Puppy survival thread October/November!

[HappyThursdays]

hello all - will hopefully link from the old one!

just realised we'll all have fireworks night to get through shortly. Went out for a walk with dpuppy who is getting much better at walking though we met a big dog which scared him a lot! We can only get him into puppy classes in November which is a shame but at least it's something

@HappyThursdays keep pop in for 3 days, giving plenty of time for the cortisol level to ho back to normal, otherwise pup will be at a high stress level as a baseline, and it won't take a lot to tip pup into fearing a lot of things that normally would have been coped with fine

So just nice chilled days in the house and garden

Whereabouts are you based?

Also, very glad to hear no physical damage was caused!

@HappyThursdays. I’m so sad for you. I would have been in pieces. Poor you and pup!

Big gin x

That's so awful @HappyThursdays So irresponsible for that dog to be off the lead if it's issues are well known.

I have to be honest I am struggling with other people more than I am the actual puppy. I'm trying to get her to ignore distractions but so many people just allow their dogs to run up and kids to run towards her etc it's really difficult. I am quite judgmental about other people kids too 😂😂 so probably should have expected it.

What do you all do? Just turn around and be seen as rude? I'm in a large village so often see the same people out and about.

Also - what do you do when pup goes crazy for your legs? Newpup does it after walks mainly but also at random times in the house. I don't always have a toy to hand and to be honest I don't think it's that she wants to play. I've been holding her away from my legs on the lead but she basically strangles herself trying to get my legs 🤨 she sounds awful - throaty and angry - but I'm not going to let her eat my legs so I don't know what else to do. If I have treats etc I can distract her by throwing on the ground but it's not always possible

I was in tears. I can admit it to you lot as I'm sure you know how I feel but I came back and just burst into tears! Seeing him howling at the top of his voice - he was literally screaming as loud as he could in my arms, it was too awful! I'm just relieved he wasn't hurt tbh - I don't know what I would have done if he had been injured like @GetAMoveOnTroodon ddog:

I'm also a bit pissed off that I was so upset I couldn't challenge the bloke with the dog. He's known in the village so I'm going to suggest to dp that we go and speak to him together. I really do think dogs who are aggressive must either be on the lead or muzzled.

Anyway thank you all for the sympathy, I really do appreciate it. It has knocked my confidence and I'm not sure I want to take him out on my own here. In London it's all v ordered in a way but here, it's a lot more challenging. There were wild deer in the field we were in today.

@ZombiePara we are in rural Oxfordshire but I mainly live in outer London (a greener part of it!) when not in lockdown

@polkadotpjs I still think it's ridiculous you being barred. Poor you and poor puppy - if she's done one on one training, you would hope she would be in contact at some point!

@newpup123 not sure what to suggest about the legs but the trainer taught us this thing where you hold food in between your fingers and walk with your hand dipped down slightly so the dog doesn't jump up and every time he touches your hand, , look at his face so he looks at you and give the treat. After a while they learn to walk looking at you and not concentrating on your feet! Not sure whether it works though as we haven't tried it properly yet!

@HappyThursdays sorry to hear about your time with the lab. That would’ve really shaken me up, let alone pup. Good luck if you do go and see the owner. Hopefully your pup will bounce back and enjoy the company of other dogs again soon.

@HappyThursdays ahh a bit far - was going to offer ZombiePup as a happy playful friend for a re-intro; I'm Essex way

I would definitely be feeling the same way about having a word - his dog clearly wasn't under his control, which it should be in a public place.

Well, after what I thought was a few successful nights regarding fireworks.. where ZombiePup really didnt give a flying wotsit about them. He would occasionally lift his head at a loud bang, but carry on chewing a toy etc.

Well, tonight we totally messed up his feeding times. People on the estate had (kindly) posted that they would be doing fireworks and gave a bracket of when they would be happening...
Unfortunately he was eating/had gone out to a wee then back to eat some more, when someone at the back of us let off some massive fireworks. Never heard a dog make such a noise before, he scarpered into the lounge. Upon looking closer (after he relaxed), looks like he purged his anal glands as well? Didnt realise that was a thing, and only a presumption from a quite google

Picked him up, and he sat frozen on me for ages. Gradually he's relaxed a bit to the point of a playing a bit of tuggy, but now is lifting his head at every little bang.

So certainly not as bad as my last dog who you would be able to see shaking from the other side of the house, but certainly not where I had hoped we would remain in the level of not caring.

Any advice eagerly accepted on how to hopefully not make it a big thing and get him back to being chill about it...

Picture added for puppy tax (trying on his Christmas jumper!)

@ZombiePara I’m new to dog ownership so not sure if this will help at all but we’ve been playing the firework sounds on the dogstrust website to Retrieverpup for the last 2 weeks and gradually increased the volume. She’s been like your pup, very chilled with distant bangs and then this evening we had exactly the same incident as you with neighbours letting off massive bangs and she jumped (as did we all!) but that was it so I don’t know if the sounds have helped or not but maybe you could try that combined with treats if you haven’t already?

@Retrievemysanity I may have to I think; I tried with that a few weeks ago to try and gauge any issues we would have and there was zero reaction, even to the loudest volume..
Think i will have to give it another shot just to see where he is in terms of any new fears... especially as there'll be a round two around Christmas and New Year

I find mine who doesn't like fireworks is ok with the normal ones that go bang fizzle etc but the massive single bangs that sound like they are directly above you terrify him. Said on another thread we had one go off in the garden from neighbours when we weren't expecting them and he freaked and ran into a closed glass door. To be honest they 'shock' me so I am not surprised they shock him.

Upon looking closer (after he relaxed), looks like he purged his anal glands as well? Didnt realise that was a thing, and only a presumption from a quite google

Yes that can be a thing and it's happened to mine when he is scared.

Omg @ZombiePara that hair! He is absolutely marvellous! It almost looks like he's wearing a black curly wig - he is very handsome!

I'm sorry to hear about the firework trauma. A friend of ours has this wrap for their dogs head that goes around his ears so the bangs are not so loud. But I'm not sure a puppy would tolerate the wrap!

Dropping in to say a premature hello. We are picking up our Maltese puppy in 11 days (and counting 😄). We are so excited and I have gone into full research mode.

Here is a photo from a couple of weeks ago...

Aw so sweet!!

We have started to watch the dog whisperer which is good and giving us some grounding in what we are doing with Rosie, she gets a bit bitey and rambunctious around 8pm. So we have been doing some dominance training with her. It’s going on.

Today I feel a bit overwhelmed with it all, and worried she’s going to be a Naughty bitey thing. I have to keep reminding myself that she’s only 12 weeks old.

@HappyThursdays I’m so sorry to hear but glad pup wasn’t injured!! I would definitely say something to the owner, it’s frustrating isn’t it if they know their dog is more on the aggressive side but continue to let them roam about off lead when there’s likely to be other dogs about. Totally understand why you wouldn’t want to take pup out on your own now!

We had a incident recently were bearpup was on a walk (on his lead) and we happened to come across another dog so I tried to carry on walking as normal but pup had other ideas and barked and tried to jump over to the other dog, whilst wagging his tail. The owner took one look at pup and said “well isn’t he aggressive, you need to train him better” and walked off! I came home and cried feeling like a total failure

I’m also lurking getting ready to join you if that’s ok? We collect our puppy at the end of the month. First timers!

@BiteyShark thanks for that - I feel even more awful that he was that terrified to have done it... but it's nice to know what it was all over the floor..

@HappyThursdays aha thank you!! He is a gorgeous one... and he knows it! Probably wont be as gorgeous when i get the dog clippers at him when they turn up!

How is pup today @HappyThursdays ?

We've had a nice day. Longish walk and then pup slept while we watched a film. I find this time of day hard though - I want to sit on the sofa without pup jumping and biting at us but she doesn't seem to settle. Even if I have her on my knee she's bitey.

When will the pups start sleeping through the night?
Laytonpup has her last feed at 7;00 pm and she wakes up at 9:30 ish to pee and again at 2:00 am or 4:00 am to go out again. She is awake again at 6:00 am to play! Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?
She is 13 weeks and the sleep deprivation is really taking its toll on us. Any advice ?

Yes sounds about right Professor.
Im lucky that my border collie sleeps from about 830pm right through the night (and has done since about 11 weeks old). But he does start barking to play at 445-515am EVERY SINGLE MORNING.
So I think this is quite common.
I am really hoping he grows out of this soon, or at least delays it by an hour or so!

Thanks for asking @newpup123. He seems ok, a bit hesitant now when out and approaching other dogs and we haven't seen a Labrador yet so I think that will be the real test. It's definitely dented his confidence. He was also v bitey this weekend - dp's dcs are here and though I asked them (and dp told them not to) pick him up all the time (he's getting quite annoyed by that now) they still did it all the time and he gets really snappy and at one stage, one of them picked him up when he was lying down resting and he does this sort of pterodactyl thing when he snaps his jaw. I really don't want him biting them and if they can't listen to how he should be treated then I will need to separate them which is a shame as they are old enough to follow instructions!

@ProfessorLayton1 pup is 14 weeks now I think. We leave him all night now and just get up at 5/6 (well i say we, at the moment, only one of us gets up and that's me - but that's probably a story for another thread - it was dp who really wanted the dog but he's not an early morning person!) - most of the time there is no wee now but we have to be quick to let him out otherwise he will do one straight away.

We had our first dry night last night with no crying and no accidents. Put put out for a wee at 10.30 then a play and then it was happy days!

On the flip side I just did a class and pup thought it was play time and was snapping at my ankles.

I think I'm quite lucky with the sleep. Although pup drives me mad in an evening when she eventually settles down at 9.30ish then I only have to take her out to toilet when I go to bed (often 9.45 😂) and then she goes in her crate until morning. She doesn't cry to get out at all and is usually in there until til 8am. Straight out for wee and poo when I get her up but never accidents in crate.

Anyone got any thoughts on this-Retrieverpup is 12 weeks old today. She’ll go out for last wee around 10pm and settles pretty quickly but then barks around 2am to tell us she’s done a wee in the kitchen! I’ve been going down to let her out in case she needs a poo/more wee which she never does so it ends up with her coming back inside, me mopping up the wee and going back to bed which seems a bit pointless. Do you think if we ignore her she would go back to sleep or are we destined for this until she can hold it through the night?! It’s not a massive issue but would obviously prefer it if she either barked before she needed to go out or just did her wee and went back to bed without telling us all about it. I did think about maybe setting an alarm to get there first but then if I do this then I won’t know when she becomes able to go through the night...

@Retrievemysanity

Anyone got any thoughts on this-Retrieverpup is 12 weeks old today. She’ll go out for last wee around 10pm and settles pretty quickly but then barks around 2am to tell us she’s done a wee in the kitchen! I’ve been going down to let her out in case she needs a poo/more wee which she never does so it ends up with her coming back inside, me mopping up the wee and going back to bed which seems a bit pointless. Do you think if we ignore her she would go back to sleep or are we destined for this until she can hold it through the night?! It’s not a massive issue but would obviously prefer it if she either barked before she needed to go out or just did her wee and went back to bed without telling us all about it. I did think about maybe setting an alarm to get there first but then if I do this then I won’t know when she becomes able to go through the night...

Are you sure she isn't barking to tell you she needs to go out and by the time you get there she has peed?

At 12 weeks it isn't unusual to need to toilet after 4 hours. I went by a guide that said at night typically they can hold it for 1 hour per month of age plus 1 which makes it about right.

I would get a baby monitor so you can hear her get up. Maybe set an alarm for a bit so you can take her out before she has to pee. I did that and just put the time back around 30 mins every 2 weeks.