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.

Green so exciting for you! We put girliepup in a cat carrier which we still use actually, he is very small though! Not sure what we're going to do when he's too big for it.

Sunny great progress! Well done.

We took the puppy pad out of our pups crate and it seems to have worked in that he hasn't wee'd in it since! But I do have to get up at 5am to let him out 😕

Last night he went from 10pm til 5.30am then went straight back and slept til 7! That's the best night so far in the nearly 3 weeks we've had him.

Annoyingly though he's wee'd inside already this morning and been sick twice but eaten it up again 🤢 not sure if he just ate his breakfast a bit quickly. He seems fine otherwise, is currently trying to eat my slippers!

Another plus to having pup next to me was for the first week and a half or so i would be woken by the first wimper for a wee/poo and i could take her out, at first it was normally every three hours, but now she goes for 7hrs, but she is 10 1/2 weeks old now.

Our pups are exactly the same age blue!

Here is a pic from this morning, the tube is a kitchen roll tube for perspective!!

Girliefriendlikescake What a cute pup! I love the little tufts on his ears!

Exciting times Greenteawhisky Make the most of the sleep you're getting now before pup arrives

We confined Biteypup to the kitchen/diner whilst we nailed the house training and now we're trying to introduce her to the lounge in the evening and it's a nightmare! She won't settle and bounces all over the sofas biting whoever happens to be sat there . In the end she gets taken back into the kitchen/diner because she gets herself so overexcited it's impossible to deal with her. Hopefully if we keep trying eventually it won't be so exciting and she'll get used to it.

She also tried to chase the cat yesterday evening, but thankfully she had her houseline on and I stamped on the end before she could get far She seems less interested in the cat in the house, but this was in the garden and she seems to think she's fair game outside

@BiteyMcBiteFace our trainer said to keep ours on a lead when we started taking her into more rooms in the house. She didn’t really need it as craziness isn’t one of her many faults!
Am going to go back to leaving her in the crate without the pen tonight, she was doing well with that. We only put the pen on so that if we leave her during the day she won’t be forced to pee in her bed.
Do any of you have crate covers? We tried a blanket but she pulled it through the bars! We need a cover which has a side and end door opening. Any recommendations would be good x

girliefriendlikescake your pup is so handsome and teeny. Bluepup is having her first kong stuffed with trout paste, she is still trying to figure it out 🤣 definitely not a scent hound!!! It's keeping her v busy in the front room for ages, when she is still and not chasing it around I'll do an updated photo.

putanotherwashon I tried a crate cover that I made all ready for our pup's arrival.... and she prefers it without anything😖 i think you can get readymade ones on Amazon.

So stressed out. Just left puppy for half an hour while I nipped to get a stair gate. My teens stayed upstairs. She barked and cried the whole time I was out.

I go back to work 2nd September and she’ll be alone from 8, have a visit at 10.30, be alone til 1 when she gets another visit and then alone til kids get in at 2.45.

So worried about it. The thought of it is making me feel sick.
Not really expecting any solutions. So hoping I don’t have to fork out for daycare for her.

@Putanotherwashon How distressing for both of you All you can do is keep trying I suppose. Have you tried leaving for 1 minute and coming straight back in until they get used to that without issue and then extending it bit by bit? I remember seeing that on a programme - I think it was a Victoria Stillwell one My colleague is currently reading a book about separation anxiety as her rescue suffers, so I'll ask her when she gets back from lunch if there are any tips that could help. I know that sick feeling when you get anxious - I think I've had it virtually non-stop since we got Biteypup. On the plus side I've lost lots of weight, as I have no appetite. DH is starting to worry about me though

We cover Biteypup's crate with a blanket and then cover the front in a lightweight fleece, otherwise the cat sits outside the crate and stares at her in an intimidating fashion until she barks I think its the cat's way of revenge for trying to chase her I don't know why, but she's never tried to drag the blanket off.

@BiteyMcBiteFace thanks for responding. We will certainly try going right back to the beginning and leaving her for a minute at a time and building up.
Sadly the anxious feeling is not making me lose my appetite!!!!
Your cat staring into the crate made me laugh !

Oh look at that adorable little face! I know my sister had terible trouble with her cocker as a puppy with separation anxiety. He would still like to go everywhere with her even now if he had the choice, but he's also fine about being left. It all takes time.

I keep worrying that Biteypup will never stop wanting the chase the cat, but I'm sure we'll get there in the end

We wondered what all the frantic barking was one evening when she's normally happy to have a nap after our tea and there was one corner of crate uncovered and the cat was just sat there staring at her very sinisterly totally ignoring all the racket Now we have to make sure there are no peep holes for the cat to terroise the dog I don't blame the cat though, as Biteypup will try and frighten her to try and get her to run

Omg puppy pictures!! @Girliefriendlikescake your puppy is ADORABLE! She’s so so sweet, what breed is she? So tiny compared to my 5kg BRUTE.

@Putanotherwashon another absolutely gorgeous puppy 😭😭😭 is she a cocker? She is an absolutely beautiful colour 😍

If you end up having to use daycsre remember it doesn’t have to be a permanent thing, you could use it to begin with and keep working on her being alone as age and confidence really does help them manage as they just get that bit older. Eventually my plan is to leave ours a couple of days a week, 12-4, and a couple of days 10-12.30, me home for lunch, and then 2-4, with some days a dog walker instead of me coming home (I don’t work Fridays luckily). But to start with we’re pulling in a million favours, my dad ish going to have her, and I’ll possibly use daycare just until she’s a bit older.

Hi everyone,

I have been reading this thread for the past few weeks and we finally brought our puppy home today. I hope I'm ok to join!

I have a question about going in the garden! He is 8 weeks old and has had a single injection against parvo but no other injections yet. Can he go out in the garden for toilet training? The breeder and vet said to keep him inside until his course of injections is finished but that'll be about 5 weeks and I really wanted to get started on toilet training. But I obviously don't want to put him at risk.

Did you all keep your pups in until all vaccinations were compete?

No @keepsmiling1 they’re fine to go in the garden :)

Absolutely GORGEOUS puppy btw 😍😍😍

@SkeletonSkins thank you for that! I thought it was ok to go into the garden but when I spoke to my vet she said that Lepto and other things are from rats urine and so I don't know if that's in my garden or not! So I should keep him inside on puppy pads. I am a first time dog owner so don't want to do anything wrong!

Gorgeous puppy @Keepsmiling1. we took ours out in the garden straight away.
@SkeletonSkins thanks I’d not really thought about daycare only being short term. That makes me feel better that I’m not going to be facing financial ruin forever

@Keepsmiling1 I think the chances of that have to be minuscule - literally everyone I know has let their puppy in the garden for toilet training and none of had any issues. Honestly I’d get the toilet training started as puppies can’t really tell the different between pads and carpets and then you’ll have to start all over again when she goes in the garden.

Oh god it’s that dreaded evening time again, We’ve been at a training day all day today, she’s not done anything other than a bit of socialising and playing and she’s had naps but this evening we have hellish overtired puppy once again who’s just wild. All day today everyone’s been telling me what a lovely puppy she is, how friendly she is, how relaxed she is, and it’s just unrecognisable in the evening and I feel like I’m constantly feeding her just to keep her still and let my older dog relax.

I tried clicking and treating calm behaviour and it worked until I ran out of treats. I can’t keep giving her treats all evening 😭 she just started literally flinging herself at us, hanging off my clothes, biting, biting st furniture, disregarding any toy we try to swap. I’ve just put her in the crate with a frozen bone and she’s occupied for now but I know when it runs out she’ll just as bad.
Maybe I’ll just go to bed really early.

Yep, less than 5 mins of chewing and she’s crying to come out. I just can’t handle her in the evening, it’s so relentless.

Okay she’s just lay down to go to sleep... nobody move... nobody breath...

@SkeletonSkins that sounds relentless. You poor things. What food are you using? Yesterday at the puppy party thing the man was asking us all what god we use and telling us about various brands. There was a jack Russell puppy that was quite hyper and the owners said he is a nightmare in the evenings. I can’t remember what food they were using but apparently it had colourful bits in it that look like veg but are fillers and contain lots of additives, E numbers, colourings etc. He said if they changed to one of the quality dried foods (like sedentary, quantum, Millie’s) they would see a bit change quickly in behaviour. Could be worth checking your food.

All the new puppy pics are soooo cute.
Girliepup is so teeny, what breed is she?

@SkeletonSkins good grief how exhausting. Is it worth maybe saving your pup’s walk til this time at night? Maybe a good sniff round the garden? clutching at straws here.

Our trainer (we call him dogman) has a few videos of his own dog doing puzzle type activities. He said that putting the dog’s kibble in a baby bath of water and making her fish for it was equivalent to an hours walk.
He also talked about food affecting behaviour. I think it was Bakers he was on about. Full of E numbers and even contains antifreeze!!

Loving the adorable puppy pics!

Welcome newbies 😊

Yy to letting them out straight away, our puppy seemed to get toilet training in principle quite quickly. We have to remind him and have had a few accidents but it's not been as bad as I feared!!

The vaccinations thing is doing my head in tbh, our puppy is so desperate to start exploring and we took him for a carry round some fields this evening and he was going mad as wanted to get down so badly! It feels cruel holding onto him when he clearly wants to get down.

There's no way I'm waiting til the 3rd vaccination, from Monday (a week after his second vaccination) I think we'll take our chances.

He's been good today, seems to have grown a bit more in size and confidence.

I'm also a bit worried about potential issues with the cat, he's a bugger for growling at her and chasing her. At the moment its comical as he's so small but obviously won't be so funny when he's fully grown!!

Skeleton he's a he 🤣 and he's a mutt, Jack Russell dad and yorkie mum. So far I feel like he's the best of both dogs, reminds me of our old yorkie in temperament (friendly, biddable, fussy eater, hates getting wet!) but the fact he seems quite bright and is a cat chaser is more Jack Russell!!

I know it's early days but the potential is definitely there for him to be a fantastic little dog 🐶

Ah sorry @Girliefriendlikescake! Well he’s lovely! And I hope he gets to enjoy the ground soon. If it makes you feel better, my pup has been on the ground today. I feel like two vaccinations in I’m willing to take my chances.

I really appreciate the sympathy @SunnyUpNorth and @Putanotherwashon, she’s on a really good quality food according to allaboutdogfood and I mix in some of the ‘step up to naturals’ puppy meat from pets at home which again seems to have good reviews. I think it comes down to the fact she’s a Border Collie, they’re bred to be highly strung after all, and whilst when she’s older she’ll do agility or competition obedience and hopefully be a PAT dog, so she’ll have ‘jobs’ to occupy her so to speak, for now she just needs a bit more help learning to settle down like a hound would need a bit more help learning to recall when he’d rather follow his nose. That’s what I’m going to tell myself and hope for the best anyway! I think although she did get up again, clicker training her to be calm and then making her chew calmly in the crate did contribute to the eventual nap she had. We’ve come to bed early as she does sleep well in her crate so fingers crossed she settles. I’m exhausted too which doesn’t help does it?

She’s only just starting to have walks - we’ve been at a training day today so she’s been out and about all day so I’m theory should be exhausted! I think perhaps she’s over tired and just can’t settle. Like all puppy problems I guess we’ll just have to keep chipping away at it. I really appreciate this thread though just to let off some steam!

One thing I’m definitely going to need to work on witn her is her recall. SkeletonDog was so nervous and scared of everything he never went far and certainly wouldn’t go up to unknown people or dogs. SkeletonPup seems to be quite the social butterfly so far 😂🙈 Need to find some ways of ensuring I’m the most interesting!!

Have you got a whistle for recall @SkeletonSkins? Our pup is so food obsessed that it’s been really easy to get her to come for a treat. We let her off her lead for the first time on the beach today and she came back to the whistle every time. I know that she’s still at the age when she doesn’t want to be too far away from us, we were very proud though !

The thought of letting them off the lead is terrifying! I’m convinced SunnyPup will do one and run off into the sunset! Especially as he seems cross with me for being the nasty person that keeps forcing him into his crate for naps and into the new car travel crate....takes me about 5 goes as i can’t hold him in and do the zips quickly enough so he keeps escaping! They’re all little monkeys.

@Greenteawhisky how did picking up the new puppy go? Good luck with the first night.