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!

We have had a good day, well I have, I had a lie in and let DH do the morning routine it’s very rainy here so we are pad training (turned 9 weeks yesterday so still very early days)

I also have shadows who are waiting to be fed, cuddled or given a treat.

The baby teething rings and dummies arrived today, that was such a great tip.

Currently having a nap!

Walks are going well here, we've been on lots of off-lead walks and DPup has been great, his recall is good!

However, he doesn't want to walk from our house. If we take him somewhere in the car to walk he's full of beans, but try and get him to walk from our front gate and he just digs his heels in. We have to carry him to the end of the street before he'll walk by himself 🤣

We think it's because he just loves all his family, he doesn't like leaving anyone behind in the house!

Torrential rain on and off today here. Took grannypup to Go Outdoors as they allow dogs. Lots of fuss from customers and staff. She's still not allowed out so we carried her in a sling. She's slept all afternoon and is now playing with DH

Two nights in and dragon pup woke 4 times night one and twice last night but 6.30am was play time yesterday and it was 5.30am today. Toilet training was going well but Dc came home today from grandparents and he got over excited and weed 2 times in the house. No idea how to solve the issue but dc talk over each other so much dpup can’t hear their commands.

That's exactly our problem @marmite51 ! We have to carry him from the house to the end of the road, then he walks to the park, around it and back home really nicely!

Can I jump in with a toilet training question please?
Ours is 20 weeks and clean in the house (they came from breeder later and already toilet trained).

We're letting out regularly after naps, food etc and have been watching for signals that they want the toilet but there's nothing. The couple of accidents have been with no warning other than maybe not staying outside quite long enough once.

We can carry on doing what we're doing but I'd like us to reach the point where they're asking to go out really.
I don't know where to start with this because my other dog has always been very expressive when they need the toilet.

@vagshapedbox I’m sure someone experienced will come along as I’m only on day 4 of being a dog owner. Lots of friends told us to use bells and train puppy to ring them when he wants top toilet. I was very dubious but have read lots of success stories. Dpup is already ringing them but I’m pretty sure it’s just a fun game where he rings them to go outside and play rather than toilet although he did ring them immediately after we came in this morning so I took him back out thinking he was just being cheeky but then he pooed. I’m amazed. He’s 8 weeks old so early days but looking positive. (We had a few accidents last night after a great day but he met dc and became totally over stimulated. This morning was perfect because at 5am it was just him and me!

Sorry for the autocorrects... been up since 5am

Our dog had a really poor signal for going out and we often missed it as a puppy.

We tried the training bells and within a day he worked out that bashing them would get us to open the door (for toileting and general mooching about). We used them for several weeks but then removed them as he then knew he needed to let us know but we didn't want to be reliant on having bells. Now he sits, then he scrapes at the wall and if that doesn't get our attention he woofs.

Any advice with regards with night time routine and toileting? We brought our little one home yesterday and it's really hard to tell when she needs a wee or is just sitting so we've missed it a few times as happens so quickly luckily it's just the kitchen floor! Last night she went in her crate but woke ever hour during the night and so my dh took her outside. My question is if she goes during the night outside do we still treat her? Obviously we do during the day and make a big fuss but want to keep her calmer at night time but want her to get the hang of toileting!!

I wouldn’t make a big fuss at night-just use your command word-we say “get busy” and back in her crate.

I am at a loss during training though as she gets so blinking excited with the treats that she loses her mind and just keeps jumping up and snapping at my hands like a crocodile! Any tips for that? Maybe I should try a trainer?

@Dickorydockwhatthe we’re not “treating” toileting, just heaping on praise. First night was every hour and a half, second night we were up 3 times and last night (3rd night) we were up one time and dpup slept for 5.5 hours then 1 hour before getting up at 5.30am. Clearly that’s a bit early but after 3 nights it’s progressing so we’re getting more sleep before his 5.30am day starts. We have bells hanging from the back door handle and we jingle them before going out. Yesterday evening dpup started jingling them to ask to go out (not necessarily go toilet as sometimes he just seems to fancy a garden run around).
Clearly only 3 days in but following great advice from this thread and friends with dogs and we’re doing okay.

Oh and minimal praise at night, just wee, a quiet “good boy” then back to bed.

Thanks @m0therofdragons and @BiteyShark
We do have bells (and I probably sound really thick) but I'm struggling to train them to make the connection between ringing the bells and needing to go out.
We sit them in front and someone rings the bell but we haven't got past it being prompted by us.

I feel like there's some sort of block here for me whereas I feel really confident with most aspects of dog training/ownership. 😄

I bashed the bell and took him out. Then a got him to touch the bell by luring him with a treat and then took him out. Did this a few times and he got close to them so again would try and encourage him to bash them before taking him out. Even if I was going out I would bash them and open the door.

I love the toilet bell idea and I can see that when we have bad weather and the doorniant open all the time we might need that. Mind you, Muckypup seems to have a huge bladder! Yesterday the menfolk in my house forgot to feed Mucky at lunchtime. I came home at 4pm and just happened to ask what he had for lunch...honestly! Fortunately Mucky is in no danger of wasting away, so no real harm done I suppose. Poor pup though!

Dpup won’t go outside without us yet even though the door is open. It’s really helpful as we can be clear when he’s done a wee and praise him. We ring the bells that dangle from the door handle every time we go out so bells then outside. He’s not linked it to toileting as I said but he knows how to communicate he wants to go outside so that’s a good building block.

Thank you everyone sorry I have so many questions!! Also if crate training where does your puppy sleep during the day? She has been in her crate all night, then went in her crate by herself for a 2 hour nap but now then she sleeps outside her crate or best of all in our feet. Should we move her to her everytime she falls asleep during the day or let her be?

Personally I wouldn't move them if they're asleep. For us, the crate training was to get them used to it so when they were put in there they were comfortable. We didn't always use it when we were home apart from at night.

Others may well use crates differently though.

I let them sleep where they land and if that’s no convenient I do pop them in their crate but with the door open.

We only use the crate at night. In the day he’s in a play pen but I’ve left the door open except one occasion when he was completely over excited and being too mad and bitey with dc. We tried distracting him but that didn’t work. If he leaves his pen and sleeps outside it then I’m not worried but he seems to like the pen with his bed, few toys and food and water.

Juiceypup has bells and rings them to go out for a poo, and annoyingly, just to play. He doesn't ring them for wees which is infuriating, he just goes to the door and wees before I can jump up and take him out.

I felt positively MURDEROUS last night after we went up to bed as normal. Did his usual night time wee, went up to bed, we all got into bed as normal... and he climbed on the bed as usual... and PEED! What the fuck?! He rarely pees upstairs (very very occasionally by the door in middle of night) let alone on the bed that he sleeps on every night. He'd just been out for his night time wee too.

I still feel really cross about it. 11 weeks we've had him and he chooses now to randomly piss on the bed.

Mine had a couple of random pees when I thought we had fully cracked toilet training.

Once he came in from the garden and peeded on a rug. The second he just stood in the corridor, looked at me and peeded although he had been in the vets for several days so I assumed he had just got confused. I did a back to basics each time for a couple of weeks, taking him out all the time and praising like mad.

@MrsElijahMikaelson1 we are doing a puppy school - has only a few things that we'd not learnt from watching videos, but at £60 for 6 weeks we think it's a bargain! The best thing is being shown how to let the puppies play and how to intervene if it's going wrong! Trainer also answers any questions we have...

And I'm not even going to get started on the toilet training!