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!!!

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Our pup only likes to pee on grass as well, he has peed on concrete before but it tends to be when he's completely desperate! It can be a bit embarrassing when we're walking through town and he suddenly bobs down in the middle of the street and its like a niagra falls, everyone is jumping over his wee!! I'm assuming eventually he will just cock his leg on lamp posts like other normal dogs

Heat I have found the teenage months so far a bit stressful but its not as bad having a really young puppy, at least i'm not getting up at 5am with him any more!!

[heatseeker14]

@BiteyShark I will make sure I have plenty of gin on standby. 👍🏻 😄
@Girliefriendlikespuppies I’m glad that the constant waking in the night has stopped too. Pup sleeps until we get up. Just goes to show that the multiple toilet trips during the night were for attention. Could have put a stop to that much sooner if I hadn’t been so stubborn with crate training. 🙄
Heatpup is definitely getting more headstrong. He has worked out how to pop the lid on our bin. 😏 The past couple of evenings he has tried on multiple occasions to get in there quick to pull out food scraps and other manky stuff. 🤢 Constantly jumping up at the kitchen cupboards to see if he can grab anything. He is so persistent and seems constantly hungry. Kind of like my teenage son. 😂

Good idea to take pup where you want her to wee @Snufflesdog. Hopefully if you use your toilet command and lots of praise, she will be less drawn to going on the concrete. I had hoped to get our pup to go in a specific area, but I quickly gave up when we were going outside all the time. I was just pleased he was actually going outside. He does have the curtesy to poo near the edge of the lawn towards the back of the garden, so at least we are not likely to walk out and skid in it. 😂

[5amisnotmorning]

Arghhhh just had enough of 11 week old cockapest. He is getting much better and was amazing for the trainer today but I just need a break from the relentlessness of trying to deal with an overtired pup who struggles to nap.

[Snufflesdog]

Where do you want him to sleep 5am ?

Ours needs to be comforted to sleep
After a lot of work we can now put her in her pen and ignore her and she will take herself off to sleep though
No chance if she’s outside the pen though. Too many exciting things to run at and bite

Major puppy blues when I couldn’t get her to go to sleep anywhere but me.
And she just cried and howled because she was so tired if I couldn’t or wouldn’t let her on me.
I feel your pain.

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

I can't believe that after working so hard to get dpup to sleep in the crate we've ended up with a dog who sleeps wherever he wants to now!! I think the crate was useful for helping with toilet training and for containing him when he was really little.

No idea if I'll ever get him to sleep downstairs again though 🙄

[heatseeker14]

@Girliefriendlikespuppies we are in the same boat with our boy. I think the crate worked really well for us when our pup was small and not toilet trained. He sleeps in our bedroom now. It’s not what I really wanted, but I do like having snuggles with him. 😍 At least we don’t have to worry about them pooing and weeing on the carpet or even worse on the bed!
Sometimes I wish we had stuck to our guns with the crate especially when he can’t settle. Last night he could not settle properly. I suspect he was in pain due to teething. The last time he was restless during the night he was sick on the bed, 😷 so I spent most of last night worried he was going to throw up on us. 😄

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Yeah exactly the same here heat, I think we ruined it over Christmas when we relaxed the rules a bit. Our pup also seems to throw up routinely, he never seems unwell with it so I assume it's down to the fact that he licks all manner of unsavoury things 🤢

[Outnumb3red]

Our boy sleeps in the room beside us, in his own bed, never in beside me.

Starting to get back on track with the pooing outside again and he's not done it much inside over the last few days.

We had a great day out with him today. He's always much more enthusiastic about walking when the kids are with me. He must keep up with them at all times. He had a little bit of off lead today and his recall was perfect every time. These are the times that make it worthwhile ❤️

[Nojeansplease]

How much time In a day are your puppies expected to entertain themselves for?

I’m looking at working from home 2 days a week. So instead of being in day care pup could be with me
But would be expected obviously to play alone - with interaction and toilet breaks throughout the day on my breaks and lunch
Pup is 4 months

Also interested at that age how long your dogs are home alone for? Haven’t left ours for more than 1.5 hours so far but we would love to go out for dinner somewhere - I just don’t know if I’m being cruel!!

[Woody479]

Ours is 5 months. He’s left for 3 hours 3 times a week and then various people pop in the entertain/walk him.

On my days off I make a point of still leaving him alone. I’ve come to realise that he just doesn’t settle when I’m about. So today for example, he was home alone from 9-11.30, then I walked him etc and left him in the kitchen and went upstairs for a nap from 1.30-2.30 then I did the school run so he was alone until 3.30. I filmed him during that time and he just slept.

He’s got company now until bedtime but I don’t want him to loose that ability to be ok on his own. On Monday I was with him all day and tbh he did my head in after a while, constantly pathering around or jumping on me. He used to curl up on my knee and sleep but he’s too big now to get comfy.

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

I don't spend much time during the day entertaining dpup, he gets a walk normally at lunchtime and otherwise naps or entertains himself. He gets a lot more interaction in the evenings when dd plays with him or does some training.

He's 7 months now and I can leave him up to 4 hours although it's rarely that long. He seems to just sleep when we're out, I'm basing that on his bed being warm and the fact that nothing else (toys, chews etc) have been touched.

He went to the groomers Ystd and looks very smart now!

[Nojeansplease]

Dpup wants entertaining non stop

If we go out it’s ok
But if we’re home we’re expected to be there to play

There’s lots of toys and chews (that I rotate and don’t give all at once etc) but pup has no interest

We’re only at 4 months so not quite as grown up as your handsome boy girlfriends and we’re working on pup spending more time alone

[Woody479]

Yeh if pup knows we’re home he wants in on the action (however mundane it is!) so when he’s on his own and I’m home I sit quietly in another room 😆

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

How's everyone doing?

We went to a dog club Ystd, was good and dpup was well behaved on the whole 😉

[heatseeker14]

@Girliefriendlikespuppies our pup is doing well. Nearly finished puppy classes. Really pleased because I have found them quite stressful. Dpup is really switched on when we have to do a task/trick, but then he switches off when the trainer is talking, starts to whine and tries to escape. 😄 Takes every ounce of my energy to hold his focus plus numerous treats. 🙄 I’ve noticed he is really distracted by scents now. Think it must be his teenage hormones beginning to surge. ..

[Snufflesdog]

@Girliefriendlikespuppies we are doing quite well
Getting more confident and doing really well with training - it’s hard to imagine what it was like now in the early days! I imagine it’s like childbirth and in a few years I’ll think it’s a really good idea to get another puppy

However, After being ‘housetrained’ since 9/10 weeks old we’ve also had a couple of accidents this week - 17wo
Our puppy doesn’t seem to have found one method of telling us she needs to go out

What do you puppies do / did you train it?
I don’t want to get bells really but would love a consistent sign that she needs to go out!

[Snufflesdog]

@heatseeker14 have you trained a ‘settle’
Ours is easily distracted when the trainer is talking, especially if any other dog starts barking
We take her mat and have her relax on the floor with a good chew then she’s told settle every few minutes (not good enough to just stay settled yet) and she gets intermittent treats when she’s settled - I go for biscuits that take a bit longer to chew. I increase how often she gets them if there’s more distractions
It’s not perfect but it’s stopped us from just losing her attention entirely

[heatseeker14]

Thanks @Snufflesdog, I haven’t trained him to settle so I can work on that. At the moment I ask him to sit and look at me from time to time, but typically once he has eaten his treat he starts to whine and wander. I could give him a Kong when the trainer is talking, but I don’t want to have to remove it to move on to a task. What sort of biscuits/chews do you give your dog?
I have another problem to tackle. It looks like Dpup is developing separation anxiety. I used to be able to leave him for up to 2.5 hours and he was absolutely fine. This week he has decided he is not happy and has been getting himself worked up barking and crying. I feel so bad. 😔I’m wondering if it is the crate as he stopped sleeping in it a few weeks ago. Think I might buy a camera to spy on him when I’m out. Does anyone have any advice?

[DeathByPuppy]

Hi all

Nice to see you’re all still here, along with a few new faces. DeathPup is 16 weeks old now, where does the time go? He is mostly fantastic. He’s housetrained in the day, goes a couple of hours between garden visits or ‘goes’ on walks. Keeps his chewing to toys. He is really doing well socialising off lead with other dogs. We’re doing clicker training and whistle recall. The clicker is a brilliant little tool and we’re getting there with the whistle.

He’s great in the car (crate in the boot) now. That took a bit of time but I found putting the same type of bedding (vetbed gold) in it as we have in his bed crate really helped him to settle. When I first joined these threads my biggest issue was overnight and getting him to sleep in his crate. I was sleeping in the kitchen with him and it was taking its toll! He sleeps in his crate happily overnight with one loo break wake up in the middle of the night and he puts himself straight back to bed. He has a bedtime routine which really seems to help.

The biting/mouthing has really subsided. It seemed to ease off at about 14 weeks. The only nips we get now are our fault, if we’re playing tug games and not paying attention to where our hands are, for example! Hang in there if you are going through the nippy stage. It does pass. I definitely agree with PP’s who say about biting escalating when puppies are tired. Getting them into a routine with plenty of calm, sleeping time will help them and you.

Our current challenges are loose lead walking and sticks. He’s reliably good at walking to heel about 30% of the time. We’re training that quite hard at the moment. The stick thing is tricky. He LOVES fetching and chewing sticks and has no interest in balls etc when we’re out in the park. Obviously sticks aren’t very safe (splinters, choking, obstruction potentially poisonous organisms) and so I’m trying to find an alternative that works for both of us. Nothing yet.

[DeathByPuppy]

@Snufflesdog, DeathDog lets us know he wants to go the loo by sitting in a certain place in the room and staring at us. If we don’t get the message quickly enough then he sits directly in front of us, in our eye line and stares at us pointedly. . We didn’t train that. He worked it out for himself and we caught on. He holds on if we’re out and he needs to go.

[Nojeansplease]

We’re having trouble with a puppy that WONT STOP CRYING
It’s now escalated to barking at times

It’s constant if he’s not getting attention. And even sometimes when he is
I can’t cope with it anymore! He’s driving me insane

Everything else is great

If we go out he is sometimes fine and sometimes he cries for a bit then is fine
Over night is fine too

But if I’m home or in the car or basically anywhere and not playing with him, he’s crying

Vet check shows no problems

Any ideas??

[BiteyShark]

Nojeans if anything is getting to the point it's a problem or escalating I honestly think the best thing is a couple of 1-1 sessions with a good trainer. It will be worth it as they see exactly how you are both interacting and can nip any of that unwanted behaviour in the bud very quickly. 1-1 is very very different to group classes and really good value for money on my opinion.

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Hi all just catching up with you all.

Heat agree that giving them something to focus on when you want them to settle is useful. Maybe a favourite toy or dental stick?

Snuffle our pup goes to the back door and stands there looking hopeful! He doesn't make any noise though so if we're in a different room we might not notice for a bit. I've noticed recently he can go a really long time between loo breaks, often from lunchtime til bedtime 😮 for a small dog it's quite impressive!!

Deathbypuppies our pup loves sticks as well, I've learnt to ignore as much as possible as any attempt to remove it just ends up making him more determined to hold onto it!! He now normally picks up a stick, runs with it for a bit and then looses interest quite quickly.

Nojeans agree a trainer would be useful to try and nip it in the bud.

We're doing okay I think, annoyingly a couple of times he's needed a poo over night 🙄 he's put out last thing but obviously doesn't want to go then! I think it's probably a sign he needs a late walk maybe? Once the days get longer that's what we'll do I think, I still get a bit twitchy walking around with him at night in the dark.

He's 8 months next week!!

[DeathByPuppy]

@Nojeansplease, I definitely agree that this is something for a 1-1 behaviourist. If you’ve ruled out health issues and it has escalated thins point, it would be a good idea to reset things with a behaviourist.

DeathDog has really taken to eating mud too, in the last few weeks. Of course this doesn’t go down too well with his digestive system and so he honks it back up in various places, mostly his bed. He needs constant supervision and management. He’s a bit of a pain in the bum in the garden, tbh. It doesn’t help that DH is laissez faire about supervising him and keeping on top of the training side of things, so DeathDog doesn’t get consistency.

Oh and today he found fox poo . Got filthy. I don’t have any dog shampoo so had to improvise. It didn’t really work. He’s clean but it hasn’t really neutralised the smell.

@Girliefriendlikespuppies, 8 months already! Time flies. Mine often has a 4am poo. Sometimes he also goes on his ‘pre bed wee’ at 11pm too. I quite like walking mine in the dark, apart from it making it harder to locate and pick up doings. I live in a well lit, very safe area though.

[BiteyMcBiteFace]

Biteypup will be 9 months old tomorrow! Soon I'll be booted off the puppy thread

DeathByPuppy From memory your pup is a lab? Biteypup is a lab and she is shocking for eating mud. Especially if it's where horses hooves have been And also horse poo, cow poo, rabbit poo, deer poo, wood and the list goes on....... Basically she will eat anything! She even tries to scrape chewing gum off the pavement with her teeth if she gets the chance

What breed do you have Nojeansplease? Some breeds are more clingy than others. As others have said, a good trainer would be the best option.