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....

Ah, crossed posts with you there @LittlePoot. Sounds like a great success! Well done.

@kauri25

Another newbie here - we have a red miniature poodle who’s 15 weeks old. (Waves to Dobbin - lovely to see your pup). We have been really lucky that when he came to us at 10 weeks old the breeder had already got him crate trained and he sleeps in there through the night (about 11pm to 6.30 😀) and is happy to nap in there in the day. He was also house trained -we’ve had one accident inside on his first morning with us. He is into everything when he’s awake though! He started his walks last week and though they are obviously short he’s ready for a nap soon after.

My questions (we are first time dog owners) if anyone can help - do we need to rigidly stick to that 5 minutes of walk per month of age rule?

And I keep seeing owners refer to dog chews - what are these?! Kpup has various ‘plastic’ bones including those Nylabone ones. He isn’t very interested. Am I missing some magical dog chew that will keep him occupied for a short while? Hoping so!

So gorgeous!

If you are on Facebook have a look at the page “dragonfly” they sell all natural dog chews. My boys LOVE their braided pizzles and I put them in the freezer to ward of the stink a little bit and give them to them frozen

Hi all, mad morning with the DC and sport. Daisy slept all night in her crate - we are so happy with that.

She went mad all morning biting etc, but I am trying to do one thing at a time so the next goal is toilet training - poo happening outside but lots of wee indoors!!!

She also sleeps in the crate a little during the day, we keep the gate open so she comes out when she wants.

All your info is so helpful - heading off to find the natural chew stuff now!!!!

Took chocpup to our friend’s house today, they have several older dogs and there were lots of kids about and he did brilliantly. Bounded about the garden with the other dogs, no nipping any of the kids and generally being very sweet and affable with everyone. He is shattered now so hopefully he’ll have a nice long nap!
He was quite barky in the crate yesterday which I found quite difficult. I’m wondering if he will be more tired today and if that will make a difference. I’m struggling to tire him out when he can only walk for 10 minutes. I think we need to carry him out more to stuff and just get him involved without needing to always walk him. We’re a very outdoorsy family so I’m looking forward to when he can spend the day walking with us!

After the dreadful non returning to me yesterday (where he barged into another dog owner) I put Mucky on the longline today, which hasn't been used for a while, but I was so conscious of needing to get some control over him. It worked well and I felt much better. Everything I've read says you sometimes need to take a backwards step once they reach adolescence. Likewise the 'timeout' crate is out of storage. Flaming annoying though...

So, it was turning into a pretty good day until my friend came over to meet new pup. After being super excited to see her he inexplicably yelped and leapt off her, landing with a heart wrenching yelp on the patio. Then was terrified of her until she left. He doesn't seem to be hurt at all but I feel awful again and need to work out how to reassure him and not let it leave any lasting damage.... Lesson learned about only letting anyone hold him if they're on the ground. Any suggestions on reassuring follow up? Or have I broken the puppy??

Sorry to not reply to anyone, I have a quick question! The boys went off lead today. Only 5 mins.

I know at 12 weeks they exercise 15 mins but is that in one go, can I take them out say now for another 10mins?

They LOVED it, and played with a little friend. I aged about 10 years though watching them run across the field!!!

@GazingAndGrazing as I understand the rules, it's twice a day - so a 12 week old can do two lots of 15 minutes.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits thanks, we do use a crate. Sometimes she naps in there voluntarily with door open, but at night I lure her in with a snuggle puppy and nylabone and she's happy to stay in there all night bar wees. I haven't got a longline so will invest. Off to look at those and dragonfly chews now!

I wonder if anyone can answer this please. I've contacted a few trainers to get ideas of prices and only 1 had responded so far. He says I have to ask the vet at her second jabs on Weds about when she's allowed to walk, and that means it'll be ok to start classes. I assumed once she's had jabs basically from the next day she'd be good to go, but do you have to wait a few days or anything?

Well polkapup bless him got me up at 3-4am with explosive diahorrea. Can't sprlt that sorry. Felt very sorry for himself indeed. I think he ate a sweet off the floor on the school run. Had recall school this morning which wasn't what I expected at all. Was all about making myself more interesting than the surroundings. I felt crap though with bad head so I'm glad it wasn't stressful.
It really does get easier so hang in there.

@puppygalore our vet said to wait a week - I was very disappointed I have to say!

puppygalore it was one week for road walks after the second vaccination for us as well.

We were told a week between 2nd jabs and being able to go out too.

@polkadotpjs that's pretty much what the trainer I had said too re recall. Basically, according to him, it's all about engagement. You might be able to get your dog to follow basic commands at home but if they're not fully engaged with you, then you're buggered once you're out and about. Any top tips from your class?!

We went out a week after second jabs.

Sorry to hear about the explosive poo Polka, we had that once at 4am and it's a grim way to wake up!

Dragonpup had 2nd vaccine today so we can go for walks from next Saturday!

I’m looking at a bigger crate to have downstairs. He has a puppy pen but I give it a week max before he pulls it over! We’ve only shut the gate 3 times - twice when he was being mental and once when supermarket shop arrived and we needed to have doors open. Eventually he’ll sleep downstairs and the upstairs small crate is on loan and won’t be big enough for long. I’m trying to decide between medium and large now.

Hi all - please can I join?

We are picking up our female black lab pup on 5th October. Having followed this thread and done research for a few of months I know how hard the first few weeks (months!) are going to be. The thing is, we both work, and while we can take the first couple of weeks off there will come a point where we both have to go back... please be kind, I know it's not ideal to leave our lovely pup home alone, but how do we do it? How do we go back to work?

Thanks all

ilikeit my puppy went to daycare around 13 weeks of age.

I would start to look for daycare now that your puppy can attend. Some do pick up and drop off.

I naively thought I could get a dog walker to come once a day but once BiteyDog arrive I realised that wasn't going to be enough for a puppy.

We’ve been watching Dogs behaving badly on channel 5 it’s eye opening.

ilikeit my SIL & her DH went back to shifts working (nhs) after 2 weeks leave and they had to leave their puppy a couple of days a week but arranged for a dog walker to come in twice a day and pup had a large safe utility room to herself. I have no idea how they did it tbh as we could not leave our puppy even at 17wks for more than an 1.5hrs. I’m not sure you can leave them unless using some form of doggy daycare...

We’ve had dragonpup for 4 weeks and we’re wondering how we are going to do school run and leave him for 20 minutes so he’d definitely not cope with being left and in that position we’d look at daycare. Dh is working fully from home until January then he’ll be in work a couple of times a week.

Can I ask about feeding?

The breeder I’ll be using raw feeds her dogs, and the puppies will be on raw too so I expect I’ll be carrying this on.

Will I need to store the dog food separately? How much of a faff is raw, and is it really worth it.

Morning everyone
Riverpup slept from 11-5.15 when dh work alarm went off and woke her. Suffice to say he then turned alarm off as not at work and went back to sleep. I am now downstairs on the sofa whilst riverpup is chewing her yucky pizzle. She also adores this horrible hoof thing she has as well.
Jabs went fine yesterday but had 15 minute wait in vets with her desperate to be out down but settling with biting my hair.
Vet told us two weeks before she can go out but vet receptionist said one week.
Is general consensus here 1 week after second jabs then?
We had friends over for dinner last night and she was really good but then had manic half hour with the boys.
We got some samples with puppy classes so have ordered a box from butternut, am sure somebody else had spoken about it before? Too sleep deprived to remember but was it you @JuiceyBetty? Did you find the food good? Riverpup is not keen on the food from her trainer so hoping to get her something she really enjoys. We also ordered some more from fish for dogs, samples too as she liked that too.
Yesterday was really nice with her and we are letting her in the lounge more which is much more comfy and normal to us than sitting in the kitchen. In the evening she can settle quite nicely.
Today we are taking her to my friends farm who has dogs and lots of different animals so that will be really good. We live in the country so feel like I need to take her to crowded places too.

Hello! Tuna have been going well so far, back to school routine is good, although I wish he understood the idea of a Sunday lie in!

We also did a week after jabs, although our vet didn't tell us this, but we'd read it so many times we thought e should!

Last day of puppy school today, we are super sad as we all loved it! We will hopefully sign on to the follow up course...

When does adolescence kick in? He is finally lovely after being a bitey shot. He's now 16 weeks. Do I need to brace myself?

Vet told us two weeks before she can go out but vet receptionist said one week.
Is general consensus here 1 week after second jabs then?

I begged my vet to split the second jab into two.

At 10 weeks we had the one which included parvo and it was that one where we had to wait a week before we could go out BUT NOT in watery boggy fields so it was just pavement walks only.

Then at 12 weeks we had the lepto one and we had to wait 2 weeks after that for all walks.

So it could be that you had both together and the vet said 2 weeks because then you would be fine to walk anywhere.

Could you phone and ask for clarification?

When does adolescence kick in? He is finally lovely after being a bitey shot. He's now 16 weeks. Do I need to brace myself?

Mine kicked in at 6 months of age but he hit his peak arseness at 8-9 months of age.

Bigger dogs I think hit their teenage phase later than smaller dogs. And this phase goes on for months

That's really useful @BiteyShark and I will do that. Thanks so much