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!

wish it was posing instead of pooing!

Yesterday poor DW went flying over the baby gate we put up for him and ended up in A&E after ripping off her toenail and breaking her toe! Get a dog they said... it'll be fun they said...! Babygate doesn't even work for him, he just squeezes through the bars.

In positive news DS (9) picked up a poo today! Had to pay him 50p to do it but yay nonetheless.

Oh no your poor DW @Juiceey. Hope she's ok. Might try bribing my DS...

What sort of feeding schedule are you all doing? I'm not bowl feeding, but routine-wise I give a kibble-filled kong in the morning, and a slow-feed bowl of kibble when we have our dinner. The rest I use for training treats, scatter feeds, snuffle mat, etc. throughout the day. But I always have quite a bit left by early evening so he gets a lot then. Which keeps him occupied at least just as I'm starting to run out of energy but I guess it should be more spread out...? Do you have set times for feeds each day?

Poor DW @Juiceey! Hope it's better soon.

In terms of feeding, we feed Bitey McShit-bag at 7am (kibble), 1pm (kibble) and 7pm (kibble + scrambled egg). All times are approximate really. The breeder was feeding him 4x a day but I've dropped a feed - but keeping the overall daily amount the same obviously

We do 7am kibble and 5pm kibble. Treats for recall, sit and pooing/weeing outside.

I bought mega cheap value ham and cheese, cut them into minuscule pieces (0.5mm squares) and put them in the freezer. Got absolutely shed-loads from it and much cheaper than treats bought in packets. Use that as high-value treats then a bit of kibble for toileting.

We are doing 3 meals a day and I vary what I give him as he seemed a bit unenthusiastic about his kibble.

@JudasHisCarrot 'bitey McShitbag' I think that's my pup's new name.

My DH got a bit upset tonight after being subject to the pups biting attention all day. She really seems to go harder for him.
We do the usual distracting with toys etc.. Hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel that this doesn't last forever.

Evening all, Can I join?

8 days in with our little Frenchie Ruby.

She has settled in well and sleeps in her crate down stairs with no whining. Toilet training is hit and miss though 😬 but at least she goes on the pads.

Cannot imagine life without her already 🥰

What is it about 9pm?! He seems to just lose his mind and turns into a crazed braking biting monster. Anyone else?!?!

@totallydevoidofideas we have various derogatory and insulting nicknames for him. That is one of the cleaner ones

*Barking, not braking

@judas 9pm is crazy biting time here too, despite having plenty of play time in the garden before hand! He really hurt my arm tonight!

Meal times are 7am, 12pm, 5pm and 10pm, according to the Breeder we can drop the late feed at about 6 months. He just has his kibble for all 4 meals.

@nicketynack our Breeder also put the fear of God into us about treats, which is why we're only giving him fish ones, I'm too scared to give him anything else will try kibble as treats for training. I'm not sure it's going to have the same effect though

We are doing 3 meals a day but not in a bowl. Mostly we use meal times as training times and he has to follow a command for a each piece of kibble, but I do usually give him the last handful in a puzzle feeder. We have lots of these, some that roll, a ball one, one with levers and things plus a snuffle mat. We also play "go find" with some of his meals so will hide kibble around the downstairs and he has to sniff it out or i make him wait while I put it in various places and then he has to do a memory retrieve.

Hunger seems to be a fabulous motivator for learning and he's picking stuff up so fast. He is insanely bitey still but everyone warned me about spaniels being called "cockerdiles" so I'm just trying to accept it's normally and not take it too personally.

Meals are first thing (6.30), lunchtime (12.30) and teatime (5.30). He turns into a biting menace at 8.30pm so at that point he goes into his crate and usually sleeps straightaway. He comes out for a cuddle on the sofa with me and DH at 9pm and then last wee wees and up to his bedtime crate at 10pm. We have started leaving him in the bedtime crate upstairs while we go out and lock up animals which has gone surprisingly well and he doesn't cry or howl but just goes back to sleep.

We are still working on not chasing the cats, or the ducks. He is scared of the hens as a fairly large old girl squared up to him and puffed out her neck feathers which he found terrifying 😁 Lead training is our focus this week as first walks can start on Saturday. Hoping taking him out will help him be less scared of all the big noisy tractors and agricultural vehicles that come past several
times a day.

I had a very civilised night's sleep as I got up at 4.30 am to let him out for a wee then he went back to sleep until 8am, so all very good. It will all change tomorrow as my ds starts back on his early shift so will be around in the kitchen for an hour getting breakfast and making his lunch so pup will wake up properly then.

The big drama yesterday in our house was when I realised that pup wasn't being 'good' in the garden for five minutes, he was stripping the bark off my new apple tree, only planted 6 months ago. It should survive, I hope, but pup was incredibly fast and is still obsessed with finishing the job. Apple tree now has a very unattractive manky blue crate around its base, but pup thinks he might just climb up the branches and strip the leaves instead. He's sizing it up, I know. He might just get trapped in the crate at some point as he hasn't given up on the dream yet. Little bastard.

@ShadowsInTheDarkness - let us know how lead training goes. Whenever I've tried to put the lead on ours she just bites it and rolls around with it, despite lots of treats and praise!

@muckandnettles oh my god my pup keeps doing this!! It's gotten to the point we are actually having a Gardner come and remove all our bushes etc from the garden as she is a bloody nightmare! She literally does a running jump into the bush and comes out with mouthful of leaves and then zooms past and runs into her bed and stores them like a bird!!!!! So weird!!!!

I have shouted many times these past few days "WHY DIDNT WE BUY A FISH INSTEAD"

I love her. But also hate her sometimes. 🤣

Thanks for all the feeding schedules.

I put puppy to bed for the night around 8.30, so sounds like I'm avoiding extra crazy biteyness at 9! Biteyness in general is picking up here though.

Pup had his first injection this morning. @JudasHisCarrot, he asked me what I was feeding him. I told him he's currently on Skinner's but I've ordered some CSJ to try. He didn't initially comment on Skinner's, just said to avoid supermarket ones as they're not that nutritional. So I mentioned that a friend's vet had said Skinner's was a bit rubbish, and he just nodded and quite diplomatically said 'yeah...give CSJ a try...'.

Obviously pup is being a delight today after driving us to tears yesterday. I swear they're little evil geniuses!

Thanks @OwlInAnOakTree!! Good to have another vet's opinion, and he sounded a lot more diplomatic than mine. Unfortunately I bought a 15kg bag of the Skinner's before we brought him home - so will wait until that's almost used up before introducing a new food!

@happygolucky6 I think some breeds are devils for destroying gardens - my pup is a Golden Retriever and I know they are notorious for digging, but I hadn't expected outright tree massacre. We have a new build house so there isn't much in the garden yet, and what we have is now destroyed or put in the front garden. I had a lovely little alpine garden in a Belfast sink, but that's destroyed. Now it's destroyed, he's lost interest. I had the idea that I would make a lovely garden here from scratch, so that although it's very small it would be crammed with greenery. Now I'm at the point where I'll be happy if there are no holes in the lawn and if he doesn't dig through to next door.

@OwlInAnOakTree with the food, what you could do is get the new food and introduce it 25% mixed in to start with, then 50% and so on. Our pup came to us eating Millie's Wolfheart, which is very expensive but good stuff. I bought some supermarket stuff for emergencies as I have to have Millie's delivered and I was worried I might run out at some point, but he's not keen on it at all, won't even have it as rewards really. Spoilt little bugger.

Glad our monkey hasn't discovered digging yet!

Don't know why he's so much bitier with DS than anyone else. Poor kid loves the dog so much but is struggling with the biting.

My pup is exactly the same with my girls. So sad that they desperately want to play with him but he's so rough with them, and really hurts them. They're being so quiet and respectful too but it makes no difference.
Really disliking him today

Similar in our house, puppy is far more bitey and jumpy-uppy with DS7 than he is with me. In our case, I'm pretty sure it's because my son is much more hyper and louder than I am, and is incapable of playing or moving around quietly or calmly. I think puppy thinks he's a littermate who's always willing to play in that bitey jumpy way like littermates do. When he's particuarly bitey, my son hides out in the front room (puppy not allowed in there yet) and has claimed that room as his own now. Puppy has the back room. I'm not sure where my room is anymore?!

Thanks for that @muckandnettles.

Strangely our puppy is most bitey with me!