Puppy survival thread! July 2020

[Juiceey]

Roll up roll up... I'm a day late but here we are.

Latest update: Juiceypup is obsessed with DS's feet, who is now starting to get upset by it. He doesn't do it to anyone else, only him, and we don't know why. DS goes stock still as instructed but we have to prise his mouth open to get him off his toe. Has brought him to tears a few times.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits ha ha - my DH too! Oliverpup is always jumping on the sofas and we don't want him too yet because he chews all the cushions. DH shouts 'down' at him as if he speaks English and when I explain that he doesn't know that command yet, he'll huff and say 'that dog needs boundaries'. Sigh.

I notice BonBon pup is much better behaves when it's only one of us! Had a lovely after work play whilst DP is out 😁 even started the 1 blast whistle training. Amazing how much quicker she got sitting to a whistle than the word sit.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits glad you got in a good afternoon with pup!!

Should add, on top of extra lovely evening so far, BonBon pup might be kissing up to me because she's in DP's bad books. He took her out to pee earlier and she just plonked herself down for a nap on the grass, nothing would get her interested in peeing. He marched her back in to put her back in her crate and try again in 5 minutes, she comes in and looked him square in the eyes and pee'ed all over the tv blanket that was on the floor... luckily it's the tv blanket we put on the floor to sit on with her, not the nice one.

I think with DH he has rose tinted memories of his childhood dogs where, much like our own children, he’ll not have noticed all the hard work and emotional and physical energy that goes in to creating a good family dog. So when she’s not behaving like “his” dogs he gets pissed off and resentful. He actively dislikes her now which I don’t think there is any coming back from. Whereas I, who was practically afraid of her in week one, am warming up to her a lot!

So glad my DW is on the same page as me with Pup, I'd be going mad if I had a DH behaving like some of yours!

We have similar issues "Polka pup stop chewing the cables. You will electrocute yourself and die" being a particular favourite thing of mine DH said to the pup. Oh and "that is not nice behaviour". I think my "no bitey no likey " mantra is much better clearly. As well as muttering obscenities when his teeth are clamped into my flesh.
Tonight I'm like a blood hound because my house feels like it smells. Doggy Urgh. His bed is washed every other day but it's whiffy in the lounge. Not nice.

DH used to say a number of times a day 'why does BiteyDog do that' when effectively misbehaving in his eyes.

I used to give him a sensible explanation each time about dog behaviour and training etc.

Then I got fed up and gave my now default answer of 'because he is a dog'.

I am sure dogs are easier to train than some partners

Oh the smell is getting to me too. Blankets and beds and toys washed regularly but there's just a constant smell now. I've tried plug ins but they're too strong smelling when switched on so I can't have them on for longer than an hour without feeling a bit ill! Lots of febreze sprayed. I've just ordered a Scentsy wax wamer, my friend tells me they're good. Another friend tells me it's ok because I'll just stop noticing it eventually...

Thanks for all that info @PuppyBonBon. Will give it a go.

Whilst I logically know that OwlPup doesn't understand, I often find myself giving him ridiculous ultimatums or long drawn out explanations for why I don't want him chewing pizzles on the sofa or whatever. He just looks at me as if I'm mad, of course. But then he generally does that if I just use a simple 'Off' command too.

I've been washing like mad too. But my pup us an excited tiddler so her pup gets a spray of wee each morning when she enthusiastically waits for me to open the crate door

I'm also glad it's just me and dd. I e decided the version of training I want to do and can stick to it with no one ruining it.

DD does have me nagging occasionally. It's hard for her as her dad is very into the alpha male approach to dog training (even though I've told him the dominance theory has been disproven he knows best ) and so it's what she's seeing with his dog. I have to remind her to be happy and excting when she wants to recall pup and not shouty and angry when she does t come. Mostly she gets it right ...

Yes, @OwlInAnOakTree, I think I heard my neighbours (who have 3 well trained dogs) laughing at me this morning, as I said

'Well, the thing is darling, I'm just not the sort of person who likes bitey games, I'm more of a calm game kind of person'

I'm also glad it's just me and DD @Borris! She's fab and does the 11-5 shift while I get work done!

Oh my, we all have such patience, don't we? We deserve this to all work. I think I've already got used to the dog smell as our house smells no different to me, or maybe it just smells nice and doggy how I like it!

Big break through tonight. I had pup to myself so decided to take the plunge and see if he would sit on the floor with me in the lounge. The timing was just right and he snuggled down and slept next to me so I managed to actually watch a proper telly in the nice room. I sat on the floor with him, but I'm happy. I sent a photo to dh to show what I was doing and he texted 'get him out!' No chance mate.

Did anyone introduce their puppy to an old cat? We have a 17 year old Tom cat who mostly sleeps and will generally be separate from pup as house is ideally designed for this. I’ve no idea how he’ll react. We adopted him 2.5 years ago when my grandmother went into a care home and he was friendly to our other cat aged 15 but she was having none of it and just tolerated him. He usually chooses to be where we all are sleeping amongst noisy children. In think I have this expectation it’ll be fine and he’ll love having a bitey little brother. Who am I kidding?!

We have 2 cats, who have never lived with a dog before @m0therofdragons

They are pretty cross about it! But getting there. The hardest thing is finding a place they feel safe eating...

We are only 2 weeks in so it's early days!

Dragon cat is never annoyed about anything but this might test that. Our house lends itself to separate areas so I’m hoping he’ll not be too annoyed.

Read up on introducing them. Our v bad tempered old cat was v put out about the introduction of the dog.

We kept them apart, swapped scents, let the cat sniff her when puppy asleep. Introduced when puppy was under control and cat could get away. Made sure cat has safe place to eat and could sleep somewhere unbothered.

All fine and cat had the sense to always walk slowly past the puppy.

Cat bopped puppy on nose a lot but no claws.

Every day without fail the puppy does a ‘play with me dance’ and the cat says ‘fuck off’. They are fine now from about 3 months.

I'd had enough today within 20 minutes of getting up. Another hole in clothing and a broken yak chew that OwlPup pulled off the kitchen worktop. It's now in three pieces which I'm not sure are safe for him to have, in case they get lodged in his mouth. I feel like I'm haemorrhaging money in ways that I didn't really expect or budget for. New clothes, a Tesco delivery today full of febreze! And I think I need to buy more toys. I've tried rotating them this last week, changed them today, but I don't think there are enough, or enough variety at least, and he's been much less occupied by them and has needed deflecting from unwanted behaviour a lot more than usual in the last few days. Does anyone else rotate toys? What sort of numbers/variety do you have?

We have about 15 toys that we rotate. His fav toy is an empty yoghurt pot, then mutant squirrel/octopus (thanks Aldi!) and a duck from pets at home

Well, it seems that we now have a dog who doesn't want to sleep in his crate! We're away for a few days in a holiday house, and he would NOT entertain the crate at all. Ended up sleeping between the children, who were sharing a double bed. He's such a friendly wee thing, just loves children. Yesterday we had six in our garden all afternoon, and he was out there for hours, his tail wagging like mad. He showed them all his tricks (sit, lie down, paw, steal football...).

And last night he went swimming for the first time!

@OwlInAnOakTree that's an interesting point about toys as I'm not sure I'm doing it right. Muckypup had 5 squeaky toys (4 of them plush) and then a ball, a kong pull toy, then various things he has decided he likes such as a fairy liquid bottle. He has them all in a toy box that he can go to any time. Sometimes I get things out of the box for him and tell what each is called then he chooses what he wants. We also have two Tug Enuff toys I save for walks to 'build value' on them as they say, but Mucky isn't too mad on those yet. I'd like him to play 'fetch' eventually but still working on that.

That sounds wonderful @marmite51!

Also @OwlInAnOakTree puppy seems to have woken up overtired the last two days and been a right mare from 5:30 to 6:30. Roll on injections and being able to take him for a walk!

Hmm. We seem to have a lot of very similar rope toys, then a couple of plush non-stuffed, and a couple stuffed, a few balls... I was trying to preempt boredom by splitting them but I actually think I've made him more bored by halving the number of toys. He's always been quite good at entertaining himself playing with them. Noticeably less so this last few days. I've made two toys out of holey clothes this week. He likes those as much as the shop bought ones. 😆

@marmite51 swimming! Oh how brilliant. Did pup just walk into the water and swim or did it take a while?

@Emrysmcdogface I think you're absolutely right - once you can take them for an actual walk it all changes a bit and I've certainly felt we are in more of a sort of routine. It also means in the evening if Mucky is completely mental, we just put his lead on and take him a hundred yards or so outside and it calms him down.

The DC threw stones in, and he chased them! Was in quite deep, up to his shoulders I would say- not a single bit of hesitation, so I think he'll be a good water dog! Will see how he gets on today.

He has a new doodlebone snappy harness, which is a great fit and seems very comfy for his adventuring.