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....

Socialisation is to expose them to new things and give them a positive experience. A negative one isn't what you want.

I would be forgetting walking at the moment and just staying put away from the roads. Give him treats and make it nice then slowly move forwards a bit towards the road. Build it up slowly.

Clicker training might help here too @LittlePoot. If you haven’t already, get pup used to click = treat for a couple of days until he’s looking expectant whenever he hears the clicker. Then sit in the garden with pup on a short lead and wait for a pigeon or something else unusual to come by. If you can get the timing right, in the split second before pup reacts, click and treat. Eventually the positive association of the click and treat transfers to the bird/other scary thing. Same with cars, other dogs while out walking, cats - sit at a distance, keep pup close, watch for the second between seeing the stimulus and reacting, click and treat.

Can you try sitting outside the front of your house with lots of yummy treats? Before ours could go on walks, i would sit with him on our front steps and we'd see cars, lorries, delivery people, bikes and people going up and down the street from a safe distance. Also, because it was lock down at the time, people kept a really safe distance from him so it wasn't too overwhelming. Experiencing things from a "safe place" with you close by might help.

The advice i've read is very much to go at the puppy's pace. I think the mad panic to see everything and do everything by 16 weeks sometimes ends up with people feeling too much pressure and rushing their puppies into situations they're not ready for.

Thanks all. That all sounds sensible - I just need to work out how to apply it in our actual situation. We live on a quiet village Close with very little going on so I'm not sure sitting here would be very helpful in terms of spotting triggers. The first week we had him, I carried him a couple of streets away to sit up near the main road two or three times (still village-y but frequent traffic including buses) but he wasn't settled and it was hard for me to tell if that was normal puppy enthusiasm or nervous discomfort. I'm now thinking the latter.

He doesn't always take snacks even when just at home - perhaps I need better ones. Chicken is quite popular, I haven't tried cheese yet so that's an option. And we've got a pot of Barker's little liver treats which sometimes go down well. I'm happy to buy other alternatives - any recommendations?

So perhaps I need to start in the garden a day or two and then find somewhere nearer the road to move up to? And get him used to the car so we can drive to other places. Everything just seems overwhelming for him this week so we definitely need a change of tack. Except people - he does at least seem to like other people.

Today's walk was a triumph! Bit of his kibble every 40 steps, sit training when he got overexcited and he behaved beautifully!

I think I'd got stubborn around not wanting him to need treats to behave on a walk, and we'd got ourselves into a mess! Thanks all!

@LittlePoot our dog trainer swears by liver paste, and says that licking is really calming so should be the best thing to use a paste treat not a eating treat...

Emrys will do anything for a biscuit, so we don't bother with anything but his normal food...

@littlepoot if he's scared of traffic try and find somewhere you can sit far back from a road. I know that's easier said than done! Our pup was scared of the broom so we had to have my DH sweep the patio and I stood inside holding him stood back from the window and we just watched. I treated him for being calm and built up from there. now he can be in the garden when we sweep without going batshit. He'd still eat the broom if he could and we haven't tried in the house yet as I think the noise would set him back but it is slowly working! So yeah, find a distance far back enough that he isn't triggered by it.

@Emrysmcdogface I agree about licking - I put yoghurt on my fingers sometimes and that is a great motivator! It's good for the kids as well as they can let him lick and he won't bite them because he's busy. Try salmon paste or peanut butter.

Chocpup has a gammy eye and he was up 3 times in the night with diarrhoea so it's the vets for us he's fine in himself but need to get it checked.

@GazingAndGrazing can I ask you about raw food? You have said previously you use chunks. Which brand do you use? Would you recommend? My trainer is a big fan of nature's way, just investigating options.

Do you find it a faff or is it easy enough? My fear is I wouldn't get frozen stuff out to defrost early enough and then the pup would be hungry. Is that a realistic scenario or are they quite quick to defrost?

We use Lily's kitchen kibble at the moment and he loves it, growing well, nice coat etc. but we've had a few episodes of the squirts so just contemplating if we need to move in a different direction.

I buy natures menu puppy frozen chunks. You feed by weight so I just call them up every month or so with their new weight and they tell me how many to feed.

Pup1 has 8 chunks three times a day and pup2 has 6. I divide every meal up per day in freezer bags and when I feed their last meal I get the next days out. I store defrosting ones in a tupaware box.

I can get a weeks worth for both in one drawer of a normal freezer

I also feed on a likimat because they wolf it down too quickly in a bowl.

Main benefits I’ve seen is no more farts and tiny poo’s

That's great thanks. I have 2 freezers so not too worried about storage space. Sounds like you have a good routine in place so just need to be a tiny bit more organised than kibble. Definitely thinking about it!

Getting a bit more sleep here so feeling slightly more human (11 till 5 ish) puppy was on his own for an hour for the first time today. I felt so guilty but he did eventually settle for a nap (hubby was watching on camera and could pop back if needed). It won't happen often but its good to know it can be done. He seems to have become wary on walks too - not had a bad experience but doesnt want to get too far from home before trying to turn back up the road. But its only early days (he is only 14 weeks)

Riverpup had a mini puppy playdate earlier today which was lovely until she pooped everywhere. She was exhausted when we got home so slept whilst I undercoated our banister. Felt a big achievement.
She also went on mini walk with two other dogs and did great but did follow another random dog for a bit.
DC came home and she hadnt slept enough and is always super excited whe
they get back and was savage in her biting. She felt like she caught the nerve somehow in my thumb and it is bleeding and really hurts. She jumped straight up to bite my face, I know it isnt personal but I hate that so much.
She did sleep 10 til 5 with only one night time poo and wee around 1am.
The biting is the worst at the moment though, she is having some time out and has fallen asleep so hopefully will wake up nicer.
How many more bad bitey weeks have we got? She is 12 weeks friday so thinking maybe 4? But hoping for 2max

I've been lurking here a while now, we are on week 2 with our 10.5 wk old Chihuahua mix puppy.

Both DH and I are first time dog owners, I never have had pets (wasn't allowed to ) and DH's family has always had cats only. We have two DC aged 9 and 12. We've been planning to have a puppy for few years now and it does irk me a little that people may be assuming we have obtained one because of the lockdown.

So far it's been going pretty well but I can't help but feeling slightly trapped in. Thinking we could have this dog for up to 20 years, which means I'd be 68!!! if he lives that long . Of course we knew that it'll be a long commitment but currently it feels little bit oppressive. Hopefully it's just a phase of puppy blues.

Oh, I was meant to ask about taking him out for a walk. He'll be 11 wks on Saturday. His 3rd jab will be a week later when he's 1wks. The vet says he can't go out on public streets until a week has passed from his 3rd jab. Is that right?

We are playing in our garden and we are allowed to meet other dogs in our garden, as long as they are vaccinated. According to the vet that is. Is this correct? Waiting for another 2.5 weeks just seems so long. Especially so because I came across someone walking their 10 wk old puppy through the public park last Friday.

He's off the m&s food today now as expected.

May have to investigate the raw food even though the thought turns my stomach over.

@JuiceyBetty we use the Natures Menu frozen raw bites same as @GazingAndGrazing.

We just count out the right number of bites for each day and defrost overnight.

After a couple of days standoff over the disappearance of chicken and rice pistachiopup is back on them again. Phew!

They do 2 flavours for puppies - chicken and lamb. She prefers the lamb ones. Because they’re frozen in bite sized chunks you don’t actually need to touch them at all which is good.

We get them from Pets at Home. It’s honestly not as disgusting as I thought raw food might be. And most of the time she does eat it eventually whereas nothing I did to kibble would persuade her to eat! It was so stressful.

Also she poos less and they are completely solid so much nicer to clear up.

@Riverhousepuppy our pup is 16 weeks and still very bitey, especially when he is tired. I'm hoping it stops soon

@redhotchilichips Welcome! I can't help really as we only had two sets of vaccinations. I would follow the vets advice though as I've heard horrible stories of puppies getting really poorly recently. Even if you cant walk pup I would still take him/her to lots of new places in your arms...parks, high streets, playgrounds and sit on a bench so they can experience lots. It tires them out a lot too!

I agree with LBee. Do follow vets advice. I used the incubation period to get the pups used to short car journeys - sat them in a washing basket at the skate park to watch the skaters, school run (I wasn’t doing the school run we just observed it from the plastic washing basket and the car window open)
We also sat with the front door open to observe street life. You can use YouTube to play thunder storms, emergency sirens, diy, fireworks and spend time short time training, lots to do!

My downfall is cleaning their wrinkles and I finally gave them a bath 1 on 1 and it was a disaster, they both hated it and smell of wet dog because I could get them to stay still to rinse let alone dry.

Maybe I need to be firmer with them but I don’t like seeing them in panic mode but they do need a wash! Surely I can’t have to pay a groomer at 13 weeks old, they would react the same maybe worse but a groomer doesn’t love them like I do.

Dilemma!

Bathing is a two person job here @GazingAndGrazing

One to wash the dog, one to feed steady supply of biscuits to ensure stationary puppy...

Taken on board, I’ll enlist the troops and try again

Well I'm in a proper grump today. Polka pup is up and at em first thing wuth toys and racing about. Pushes them at you, jumps up- ouch with claws in bare legs. I indulged him in a long game of fetch (he doesn't drop stuff so I alternate items) but he lunged as I went to pick up his toy to throw and bit me (hopefully caught rather than intended). I'm trying to make packed lunches. DH away and my hand is bleeding. Will someone hold my hand virtually ?

Ouch ! I think puppy can tell when we are all getting ready to go out as he goes hyper too.

God, sorry @polkadotpjs - what a stressful start to your day. Packed lunches is a step too far for me so DS is on hot lunches like it or not.

Our vet recommended a diamond nail file to file down sharp claws. I haven't tried it yet but at least blunting those little daggers mighty remove one source of your pain?

My DH is in the officer today for the first time so I'm flying solo for the first time. How bad can it be?!

Ouch @polkadotpjs - virtual handhold from me

@LittlePoot - also flying solo here. DP at chemotherapy, so won't be up to helping much for a few days. Teenage DD whilst finding him very cute doesn't seem that keen on active help.

Yesterday seemed to be a good day - VeryGrumpyPup was lovely... sat quietly next to me on the sofa while I did conference calls (bar a bit of trying to chew my speaker cable); intermittent play between calls; managed to do most wees and poos outside - then was a ravening hell hound in the evening... charging around, scratching at the sofa; weeing on the rug; snapping a lot. Obviously not enough stimulation in the day - but then I think he gets over-tired and goes a bit bonkers. I was tearful and exhausted by the end of it... the constant 'toilet watch' is just draining...

We spent some quality time in the back of the car eating cheese... so hopefully we can at least start getting him de-sensitised to that.

I swear this is way more tiring than having a newborn!

@polkadotpjs hand holding with a big scar from yesterday.
Good luck today @LittlePoot I actually find riverpup is far more chilled when just with me and will settle at my feet whilst I work. As soon as DC and dh get home all hell breaks loose.
I asked breeder aboutbiting and she recommended putting vicks vapour run on as that can deter it. Normally riverpup loves a morning leg bite but today she sniffed and walked away, so hoping that continues.
Had mini walk today and let her off lead and did some recall training with ds and she was great and to celebrate she ate a pile of rabbit poo which looked very similar to kibble