Puppy survival thread! June 2020

[Juiceey]

Hello, anyone around to join me?

We've got our first puppy, a miniature poodle, yesterday. So far so good apart from the incessant humping!

He's VERY bitey, which doesn't hurt yet but no doubt will soon. He's massively attached to DW already and cries if she leaves the room. He loves DS but I think he played with him too much yesterday and overtired him, hence the humping?!

Crate training isn't easy and he cried for half an hour last night but then slept through til 5. Which is horribly early but I was ready for that!

@dontdisturbmenow @Lovelylurcher
We have been sleeping downstairs in the living room, crate is in the kitchen/dining room. It's not so much that she doesn't like the crate, just doesn't seem to want to be alone. I'm keen to stick with the crate to prevent her chewing furniture when unattended and also as a safe place to leave her eventually when we need to go out for short periods. We also have a cat so want her to be able to have space to roam without puppy fuss.
Hopefully it's early days and she'll gradually relax. I love sleep and am not great without it!

a rate is definitely a good idea and we would have resorted to it but as it is, he is no problem at all at night, has never cried (I know now we've been massively lucky).

I think the crazy biting phase does go on for some time so we've just accepted it's part of the parcel and try not to get upset by it. We make sure to remove anything of value and so far, cross fingers, no damage that has made us cry!

The needing us by his side all the time can be tough at times, so applying a mix of making sure to be there for him to reassure him what also teaching him that we can't always be so when he wants.

Re chews we have got Chester a few antler chews from amazon. Bloody amazing things! They recommend not using them until pup is 12 weeks and you start them off on a split antler, then there are unsplit puppy ones as well. He absolutely loves the split one, will lay and chew on it for hours. He's had it for a week now and has only made a small dent each end so looks like it will last a long time. It was only about a fiver so really good value for money too, and apparently they work as a tooth cleaner!

@muckandnettles, our puppy sleeps amazingly well and I get up once a night for toilet trip, but I'm generally not a very good sleeper and so, like you, I'm exhausted because I find it difficult to sleep knowing I'm going to be getting up and then difficult to get back to sleep after getting up. Ugh. I've changed tack a bit though. I was setting my alarm for later in the night, adding about 15 minutes on each night to try and stretch how long he was going between wees, to the point that my alarm was set for 2.45am. But the horror of my alarm going off at that time made me re-think. So last night I got up at 12.30am, leaving the longer stretch after the toilet break. Tonight I'll get up at 12.15... Feel much better for that today. Do you just leave him to let you know when he needs to go out? I'm thinking about trying that, but wonder if I'l then just only half sleep for fear of missing his whines...? Mine goes to bed so early though (hurrah!) that I'm wondering if he'll ever make it through the night when the night is 10.5 hours?

Re chews, my puppy has a split antler which he was very excited about the first time he had it. But hasn't really paid it much attention since. Shame. His favourite bone type thing was an actual sheep bone that a friend of my son's gave him. Me and friend's mum weren't entirely sure it was ok to give? But little friend collects them on walks and was excited to give an actual dog an actual bone! I googled and couldn't find anything. He loved it but I've recently taken it away from him because there seemed to be a fair chunk missing off the end one day so I don't know that they're entirely safe? Any thoughts? After taking that away, I gave him a benebone wish bone that has the same knobbly ends as the sheep bone. He's not that bothered by that either! Sigh.

Pup will be 10 weeks on Wednesday. I'm sure the biting here will get worse before it gets better... One thing I'm really pleased about, and I don't know if it's a personality thing or if all pups are like this(?), but he's really good at playing on his own and entertaining himself. Which surprised me. I thought he'd be wanting to be entertained all the time. So that's a pleasant surprise. As soon as I move though, he's there tripping me over, making sure he doesn't miss out on anything in the kitchen or wherever. Impossible to sneak out of a room even if he is playing happily on his own.

Hi everyone,

We're picking up our puppy this coming Saturday, so I'm reading the thread with interest ready for next week!

@muckandnettles

I'm looking at ostrich spaghetti (wtf?) and pig's ears on Amazon. Thanks for the advice about the fat content *@thecapitalsunited as I actually wouldn't have thought of that. Worth knowing. @Juiceey* I can't believe ostrich spaghetti is even a thing. He will love it I'm sure! They aren't cheap, these things...

They're not cheap! We get these ones:

www.amazon.co.uk/Pet-Products-Premium-Ostrich-Spaghetti/dp/B07DP16R4J/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&crid=2SZ5NOX5HQE17&keywords=jr+pets+ostrich+spaghetti&sprefix=ostrich+spaghetti+jr+pet%2Caps%2C147&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1592217934&sr=8-2

We give him one at night when we put him to bed (on our bed oh the shame!)... remember when I said he wasn't even going to be allowed upstairs!

Good luck @crazycatgal what pup are you getting?

Dpup is now 12.5 weeks old and we're finally getting into the swing of things I'd say. We're nearly there (touch wood) on the toilet training with only the very occasional accident if we miss a cue- accident free for 5 days so far!

We now know when he gets bitey and humpy it's because he's over excited- it happens the most to DS as he's so FUN to dpup- so at that point we all get on the sofa and just gently ignore him for a while (or DW holds him in a rocking baby pose) and he usually falls asleep.

The biggest issue we have now is walks. He's USELESS on walks! He either sits refusing to move, or runs like crazy zig zagging in front of me, pulling so hard on his lead he gags (he's got a harness on). He simply cannot walk calmly beside me! As soon as he sees another dog he goes mental trying to get to them. And if a human walks by he goes mental trying to get to them too!

@Juiceey Thanks! We're getting a Japanese Spitz puppy. We already have an adult JS who is a rescue and is used to being with other dogs but this is our first time with a puppy.

My pup is in a crate on the landing upstairs as whines if we leave him downstairs even with all doors open so he can still hear us, and sleeps through from 11pm to 6.30am when I get up. Straight into garden for his toilet. No messing during the night in his own bed.

Loves his antlers and can entertain himself for a while but is always looking up if we move from room to room.

@juiceey this is our second week of walking outside and he has seriously regressed. He doesn't just sit down, he lays completely flat and won't move unless for a bit of cheese but then lies down again. He's not tired as will get up and chase runners, cyclists, buses etc. Walks are taking ages and getting very frustrating!

Will be starting to leave him in the house alone for 15 minutes today. We've decided to FaceTime each other and leave one phone pointed on the crate so we can see what is going on. Fingers crossed 🤞

@OwlInAnOakTree glad I'm not the only one then, with the puppy sleep disorder... I set an alarm for when I think he will need a wee in the night, so at the moment he is going to bed around 9.30pm and I set the alarm for 3.30 this week, though this morning I couldn't sleep and woke at 2am and thought I might as well go and check on him but he had already flooded the kitchen with wee by then. He did then go back to sleep until about 6.30am which I was happy enough with, but I left him to wake me then and he barked - this time no wee anywhere and went straight out. So, it's still hit and miss. I'd like to go to bed around 10.30pm knowing he will sleep until maybe 4 or 4.30am but that only works if he has definitely done a last wee before bed, which he hadn't last night. I can't believe there is so much to say about puppies and their wee habits! We will get there, but with us it's being vigilant last thing at night to make sure he has been outside. Our old dog, a labrador, could pretty much go all night and most of the next day if he felt like it with no wee, so I'm hoping this pup will get a similarly strong bladder in the end!

@Juiceey I have ordered some of the lovely spaghetti from your link, so thank you for that. Amazon kindly suggested I might want a packet of tagliatelle to go with it, but I think that was just pasta! I have also ordered a little rubber thing for getting pet hair off furniture as I'm going to need that if I ever let the little one into the main room and I've ordered more pizzles. This pup has cost a small fortune so far.

Does anyone else have a problem with their pups and chews?

I got my pup some rawhide chews for every now and again to keep her occupied and some dental chews wrapped in chicken breast. She either try's to swallow them whole or gets half way and swallows the end half?!?!

They're puppy chews so should be fine but I don't know how to teach her she has to CHEW it!! 🙃

So she's not allowed them now because I'm worried she will choke and I won't be around to help. Even supervised I still feel nervous.

@happygolucky6 I think rawhide isn’t recommended anymore due to the processing that’s required. What you say about the swallowing is exactly why I only feed chews under supervision and take them away when they get small enough to swallow whole though as I’m a bit paranoid about puppy choking. Can you find some longer chews so that she has to chew them before swallowing and to give you more mileage before you get swallowing size?

@thecapitalsunited I've tried a few different chews like dental sticks etc as they're softer especially the pup ones, the chicken breast strips, the rawhide but she just tries to swallow them!! I sit with her and take it out her mouth and say no when she tries to swallow but she still just goes back to trying to gulp the whole thing down 😢🤣

I'm hoping that over time she will just learn how to eat them.. I mean it's not the end of the world if she doesn't get these treats but they do give a moment silence don't they!!

@Lovelylurcher our pup has been the same- biting a lot up until a week ago when he turned 13 weeks- then the biting has become a lot more vicious. He growls and pulls our clothes and doesn't seem interested in chewing anything except our arms and legs. He isn't like that most of the time- just between 5-7pm. If it gets completely unmanageable we pop him in the utility room for a bit.

I hate to say it but our pup has slept through from 10-7 from day 2. We put him in his crate and let him cry the first night and he hasn't tried again- the breeder told us to do this as they have done it from day 1. He won't wet his own bed and his crate is the exact size of his bed so it works for him.

He absolutely loves other dogs- goes totally crazy over them. Had a couple of successful puppy play dates last week. He doesn't like it when they bark but other than that he is good.

@happygolucky6 Have you tried bully sticks? They’re pretty tough but ok for puppy teeth.

Success.
We left him in his crate for 20 minutes and left the house.
We used our phones on a FaceTime as we don't have a camera. We set one phone focused on his crate but so he couldn't see it, and the other we took out on mute. He cried for about a minute, and then settled to sleep.
He woke up at the sound of the key in the door.
We'll try 30 minutes tomorrow and work up.

Fuuuuucks sake. I had to go ahead and say we had no accidents for 5 days, didn't I?

well.

He just pissed on the new cool mat we bought today which was on the floor. No reason, we'd not long been out. I don't know what it is about THINGS ON THE FLOOR. He has never, not even once, peed inside except on things on the floor- i.e a towel left on the floor, a blanket on the floor, and now his new cool mat on the floor.

Thanks @Peachypips78 for mentioning your puppy sleeping through. I was thinking about trying it last night with mine but he's in bed from 8:30 to 7 and I'm worried that's about too long. As it happens I was still awake at 10 (I've been in bed really early since pup arrived!) so I let him out then and he was fine until 6:30 this morning. Two wees and two poos in the space of five minutes! But he was fine through the night, no sound from him.

That's a great start @HeyLala

@Juiceey gah! Frustrating!

@Juiceey our pup has started doing just the same in the last day or so - last night all his bedding and also the kitchen mats were all in the wash. He managed to get the old curtain we use to cover his crate at night onto the floor and was playing with it, then pissed on that. Weird, isn't it?

We had the worst evening last night where he caught my hand and opened up two bites from last week that were just healing up, and also sank his jaws into my other arm. I must admit I screamed as he did it (couldn't get the little bastard off) and then sat and cried. So upsetting when I have tried to do everything right for him. I know it was because he was overtired but I just don't know why that was as he had done nothing extra really. I suppose puppies find things new and different that don't seem so to us. It was a horrible evening.

@owlinanoaktree.

Morning, I would be waking up and going out last thing at night for toilet. Just get him outside with no talking except say the words you use for toilet ie go potty or go wee wee as I do! All with little eye contact except good boy once done, then recrate and off to sleep. You don't want any cystitis or other issues.

This morning I discovered tiny teeth marks on the electrical cables in the garden for my outside lights. Bloody pooch had dug them up! There's goes my tiny bit of respite I thought I had when he was outside playing on his own!!

I've re hidden them and about to order more gravel from B&Q. Never ending costs of a new puppy 🐶

@HeyLala, the problem is, last thing at night for me is 9.30 at the latest these days! . Is there an acceptable length of time to leave him to avoid the chance of cystitis? He's no problem at all when I do wake him up at night, straight out and back in again. The issue is I'm not a very good sleeper and the slightest disturbance will then have me awake for hours. So I'm exhausted, despite having a pup that's an excellent sleeper.

@muckandnettles that sounds awful. Hope he's a bit calmer today. I've had two bites in the last two days that have drawn blood and I find it's getting harder to deal with the biting as pup gets bigger. He's a border collie and has grown massively in the last two weeks. He was fairly easy to pick up when he was getting bitey and handle in a way that avoided being bitten, but not anymore! And he's only 10 weeks tomorrow. Fingers crossed you have a better day today.

Hi all, this post is such a godsend! We have an 11 week old pup who is sleeping well at night thankfully but such a bitey monster when she’s awake (despite plenty of naps!). And her new favourite thing is to dig up our flowerbeds. Anyone had any success putting down gravel/slate clippings on top of the soil or will she just as likely try to eat those?!

@owlinanoaktree

It sounds like it might be working for both of you. I'm sure he'll let you know if he want to get up!

@southlondonchaos

My pooch is digging up my gravel, they're big stones and I was worried he would eat / chew on them but luckily not done it so far. I'm more worried about the cables!
He knows he shouldn't do it. I tell him off and he just looks at me so I'm hoping he'll learn in time

@OwlInAnOakTree thank you for your good wishes and I really hope he is a bit gentler today. So far today every time he has gone to bite me and not stopped, I've said no and left the room and that seems to have worked eventually. I look as if I'm self harming at the moment, which isn't good. Fortunate I no longer work with YP with MH problems.

I know what you mean about the size of them - mine is a Golden Retriever pup and sometimes he seems a monstrous size when he is hanging on my clothes or my arm. I think he has doubled in size in the 5 weeks we have had him. I'm taking him to meet a one year old GR this week and I'm hoping that will be good for him as he hasn't had contact with any bigger dogs. This one is very well behaved and calm, so I'm hoping he might have a word with him and put him straight. I just hope he won't show me up (he will).