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.

This is Calm pup (Barney)

Canoe Those ears are totally divine.

Must admit, lazymum, I’m rather smiling at the thought of the oh-so-innocent- looking lazypup having it in him to bully your older dog. Hope that’s settled now.

And oh my CalmPuppy Barney is one handsome boy.

What gorgeous pups.

They are all gorgeous. The next two weeks waiting for my boy is going to be killer. Get to visit him again this weekend though

canoe we had a spaniel and we bought him a spaniel bowl to stop he’s ears from getting wet and it seemed to work
I was worried that his ears would get sore getting wet all the time

I’m loving all the puppy photos, sooo gorgeous looking! I don’t know how to post a photo of my boy unfortunately. I’ll ask one of the DCs to help their poor old mum.

Came down this morning to more poo in his crate, despite feeding last meal at 5pm as someone suggested in earlier post. This is now happening every morning, puppy covered, crate covered and me left cleaning everything while the rest of the family are asleep! To add insult to injury, my living room carpet smells of urine so we’ve obviously missed one of the puppy’s little accidents but I can’t locate where it is. I hate the living room smelling like that but I’m not sure what I can do apart from carpet cleaning the entire area.

Retreat could the crate be too large for him? You could try dividing it in half by putting a divider in (there should be one with original crate) Or maybe he is pooing just before you get up, in which case maybe get up that little bit earlier - I know mine was desperate for a poo the minute he woke.

[or maybe...devil's advocate here, put him a much larger crate/pen with puppy pads, and see whether you can try a different method to train him not use the crate, ie slowly move puppy pads out of range of his actual bed. He is still very young, perhaps he genuinely cannot hold it that long. Sounds like he now cannot tell difference between bed and toileting area. Does his bed smell of urine perhaps and he now thinks it is a puppy pad? I'v ehad dpup peeing on a cushion and rugs before, because the association (with soft warm puppy pads)was there from the breeder and when he was desperate that is what he chose.

Vinegar is the only way to eliminate that urine smell, white vinegar. And it stops them using the same place again.

Retreat I got so sick of cleaning the bedding in the crate, the crate itself and the dog for the first week that I ignored all the advice and salt the crate in half. I put a puppy pad down and then some bedding on top but only covering enough for him to sleep on.
He did use the pad but much easier to clear up and now it is clean virtually every morning. So from 10:30ish to 7am. I still put the pad in just incase. But scraping poo off towels and vet bed at 7am was too much for me!

Thanks for the advice lazymum, it makes sense but I don’t think we have a divider for the crate. This will make it tricky to reduce the space available to my puppy. I’ve had 4 other dogs and I don’t recall any of them pooing in the crate and getting it every where on a daily basis!

Tinkypup

@DuchessDarty we are thinking about getting a Cavapoo so I have been reading this with interest. It will be our first puppy and I have 2 DDs who are 4 and 7. Can I ask how you have found having a Cavapoo?

@DuchessDarty thank you so much for such a detailed reply. I have been thinking about this for quite a while now and have been looking at different breeds. It is lovely to hear that DartyPup is good with children as this is one of my main concerns. The breeder I have been in touch with has encouraged me to visit multiple times once the puppies are born so I can see the pups with mum so I will definitely be looking at mum's temperament. I haven't had a dog before so I am apprehensive about the puppy stage but again it's good to hear that the cons are about the puppy stage rather than specific to Cavapoos.

I don't work from home but I only work a few hours each morning so I will be building up to leaving puppy alone. I am keen to do puppy training classes and then carry on with training as I think it would be something nice we can do together.

Thanks again for replying - someone has recently told me that Cavapoos can be hyper but from what you have said that's not necessarily true of all of them? You have certainly reassured me that it could be a great dog for our family!

12 sleeps until PuddingPup arrives and I’m starting to get a bit nervous that I’m going to get it all wrong. I’ve read every article on the FB dog training advice page, watched multiple kikopup videos on YouTube, and I just have this horrible feeling that Pup will listen to nothing I say and be a untamed Hound of the Baskerville.

Ive decided that I am going to try a harness on Calm pup as I almost ended up on my backside again.
He walks around me in circles and I need to stop that.
He also cries the whole time until we are on our way home then he is pulling like crazy to get home.
I found a wee in my hallway today I think it was because he doesn't like the rain and didn't show any signs he wanted to go out

On the plus side he really is playing more at home and really is very sweet

Well then, walking a puppy in the driving rain. Hmmm. Had to be done as I was meeting a friend. Not to be recommended. My top tips are: 1) don't 2) if you have to, take a blanket so when you get there you can cuddle them up for a warm sleep. I really try not to cuddle pup if I have to meet someone and he just sleeps happily under the table but I noticed he was unhappy and shivering so I cuddled him and all good, but non ideal. Lesson learned.

Ha. I’m at home today and Pup has been asleep on the sofa since 8am - not showing signs of wanting to go out in this!

i’m feeling over having a puppy today. he’s weed on the carpet twice when i thought we had cracked toilet training. he’s still nipping like crazy & its still really challenging managing him & the 3 year old. it’s really inconvenient not being able to walk him places.

on the plus side i left him for 2 x 2 hrs yesterday & he was fine.

Hi all, will try and catch up with the conversation but so glad I found this thread. Bought our beagle puppy home last Saturday so today is day 6. I feel we have a complete Jekyll and Hyde pup. Sweet as anything, loves the garden but is destroying most plants as she just loves to chew and bite everything and by everything I mean me and DH as well as toys and anything she can get in her mouth. The biting of us is probably the hardest thing to deal with, wrists, ankles, fingers anything and she really clamps down which hurts so much. We’ve been doing the yelping etc but I’m not seeing much progress. She’s been waking us at about 6am and straight into biting, which when we’ve just woken up and already sleep deprived is beginning to have an impact. Any tips or suggestions? We’ve have a very open plan house so no real places for timeout etc.

We’ve been doing the yelping etc but I’m not seeing much progress.

This doesn't work for all dogs. Tried and failed doing that when mine was a puppy. In fact the yelping used to make him worse and I have seen lots of other people say the same.

The turning my back and ignoring or removing myself from him so 'play' stopped was the thing worked for us.

@KeepSmiling83 if you’re looking at cavapoos do make sure the breeder isn’t disregarding appropriate health testing or breeding protocols because they’re assuming cross breeding eliminates all risk of health issues.

Two of the major health issues in the CKCS, Mitral Valve Disease and Chiari Malformation/Syringomyelia, aren’t necessarily reliably avoided just by crossing a CKCS with another breed.

MVD is not unknown in the small poodle varieties (in fact both toy and miniature poodles are listed as breeds particularly susceptible to MVD on the UFAW page about MVD in the CKCS and as it’s so prevalent in the cavalier any breeder crossing the two should really still be following the CKCS MVD breeding protocol.

The CKCS parent should also have had an MRI scan under the BVA CM/SM screening scheme to make sure the risk of producing affected puppies is as low as possible.

Although the risk of CM/SM is lowered when crossing the CKCS to a breed with a more normal shaped head (the domed skull which has been selected for in the breed increases the risk of dogs being affected) it’s not necessarily eliminated and CKCS crosses have been diagnosed with it. As it’s such a devastating condition it’s not really one any decent breeder would be happy to take a gamble on.

There are some breeders who are trying to breed a healthy CKCS-type dog (either via much needed outcrossing or starting again from the ground up using various other breeds) and it’s absolutely worth seeking them out if you’re interested in the breed/type.

Spongebob79 I was doing the yelping thing and our trainer advised not as excites them more. She advised fold arms and turn away. It is reducing here now (12 weeks old)

sponge I found when puppy was tired, he was extremely bitey. When he wakes at 6am, he probably can just be given a toilet "break" and then put in a puppy pen with a few chewy/dangly toys in your presence, and then after half an hour you could probably put him back in his crate for another sleep. I found limiting the chances for them to bite and nip made it less of an engrained habit. Although they still went on nipping for some weeks when overtired, over stimulated and or/bored..

Calm I found my puppy thought he could ONLY pee at home, and possibly whined because he was desperate for a pee, and then raced back home to do one. Could that be it? If you can keep him in the park long enough to get him to pee, and then shower him with praise and treats, you might find that is the solution to his crying. They cannot seem to generalise about grass, it has to be home turf. It was a breakthrough when I persuade the dpup that he was "allowed" to pee in the front garden. We still haven't cracked peeing on the pavement, he would just never allow himself to, it is most inconvenient.

Hi, happy to have found this thread! We picked up our 9 week old border terrier yesterday. He’s adorable and very loving and has settled in well so far. Toilet training is going reasonably well with a few wee accidents. Sleep not so good but only his first night so not expecting miracles lol! Our beautiful cocker passed away last September so it’s been 15 years since we went thru the puppy stage. Can’t believe how much I’ve forgotten! Will be following this thread with interest 😁. Here’s a pic of our new handsome lad

She advised fold arms and turn away.
Need to remove my hand from his mouth first

She advised fold arms and turn away

my little horror has a real penchant for biting my 3yo’s bottom...