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!!!

@Nojeansplease, I think the 8-10 training sessions are just small, couple of minute sessions of training of basics just to cement it. I would say I probably do the same with my boy if I added up the small bits of stuff. I don’t train tricks either, it’s just behavioural, social and husbandry stuff that he mostly already knows but we still do ‘little and often’ to fix them in his brain.

Sorry, should’ve said, my dog is older at nearly 1.5yrs old but we still do informal training throughout the day.

I’ve been reading through this thread, it’s so helpful. I’ve found a minority of the replies in the rest of th3 doghouse a bit off putting. This is great encouraging stuff....

FaceClothParty, we are a friendly bunch. No flaming or blunt replies. No silly questions. I have found on the whole the Doghouse is a great place for advice, but there are some very arsey, judgemental posters out there! There are also some very lovely people who take the time to reply. I feel sorry for newbie posters who haven’t come across this thread.

Anyone else hate 'oh they're just wanting to play' whilst their dog completely ignores them.

Dpup is still very small. I'm really working on him not being terrified of other dogs, we have some really good moments that are then shot to shit when a dog comes bounding over and terrifies the life out of him. Puts me back beyond square one every time. As the next dog he encounters he is immediately on the defensive

My dog’s that dog ‘only wanting to play’ he’s an absolute bugger for wanting to say hello to everyone and everything and I try so hard to move him along and recall him etc. I find it quite stressful because I understand there are lots of dogs like yours who need that space.

I felt ashamed today when pup chased a jogger! 😳 I thought he was running to say hi to his friend when I spotted the man out having a leisurely run. Stupidly I still felt confident dpup would continue on to see his buddy, but nope he set off in bouncy pursuit. Wanted the ground to open up and swallow me! 😳 Just something else to worry about now. On a positive note I successfully recalled him from dogs today without failure. I also managed to stop him in his tracks when he spotted a large group of people maintaining the park. He was soooooo tempted! Managed to recall him and change direction.

I just find it so stressful.

We had a large dog before dpup, and when his recall wasn't at the best he just didn't get off his lead.

We had two incidents today on a 20min walk, both dogs off their lead. 1st dog was probably wanting to play, but you could hear quite clearly that mine was terrified and the owner was unable to recall at all. 2nd was a particularly snarly JR. that one was called 'excitable' I had to pick pup up on both occasions, which then reinforces his fear.
It's so difficult.

I don't want our pup turning into a little angry yappy dog, but I can see now how it happens.

Ours currently has an eye infection and is on lead
Some dogs came bounding over today and I tried to warn the owner and move mine away
(Also because he gets a bit scared or overexcited)
But owner looked at me annoyed and said just let them say hi!

Sure! Let them say hi! Enjoy your vet bill tomorrow when they’ve all got pink eye!

We actually don’t get it too much, I think due to his breed, people see him pulling on the lead and me moving him back and trying to regain his attention, and then they cross over. I’m really just trying not to reward his pulling on the lead, And not to encourage him to expect to greet every dog, but if I saw us I’d think he was a bit wild or dog aggressive - at least I wouldn’t be risking it with my dog!

Came home today to find dpup who hasn’t really had an accident since he was 9/10 weeks old, had weed in his bed and shredded a toy (and maybe eaten some of it?!?! I don’t know but I’m panicking!!)
And! To round it off we have a leak

So I’ve tried to clean it up
Whilst keeping him away from the issues
He’s outraged that I’ve come home and not giving him attention and now I’m just panicking and trying to piece this toy back together to figure out if there’s any missing but I can’t tell! - i should really be managing this leak though

Some how I fell off the thread!!

I've stuck to the rule that if an approaching dog is on the lead then dpup goes on the lead, if off lead I assume the other dog is alright. The most aggressive dogs I've encountered so far have been sausage dogs!!

I tend to walk dpup at lunchtime and there doesn't tend to be many other dogs about then really.

We're taking him away over half term and staying at my Godmothers house, really hoping he behaves himself!!

Please can I join you. We have adopted a 9 month old puppy. She's had little basic training, combined with the fact she's in peek adolesence! It's hard work. Biggest issue at the moment is her jumping up and random play biting. I posted a separate thread on that and people have been really helpful and reassuring that we can train it out of her.

Am enjoying reading all of your experiences.

Hi @lazzaroo. Congratulations on your new addition, teenhood sounds tough. I’m not looking forward to it!

@Girliefriendlikespuppies, I’ve found small, terrier types to be the worst for fear aggression in the face of my big, enthusiastic, idiot. Mostly JRTs, unfortunately.

Although mine is 1.5 so should’ve gone through it? Maybe I’ve been lucky or perhaps its delayed [ominous music).

Mine is a jrt/yorkie mix and he definitely has it in him to take a disliking to certain dogs, I think he has the dog version of small man syndrome 🙄 Generally though he's fine and he's quite good at saying hello and then walking on without too much trouble.

We had another 3am poo wake up call this morning, ugh I was hoping by 8 months he would at least go through the night!!

Mine still wakes me on the odd occasion for a nighttime poo/wee. Some times I need to get up in the night for the loo too, so I figure dogs are no different?

Are they going enough during the day and the nighttime one is an extra?
Or is that just their schedule?
Can you change when you feed them?
Is the poop solid etc or are they pooping too much/poor quality? Could it be poorly tummies?

We had a few years of BiteyDog having early hours poos. Cutting the lunch time feeding down to a simply snack helped as did growing up.

I do think it got worse when we stopped crating him as I couldn't really ignore him when he got up and asked to go out.

Fortunately it's now rare for him to get up in the early hours.

9 week old cocker any tips on how to get her to rest?

Has anyone here gone through the adolescent phase and experienced 'nipping' around 9 months? This is our biggest issue, and pushing us very close to saying she can't stay. I don't want to give up on her too easily but it's really stressful with kids around. She's not doing it as part of play, it's hard to understand why. This evening she's put a whole in my jumper by jumping up at me and getting hold of it. It feels pretty scary when she does it, but is pretty puppy like behaviour rather than aggression. She doesn't bite skin, she grabs at clothes but then won't let go! Is it normal?!? Is it part of her testing us and settling in?!? Any ideas!

@lazzaroo Mine is nearly 8 months now and while he is nowhere near as bad as he was as a puppy (cockerdile!) he still gets mouthy when overexcited/tired - I was on here a week ago worrying about him being unwell and he got better quickly but continued to refuse food for a few days and we also went on holiday (with him) and I think the change in scene was a bit too exciting when he’d been feeling under the weather as he was quite bitey (though has definitely learned bite inhibition). We’ve been teaching ‘drop’ as best we can and can tell him to drop if he has hold of our clothes, though he sometimes (often) has to be lured to drop with treats. He’s also very fond of frills on clothes or fake fur trim on hats/anoraks and also woolly hats/gloves and has been known to launch himself at my head if I’ve bent over wearing my woolly hat with a pompom. The little fucker. I had to stop wearing skirts/dresses/a particular long coat when he was little and gradually reintroduced them when DH was present to begin with so he could hold the dog if he was trying to eat my skirt but gradually on my own and even now he still wants to bite the damn coat and has a go every now and then. You say ‘drop’ and then when he lets go you reward him, so you’re rewarding the immediate action he’s just carried out rather than thinking of it as rewarding him for biting your clothes. If he goes for my coat now it’s usually in the house as we’re getting ready to leave and I make him sit and stay (again by holding the treat and not giving it to him until he’s sitting calmly). This seems to remind him to behave. He is also learning ‘leave’ (for before he grabs the thing) which sometimes works too and also teaches them impulse control.

I should say, in case the above sounds like a possible route, you can’t start ‘drop’ by asking them to drop the thing they really want - you start by dropping food on the floor and saying ‘drop’, over and over until they associate the word with getting a treat. Then you move to them holding something not very high value and being rewarded for dropping it, and then up to more high-value things. When my pup really really wants to keep the thing he’s stolen (usually dirty pants!) I sometimes have to put the food right on his nose - and it has to be something good like chicken, not dried dog treats.

Thank you. It's reassuring to hear it's not abnormal. I'll work on the drop command today. I'm up with her now. She wakes about 5 and goes out for wee and sometimes a poo. We have trouble settling her again so she has a frozen kong to give us a bit longer!

Have done a bit of training this morning. She has been a bit nippy. Tried using chicken as it's her favourite but when she can smell it on me she has very little interest in anything else!!

She does go for flappy clothes! How do you know they have bite inhibition? Is it just that they don't close mouth hard on you? She hurts sometimes but it's more her teeth scratching than her biting, I think. I don't like it when she has clothes and pulls at it with a growl. I assume it's a playful growl rather than aggressive but how do you know for sure?!?

Bite inhibition - a dog that age has the strength to really hurt you/crush your fingers, so if he isn’t really hurting you then he’s learned to be a bit gentler. We do a lot of holding chews for ours because he loves to get you to hold it at the right angle for him and he knows perfectly well that he has to avoid our fingers - doesn’t always translate to not biting clothes that have an interesting texture though! If he is chewing something he shouldn’t such as the chair leg, if I put my hand over it he won’t just bite my hand.

Have you done food manners? You put a bit of their favourite thing eg chicken in your hand and close your hand and let them sniff it. Wait while they snuffle/scratch/paw at your hand and only give the treat when they take their nose off your hand. Progress to waiting for them to sit back or look up at you for permission before you give them the treat.

Other things that really helped with him hanging on my coat as a puppy was loose-lead walking training - take the lead in your right hand with dog on your left and have lots of v good treats in your left pocket. Hold one in left hand with hand dangling down towards dog. Lead it by the treat until it does a couple of good steps with no jumping up at the hand/trying to grab and then reward. Get new treat from pocket and keep going. Increase spaces between treats gradually.

Also, we carry a toy such as a knotted rope toy as ours loves to retrieve that but isn’t keen on tennis balls, and he can also play tug of war with the rope. This helps distract him if he’s misbehaving and also helps with recall as he’ll come running back to play with it.