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.

Because all I do is moan about the poor sausage, here she is after conquering her first slipper

I have cropped out the friend we went to visit, Link was an angle and didn’t bite him once, little bugger.

He looks like a cuddly fox @SimonJT

Hes very fox like, enjoys raiding bins and ripping your hand off 😂

Just back from a slightly soggy walk! He seems to find all the puddles and mud. I fear it's a spaniel trait rather than a puppy thing he will grow out of.

Such gorgeous pups we all have!

Had a lovely walk today with dh and a friend. Pup off lead and came back when I called - all good. Then we went to the outdoor cafe where pup was fine but then we stopped watching too closely and suddenly there he was, standing on the table! So embarrassing... Fortunately with the rainy weather today there weren't many people there to see us. But honestly...can't relax for a second!

Muckypup on a table. 😆 That's made me smile in away it probably wouldn't have if it were my pup.

Such gorgeous puppies, all of them.

We went to a friend's garden today for OwlPup to play with their whippet. She was very full-on, he was pretty scared and refused to play with her! My friend had warned me that whippets can be a bit punchy and that other dogs generally don't like her. He's met two other puppies and had fun with both of them. Maybe it's a good job she wasn't his first other dog experience!

He came home exhausted after the afternoon in their garden. And has had two wees inside since! I can't remember the last time he had a wee inside, weeks rather than days. I'm hoping it's just due to tiredness and not due to trauma from playing with a tough little whippet. 😄

Muckypup on a table. 😆 That's made me smile in away it probably wouldn't have if it were my pup.

Such gorgeous puppies, all of them.

We went to a friend's garden today for OwlPup to play with their whippet. She was very full-on, he was pretty scared and refused to play with her! My friend had warned me that whippets can be a bit punchy and that other dogs generally don't like her. He's met two other puppies and had fun with both of them. Maybe it's a good job she wasn't his first other dog experience!

He came home exhausted after the afternoon in their garden. And has had two wees inside since! I can't remember the last time he had a wee inside, weeks rather than days. I'm hoping it's just due to tiredness and not due to trauma from playing with a tough little whippet. 😄

Sorry for duplicate post, not sure what happened there. And I know I've already posted a photo today, but here's another one of him crashed out on the sofa after our afternoon out. How do they sleep in these positions?

Update on leaving pup: I know its not much for some but we managed to leave DPup downstairs for ten minutes whilst we sat upstairs (listening and fretting!) For ten minutes! She cried for the first five then sat and waited for us to come back for the second five. I could have cried myself with relief, it was the first time she's been alone without being completely hysterical and weeing everywhere.

Great update Imadreamer.

@Imadreamer44 that's great news! I need to do the upstairs / leaving thing too. He's ok in crate if there's food but I've not left yet. To ight's triumph saw polka pup swing from my ponytail during online yoga. #soproud 🙄

@Imadreamer44 that's great news. I really need to make a proper effort to detach myself for longer. I think when he wakes up now he doesn't immediately bark for me, which is good (quite often I will go in and he's awake and just sort of happily lying there) and I've tried just going in and out of the room a little during the day while he's awake so that he gets used to me not actually by his side all the time. But I feel I should have started this much earlier!

Hi
I would appreciate some help if anyone has experienced the same. Oliverpup will whine if we are in a different room which I understand but also if we are in the same room and not giving him attention. It is driving me crazy. He has loads of toys, I scattered some treats in the garden for him to sniff out but that lasted 5 minutes. Should I just ignore? How can I encourage him to entertain himself? Thanks

@OliveButler same problem here - I feel I've made a rod for my own back giving him so much time and attention. Muckypup barks for attention really loudly.

I think they get over the attention seeking eventually to a certain extent. We've got a 6 month old velcro puppy but she's starting to take herself off to a different room for a nap now and not follow us everywhere!

Things that have helped

ignoring her when she follows us - so she works out its all a bit boring a lot of the time and better to stay put. 'Flitting' I think its called - someone on here suggested it.

Giving her something like a big chew bone or a puzzle mat to do or food hidden in a kong or something. Plastic bottles with a few treats in. That keeps her busy and tires her out mentally.

Spending some time on 'settle' so making her bed an attractive place to be. Still working on that.

Also 'loads of toys' - it can be better to have just one or two toys out at a time and rotate them. So when 'duck' appears after a week in a drawer it 's a massive deal!

There are some great tips on this thread. Thank you so much everyone for sharing.

We're on day 5 of pistachiopup at home with us. She's 11 weeks tomorrow and is definitely more settled and confident!

After the accident in her cage on the first night we've now been setting an alarm for 2am and going down and taking her out for a wee. I then get up at 6am and take her out again and am just up with her then. It's working well in that she's happy and we've had no more accidents but I'm pretty tired! I stretched it to 6.10 this morning and she was ok so I might just try edging it 5 minutes every week or so and see how she gets on. Not brave enough to drop the 2am wee break yet though!

Apart from that she's a usual puppy so some challenges with zoomies and biting but we're reading the tips and it's not too bad. She's essentially a cuddle monster and just wants to be attached to someone all the time.

Biggest challenge now is that she doesn't seem to want to walk outside of the garden anywhere! She just sits down and isn't interested in moving at all. Does anyone else have a reluctant walker? Or is she just very young still and it will come?

@pistachioicecream she's young and it'll come. And then might have a bit of a regress at adolescence.

Has she had her jabs yet? As soon as ours had had her jabs we took her to a safe dog walking place and let her off. We had lots of treats and she stuck by us and loved all the new smells.

6am wake up - I used to get up too, till I got so tired that I started popping her out for a wee and then putting her back in her crate for a nap with a cover over it. She'd go back to sleep meaning I could have a lie in - till all of 7am!

Now she comes back in after an early morning wee and lies on our bed and would probably happily snooze till 10am.

Thank you @BarrelOfOtters She's had both sets of the main injections. Just has the second L4 dose to go next week. The vet said she was ok to go out but to keep her away from water. So far we've just tried a few minutes on the pavement outside our house, a small park across the road and a pathway at the back of the house. But she wasn't really interested in any of it. Just sat down!

I'm worried her harness doesn't fit her properly. And she hates her collar. We're off the vets tomorrow for a check up so I might ask them to check it's right for her.

Am sure she would def go back to sleep on a bed with us but unfortunately she's not allowed upstairs. (Dh's line in the sand) so I'm respecting that and she's downstairs. I slept with her the first nights and now just stay until she's properly back to sleep then leave my shoes in front of her crate. She loves my shoes and they seem to settle her. She also has one of those lambs with a heartbeat which she really likes too.

How old is your dog now?

Ours is 6 months. She found her collar and lead and being outside all a bit overwhelming. I think its sensory overload. We just took it slowly with lots of treats and she suddenly got it.

Same with her collar we watched a video on line where they introduced it really slowly with lots of treats. For the first few months we always gave her a treat when putting it on. Now it's no bother at all.

May I join in? We picked up our pup last Saturday and she has been very good so far . My adult daughter slept on the sofa for two nights with puppy in her cage next to it. Puppy woke twice during the night for a wee. Since then son in law has put puppy in the crate in the kitchen and lay on the floor till she goes to sleep and then sneaks up to bed. She usually wakes at about 6 am and has a drink and breakfast and goes out to do her business. She then takes herself to another bed or to her playpen and sleeps for another 3 hours . Because there are four of us here keeping an eye on her she has hardly had any accidents in the house either.
I suppose it's all too good to be true

Is anyone else following the Pippa Mattinson Total Recall method for recall? I'm trying to do it at the moment so just wondered how anyone else has got on.

I'm not, but how are you finding it? Recall here is only about 50/50 within the two rooms of the house Owlpup is currently allowed in and when he knows there's a pot of chopped up sausage next to me. And now we're closer to going out on walks, I'm starting to think I should've been doing a lot more recall training?!

Aww, she's a cutie Ken. Sounds like she's doing brilliantly.