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!

@marmite51 I am going to be in that position with work soon too. Will sort it so there is someone around most of the time every day but I know I will worry about the puppy when I am out (I work school hours so not super long days)

@OliveButler Aww thanks! We are spending a lot of time outside the house. I occasionally find DD9 curled up in the last remaining dog bed that I keep forgetting to put away having a little cry. But overall we are okay, rediscovering a bit of freedom. GP has obviously settled beautifully in foster with the other dogs, sleeping in the kitchen without a fuss after the second night 🙄 She is heading off to her new home this week so hopefully the time in foster has broken some of those bad habits we created and she’ll settle quickly (and not miss being with all the dogs!). I veer between “never, ever again” and looking at rescue pages for older dogs 😬 I do love hearing about everyone’s pups’ progress though!

How's everyone's puppy sleeping are you crate training? We are 3 days in and tonight is the worst she really is crying and I'm trying so hard not to break 😔. She is in the kitchen and dh has been sleeping next to her. I love her dearly but almost wondering what the hell have we done its so much harder then I thought. She is waking every hour practically. Ideally we need to crate train her as dh is working from home until next year and she chews everything so she can't be left alone. I think we may have given her too many sleepy cuddles today 😞

Oh an today she has been really biting me and the kids mainly our clothing she loves anything that dangles and trouser legs. I tried to walk away and ignore her but its very hard to when shes hanging on to your trouser leg.

@OliveButler just caught up with the thread this morning - so sorry to hear about Olivepup, that's so upsetting for you. I hope you hear some good news today and pup is home soon. Big hugs to pup.

Thinking of you and OlivePup today.

@Olivepup - hope you get good news today and that puppy makes a speedy recovery. I hope you managed to get some sleep.

Sweetestpuppy went to his first puppy training class last night. I don't think he'll be graduating top of the class, shall we say :)Too many treats during the class and the excitement of being with other puppies resulted in some puppy vomit later. Think we need to reduce the treats and increase the praise. We've ordered a clicker as everyone else there was using one and the trainer recommended them. It's a big learning curve, isn't it?

Supportive thoughts to all who need them today. We all have good and bad days.

OliveButler Sorry to hear about olivepup. What a worry. I’m sure he’s in great hands though. Unfortunately this sort of thing is so common but that does mean that vets have a lot of experience in sorting it out too.

Thinking of you - we had a pup go through this years ago and he pulled through after an operation

Good morning. Thanks for all your good wishes.
The vet called at 1am. They may be able to grab the blockage using an endoscope but wanted Olivepup to de-stress and settle a bit. It is a relief that it isn't an emergency and he doesn't necessarily need an op.
The blood tests they ran showed a low red blood cell count and that's a little bit worrying but they will repeat this again in the morning.
The vet described Olivepup as a 'timid dog' which most definitely isn't the case at all so he's obviously feeling totally out of sorts.
I guess more waiting today.
Thanks again for the hand holding and support. I will update when I know something. Hope everyone has a great day.

That would be so good if they can avoid opening him up. Fingers crossed 🤞

Sorry for getting your name wrong, @OliveButler. It's that classic thing of referring to someone by the pup they own

Very glad it sounds as if you can avoid an operation.

@Dickorydockwhatthe

Oh an today she has been really biting me and the kids mainly our clothing she loves anything that dangles and trouser legs. I tried to walk away and ignore her but its very hard to when shes hanging on to your trouser leg.

We are going through the same thing. All the ways people suggest to help do not help! I walk away with him still biting me 😬

@Dickorydockwhatthe have you tried making a dangly clothing toy that she can grab instead? I made a 6 foot long thing by plaiting cut up old clothes so that pup could latch onto that instead. (It also makes a good toy for tugging and pulling if you want, though I decided in the end it might be encouraging grabbing at clothes too much if we did that. It just got us over the worst of the grabby biting stage).

Also, put pup on a house line, just a cheap light lead from Poundland or somewhere to attach to her collar inside. It just gives a bit more control for the worst times so you can pull her off someone or yourself. We only did that a handful of times for a short time for Muckypup to get the message about jumping up at the table, for example.

Hello everyone, I am joining you all with our new pup. We bought him home on Monday when he was 8 weeks old and I definitely need to talk to some other puppy owners!
He is a gorgeous Labrador x golden retriever and today he has suddenly remembered that he is meant to chew stuff! I tho that I was prepared but he seems to chew things that I didn’t even think he could chew like bolts on garden furniture....
Also those of you with kids, did you feel when you bff it’s bought your puppy home that you were neglecting your children a bit? I’m struggling with this horrible guilty feeling that I can’t quite handle the puppy and the kids at the same time at the moment. Does this go away????

Thank you everyone for the advice 😊 I will definitely try those things and nice to know it's all normal. So sorry Olivebutler I've only just had the chance to read the whole thread I hope pup is OK. Welcome chocolate we on now on day 4 definitely harder then expected lol

@Chocolateandamaretto how old are you'd DC? Mine is 10 and he's just had to be second best for a while!

Sending OlivePup lots of love today xx

That sounds hopeful @OliveButler, keep us posted.

@Chocolateandamaretto, yes, my DS7 has been massively neglected for 11 weeks now! Do you have a crate? I think it's the best way with young kids. Whilst pup naps in the crate, I can spend that time with DS. Owlpup is 19 weeks today, been with us 11 weeks. Things are getting easier now, we time trips out with Owlpup's nap times, and we were leaving him napping in his crate for 2 hours after about 5 weeks (once he could go out, a good half hour run around in the park would mean a solid 2-3 hour sleep when we got home). And we've extended that to 3-4 hours now and he seems fine when we get back. It's been a difficult summer for DS though, really restrictive for him. Good luck, just remember, it doesn't last forever, I feel like we're through the worst of it.

olivebutler paws crossed here for you

Just catching up on the thread. Hope your pup is better soon @OliveButler.

@Juiceey @OwlInAnOakTree my youngest is 4, middle is 6 and my oldest is 10. They all love him and want to play and help so part of the problem is they all crowd in and get on top of each other. I can do one child at a time with him ok but as soon as they’re all involved it descends into chaos.
We do have a child gate at the bottom of the stairs so they are currently spending a lot of time in their rooms which I feel quite bad about. I think it will be easier when they are back at school.
Also I’m not house proud but I’m not getting anything done in the house at all!

@Chocolateandamaretto my pup is a golden retriever and as he is now nearly 6 months I might have some advice if you need any! My main advice would be to be prepared for the biting as goldens are mouthy and really hurt while they have their puppy teeth. I've had some really nasty bites that have drawn blood, so be careful with the dc around him if he is anything like that. As I've said upthread, a house lead is really useful.

Thanks @muckandnettles, he seems to have remembered he likes to chew today so I am watching out for biting. He likes dressing gowns/dresses/anything a bit dangly especially so I quite like your suggestion of an old clothes toy to distract him.

I'd second muckandnettles suggestion of using a houseline @Chocolateandamaretto. I've been doing it now for a few weeks when DS and pup are together but I wish I'd done it immediately. If your pup and DC are anything like mine, it won't take long for them to be overexciting each other causing pup to jump up and nip and hang off their clothes. I reckon I could've nippped much of that behaviour in the bud if I'd used a houseline from day one. But I do have a particularly bouncy and very fast growing border collie and a very high-energy impossible-to-do-anything-calmly-or-quietly child...maybe your pup and DC are different from mine...?

@OliveButler glad olivepup doesnt need an op fingers crossed he is home with you soon.

@Chocolateandamaretto my children are 2yrs, 3yrs and 5yrs i try to involve them as much as i can with smileypup so dsis in charge of making sure smileypup has fresh water and the girls are in charge of feeding him ( obviously led by me) in the early days of smileypup coming home the kids were left to go feral but 8 weeks in and i feel like weve got a decent balance now.

I have a bored puppy this afternoon, we went for a walk this morning to his favourite place where he got to play with lots of dogs and run around like a lunatic with dc, came home had a nap and has been attention seeking ever since. Its raining so hes stuck inside (because he hates rain) and he is used to being in the garden with the kids most of the day. He has emptied his toy box but doesnt fancy playing with anything in it (he actually huffed when he got to the bottom), he doesnt want any of his chews, he went and collected them all up and dumped them in his crate but he doesnt fancy chewing any of them apparently. Kids are all occupying themselves in the playroom so he keeps looking through the babygate at them mournfully and whimpering, i gave him his kong tyre with peanut butter in and he just gave it a halfhearted lick and went back to the babygate. Every so often he does something lick chew a table leg whilst looking at me so i tell him off, he has a mad 5mins then resumes playroom watch.

Just ordered him a new yakk chew as we seem to have lost the last one and that was his favourite. Still cant bring myself to order pizzle sticks but has anyone given their puppys cow tails?