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

Thought we had got into a good routine. Did a lovely long walk yesterday and pup was more confident with other dogs.

Last night pup did a poo and a wee inside. Then was rubbish on the lead. Wouldn’t walk!

Definitely one step forward and two steps back with this puppy stuff 🙃

@Retrievemysanity that sounds bollocks to me too. Don't let it bring you down.

@grannycake yes I keep hearing six months! Which is good to know but that's another three months :-) I have to say that it has felt a bit easier this weekend now puppypup can go out. Even that 15 min walk seems to settle him and make him less full on.

@atalune it's definitely one step forward two steps back here too. We can have a good couple of days with toilet training and then a terrible one. And likewise - he's been out for six days and growing in confidence and then yesterday he got spooked and we like day one again!

Things I am struggling with - Pup is very attached to me and although has also bonded with rest of the family he does whine for me if I am in the house and not with him. It's a consequence of me working at home and spending the majority of time with him. And am just worried all the time about what we should be doing with him! The amount of training/ socialisation is a full time job and I already have one of those I have to try and remember to enjoy him.

Our socialisation classes that were due to start this week have been cancelled due to lock down and I was hoping they would help start to get recall outside. When did everyone start letting their pups off lead?

Asides from pulling on the lead, which we are working on, he tries to eat all manner of unsavoury things. Slugs, cat poo, sheep poo, chicken poo - maybe even his own poo if it sat on the ground for more than a nano second ??!!
Trainer tells us that we need to give him things to hunt for instead as he is not using his scenting/hunting abilities for the right things at the moment .......
Any other ideas ?

Our pup was 7mths at the weekend it does get easier at 5-6mth mark. Well it has for us, my friend has a puppy same age and they are still having quite a few issues so it’s puppy specific but we are finding much easier. You do have to really learn to ‘read’ your dog though I think. So are more anxious some more hypo, some need more quiet down time. Our pup still needs 1-2hrs crate nap time in the day, 2 good walks with off lead time, a licki Mat calms her down, a bit of brain training everyday, lots of positive reward stuff. Stick at it, do the training, enjoy the cuddles, and accept the first 18mths is a big adjustment for everyone I think. And hopefully the reward will be a calm, loving loyal cuddly companion I feel like we are halfway there, lots of things to work on and adolescence is starting to kick in too...

We got a miniature dachshund a week yesterday, we're getting the hang of toilet training during the day, he has started going to the door for a wee during the day!

He tends to sleep from around 8:30 - 10:30 at night when we wake him up for a final wee before bed, but he just won't settle in his own bed...he needs to be sat on someone's knee to fall asleep. We have been allowing this just because we are so tired but ideally we'd want him to put himself to bed instead of relying on us. This happens throughout the day too. We normally wait until he is falling asleep, then carry him to his bed and wait for him to be completely asleep before walking away, but this is something we'd like to stop eventually.

Any advice on how to make him more independent, both with sleeping and playing? I'm working from home at the minute and DP is on furlough, but he will be going back to work soon so I need to get the puppy into a routine of entertaining himself sometimes whilst I'm in meetings, ect.

C4, chews, licki Mat, kongs, toys and crate training work for us when on work calls etc. We did crate training from Day 1, it’s saved my sanity on many a day. Not all puppies take to it but ours is covered 3/4 by a sheet in a separate room so it’s quiet and puppy happily trots in there when she needs down time. I do have to engineer it sometimes so quick 5mins run around garden or do some training plus make sure she’s weed & then pop her in the crate. The max she’s had during day time is 2hrs, so we don’t use it excessively.

I realise I haven't done crate training properly at all. Am really lucky that Puppypup just accepted being in his crate at night from day 1 but doesn't use it at all during the day. Maybe I need to read up again on getting him to nap in there during the day

@TriSeaSwim99 We haven't crate trained him, but he has his bed and food in the kitchen which has a baby gate across the door. I bought him a Kong but he doesn't seem to be that interested in it, I don't think he can work out how to get the food out of it. Maybe a lickimat will be better...

We need to start training him to be on his own whilst we're out of the house too.

Thanks all, just to clarify, it was the other owners who said they didn’t really have problems with their pups biting. Breeder was really helpful but she did worry me a bit when she said about needing to sort it before something bad happens. Anyway, I sent her a few videos and we had a good chat and I feel more confident now. I think being a first time dog owner it was so hard to tell if the biting was playing or aggression and in any case, it bloody hurt and was upsetting my eldest DD so nice to feel a bit more in control. I know everyone says it gets better but there was always that niggle in my mind that it might not especially seeing as someone on the Retriever FB page said they were still having issues at 14 months old. Not sure if that makes any sense. Retrieverpup being a good girl so far today, hurray!

Does anyone have a flirt pole?! Ordered one off Amazon and it was great for a 10 min play in the garden, wore pup out and a nice safe distance away from feet and hands!

Hi all,
I am feeling very overwhelmed and down today. We have had Lab pup for 4 weeks now and she is 12 weeks and she is very bitey, is only having short naps in the crate today. I took her out for her short walk and I practically had to drag her. She just didn't want to walk, kept sitting right down. She was fine over the weekend so not sure what had happened today. Was so looking forward to having a puppy but I feel like this is a never ending battle. I feel so tired. I have also been reading up on spaying and am now stressing about that already as I've read that she shouldn't go for walks and to just play in the garden for 3 to 4 weeks!! So am dreading that already.

@Retrievemysanity The flirt pole was very useful when grannypup was extremely bitey. I could also use it while I was in meetings online as i could just dangle it and even better it didn't squeak!

@grannycake

@coolmum123 I was feeling like that yesterday! Wouldn’t worry about spaying yet as it’s a long way off still and the dog you have then won’t be the same as she is now. We have our first walk with Retrieverpup tomorrow so no doubt I’ll be having lots of fun with that!

Update: He's been quite calm all day (entertaining himself, generally not as hyper as he has been) so we decided to leave him in the kitchen and have a walk around the block. I let him outside before we left and by the time we'd got back he was screaming and had done a poo on the floor . We were gone for no longer than 10 minutes.

Now that we're back he's really hyper, biting everything...

Is it just a case of persevering and going out for 10 minutes each day and slowly increasing it?

@C4itl what did you leave him with to keep him occupied? I know lots of people say to build up leaving them but I’ve just been leaving Retrieverpup with a kong or treat ball while I do the school run (40 mins) and she’s been fine.

hi @C4itl he's still quite little isn't he. And some take longer with attachment issues than others. We slept downstairs with dpup for a week then slowly moved his bed further away.

if he is that distressed with you leaving, personally I would go back a step and not leave him yet (if that's possible). It sounds like he needs a bit more reassurance. Are you sleeping downstairs with him?

he will eventually get too tired and fall asleep at night time though but I think it's worth being close for reassurance - he doesn't need to be on your lap but probably worth being near enough to say 'shh' or 'go to sleep' etc.

Hello! Could I join? (Tax attached ). We're collecting our black lab pup this weekend at 8 weeks.

I've been following the thread for a few weeks and am now equally excited and terrified - in fact was saying to DH earlier that I'd feel far less intimidated by bringing home a newborn!

Would love to hear views about how to manage the nights - the first one and the first few weeks. We've received madly conflicting advice - everything from leave them and expect them to use puppy pads and they'll wean themselves off as soon as they're able, wanting to keep their crate clean, to at the other end, sleep next to them and take them out every two hours, extending the time between trips gradually as they grow, probably over months....

@Retrievemysanity I tried giving him a kong with banana inside but he wasn’t really interested, he enjoyed the banana once it was out of the kong so maybe he just hasn’t got the hang of it yet or the kong is just a bit too big for him atm...

@HappyThursdays we’re not sleeping downstairs with him, at first we were going down to him in the night when he was crying but found that he was just wanting to play and nothing we were doing was settling him down, so we started to leave him at night and now after crying for a little bit when we first put him to bed he settles for the night until the next morning (I think purely because he’s hungry as he wolfs his food down in the morning)

@C4itl my pup is older than yours I think (13 wks) and he would lose his shit if we left him totally alone for 10 minutes - so far he's only been able to do that for really short periods (2 or 3 minutes tops). He basically sleeps 10.30 - 730 in his crate downstairs but that's the only time he is on his own. Not saying that's a good thing at all, we have gone too far the other way probably and I need to try and get him used to being in the crate in the day time otherwise we'll never be able to leave him. I will probably start with him being ok in a room on his own for a more substantial period of time.

On the sleeping, like @Retrievemysanity I slept on the sofa with Puppypup in the crate for a week or so - moving it a bit further away every night so it ended up where we have it now. Touch wood he has been fine since and sleeps a really good chunk of time without needing to get up in the night.

gorgeous @paddypaw :)

I do think every pup is different. We slept downstairs for just over a week and tbh by the end of the week, we didn't really need to be there. For some it takes days, some a week, some it takes 3 weeks, it just depends on the puppy I think

we took him out when we went to bed around 10/11pm, then if we remembered to wake up or he woke us up (which I think he did), in the middle of the night (like 1/2am) then normally we were up around 5/6am anyway - we probably had disturbed nights for about 3 weeks but I know some on this thread settled down a lot quicker

he is 15 weeks and been dry at night now for a few weeks but we had an accident friday night when he (unusually) hadn't done a poo before bedtime so we suspected it would happen (it was pissing down outside and he just couldn't get comfortable) so I think be prepared for accidents for quite some time!

he was worse during the day - even now he'd happily pee inside but he is out regularly enough not to and he now mainly poos on his walks. They pee A LOT when they are young. More than I thought. So the best thing is to just keep taking them outside and then do massive happy pee dance and treat when the pee appears outside!

sorry I mean like @HappyThursdays! Welcome @paddypaw what a gorgeous pup! As I said above we did the sleeping next to him. It was a pain but he is v happy in his crate all night now.

We never used puppy pads as puppypup just rips them up and runs around with them

@HappyThursdays when did he start pooing and weeing on walks? Puppypup holds it all in until he gets home

@Puppypuppypuppy he’s settled down a lot faster at night than I was expecting! I put a T-shirt in his bed that I’d been wearing all day wrapped around a hot water bottle and that seemed to work, although I think I need to switch it out now as the smell has faded and just smells like the hot water bottle!

Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow but only for 5 minutes stood outside the front door to see how he reacts, then adjust the time according to that from then on. Ideally I’d like him to be fine to be left for an hour by the time he gets to 12 weeks, as DP will be back at work then and I may have to pop out during the day for shopping etc.

hi @Puppypuppypuppy a few weeks ago I think? it's got to the stage now where if he hasn't pooed on a walk, we know there will be an issue later!

he needs a poo first thing in the morning and that's when we take him for a walk (730am), then his afternoon walk is v work dependent for us. Dp took him today at 3pm as he had a break but he didn't poo. I think we'd like to wait till later and would do if it wasn't pitch black but we've just ordered some new head torches so we can take him out after work.

@C4itl that sounds really good at night! can you start during the day with him in one room and you in another? at least he knows you're in the house then