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!

Good luck river hope it goes all ok and the puppy travels well. We had 1.5hr drive and ours slept the whole way in her crate she was a dream.

Welcome river, am sure you will be fine! Best thing I can recommend (all of 3 days in) is enforce naps from day 1. Pups need something like 20 hrs sleep a day and if you don't put in a pen / crate / something they will just keep going and then get harder and harder work!

We had a good night here. Darcypup is getting the hang of his crate now and had some naps in it yesterday.. i moved things around so he can use both doors and get into it whether he is in his pen or not. As a result I was able to have him sleep in the crate last night. He had me up more but settled much quicker each time. I'll take that as a win as I got more sleep too
He is currently asleep at my feet after breakfast and a play this morning already.

Am attempting a casserole today in the slow cooker to have with roasties tonight- we should at least get some vegetables today rather than something I can quickly bung in the oven!

Has anyone tried the mesh type puppy gates ? We have open plan lounge and kitchen and was looking to separate the two to keep the puppy out of one area if needed. Didnt really want to put up solid stair gate types again. Have seen the fabric retractable gates and mesh ones you just put up with hooks but reviews are hit and miss. We have a crate and a pen to go around it already.

Dragonpup had a fab night 11pm to 6.55am (can’t believe that counts as a great night) followed by 2 wees and 3 massive poos all in the garden. We have a friend looking after him this afternoon as it’s dtds birthday party meeting friends in the park. We felt 2 hours would be too much got dragonpup.

Thank you for the millies wolfheart suggestion - dragonpup absolutely loves it! (And poo is back firm again)

Just picked up our new puppy, 8 week old lab. We have had a puppy before but he died at 9 months.
New pup ( reggie) was v nervous when first got here, has done wee and poo outside but is now growling and barking at all of us !
First pup never did this . Is wagging but if you stroke him bites a bit
Do we just leave him alone to settle do you think? Our first pup was just calm and quiet ! Think we’re going to get the full lab experience now !

Dragonpup pup is only just learning to bark at 10 weeks so I’ve not got any advice other than suggest the fb page - there’s a page with loads of units full of advice. It’s called Dog Training Advice and support. Once you’ve done the reading you can post questions.

I got the spade out of the shed to dig in the garden and our normally very quiet 16wk pup barked her head off at it. She really didn’t like me digging in the garden, I laid the space down for her sniff it and look at then picked up and she went bonkers again it was biazzare. I gave up digging after a few minutes. She did it a few weeks ago with the wheel barrow which I got that because it was big and shiny and after she’s sniffed around it she settled but the spade? I’ll have to do de-sensitivity work with the spade I think! My garden is going to weed at the moment as we did gate off the veg patch but I can’t seem to find a spare half hour to go weed it.

@FelicityBennett I hope new pup settles okay soon! He will be exhausted.

I have been inspired by someone I met dog walking to make my own dog treats. Anyone else tried making liver cake? It's really easy but involves blending raw liver, so not my favourite thing, but no nasty smells. We used to have liver when I was a child, but I have never cooked it myself. Mucky went crazy while I was making it, so he can smell it all right. I will report back on how it goes - the recipe promises your dog will love you for it!

@FelicityBennett

Just picked up our new puppy, 8 week old lab. We have had a puppy before but he died at 9 months. New pup ( reggie) was v nervous when first got here, has done wee and poo outside but is now growling and barking at all of us ! First pup never did this . Is wagging but if you stroke him bites a bit Do we just leave him alone to settle do you think? Our first pup was just calm and quiet ! Think we’re going to get the full lab experience now !

Bless him, he must be very disoriented. I would give him one Quiet room and a little den and leave him be. Don’t go to him, let him come to you.

Did the breeder give you a scent blanket? We put ours in his new crate which we covered in throws and left the door open and he slept for hours.

Thank you , we left him alone and he went in the crate ( eating his scented blanket!)
He seems a bit calmer , I think he was just freaked out .
Not as barky or growls. Think it might have been a misguided playing maybe ? Just felt a bit freaked out ( me ). Need to learn not to compare to old puppy, risk of rose tinted glasses probably !
Didn’t eat his lunch ( first for us with a lab!) but hopefully will have settled enough to eat his tea later

Aw look at that face!

Mine gets really bitey and naughty when he needs a nap or time out in a quiet space.

Oh look at him. Beautiful boy.

Hope all the new pups settle well.

@FelicityBennett what a gorgeous pup!

Hello all.
Well we picked riverpup up and she cried for a bit in the car and was desperate to get out the crate but then crashed. We took her in pets at home and got her collar and lead etc and she was fine.
Got her home and she did a wee then boys came back. So far pup seems to be ok but my youngest just cannot leave her alone and we keep telling him not to crowd her. I guess when she gets bitey it might put off my 7 year old. They are just so excited by her.
On the plus side my 13 year old has offered to sleep in the kitchen with her tonight, I feel wrong for agreeing with that. He is very sensible and we have gone through the rules. Will see how long that lasts though.
No poos yet. My husband has already blamed riverpup for letting one go when I am sure that it was him.
On the whole she is so far adorable but also just so busy when she isnt asleep. Will be interesting to see how she develops over the next few days.

Aw, @FelicityBennett what a gorgeous pup! I wouldn't worry, they do weird things when they're new and overwhelmed. Juiceypup spent his first day humping the heck out of us all despite breeder swearing he'd never done it before with her.

@Riverhousepuppy photos please!!

By the way, I'm the thread starter but name changed. I'll be making a new thread in a few days anyway.

@JuiceyBetty hello there name changer! Thank you for this thread and I can't believe it started as a June survival thread and soon to be September! This summer has been the summer of the lockdown puppy - definitely one to never repeat i hope.

Just one thing I want to tell everyone...Mucky has a harness where you can attach on the back or the front. I'd not really taken much notice of this until today when he was pulling too much and I tried attaching to the front. It was like magic!! Honestly, so much better - if you have one of those harnesses, do try it!

Hand hold needed for pup2 tonight who is on the way to the emergency vets.

He hasn’t been great all day and was watery sick a few times after playing and I worried because today was the first switch over day to raw feeding.

He was ok but sleepy and then 7pm ish he started to shiver uncontrollably. The breeder is a friend so I called her to pop over and she noticed straight away that his face was swollen

His off for a steroid shot, he is a frenchie so I need to be careful with his breathing. I can’t believe I actually cried, my teens were braver than me.

Hope he’s ok gazing , poor little pup
Our pup managed a bit of food and has been flat out for the last 2 hours so bed time looks not very hopeful 😂

@FelicityBennett

Hope he’s ok gazing , poor little pup Our pup managed a bit of food and has been flat out for the last 2 hours so bed time looks not very hopeful 😂

Thank you, you may be surprised and he pulls an all night sleep

Hopefully.... good luck

@GazingAndGrazing sorry to hear about your poor pup - hope he's okay soon.

Hope pup is ok grazing.

He is on his way home. I’d had 2 glasses of wine so I couldn’t drive luckily DD was around to take him.

He has had a piriton injection and I’ve spoken to the vet, he should be ok now, albeit a bit sleepy tomorrow.
Such a worry!!

Just reporting back on liver cake - Mucky loved it so much! The recipe made loads so I've frozen most of it in sort of bars I cut it into. The recipe was from Liana's kitchen and was mainly raw liver with one egg and some spelt flour. Dead easy.