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!

Oh @gingerAndTheBiscuits im so sorry

Oh @GingerAndTheBiscuits, so sorry, must be so hard for you all. I hope pup settles well with the new family when she gets there. Enjoy doing lovely things with your DC.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits

@grannycake I may well be pestering you for border tips! Luckily I can take her to work with me which is great and I'm going to be reading up loads before I get her. I'm planning on crating her, just deciding whether to put the crate in my lounge or the bedroom. Worrying about toilet training as I've never had a puppy before so have him idea if she will have even started learning by the time I get her.

@Dozycuntlaters There is a facebook puppy training group that I have found very helpful - it was recommended on here. www.facebook.com/groups/374160792599484/?multi_permalinks=3811457572203105

But ask away - although I am not an expert

@GingerAndTheBiscuits I can't imagine how hard that was for you especially, to say goodbye to GP. Glad you are doing things you couldn't before, though - that's a very good idea!

I'd also recommend the FB page Pandemic Puppy Raising and Support Group. It's from the US but they have some really knowledgeable people on there.

I’m being cheeky and joining in without reading, I apologise.

I’m 1 week in with 2 9 week old frenchies and I’m not doing well with their feeding amounts and timings, I’ve had vomiting from both today.

I’ve set a 7am, 1pm and 7pm alarm starting tomorrow to feed them and I’m training so I need to think about treats.

I’m stuck. How much dry food per day do they need minus trying treats.

Weight is between them 1.2kg and 1.5kg but that was 3 weeks go.

Their Final jabs are due next week so I can’t even take them to my local supplier to be weighed.

I look forward to reading back and joining in for the long haul

Gazingandgrazing what food do you have them on? Normally they will have their own guide as to how much you should feed them daily based on weight (or expected weight) and age.
Also, as they are only 9 weeks perhaps feeding them 4 times a day instead of three may help, are they getting too full in one sitting and vomiting?

Dragonpup is home. He’s slept a lot so I’m slightly concerned about bedtime

@HipHipHippo

Gazingandgrazing what food do you have them on? Normally they will have their own guide as to how much you should feed them daily based on weight (or expected weight) and age. Also, as they are only 9 weeks perhaps feeding them 4 times a day instead of three may help, are they getting too full in one sitting and vomiting?

Great advice, thank you

I’d love to feed raw, I rushed it

They are on waggs puppy, weighing, approx 1.5 to 2kg with ideal weight 20ish

Anyone else have a subtle wee er? Dragon pup wees in a sitting position so it just looks like he’s sitting (especially at night in the dark). It’s hard to praise when you’re going “was that a wee?”
On the plus side, all wees have been outside. 2 poos inside. One straight after coming in and one 15 mins after a wee this morning. I was making breakfast so thought he was being noisy due to that so totally my fault having my back to him prepping his food.

@GazingAndGrazing i agree try feeding 4 times a day, id also consider changing their food to a higher meat content kibble or if you really want to feed raw theres nothing stopping you gradually switching them over.

I have to admit i dont deduct kibble for treats. He eats 7am, 12pm and 5pm then a chew of some kind at 7pm.

Are they eating too fast? Has it just been since the heatwave?

Just jumping in as I’ve been reading as we have a 14wk lab x cocker spaniel. She eats very fast and has been sick (then eats it back ) several times. We try to slow her eating by putting half the kibble in a kong and putting a ball or toy bone on top of her food bowl. A trick we picked up off another site. It can be common we’ve been told as Labs are notorious for fast eating. Weve only fed 3x a day since 8wks based on breeders advice. But do give extra kibble for training, plus a tea spoon of peanut butter on a licki Mat if she’s going bonkers in mid afternoon/early evening as it calms her down. She’s very sweet licking us afterwards too instead of biting 🤣.
It’s been really helpful reading all your ups & downs. I think we’ve been quite luckily as after a couple of weeks she’s mostly sleeping in her crate 10.30pm-6am and has a couple of 1-2hr crate naps a day as we realised she was happier in there away from noisy kids etc during the day and she’s calmer as a result. Her crate is also in the coolest room in the house which has been good this last week when it’s been so hot.

I meant to have said we weighed the puppy by holding her and standing on the bathroom scales then taking away our weight. It gave us a good indication as we were struggling to work out how much to give her and she seems always hungry but the Vet has assured us she’s absolutely ok weight despite looking very slender it’s the cocker mix in her.

Hi All
Longtime lurker here, all the advice on the threads is so helpful. We have a 10 week old Labrador pup. Had him 2 weeks now. On the whole things have been going ok, I had a bout of the puppy blues last week, then felt much better after the weekend. however I’m really struggling again. It’s the biting that’s really getting to me. The general mouthing and initial play biting I can cope with but then pup seems to get more worked up and starts lunging and constantly goes for mine and kids heads. It’s really hard to get him to stop. I have had to pull pup off my DS multiple times and pup snaps and bites at me to get off him. Which is now making me really nervous.
Anyone got any advice how we can best play with pup to avoid this? Is this just him getting over excited?

Hi @ThePuppyDidIt

We have a lab puppy that is 13 weeks, and yes, he is fightey bitey when tired! We have a playpen with his bed in it, and we bring him in there the second it starts (well, I carry him outside for a wee, then straight into the pen.

He falls straight asleep if I catch him early, or he goes rockstar and trashed his bed/throws his toys around for 5 mins then falls asleep!

Once we cottoned on that is a 'I'm too tired' communication, he's been loads better!

Morning, the vomiting has stopped and poo’s are soft. I’ll follow your advice and feed 4 times from now on. They are on wagg puppy from the breeder. I might try their milk for the 4th night time feed

I also have. 9yr old staffy rescue who is post op after bladder stones - I have my hands full

@ThePuppyDidIt I've had a trainer come and talk to us about managing pup and DC as I was finding it very stressful. Trainer suggested keeping pup on a house line so I have more control over him when DS and him are together. I keep him a little away from DS to stop the jumping, treat pup if he stays calm near me, then DS can come and stroke him if all calm. It feels awful in a way, keeping them separate, but I need to nip it in the bud for fear of having a pup/dog that thinks it's ok to jump up at any child. DS has to be super calm if in the same room, if not he goes to play in the other room, and no playing/games between the two for now because it just leads to over excitement on both their parts. DS training pup is ok though if he stays calm. It's definitely helping. Although I keep hold of the lead when DS is around, I let it slack if pup is calm, and he's increasingly just waiting for DS to come to him rather than running to him. And it's certainly reduced my stress levels. Wish I'd done it sooner.

@TriSkiRun99 My DD has a 6 month old bulldog puppy and she has bought a slow feeder bowl which slows her down and stops her choking/vomiting

Juiceey any news on blood test results? Do you know what they are looking for?

@triskirun99 we feed our 5.5 month old lab with a kong wobbler as he made himself sick a couple of times (and re ate it). Its pretty loud when he smashes it around the kitchen but he loves it and it takes 3 minutes rather than 13 seconds to eat a meal!

Gazingandgrazing having looked at their website it seems that at 2 months old your pups should be eating 275g a day and going up to 450g at 3 months.
Having said that I would also suggest moving over to a more nutritional food. Our pup came to us with a poorly tum and after a week and a half of constantly chasing the vets we tackled it three fold.
The biggest change, I feel, came from changing his diet. He came to us eating Pedigree Puppy, which is just awful quality, and he's just a different dog now!

@HipHipHippo

Gazingandgrazing having looked at their website it seems that at 2 months old your pups should be eating 275g a day and going up to 450g at 3 months. Having said that I would also suggest moving over to a more nutritional food. Our pup came to us with a poorly tum and after a week and a half of constantly chasing the vets we tackled it three fold. The biggest change, I feel, came from changing his diet. He came to us eating Pedigree Puppy, which is just awful quality, and he's just a different dog now!

See, I had a look and thought it was 100g per day based on expected weight of 9kg?

I really want to move them on to forthglade wet but I need to settle their tummys

One has just vomited their breakfast, I think they are eating too fast

Bunglemom we have a sprocker - wcs x springer who is now 4.5 months. I second and third BiteyShark's recommendation to whistle train. When we are out on walks he gets his nose to the ground and will ignore most treats most of the time, my voice half the time, but the whistle has never ever failed me, even the other day when he was chasing a hare.

I've also decided that some things are harder for his breed and not essential. So for eg. walking to heel - at the moment he can't do that, he needs to have his nose down and zigzag just in front of me. The leash training I'm doing is all about getting him not to pull and keep the leash loose, and to look up at me regularly so that he doesn't get nose absorbed. He also gets lots and lots and lots of time off lead so he can do all the spanielly sniffing and zooming that he enjoys so much.