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.

Morning all, sorry to hear some of you are finding it so hard and feeling unsure. They are such hard work aren’t they. I feel the same in a way but am also reminding myself that he is still so little and has already made such progress. I’m not panicking as I’m sure they will all quite quickly grow out of the things that are difficult such as the biting, toileting, zoomies etc. I remember feeling a bit like this when I had my first baby for around 3 months. I was aware that I loved her very much but kept feeling so scared by how monumentally and irreversibly my life had changed. But we all adapt and carry on and the puppy will be less impactful than a child. I think!

The biteyness has ramped up here. If the kids go out into the garden he chases them and nips their ankles. They aren’t provoking him at all. It will literally be them walking across the garden to go to the swing. Given we are so restricted with the puppy and the weather I can’t stop them going outside for half an hour if it stops raining. I will just keep him in if they go out, but he has also just started going outside without me which I was trying to encourage. We are trying to use a chew toy when he bites but don’t always have one to hand. Do they grow out of that when they stop teething?

God our pup went crazy last as well!! Was it a full moon? He ran from one end of the house to the other at such a speed he was just a blur 🤣 and he nearly knocked himself out on the arm chair by trying to dive under it!

Normal night here of loo at 5 and up at 6.50, the cat has just told him off and cuffed him round the ears so he is currently looking sorry for himself.

12 weeks old today and final jabs later.

Hi all! I'd love to join your wee support group if I may.

We picked up our 12/13 week old (we think) whippet cross from the rescue centre on Saturday. He's AMAZING. Utterly fell in love with him at first sight. He's just the best Good Dog.

Toilet training is going reasonably well (although he does seem to have a huge bladder making regular trips out tricky!) and he was great on Saturday night (he's in a crate right next to my bed) but had a bit of a hellish night last night, crying til about 2am. I find it excruciatingly difficult not to bring him into the bed but prepared to persevere!!

Tomorrow is the first day bringing him into the office with me so have to set up his playpen and office crate here today. Fingers crossed he enjoys it (and I manage to keep the toilet training up as best I can!!)

It’s not a good day here so far, in fact the worse toilet wise for ages. Whypup has been take out every 39 mins when awake but is just waiting til he’s indoors and weeing. We’ve had 5 this morning so far. It’s really getting me down as I don’t know what else I can do really. 😞

Quick check-in will post more later. I’m currently going through a love affair period with DartyPup after having found it tough. But her barking is still a big issue - at other dogs, aeroplanes abs her own reflection in our kitchen skylight

Whywhywhy - have you tried puppy pads? I know everyone says not to use them but could you get him used to peeing there and then gradually move them to the door? Then when you see him go to the door you can pop him out?

Why I'm not surprised it's getting you down that's really hard, are you going to do puppy classes? They might be able to advise maybe?

Our last puppy class went well. There were only 4 of us there this week, so we spent more time doing exercises and it seemed to keep her busy and she didn't get as bored and restless. Next week we start our novice classes, so it will be interesting to see what mix of dogs will be there. Our puppy class consisted of 4 labs, 1 shih tzu, 1 whippet and a tiny miniature dachshund.

Sorry to hear some are struggling with house training. It's especially hard with the little breeds, as they don't really give much indication that they're going to go before they squat and it's too late I'm sorry I have no helpful advice.

We got Biteypup a couple of huge stuffed toys (a huge teddy and a unicorn) and have found that if she's overtired and crochety she will 'attack' them rather than directing her manic biting on us. She really gives poor teddy and thrashing Unicorn tends to be more for humping Just a thought it would be worth sharing the idea for those that have pups that have the crazy biting times. We got ours from a charity shop and I think the trick is that they have to be as big, or bigger than the pup.

Biteypup decided that horse poo was a delightful new treat when we went for a stroll in the woods yesterday afternoon. She did not want to let go of it, so I had to scoop it out of her gob I don't know why I was so grossed out, as our old dog as a pup had a taste for other dog's poo

Dogs are gross 🤢 my dads dog loves fox poo and will eat and roll in it!! So disgusting.

That's a good point re the large soft toys, our pup has a large soft cat toy which he goes from humping to trying to kill 🤣

Our puppy classes start Wednesday, I can't wait!!

Hi all how’s it all going?
Twinpup is now 12 weeks and he’s definitely calmer, however since we’ve started his walks outside in the last week he’s back to being VERY bitey, anyone else had this sort of regression?
He also won’t leave me alone, so when I’m cooking paces around at my feet constantly so is probably exhausted from all the extra steps!
We gave him his first bath at home today which was cute if very messy!

Others I read about it speak to don’t seem to be having these issues 4 weeks down the line and I’ve been so so vigilant. I’m reluctant to use pads now as I’ve spent all this time not using them I don’t want to now start but tbh I don’t really know what to do now.
Has anyone else been in this situation?

@Whywhywhy1 have you tried carrying her around (not easy I know when you’ve things to do)?

Maybe pick a couple of days when you’re going to totally go for it and take her out as you have been but when you bring her in carry her?

Toilet training was hit and miss for us for many weeks. I can't remember exactly when he 'got it' but I do know he certainly wasn't toilet trained at 12 weeks. Some dogs take longer than those articles on the internet would lead you to believe.

Thank you. I just feel so stressed all the time wondering if/when he’ll go for a wee next. So hard to keep constant eye on him with life and kids etc. I did completely for the first 3 weeks but can’t sustain that indefinitely. It’s making me anxious and sad tbh.

So girliepup has now had all his vaccinations! It was lovely to see all his siblings and he was delighted to see them.

I've just tried to transfer the microchip details over and got very confused (it doesn't take much tbh!) Did you all get a PIN number from the breeder in addition to the microchip number? The vet lady said all we needed was the microchip number and made it look really easy to change the details 😒

@Whywhywhy1 you are not alone - that is exactly how I feel. I am so exhausted from being up in the night, up early and then constantly watching him every minute. I can't even nip to the next room to help DDs with anything or make the tea because he always seems to wee. I really think I would feel so much happier if he was house trained but it still seems a way off at the moment.

I'm back to work tomorrow and I can't wait! Because we have kept him in our kitchen diner (so he doesn't wee all over the house!) I have been stuck in this room for the past week! Tomorrow my parents are staying with him and I can't wait for the break!

Keepsmiling- you sound just like me- it’s exhausting! I know Id feel better if toilet training was at least some way to being sorted. I can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel right now. I’m fed up of the kitchen 🙈

@Whywhywhy1 yep I feel the same! I'm off to sleep now because no doubt I will be up at least twice in the night to take him out for a wee! I thought my days of sleepless nights were over

Were any of your pups sore after their final jabs? Ours is really sore and out of sorts tonight bless him. We couldn't pick him up without him crying 😢

Managed to sort his microchip, that makes it feel properly official that he is ours!

Hi all. Got my much long for puppy on Sunday and feel so overwhelmed. The constant watchfulness and she is chasing my cat a lot too. I thought I'd love it so much, I am usually so mushy over dogs but I am so confused as to why I feel so down and detached

@Girliefriendlikescake we haven't had our second jabs yet but SmileyPup was sore after his first ones. He squealed when we picked him up and generally felt sorry for himself.

@namechanged984630 you are not alone in the way you are feeling. There are a few of us on here who are finding it difficult and wondering what we have done!

What a horrible couple of days with Biteypup after her being so good at the weekend

Yesterday she got all bitey with me when I got home from work and then when we tried to get her settle in the lounge again last night she got absolutely manic leaping on the sofa and bit DH quite hard. I don't know what else I can try to get her to be calm in the lounge in the evening. DH was obviously not impressed, so I put her out in the kitchen/diner and sat on the bed in the next room watching TV and she zonked out on the floor Seems like we will be spending the evenings at separate ends of the house at this rate

This morning she was very jittery on our walk, but it was somewhere we've been lots of times before and she's been happy previously. Then twice this morning she got really bitey and leaping at me to grab my clothes. I'm so tired I got really cross with her and I don't think it helped. Then she went and did a we on the bath mat and she hasn't had an accident indoors for weeks and weeks

I feel like a total failure and had a little blub to a lady at work who has multiple dogs and she was very understanding, but obviously had no real advice. Totally feel like giving up today!

Awww @BiteyMcBiteFace, don’t feel like a failure. You’re doing so well and it will be so worth it when she’s a big, lovely dog.
We’ve all got cross at times with our pups, the peeing on the mat was the last straw!
My pup has had her first day at daycare today. She’s apparently had a whale of a time and has come back shattered...worth £15 of anyone’s money!!!

Seems like some of us are having similar issues with our little darlings. Our fella is weeing and pooing all over the place and it's getting me down too. I feel like it's going on forever.

Today though dh spotted him going behind the dining table which is his fave place to poo and he said aah aah!, which is what we say to stop him doing something (good luck with that but anyway!). Well he ran straight out to the back door to be let out. The little demon knows. He did the same tonight. So I suppose that's a good thing.

Nights are still the same. I'm half thinking of bringing his crate upstairs but I've failed miserably on the closing the door part of crate training. My fault entirely there.

He was improving where cars are concerned, relaxing when a car passes. On this evenings walk he was more nervous, even flattening himself down when cars passed.

He jumped out of my arms yesterday and hit his chin off the concrete. Poor fella got a fright but massive snuggles sorted it. The dope.

I don't know girls, it's bloody hard isn't it. But I love the mad little thing so much...

Bitey we're only human and it's natural to get cross with them! I told our pup off this morning as he bit my flipping boob 😵 ouch!! He did creep off looking sheepish, they def know when they've gone too far.

That said we've had a good day, we took him to Lyme Regis and he got tons of attention bless him. He must have greeted at least 20-30 different people and met a good 10-20 dogs so fab socialisation.

Over tiredness hit tonight though and he was manic from 6-8.30pm with running from one end of the house to the other, chasing the cat and generally being a PITA. He was also starving and ate the most I've ever seen him eat!

Dd goes back to school tomorrow which will be strange for both of them as they've hardly had any time apart since he came home 4 weeks ago.