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!

Todays the day we finally bring our pup home, slightly worried though as yesterday we took the kids to a local Riverside for a walk and a lady let her westie run into the middle of their game, jumping all over them and yapping, she didnt call it back to her or even apologise just carried on walking till he ran after her youngest DD was hysterical and then for the rest of the walk screamed whenever she saw a dog

Oh no @smilingthroughgrittedteeth, that sounds really stressful. Hopefully the new pup will be such a different type of doggie distraction that your youngest won’t associate it as the same thing? I hope collection goes well, exciting day!

Morning pup people, hope we all had a good night. @smilingthroughgrittedteeth I hope it all goes well today with the pick up and settling in with your dd. She might just take a bit of time to bond with the puppy after that experience yesterday. What an ignorant woman that was!

I get our puppy up at 5:45 for his morning wee, last night someone did a poo in his pen, last night someone rolled around in said poo. Someone did not like his bath at all!

@OwlInAnOakTree we have the same with our boys- the biting is with all of us but most of all with them. It has reduced in the last week - he's nearly 15 weeks. I agree that the more excitement and play the more hyped they get. If the boys refuse to play and just sit there he stops, but they have to endure some biting then before he settles which is not going to work if your DS is little.
Congrats to those bringing pups home- let the fun begin!
@SimonJT that is grim 
Looking forward to hearing @Lovelylurcher s wisdom from puppy class.
Our pup is still doing well- walking a lot of lead now when off-road. It's so much easier as we don't have to keep stopping every two seconds for him to sniff. He stays right with us which is good.
No wees indoors for a few days which prob means he'll do ten today.

@Peachypips78 Hes a shiba inu, so it was a lot of fur to get covered ☹️

@Peachypips78 that's good to hear that you have a bit less biting! Our pup is a similar age (14 weeks almost) but I don't know if he's biting a little less or we are just getting better at managing him. He's jumping at my legs and biting a lot still.
@SimonJT what a horrible start to your Sunday morning! My grown up Dd is desperate to have a Shiba Inu pup next year (she's saving up!) though having spent a bit of time recently with our pup she is now wondering if she actually can manage a pup at all... Shibas are quite independent little characters, aren't they? But such beautiful dogs!

Yes, very independent and almost more cat like in their personality, stubborn and likely to ignore you!

He has been surprisingly good so far, he is doing extremely well with the cat, he is having daily sessions with the neighbours dogs and is now meeting lots of dogs on our little walks. Toilet training is going well (well, usually!) despite us living in a flat.

His favourite thing is biting obviously, he has already learned not to bite the cat, it only took one telling off from her to sort him out!

He is lulling us into a false sense of security, we’ll certainly know about it when hes a teenager!

@Lovelylurcher how was puppy class? Any new-found wisdom to share?

@Livelovelife35 I've got a collie too. Hope Bailey's settling in well.

@Juiceey same with my DS. I tell him the same thing a million times a day about getting over excited, but he just can't help it, and then the biting starts. I'm completely worn out by that aspect of puppy ownership. Everything else is going ok.

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth your poor daughter. Hope today goes well meeting new pup and she forgets all about the dog yesterday.

@Peachypips78 clearly the kids are just more fun/worth getting excited about than we are. DS is 7. I'm getting really frustrated with him, but I'm probably being a bit unfair and expecting too much.

@SimonJT what a start to your day...!

A big definite yes to flirt poles! Best thing we've bought, I think. I sit on the sofa with it in the mornings and keep him busy with it whilst I drink my coffee.

And the bull pizzles have finally arrived. I'm disgusted by and pleased with them in equal measure.

OwlInAnOakTree hes doing well a few minor accidents on the carpets but nothing we cant clean up lol it's like having a baby with no nappy on running about lol hes a real sweetie

@OwlInAnOakTree - yes those pizzles are disgusting aren't they? I wouldn't have believed they existed even, 6 months ago, and the thought of them in my cupboard and on the floor of the kitchen would have been disgusting beyond belief, but now I'm prepared to go along with anything if my pup will just sit happily for 15 minutes. Someone said leather chew toys are good for them as they move into the teething stage, so I'm just looking at those online now - actual stuffed toys, not rawhide, that is. I imagine they simulate a hand quite well.

@SimonJT that sounds as if it's going well so far then. My dd likes the idea they are independent and 'sassy' as well as being gorgeous dogs. I'll be interested in how you get on so I can pass on any advice to her. It's probably quite a long waiting list for a puppy, so she has time.

I can't handle the thought of a pizzle.

We've just had a snuffle mat arrive (from Amazon). Haven't put any food in it but he's still going mad for it :)

Something weird happened last night... our 5am waker slept til 08:50 this morning! Me and DW thought he was dead this morning when we all woke up!

Pick up went well, hes settled well so far and dd has got used to the fact that he isnt going to eat her after an initial screaming fit and they are now the best of friends and running around the garden together. He had a nap in his crate and my weeks of drilling into them that the crate is his safe space obviously paid off because they left him alone completely

Ok have my DLP for a month now. She is 13 weeks old now. No poop accidents in the how now but suddenly was had me up for the last four days every 2 hrs at night. No poop during the day. She is also being picky with food. An issue I am working on. I just need sleep so I can Be productive for an eight hour work day. She is a doll but Mommy needs sleep and DH wants no part of doggie duties.

BTW she was a great night time sleeper. The suddenly every two hrs from 10pm to 5am or so. Has me wishing I was back to taking care of my DL human twins

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth what a cute puppy! So tiny and gorgeous - pleased your dd has fallen in love. My pup has so far had a good day, very tired now but ran round on our walk and just loved being outside with all the good sniffs, etc. He really needs to meet other dogs now to be shown how to behave and to get used to them, so I'm going to try and do that this week a few times. At the moment if we come across another dog, he gets crazily excited and jumps all over them.

@GidgetMomma could it be teething? I was reading on another site that someone else had this and then a couple of teeth dropped out. Just like having a baby!

Can we have a new pup pic from everyone? Here's our 14 wk mini schnauzer...

Ooh yes, gorgeous pup @Peachypips78.

Here's my 10.5 week border collie. I have very few good pictures of him because he's rarely still and moves so fast, they're all a bit of a blur. But here's a few of him making the most of all the amazon boxes that have been arriving (full of puppy stuff!).

Can I join please. We have had our 10.5 week pup for 2 weeks now. We love her but she is not doing great at the toilet training and waking up about twice each night. Also having similar issues with over active playing and nipping with 9 year old DD.

Hi everyone,

Sorry to take ages to come back on. Having a rather challenging day..will get to this. But first - a lot of you asked about the puppy class! It was fairly stressful (our puppy was definitely the most 'spirited' of the three in the outdoor class, though she was the youngest!) but useful. Trainer has been doing this for 25 years, is recommended by a whole bunch of vets etc. She was hardcore, but seemed to really know her stuff. A few key points -

• Biting. Do say 'ow!' if they hurt you. If they do it again then put them in the crate or pen for a 2-3 minute time out. We've been doing this today and I see an improvement already.

• With jumping up, say 'down' once their feet hit the floor, not before.

• Make eye contact with recall and any training games. Make them look at you before you give treats.

• Be fun, try to give more praise than you do 'no's!' - not always easy with challenging puppies. As she pointed out 'we tend to ignore them when they're being good, but pay attention when they're misbehaving' - so they start learning that being disruptive gets attention.

• At the same time, she was clear that puppies need to know where they sit in the family pecking order. Puppies will try to treat family members like other dogs, so this would include mouthing/humping etc...but they need to learn that this isn't appropriate and we are in charge! So we need to be careful not to fuss over the puppies too much. When you enter a room where the pup is, if there is another family there, greet THEM first, not the puppy. Equally any guests coming into house etc (less a concern with lockdown I guess). Ultimately they need to learn that while they're loved, they're not the centre of attention and dominant over the whole family.

I hope this is all helpful. I feel it was very useful but feeling a bit stressed out tonight. While I've been articulating any moments of puppy regret and stress to my DH, he's been the one who has been reassuring - 'this is the hard bit, it's wonderful to have a family dog etc etc'. But tonight he admitted he was totally sick of the stress and disruption, and regrets the whole thing. Says he wishes we hadn't done this. I'm hoping he's just having a VERY bad day (god knows I've had many) but I feel a bit shaken by it. Anyone else struggling, or having a partner who is? x

Good idea to have a picture update @Peachypips78, here's our 15 week bernese mountain dog! He's been pretty good recently, still a little bitey and still likes to hump (which is really painful if wearing shorts!) but we're not having the 5am wake ups all that often!

I've ordered pizzles and ostrich spaghetti thanks to this thread! I'm hoping to give him those in his pen whilst we eat dinner so he doesn't jump up at the table.

Sorry to hear your dh is struggling @Lovelylurcher. Hopefully it's just a blip and now you've started training classes things will improve. We've done 2 weeks of puppy training and it's definitely helped me to feel more in control. Is your dh involved in the training at all? That might help him too. My dh can't go to the classes because he's shielding. But i always get him to practice in the garden what we have learnt.

@Rowdythree - thank you. We just had a chat and he says that he didn’t really mean it about regret, he was just feeling a bit ‘ffs why did we do this?!’ God knows I’ve felt that way at times over the past few weeks, but it was just a shock to hear him say it!

Anyway, yes he did come to the training class and will continue to. Sorry your DH can’t be there with you too, but it sounds like your garden training is working well

@Lovelylurcher im glad you had a chat with your DH, mine has just said wtf have we done and were only on day 2

We had a good first night slept 11pm - 1am when he woke me to go out for a wee and poo then went straight back to sleep until 6.15am. Hes very bitey which DP is finding hard

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth -

I was saying the same on day two also!