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.

@Imadreamer44 moan away - yes I totally know what you mean - I could have written this and I think on the other thread earlier on I used the same phrase groundhog day as well. Everyone knows I've wanted a puppy for so long they are quite put out if I tell them I'm exhausted, pissed off and covered in bite marks, so I tend not to moan too much. I'm doing it all as the rest of the family is working, so I get what you are saying. I've been reduced to tears many times by this angelic looking fluffy puppy, which seems mad on the surface of it.

Thank you @muckandnettles. DH keeps saying "but I'd love to be at home with the puppy all day" and it infuriates me.
I barely have time to have a drink, food or go to the loo! I know it's still early days at 13 weeks. I feel like the last 5 weeks have been the longest of my life!

@Imadreamer44 no one quite believes how difficult it is. My dh has no patience with muckypup so I don't want to leave him alone with him for too long even when I can. I'm going to see a friend on Saturday morning and that will be my first little outing alone since the Pup Era began mid-May. I'm apprehensive about what I will come back home to...

Yup I hear you all. It's hard work and I'm fretting about the dire warnings of attachment and not getting him used to us being home but we have to WFH as advised by our offices so we are going to start trying to go out briefly and build it up. I need to put a meeting in my calendar to "be away from puppy " 😂.
Tonight polka pup is knackered after his jabs. Is this normal. He's played a bit this afternoon but dozed on and off and looks very sorry for himself ! 😢

Yep, it's all so very consuming, isn't it?! I'm single, so it's all on me, but it doesn't sound like it's any easier for those of you with partners....

OwlPup slept a lot after both his injections @Polkadotpjs. My vet says it's normal. Hopefully your pup will be back to normal tomorrow.

I took my son to a football thing in the park last week. We left pup at home napping. My friend offered to pick my son up for me if I needed to get home for pup, but honestly, that hour in the park, sat on a bench in the rain, was lovely. First time I've been away from both DS and pup at the same time since pup came home 5 weeks ago. I'm doing it again on Friday and can't wait.

[quote muckandnettles]@Imadreamer44 no one quite believes how difficult it is. My dh has no patience with muckypup so I don't want to leave him alone with him for too long even when I can. I'm going to see a friend on Saturday morning and that will be my first little outing alone since the Pup Era began mid-May. I'm apprehensive about what I will come back home to...[/quote]
Yes! This is almost as stressful as the dog itself! I’m reading loads and trying to apply the advice of the trainer and DH is all “no! No! insert dog name repeatedly” and rolls his eyes at any suggestions. He passed out without two minutes of going to bed last night while I listened to her cry and then gave in and went down to her. Although to be fair he has been the one trying to get her to sleep the past few nights

@Polkadotpjs Link slept the entire day after he had his jabs, it was bliss!

Link has been an absolute swine today, its a bloody good job hes cute! I took him to rugby training as its too long to leave him at home, I didn’t put the stake into the grass enough as he broke free and ran around the huge field dragging his line and stake along. He ignored me (obviously!) and basically had to be tackled 😂 oddly enough he is now banned from training until he can behave himself.

@SimonJT the shame hey? But you'll laugh about it soon I'm sure. Polka pup is in the bad books again after as DH says "being a knob". He's just launched at my ankles - too- what a CF! I was playing ball with him and running about in the rain in the garden - such gratitude. I'm ashamed to say I shouted again "OOOOWWW" and lifted him away from my leg and he looked so scared at my bellow of pain. I feel terrible but it hurt so much it just came out. I wasn't shouting at him but the pain....now feel like shit but it's vaguely in line with the YouTube guy saying to shout and I dud pick him up and cuddle him after he let go. 😢😢. Pic of the leg attached for your amusement

Thank god for this thread making me feel not alone in my thoughts!

We're not having any luck in leaving Juiceypup. If we pop out of sight he just cries. We spent 5 minutes upstairs changing the bed and he cried the whole time. We've been building up from 30 seconds with no joy!

@Juiceey I'm sorry you can't leave juiceypup but I'm so glad to hear it's not just us! We can manage maybe a minute before DPup starts crying. I have to return to work in 4 weeks and I think we're gonna have to get daycare because there's no way shes gonna be able to be left

I'm crying now because I feel so bad about yelling in front of him. I'm behaving like I did whenever I felt bad about anything the kids did as babies like when they kept me awake or bit me during breast feeds. I think I just became an official puppy parent 😢😢😢

Have spent the last couple if days madly puppy proofing stuff that we hadn't really considered would be an issue. A massive pampas grass thing in the garden (planted by previous owners) had become his favourite thing to try to chew, and of course it has razor sharp leaves do I was terrified of him cutting his gums; cue DH taping it up with duct tape and then taking an axe to it! Then dug all the roots out... Ah, a nice digging spot for Dpup I thought... Then this morning, the horror when I realised that the freshly turned soil was ideal for the DKitties to take a shit in, and spotted too late that what Dpup had taken such an interest in, and was now eating up, was a fresh cat pop. Oh the stench in his little beard 🤢. So now the latch has been randomly covered up with some spare patio slabs...

The biting is frustrating and really upsetting when the kids are on the receiving end. They're 10 & 13 and it makes it difficult to get them to help with anything e.g. entertain Dpup whilst I'm cooking etc (in the same room), because I'm worried about them getting bitten. I need to do a better job of training the kids in their toy distraction techniques!

I'm out at work on a 12 hr shift tomorrow (I've been on annual leave since I picked him up 2 weeks ago) so DH is in charge all day 😬😬.

First vet visit Thursday then, for vaccinations. Worried his that'll go as it's a car park handover, and no prior 'familiarisation' visit due to lockdown.

Struggling to get him to be on his own for any amount of time in the day still. Even with a lickimat or Kong he realises he's shut in his pen after a few minutes, even if we stay in the room, and whines to be let out.

All that said though, I love him dearly. (Doesn't stop me swearing about him under my breath when he's weed on the floor for the umpteenth time, or shredded my arm again 🤬)

Gus has found his bark! he now corners the kids and barks at them, tying to bite ankles! they are using 'leave it!' and he responds until they move then he's back to barking until they can grab a toy!

@DoorbellsSleighbellsSchnitzel the vet cane to the car and did vaccinations there so DH was with him but said he didn't even flinch at all. They do it in the scruff of the neck and it's seconds so don't worry

The children being disinterested seems a theme too. I think I just reached a peak of low mood (a depth maybe rather than a peak) tonight and it came out as tears. We then had a lovely cuddle and he's gone to bed and tomorrow is another day Hugs to all who need them

Could cry at polkapup going to bed. We’re still awake here and pacing. Have thrown every calming tool we have at her and nada. Just go to sleeeeeeeeep.

Oh love I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. Will pup settle if you cuddle ? Sending solidarity to you. You're so kind

Our first nights saw me on the floor pretending not to be asleep on a cot duvet next to him whilst trying and failing to stay awake.

She fell asleep next to me about 10 minutes after I posted and woke up half an hour ago. Seems to be thinking about sleeping again now...

I'm wide awake while pup sleeps on....hope she goes back to sleep

Must have preempted not bit Polka pup awake immediately I typed he was asleep 💤. It's too early!!

To everyone suffering it's shit. The sleep deprivation is a killer as well as the biting. I still remember how bad it felt and the worry about never being able to leave my dog or ending up with an aggressive one.

Lots of to get you through it.

@BiteyShark thank you! I got up with pup at 4.30am but while he instantly snuggled down to sleep after a wee I have been wide awake since. I'm only getting up really because ds is on early shifts and I don't want him having pup dramas while he's getting off to work, but I might see if he can do the pup/wee tomorrow as it has been going so well. Apart from my disrupted sleep, of course.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits I'm so sorry it's still going badly for you. It just really grinds you down, doesn't it...

@DoorbellsSleighbellsSchnitzel I hope your shift goes okay today and your DH manages all right. Well, he will have to, basically! I liked your cat shit story - so stinky, I can imagine. Our garden was looking sort of poor before pup arrived as it's a new build so not much in it, but now it doesn't even have the lush lawn it had before and the 2 new trees we planted have had to have a mackled together plastic box round the bottoms of them for protection, all the pots of flowers have had to be put in the front garden for the same reason and the alpine sink (my main gardening triumph) is thoroughly dug up and massacred. Even the picnic bench has been chewed.

All of us litter parents are in touch over whatsapp and it's all gone very quiet recently so I suspect everyone has the same problems going on but doesn't like to say!

Popping in to say hi. We picked our new puppy up yesterday (8 weeks cocker). Seemed to be going ok, we have him in a pen in the kitchen. He is happy in the pen. Last night popped him in his crate, i let him out for a wee at midnight when he started whimpering. Then stupidly must not have shut the crate properly because came downstairs to an escaped puppy and wee and poo everywhere.
Can't stand the poo in the house, absolutely stinks. What have i done!
Also I can't stop sneezing!!

Sorry for moaning, everyone. Like a PP said, people think you’re crazy for moaning especially when the daytime dog is quite lovely!