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

Hi Wibbly, our pup wasn’t too keen on really wet weather when he was really small. I used to take a golf umbrella out to shelter him 😂

Hey @Wibblytummy we tried treats at first
She would just eat the treats then continue crying to go back inside
I felt like I was rewarding doing nothing outside - I’m sure lots of trainers would say no! Outside is great and we want them to think that, which I get
But after 3 days of no improvement I gave up

Where are you putting pup? We’d been told different things but found the grass was easiest - so just in case you’re trying on pavement, try moving to grass.

Then eventually I only let her down to drink water, or go outside
Otherwise she had to stay in my arms - a fight in itself to be honest.
I took her outside every 5-10 minutes for 5 minutes
Eventually she would have to go even if she didnt want to.

I also caved, I said I wouldn’t be the sort of person to buy a coat but she’s short haired and skinny and she cries
She won’t relax and poop outside if it’s too cold and windy
Coat on - she gives in after a couple of minutes and does it

Good luck

To those struggling with toilet training in horrible weather.

I cursed getting a puppy in winter BUT the positives are that BiteyDog eventually learnt that toileting meant straight back in the warmth and he is great now in torrential weather as he goes quickly and runs back in. The main benefit though was that by the time summer came he was calmer (wasn't trying to eat stones, plants, and generally being a pain in the arse) so summer was a joy sitting outside with the dog. If I had got him in summer I would have had a summer of constantly watching a pain in the arse puppy rather than enjoying the sun and the dog.

Mine still chews my garden up, doesn’t give a fart about the weather.

Thanks everyone! It's always a relief to know others have been through the same and safely out the other side!
Aha, I'm also beginning to research coats too @Snufflesdog .. She's short haired with a naked belly too and so thinking maybe I should get one for when we're allowed walks out.
Trying grass, the patio and her favourite seems to be the beds of fallen leaves in the flowerbeds but it just means on the odd occasion we get a poop outside, it's like a really crap game of where's wally or those magic eye games.. trying to find the small puppy poop in the millions of brown leaves.

That’s what I keep telling myself, Biteyshark. Toilet training is hard work when the weather is awful, but I think we will reap the rewards come the summer 😎

We have had a few magic eye games whilst out and about, Wibbly. The best one was over our local park after we finished our puppy walk. Pup decided to empty himself on a pile of leaves. I took my eyes off of him for a few seconds to say goodbye to a fellow puppy owner, and when I went to pick up the poo I couldn’t find it! Looked a right idiot staring at the ground trying to find it 😂

Who knew there was so much mud in the world! Most of it seems to be in my kitchen! It’s just unreal and then the drama of trying to sweep and mop (which is apparently the most exciting thing in the world to a puppy!) it’s just a never ending cycle of mud-management.

I like your theory of the summer to come, I’ll keep that in mind!

I’m actually sick of him now. Being near him makes me want to cry (not in a good way). He’s a bitey little shit. It’ll be 2 weeks tomorrow since we got him.

We wanted him so much and researched everything. I visited loads of breeders, read everything I could get my hands on, spoke to everyone I could corner, I prepared for months. I just feel like I hate it and I’m crap at it. I’m doing training little and often, some of it sticks, some of it doesn’t. I know it’s early days and takes longer than a couple of weeks but I’m finding it really hard to keep my cool now when he gets silly.

DH has had him most of the day so I can get on with Christmas wrapping and just have some space. It has been nice and of course, the dog has been ‘a good boy’ for DH. Of course, I came down and he (dog) was so excited (despite me keeping it very low key) that he was snapping and bit me really hard on the upper arm . I am this close to sending the little fucker back to the breeder .

Bad day.

And yy wibbly, we play the magic eye dog poo game several times a day as my garden has trees in it.

On the plus side, picking up dog poo on leaves it much easier and cleaner than picking it up off grass/gravel/pretty much any other surface.

I haven’t posted here in months, as my pup is eight months and those early days are a retreating memory (thank GOD - it was so hard) but @DeathByPuppy, I really just wanted to tell you that it WILL be ok, it WILL get easier, stick with it, you can do it. Puppies are little shits at times, it is relentless. I am a single parent and found it so hard that the buck stopped with me, even though I had considered getting a dog for years. It is so much easier now, she hasn’t had an accident since four months old and even then, I can count the number of accidents on two hands in total. The toilet training will pay off, it’s definitely worth putting the effort in that you are. The biting will get less and then stop - for the first month or so I looked terrible - scratches and bites all up my arms. I thought I had done the worst thing ever but honesty, it will get easier soon.

Death puppies are little shits aren't they. My DH asked me many times whether I wanted to return him as he would come home and find me stressed in tears. I just kept thinking this time next year I will have a lovely adult dog and that got me through the worst days.

I am definitely in the camp of 'never again' even though I bloody love the hairy monster now.

Thank you both. I do wonder how I’m going to cope in the coming weeks/months when I’m struggling this much at only 2 weeks in. Especially when he’ll be so much bigger and stronger then (he’s a lab). Surely this is the honeymoon period? Apparently not.

@KatinLondon, hats off to you doing this as a single parent. I honestly don’t know how you managed it.

No, no, this is the hardest time, definitely. If you have coped up until now, it will keep getting easier and before you know it your pup will be older too, you will be looking back on here and thinking ‘never again!’. I didn’t have a honeymoon period at all, it was hardest at the start, when pup was missing it’s mother and what was familiar.

How are night times? The fact that our pup fairly quickly started sleeping well was my saving grace. I desperately looked forward to 10pm (still do sometimes!) when she went to bed!

We’re a month in and I found the 2 week mark really tough to the point that one day after I’d finished work (my parents were looking after him) I just didn’t want to go home. I felt sick at the thought of having to walk through the door and be jumped at and bitten. I sat in the car and had to really physc myself up.

It’s still hard but pup is 14 weeks now and I can feel him getting calmer.

How’s everyone’s dc coping? We have one DS who is 10. He was desperate for a dog and the reality of it has hit him quite hard. He’s feeling a bit jealous of all the attention pups getting, a bit resentful of the change to our usually routine. He gets the worst of the biting too. I’ve spent lots of time chatting to him and reassuring him it’ll get easier but as a 40 year old finding it hard it’s no wonder he is too!

Not great, @Spotty528. My youngest is 17 but she has MH issues and a history of self harm, so finds the look of the bites and scratches on her arms really hard to deal with .

@KatinLondon, nighttime’s are ok. He goes to bed at 10pm and wakes twice a night but it’s a quick loo visit and back to bed. DH does one waking, I do the other. That helps on the knackeredness front.

I really hope this is the ‘worst’ bit and we don’t have to face much more of this relentless awfulness.

He’s just shat on the hall floor for the second time today. DH took him outside for a toilet visit less than 5 minutes ago and he wouldn’t go. Oh and to top it all off, he* started to eat it too.

*The dog not DH.

Death dogs are gross. We never had poo eating but BiteyDog would eat his own vomit [boak]

What’s good about them? I am struggling to see it at the moment, @BiteyShark [shark]

I meant

Honestly the puppy months I wouldn't have said anything because I found it overwhelming and just relentless.

When mine started to show his adult personality I found he was more fun to be around. It's hard to describe but it's a comfort him being around and the house feels like a home when he is following me about or sat watching me when I am doing chores. Seeing him get joy from simple things like chasing a ball or doing tricks for treats makes me smile and he reads my moods closely and comes for a hug when I am feeling down or ill.

We had a rescue dog before pup. She was absolutely wonderful, a constant companion. Always happy to see us, she’d curl up next to me if I was tired or sad, she stayed by my side during labour, trotted along next to the pram when DS was born. I love getting out in the countryside for walks and seeing how much she enjoyed exploring made it all the more better. I often wonder what she was like as a puppy.

DeathByPuppy, sounds like you have had a really tough day. It will get easier.
Things that made me smile when our pup was a real bitey shit:
The smell of his fur
The noises he makes in his sleep
His helicopter tail when DH gets home
The way he falls asleep leaning his little body against my leg or foot
The way he looks for me when I leave a room
I’m sure the list will continue to grow as he gets older.

@DeathByPuppy sounds like a rough day
I think we have one or two bad days
And then one or two good days when I think ahh this isn’t so bad, why was I so annoyed yesterday.

Dpup is an absolute dream for dh too.
Then I return and she goes mental again. And I can tell he thinks this whole puppy thing is easy - not thinking about the hours of training on my part that have taught her that sit or settle or not to jump etc. Hes like I don’t know why you’re so stressed?

As @heatseeker14 says I try to enjoy any little things she does on the bad days. How she smells, a little trick she may have mastered, learning to play with a new toy etc.
Today I resorted to looking at photos of her from when we first got her and from the breeder to think of her as being cute and lovely, rather than the absolute terror she was being.