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!

A very sleepy AmigoPup has just gone and sat on Dd. No biting just snuggling on her lap. He’s been there 10 minutes. She is delighted. I’m sure it won’t happen again but it’s lovely seeing him being affectionate towards her!

@Makemedoit try not to worry or put too much pressure on yourself. I did that with old lady dog. She was a freaking nightmare and I think I maybe made myself feel worse because I had done all my research and read loads of books and stuff (similar to when I read Gina fucking Ford when I had DD, who was not a contented baby and that made me feel like the worst mother until DH threw the book in the bin!)
I am luckier this time, as my children are older (youngest now 11) so they can help. When we had old lady dog the eldest was only 5 so lord knows why I thought three children under 5, a husband who works stupid hours and a puppy would work! However, even now, with the children helping and DH here, I can still feel the stress of this little defenceless thing building and trying to watch them all the time. It’s a lot! Remember though, this too, will pass, and your puppy will get older and will settle

@Makemedoit huge sympathies. I have felt the same, regularly! Are there any good bits? Can you articulate what the worst parts are, maybe we could suggest some things to help? What’s your current set up with pup, there might be some easy fixes there (gates, puppy pens, etc)

Oh that's lovely @AmigoDog. We've just had similar at the park. At the end, with a worn out OwlPup and whilst I was chatting to another dog owner, pup went to sit (calmly) next to DS who was sitting on the floor and DS got a bit of a cuddle. He even said afterwards 'I want OwlPup to sit like that with me again, mummy' which shows how little it happens.

Had a very interesting interaction with a lovely 5 year old border collie at the park. OwlPup wants to play with every dog we meet. A fair few come up for a bit of a sniff but are fairly quickly put off by pup's exuberance and go off as soon as he jumps up at them. This collie very calmly put OwlPup in his place when he jumped up. Used his paw to pat him down, and OwlPup just sat down in front of him. This happened a few times until OwlPup was just playing calmly with him. Amazing. I've got a 1-1 trainer coming next week, but I now want to hire an older dog to teach pup how to behave around other dogs.

@Makemedoit I really hope things feel easier for you over the next few days.

Hope you enjoy your break @muckandnettles, sounds like muckypup is doing well.

@AmigoDog that pic is so lovely, we have exactly 1 picture of dpup and DD as he is the same as yours and just seems to go for her constantly. We tried before to get DD to sit stroking dpup while I gave lots of treats and clicked the calm behaviour. Seemed to work for a while and we need to keep it up as she is desperate to be best friends with him.

Feeling less woe is me today, trying to focus on dpups positives, he has cracked the crate training and has never had an accident in there which is a miracle as he drinks tonnes of water. He sleeps through the night brilliantly which I'm so grateful for after a DD who didn't sleep through till she was 3 I know how lack of sleep makes everything harder and feel for all of you not sleeping. It already seems like a months since I was sleeping on the sofa getting up 2-3 times a night, when though it was only a week.

Want to start doing some scent work with him to try and wear him out mentally, any tips of where to start?

We scatter her meals on the grass outside so she has to sniff it out (knew there was a reason we kept our grass uncut ), we have a snuffle mat and I do “find it” with treats outside. We also have one of the games from pets at home where you can hide treats and they have to lift up parts to find them. Not done much inside as trying to have the living room as a place just for lounging rather than playing. No idea what we’ll do when the weather is crap!

Also, kibble in toilet roll inners with the ends folder over mixed with some empty ones, so they have to find the ones with food in. Any cardboard box with kibble in goes down well here too.

@AmigoDog we use a spray bottle with smileypup when he bites the children, its been very effective and means i can stop him quickly if hes not in reach. He still loves water and the hose is his favourote thing in the world so i dont think he is traumatised. He hardly ever bites ot hangs off their clothes now.

He is 14 weeks today i cant believe weve had him for 6 weeks

@Makemedoit do you use a crate or playpen?

@GingerAndTheBiscuits those are great thanks, will give them a go when he's woken from his nap! Clearly my dh's inability to throw the empty toilet rolls away will pay off finally 😂

Our cardboard recycling is basically now a giant box of toys

Lol at the other houses also using card! I'm the same "STOP. I NEED THAT CARDBOARD FOR THE PUPPY!"

Hi all
Sorry for not joining the thread sooner. I had to get my head down and do some work whenever I had a moment. Oliverpup is very expensive and I am skint!
I have felt reassured reading the thread. We had a really good week last week. Oliverpup was really well behaved, biting reduced, zoomies reduced. Obviously I thought yay I've cracked it. This week has put me straight. His bites are more frequent and much harder. He really bites down now. Also, he just bites when he's passing you. So if you are sitting down, he'll nip your feet or legs. Aargh. Sleeping is also terrible. This last week, sleeping has been awful and I haven't been in my bed after 3am any day.
Last straw, during my carrying / walk in the park yesterday, I sat with him on a bench and he took off and chased a cyclist and then a runner. So embarrassing and stressful. I just sat in my bathroom and cried when I got home.
I'm glad I'm not alone (obviously I wish all our pups were angels) but I'm dreading September when I will be alone all day.
Just one question. I have been told not to play with Oliverpup all the time as he needs to get used to being alone. However, I have also been told that the reason he is so naughty is that I don't play with him enough. Any thoughts?

However, I have also been told that the reason he is so naughty is that I don't play with him enough. Any thoughts?

I think puppies are generally naughty as that is how they learn . But they do need to learn to be calm so I wouldn't play with them all the time particularly as that's how you end up with an over stimulated land shark.

I don't play with pup all the time. He's quite good at playing by himself if I get him interested in a toy first. So a few minutes of tug, or throwing a toy for him to chase and then either he takes the toy off to chew/play with on his own and I leave him to it, or I say 'finished' if I've been playing for a while. Also, I 'capture calm' as often as possible. I'm determined to have a calm dog.

Should add though, I'm currently always with him unless he's sleeping in his crate, I'm just not always fully interacting with him if you see what I mean. The only other time I'm not with him is when I occasionally give him a lickimat whilst I read a bedtime story to my DS for a quick ten minutes if he's not napping at bedtime. So I can't say for sure that he would entertain himself happily just yet if I left him alone.

Can you play with a puppy too much?! I guess when they get overtired. I play with juiceypup a lot til he gets bitey or humpy, then I stop.

I'm getting SICK TO DEATH of the random wees on my front door mat. At least once a day. Absolutely no warning he needs to go. Not after sleep/food/playing. Just wanders to the door and squats before I can jump up. YOU'RE 19 WEEKS OLD! Suss it out!

@OliveButler So sorry to hear things are so tough. How old is pup now? We were advised by our trainer to keep daytimes lowkey, because that is when I need to work. So do training/play/walks in the morning and evenings but otherwise let her mooch about so eventually she will learn to relax in the day. In reality she is out with the walkers twice a week so it doesn’t quite work out that way but she does have a big sleep when she gets back. I also tend to head out and do some play/training with her when I take a break. It’s hard at the moment as with summer hols the kids are always here as am I, even if I’m working. She spends quite a bit of time mooching in the garden, but no idea what we’ll go come autumn/winter when that’s less appealing! Hopefully she’ll have chilled a bit by then.

I know the advice on the dog training and support Facebook is to have tug toys all over the house so as soon as they bite, grab a tug toy and try to engage them in play until it’s out their system . I’m not sure how well that works as tug games wind GP into a frenzy so I’m keeping them for outside for now and limiting how much we do as it seems to trigger some of the more manic behaviour.

@Juiceey is this the mat that can’t be removed? Could it be covered with another doormat for a while? Maybe there’s lingering scent that’s triggering him?

@GingerAndTheBiscuits He's 15 weeks today. I agree it makes sense to make sure you are not available to play all the time as life isn't like that.
I am worried he will bite someone's face as I'm afraid that is DH's red line. I have tried the yelping, the turning your back, the time out. It's so frustrating!

If the biting has escalated, maybe try the tug toy each time so in the first instance you’re teaching him a correct way to play/get attention. Give that a week and if the biting lessens, and then move on to reducing play during the day?

Do you do “capturing calm” training, so treating pup whenever he is just chilling out? Kikopup has a video on it. There’s also a 30 treats task where you fill a pot with 30 of your pup’s favourites and make it your mission to find 30 instances of good behaviour throughout the day.

We made it through Task 1 of the Relaxation Protocol, out in the garden this time. Just one distraction to catch a passing fly She has napped on her bed and on the floor today as we’re trying really hard to break her love of the sofa because she was getting nippy with people sitting in “her” spot. Need to squeeze another decent walk in this evening and cross fingers for a good bedtime tonight 😬

Sorry if any of that is patronising. I’m fed up of people asking if we’ve “tried a crate” in response to our sleeping/separation issues so appreciate how annoying it is when someone suggests something you’ve already been trying!

Smileypup has spent the day in the pool with the kids he is now spread out asleep in his bed so hoping he will be calm whilst i cook dinner. DP is finally home tonight and DD is fully recovered so tomorrow we are off to a local country park on the hunt for some dogs to introduce him too, hes only met 2 other dogs since weve got him apart from his brother who he sees a cpuple of times a week.

[quote GingerAndTheBiscuits]@Juiceey is this the mat that can’t be removed? Could it be covered with another doormat for a while? Maybe there’s lingering scent that’s triggering him?[/quote]
Yes. We use the Simple Solution spray which is supposed to break down smells and prevent re-marking. He does it anywhere on the huge mat though, not just in one place. We covered it with a picnic blanket and he weed on that. Then we put down a waterproof sheet and he weed on that. It's basically just weeing next to the door. Honestly it's SO FRUSTRATING.

Aghhh! AmigoPup has diarrhoea . He wasn’t eating or drinking very well this morning and in the past 30 minutes has had several mini diarrhoea poos (sorry!) however since we managed to get him drinking water again (Mid morning) he’s been eating again and acting normally with good energetic levels. Should I be worried? He had quite a lot of cheese yesterday as we were out and I was attempting to keep him near me so it could be a sore tummy from that. And the heat....