendlikescake I feel your pain. I snapped at my 8year old dd this evening too as she is being so grumpy and has so much attitude and I am just so fed up of her and my ds arguing all the time. Think we all have cabin fever from being stuck at home with each other and I’m probably being led tolerant than usual. Back to school soon and I will have my little puppy all to myself!!!!

Good idea about trying a snack before bed, he is asleep at the mo so might try tmrw. However I feel like it could be so easy to really overfeed him. His kibble allowance each day doesn’t seem to be that much. I’m using a fair bit for practising some little bits of training like Sit. Then I give him the odd chew to encourage him to hang out in his crate. The odd kong with dog paste in it! Then I always have a few small biscuity treats on me for when he is being good. I feel like I could feed him all day long!!

@Calmisthemantra we have a cocker spaniel also have the 30inch Ellie bo one, got it on amazon. I didn’t bother with the divider and wanted to just buy one and not have to replace it as he grows. Seems fine so far.

Slightly better night, pup went from 10-5 although did wee in his crate, he did a poo at 5 and then went through til 6.45. Amazing what a difference that 45 mins makes 🤣

I've had to take the puppy pad out of his crate as he's taken to try and chew it 🙄 I've rearranged the crate a bit so instead of having a bed area and puppy pad bit it's all mostly bed now. The hope being he won't wee in it although he did last night!!

He's getting more bitey as well, got my dd on the nose last night she deserved it 😉 and was hanging off my hand this morning!!

Definitely know how the cabin fever feels, I think as they get a bit older but still not old enough to go out, the days can feel a bit endless.

@Girliefriendlikescake glad you had a better night. Fingers crossed the wees stop soon - our pup literally needed to go out one night and was fine the next and ever since so it seems a bit random as to when they can hold it.

Slightly concerned how many chews I’m giving her. They’re all natural ones, no rawhide or jumbones or anything like that (tbh they’re all really gross) but it’s my go too to keep her occupied at the minute. She’s slightly underweight so surely it can’t be doing her too much harm?

Going to try a cafe for lunch today as DH is feeling a bit neglected I think. Hopefully puppy behaves herself.

Left puppy for 20 minutes today while I popped to the shop. She barked the whole time .

Yay for needle teeth falling out DuchessDarty

Girliefriendlikescake I don't think I've ever cried as much as I have since we got Biteypup. The tiredness is a complete killer!

How did your cafe lunch go? SkeletonSkins We have managed a quick pint in a local pub, but haven't ventured into the realms of full blown meals

Putanotherwashon Did you leave pup with something like a filled kong or chew to keep them occupied? I know someone at our puppy class has terrible trouble with separation anxiety. Luckily Biteypup doesn't seem phased by being left - probably her only positive at the moment

We had such a bad night last night, just couldn’t settle him at all. I’ve been moving the crate another foot or so each night away from the couch where I am (attempting to) sleep. Last night the crate had reached the kitchen door but he could still see me, prob about 10 feet away.
I just could not get him to go to sleep he was wailing and crying. He eventually settled when I sat quietly next to the crate, which wasn’t that fun at 1 in the morning, but every time I tried to get up he would wake and do the same again. Eventually I just went and lay down and we both fell asleep but then he woke at 4 and did it all over again after a loo break. I’m going to go and see the neighbours shortly to apologise and find out how much they can hear. If it hasn’t affected them too much I’m tempted to do cold turkey tonight again.

On the plus side, we took him out this morning to the park, I walked him and then just sat with him for an hour while the kids played. I knew he would be exhausted when we got home so I quickly gave him lunch, he had a wee and then I put him in his crate. He whimpered but I put a dog lullaby playlist on from YouTube and he slept for an hour and a quarter! He popped his head up a couple of times but just checked I was near and went back to sleep. I was just pottering around the kitchen, preparing lunch etc and he was fine.
He has also gone into his crate to rest a few times since.

Am still feeling hopeful it will all be fine but have also wanted to cry from the tiredness all day.

He has also started barking everytime he hears a dog bark outside and at all dogs we pass 🙄

@BiteyMcBiteFace yes she had a kong with peanut butter and a fallow deer antler (apparently they’re softer and good for younger pups).
She just hates being by herself.
I saw a dog walker yesterday and she’s going to do two 20 minute visits a day (costing bloody £15)!
Pup will be left at 8.15, Walker will come at 11, she’ll come back at 1 and my teens will be home at 2.45.
I really hope she can settle to this routine otherwise it’ll have to be dog daycare.

@Putanotherwashon have you rigged up some kind of camera to check on your puppy while you’re out? I don’t know whether I would prefer to be blissfully ignorant or not, but could be useful to know what they’re like.

Do you have a lot of toys for yours? I have a feeling I may need to invest in some more. It’s hard to predict what will grab their attention though.

Ps those doggy visits are so expensive!! We have found a lovely local lady to use when we go on holiday and he can stay at her house. It’s £20 a night, or £15 for a whole day of daycare. Make two twenty minutes visits seem very expensive but perhaps it’s because they can only do one dog at a time doing that.

Puppy visits generally are expensive. I think it's because it's actually quite a pain to get to yours, stay 30 mins and then get back so it's almost an hour on one dog.

My daycare isn't much more and when I think about the time ours is there compared to even just one walk a day it's definitely better value.

@SunnyUpNorth no we haven’t got a camera. Like you say, I think it’s best not to know!! My son was upstairs in his room so could hear her barking. He was under strict instructions not to go to her.
We’ve our dog trainer coming tomorrow so I’ll ask him for suggestions of some new toys.
I’ll look at doggy daycare prices. That might work out better.

I’m just off to agility training so will reply to the rest later but @putthewashon I just wanted to reassure you that our older dog cries continuously the first time we left him for 20 mins for a shop run, and I was convinced I’d have issues. We just kept working on it, leaving him with some food and in a safe space with some toys and after a few goes it just clicked. He can be left 4 hours now no problem and actually seems to resent me a little when I work from home and make him do some training or something similar 😂

@SkeletonSkins, thanks so much for the message. It gives me hope that I won’t have to re-mortgage to find doggy daycare x

What age are you leaving them for the first time? I can’t imagine being able to do that!!

Mine is 13 weeks today. We started leaving her for 5 minutes last week. We’ve now built it up to 20 minutes but she just hates it.

I go back to work in September so am hoping she’ll manage a couple of hours by herself. Not sure she will though .
How old is your puppy?

We've left our pup for an hour in his crate but have timed it for when he is passed out asleep!! We left the radio on which I think helped a bit and made sure we'd kept him busy so he was knackered before hand.

He seems to have two long naps a day now morning and afternoon, he had a mega busy morning today and slept for nearly 3 hours this arvo 😳

I've been looking at puppy sits vs day care as well, am waiting for a day care place to get back to me but think this will be better for us. Usually I can either work from home or my mum can have him but occasionally we will need puppy day care!

I got a camera for mine and I still use it even now as an adult although I just see him snoozing on the sofa.

The good thing about a camera is that you do know when they are upset. The camera allowed me to adjust things to settle BiteyDog when younger. I found he got upset at the wildlife squirrels when he could see out the window so we put up opaque film. Then we found he got upset when he heard other cars occasionally so we put the radio on. But then I discovered a talk channel on the radio upset him as he thought humans were about so switched to a music channel. Then he was fine for a few hours but without the camera we wouldn't have known what was actually setting him off barking as it wasn't us leaving him but actually other things that upset him iykwim.

Forgot to say with the daycare mine is still on his own for approx 3 hours before he is picked up.

Because he is regularly left alone he is used to it when we need to leave him for a bit at other times but then when I am working I don't have to worry about him knowing he will be having a good time at daycare. We started with half daycare as a puppy so he was on his own at the beginning and end of the working day. It was also slightly cheaper than a full day.

Another okay night really, he randomly woke at midnight for a wee and then went through til 6am, he didn't want to go back in his crate then but he did snooze with me on the sofa til 7.30!

He doesn't seem hungry though this morning and only had part of his breakfast, Hope he's okay! Honestly they're such a worry.

Last night was terrible, he had a good sleep in his crate yesterday so decided to put him in it last night and go to bed rather than the couch. He literally barked and screamed at the top of his voice non stop. I kept thinking he would tire himself out and fall asleep and I would making a mistake going down and responding to the barking. I went down a couple of times to bring him out for a wee and felt so bad putting him back in the crate. Eventually around 4am I went and laid on the couch in the living room which is across the hall from him. I clicked every time he paused and eventually he settled for around 20 minutes but then started again. This carried on until around 6ish when I let him out to the garden again and it was light so decided to start the day. He then fell asleep on the floor next to the couch for a couple of hours.

I really don’t know what to do. I’ve probably had around 10 hours sleep total since we got him a week ago. It’s got to the point I don’t feel safe driving the kids in the car I’m so tired although only doing v short journeys to the park for the puppy. Feel bad on the kids too as feel the summer holidays are being very boring for them now and I’m too tired to be fun at home :(

Oh @SunnyUpNorth I really, really feel for you. That is so so hard. I feel like you’ve tried it the advised way, at this point, I’d be tempted to do the same again tonight and go cold turkey. Just because you did so much last night.

Alternatively would you consider having the crate in your bedroom just for a few weeks, so you can sleep at least? Then when he’s a little bit older, you can move it out into the hallway, and gradually to where you want it to be. Its easier when they’re a bit older and a bit more confident.

Trip to pub for lunch was successful, did try and have a cheeky nibble on some fairy lights but I rediverted ha! Meeting a friend for tea tonight and I’ll ha e to take her but luckily where we live is pretty dog friendly so there’s plenty of pubs etc we can go to. Going to take a chew with me tonight to keep her occupied I think.

She’s starting to bark at things to get her own way and I can’t cope with it! It’s so piercing! Just hoping it doesn’t become a habit really.

SunnyUpNorth That little amount of sleep must feel like torture Biteypup's crate is in the dining area which is right outside our bedroom door, so I can only presume that she knew we were close by as she never got distressed at being in her crate at night from day one. Perhaps stick with what you're doing for a few nights and see how it goes. Maybe changing tack to try a different method before giving it time to see if it works might upset them more as they don't know where they stand if things keep changing?

I spoke to the trainer/behaviourist and she is on holiday from tomorrow for 2 weeks and can't see us until her return . If we could just understand more the triggers around her manic biting episodes I would feel much more confident we're doing the right thing. The thought of her being fully grown and throwing herself at us like she does now is terrifying! She seems to lack self control and I'm not sure if it's something she will grow out of, or not.

Hats off to you SkeletonSkins for managing a whole pub lunch without issue Biteypup struggles with settling full stop!