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

@BiteyShark yeah she barks after. She does it in the day too. Not many accidents in the day as we are quite militant about taking her out regularly but occasionally she will come over to me, bark and I can see she’s left a puddle where she’s just been sitting bless her! It really is as if she thinks ‘oooh I need to tell mum about this because she loves cleaning up my wee’ Will give baby monitor a go, thanks.

@Retrievemysanity I'd set an alarm and try and get up and take her out before she's having the accidents. This will prevent her from barking and habit forming. This is just how we'd done it and it worked well for us but I know other people prefer to only get up if their dog wakes them so it's personal choice.

yes, we also use a baby monitor :)

who was it here who got a dog flap? we are pondering this now as dpup is good about going out to wee if the door is open but he cannot get the bells or barking to go out. He will just wee inside if the door isn't open and we are busy (which we are when working) or we haven't taken him out (he never poos inside though!). The garden will be secure this week so we're hoping we can then just leave him to go in and out as he pleases while we work as it's hard to keep an eye on him all the time and watch out for his wee dance (which he does do!).

Morning all. Polka pup seems unwell and not sure why. He's been awake in the night crying and just not himself. He ate breakfast and went on short walk but ears down and not as perky. I fear he may have eaten something vile on his walk but he pooped as normal. Give it 24 hours and see how he is? It's horrible seeing him look sad 😔

@HappyThursdays

yes, we also use a baby monitor :)

who was it here who got a dog flap? we are pondering this now as dpup is good about going out to wee if the door is open but he cannot get the bells or barking to go out. He will just wee inside if the door isn't open and we are busy (which we are when working) or we haven't taken him out (he never poos inside though!). The garden will be secure this week so we're hoping we can then just leave him to go in and out as he pleases while we work as it's hard to keep an eye on him all the time and watch out for his wee dance (which he does do!).

I've been strongly advised against this by friend and dog trainer. Giving them unrestricted access to the garden basically gives them too many chances to make inappropriate choices - dig up the lawn etc. That's their opinion anyway

oh god he already digs holes , is that a bad thing? he loves burying bones and then he goes back and finds them. I haven't been telling him off because we are not particularly garden proud tbh

having thought we had escaped the worst of his attack, he is sticking to me like a limpet today and won't even go outside to wee unless i'm right there with him which we are going to need to deal with gently!

@polkadotpjs I'm giving Pup 24 hours to see what's what as well, hope your puppy is ok. Pup had a watery poo this morning and has been sick twice. Yesterday was the first, late afternoon but it was just her lunch which she'd literally just had (and promptly re-ate before I could grab her away ) and then H said she did a bit of watery sick after eating grass this morning. She seems quiet, bit snappy and is very tired today. Drinking plenty as normal and not constantly pooing though, so am not worried about dehydration, going to see how she goes on the rest of today and tonight.

Sorry to hear about the poorly pups and attacked pups. I have had really awful cat/dog interactions over the last couple of days. Cats are less nervous of dog and he Is having access to a bit more if the downstairs (totally supervised) so not sure if it’s territorial? Cat 1 basically keeps jumping over the stair gate or menacing him from the other side of it - puppy comes up to gate all excited and tail wagging and cat swipes. Cue puppy losing his rag totally. It’s exhausting. I’ve gone from feeling sorry for cat 1 to just being exasperated with him.

So, was talking to DH about the wee and bark at night and he reminded me we have a camera downstairs. We reviewed the footage and last night Retrieverpup woke up, walked out of crate into kitchen, weed then went to the room divider and after a minute started barking. So a baby monitor won’t help as it was 5-10 seconds from her getting up to her weeing. It reminded me that in the first 2 weeks when I slept downstairs with her, quite often I’d miss that wee because she was so quiet (she was weeing every 2 hours in those days)! So at a loss at what to do really.

Hope all poorly/under the weather pups feel better soon.

@polkadotpjs sorry I hadn't seen your post when I posted. I hope pup is feeling better. I would be more worried with droopy behaviour tbh and if it continues, I would go to the vet as it might be a temperature etc.

@puppygalore pup did the same a few weeks ago - we also waited as he was still drinking and perky but it's tricky to know. His vomit also had a lot of grass in which is apparently typical. The vet did tell us (as we asked her when we went for jabs/his eye thing) there was a doggy tummy bug doing the rounds as they had a few in vomiting

@Retrievemysanity

So, was talking to DH about the wee and bark at night and he reminded me we have a camera downstairs. We reviewed the footage and last night Retrieverpup woke up, walked out of crate into kitchen, weed then went to the room divider and after a minute started barking. So a baby monitor won’t help as it was 5-10 seconds from her getting up to her weeing. It reminded me that in the first 2 weeks when I slept downstairs with her, quite often I’d miss that wee because she was so quiet (she was weeing every 2 hours in those days)! So at a loss at what to do really.

Hope all poorly/under the weather pups feel better soon.

Apologies if this is too obvious but can't you close the crate door? He clearly knows not to wee in bed and so that may result in either holding it til morning or barking before he does it.

@HappyThursdays

oh god he already digs holes , is that a bad thing? he loves burying bones and then he goes back and finds them. I haven't been telling him off because we are not particularly garden proud tbh

having thought we had escaped the worst of his attack, he is sticking to me like a limpet today and won't even go outside to wee unless i'm right there with him which we are going to need to deal with gently!

Ha I think that's fine then! Your house your rules

@HappyThursdays poor pup I think it it supposed to take like 10 positive events to counteract 1 negative one. So I guess that will take time for him to settle again

Today I have been mixing up the routine a bit to try stop pup going mental after walks. So we did a 20 min walk this morning and then straight into crate while I did some work.

Then instead of second walk I've taker her out to the car to practice getting in and out of her bed - but didn't actually go anywhere.

then on a separate trip just sat on the front path and rewarded her with to chicken when she looked at me (rare - everything else was way more interesting!)

@newpup123 well, we haven’t closed the door at all on her yet. She likes to flop in various places so she’s not always in her crate, sometimes she settles for the night on her mat or by the back door. She also hates going in her pen if the door is closed (which we do when we’re eating as she’s a biter) and the buggy if the hood is over. I guess I’m a bit reluctant to shut her in the crate in case it causes a whole load of other problems!

[quote Retrievemysanity]@newpup123 well, we haven’t closed the door at all on her yet. She likes to flop in various places so she’s not always in her crate, sometimes she settles for the night on her mat or by the back door. She also hates going in her pen if the door is closed (which we do when we’re eating as she’s a biter) and the buggy if the hood is over. I guess I’m a bit reluctant to shut her in the crate in case it causes a whole load of other problems![/quote]
Ah ok. I'm a scaredy cat and too worried about what pup will destroy if left free unsupervised 😂 She has already chewed the skirting boards

Polka pup seems brighter tonight and has eaten all his food today and been out walking and aside from mad jumping (see my other thread!) is more perky. He's chewing his string of rubber sausages like mad. Maybe it's teeth again?? Hope the other pups are ok

@newpup123 lol! Retrieverpup is a good girl at night, no crazy destruction and in the day, we are here with our supply of pizzles and ears so she hasn’t chewed anything illegal other than our limbs!

Puppypup can go out today! We’ve not done v well with the lead so far - he doesn’t like wearing it at all. Any advice for first trips out?

First trips out - take someone else if possible! That way they can go ahead and call to pup if he's being stubborn and sitting down dragging. Our first walk was the school run, which worked nicely as pup just ran after the kids.

Hope the poorly puppies are better today!

I want a small rant. Yesterday evening I took ImmaturePup out to the garden 6 times in total, while bloody DH sat on his backside and only took her once grudgingly when I directly asked him to. Then he wondered why I was grumpy and snapped at him. He knows evenings are her danger time for weeing or pooing in the house! As it was on one occasion she had weed by the back door.

@Puppypuppypuppy watching with interest and let us know how you get on as this little beastie had her second vaccination today so next week we shall be in your shoes!!

Just been out! Walked a teeny tiny way round the corner and then came home. It was a very slow big sniff session! Puppypup is now collapsed in a heap.

@Retrievemysanity your pup is looking so well behaved in the car already what’s your secret

We did little walk round the corner. Terrified of cats and shaking but responded reasonably well to the leash and we have been doing some call and return at home. So hoping for good call and return when out and about.

Cars not cats!!

@Retrievemysanity so cute and what a well behaved little thing!