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.

Hope he’s feeling better today @Keepsmiling1. I think if it’s bright red it’s less of a worry as it’s likely just from the straining, tmi I know!!! But it hasn’t come from inside him so to speak.

Puppy woke up at 5.30 and 6.30, but at 6.30 I settled on the sofa with him and have only just woken up!! Clearly he doesn't need to wake up at 6.30 (at 5.30 he definitely needs the toilet!) so at some point I need to start leaving him to cry a bit!!

He seems to have grown over night again!!

Mine seems to have grown overnight too!!

I tried leaving him this morning to cry for a bit and he wasn’t having none of it. He always seems to need the loo around 4ish, so I didn’t think he could be desperate when he woke at 6. I left him but he got very vocal so I got up. He has snoozed most of the evening before so I thought maybe he has had too much sleep. But when I took him out he didn’t wee and then fell asleep again around 6.30. V annoying!!

Just thinking I need to wash his blankets. He has vet bed and a fleecy blanket in his crate. I washed both of these a couple of times when we first got him as he seemed a bit smelly and had poss done a wee on them, but as hasn’t been having accidents I hadn’t thought to wash them again but probably should. I also have in there a small piece of blanket from the breeder and a blanket we had sent to the breeder that smelt of our house that he slept on there. I haven’t washed either of those but not sure if he actually needs them anymore. Are you all still using the smelly breeder blanket?

@SunnyUpNorth can I ask how you wash the vet bedding? I don't want to put it in the washing machine in case it breaks it - I've only just bought it after my last one broke!

@Chelsea567 how are you getting on?

Keepsmiling1 We've had a few bouts of loose poo with mucus, no blood though. This seems to happen especially after training classes and I think it's the treat overload that she gets while we're there. I would think that if he seems OK in himself just keep an eye on him for any changes.

I've only ever washed vet bedding outside with hot soapy water, a stiff brush and a hose. I've never tried it in a washing machine, as the pieces I have are too big to fit in the drum.

Girliefriendlikescake We still get a wake up call betweeen 5.30am and 6am for a wee, though she will happy pop back in her crate for a couple of bits of kibble and settle back down until around 7am. A much more civilised time to get up I'm hoping that the early wake ups will stop once she's a bit older, as I struggle to get back to sleep.

I too was wondering how Chelsea567 was getting on.

Last puppy training class of the 6 week block tomorrow. We are booked to continue with the novice classes from next Saturday, but I'm still going to contact the 1-2-1 lady when she's back from holiday. I think it will help iron out specific issues (biting DH and cat interaction) that the classes don't really cover. That's what I'm hoping anyway!

I just put the vet bed in the washing machine and then hung it up to dry. I was told it was pretty indestructible and that’s why it’s recommended for dogs. I got a piece that’s twice the size of our crate so I cut it in half and so always have a clean ready.

@BiteyMcBiteFace I might try that with a few pieces of kibble in the morning! It's not too bad on a work morning but at the weekend it's a killer!

What do people give for treats? We've had to stop them all to see if something didn't agree with him so I want to try some new things. Also how many treats do you give a day roughly?

@Keepsmiling1 we were using Canaghan chicken bites but there weren’t that many in a pack. The trainer was using Royal Canine Educ treats. He breaks them in half and they’re less than a calorie each so he said if you use twenty broken in half you get to do 40 training exercises for hardly any calories. I’ve bought a big box of those with lots of packs in them as he likes them. I’ve also bought Barker and Barker training bites. You get over 1000 in a pack and they’re tiny, like a little pill. Think they’re liver flavour. Again they don’t impact on their diet really being so small. I’ve also ordered another lot of amazon today called Bounce and bella grain free training treats. God I think I’ve gone treat crazy! But I wanted him to have a mix. They’re all good quality, grain free ones. The kids are quite into training him at the mo too so wanted to have plenty on hand for that.

We usually use at least one of his meal allocations for training and then probably do two or three little training sessions a day. I also have a test pouch thing for if I’m out with him and I need to calm him if eg a scary dog is approaching.

So in reality he isn’t getting too many a day. I’m holding off on the chew stick things, think they’re the whinzee ones, as they soften his poo. Or it might just be that he ends up eating too much when he has those too. I’ve been giving him one kong a day and maybe a frozen yoghurt cube.

These training treats look boring but my dog can't get enough of them. They are tiny and hard so easy to feed and contain mostly turkey so I can feed him lots without worrying about upsetting his stomach.

treats

Great thank you - I will have a look at those treats and order some.

What do you put in the Kong and frozen cubes?

He has just been having his dried food and chicken since Thursday and the blood has stopped although his poo is still not firm. I always thought poo was hard and easy to pick up but maybe I'm wrong?

I've had a little cry this morning. I can't get away from the fact I don't like having him. My youngest DD is about to start school and I was about to get a bit of freedom back and I've just realised that I'm now going to be stuck in training a puppy for months. He still isn't toilet trained. He's been with us just over a week and yesterday went outside for all wees and poos but that's only because I'm taking him every 15 mins unless he's asleep. This morning I was making breakfast and he ran outside and then came back in and weed on the floor. It sounds horrible but I really wish we had made a different decision about getting him. I am just stuck inside with my DDs and a puppy and am miserable.

Keep smiling- it is tough isn’t it? I’ve had whypup for almost 4 weeks and he keeps weeing in the house despite being taken out so often

Keepsmiling I regretted my decision for months. I kept thinking this time next year will be different and it was and still is. Don't beat yourself up feeling how you do because for everyone who relishes having a puppy there are others that didn't. Puppies can be shitheads 😬

I just wonder why still after 4 weeks of being really vigilant and going outside so often whypup still insist on peeing inside

@Whywhywhy1 I am wondering the same thing. Mine will happily go outside and goes quite quickly with a “hurry up” cue. Unfortunately she will just as happily pee in the house!!
I thought we’d made a breakthrough yesterday when she whined at the door to go out for a pee and then rang the bells on the door to go out again later on.

SO WHY HAS SHE JUST PEED ON MY BLOODY LOUNGE CARPET???? Seriously!!!
Good news is that although our trainer doesn’t take puppies in his daycare, he is going to take ours for £15 a day. So pleased as it means any training we’re doing won’t be undone. She starts on Tuesday!!
Another good discovery has been the lick mat, she spent half an hour licking it all by herself in her crate yesterday while I went out. I put a bit of peanut butter, a couple of blobs of primula cheese and a squashed up strawberry on it. She LOVED it.
She’s scarily clever though. I took her out on the seafront last night and walked up and down while my ds had half an hour playing on the 2p machines. There was a bit of tissue on the floor and the first time she past it she picked it up. I said drop which she did and I treated her. Every time we went past it after that she picked it up, immediately dropped it and looked to me for a treat. Cheeky bugger!!

Putonanother - how old is your pup and how long have you had her?

@Whywhywhy1 she’s 14 weeks and we’ve had her from 8.

She’s so lovely and I feel like we’re getting to know her so much better. I don’t feel that trapped feeling so much now.
The toilet accidents are getting far fewer but we’ve still not totally cracked it!

@Keepsmiling1 a week in I really felt rubbish about having a puppy. They’re confident, so they’re much more active, but still too young to go out and about. I think it takes much longer to toilet train than people have you believe - it took a good couple of months with my older dog to be 100% sure.

However we’re at almost 12 weeks now and there’s a noticeable difference in how long she can ‘hold it’ - we’re up to a couple of ours now whereas at first I was taking her out every 20-30 mins. Also since she is able to go out and about now I definitely feel a lot less trapped. I think give it another 4 weeks and it’ll be much better as I’ll feel more confident leaving her at home on her own for a little while.

I promise it DOES get better - you feel like you’ve ruined your life and it’ll be this intense for ever but it honestly really does pass and life gets easy again. Our older dog is so easy now, he’s a joy to have around and yet I felt the exact same terror and dread when he was a puppy - if you don’t believe me look up the original ‘anyone fancy a puppy support thread?’ Started by me and you’ll see all my worries!!

Things are improving for us with SkeletonPup. Now that we can take her out, it feels like it’s taken the edge off the crazy (although she can still be really hard work in the evening). Doing some training with her when she’s at peak crazy seems to calm her down a bit. My main problem is she’s had a runny tummy so I’ve had to really limit the treats, chews etc I’m giving her. She’s also started to steal our older dogs food, and it’s hard to juggle making sure he eats with taking it away so she can’t steal it. She’s also started to bark at things she wants which is really annoying. Need to get rid of that habit pronto!!

Thanks putanotherwashon - I’m just worried that after 4 weeks and still weeing in the house a fair bit that it may not change 😞

Thank you so much for the kind words. It has been a really hard day. The past couple of days we've only had a couple of accidents inside but that is because I am taking him out all the time. If I just left him then he would do most wees/poos on the carpet. So I don't feel like I'm making much progress.

We put up his puppy pen today and left him in it for 5 mins. He whined for the entire time and then weed and pooed on the carpet. We had left a puppy pad down but he chewed and ripped it up. I don't know what to do really? I need to keep building up his time alone as in a few weeks I will need to leave him for a couple of hours. He doesn't like his crate (and wees in there anyway) and if I leave him in the back room he will carry on toileting on the carpet. The only alternative I can think of is to put him in the kitchen which is tiled but he hasn't really spent any time in there and there isn't much for him to see as he will be surrounded by cupboards. I'm worried he will be unhappy there. Any suggestions? He has only been in the back room and our bedroom as I've been too scared to introduce him to the rest of the house while he is weeing everywhere.

I really do appreciate everyone sharing their experiences and it doesn't make me feel so alone. I had read all these threads while we were researching so I thought I knew what I was getting into. But I didn't - it is much harder than I thought!

@Whywhywhy1 me too and we’ve had ours 6 weeks!!

It’s just so random, some days if the back door is open she’ll take herself out to pee, other days she’ll just ignore the open door and go in the house.
It’s really frustrating isn’t it? Mine is going to daycare tomorrow and i’m worried if she does it there they won’t take her back.

Hi all checking in, been really hectic here as have had a friend down with her two young kids. It's been fab but full on, puppy has done well, he is so good with young kids bless him.

We took him into town Ystd and there was a food festival going on so a complete sensory experience for him! He seemed fairly unphased really, there were some other dogs he wanted to play with but they look massive compared to him so I was anxious in case they trod on him!!

Today he seems out of sorts, very tired and off his food. Am thinking it's probably just over tiredness from a busy few days but I'll keep an eye on him.

He gets his final vaccinations tomorrow- that feels like a mile stone!!

Hi all, I'm still here. Things have calmed down a bit and I dont feel so sad anymore. My pup will be allowed on her first walk this coming Wednesday so that's something I'm looking forward too. I think things are starting to get a bit easier.

A few nights ago Grassypup slept in the kitchen, on a cushion by the door which was held closed by a chair. Not in his crate note. Hubby went to bed last and left him to it. He slept quietly all night though so did we and got up to a nice poo and a couple of wees.

Following night I went to bed last all delighted with myself but he howled so I lasted a half hour before I came down to a poo and a wee. I sobbed on the floor as I miss our last fella so much. He's not gone long and was taken way too soon. Then I thought life is too short and undid weeks of work by snuggling with him on the sofa for the night. Of course he slept like a baby.
Last night was similar but without the tears, he only started howling and I said feck that for a game of soldiers and happily gathered the spoilt little fecker up for snuggles on the sofa. He slept straight through. We reckon the problem is when I go up last he gets upset because he's so stuck on me.

Don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm caught between giving in because if I had the last fella back I'd never let him out of my arms, and being a bit sterner so he'll be better trained.

Very similar to most of you with the toilet training. It's not improving at all. He couldn't care less.

The witching hour was particularly intense tonight. Just when I thought the biting was improving he upped the ante. He also jumped right into, INTO, the dishwasher!

He's 15 weeks now, with us 4 weeks and like you guys, it's like he has grown overnight. And Jesus is he a chewer!

Ah, it’s tough Grassy isn’t it? Sorry about your last dog too- I can understand how losing him affects how your are with new pup.
Made me laugh a bit the dishwasher because whypup did the exact same thing today- turned around and there he was INSIDE the dishwasher...seriously!!!🤣🙈
Toilet training 😡😡 2 poos tonight in the lounge!!! He hasn’t pooed indoor for nearly 2 weeks so why oh why tonight? 🙄

Must have been the night for it last night. My pup nearly finished me off between 7 and 10!

Crazy zoomies for half an hour, took her out for a sniff around. Zoomies again, literally tearing from one room to another with the loudest squeaky toy she could find. Peed on the floor twice, tipped her water bowl over and paddled it all over the kitchen.
Took her out for another sniff (8.30, i’d still had no tea).
Poo on the floor (which I stood in in my socks, luckily it was a firm one)!
She then crashed out. Growled at dd when she tried to take her out for her last pee at 10.30 which meant I had to get out of bed to do it (and obviously she didn’t even do one)!!!!!
However she did settle down nicely in her crate and slept until 4.44.
I’m back at work today so have to get up early anyway. She’s now playing nicely with her toys and pretending last night never happened!!