Puppy support group 3

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

A thread for all new puppy owners for support and understanding!!

My puppy is now 7 months and has hit the teens 😒🤪😳😫 stay with me fellow puppy owners - I need you!!!

[Snufflesdog]

Oh on the recall a tip I was given is to throw a treat behind yourself so they run past you
So they get in the habit of not slowing down and stopping on the way to you
As often they actually speed up to the treat

[BiteyShark]

Springer my cocker is a pain for the keeping an arm length away from me if he thinks the walk is going to end.

What worked for me was teaching him sit, I would then walk up to him, grab his collar and give him a stroke and then throw a ball. I still do this multiple times on walks now so he doesn't know when it's a ball throw or a grab to put his lead back on. Also I never put his lead back on in the same place at the end of a walk.

Another thing you could try is the 'touch' command on your hand before they get a treat/play. I can't do this when walking as mine gets SO excited he opens his mouth for the touch which hurts .

[Spotty528]

Just wanted to post this for anyone really struggling (as I was). Pup is now 18 weeks old and I’m sitting in work with one eye on the clock because I’m actually looking forward to going home and seeing the little dirt-bag. Every Friday since we got him 2 months ago I’ve had a sinking feeling at the thought of going home to him. That sounds awful but I really did find it very challenging. He’s changed so much in just the last couple of weeks. The biting is less, he’s 99.99% house trained (during the day at least!) and his sweet personality is starting to show. I know there’ll be more struggles ahead as we hit the teens but I just wanted to say hang in there to anyone finding it difficult. I remember one of you saying you felt the same for the first 2 months and that you now loved your dog and I wasn’t entirely convinced the same thing would happen to me but I feel like it is!

[Muddypup]

Any advice would be good. My dog has diarrhoea. She started with it this morning. She is completely normal in herself and is eating as normal.
She’s doing a poo after her meals (as she normally does), they’re just really runny.
Does she need a vet? Do I just continue to feed her as normal?

[Snufflesdog]

My dog gets loose poop quite often. I can normally attribute it to something (someone’s given her some cheese, she’s had a bit too many treats during training etc)
I never worry as it’s normally sorted itself out within a day or two and I know the cause and she seems fine otherwise. Do you have any idea what may have caused it.

I do cut down on treats and just have her on her dry food (instead of a mix of dry and wet, plus treats, carrots to chew etc)

If she’s going after meals, I presume in that case it’s not uncontrollable and non stop.
So to be honest I’d wait it out.
I’m not a vet though!

[Wibblytummy]

Ah my god. Wits end at the moment. Wibblypup had been doing so well with her toilet training but the last week but this last few days she's decided to revert and I'm loosing my mind! We've reverted back to brand new puppy approach, outside every 30 mins but having minimal success this time.
We have a long garden and she just wanders about having a grand time and then may do a small wee making me think we've had success. Then we'll go in and within 5 minutes she's starting to go in a corner again.
She gives very little clues. She doesn't really circle or sniff. She just walks up to a random point and goes.
This morning after a wee outside and a treat, a wait for anything further... then we've come in and as I'm taking my shoes off she's just walked over and started to poo on my sons shoe. Then as I'm bagging that up she went for another wee in the corner of the kitchen

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Oh God wibbly how old is your pup again? That sounds shit - literally!!

Our pup gets diarrhoea quite often and usually the culprit is too many treats, esp cheese and anything else rich.

I sold the dog crate this morning, I'm still working on getting dpup to sleep downstairs on his own with limited success. Last night he settled downstairs and slept until 4am at which point he cried, I let him out for a wee and he came upstairs with me.

We took him to the beach Ystd and he loved it, was running around and digging in the sand. Was a really nice day and makes the hard bits almost worth it 😉

[flippyflapper]

Hello everyone,
I wad after some advice, we have a shipoo female puppy who is 18 weeks old.
Her toilet trainning was excellent, she went 3 weeks of no accidents, then started pooping in house, she then went 2 weeks again no accidents took her self out was doing so well and now we are back to pooping in house. No wee, just poo.

She is doing really well other than that, sleeps all night in crate, recall goodx and she is enjoying puppy classes.

[heatseeker14]

I can’t wait to take our pup to the beach @Girliefriendlikespuppies. I want to take him for a swim somewhere because he loves playing in the bath. Does your pup like swimming?

Can you section off a bit of the garden @Wibblytummy? Is she on a lead? If not, I’d put her on one until she stops having accidents. Sounds like she is getting distracted. Do you use verbal toilet cues? I’m sure I heard somewhere that giving treats for toilet training can sometimes mean dogs don’t fully empty their bladder. Perhaps because they think they can cash in a few times 😂Not sure if that is true. I only used praise when toilet training our puppy.

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Heat no our pup hates the water, he even walks around puddles 🤣

I think it must be a yorkie thing as the yorkie we had growing up was the same! He loved the sand and space though and he found another puppy to play with!

I've booked him into a teenage puppy class that's in a couple of weeks...

[Sproutpie]

Our cocker spaniel puppy is 16 weeks old and we just can’t get her to poop outside. We’ve had her for 8 weeks and she’s only managed 3 outside. Wee is no problem. She’s virtually dry at night and nearly always asks to go out for a wee. I’ve now resorted to placing her poop on the lawn to try and encourage her - this hasn’t worked either.
Any ideas ? She is taken out regularly and is being given lots of opportunity to do it in the right place. She comes in and sneaks off to do it.

[BiteyShark]

Sprout maybe try and tether her to you on a long lead and then she can't sneak off to do it.

[Snufflesdog]

Hi all hope you don’t mind me joining!! I’ve got a 16 week old terrier cross and she is finally starting to seem like a real dog at times, we have brief moments of nice walks, or lazing in the couch together in between all the puppy mayhem! But we’ve still got lots to learn!

@sproutpie Is she going in the same place all the time?
Our puppy was a bit more reluctant on the poos originally so we had more poo accidents than wee accidents

We found he likes to go somewhere a little sheltered, like the corner of the garden

We also just watched him like a hawk. He couldn’t go anywhere without me watching, didn’t take my eyes off him, I realised he had a few tells so I would just take him outside, he would refuse, we would come in, he would try to go inside, I took him back out and so on.
It took hours, eventually he couldn’t hold it anymore and went in the garden.
It meant reserving a few hours/days to poo watching and it was draining really. But after he’d gone a few times outside, he didn’t fight it anymore so then it was just a case of spotting it needed to happen to take him out as he wouldn’t ask, until he learned to do so

He’s still less keen to poop outside our garden too, I guess it’s like a vulnerability thing.

[Woody479]

Nojeans-we’ve got an 18 week old terrier cross. Is your pup quite growly when he plays? We went to training yesterday and the puppies were playing with toys. Ours grabs one and starts thrashing it around and growling while all the other pups are gentley playing. The trainer said ‘we don’t want the puppies to attempt to kill their toys please’ while eye balling ours. She then approached and recommended we don’t give him toys that squeak (that’s all of them in the bin then!) 😆

[Snufflesdog]

Yes exactly our pup
Don’t worry about it! We get eye balled at puppy class all the time For how boisterous and growly he is
They think he’s demonstrating that he’s high on the aggression ladder eye roll
However all the little tiny dog owners seem to have little to no control over their dogs, who don’t know how to sit, lie down, Take treats gently, walk on a lead, recall etc. Whilst he does it all perfectly at class, but everyone judges us anyway.

Another trainer told me that if your dog is growling whilst playing he’s having the best time! And I like to think of that now, like a cat purr almost.

With regards to shaking, ours has been doing this since he was tiny in the videos the breeders sent us. It’s just instinct. If I throw things he’s allowed to take them and shake them
But if we play tug together I keep things low to the ground, slow movements and if he tries to shake too much I hold it really still and gently take it away.
Since doing that he now plays more gently with us, he’s focused on playing with us rather than killing. And he ‘shares’ the toy - he makes sure he holds it on one side so we can hold the other. When I let him win he brings it straight back now and gives me one end of the toy to start again.
Before when we played a bit rougher he wouldn’t bring it back and he would try to nip our hands off it, so if you’re not doing that it may be worth a try.
He still growls though but I like it

[StillMedusa]

Mine sometimes growls when playing too... pretty much the only time she growls, and only when she is really excited and happy!
She's a big fluffy girl and today got to play with another (really) big fluffy girl puppy (a Newfoundland) and they sounded scary.. growls and yips and lots of bouncing and chewing each others ears... and the biggest doggy smiles at the end, they were both so happy!

I don't let her play like that too often but now and again a growly play is fine! (we are aiming for a weekly meet up so they can wear each other out!)

[Snufflesdog]

So I’m pretty gutted.
We’ve done two sessions at puppy class.
The first one she was a bit growly and barky - just on edge, no intent, and she did everything that was asked of her too.

In the second one we arrived and they had put up barriers in the corner of the room for her to be in.
All the other dogs can see each other and be near each other but we are isolated.
In that session other puppy’s were barking, trying to run off etc
And other than try to sniff a puppy that we walked past she did nothing wrong!
When she did try to snuff the puppy they built the barriers around us bigger.

I’m there for her to get used to people, and dogs , socialise and practice her training surrounded by distractions.
But she’s not getting any of that since were walled off, and to make it worse the training is so basic that I think it’s confusing her! Whilst all the other dogs don’t seem to be able to do it (things like sit)
Just a bit disheartened.

[TokyoSushi]

6 months here at the weekend, Tokyopup is a crazy darling. Much more settled nowadays but still at the bonkers end of the spectrum!

No poo accidents inside for ages but still a few wees a week 🙄

We absolutely adore him!

[BiteyShark]

Snuffles don't be afraid to go to a different trainer if you aren't happy. The first training class I didn't go back after the first week. It took a few attempts to find the right one when mine was a puppy.

[Snufflesdog]

We’ve paid for the whole thing now, so I’m not sure if it’s worth going still just to see it out
She wasn’t barky the second time, so maybe at least it did get her more comfortable in different situations
We’re signed up to another class that starts this week anyway
That’s a kc good citizen one, so I’m hoping it’s a little better.

I just feel sad for the poor thing, even thought she doesn’t understand, it’s sad to see her just penned off away from everyone so she can’t even see them.

They think she’s aggressive because of the growling, even though every time she meets a dog she just has a sniff whilst her tails under her legs and she’s been pinned by other dogs several times!

They’ve said the next step is her biting anyway
It just seems crazy to have labelled a 15 week old tiny puppy as aggressive. Especially when as soon as I say her name she snaps out of it and comes back to me.

[heatseeker14]

That all sounds very stressful @Snufflesdog. If your dog can do all the exercises, perhaps she is just getting bored. Our pup shows me up no end when our trainer is explaining an exercise. He whines, paces, digs in puddles and head-butts the step he uses for ‘paws up’. I look around at the other dogs and they are all quite sedate in comparison. I put it down to boredom and frustration because as soon as we start an exercise he is really attentive and super quick to learn.
Hopefully your new class will be better for you both.

[Woody479]

Wow snuffles that sounds a bit bonkers to me! At our puppy class a few of the pups (ours included) will bark and growl and generally be unsettled especially at the start of the group. Don’t go back, fire off an email saying you’re not happy with the training methods and you want a refund on the remaining classes. Go with your gut. I think the puppy training environment is so full on for them. They’re thrown into a room of 6-8 different puppies and expected to go through all these different tasks. It’s a big ask and an environment that most of them won’t be found in again!

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Snuffles completely agree with everything woody said!! That sounds awful.

[Snufflesdog]

Thanks all, dh went with me on week 2 as he had the morning off, he was fuming.
At the time I just wanted to get on with the class and get what we could out of it but the more I’ve thought about it the more annoyed I am.

I think the problem is that all the other puppies are little lap dogs. They’re not sitting on ‘command’ or walking on the lead or playing or anything else. But they’re just chilling on their blankets and then will follow a treat around happily for the full hour, or ignore it and stay sat settled on their blankets. Literally several of them wet themselves with excitement when they saw a treat last week, and then needed a lie down.
So my little feisty thing that’s trying to explore and wants to do all the exercises at a million mph just looks feral compared to them.

We just get disapproving looks over the barrier all hour

There was a new trainer at the last one and they did at least acknowledge when she was doing things well as well, but it almost feels patronising now, but I know that’s me being sensitive

[Wibblytummy]

Hi, sorry didn't manage to reply in my haze of going back to toilet training basics. Seems to have worked moderately well and wer're having only one or so accident a day at the moment (usually around dinner when I'm cooking for the family and take my beady eye off her!) but for us some tips from some YouTube videos worked. We put her back on the lead for toilet breaks, take her to her comfortable toilet zone and just be really boring. Other than communicating the key words, little other interaction, then a high value treat when she does go and then allow play and garden exploring after. Seems to have worked here!

@Snufflesdog that sounds horrible. Mine is the most boisterous in our puppy group but the trainer was lovely and kept us included and interacting. I got some eye rolling from one owner who had a tiny pup only just able to attend who had not socialised at all yet but the trainer was quick to confirm mine was just being playful etc and reassured everyone it's ok. I'd be inclined to email and request a refund for the remaining sessions!