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!

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth we haven't tried cow's tails, but we have found that cow's ears are quite a success. They are less fatty than pig's ears apparently and smell innocuous. I bought mine from Millies Wolfheart.

Ok, I will do a bit of googling about a house line later. My 6 year old in particular is definitely of the “impossible to do anything quietly and calmly” variety!

If you look on YouTube for McCann dog training, they have a week by week puppy essentials video and the houseline is one of the first things they say on there.

@muckandnettles ill have a look for cows ears also going to look at lickimats hes sleeping less now so needing more entertainment

You are all very brave doing it with little ones. My 4 children are between 20 and 10. They have been really helpful and know to leave him alone if he is having a naughty 10 mins ! Anyone else think their marriage might not survive puppy training 😬 😅

I'm so fed up tonight. Puppy class went so badly I had to grab Mucky and march him out halfway through and go home early. I can't face going again and I don't know why Mucky was so badly behaved but he was awful. I feel a complete failure and it just wasn't funny. Couldn't get out quickly enough!

@muckandnettles is it just that he isnt clicking with that particular group? Would he be better with 121 training for a bit?

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth that's part of it, I think, and also the fact that it is 6.30pm, which is just not a good time somehow at the end of the day. I'm making excuses now. I think I'll do my best to implement some of the things we have gone over and then get 121 training if I feel there are still big things going wrong.

6.30pm is the start of bedtime here and smileypup starts to settle down in his crate for an hours nap if he misses it hes unbearable for the rest of the evening so im not surprised muckypup isnt up for training at that time

Hope to hear that OlivePup is soon better. What a worry for you :-(

I agree, 6.30 would be really tough for us. We joke that the witching period starts a 6pm - he needs to nap but doesn’t want to. It’s definitely the hardest part of the day

@muck What type of behaviour does he display at puppy school? What size group is it? Is it inside or outside?

@muckandnettles sorry to hear it, you must feel really stressed out. I'd find a better timed class- we wasted £150 on the first classes which were completely the wrong time. We're now doing classes at 115 on Sunday which works LOADS better. Good luck.

Thank you so much for your supportive comments, you lot - I do feel a bit better about it now. I just could only find that one class and I didn't really think through the timing. There's a class after ours as well, starting 7.30! Mucky is just so excited to be out of his routine, surrounded by other dogs and one of them he especially hit it off with at first sight - just a total bromance as soon as they saw each other! But puppy school isn't a play date, it's sitting and listening and staying on your mat. The smaller dogs fit on their mats easily but my great hefty pup looks like a polar bear trying to sit on a table mat. It's not helped by everyone wearing masks and Mucky has never seen me wear one before. Nightmare all round.

@LBee it's inside a sort of scout hut type place, 4 pups with owners, 6 one week. Mucky just won't do anything right basically, won't look at me, won't walk, barks a sort of ear piercing excited 'yiiip!!' every so often, startes biting my arm, jumped up and tried to hump me, just made me look completely useless. It's been worse each week...

Mine was like that at classes. I tried several and when I found a trainer for my breed and told her how he was she laughed and said he was clearly bored

@Biteyshark thank you!

If it’s any consolation my DH has found puppy classes a waste of time & money. We’ve learnt far more off you-tube and FB groups. He’s Been really disappointed lots of being talked at with dogs expected to sit quietly at owners feet for 45mins virtually zero actual doing stuff. It’s also 6pm which isn’t a great time either but he’s started walking her off lead on a big common afterwards so gives her lots of treats in return for her favourite walk after being droned at. It’s not helped by the fact we know the trainer in another context so he feels obligated to keep going but last class next week thankfully. Sounds like you’d be better with a breed specific trainer muckypup I used to have similar experiences with toddler groups my youngest DD didn’t do certain times of the day so we didn’t go... it was a lot less stressful!

What age and how long are your pups sleeping right now? I feel dragon pup is doing well but he is struggling to stay awake at 9pm but I’m scared he’ll be up at 4am if we put in to bed. He usually naps 9-9.45pm then plays until 10.45pm

Puppy - 9 weeks old

Bedtime 10.45pm
Wee wake up - 5.15am
Morning starts - 6.45am

Our puppy is nearly 16wks she tends to doze from 8pm-10pm in the kitchen then goes in her crate 10pm till 6am now. Occasionally she goes till 6.30am but not always.
At 8-11wks she’s was 10.30pm-5am in crate then up for wee then a lap doze on us on sofa till 6.30am. She gradually started going longer about 12wks.

Dpup isn’t a sleepy cuddler - he loves to flop about on his bed or on the floor by the sofa. I think he likes us nearby but not massively bothered. We’ve brought him onto the sofa but he rarely settles and jumps down to sleep on the floor. I guess he’s not a snuggler... although he likes sleeping on dh’s feet sometimes.

@TriSkiRun99 that does make me feel better! It is a lot of listening for a cross pup to do in the evening when he normally just mooches about. I'm bored listening to the trainer to be honest and like you and your dh feel I've learned far more from videos etc. I think I had high hopes for the class and it's maybe simply not the right thing for Mucky.

@m0therofdragons OwlPup is in bed around 8:30 every night, he wakes up when he hears DS in the morning which is around 6:30. On the first night, he fell asleep on the floor around 8, so I put him in the crate at 9, so I've just stuck with that. He also has about 6 hours of naps through the day.

There's no way OwlPup would cope with a 6:30 class either @muckandnettles. Nor me, to be honest.

Any news @OliveButler?

AmigoPup will be 13 weeks on Saturday. He’s going to bed at 10:30ish and waking at 6. Until last week he needed a loo break in the middle but that seems to have passed now. He’s more lively when he wakes than he used to be but still has a nap after about an hour - if that.

Day 1 on butternutbox was a success. AmigoPup wolfed down the wet food first and seems interested in feeding times for the first time. We are going to split his meals into 4 rather than 3 now because I think he was struggling with hanger round about 5pm.

Pup and Dd generally have a better relationship now. There is still biting, but The gaps between nippy behaviour are getting longer.

AmigoPup has discovered humping. juiceey I think you have experience of this?. At the moment it’s just his toy lamb and he can be distracted. Not sure how much I should allow!