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!

With our puppy we used to make a loud short high pitched Yelp when she bit and she used to let go because it made her jump. She soon learnt to stop. As for chewing things she shouldn't have we had a big basket of her toys accessible all the time and if she got anything she shouldn't have we immediately took it and exchanged it for something of hers then made a fuss of her, so she learnt what they were for.

JudasHisCarrot
That's good to know @MuseumOfYou. Do you find he's calmer now too?

Yes but he still has his moments! We don't really use the crate now but occasionally he has to have a little 5 mins time out...

I'm waiting to have him neutered because I think that might also help.

He came from Shropshire, near the Welsh border and we're in the West Country!

@Lovelylurcher, this is fine. I checked with the vet when I rang to make an appointment for vaccinations. As long as other dog is vaccinated and it's in your/their garden so you know no unvaccinated dogs have been, then it's ok. We had a friend round yesterday with their 6 month old pup. Was crazy!

Thanks owl! Good to know x

Well, we're one week in and I think we're doing ok. Massively helped by the fact that he's a great sleeper and for the last 4 nights I've only woken him up once to go to the toilet around 3am-ish. And I was back in my own bed last night (bliss), after 6 nights on the sofa downstairs. Despite this, I'm still exhausted! Constantly on the go between him and my DS. I've just come to my bedroom for a quiet 5 minutes whilst puppy naps.

We had a wee accident on the floor today for the first time in 3 days. But considering he absolutely refused to wee and poo outside for the first 3 days, I think he's doing great on that front now.

Bit bitey here but I'm sure not as bad as others yet (he's only 8.5 weeks). My DS finds that difficult though. And I'm sure it's going to get much worse before it gets better.

'Sit' and 'stay' are coming along nicely. But cannot get him to 'lie down' at all! His body just doesn't do what the training advice says it should do...he just bobs his head down for the treat.

A hard but good week. Hope everyone's getting on ok today.

I want to try teaching sit but he just gets excited at the treat in my hand and jumps up!

Well we are having a bad day today. He's decided that today he won't listen at all, even to basic sits or "in your bed". He is really living up to the sprockerdile name and when we went outside with his lead on to practise a bit of nice on lead walking he decided to jump about snapping at the lead like a maniac and spinning in circles despite wearing it every day to go out for the toilet (free ranging birds so needs must). It turned into a tug of war with me getting more shrill and trying to wrestle the bastard back up the garden to the door. In the end I sat on the path and had a little cry while he attempted to gnaw my arm off. Argh!

I think I'm just struggling now as I've been doing almost all of the puppy wrangling and could do with a break. DH has gone out to do a food shop so I'm on dog duty again and the hens need mucking out and there's a million other things to do but instead I'm stuck minding the carpet shark.

He did have his 2nd jabs this morning. Maybe he's feeling under the weather? Does anyone know if it makes them feel rubbish or more tired?? Think I need to write today off and start again tomorrow!!

Thought I would join in with my 14 week old cardigan corgi. He’s been pretty good at toilet training but turns into a shark at night. He also ignores me at the park. DH is exasperated at the biting and seems to think we have the only bitey puppy out there. I did manage 15 mins of respite last night with a loo roll with the ends folded in and filled with kibble. He loved it and it was so simple.

I think he’s pretty well behaved for his age really but it’s much nicer when he’s tired and content to just sit next to you for a fuss!

@Shadowsinthedarkness thank you so much for that as you actually made me laugh about having your arm gnawed off while you had a little cry! That's kind of what has happened to me a few times and I've had a little cry as well. If there are a bunch of you all doing it, it's not so bad, is it? But I've been doing it myself most of the time and it's relentless. I also start to have a bit of a panic as my pup is a Golden Retriever and he's going to be big, so I can't be walking around with an enormous dog humping me - it's bad enough having a puppy attached to my leg. I've been wearing Uggs for the last month, even in the hottest weather, because they at least protect my feet.

Oh @thecapitalsunited he's so cute! Those ears!!! 🤗

@MuseumOfYou wow that's a drive! I've been looking for a friend but it's so hard to know who to trust.

We had an awful day yesterday too. Practically every poo and wee she did was in the house! Really bitey too. She was also unusually tired so I am wondering if it was down to the fact she’d had her injections the day before plus a worming pill and (24hours later) a flea pill. Maybe she just felt out of sorts as she’s been fine today.

I found this article very useful and I read it whenever I'm struggling

www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-beat-the-labrador-puppy-blues/

The whole site is pretty good. I know it's a labrador site but I'm sure the majority of it applies to all dogs. The forum is good too. Hope you're all well tonight

My puppy seems to have a particular penchant for my forearms over ANYTHING else. Yum yum

We had a poorly pup yesterday, he was really sick not envy... Not sure if it was the treats we gave him whilst doing some training (100% fish), we also gave him his first bath, could that have upset his stomach?

He seems okay this morning though, despite being up very early! He woke me up at 4am for a wee, went back to bed and then he wanted to get up at 5am!

I decided that I wouldn't set my alarm this morning and see what happened. I slept until 5am which was good, but although pup didn't wake me, he had done a wee on the mat (door mat) so extra time in bed wasn't quite worth it. We've found that pup just barks at us for attention a lot of the time. Some of the puppy info I've read said you should reward them for even making eye contact with you, so this obviously isn't a bad thing that pup just stares at us and barks because he wants someone to play with, chew on, hump...
@Rowdythree I hope your puppy is fully recovered from being sick. We had the same with ours a week ago when I think it might have been treats not agreeing with him, or possibly just all the bits and pieces he had picked up in the garden and chomped on.

Used plastic milk cartons are proving to be a godsend. She loves them. They keep her occupied for ages. We've also got her a snuffle mat that you hide food in which keeps her going for a while. Trying to find things for her to play with that aren't my arms and legs...

We discovered the joy of plastic milk cartons yesterday too nicketynack. I put some kibble in it at first, but he's been playing with it on and off ever since without any kibble to tempt him. Makes an absolute racket, but keeps him busy. Similarly, kitchen roll inner, folded each end and a few bits of kibble inside. Spent a fortune on toys, but these and an old boot belonging to my son have proved the most entertaining. The best bought thing we've got is a flirt pole. He loves it. I use it in the mornings, sitting on the sofa keeping him at a distance whilst drinking my coffee.

I think the honeymoon period has ended here! He's been a crazy little bitey thing all day today. No calming him. Lots of enforced naps in the crate today I think.

@Rowdythree hope your pup is ok today.

He seems much better today thanks, full of beans and back to his cheeky, bitey, humpy self

I'm worried about giving him treats now though so not sure about training him. His pen has arrived now so I need to encourage him to go in there, also for puppy training, it suggests we need 30 treats!

I shall try the kitchen roll trick though, i like the sound of a snuffle mat too @nicketynack. Where did you get it from?

@Rowdythree - glad pup is feeling better! We just got one off Amazon - IFOYO Pet Snuffle Mat. People from our litter have got different ones, but they seem ok. They're a bit flimsy so keeping an eye on her with it.

We've been using her normal kibble for training mostly and occasional bits of cheddar for real gold star moments. Breeder has put fear of God into us with treats but she has sanctioned cheese and salami...

We've gone slightly rogue and bought a "licki mat" and slathered peanut butter on that too. She likes that and also keeps her occupied for a good while. Apparently licking calms them down...

Same here - spent a small fortune on toys for the pup and his favourites are home made bits. Really useful one is a big sort of plaited rope about 6 foot long made from my son's old sweatshirts cut up. Pup likes hanging on it, trailing after it, cuddling up to it...very useful. It's very roughly made as I did it in a hurry but he likes it!

We've got lickimats and kongs but this dumb puppy doesn't like peanut butter! Or yogurt. He had a few licks of primula but then got bored of that too and didn't seem to like it.

Kibble in a toilet roll worked for about ten mins peace though so that's good.

Flirt pole was a brilliant buy for us too!

This dog and his insistence on posing inside is driving me mad. He only pees outside which is great but he will literally do a wee, come in and do a poo. It's driving me bananas. He does poo outside too, it's about 50/50.

But it's so annoying when we go out and he does nothing, then comes in and poos.

@Juiceey I laughed at your dog posing inside till I read on! I just imagined all sorts of irritating dog poses being struck for you around the house. Sorry, I needed some amusement today - sorry he poos inside. Our pup is still biting like hell and now has started a lot of barking at us for attention when he is bored.