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!

I do similar to you @loubieloo4 with regard to food. All his kibble is used for training or in feeding toys/games. He's a border collie so I make him use his brain by having him earn all his food. My sister in law thinks I'm mean. He's also not particularly bitey, he has his moments but they tend to be as he's getting close to needing a nap or when my DS7 works him up into a frenzy. 🙄 We use CSJ food, a food that's specially for working dogs. Do you think food/mental exercise affect biting? I can see how they might, but hadn't really made the connection.

@muckandnettles light at the end of the tunnel!

Hi
Can I join?
We picked up our 10 week old Greyador yesterday (greyhound, labrador). He's a total sweetheart but the biting is off the scale (apart from my DH who he doesn't bite at all). Most worryingly he has really mucus-y and bloody diarrhoea. I googled that it could be stress but if anyone has experienced similar I would be very interested. I made the chicken & rice this morning and a vet appointment but it's a bit worrying. He seems absolutely fine otherwise - leaping around and playing. He is very skinny though.
Thanks!

@OliveButler we have a 10 week old collie been here a week and the 2nd day of having him we noticed a wee bit of blood phoned the vet and they said it will most likely be stress cause he's adjusting to his new surroundings so far haven't seen any more and vet was quite happy with him last week back again in 2 weeks for last lot of jags

@Livelovelife35 That's very reassuring - thank you.
I didn't get him from a breeder but from someone who bought a puppy during lockdown and then couldn't look after him when she had to go back to work. He's lovely and friendly but totally untrained. Lots of fun ahead I think!

@OliveButler hope he settles in well.

Treats in the crate...what do people give? We've had pup 4 weeks now. He's always gone happily into the crate when I've thrown a handful of kibble in for him. Minimal whining once the kibble is gone, 10-20 seconds at most, then he settles down for a nap. He's now decided kibble isn't good enough...is a bit reluctant to go in...whined for longer once kibble eaten up. So I'm now putting a kong or similar in with a mix of kibble and something more exciting. And it's working, he goes in quickly and settles with a single whine. He naps a few times in the day though so I wonder how long it will take before he's bored of the kong?! I've ordered a few similar treat dispensers today to try and preempt boredom! What other treats/toys do people use for crate training? He loves his lickimat, but does have a bit of a chew on the actual mat sometimes so I don't want to leave that in there with him.

@OwlInAnOakTree I'm afraid I can't help much with crate training as our pup will take it or leave it but I do have a selection of Kongs. I have the one that looks like a tyre but that is such a fiddle to get stuff in and clean after I've hardly used it. Likewise the teeth cleaner one with the little teeth on the outside you put stuff in. Takes forever! He's not that fussed about it either. I'm hoping as he gets older he will be more patient with things like that perhaps. Lazy pampered pup!

I'm still spending a fortune on toys for him! Just bought some tuggy toys for introducing on walks and my idea is to keep them solely as outdoor walk toys to make them 'special' to help with recall and keeping his attention. Really looking forward to those arriving. Anyone else bought some interesting toys?

@OliveButler hope he settles in soon and the vet can give you reassurance. My friend got a puppy same time as me and she had bloody diarrhoea for 3 weeks before it settled.

We need to start leaving this pup alone. We've started popping upstairs and leaving him down but he just cries and barks the whole time. I can imagine he'll be a wreck if we go out of the house.

But I want to start going to restaurants again!

HELP! Cat won't come downstairs. This would be fine as she spends 95% of time asleep (she's 19) but today has pood in two bedrooms. Argh!!! We tried to Bring her down when he was in crate but she just looked and stalked off. So didn't look stressed but now the poo suggests she is. How to make a nice intro?? I don't want her last years to be stressed - there have been dogs here before and aside for a Staffy she hid from she's just ignored them. Please don't flame me. I feel bad enough already

@Juiceey Three weeks! Perhaps I should get more of that enzymatic cleaner. I still can't really read the signs of an imminent poo except directly after eating. My poor DS15 stayed up with him last night until 3.30am and had four to clean up.

I have never had a puppy before -always adopted adult dogs. It's such hard work. Respect to all the posters on this thread who have retained their sense of humour!

@OwlInAnOakTree I’ve been using a piece of cooked chicken or a dried sprat. My pup will do just about anything for a sprat. They stink to high heaven but that’s probably the attraction. It’s a healthy snack so it doesn’t matter if he gets a few. I still enforce naps with my 4 month old so he gets quite a few sleeps a day but it does make him noticeably calmer. We had a socially isolated garden party last weekend which I let him stay up for and he was really ratty the rest of the day.

@Polkadotpjs

HELP! Cat won't come downstairs. This would be fine as she spends 95% of time asleep (she's 19) but today has pood in two bedrooms. Argh!!! We tried to Bring her down when he was in crate but she just looked and stalked off. So didn't look stressed but now the poo suggests she is. How to make a nice intro?? I don't want her last years to be stressed - there have been dogs here before and aside for a Staffy she hid from she's just ignored them. Please don't flame me. I feel bad enough already

We have a cat as well, our pup is a Shiba Inu. Did you do anything before the dog arrived? We sent a blanket smelling of the cat to the breeder and they sent us a t-shirt smelling of the puppy. Our breeder has a cat so our pup is used to cats and knows to keep away from the sharp end!

Our puppy had a decent sized pen with his crate in, I also have a catflap on my bedroom door so the cat has a completely dog free area. I also moved one of her trays into my room if she did wish to stay in there.

I started the cat on zyklene and plugged in a pet remedy diffuser a few days before the puppy arrived (be warned, it stinks).

We’re not doing too bad, we hit three weeks on Thursday. If the puppy does anything unpleasant we put him straight into his pen, but sometimes the cat manages to teach him a lesson herself. They’re now doing much better, he still gets the odd slap but the cat keeps her claws in now.

I would just keep giving her time, cats are stubborn, if you force them to do anything it often fails.

@thecapitalsunited sprats! Never would've thought of that. Thank you. Yes, enforced naps here too. Much needed because he seems to sleep with one eye open and jumps up every time someone moves just to check he's not missing out on anything, so the crate is the only way he'll really settle down. He's been (largely) super calm the last few days. I thought it was the heat slowing him down, but he's the same today and it's much cooler so maybe he is just calming down. Hope it lasts!

@muckandnettles they are generally a faff to clean, aren't they? I once put peanut butter just in the top of the kong to seal it. Never again. I don't think we have any toys beyond the bog standard stuff really, so can't help you there. Let us know if you buy anything pup finds particularly exciting.

Good luck with building up leaving pup @Juiceey.

Hope everyone's enjoying the cooler weather. Me and pup did not like the heat!

@SimonJT was the plug in diffuser Adaptil? I'm just wondering about whether to get one or not but hadn't thought that it might stink! Mind you, my pup is certainly not anxious, but I'm just thinking every little helps at the moment. Reviews are very mixed.

Trixie snake is another good food stuffer toy

@muckandnettles my last dog ate the adaptil plug in

Ive been putting the pedigree dental tubos in the freezer and he gets one of those at night when being locked in the crate by the time hes finished it hes forgotten to be annoyed at being locked in and goes to sleep. During the day ive been putting a handful of dog training treats in there (different ones each time) he snuffles round looking for them. Hes only 9wks tomorrow so we havent really used the kong or any of his toys that treats go in.

Thanks Borris, he's got one of those snakes but didn't seem able to get anything out of it. It's been a few weeks since we tried though, will give it another go.

Thanks too Smiling, will look at dental chews. A handful of something on its own doesn't work anymore as he's now able to reach the back of the crate for the treats whilst keeping his back legs out of the crate. 🙄 The toys that move around a bit means he has to too. I've ordered some gravy bones and milk biscuits which I imagine aren't particularly healthy but I think variety will be key to keeping him interested!

[quote muckandnettles]@SimonJT was the plug in diffuser Adaptil? I'm just wondering about whether to get one or not but hadn't thought that it might stink! Mind you, my pup is certainly not anxious, but I'm just thinking every little helps at the moment. Reviews are very mixed.[/quote]
No, its a petremedy one, I ordered it from zooplus as it was cheaper than elsewhere. Its an odd smell, a bit like old leaves.

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth - he chewed the Adaptil - brilliant!
@SimonJT - presumably it's a similar thing, though not sure I want the kitchen smelling any worse than it does at the moment with pup stinking the place up! I wa shopping it might be a pleasant lavender scent...

@OliveButler we have a 12 week old jackapoo and she arrived with bloody mucous Diarrhea. Vet tried prokolin after it didn't settle which didn't help. Then had a poo sample which showed giardia, treated it but it came back so now onto a second round of treatment. She is fighting fit and it has never bothered her but it can make young dogs quite poorly so something for you to keep in mind.

My god it was madness in here 10 mins ago 2nd case of the zoomies talk about mental
I knew cats go mental but this lol hes now crashed out

@Livelovelife35 the zoomies are quite something, aren't they? Our pup will bash into things like the door, the table legs, the wall and he will skid over on the floor as he goes. I've started interrupting him sometimes when he does it now as I'm worried he's going to hurt himself. Our house and garden just aren't big enough!

Yesterday we took him for a walk and had a bit of a nasty experience with a couple of older dogs having a real go at him. The owners weren't very close behind and their dogs came up to our pup and in both cases just sort of went for him. No apology from the first woman at all and the second owner said 'oh how strange, he's never done that before...' so it was handy that another dog walker was nearby to say the dog's name and say 'he did that a few months ago to my puppy and your wife said the same thing then!' His dog was really quite big and really grabbed my puppy by the ears and neck. It was really upsetting and fields I've always walked and felt safe in. I couldn't get it out of my head last night. Fortunately both owners were able to get their dogs under control, but only by yanking them off mine, not by commands. My pup is so daft though, he wanted to go after them and have some more fun, so I don't think he is traumatised...

Hi all - hope you and your pups are well.
@muckandnettles that sounds pretty scary. Hope all is ok. I can't go out yet as mine hasn't had the second set of vaccinations. I wish I could as he's so full of energy.
We have had a really fun time trying to put on a collar. He's obviously never worn once before. It's just a really simple, light nylon buckle collar but he has scratched non stop and managed to get it off twice.
I'm tired - predictably getting little help from DH and teen DS1, DS2.
Vet on Wednesday so I'll definitely ask about a poo test.
On the bright side, he wolfed down the Lily's kitchen puppy food. One victory today at least!
God I'm knackered - when am I going to get any work done!

@muckandnettles that sounds so stressful. I worry about things like that happening all the time. We live right inside a dog park and it's always full of off lead dogs.

We need more chew things, what can people suggest? He takes no notice of the dentastix.