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!

We had our first Shiba screams from Link last night, I couldn’t figure out what it was then I realised his kong was under the couch.

Pup didn't have a bad night but when he got up at 4.30 for a wee he just wouldn't then settle at all. So at 5.30am we went out for a little walk round the block and actually it was really nice and cool and we saw other dog walkers around and cars going to work. It didn't feel like being out early at all so I'm glad I did that rather than sitting waiting for the little prince to fall asleep. I can't do that every day though! Fortunately I put trousers and a jumper on when I got up at 4.30am...

Raisins and grapes are extremely toxic to dogs and apparently there is no known ratio to work out the toxicity like with some other things
I had no idea grapes were bad for dogs. My puppy eats everything that is food. I've tried to give him grapes as assumed it would be good for him as they are for kids, and oddly it's the only thing he won't touch at all and actually plays with like it's something dodgy.

Amazing what instinct tells them what's good or bad for them.

Carrot and tea towel in freezer ready for later. Was wondering about a cooling mat, but what happens if they chew them? Is there liquid inside?

@muckandnettles

DS and I have started referring to pup as the Young Prince as we seem like servants to a very difficult to please master. Would sir like a chew / frozen teatowel / ice cube / outside for a wee or poo / toy / fuss / anything to keep sir happy... What's sir saying now? Sir doesn't know what he wants but he wants it now? Of course...

Haha!

I was worried about him chewing his cool mat too but so far he's left it alone. In fact he's barely got off it!

Our pup has had a bit of a chew of the cool mat but it seems quite substantial and he's made no impression on it that I can see.

@SimonJT I love those Shiba screams! Such an amazing noise, though I suppose you get sick of it if they do it a lot! Do they also do a bark?

I had a dreadful time this morning as we had a repair guy coming to inspect something in our kitchen. Obviously pup has never seen anyone new come in the house before and he was surprisingly chilled at first so I thought he was being okay. But then the poor guy had to get on the floor and look in a cupboard and that's pup's favourite thing for people to do, get down on the floor. Dh was upstairs on the phone so I was trying to talk to this guy while wrangling pup into his harness and lead to get some control. It was mortifying, honestly. Anything like that again I'm going to ask people to ring once they are here so it's less of a panic. It was just awful, I felt so stupid that I hadn't anticipated such a drama. Mind you, its DH who is in the doghouse!

I’m sure I read on one of these threads about a really good book for cocker spaniel puppies (like a baby book) with schedules for each age.

Does anyone know what I’m talking about or have a recommendation?

Many thanks

[quote muckandnettles]@SimonJT I love those Shiba screams! Such an amazing noise, though I suppose you get sick of it if they do it a lot! Do they also do a bark?[/quote]
They do, but supposedly they rarely bark, we haven’t heard Link bark yet.

We met up with a friend today who has a shiba, shes a few weeks older than Link, it was nice seeing them play.

We have been hand feeding him, obviously his breed means he is likely to be very independent and a bit ignorant, so we’re doing it to increase the likelihood of him listening to us when he is a stroppy teenager and an adult.

Pup has experience hes first dip in the pool today when he managed to fall in head first, fortunately in true spaniel style it was all the encouragement he needed and now we cant keep him out the water, we ended up filling the tuff tray up and letting him splash in that.

Our puppy is doing well, but is eating ALL the plants in the garden. He's also discovered he can get upstairs, which adds a whole new dimension to life.

He's sleeping well, goes to bed at ten and that's him until six or seven.

He's also ridiculously beautiful, which helps when he's destroying my hard work in the garden, or lying on the rug in the living room farting, as he's doing now!

He's very cute marmite. Is he a purebred? I have a spaniel cross who is shredding the garden plants too

I'm on day 2 so a bit behind you all but I'm knackered already. It's like having a biting baby who has boundless energy! But cute. So I let him off. He was sleeping through with breeder but not now! Last night I (not DH of course!) got up and slept downstairs and he woke 3 times. Went back off but I really want my bed now!! It'll get better right? I'm off now until Monday so no work to fret about. And the menace is fast asleep on the grass now by my feet!

@marmite51 snap

Mine is also obsessed with eating every plant, leaf and blade of grass

He is Borris, KC registered. We have his full certificates and he seems to have a few champions in his family!

His dad is a working cocker and his mum a show, so will be interesting to see how he turns out!

Just to add my spaniel cross is also intent on destroying every plant in my garden! She's not doing too great with the heat, definitely more irritable than normal.

Oh Marmite he's very cute!!

My beloved veg garden is no more thanks to Sir DigALot.

@polkadotpjs it gets loads better, don't worry. I was beside myself with sleep deprivation in the early days but it does pass. You'll find a way that works for you all. Don't look at me for advice though, we've ended up with our pup on our bed at night now

This is mine. I really wanted a cocker but couldn't justify the £££. Then a friends cocker got caught by her mum's lab. They were a funny mix. About half little labs and half more spaniel. So I chose this more cockery one. I'm hoping to get the fun of a cocker with the sensibleness of a lab ... but who knows!

Our puppy comes home tomorrow morning! I am excited and terrified in equal parts!

So cute Borris, those eyes!

I can't wait until we can take our puppy out for walks, this feels like weeks of puppy lockdown after months of actual lockdown. Three weeks to go!

I popped ours in a rucksack bottom first with head poking out and carried it on my front until she could go down. It meant we could still go out and she got to see traffic and people etc.

We've been doing that locally, in a little puppy sling a friend lent us. He doesn't like it at all! And we're worried about going further in case he needs down for a pee...

I too couldn't wait for walks, not realising how ridiculous our 'walks' actually are... we get about 100 meters away and it takes half an hour