Puppy Support Group 2

[DuchessDarty]

A continuation of this:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/3600375-Young-Puppy-Support-Group

All age of puppies (and owners ) welcome

BiteyFuck sounds exactly like Shark, didn’t you say he’s a spaniel too? He also throws his bed around and then crashes asleep! He will settle fine during the day with occasional biting, but in the evening he can’t seem to manage and is an overtired whirl of teeth and jumping on and off the sofa and grabbing things like washing or the remote. We need a second crate for the living room, i think, because the bedroom one is too much faff to move. It’s really sad because I want to curl up with him on the sofa and not put him in a crate/on his own in the kitchen! He’s 20 weeks now. I’m trying to teach Bed but while he’ll go to it he won’t stay in it.

@ClownsandCowboys it was me who used the long house line exactly for that reason As soon as she knew she had pushed the boundaries too far and was going to get a time out, she would jump in her toy box to try and hide or run behind the sofa, etc. With the long line you can just stand on the end of it and get some control before they take off and helps avoid the teeth if they're bucking around and biting at the same time. Picking her up wasn't an option when she got past 20 kilos of wriggling bitey lab We're still having to persevere with the odd time out, as she is still a bit mouthy when over excited, especially with DH. She is way better than she was though, so I think it's just a case of reinforcing the 'no teeth' rule untill she really gets it.

MaryLennox yes he is a spaniel. Just starting to calm down now aged 3 😂

Anyone got a puppy that has quiet, lethargic days? Ours is worrying me today, she’s slept almost all day so far and isn’t her usual manic self.

I feel like we are regressing here 🙈
I was away for a few nights last week and my DH was with Sunnypup the whole time, then I was back for a night and then away again for two nights. He was absolutely fine when I was gone, had a lovely time with DH and really bonded (or so DH thought!!) but now I’m back he is a Velcro dog again. Not that he ever really wasn’t, but I could leave him for short periods or go into different rooms in the house. Now he is crying and howling while I’m showering, putting the kids to bed etc. Feel like we are back at square one. I left him for half an hour for the school run, then half an hour to go to Morrison’s and he cried the whole time.

He has in contrast massively increased in confidence out of the house and his off lead recall has gone out the window. Chasing squirrels is his new favourite pastime 🙄

He is so lovely and adorable but I feel like I don’t know how to train him and will make loads of mistakes with him.

@Alsohuman ours has done the same today! She was fine when awake but it seemed like all her naptimes almost ran on together! Hope they're both okay. I'm not worried about mine. Just expecting a growth spurt!

Phew, thank you @namechanged984630. I was quite concerned, particularly as we had a rough day yesterday. I thought she was ill. A growth spurt makes sense.

Also my puppy has a day or two where all he wanted to do was sleep, he woke up for walks and that was pretty much it. He ate fine so assumed it was a growing day!!

Not sure when I last posted but all has been okay here, I think dpup is getting on for 24 weeks 😲 not sure where that time has gone. I've been away at a conference for a couple of days and have really missed him.

We went away over half term and he was brilliant, happy doing whatever we wanted to do. Will attach a pic of him enjoying the beach.

Advice needed! Pup is 6 months old and the last couple of nights keeps waking up during the night and won't settle. We've been really lucky as 95% of the time he sleeps during the night. Now he is scratching at kitchen door. He's definitely doesn't need to pee and has plenty of exercise. Any tips? Do we just ignore it and hope it's a phase?! Could just be a noise outside waking him up. HELP

Snoop has he ever been crated? My puppy settles fine at night in the crate but I imagine would scratch/cry if just left in a separate room.

@Girliefriendlikespuppies yes has been crated but we leave crate door open in kitchen and he moves between bed and crate. I think I'm overreacting but just worried it's annoying the neighbours so I try to come up with a solution rather than let him settle down. Which might take 20 mins. At 2am 😩

It might be that you could put his bed in the crate and shut the door?

I think some dogs like that feeling of being contained.

Ours has her bed in the crate which is closed at night. It works well for us.

Thank you....I think the penny has dropped. Although he has been booked in to be neutered end of the month, I think this is the beginning of adolescent behaviour. Theres a few odd things he has been doing recently, (nothing major yet) so I think pup is testing us. This is my life for the next 6-12 months!!!!

I think it’s going to be a long day. Pup got me up at 3:45am for wee and a poo. Thankfully went back to bed until 6am. Have a horrible cold brewing and feel destroyed. Roll on 10pm! 😄

Snoop I found at that age mine was very affected by unusual noises in the night, much more on guard and protecting of the household (ie growing up and aware of adult role in standing up and defending territory) So, could it have been the Fireworks - noises that you didn't register that he heard, or fox in the garden?
tbh I didn't find that neutering at 9 months made much difference to the protectiveness and adolescent high jinx (he was still full of beans and curiosity), and I wonder whether it made him actually a bit more of a scaredy cat. It just reduced the running off after ladies and the humping marking behaviour.
So be aware that so called "adolescent" behaviour doesn't go away just because you neuter. I gave mine the neutering injection just in case, it is being in renewed in Jan, hopefully I will have a clear picture then whether it has been good or bad for him.

I found a bit of reassurance and reminding him what the routine was, safe spaces etc helped my adolescent puppy settle at night. Changes in the day of one sort of another (there are always changes in a normal household it cannot be perfect) might have set him off, and with reassurance to self settle he will start sleeping through again. Mine was out of a crate at that age. Would that help? I found a cosy room, dog proofed to some extent, water, a area he could pee on if he was desperate (but almost never ever did) all helped to make the downstairs a place he slept through in. Ours never woke till we came down, often that was 7.30, 8 at weekend, but more usually 7am when we got up in term. I think the space he had ( room 4.5m x 3.5) made that more likely than if he had been in a crate. He could get up in the night find a new sleep place get a drink and resettle if necessary without us.

sorry Snoop see you leave door open. Yes, I do think they test the boundaries occ, but going back and resettling did help with ours when he behaved like that, whereas neutering wasn't really the reason he started to calm down. I think with age comes confidence and experience of good things and trust in the household gods (us)

Ours is really going backwards 😭 he is waking every night in the middle of the night, doesn’t matter how much exercise he has had, whether he has done an evening poo etc he still wakes for the loo and then consistently wakes for the day around 6. That’s not moving any later.

He has also become even worse at being left on his own. He is fine for around 10-15 minutes and then just bowls and barks til we get home. I probably need to go back to basics and go in and out for just a few minutes at a time but it’s just impossible to not have to leave him for an hour or two once or twice a day. It’s really upsetting me as I don’t want him to be worried or upset but it’s making me feel really claustrophobic and I am not getting anything done. He is nearly 6 months now and I’m worrying about how I’m going to get Christmas shopping done etc as only leave him if I have to.

@SunnyUpNorth that sounds really hard. Where is he when you leave him alone? Where does he sleep at night?

We have had 2 wees inside today which feels like a big step back. I also understand the claustrophobic feeling - we still spend the majority of our time in the back room/kitchen because he isn't reliable if we are anywhere else in the house and may wee. I miss the rest of my house!!

He sleeps at night in a crate in the kitchen. He goes straight into it when he has been outside, gets a little biscuit and goes straight to sleep. If he wakes in the night he is straight out and then straight back to bed with no trouble. He is really good. He had started sleeping through and I noticed he woke at night when he hadn’t had a poo in the evening. So I brought his dinner forward a little and he was having an evening poo again and was mostly sleeping through. But he has now woken every night for about a week.

During the day I was leaving him in the crate and he was ok for around an hour and then would whine and bark on and off. I thought he would be happier out of the crate as he could walk around, find other places to sleep etc. We have quite a big kitchen diner and he also has the utility room.

I was away with the kids visiting the in laws for a few days last week and my husband worked from home and was with him most of the day. Then I came back for one night and then I was away at the weekend for two nights and he did a trial sleepover with a home boarder which went fine. He was super clingy on Monday which I expected but it seems to be getting worse not better.

He has been to a home boarder once before and was clingy for a day or two after but then was normal. I had to leave him once for 3 hours which I was really worried about, but he just sat at the door waiting (the whole time) and didn’t make a noise at all. But now he just jumps around barking and howling. It’s horrible 😭

Oh no sunny that sounds hard. Could you go back to just leaving him in the crate? I think our pups are around the same age and I still leave my pup in the crate when I go out. He does sometimes cry but normally only for 5 mins or so and then he sleeps.

Not sure what to suggest re the night wakings though 😕 I think I would just hope that's a phase!

I've noticed a few small changes which I'm assuming is dpup reaching adolescence 😬 he now does loads of little wees on walks, he is trying to dominate other dogs and he has started barking at nothing much in the garden 🙄

Interesting re the neutering, quite a lot of advice I've seen suggests leaving it quite late to neuter boys and to only neuter if necessary. I think there is some evidence that boys need testosterone for their growth, bones and confidence....

@Girliefriendlikespuppies yes I think I’m going to try the crate again for when I leave him and go right back down to 10 mins or so and build it up. I also need to make an effort to leave him more when I’m in the house. It just feels very suffocating, didn’t think it would be this tying!

I’m going to wait to get him neutered. I think I probably will as a lot of places such as boarding, daycare,dog parks etc don’t accept intact males. So probably easier to get him done but will wait til he is fully mature. He would make lovely babies though!!!

Sadly forest pup still not good, he was taken back to the vets on Saturday and is still there. They cannot figure out why he isnt responding to the medicines. Very much missing my tiny shadow

Outtheforest so sorry to hear that. BiteyDog was very ill aged one and ended up being admitted for D&V over a couple of weeks which they only got to the bottom of months later when it happened again and I pushed for more invasive diagnostic tests.

How is your pup @Outtheforest? Has the vet figured out what’s wrong? How are you? I bet you can’t wait to have him home.

My youngest son had some friends sleepover last night. Pup handled 4 extremely hyper 10/11 year olds very well. He is now happily zonked out in his crate!

How are your pups around people and dogs when walking? Ours is a flipping nightmare! So desperate to get to them. I’m trying to teach him to walk on ‘let’s go’ and introduce ‘say hello’ when someone actually wants to interact with him. Mixed results so far 😂