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!

Mine slept through. Very odd being woken up by my alarm. But then when I went downstairs turns out she had broken out of her pen (she’s actually in a playpen with a blanket over the top) had weed and pooed on the floor and was asleep on the sofa. Going to have to invest in a proper crate as there’s no way I can trust her loose in the lounge unsupervised!!

@gingerandthebiscuits. It is indeeed very har work and I'm riding the other family members quickly get fed up and clear off upstairs or DH to his office whereas I work in dining room so am stuck with him alone trying to avoid the biting. It's tough. I'm going to swap work spaces with DH today I think and let him manage the pup. See how he likes them onions!!

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth unfortunately I think she is too big for a pen - she’s a 4.5 month old rescue but very long legs. She can jump high enough to rest her front paws on a stair gate so I’m not sure there’ll be a pen tall enough to contain her. I’ll have a look though.

[quote GingerAndTheBiscuits]@smilingthroughgrittedteeth unfortunately I think she is too big for a pen - she’s a 4.5 month old rescue but very long legs. She can jump high enough to rest her front paws on a stair gate so I’m not sure there’ll be a pen tall enough to contain her. I’ll have a look though.[/quote]
There are some really tall pens on amazon, we had to get one for our escape artist. She was getting out of a regular sized one at 10 weeks, even though she's not a big pup at all.

We managed to leave her for 40 mins on Sunday thanks to a dentastick and lickimat.
Starting with a dog walker today to get used to her before we start back at work. Excited for the break!

Hope the attached photo works.
Another night on the sofa until DH relieved me at 5.30 (wow - thanks). I had to get up at 7 for pups breakfast anyway.
The bloody diarrhoea is pretty dramatic today. I may just collect a sample for the vet tomorrow. It seems to get better and then worse again.
We lost the collar yesterday. He trotted in from the garden pleased as punch with the collar in his mouth. When I watch the puppy training videos on YouTube the trainers have the clicker and treats going at a rate of knots. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong.
It does feel like a step forward and two back at the moment.

@OliveButler it sounds like the giardia, the blood for my pup came in some poos but not others. The vet will need a three day poo sample as some pathogens don't come out in every poo.

So my 12 week pup has been pretty good with house training but has regressed. We've had to block off the grass due to her giardia infection for the next four weeks so she has a penned area to do her business in. She is bell trained so rings to go out, sometimes goes but is also running upstairs and messing on the landing. I know we need to do more praise for wees and poos outside and I need to find something to block the stairs but it's draining whilst trying to wfh and home school.

She also has zoomies late at night which I am coping with by ignoring her, distraction and no eye contact. She seems to be worse than me than dh, is that because I do most of the work with her?

Oh he's beautiful @OliveButler. Did you say he was greyhound collie X? I wanted a greyhound or whippet, my son wanted a collie. Your pup would have been perfect for us! Hope his tummy settles soon. I can't get my head around a clicker, one too many things for my frazzled brain to think about. But yeah, pup seems entirely trainable when I'm full of patience and energy and I've got a handful of chopped up cocktail sausages. Much less so when I'm tired and fed up and can't reach the treats.

Peaceful dinners...we've tried lots of things. His slow feeding bowl kept him occupied the first few days. Then not. Then I tried timing nap times so he was sleeping during dinner. Sometimes works sometimes doesn't as he resists sleep if he can hear us or smell food. The lickimat works well to keep him occupied but I like to save that for evenings after DS is in bed so I can have a bit of peace. I maybe need to buy healthier things to put on it then I won't mind using it more often. So I'm now working on mat training in general and I'm trying using it at meal times (probably wrongly!). But I'm not sure if it's giving the wrong message because I'm essentially feeding him treats from the table, albeit he only gets the treats when he's laying on his mat. Trial and error. Massive learning curve. Two steps forward one step back. Etc. Etc. Etc. I'm sure it will get easier at some point...

@GingerAndTheBiscuits my pup had me in tears a few times in the first few weeks. I think it's at its worst in the evening just when you think you might have a bit of a sit down and relax, and then they start up. I'm always very conscious of the noise our pup makes as well as our neighbours are all really quiet. You have my sympathy.

Last night our little prince was great and went to bed at 9.30pm, woke up for a wee at 3.30am and went straight back to sleep. Unfortunately I couldn't get back to sleep myself then at all - lay awake for half an hour waiting for him to cry again, then tried to go to sleep myself but too late I was no longer tired enough. I must have dozed until 6.30am when he cried again...so tired today. But the plus side is that he went into doggy day care with no problem at all, very excited to see a load of toys. Just a few hours respite but it seems so lovely, I have to admit.

@OwlInAnOakTree I'm also trying to mat train - if you mean trying to get him to sit on a mat in a certain spot? It's slowly getting there I think as I noticed him sitting hopefully on the mat when dh was getting his breakfast this morning. I've taught him he will get a treat on the mat when he sits there and that there are sometimes treats already on the mat if he goes and looks. I've also done sit/stay on the mat and keep saying 'mat' a lot. Sick of saying it.

@muckandnettles yes, although I'm doing it a bit differently to you in that I only get the mat out at certain times at the moment and want it to be portable...for going out for coffee or to my parents' house type of thing. Also though, I've just put the bed back in the room that pup spends most of his time in (he didn't sleep on it in his crate so I took it out) so I want to do what you're doing with that I think. But maybe I need one permanently in the kitchen too? Gah. Overthinking again.

We need to sort out a dogwalker or daycare so that he can get to know them, though I'm not in work until August. He started off not bothering at all if you left the room, and spending a lot of time in his crate in the day, but in the past few days it's just been me looking after him, and he's been quite clingy, following me from room to room and whining when he can't see me!

@RonBurgundyspanpipe DId your puppy have other symptoms? I read about giardia and he doesn't have other symptoms apart from occasional really awful farts (like most dogs). No vomiting, weight loss or dull coat. Thanks for the sample tip - I can't do three days so I'll wait and see what the vet says tomorrow.
@OwlInAnOakTree Thanks - he's a greyhound lab cross. He seems to have the lab temperament and greyhound looks with the floppy ears.

It is easy to lose your sense of humour definitely. I was cleaning up after a poo at 2am and ran off with my poo bags and tissues. Now if I had had 8 hours sleep and it was midday, I would have thought it was funny and cute. I'm so glad I found this group or I'd have felt really alone. Although I'm typing while he sleeps on the rug and I'd quite like him to wake up so we can play! Puppy brain is contagious.

@RonBurgundyspanpipe see the giardia is it common?
Wee bailey has been ok but has had some blood after poos not often
Hes been given royal canine food for a few days as he had the runs on Sunday
How can you tell if they have giardia?
Hes back at the vet next week

Definitely easy to lose your sense of humour, @OliveButler. This dog is pushing my buttons today. It's driving me bananas that he keeps weeing by the door- as soon as we see him go near the door we jump up to take him out but he just wees as we're getting our shoes on!

It's been a month now, I never expected it to go on this long.

@OliveButler no other symptoms, shes eating and lively, just loose poo and some blood in some of them.

@Livelovelife35 I think it is common but doesn't really effect adult dogs as they have immunity against it. They poo it out and then the spores end up on grass and then other dogs ingest them.

@RonBurgundyspanpipe what are the other symptoms?
Wee bailey had diarrhoea on sun and was up most of the night hes now on special dog food and paste for 3 days. No more diarrhoea but was a little sick this morning
Had the vets next week should contact the vet and send in a poo sample just to be sure

Something's wrong with JuiceyPup

We gave him 1/3rd of a sachet of Panacur worming powder this morning for the first time. He's been crying for hours, ate his lunch fine but won't settle and keeps crying. I think he feels sick.

Oh no Juice, our pup always seems a bit down the day of her worming tablet but is fine the day after so hopefully it will be shortlived.

DPup had her walk this afternoon. The walker said she was nervous but loved rolling round in the grass, which is nice as we don't have any in our garden. She's slept solidly since too which is great!

Anyone else have probs with puppy biteing?
Seems to be more my partner its his feet he goes for or his arms when he's just sitting and he has got myself and teenage daughter
He doesn't do it constantly so its not like he's aggressive is it just puppy behaviour and how do we stop this?
Also any other pups that want to eat everything in sight outside?
We walk him out the back and round the front the now for toilets but he wants to pick everything up from the pavement moss stones fag doubts etc
Also will puppy classes be good for him
Any other tips for coping with a 11 week old pup?

@Livelovelife35 really recommend puppy classes. We only managed one before lockdown and it was so helpful. It was a good positive training one.

Biting - puppy's have to learn that its not acceptable - but all puppies do it and have to learn bite inhibition too. So we wouldn't engage with them if they bit us - don't make it a game. So 10 second time out - remove yourself from the room if its too bad.

Ours was much worse when she was tired, so putting her down for a nap really helped.

Distract with something they are allowed to bite, a toy, a chew stick, frozen carrot, frozen tea towel.

It does get better - they eventually stop doing it.

There's a great facebook site called dog training advice and support which has a really good section on it.

I don't think squealing like you are a puppy helps. But making yourself stock still - like a tree - they'll stop and look confused. Essentially don't make it a game and distract or encourage them to have a nap.

You can teach 'leave' = there's some good tutorials on line. It takes a wee while and a bit of patience but they will learn it.

Basically they explore with their mouths and manners come later!

@Livelovelife35 our pup had no other symptoms except diarrhoea which was occasions mucousy with a drop of blood. She is normal in every other way, quite skinny which may be an absorption issue or just her, only time will tell with that one.

@Livelovelife35 I'd also recommend the FB site Pandemic Puppy Raising as it's very kind and very knowledgeable, and has units you can read as well. The biting is an absolute nightmare! They all do it but some breeds more than others I think. I have a Golden Retriever and they are especially bad I think, also digging in the garden and eating everything. Mine is now 15 weeks and very very slightly better. Get lots of different chews with different textures for each stage. Ice is good and frozen tea towels have been life savers here!

@DangerCake thanks will look into this and we are looking into puppy training classes some have a waiting list at the moment
Its frustrating cause we do and try and keep him occupied etc and the fact he wasnt cheep so that puts doubts in our head that we should of waited and went to dogs trust etc
He has a play pen also

@muckandnettles I've read about frozen tea towels will give that a shot
Teenage daughter doesn't quite why we are frustrated now and again
As I said in previous post he wasnt cheep (collie) but is so adorable just the moments where he does bite you walk off thinking what have we done