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

Our little girl has settled like she's been here years. She knows where her bowls are and uses her puppy pads no probs. She loves the girls and follows them everywhere. When we ate dinner she just paced about looking at is as we were ignoring her.
Trying the crate tonight so we shall see. 😁

Hey all, latest in my world is that we left pup with dog boarder for a week as we were away and pup basically barked all night which meant that the boarder had to sleep next to pup in crate as she insisted he be crated at night. Although pup sleeps in crate at home (and all through the night) a lot of the time, we don't shut the crate door anymore. So feeling a bit deflated and like a bad parent.....boarder will not have him again either. Just for that extra kick in the nuts. My advice to you would be if you're going to crate train, do it properly and persevere! Let's hope pup sleeps through the night now he's back to normality. ....

@ClownsandCowboys our pup had gunky ears right at the beginning and we had to use anti biotics through a pipette which helped clear infection. It was however a 2 person job to carry out said task!!!!

That sounds great Ledkr good luck for tonight.

Yy to getting him checked sunny poor little chap.

Loads of wees in half hour, that wouldn't be a uti would it? I remember our pup randomly doing that one day and he's never did it again!! He wee'd in the living room tonight but was our fault as he was by the front door we just didn't get to him quick enough!!

I’ve no idea, there was a lot of wee! The first one was because I didn’t catch him quick enough after he woke, no clue about the rest. He does drink a lot 🤔

Well.. She went in the crate OK. Whimpered a bit but didn't seem scared and slept all night. Happy to see us this morning. My kids were awake at 6 as they were so excited.
She's using the pads every time and eating and just very settled.
I'm going to pop out today for a tiny harness as I'd like her to wee outside but she's so quick and small I'm worried she will bugger off.
Hoping to get the pads moved today to a more discreet area rather than right in the middle of the lounge floor 🤣 I'm on my own with her all day so wondering how that will go.

Aw good luck with the pads, hope it goes ok. We skipped puppy pads apart from one by the door on the first couple of days, but he was always ready to go out. Sooner you get her outside the easier it will be. Have you thought about using a toilet bell?

Problem is...he whines to go outside but sometimes he just wants to go out to play! He loves eating all the bark in the garden so hate that because I have to watch him so closely!

He's being so cute today I don't want to go to work!

@Snoopdogowner it took 3 of us this morning- me, DH and ds (10).

She started being really hyper in the morning and a bit in the evening. Just at the times when I'm trying to get kids ready for school/bed.

Here is some help for separation anxiety.
www.bellaandduke.com/guide/how-to-solve-separation-anxiety-in-dogs/

Crying when you leave the room is normal for a young pup isn’t it, do they eventually just grow out of it?

I’ve been leaving our 11 week old for 30mins to an hour, with a kong and after he’s been played with fed etc. I film him and he eats the kong contents, cries for about 4mins then settles into bed.

When I’m home he’ll sometimes be happy for me to briefly leave the room, other times he cries. Should I be doing anything when I leave the room at these times or will he just naturally learn that I come back.

I've been wondering this too! Someone in work advised me to say 'back in a minute' and they would learn that you will be back. Not sure how effective that is though!

It's only been a week I guess of leaving him - it's not going to happen overnight!

aCockapwMum are you leaving your puppy in a cage/crate when you go to work after him being in the crate overnight? How long is he on his own for. He’s very young for you to be returning to work.

What's a toilet bell?

Ledka toilet bells are usually a couple of bells which can be hung from a door handle. We trained our puppy to bash them to indicate he wanted to go outside when we were missing his silent clues. We no longer use them but they were handy when he was younger.

We have toilet bells and after two weeks she's started to use them. Toilet training is fine but the separation stuff and constantly biting is exhausting. She's not motivated by food much either. We've had her 15 days and i haven't left her at all yet but practicing flitting from one room to another and opening and closing the front door etc

Our toilet bell’s been a disaster-just another thing to scrabble at and bite 🤦🏼‍♀️

He’s being left for around 2.5/3 hours (we’ve got different people coming in to see him if it’s not us coming home) - which is what we’ve been told is fine for a pup of his age (I also have a couple of work colleagues with recent cockapoo pups who’ve followed this timetable too). Next week we’re going to try giving him free reign of the kitchen to give him some more space. Xx

Cocker it seems a long time to leave a puppy of that age, and if your work colleages have recent pups they may not have realised that this could increase the chances of separation anxiety and demanding hyperactive longterm. Space isn't enough, he will need sustained interaction during that time if you are leaving him for a working day. Not the entire time, but at least stretches of two hours during the day where someone is in the house to play with him and train him and pick up his cues. I have an older puppy and he lasted about two hours when I could be out, but that would be the max for the day until evening sleep pattern.

You don't train a puppy to cope with you leaving them by leaving them for long periods in the first two months. As they get older, it is easier to leave them because they can have two good walks a day (at a year old) and will probably sleep in between for long stretches, but a puppy is having bursts of play and sleep and toileting all day but in a much more erratic fashion.

Our pup is 16 weeks and the most she is left is 2 hours, but that isn't every day and I tend to time it with a big zonk out sleep, so she barely notices.

We built up from 5-10 mins of school run, to 30min and so on.

Really appreciate the advice. we’ve been talking about it this eve and we’re going to take it in turns to work from home more over the next couple of weeks. We definitely haven’t entered into this lightly and sought a lot of advice from friends, family and colleagues who’ve had puppies in the last couple of years - as well as our breeder. We’re lucky we can both be flexible with working patterns and come home very easily at lunch too.

I should say I’ve probably exaggerated the crying as well, we’re talking minutes before he quietens down - could quite easily be people walking past waking him up, etc. He’s not howling or barking the house down - I react with stress to every noise he makes!

One thing I did want to ask everyone - advice on trimming puppy nails?? I know he’s going to need it soon and wondering if people had advice on clippers, techniques??

CockerSharkPup’s biting seems to be getting worse 😬 every time I try to take something off her she growls and snaps at me and I’m not quite sure what to do with her. I’ve tried telling her no, distraction through training and putting her in her crate for a few minutes. She’s 11 weeks old now and having her second injection on Tuesday. We’re booked in for puppy classes starting the 11th dec. I’m at a loss.

Is anyone else very anxious about puppy classes? We don’t start until January but it’s so completely new I don’t know what to do or expect or how pup will behave.

Spotty I took mine to her first puppy class last week, she barked through most of it partly excited and part fear i think. I did feel a bit uncomfortable as the other puppies were definitely calmer but it was her first week so giving it the benefit of the doubt....

If I could go back in time I actually wouldn't have bothered with group puppy classes.

If your puppy is calm and one of those that is so food orientated they will do anything for treats you will probably be fine in them.

For me with a spaniel who doesn't care if steak is waved in front of him when in a crowd it was stressful and a bloody waste of time and money. The best training we ever did with a couple of different trainers was 1-1. I learnt far more in one hour than I did in any group session. As mine interacted with other dogs in different settings it wasn't as if we got any socialisation benefits either.