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.

Oh Chelsea you poor thing, it’s so difficult. You’ve got to look after this little pup for potentially a long time so it’s got to be right. When we were looking for a puppy we went to see one at a breeder I’d heard really good things about and they would have been my first choice of breeder. I had a complete physical reaction to this puppy. I disliked so many things about it and felt so panicky all evening as I just knew I did not want it. We said no which was hard as we had been looking for one for ages. I couldn’t work out if it was that specific puppy or that I didn’t want a dog. But when I met the puppy we ended up getting I just completely fell in love. It’s alot of hard work to do for a pup you don’t care that much for. Plus with being little he would probably get rehomed very easily.

The leaving is hard. It shouldn’t be this hard!! I keep telling myself at least I’m not having to go back to work and leave him but it still feels cruel. I think I am projecting too much human baby onto this little puppy.

I agree sunny there were a few other pups we looked at before this one and I know this sounds cliche but when I saw our puppy I just had a really strong sense he was the one. When the breeder said he's the quietest one in the litter I said I knew he would be (I wanted the quietest one!)

But that said 9 weeks is still tiny, maybe give it another 2 weeks Chelsea and if it still doesn't feel right look at rehoming?

Not too bad a night here, keeping him up a bit later in the evening seems to mean he will go through til nearly 7 with only one loo break at around 5am.

I'm feeling more confident that he has figured out toilet training as now he will reliably go to the back door if he needs the loo. Pretty sure we've just been lucky rather than it being anything we've done as we only did the normal stuff! No accidents for a few days (although am seriously tempting fate!)

This weekend is going to be busy as I have a good friend coming to stay with her two young kids, really looking forward to seeing her but think it will be chaos 🤣

Anyone else's puppy found themselves something they really shouldn't chew but you've given up taking it off them?! My matching coasters aren't so matching anymore.... 🤪

We had a good night - SmileyPup slept from 9.45pm-6.15am with no wake ups. However it is pouring down here today and he is not a fan of the rain. We have taken him out (holding an umbrella over him) but both times he has just sat next to us then come inside and done a wee and then a poo on the carpet

Yesterday he had started to head towards the back door when he needed to go out but I feel this weather has really set us back and now I feel quite disheartened again.

Our night wasn’t too bad either. He tends to snooze a lot in the evening so I count when he sleeps from as when I put him in his crate but in reality he will have been snoozing an hour or two before that.

When you leave you’re do you put them in the crate, a pen or just secured in one room? Every morning when I go up for a shower I leave him either in the kitchen with the baby gate closed or today I tried him in the crate. I knew he was tired and ready for a nap but he cried on and off for the 20 minutes or so I was gone. I put him in the crate about 10 minutes before I left him as this works well at bedtime now to settle him. When I came down I took him out and he did a poo so perhaps that’s why he wouldn’t settle.

But I’m wondering what to do when the kids go back to school and I need to leave him for a bit. I was thinking I get up and let him out, then leave him in the kitchen while I get showered and dressed. Then when we leave for school pop him in the crate. I can usually then pop home most days but if I sometimes go to the supermarket, gym etc I’m wondering if he would be better in a pen as I don’t know how well he would stay in a crate for an hour or two. What do you all plan to do when you leave them?

@SunnyUpNorth I'm interested in that too as we have a crate (which he happily sleeps in at night but doesn't seem to like much in the day) and a pen and I'm not sure what to leave him in. He's been with us almost a week so I want to start leaving him for 5 mins soon then build it up!

We’re going to leave our pup in the kitchen we’ve decided. She quite likes being in there anyway and it stays quite cool which is important for our puppy. Personally I feel a crate is a bit small to leave puppies in for several hours in the day but that’s just my view, plenty do.

I’m worried our girl is going to bark when we’re out. She’s good when I nip upstairs or similar and is quite independent really but has started to bark when she’s bored, NOT what we want. Hopefully it’s just a passing phase 🤞🏼

It's now a week until we pick up pup! I'm reading everything and it's definitely opened my eyes to puppy care. Feel quite daunted

I've been watching a lot of videos on YouTube by Zak George which seem good so hoping I'm arming myself with ideas to try. He's also just got a pup so it's good to see he's having all the similar issue you guys are

@SkeletonSkins will you put a puppy pad down in the kitchen or just clean up any mess?

Talking about chewing and nipping, I went to Pets at Home yesterday to try and get some chews for SmileyPup but the lady said most are too tough for their baby teeth and we should wait until he's older. She did recommend soaking a rope toy in water then freezing it and giving them to chew. I tried it today and it kept him amused for 5 mins or so!! Apparently it's lovely for teething pups.

I think we will leave our puppy in his crate at the moment but he is small and the crate quite big so he can walk about a bit. He won't be left for more than 2 hours max at the minute anyway. I try and time leaving him with nap times so in theory he should be asleep!

Left him with my mum this morning as I had to work, she said he sat by the front door for ages after I went 💔 mum said he also tried to climb the stairs and then fell down a few. He seems completely fine but it freaked my mum out who was ready to run him down the vets!!

He likes to take one biscuit from his bowl, bring it over to me, lie down, eat it and repeat until the bowl is empty 🤨🤣

Oh bless him @Girliefriendlikescake with his biscuits, that’s adorable!

@Keepsmiling1 I’ll just clean up any mess, I’m hoping as I won’t need to leave her for too long for another few weeks she might be able to hold it 🤞🏼🤞🏼 She’s doimg quite well with toilet training and we’ve not had an accident for a good few days so hoping that will help.

Hmm I might try leaving him in the kitchen for longer stretches then. I think he just needs to somehow click that he is allowed to play/nap when he is alone.

@Chelsea567 When I spoke to our trainer about Biteypup's biteyness she said that food often plays a part in how manic they are. When I mentioned that Biteypup was on Royal Canin, she said that is a notorious food for behavioural problems, so we switched her to something with less protein. What is your pup fed on out of interest?

We are plugging away at introducing Biteypup to the lounge in the evening after keeping her confined to the kitchen whilst house training got nailed. As we live in a bungalow and the lounge is right at the front, it was too far to try and exit with a desperate puppy and she was too big to easily carry out swiftly. Last night we had 15 minutes or so of sensible playing and chewing on a cow tendon and then she descended into Tazmanian devil mode and had to be put back in the kitchen I'm hoping that the more we do it, the less exciting it will be and she won't tip over into manic racing, jumping on the furniture and biting

Our old trainer, who no longer practices, says it took 2 years for her cat to accept her last pup. OMG! I don't think I can face policing interaction with the cat for that long without having a breakdown

On the plus side, she is fine being left in the crate for a couple of hours, so at least the cat (and me) get some respite

I am definitely hating house training! Just when I think it's starting to click he just starts weeing on the carpet again. I don't think we're making much progress with that. He is bitey at he moment which is hard and he doesn't like his crate so I feel like I'm failing on all fronts!

@BiteyMcBiteFace pup is fed on Iams and boiled chicken (what the breeder had him on) which we are weaning him off gradually. We are thinking about changing his food but don't know what to either.

@Keepsmiling1 You will get there with the house training. We had one step forwards and then two steps back, but all of a sudden it clicked and (fingers crossed) we haven't had an accident for a couple of weeks now, even when it rained DH wanted a puppy because he thought it would be cute and cuddly Our old trainer calls puppies land sharks and I can now see why

This morning I saw a neighbour from up the road out with his 12 week old lab pup, along with his 2 year old lab. Very laid back and not bitey at all Don't think he was interested in swapping

We switched to Burns puppy on the recommendation of our new trainer and she seems to be doing OK on it. Hard to tell whether the lessening in biting is down to the food switch, or the regimented rest periods .

Once the 1-2-1 trainer that I spoke to last week is back from holiday, I'm going to ask her to pay us a visit and iron out any things that we are not doing right and try and knock any potential issues on the head before she gets any older (like the biting and mouthing). On the plus side, her loose lead walking this morning was fabulous

@BiteyMcBiteFace thanks for the kind words. How old is your pup now? How long did you have him before he stopped having accidents?

I haven't even thought of things like loose lead walking yet or how to achieve that

Biteypup is now 16 weeks I think. TBH I've lost track of time and it seems like she's been here forever wrecking our nice peaceful lives I don't think she's had an accident indoors since she was about 12 weeks. In total I think we've had no more than a dozen accidents indoors, if that many. How old is your pup? I think yours is far younger from memory.

We have been working on loose lead walking in training classes for a couple of weeks and we've also been working on recall on a long line. She's lovely to take out and about and people were admiring her lead walking in town this morning. She's just a cowbag at home

With the house training are you using a proper enzyme breakdown carpet cleaner thingy? We got one from pets at home which was quite pricey but works well and smells really nice.

Our pup is on Harrington's puppy biscuits which is what the breeder used and we have introduced Butchers soft puppy food.

He's had a quiet day today and is now suddenly full of beans!

Our pup is 9 weeks tomorrow. He has had more than a dozen accidents in the 6 days he's been here! In fact, he has just gone into his crate (which we leave open in the day) and done a wee in there which he has never done before anyone got any ideas why he would do that? He hasn't even weed in there at night. I'm now worried he's going to wee in there all the time.

This is the spray we use to clean up any accidents. What spray do you use? Ours doesn't smell that nice so would be willing to try another one. Im worried I haven't been cleaning enough and that's why he keeps coming back to wee inside. Can you tell I'm a worrier??

Oh that is the one we're using 😬 I like the smell 🤣

We've had the devil dog here tonight, he has done two wees inside for no reason, one of them was right on his food mat 🥴 he also bit dd and made her cry and then went to bite my face!! Ffs.

He was then put unceremoniously in his crate for time out!! He did settle after a bit of moaning and I've just let him out for the loo and some supper.

He has seemed really hungry today and seems to be growing before our eyes!!

Hi all, I just want to ask about toilet training whypup (11 week old cockapoo we’ve had for 3 weeks) seems to hold his wee in order to go inside. I take him out regularly and stay out for ages, we have a word to signal this but still he will wait until he is inside the house, sometime only just, and then go for a wee. He does it over and over again and it’s so frustrating. Can anyone advise

Why I think if you're sure he needs a wee I would wait with him outside until he has gone. I appreciate this will be very time consuming.

If I'm sure our pup needs the loo I will close the back door and keep returning him to the grass until he goes, eventually he will go probably just to shut me up!! Tons of praise and a treat when he does go outside.

The thing is, how can I be sure he needs to go? I just take him out after playtime, food, a nap, a drink, in between as is advised. I’m never sure if he needs a wee I just keep trying.

@Whywhywhy1 I could have written your post. Yesterday I was outside for 25 mins but no wee. He literally came in the house and did it on the carpet. I take him out all the time but never know if he needs it. He does sniff but then sometimes he just sniffs things to explore so it's not always a signal he needs to wee.

Today I took him out before bed and twice he tried to go back in. I was just about to take him in when he pooed! It is disheartening.

@Whywhywhy1 our trainer told us to take our pup out every 40 minutes. If she hadn’t peed after 5 minutes we were to bring her in, either carry her about, put her in her crate or keep her on her lead and take her out 5 minutes later...repeat repeat repeat until she peed and then praise and treat.