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....

@Cookie79 what a beautiful pup, is she a doberman? They are so majestic, I love them so much.
Riverpup was sniffing around, took her outside and she came straight back in and shat on the carpet. So frustrating ( we are getting new carpet once this phase is over). Why riverpup why

I’m sorry I forgot to say her breed - yes she’s a Dobermann Pinscher.

We’re utterly in love - those beautiful floppy ears and she keeps attacking her own paws. We’re a bit rusty with pups but it’s coming back to us. Slowly.

Honestly the timing has been so lucky - we got her then the next day DD’s entire year group are out as one poor kid tested positive (no risk to DD as she barely knows the girl but rules are rules so out they all go). So lots of bonding time and company - DD is and will always be an only child so some much needed company.

She’s settled well though so far, sticking to DD like glue which is typical for the breed. I’m just back to the baby days - putting loads of easy watching crap on the sky planner to watch at stupid o’clock when she’s awake.

And nursing piranha bites on my poor hands!

Our 11 week old lab slept all night last night, but DH is still sleeping downstairs on the sofa to be near him. How is he supposed to be able to leave for the night and go upstairs? I know the min he tries to leave the room pup will whine.

@desperatehousewife21 maybe he can try gradually retreating further out of the room each night if that possible? We sleep trained our DC with that by moving our chair away from the cot, into the doorway, our into the hall and so on. But I'm not sure about puppies understanding the same we've had pup on her own downstairs since night 1 so not sure what the proper techniques are.

DH was on duty again last night and pup slept til 7am!!! I put her to bed at 9.45 as she seemed so exhausted and had just done a huge wee and poo, that's the earliest we've tried her going to bed but I figured why not see what happens. She woke for a wee at 11.45 then managed that huge stretch of sleep til the morning. I'm so happy she's capable of that but also gutted she only ever goes beyond 6am when it's H's turn - why why why?! When I'm on duty with the baby monitor she stirs on the hour every hour which wakes me up, then starts being restless from 5, and then at any point after that she decides it's time to wake up.

Biting seems even worse this morning, maybe it's because the trainer was letting her chew at him a bit yesterday while he explained bite inhibition? When he said 'sh oi!' to let her know it was too much, she stopped immediately and played with something else, when I do it she just carries on but gets harder like it's part of the game. Obviously he must have a certain tone and is a stranger to her whereas she feels she can push my limits. Other advice I found online is ignore it, don't pull away and let your hand go limp, but how can I ignore it when she's got her jaws clamped around my whole hand?! I let my hand go limp and she seems to take that as an invite to bite down more

@Cookie79 your pup is beautiful! Dobermans are stunning creatures, love them.

@LittlePoot well done to your pup for asking to go out for the loo! Definitely a turning point.

Really nice to hear all the stories of beach walks, we're about an hour away from any beaches so we haven't taken pup yet but I think he'd bloody love it. Will have to get planning an adventure!

I have to make a confession - last night about 1.30am chocpup was fussing around in his crate, not crying just getting up, turning around, making the odd little "wuff" etc. We ignored him...and he went back to sleep! It's like a weight has been lifted this morning. DH woke him up for his scheduled pee at 4 (we know he can go 6 hours so we've been stretching that out gradually) but now I know a lot of his fussing in the crate is just him flouncing about I feel a lot better about leaving him to it.

Also my DH has been doing a lot of training with him recently and you can now say "crate!" and he will get in the crate, you can leave the room with the crate door open and he will stay in there. Feels like massive progress! He is left to do the school run but usually with a kong so he barely notices we've gone but I'd like to get to the point where we can pop out a bit more spontaneously without him.

He's a bitey little sod today though. He was 13 weeks yesterday and I reckon teething has properly hit us. I've been trying to teach "drop it" playing tug with him but if he knows I have treats he won't take the tug toy He did pick up a plastic bag on our walk this morning and "drop it" when asked though so something is going in. He's also getting more boisterous and jumping a lot more so we're having the trainer back next week just to plan out a bit how to handle that!

@desperatehousewife21 - I think you have to just go and leave him - otherwise your DH will sleep there forever. We were told to let the puppy whine for 3 nights - it worked, she is totally settled in her crate. Now I know that when she is older we will let her sleep upstairs but for now she is safe and happy in her crate at night. It was heartbreaking but my DH is a no nonsense person so he refused to let me go down to puppy and she honestly was sleeping happily within 3 nights. _crate is large with a comfy bed, toys and a puppy pad in a separate area to pee and poop - she doesn't even do that anymore (almost 12 weeks now) - she does her last pee and poop before bed.

Now for my bad news - Daisy has been amazing and 3 days with all wee and poo outside - thought we had cracked it. This morning, four trips out no poo. Then when I was getting DS ready, she pooped in the hall on the mat - this is the third time she has pooped here and I am in despair - it is the only part of the house with "carpet" - it is a mat that is like grass so I think she associates it with her poop area in the garden.

Anyway, back to day 0 for getting all wee and poo done outside.

But I am reading Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy and I am confident I will have a wonderful, happy, well behaved dog in weeks

Yeah exactly that’s what I said to him this morning, he’ll be sleeping on the sofa forever! He thinks pup jumped up and slept on the sofa without him realising last night so that’s not ideal. He’s been sleeping fine on his bed in the day while we work from home.

I guess we’ll just have to try it and see, that’s all we can do.

@desperatehousewife21

I feel your pain! We started out by doing exactly the same as you however after a few nights of no sleep see previous messages of my having a nervous breakdown we came up with a plan of putting a schedule together and leaving the pup to whine and cry a little bit... we've done that and he is now going from 11.30 til 4.30 no crying, then 4.30 loo break then back to bed from 4.45 til 5.45...

Its hard to hear them cry but we have put a ticking clock under the bed, a hot water bottle and some water and treats to make it a nice place to be... also its only a short time and they soon get the hang of day and night xx

See I think if we crack him being happy to be left (when we leave the room to go to bed) he’ll sleep fine. Last night he went 9-5:50 with no toilet break! He’s only 11 weeks!

@desperatehousewife21

See I think if we crack him being happy to be left (when we leave the room to go to bed) he’ll sleep fine. Last night he went 9-5:50 with no toilet break! He’s only 11 weeks!

We have been doing 11-6.30 since 11 weeks . honestly, I think it was the life line that held us all together and stopped us having a breakdown.

Their Eden food has arrived finally and I bought some big marrow bones today as well - try and choke to death on these you silly little critters!! I just need to work out switching them over now...

@Chocolateandamaretto that's great about the crate command!

It seems that Pup has got wise to my ruses and now refuses to follow biscuits/treats in to her crate. Today I've had to physically lift her in for all her naps which very soon won't be an option as she's already so heavy! She's not settling well at all today in the crate, yesterday she did some awesome naps but today not so much. I've had to take her vetbed out as she seemed so frustrated with it and always pushes it out of the way to lie down anyway

Hi all

Just found this thread. I am going to need your sage advice in the coming months/years.
We picked up our Irish setter pup on Sunday.

@BathshebaAndGabriel

Hi all

Just found this thread. I am going to need your sage advice in the coming months/years.
We picked up our Irish setter pup on Sunday.

Aww, look at that face! It’s got trouble written all over it

Pup has had to wait 2 weeks to go for a walk, her jabs were on a Weds afternoon a fortnight ago. Would you all think that means as of tomorrow she's ok for a walk, or wait til Thursday? We are sooooo bored!

Had this little chap for 1 week now, he is 9.5 weeks old. Nights are not too bad, he sleeps in a crate next to our bed.

He is so incredibly bitey! I know its a puppy phase, but wish he was old enough for some of the different chews - other than antlers i'm not sure what else they can have until they are 3 months?

Ours chews on toilet roll tubes, empty (clean) plastic milk bottles. Sticks, he loves chewing on sticks.

Frozen tea rowels.

@puppygalore I'd go tomorrow.

Chews - yak chews are going down extremely well here as well as the split antler. Pup is scared of plastic bottles (moron) and just eats cardboard

Oh, and carrot sticks but they only last a few seconds!

Maybe a frozen carrot? I'm sure I've seen that somewhere!

Thanks, I'll probably go out with her tomorrow if nobody thinks I'll put putting Pup in deadly peril! Any tips for a first walk? Eek. I'm assuming high value treats, keep it short, and hope for the best. Weather here is forecast to be miserable from here on out, typical!

Popular chews here are rabbit ears and pizzles. I've spent a small fortune on antlers and other bits but she's not interested at all.

@puppygalore - if it's anything like ours, I'd recommend very low expectations for the first few walks! A week and a half later, we can just about get a 15 minute walk around the block in but it's not pretty. We've taken him to the lake nearby too - only on lead so far though as he has zero recall when distracted. But he's just intent on eating flower heads and running about like a mad thing. He seems to enjoy it at least but I'll probably enjoy it better when there's more walking to be done. x

I agree with very low expectations for first walks and remember sniffing is a massive deal much more than the walking in itself.

I didn’t fuss with street walking to start with, too many cars, bikes, buses to spook them. I started in a playing field with a park and football court and we spent a lot of time standing on the spot!

We have just got back from the river with no leads they played cautiously in the water and were brave around the swans and backed of at the right time. I was terrier the swan would eat them but that just me and my neurotic ways.

I then took them to the supermarket (to buy me some wine!) and they saw the trolleys and motorbikes that way and have no eaten their first bowl of Eden with a fish scale topper and coconut oil blob which they loved.

Loving seeing all the new pup pics, my two look huge already.

Terrible grammar, trying to do too many things at the same time and I haven’t even opened the wine yet

I totally agree, first few walks here I was like “wtf?” But we are getting somewhere now. Practise getting pup to walk alongside you in the house without a lead first so the get used to where they should be (not an obedience style heel, just next to you and looking at you waiting for treats!) Then just keep going! Our pup still charges when he knows he’s on his way home but the way out is generally fine now.

Took chocpup for a walk this evening. Went to the woods and had an excellent pootle off leash, my 10 year old could recall him so he was behaving beautifully etc. He was having a lovely play with a spaniel who was a couple of months older than him, but then they sort of charged at each other, both leapt into the air and she floored him...I have no doubt it was all in good fun and he certainly wasn’t put off but he did slam into the ground on his back quite hard. Do you think this is alright? Should I be keeping an eye out for injuries???