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.

I would wash it as the smell of pee might encourage her to pee on it again.

@lovely123 I just want to say that I have a GR puppy, now nearly 16 weeks and just be really prepared for how bitey they are - the first week seemed bad but in fact that was before he was really strong enough to bite properly! They look like little angels but they will rip your skin badly without a second thought at this stage, so your dc need to be really aware of that, especially if they get on the floor with pup.

Can I join? My pup is 16 weeks now. I can empathise with much of what I read here! He now sleeps through the night though, 10 until 6.30 and this morning was distinctly reluctant to get up then! Mind you, so was I because the weather is awful...

@pistachioicecream I felt so bad as well when I washed the 'mummy blanket' for the first time, but muckypup had peed all over it so I had to. I just kept thinking 'it's all he's got left of his mother...' but he was fine of course.

So I may have pretended to myself that having a puppy would only be amazing for my son etc but he makes me so happy! But the tiredness! Totally wasn’t prepared for every two hours awake first night. But third night and four hour stretches of sleep and I feel vaguely human this morning.

@Ilikefresias my pup is the same age and has just started sleeping through the night as well. I feel so much more human now he is doing that!

We're on day 2 now. Only a few accidents in the house (none of the brown kind!). She slept through the first night absolutely fine (2230-0445). Last night was another story! Up every few hours and wouldn't settle again after 4. So that was me up!!! Focus today is to work on her crate training. We have a large crate and puppy run. She'll go in on her own and chew toys. She has her water bowl and all her meals in the pen, any nice treats are given in her crate. Any hints and tips on leaving her in there without us in sight and encourage her not to whine and instead settle down?

I went to bed around 2am last night, someone decided to get up at 3:30am and would not go back to sleep. After a little walk, toilet and play I tried just leaving him in his pen, lets just say after fifteen minutes the Shiba squeals were pretty impressive. Little bugger.

Think someone has left a different dog in the bed this morning. Calm playing and no manic biting after breakfast which we normally get. She's actually a delight!
Making the most of it while it lasts..

Things not going to badly here - a couple of weeks inside but that was because the child 'forgot' to take him out as she was very busy on her Nintendo!

I can't believe how much he's grown in the week he's been with us, he arrived a tiny bundle of fluff who couldn't get in or our the house without help, now he does flying leaps in and out! He loves his rope toys and tennis ball. We have mastered 'leave it!' and sitting before I put his food down. He guzzles his food down so fast he ends up burping with hiccups most meals. Any suggestions on how to slow him down?

I gave him a Nyla bone chew and he promptly chewed the end off so we had to remove it. MIL then found the edible one and gave it to him (despite the packet saying 6 months and up!) had destroyed it in 20mins so I had to remove it before he choked on small bits. Any suggestions, he doesn't seem keen on chewing plastic, only toes and socks!

You can get special slow feeder bowls that stop them gulping it down in one. Apparently Aldi have aimed at the moment for 4.99 so I'm going to have a look at those as my pup needs slowing down as well. Otherwise Amazon and Pwts at Home sell them.

@GherkinsOnToast dpup likes pizzle sticks, yak cheese and ducks feet so far. Rabbit ears too but they only last a second. You can scatter feed in the garden which is good for keeping them occupied and use food rations for training too as well as the puzzle feeders. You can make your own by making a hole in a water bottle. Snuffle mats are also good.

Hi all, great to hear so many experiences of young pups! Our Labrador puppy is 5 months now, and I can still remember how hard it was at the beginning! I don't think anything would have prepared me for it! I can say that there were multiple days in the first month where I just said to my fiance have we done the right thing, do you think we should give her back etc! Now I can't imagine life without her, and she's still hardwork! All I can say is be consistent and put the time in. Our puppy was a biter but we realised if we left the room and closed the door on her when she did it she slowly got the message she doesn't get attention when this happens, it stopped quite quickly after that. She occasionally mouths our hands now when she's teething but it's not hard. The first month I was covered in bruises! She sleeps from 10-5, has a toilet break and then from 5-8 sleep again. It a long while to get to this! We take it in turns to do the 5am part, it's not fair to do it on your own. Kong's and anything like a licki mat you can put food on and freeze are your best friend! She would have her lunch and dinner out of a kong for a while! Frozen carrots for teething. Digging holes in the garden, only just stopped doing that! Chewing stones, we are now learning that when she was young and picked up a stone we would run to her to take it away as we were scared she would eat it! She obviously thought it was a game and a way to get out attention, so now we ignore her and she drops it on her own!

We have both been WFH since mid march and my partner will be until September at least so leaving her on her own has been tricky, she can now be left if she's tired only, if she's not she barks and howls! We are trying to work on this!

I found it hard reading these kind of threads in the beginning as there were people who said there puppys'were sleeping all day and night (ours did not!!), Had cracked crate training etc all straight away. I think what we all need to remember is that every puppy is different, even the same breeds won't develop at the same time so be patient, they will get there in their own time. Feel free to PM if you want any horror stories or any advice, not that I'm an expert but we have been through alot over the last 3 months.

@CupcakeLady06 how long did it take to crack crate training in your case?

After my post of woe yesterday, my parents have been to stay this weekend and really think we should persevere through the summer. DD is devastated at the thought of pup going back, so I have agreed to keep trying til September. We have a dog daycare coming to meet pup this week to see if she could go with them a couple of days a week so I can work when DH is at work. Main issue now is DH stepping up and doing his bit of the training when he’s off and I’m working. I’m really hoping by September she’ll have grown out of some of the worst behaviours and we’ll feel differently about her.

Biggest problem (other than supervising while working) is sleeping at night. She is only just lying down in her crate for brief moments in the day with the door open so we are a long way off sleeping in there, and she’s already very upset when left for any length of time, even if I nip to the kitchen. Trying to get her to settle on a bed in our room is next to impossible and she then only settles once I leave the room and she can sleep with DH. But he will be working nights in a fortnight and I need her to go to bloody sleep for me! Waiting to see if our trainer can come up with any bright ideas.

Ginger day time crating hasn't worked for us but pup has found his bed and will happily sleep in it during the day, we move his bed into the crate at night then cover it over with a heavy curtain to keep it dark and quiet. At first I sat next to the crate as he fell asleep but now he whimpers and I just shhhh him and he settles. During the day, tired or not, he will howl and bark in the crate but happily sleep on the floor or his bed.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits with crate training at night, the first night I slept on the sofa, then I was upstairs. She would go to bed at 11, wake at 1.30, 3, 5, 7. All the time for toilet breaks! After toilet break, she was confused and it would take up to 45 minutes to settle her back down. I could only settle her in my lap then carry her in the crate. We did alot or positive reinforcement with the crate in the day, we taught 'go to bed' so she would go in there and get a treat, over and over. It was hard work, but we made sure all the fun happens in there in the day, toys, treats etc. She will now take herself in there around 9pm! When she first did it we looked at each other in amazement! If you are finding it hard to teach 'go to bed' just throw kibble in there for her to get.
During the day, well, she will walk in and out of there taking toys out etc but we didn't succeed with leaving her in there during the day! She could last like an hour before she was barking like crazy! But when we left her outside and she had the choice of floors she can be left for about 2-3 hours, aslong as she's tired! We tried today when we thought she was due a nap, she barked for 30 mins! I think as she is getting older she is getting more independent!
We are also going to have a daycare starting in a week, for a couple of days. Up until she was 4 months it was impossible to get more than an hour work in during the day, it's much better now but they do demand attention!

Ours is nearly 5 months but as she’s a rescue I guess it will take her longer to feel comfortable and gain that independence. I really hope we can make it work as DD9 is going to be inconsolable if not.

Good luck @GingerAndTheBiscuits I'm sure by September things will be different. They change so fast. We've had ours 5 weeks now and he's a totally different pup to the one we brought home.

I'm mostly still infuriated by his insistence on weeing on the mat by the front door. It's one of those built in brown wire mats and he's WRECKING it because it's so hard to clean. Five weeks in now and I thought we'd have it sussed but NOPE. We take him out all the time and he often won't go outside, we come in and while we're taking our shoes off he's peeing on the mat.

In happier news than the mat pissing, we had our first in person puppy class today and it was great. Juiceypup did so well! Liver paste was tried and loved.

13 weeks here. Nights are getting better but toilet training still really hit and miss. Crate training going ok with frozen kongs etc. She will happily stay in the crate with the door shut for 10 minutes with us on a different room. Today we went out the front door and counted to 10 and went in. Planning to do stunt leaves all this week and then go our for 5 minutes next week

Another night of me having to abandon our room because she will not settle with me in there. She constantly goes for us both when I’m there. When it’s just DH she will eventually settle but I need her to settle with me as well. Can’t go in her crate because she hurts herself. This one feels pretty insurmountable but as no one else sees the night times they’ll think we’re just giving up on a lovely dog and we’re really not, we’re just exhausted. I’d take being woken up by a yapping piddling pup over this form of fucking torture.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits so sorry to hear that - sounds awful. I know I'd be going completely crazy if I was also not getting enough sleep. Yesterday evening was bad enough as pup was overtired, I managed to calm him down fine but then other family members came in and just overloaded him and it all went pear shaped and I got quite a nasty bite...
This morning he is a little angel again.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits sleep deprivation is a bastard. Over the weekend I just thought, sod it, I'm going to get some sleep and if Oliverpup cries, someone else can just deal with it. I hadn't slept in my own bed for over a week. In the end he was fine. I woke at 5 and he was all waggy tail and seemed fine. Only one accident so ok. I'm not sleeping on the sofa anymore. I am just grumpy and impatient when that happens.
I am trying to teach collar and lead training today in 5 min bursts. So hard. This pup just doesn't get anything easily. We can only do sit, stay (iffy) and come (also iffy). After tomorrow we can do puppy classes and park so I want to make it as stress free for both of us.
Hope everyone and puppies are ok.

I have managed to book a series of pupoy classes starting at the end of the month, so I'm really pleased with that. It's given me some motivation to sort out the training a bit more before then so that he doesn't totally show me up!

@OliveButler did you just pop him in his crate?