Puppy survival thread *September!*

[JuiceyBetty]

Can't believe we're in September now, our babies are growing up!

Newbies always welcome especially if they come bearing photos....

@MagentaRocks how old is your pup? Bunglepup is 11 weeks on sunday and he is a cocker spaniel so defiantly not stupid 🤣

How did you manage the nights? Was your pup crated or not?

Oh bless you bungle your pup is certainly testing you, I’ll join you on the gin if you don’t mind.

The boys have been mental today and I’m not well.

@GazingAndGrazing

The more the merrier! you are most welcome to my mad house!🤣🤣🤣

Great news River for some sleep and a settled tummy. Hope your day is going well. Sorry bunlglemom that yours was not so sleep inclined. I can't advise on the escapology at all - fortunately that's not yet an issue here.

I'm having an ok day. I've managed much better sleep for the past couple of nights so I'm not feeling quite so close to the edge of a breakdown. But I'm trying myself in knots over what our routine with pup needs to look like. The past couple of days he's napped well meaning we've had 90 mins/2 hours ish of awake time at a time. He's 11 1/2 weeks old now. What should I be filling that 90 minutes/2 hours with? I feel like most of the time I'm just hovering to put him outside to pee, or watching him outside waiting for a pee (which is fine while the weather's good but won't last). Obviously meals are in there - he's still on 4 a day but I think I'm meant to drop that to 3 soon and I don't know when/how. We do a bit of training before he eats (I need to get ideas there too but not worried about that yet), lots of play when not eating or peeing. If I leave him be he tends to start attacking stuff in the garden but if we keep playing too long he gets either bored or overexcited. I can see when he seems to be getting tired but he doesn't seem to be able to settle himself so we tend to end up cuddling him and doing a bit of grooming or something to help him fall back to sleep.

It basically just feels like I'm trying to avoid toilet accidents and distract him until the next nap. Then a couple of hours later it all starts again. There must be more to life!!

All advice gratefully received.

I also think we need to extend our treat and chew repertoire - what have other pups enjoyed at 11/12 weeks?

@LittlePoot so what riverpup is doing is sort of pottering around. I leave backdoor open so she can go in and out of the garden but then I am in the kitchen working so she cant go further into the house. She has a section of the garden by the back door so cant access all the garden but can play in this bit, then the main garden is much more fun. She plays with toys and then in between work bits I play with her then she gets all bitey and tired again. I normally try like 5 minutes of training too. I also am deliberately trying not to entertain her all the time cos I think she could end up expecting that.
Took her to my mums today and any semblance of recall completely went.
She is 11 weeks tomorrow.
I feel that i should be trying to leave her in the house for 5 minutes by herself but I am so terrified of dognappers. We had a random person knock on our door today asking to buy our caravan. I asked for contact details but when I searched them later I couldnt find any trace on google of them so worried they were chalking our house :-( Is anybody else paranoid like this, I know logically it is unlikely but I still worry. The news worries me.

Should add the downside is the kitchen is cold all day because if the door open. I am soon going to try keeping the door ajar to watch for her to ask to go out.
Also when the boys get home from school or dh from work she gets frenzied then

@Riverhousepuppy - I don't think ours would ask to go out! Again today he came in for a wee on the floor before coming back outside again. D'oh! I cannot wait until toilet training is working! I think that's the bit that's killing me really - the having to be so watchful all of the time. Makes sense to give them some pottering time too - I'm doing that right now! Although he's given up pottering and come to sit next to me, but that's fine for now.

I'm not planning to try and leave him alone just yet. He's had odd moments alone but otherwise one of us has been in view. But I do worry if that's not the right approach. There's guidance both ways isn't there. We have a trainer coming next Wednesday who I'm hoping can fix me things .

Today's success was discovering that cooked chicken is so good he forgot to bite on the lead for the two minutes I had him on there! We'll try again every day until he can go for first walk on Sunday to see if we can get him moving. He just wants to attack and eat everything he finds though - walking anywhere is going to be tricky I think.

And yes - also paranoid about dognappers.

I’m also very paranoid at the moment.

little Cheese! My boys will do anything for cheese and I grate it then crumble it so it’s a tiny bit that lasts for ages.

Save your empty bottles and plastics let him play with them with different textures in to make noise with. I even balled up a big wrap of tin foil to make a new ball, they liked that.

I buy cat toys as they tend to rattle or buzz . Favourites ARE A MOUSE THAT SHOTS ACROSS THE FLOOR WHEN YOU PULL ITS TAIL, THAT WAS FROM Asda (sorry about the caps, I’m too tired to correct it)

And a stick with elastic on the end with bells on from pound land. And bubbles, they love chasing bubbles.

I let them chew the trees and woodwork in the garden, I need some peace.

I’ve given up teaching mat, they kept pee’ing on it

I’ve decided to make my own treats so I’m investigating that one.

I was really naughty today, I don’t feel well, so much so I’ve had to call in sick. At 1pm I took the boys up to my room and let them nap with me for an hour. Their never going to sleep in their crate again are they??

I’m currently sat with the pups asleep, youtube on the TV playing thunder and lighten ending noises -

Your day sounds sort of nice @GazingAndGrazing apart from the being sick part. So many times I have almost let riverpup on the sofa or bed but trying to resist.
Riverpup has special poo and wee treats which she gets if we catch her doing her "business" as we call it. Worth a try maybe @LittlePoot We did them religiously for first couple of days.she has still pooped and peed in the house but trying to reward when we do catch her outside doing it.
Defo doing youtube fireworks in a bit.
I made liver cake for her yesterday which was grim but she had the tiniest treat cos of tummy but loved it.
8oz yucky liver
4oz wholemeal flower
2 eggs
Chopped garlic clove
Blend
Try not to look
Spread on greased baking tray
Bake on fan 160 for 30ish minutes
Then cut into tiny bits and freeze or put in fridge. Made loads although it turned my stomach.
Have decided to follow grazings approach on high value treats for walks too. We can go out on Saturday.
Hate the paranoia :-(

@Bunglemom he is just over 14 weeks. We have been lucky with night times. After the first couple of weeks we didn’t need to get up. We have a crate and a pen around it. We don’t shut the door on the crate so I can wander into the pen if he wants but he doesn’t usually do that. We only keep the pen now for time outs so won’t be using it much longer.

I can empathise with so many of these posts. I adore my puppy but it has been so nice to go back to work and not worry about him. He has still only been left alone for 20 min blocks and still cries the whole time. Would like to be able to leave him for an hour eventually ! I really need a decent block of sleep too. He had his first trip to the beach today which was very exciting.

I toyed with the idea of leaving pups whilst I picked up my daughter normally 30 minutes there and back. Thank goodness I didn’t, the traffic was awful and took well over an hour - I even had to stop for a wee and water break for them (and let them watch all the emergency vehicles whizz by with light and sirens on.

I think I would have had a nervous breakdown if I’d left them at home and I’ve already had a calms today

@Bunglemom - we were advised by the breeder that we should crate the dog and stop feeding before 8. Then put the dog to bed at night and do not go near her until the morning. DH gets up early so we let her out at 6.30 to 6.45 a.m. and she goes to sleep in kitchen until we arrive down at 7.15.

It was hell the first 3 nights and I wanted to give in, but we have a large crate with room for comfy bed, a place for poo and wee (puppy pad) and place for toys. She now sleeps through, goes for a poo some nights, but no more barking. I hope once she is toilet trained (whenever that is) that she can just sleep in the dog bed, no crate.

Can anyone share their morning routine with me please? Particularly those of you doing school runs. My H has been going into work a bit later to help out, but that isn't sustainable long term. Wondering how everyone else juggles DC plus puppy! This morning I just let her roam the garden while I sorted breakfast and H did other bits, but when the weather turns I have no idea how to keto pup entertained. I'm trying to keep DC and pup separate as she's still jumping up at them a lot.

@puppygalore that will get easier. We spent a bit of time training ours to go to her bed (her special chair in the kitchen) while we prepare and eat breakFast. Basically lots of treats if she’s on the chair. Now she just goes there.

We also let her roam about the garden if she wants. She’s developed a routine of wanting a play with dh after breakfast but I think we could change that to before. Something tha5 tires her out a bit, usually give her a box with scrunched up newspapers and toilet rolls with treats in to shuffle around. That tires her out mentally.

@Annasgirl

Thanks so much for your reply, last night we put bunglepup to bed at 11, he wouldnt settle so hunny went down and clicked his fingers and said bed and like a charm the dog did what he said! Woke up at 1.30 having a whine but that only lasted 10mins then he must of gone back to sleep til 4.30 which is when he normally likes to go for a poop unfortunately didnt get there in time and he pooped on the kitchen floor (hey ho!) took him outside but he didnt do anything then we came back inside and he snuggled down on my feet and didnt wake up til my alarm woke him at 5.40!

I feel like theres light at the end of the tunnel! (totally jinxed that now havent i?! 🤣)

@puppygalore - we're not convinced of our morning routine either. We're both WFH so at the moment, my husband has pup and I have child. But it will be good if/when pup isn't so dependent. GolightlyMrsGolightly I love the snuffle box idea. We just bought a split antler and that gives us 10/15 mins peace. I think getting more of that kind of thing going (chewing and/or mental stimulation) would be helpful.

Thank you @GolightlyMrsGolightly I'm currently working on the mat/boundary area so I think that'll take some time, she knows to go there for treats but immediately gets off looking for more. I also need to work on 'stay' I think. As soon as I turn my back to sort the DC she's chewing everything so I don't like leaving her to her own devices, but also don't want to crate her if possible.

I gave her a pig's eat chew this morning hoping for 5 mins peace but she wasn't at all interested and just whined to be with us! She's been on the go since 6am and finally crashed out just before 9. We had planned that H would carry her with us on the school run and stay at the gate to let her see kids and cars but she was so sound asleep in the end he stayed home with her while I took the DC.

I feel like there's so much to do in such a short time. We are approaching 11 weeks and in terms of socialisation hardly done anything. We've taken her to the park to look at dogs, swings and kids. She's been in the car a few times and of course met the vet. She's met a few of our family and this weekend will meet a few more. But that's it! Next week when the DC are both in full time I really need to make more effort to go to other places.

Also need to do the firework YouTubes plus storms. And somehow get her to be friends with our 2 cats!

Also doesn't your puppy just eat the newspaper MrsGolightly? Ours found a receipt and tried to swallow it so am assuming she'd do the same with newspaper, foil, cardboard tubes etc. She has plenty of toys and Kongs I'm rotating but none of them hold her interest when the kids are around and I'm trying to do stuff! We have a puzzle toy feeder but it's just no challenge for her and she's done in 5 mins at the most.

Oh at least you can all let the puppy out alone, we have a huge garden as do all of our neighbours so we have lots of foxes passing though, and I cannot let puppy out alone. SO I spend a lot of time outside!!! But when she curls up beside me in her bed and sleeps while I work, it all seems worthwhile.

Morning routines - oh dear, this morning I had left DS1 to school as he needed a lift and DD minded puppy. Then DD left to walk. I had DS2 and puppy in kitchen/diner/playroom while I got bag ready. DS2 ignored the puppy (I had just had puppy out to try to get her to pee) and I noticed a poo on the floor (I cried - what a start to the day). It really is mentally busy isn't it?

With the newspaper in a box with treats and toilet roll tubes. We took it fairly slowly at first and supervised it so took away the cardboard or the newspaper once she'd got the treats and then started to chew up the cardboard/paper. But she got the hang of it really quickly that it was the treats that was the good bit. It didn't make her go off and chew cardboard or paper indiscriminately as she knows that the game starts when the box comes out. We picked it up and put it out of her reach/eye sight when not playing it.

Empty Egg boxes with a bit of cheese in were good - espcially a bit of blue cheese smeared in one of the cavities.

She does chew it a bit to get at the treat. Once she got to about 4 months we stopped having to keep an eye on her with them.

We bought a snuffle mat too which she loves.

We found Yakkers very good for her to chew too.

This all gets better as they get older. We did buy a couple of dog puzzle games but tbh the box and newspaper or empty toilet rolls is really the favourite.

The getting her to stay and settle we did find difficult but I think it comes with age if you are consistent about stuff. Ours kind of taught herself to settle more, I was really worried about it up to about 5 months.

@puppygalore morning routine here means me getting up by 6.30 to make sure I'm showered, dressed, coffee made, etc. before getting pup and DS up at 7. I wouldn't be able to get myself ready with pup up and about. DS now largely fends for himself...something he's gotten very good at since pup arrived and I mostly just sit with pup drinking my coffee and watching The Chase from 7-8am...weirdly something I could never have managed when it was just me and DS?! I make a batch of porridge to last 3 days so DS heats it up in the microwave on days 2 and 3 and then gets himself ready. Pup goes in crate 5-10 minutes before we leave so I have a bit of time to check DS over. But pup is 5 months now, so he's much calmer in the mornings than he was, and DS is 7 so mostly able to sort himself out. Younger pup and younger kids would be more of a struggle. But it will get easier for you on the pup front. Have you got a lickimat? The only way I can manage to leave a room without pup making a fuss (if he isn't in his crate) is if I give him a lickimat. With a lickimat I get a bit of a glance when I leave and that's it, but otherwise he gets upset.

Thanks @OwlInAnOakTree I'll just keep muddling along til everyone's a bit older then and at some point we'll get there. Our pup is 10.5 weeks and DC are 4 and almost 6, so all require quite a lot of input. With pup up between 6-6.30 we are finding even with 2 grown ups it's been tricky and I really don't want to get up any earlier than she does if I can avoid it!

I do have a lickimat but she's not very interested. I got 5 mins out of it with yoghurt and treats all over. Similarly Kongs don't hold her interest either but maybe this will come with time. Currently as soon as she's been out for the toilet she has breakfast and then wants to play, play, play - except she wants me/H with her! But at that time of course we need to be getting dressed, kids ready, breakfast etc. I suppose she'll just have to get used to it and as the days tick by she'll maybe be a little happier to entertain herself.

@puppygalore have you tried bull pizzles? That might keep her occupied for a while. Or Kongs? OwlPup was hard work in the mornings in the early weeks, but has calmed down massively. It'll get easier...but such hard work in the early weeks.