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!

When I say before hand, I mean when he got used to sleeping in a crate in our house. Then at about 91/2 weeks it changed.

Hi!
We picked up our puppy yesterday - he is 13 weeks old.

He has been having very runny poops and I wondered if this was normal?
He hasn’t eaten that much although he seems totally healthy and is running around playing and hugging etc.

I am going to call up the vet tomorrow to arrange appointments etc but I wondered if anyone had any advice 🙂

@Makinganewthinghappen cute pup but sorry to hear not so well. I think the heat has affected them all to some extent and it's also not unusual to have a bit of an 'off' tummy with all the excitement and stress of a journey and a new place. Hope he feels better soon and just make sure he has plenty to drink, as you would with anyone with diarrhoea.

I’m so excited. Dragonpup is coming home with us tomorrow! I’m also completely terrified. I’m hoping my nerves will calm after surviving 24 hours He’s the golden one

So cute m0therofdragons

Aww what lovely new pups! Makinganewthinghappen hopefully it’s just the stress of moving to his new home made worse by the weather. Good plan to take him to the vets today though just to be on the safe side. Let us know how you get on.

My attempt to see if AmigoPup could last the whole night didn’t go well.
So I guess I have 3 options...

1. Leave him with the crate door slightly ajar so he has access to his pen with a puppy pad. Hopefully as time goes by he’ll stop needing to go altogether.
2. Keep trying to push his night time toilet trip further towards morning. We are currently at just before 5. If I keep with this he’s unlikely to want to go back to sleep after though.
3. Wake up at 3:30ish every night to take him out. This way he’s fairly likely to happily go back in the crate and back to sleep afterwards. I don’t want to be doing this come September as I’ll be back at work though.

Our trainer was supposed to be coming for a 1:1 today but it looks like it will have to be cancelled due to the weather. I’d been hoping to have a session with her every 10 days but this is the second that has been cancelled now. Oh well. Our puppy classes start this weekend so that’s something.

Hope everyone has a good day today.

Lovely new pups! Hope they settle well.

@AmigoDog could you go the other way and wake pup up earlier for the toilet, so he has the longer stretch after his wee. Then you'd hopefully avoid the risk of not going back to bed after an early morning toilet break? OwlPup was similar, lasted until 3 without a wee the first few nights, so I started pushing the time back by a little each night. But this was in June so was already light around 4ish and I thought we might have the same problem with not settling back to sleep. So I woke him around 10:30 for a few nights, so he had the long stretch of sleep afterwards. He generally looked at me with contempt at being woken up, mind, so I stopped after a few days and he slept through.

@Juiceey @BiteyShark

Hello!

He's a working cocker and absolutely gorgeous!!!!
😊💕
We collect him a week on Sunday so i will update the pictures then

Bunglemom we have a working cocker here. He is 4 in less than 2 months. Time flies as I posted about my woes on earlier puppy survival threads.

My tip beyond the usual stuff for WCS is nail the recall early and investigate gun dog trainers. You don't have to work them in the true sense but they are often a handful unless you know the breed (of course you may have had them before and apologies if so). Scentwork training was also really good for working his nose.

@BiteyShark

Ohh thanks for the tips!

We had spaniels when i was growing up but this is our first dog as a grown up lol!

ill take any advice that is given 😊

[quote Bunglemom]@BiteyShark

Ohh thanks for the tips!

We had spaniels when i was growing up but this is our first dog as a grown up lol!

ill take any advice that is given 😊[/quote]
In summary.

Get a gun dog trainer - the general trainers didn't really 'get' a WCS. E.g. most dogs food orientated and can be lured to walk nicely. Not a chance for a zig/zag cocker spaniel who would ignore steak when walking with nose to floor. I tried several puppy trainers and almost threw the towel in until I found a breed specific one.

Recall essential given their nose. Never let them get too far away as they are bred for close working and you have lost control if too far. Recall with whistle (acme ones are great for all dogs) as well as voice.

Don't exercise to tire them out (they just get fitter). One good run is fine then use training to tire them.

Engage on walks, don't let them hunt on their own. A gun dog trainer will help.

I tried agility as well as scentwork but the latter was like nectar to his nose and he bloody loved it.

As for general puppy advice then these threads are great as well as just support.

Tried Juiceypup with a new food this morning and he ate it- 'freshpet'. It comes in a refrigerated tube, got it from Ocado, it's 92% on allaboutdogfood so that's good. Fingers crossed he'll carry on eating!

@Juiceey that's good news - well done Juiceypup!

Oooh just found this thread, will read through it properly later but just wanted to say hello. I will be bring home my puppy September, I am getting a border terrier and am VERY excited. Driving to see her this weekend so really looking forward to meeting her.

Will be an avid reader as I am used to cats so a puppy will be a whole new entity for me. I've done research and have ordered some border terrier training books and am going to start puppy training pretty much straight away but think I am going to need some company along the way :)

Not 5 minutes after I posted, he threw it all back up, undigested. He had it at 8am. He's since been sick again, loads of bile.

Off to the vets at 5 for blood tests. I had hoped it was just fussiness because of the heat but it's been a full week now and he's not getting any better. Thank god for insurance!

(Although still have to pay up front then claim it back- lets hope Bought By Many are good at paying out quickly).

Juiceey can't remember if you have said or not but is there any chance he could have eaten something that is causing a blockage?

@Juiceey poor pup fingers crossed its nothing serious.

@bunglemom ours is a working cocker, he is 15wks now. Hes very clever so picks everything up quickly but he suffers with seperation anxiety terribly which i had read is a trait of cockers so my advice is get him used to being alone from day 1 even if its just for 10mins so you can shower in peace.

Smileypup disgraced us today on our walk, he was off lead and we came to a sign saying dont let dogs in the pond so i turned to call him to me to put in the lead and the little sod (who ALWAYS comes straight to me when called) ran passed me and dived in the pond, DP had to go in and retrieve him. He was very happy with himself and wasnt the least bit fussed about the 2 very annoyed humans who kept telling him off he chose to go with the small humans opinion that he was very funny especially when he shook himself off all over them.

@BiteyShark

Juiceey can't remember if you have said or not but is there any chance he could have eaten something that is causing a blockage?

We watch him carefully on walks, he's always on the lead, so I don't think so. But who knows? Was at vets last Friday who examined him and wasn't worried. However it's been a week now so getting the blood tests today.

Oh Smileypup!!

Hope the blood tests help figure out what's going on @Juiceey.

@Dozycuntlaters Grannypup is a border terrier and she has been with us for nearly 2 weeks. She's absolutely adorable (most of the time) and I'm sure you will love yours. We are off to the vet this evening for her second jabs. This was her last week

@Juiceey Push the vet a little harder on this. We had a springer puppy who managed to get a bit of a rubber dog pull stuck - obviously we didn't know this at the time. He needed an op and then was really ill for a while. This was 30 years ago and the bill even then was frightening. Luckily it was Christmas time and my DH's dog mad aunt was staying and covered all costs

Aaaw @grannycake she's gorgeous! Can't wait to meet my little girl, just love borders, they have such lovely little natures

@dozycuntlaters She's my first border and I lover her to bits. She is really eager to please as well. I lost my Jack Russell earlier this year and and although I also lover her to bits she was the very opposite of eager to please - she really couldn't care less whether we approved of whatever she was doing

Sorry to hear about pup @Juiceey it must be very worrying.

Our pup went back to foster with the rescue yesterday prior to going to her new family. Fortunately she is surrounded by dogs there (16!!!) so has settled well by all accounts. I’m not sure how she’s going to fare going on to a dog-free house afterwards but despite us putting forward a last minute alternative home for assessment (who had dogs, who has met pup and spent a lot of time with her) the rescue declined to assess. Just crossing everything that it works out for her. It was the saddest day and I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much except for deaths in the family. It was awful to come home to her not being here. DDs were very upset yesterday but so far today seem okay, we have made a point of doing things we hadn’t been able to do with pup here (park with friends, ice cream shop, lego in the living room) which has distracted them. Give all your pups an extra squeeze from me!