Puppy survival thread! July/August! Roll up!

[Juiceey]

Here we go, hero puppy owners.

We've just got back from the vet where I was shocked to discover he now weights 4kg. Little lump! He's 19 weeks old tomorrow. Wonder how big he'll get? On a miniature poodle group I'm in the adults are anywhere between 6-12kg. I hope he's small as easier to carry about!

@AmigoDog the cool mats are pretty indestructible Smileypup who has destroyed 2 beds in his 16 weeks existence hasnt managed to chew through his.

Smileypup is driving me crazy this morning, we have a shared access garden so theres an alleyway that runs along the back of the houses then gates into the garden so he cant have access to just run in and out himself. Usually not an issue he barks to get out and i let him across then if i dont stay out with him he barks when he wants let back in but this morning he is yoyoing in and out hes literally managing at most 1min before wanting back in then again to go back out. He wants to be in the garden but wants me out with him.

Grannypup did not have a good night last night. Went into crate asleep at 12:30 - awake at 1.45 and totally refused to go back in. Slept by my feet while I was on laptop and woke everytime I tried and cried pitifully. I can't blame the heat as we're in S Wales so not very hot at all.

The only thing I can think of is that I washed the bedding yesterday. Back to sleeping by my feet since breakfast

I may try the crate in my bedroom tonight

Morning, fellow puppy owners. Sweetestpuppy is finding the heat quite hard and his house training has gone backwards, despite our back door being open all day giving easy access to a fenced off area for him to use. Also, our daughter, fiance and friend were with us for lockdown along with their year old Springador and they've now gone back to their own home, so I wonder if the change has unsettled him. The house feels quite different to me now!

Tried him with frozen carrot yesterday to cool him down. He loved it (thank you whoever suggested it) but it reappeared almost completely unchewed in his poop 😂💩 I've been freezing Kongs with some kibble and either cheese spread or peanut butter. They go down well.

Looking forward to the weekend when he can go out on a walk for the first time.

Hope all your pups are coping with the heat. What are you all doing to keep them occupied? We have a very large garden / field so pup is used to pottering outside with us (in small bursts). But now he's going out early morning - 6ish and then not again until late evening (apart from toilet). Our house is quite cool so he definitely has energy to burn!

Juiceypup hates the heat. He's a floofster which doesn't help, his coat is short but thick and hairy.

Not sure what's the heat and what's his poorliness, but he's been sleeping loads on the cool mat. Not during the night however, he paced around panting all night.

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth GP bit through her cooling mat on second use and we had to bin it as all the gel was coming out 🙄 don’t take your eyes off them for a second!

It’s not particularly warm here but our bad nights continue unabated. If anything they are even worse. Back to DH and I sleeping in separate rooms so at least one of us can function while the other deals with the biting and pacing and barking and digging and scratching and eating the door and furniture.

Sadly bad news from us that we have made the decision we are not the right family for GP long term. The rescue have found another family who came to meet GP on Saturday and are awaiting their home check. Only adult children at home so four adults able to divide the work between them. I gave them warts and all and they are still keen. GP was positively angelic while they were here (right up until they were leaving when she went nuts at next door’s dog but they at least got to see all sides of her) so they probably think we’re insane to have got to the point of rehoming her. They had a similar situation when their children were young so were very sympathetic at least. I don’t think they believe us about the sleeping situation but in fairness in a different home she may behave differently so we’ll just have to let them work it out for themselves. They can’t say they weren’t warned!

I was very upset about the decision but from 6pm we live in a constant state of dread for how the night will go and it’s not healthy for us or for her as I’m sure she feeds off it. Even DD9 who has been GP’s staunchest supporter has said she wishes we never got a dog :( DH got up with GP on Sunday morning and DD5 came into my bed for a cuddle for the first time since GP arrived and I could have cried as I’ve missed the morning cuddles so much!

So here we are :( I’m sure my biggest fan will be back to the thread to tell me how terrible I am, but I am at least glad we have been able to meet the family and see how they interact with her. The dad and son particularly were totally won over and she was hopping in their laps and licking their faces so hope that’s a good sign. Just awaiting their home check before we make arrangements to hand her over.

Thank you for all the advice on this thread, we’re really disappointed in ourselves to have got to this point but don’t think we would have even made it this far without the ability to vent here.

Ginger sorry to hear that but it sounds positive with the other family and at least you know where pup is going. Is there a timeframe for the homecheck?

Sorry to read your update @GingerAndTheBiscuits, it's clear how hard you've tried to make it work. Hopefully she settles well in the new home.

It's about 27 degrees here which is lower than some of you it seems. OwlPup not overly bothered thankfully, just a bit less hyper. No bad thing. We're getting out to the park early and then staying in for the rest of the day. Our garden still isn't finished and the only safe bit for pup is a south facing patio, so too hot to use right now.

The good news here is that the playground has opened in one of the parks we go to regularly. It has a big field next to it, so DS can play in the playground whilst I do some training with pup in the big field and I can still keep an eye on DS. Makes our park trips less stressful! Just as we were leaving the field this morning, a woman with 6 kids, 2 dogs, a push chair, football and frisbee came in. She was even blowing bubbles for them all. I was in absolute awe of her calm demeanor. I can't even get close to recreating that with only one child and one dog. 😆

@GingerAndTheBiscuits so sorry it's gone that way, I know it's been a difficult decision for you and I feel we have all been through some of it with you, so know how much time and energy you have put into GP. I think you are right to do this now anyway, for GP and your family.

Sorry to read that ginger. You’ve put in so much effort with gingerpup. It must have been a hard decision to make but sound like it’s the right one for your family and pup. Be kind to yourself.

@BiteyShark Home check is tonight.

@muckandnettles I’m keen to act before everyone gets back to “normal” and rescues becomes inundated with young dogs. I think black dogs are often left til last in the adoption pecking order too. We are lucky that we can at least say she is child tested (!) and cat tested (in that it’s a big fat NO to living with them or other small furries) and can share a lot more information about her (certainly a hell of a lot more information than we were given!).

If we ever do this again (in many, many, many years time!) we would only rescue from a charity that has dogs in foster and can give us a true sense of the dog’s temperament and behaviour. We were so caught up in the “rescuing a puppy from abroad” narrative that we were totally blind to the potential problems - the lack of early socialisation, the trauma of a long journey to get here, the late separation from her mum and siblings. I don’t think we’d have believed anyone if they’d warned us about them anyway. Because how hard could it be?!

Fortunately in the family she may be going to they all either work from home or work opposite shifts so there is always an adult or two around which she will need, at least in the medium term. They also have family with dogs that they walk regularly so she will have some canine company which is when she is absolutely at her happiest. Fingers crossed it will work out for her, the little sausage.

That's good that it's soon so a decision by the rescue can be made quickly rather than it dragging out.

I think we’ve done a good job of dragging it out ourselves 😬 but yes, hopefully a quick decision (they sent me photos of their house and garden but I had to point out it’s not my decision!). They recently installed a hot tub - they’re very lucky GP only likes swimming in dirty water!

Oh @GingerAndTheBiscuits I'm sorry for you. you worked so hard and it's a heartbreaking decision. Last year we had a greyhound (for 3 days) before returning her, it was 100% the right decision for us but so upsetting all the same.

In the future I'd look at getting a puppy from a breeder. I know it's lovely to rescue. But puppies are lovely too and you can 'mould' them to your family without all the trauma/unknowns of learned behaviours etc.

We left it a year before getting Juiceypup after the greyhound disaster and were much more careful about what we chose after a lot of research, and he's definitely the right dog for our family now.

Good luck xx hopefully their home check will come through asap and it sounds like they're smitten with her.

So sorry to read your update @GingerAndTheBiscuits but sure it will be the right decision for you long term. Really felt for you when you were talking about cuddles with DD. You've had such a hard time. Everything crossed all goes well with the other family's house check.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits I didn't know that about black dogs being left - how odd! It's nice that GP will go straight from you to the new home, so no being in limbo anywhere in a kennel which would be horrible. Interesting you say you were given only a little information about GP and what to expect. I know what you mean about the 'rescue' narrative though, as that's absolutely what I would have gone for if DH hadn't insisted he wanted a pup.

@Juiceey completely understand the logic behind getting a puppy. However DH is a vegan, animal rights activist who frequently uses the “adopt, don’t shop” mantra so has totally shot himself in the foot when it comes to only getting rescue dogs. I told him yesterday (mostly good naturedly) that I’ve realised he only really likes animals that are in cages so he can protest about it on Facebook 🙄 which he couldn’t even argue as he hasn’t warmed to GP at all in the time she’s been here. If we were to go again it would have to be with him taking the lead this time as the division of labour was so unequal it just added to the stress of it all.

At least our pet rats can come back into the living room and have some adult company again instead of being in the playroom with the kids. We didn’t dare let GP have sight or sniff of them, they’d be goners.

Bet you feel like to weight has lifted a bit now you’ve made a decision @GingerAndTheBiscuits. Good luck, hope the home check goes well. They sound like a lovely family too.

oh @GingerAndTheBiscuits I'm sorry to hear that, but it does sound like the right decision and a lovely family to go to.

I bet that's a weight off @GingerAndTheBiscuits I didn't know her background but totally makes sense she's stressed with just people. You can't carry on with something so stressful and you really threw your all at it. I've still got mild puppy regret and only because of how the labour is divided. It's very very hard and you have my sympathy. The air has been blue with my DH with a fraction of what you've dealt with

It’s not entirely DH’s fault as he’s working long hours out of the house in a new and demanding job, whereas I’m always here. But circumstances would need to be quite different if we were to ever do it again.

Thanks for the nice replies, I know it’s a controversial course of action. I’ve spent days flip flopping and justifying her staying it going, but think on balance this is probably the right one and as close to being a “good” solution as we will come across.

For good measure here she is being very cute next to me on the sofa after a walk and a swim this morning.

Anyway, back to the well behaved pups...

"Anyway, back to the well behaved pups... " itll be a very quiet thread if only well behaved pups are on!

Lol... not sure mine fulfils the well behaved brief all the time but can I ask a couple more questions? Sorry always seem to be asking questions....

Firstly about where your puppies sleep? Currently pistachiopup has a crate and a bed within a playpen in our kitchen/family room. This is fine for now but long term I think DH is hoping she'll sleep somewhere else. I'm not sure we'd trust her, or it would be safe for her, to be on her own in this room free to wander around - too much furniture and lots of pot plants to chew on! It also means the kitchen is out of bounds to everyone after 10.30pm which isn't really practical forever. I also don't want a play pen in my life forever ;-)

So I just wondered where people's puppies sleep and where you plan for them to sleep long term once they're older? And is this the same place they would be if/when they are able to be left on their own if everyone was out at the same time?

Second question is about food - still a stress point here. She's just not interested in kibble. We have some success feeding her bits at a time training. I have a little pot on my desk and give her a piece from time to time to reward her for being calm and lovely - sometimes she wants it; sometimes it gets rejected! But overall I do struggle to get her to eat the amount she's meant to each day.

Have tried 3 different kibbles now! Starting to wonder if I should give up and try something else. Does anyone else do raw feeding? One of my friends is trying to persuade me its the way to go. Just wondered if anyone else was doing that?

Thanks

@LBee2020

"Anyway, back to the well behaved pups... " itll be a very quiet thread if only well behaved pups are on!

It was said in hope rather than expectation