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!

She was from a breeder in London, tbh it was word of mouth, it's was mums second and last litter.

We knew someone who had one from her last litter and asked to go on a waiting list ... I actually thought she'd have them before this and expected to have the pup earlier in the year but she came into season late and so we've only just got her.

It's difficult with cross breeds as there are plenty of unscrupulous breeders out there, I'm of the opinion that being a licensed breeder doesn't necessarily mean that the pups are raised in the house and massively socialised with kids, dogs cats Ect which is personally what I look for. Some licensed breeders have multiple bitches ( like 20 or so ) as it's a business and pups are often in the house only for the first three weeks till they are weaned then housed in outside kennels.

Have a good look around and see if your friend can get onto a waiting list? They usually have lots of info about Mum and dad and health tests Ect, photos of previous litters? I'd get all the research done then get on a waiting list if I were her, pups are stupidly expensive at the moment due to less people breeding and people being greedy ( we only paid for our pup what her last litter went for last year ) so a waiting list might be a good idea.

We have two labs as well and one was a nightmare pup and the other was little miss perfect so I think it does just depend on your dogs personality. I'm feeling v sorry for those of you who are struggling, we did with our first lab and she's three now and lovely ( recall still leaves a little to be desired though!) once they hit a year it's usually all uphill from there.

Our girl had two accidents in the kitchen today, I went shopping and left DH in charge and he just wasn't watching her enough 🙄 anyway nights are still good, she's going from 10.30 ish till 5/6 am then a quick wee and ooo then back to bed till 7.30 - we are all on one level in a barn conversion so she sleeps next to my bed in her crate and that works well. So far ... she'll have been here one week tomorrow so fingers crossed it's going ok.

Oh and I feed my grown up doggos James well beloved and the puppy has that brand for puppies. They seem to love it.

@OwlInAnOakTree yes he did say that! He went on a big rant about how crap it was (without actually saying why!). He said that the only foods he'd trust are Iams, Royal Canin and one other that I can't remember - as these are the only ones that have paid for independent veterinary testing of their food. He had been lecturing us on various things or about 20 minutes by this point so I just made agreeing type noises in the hope that he'd run out of steam and I could get out of there. He did thankfully, but he was very patronising. Will be looking to changing vets after second jabs out of the way!

And I find the whole topic of dog food a bit overwhelming too, if any issues come up with the Skinners then I'll delve into it and make a change. Things going well so far with it. I give him an egg a day too, and occasional bits of carrot

@Wagsandclaws not anything going like hat that near us. They are prepared to wait xxx

@Wagsandclaws do your breeders know of any others in the uk? Xx

Can anyone recommend a cuddly toy type toy which is safe? Seen ones with ropes in, ones without stuffing, just way too much choice!

Well, I'm sitting here in the kitchen in the early hours like a fool. I set the alarm to take pup out for a wee and he's said he's not bothered thank you, and gone back to sleep. So I've hunted around to see if he's done it on the floor and he doesn't seem to have, and it's not worth going back to bed because he will decide he wants to go out soon...so wrecked my own sleep for nothing and sitting here watching him sleep like a little angel...

Polkadotpjs, my pup has the teddy with rope in which is quite good for playing as it's quite strong but it's not very cuddly at all. He seems to like a soft fleecey blanket for cuddling when he sleeps rather than a toy and still loves the one that he came with from the breeder with his mum's scent on it (though we have had to wash it in the end very reluctantly).

@polkadotpjs my pup has this heartbeat sheep and he loves it, and more importantly hasn't managed to destroy it yet. It gets a good humping sometimes

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0742FGYHV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_kfF2EbNWEJSSX?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

He also sleeps on a patch of vet bed and a fleecy blanket in his crate. Easy to wash in case of an accident

Polkadotpjs, we've got an unstuffed chipmunk by mad about pets. It was very cheap so thought it was a good one to try in case he just ripped it apart. He loves playing with it and it's got a squeaky head so good to distract him from anything he shouldn't be doing. Also got a small cord dog called Freddie which he likes and seems pretty robust. He also has a big soft dog, called, I think, a snuggly pup, which has pretend heart beat/heat pack. This is in his crate and he snuggles up to that or uses it as a pillow a lot. That was pricey but thought it might help with settling him at night. All three seem to be standing up to his chewing and pulling on them so far.

My little pup has this one:

www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/wainwrights-just-for-puppy-teether-feet-frankie-fox-toy

We call it Ted. It's head squeaks which can be sooo annoying when watching tv 🤣 but she uses his feet for teething and sleeps with him too.

So far hasn't managed to rip him apart and she doesn't half shake the poor bugger.

@JudasHisCarrot, changing vets sounds like a good plan... We're at the vets on Monday for first injection so I'll ask their opinion of Skinners too whilst I'm there (I'll mentally prepare myself for the telling off before going, just in case.)

Good luck @OwlInAnOakTree! Let me know what s/he says!

Hi everyone,

How is everyone doing today? Those who were on verge of calling breeder to take puppies back - any better?! I hope so. We are tired but ok over just about ok over here.

So I have a sleeping question! Pup sleeps happily in crate during day. We have an open plan kitchen/living space where crate is.

At night she frustratingly will complain even if she can see us from her crate. She comes out and then sleeps quite happily on the floor by the sofa all night long - going from 9/10pm to 6.30/7ish without a peep or needing a wee, which is great.

HOWEVER, as it's only her first week home with us, me and DH have taken it in turns to sleep on the sofa in the same room (might explain why she's so relaxed overnight . Obviously this isn't ideal long term and I'm not sure what to do now.

I don't feel tough enough to leave her in crate to cry, plus we had an upsetting episode yesterday where she caught her nose in the bars of the crate and now DH adamant he doesn't want to leave her in crate overnight following this. So do we -

a) bring her up to our bedroom for now. Issue is that bedroom at the very top of a fairly tall house. Would we be playing with fire when she wakes up needing a wee in the morning (we'd have to carry her downstairs?) Or given that she seems quite good at holding it overnight, might this work?

b) sneak off from living area when she's asleep and see what happens if we leave her there? I can't see that there's anything that she'd really harm herself on, but it seems a bit worrying to just leave her 'loose' and alone down there. Plus we'd still have to get down in time to let her out to do a wee - though better on wooden kitchen floor than carpeted bedroom I guess!

Advice very much appreciated. I am leaning towards first option but would love your thoughts x

ps - neighbours leant us one of those video baby monitors so we could technically use that to hear her from upstairs.

Sorry post so long...

@Lovelylurcher we did exactly as you have with our puppy. For the first 9 nights we slept downstairs with her - her in her crate and DH and I took turns next to her.

After the 9th night I did the usual routine of leaving the little light on, preparing for bed. There is also a ticking clock in the room so it isn't silent. I put her in her cage as usual and she went to sleep. I went up stairs to bed. We had no howling at all. I got up at 4 to take her outside for a wee (as we had been doing when we were sleeping downstairs), put her back and I went back to bed again. She was fine.

I hope that those first nights of being with her made her settled and feel safe. She is now 12 weeks so has been sleeping alone in her crate for nearly 2 weeks and is fine.

@MrsBungle - thanks! The only issue is that at night, she HATES the crate. It's weird - there's no problem with it for naps in the day. But once it's gone 9pm or so, even if we are bustling around in front of her as usual - it's a problem. When we let her out she then falls asleep happily at our feet.

I know I could persist with crate at night-time, and I think this is what I presumed we would do once everything settled a bit. But now we had this awful episode we had yesterday where she caught her nose in the bars. She is half greyhound so has a long snout! Dh was the one to free her and was pretty shaken by it. He says he wouldn't want to leave her overnight in it after this, so....

@Lovelylurcher just wanted to say my pup is also in a crate. We also had an episode of nose in the crate and crying. It was very dramatic and upsetting and I was petrified of putting her back in but she has not done it since. The episode was about a month and a half ago... I think she's learnt not to do that again!!

The crate is so big I don't even know how she managed it but it's an awful feeling isn't it! 😭🐾

@lovelyjubbly12 - yes it was so dramatic and awful!

I've read online that this can happen and pups tend to learn from it and not do it again, but still...DH was very shaken by it!

So we have 2 crates. One is downstairs in the open plan kitchen dining room, and it's a large one built into a cupboard. It's for daytime sleeping and I also put him in there when I go out to do the hens. This will be where we leave him when he's older if we ever leave him home alone.

Then he has another smaller crate in our bedroom. It's small enough that he can't toilet in it but big enough to fit him and a water bowl plus cuddly toys etc. He can see us from the bedtime crate when we are in bed and initially he cried but once he saw us laying down for sleep he settled down too. He now sleeps through. We needed a crate for bedtime as we have a super old house our bedroom comes off the stairs before they reach the top. So if he ever got onto the stairs at night he could really hurt himself.

I didn't want him sleeping downstairs as people in the next village had a break in and dogs stolen from the kitchen while the family slept and due to our layout it would be easy to get in and out undetected.

He does also have some no crate beds dotted about and will sleep in those or come and have a cuddle on the kitchen sofa while I'm having a cuppa but I then will move him to his crate for naps and proper sleep. A blanket that smells of you is supposed to help. I found things he could chew also help settle him, he seems to almost self soothe with the chewing!

We are using Eukanuba as both the vet and the breeder recommended it. I've heard a lot of good things about Butternut box but haven't looked at it at all. Is anyone raw feeding?

Some good advice re sleeping here...

Thanks all. I could spend a fortune!

Having a terrible day today ☹️ Pup seems manic and extra bitey. Housetraining had been going so well - whole days without accidents - but today several accidents in house. It’s not so much this I mind, but having my feet and hands bitten to sheds.
Anyone else struggling? I feel like I’ve made a big mistake today tbh.