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.

Nettleskeins I don't know he just looks scared he will walk and look towards the park exit and just keep crying.
He has pooed once in the park and he seemed ok but as soon as we are out of the park he is pulling all the way home.
Mind you he is also afraid of the hoover he is lovely but a coward

@BorderlineExperimental thank you for such a detailed reply. We are still a little way off getting a puppy as I've found that any reputable breeder has a waiting list. I have been asking about DNA tests for the parents but now I feel more able to be specific with what I'm checking so thanks again.

at penchant for biting 3 year old’s bottom

Thank you all for the suggestions, yes the yelping really doesn’t work at all and probably sounds awful to any passers by on the street. I’ve been watching some you tube videos, we’ve had some success this eve with treats when she lets go. Still bitey, I’m sure it’s just a learning process what with that, toilet training, crate training and ignoring yelping that’s another day nearly gone.

Fingers crossed for some good sleep everyone, join you at 6am chasing around the garden encouraging a poo!

See you at 6am Spongebob for the early morning poo! I’ll also be trying 2am and 4am visits to the garden (alarm already set😟) for puppy peeing. I’m determined to crack the daily, early morning discovery of a poo covered crate and puppy. Right now puppy Retreat is fast asleep, looking so gorgeous and I want to do right by him. I just have to keep telling myself that in the middle of the night!
See you in the morning everyone.

We are visiting puppy again today before we pick him up properly in two weeks. Yay

How did everyone’s night go? Here, puppy Retreat went to bed at 12pm and I then got up to him at 2am when I took him out to the garden and he did a wee. I was then downstairs for another hour as dc wasn’t feeling well so sleeping puppy had company until 3am.
DH then got up at 5.30am but puppy had already pooped everywhere in the crate so we missed the time when he needed to go out. Tonight I’m going to make it 2am, 4am and then 6am. It’s like having a newborn again, although more furry!!

Well lovely calm puppy seems to be going and cheeky puppy has arrived
stealing the children's toys to have a chew on also paper and basically anything he can get his paws on
Cant moan about toilet traing though he has been so good doesn't poo in the house and has only had a couple of wee accidents and he seems to prefer my hallway which is wood floor so easy to clean.

Just visited PuddingPup, 10 more sleeps until he comes home!

retreat I'm wondering whether you need to ditch that particular crate and set of bedding for a while. The smell will be there unless you've doused everything in vinegar and it sounds like so much work to get up so often.
Could he sleep in a big puppy pen in some other corner of the room with some puppy pads at the side, and not get up for him until he is a bit older so you can see whether it is genuinely an association with the crate and that bed.

I say this as someone whose pup arrived at 12 weeks, had used puppy pads up till that point, and never ever peed in the crate. The first week I didn't have a crate know what I was doing, he just peed/pooed on some towel in the corner and I slept on a camp bed next to him when he was on a pile of bedding. Once I put him in a crate I continued sleeping next to him and put my hand through teh bars in the night, and let him out once to use the pad. I don't remember getting up in the night at all! The toilet training in the day was a problem for a few weeks, but he never ever peed or pooed in his crate, and slept a long time there at night. But he was peeing and pooing everywhere else in the day, partly because it felt normal to him - until I went on a vinegar blitz and really spent a long time in the garden getting him "reconditioned". No telling off required at all at any stage. I don't think I was ever as sleep deprived as you describe, which why I'm wondering whether you should ditch the crate for now.

My puppy had come to me from a puppy pen (in which there was puppy pads)with his litter, rather than a crate ifysim. Crate training was brilliant later from 13-14 weeks for me, but I didn't have to go through any major sleep deprivation to get to the point of a clean sleeping through the night puppy.

retreat
Maybe your pup isn’t ready for crate training I don’t know what else to recommend sorry but if he is pooing all the time in the crate something isn’t right he can’t be happy
We aren’t doing crate training but I’ve had dogs that were and I’ve never experienced that but as Nettles said we didn’t start crate training until they were a good few weeks older.

Hi. I have a 13 week sausage dog! Can I join please.

So Spongepup had her 2nd jab at the vets this afternoon and was as good as gold, no biting, letting others stroke her and no fuss from the jab. Was so pleased to see her interacting with others and not playing up. Weve been reassured that the biting is just normal and it’s just nice to have that reinforced by the vet. We have a happy, healthy pup. This first week has been hard but I’m seeing progress as the days go on. Just can’t wait for the biting phase to be over

Two more weeks and this fella will be home ❤️

MsMarvellous that face!! 😍

Morning puppy parents! It's now almost 3 weeks since our little fella joined us. He has grown a little bit and to a certain extent some parts of the day are settling into a predictable routine. The biggest change I think is in us. We have become more confident with him and firmer with him. He has responded by becoming more independent. He still doesn't like being shut away from us but he is now just complaining rather than panicking. Obviously they are very sensitive to our feelings so my being less anxious is fingers crossed rubbing off on him. I was a bit afraid of hearing him whine or bark, that I was damaging him somehow but now happily ask him to be quiet or ignore him if necessary. He is quiet all night and happily runs off into the garden without me so he certainly can cope with being apart. The most frustrating thing is his vaccinations. We have had to start the course again and the second one has to be in 4 weeks time! Meaning we won't be able to go walking until well into July. Thankfully we have a big garden and plenty of family and friends we can visit with him but it's really frustrating during this key socialisation period.
I forget names but to whoever is having trouble with messing in the crate at night I would recommend moving to a pen so there is space for a pad/ newspaper. He clearly cannot hold it long enough for you to get to him so until his bladder/bowels control matures it will be like trying to potty train a toddler who isn't ready. I know that goes against crate training advice but crates are not the only way to do it.

Actually it's only been 2 weeks! Feels like so much longer.

ms marvellous he is lovely

@Nettleskeins picking up on your puppy thinking he could only pee at home, we got our dog in the summer 3 years ago and he was very good picking up the toilet training, probably because we spent most of 6 weeks in the garden. When he was about 14 weeks old we took him on his first full day out for countryside walk and pub meal and he spent the whole day without peeing until he got back home!! Three years later he will still only go on grass.

What are you all feeding your puppies out of interest. I am using Barking Heads Puppy days - dry food. It seemed to have decent ingredients but there is so much out there.

I am feeding mine on supermarket own brand puppy food, a tiny bit of wet pouch food with plenty of dry kibble. I plan to phase out the wet food by the time his adult teeth are in. He was weaned onto this particular supermarket brand so I have continued with it as it seems to suit him and he certainly likes it. I am loathed to rock the boat by changing it, even though I know it is not necessarily the best quality.

In other news, we have started to leave him on his own for the first time this week. Yesterday ds went out shopping and left him for just over half an hour. Today he was on his own for an hour and then another half an hour later in the afternoon. Both times he was quiet and chilled when I got back. Both times he had weed and pooed but tbh that has gone a bit tits up generally in the last couple of days as we have had some horrible weather and he hasn't wanted to go outside. Fingers crossed it will stop raining and we can get that back on track.

I have put my pup on wainwrights food I had him on Royal Canine but he was having issues with blood in his poo and he hasn't had a problem since switching.
I know its not one of the best but he likes it and is growing and gaining weight.

I really am at a loss with what to do with walking him though he isn't getting any better in fact he cries the whole walk now and lays down to stop walking.

calmpuppycrazykids have you tried carrying him into the park. ANd then letting him wander around off the lead.
Or have you used the lead in the garden?
Mine is getting more confident now.

No I haven't think ill try it tomorrow
Tried to take him out yesterday he saw lightning and heard thunder it terrified him so I took him in and today it was really hard he just kept laying on the floor

He got very excited when he saw people wagging his tail and going up to people its just anything else