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

@VanellopeVonSchweetz99 is that a mini poodle? Looks like my puppypup 😀

Well done @Retrievemysanity! We had another outing around 4 - basically had a tub of chicken and fed him constantly, plus just guided by him about where he wanted to go. Was fine, he is naturally curious abd friendly and I just need to work out how to facilitate that

Frenchpup is strarting to come out of her shell. She's currently playing hide and seek with Frenchkitten.

We've been out for a couple of short walks today which was good. The advice in France is to get them out as soon as they have had their first vaccinations as waiting until after 12 weeks misses out on vital training weeks. We attached a lightweight lead to her collar but let the lead drag on the floor. Pups at this age just follow you, and the lead is there if you need it for safety. I was sceptical, we certainly didn't do it with ddog 14 years ago, but it really worked.

For early walks I have read that rewarding an interaction back with you is important. So anytime they disengage from the environment and come towards you (or even just look at you) then big praise & treats.

Puppypuppypuppy he is! Brothers you think?

After some advice please, our puppy is nearly 17 weeks old and omg the biting is hurting. Must admit most of it is directed to hubbie or daughter (10 year old). She starts going crazy around 8pm every might, last night it lasted two hours. Please tell me this will calm down :-)

@Sarah75Lou Is she tired? Grannypup is much worse when she is tired and she goes to bed for the night not long after 8. Does she sleep with you or in a crate or a separate room. Even if she doesn't sleep she may benefit from an enforced nap or timeout from you

Thanks grannycake, no she isn't tired as sleeps a lot still in the day. She sleeps in our room in her own bed, through the night. As I am working from home, I am finding it difficult to leave her anywhere without me. She does have a crate but has only just started even stepping into it. Thanks x

what time do you give her dinner @Sarah75Lou?

do you think she'd be settled down with some sort of megachew?

First Emergency vets trip here this morning pup swallowed a whole latex glove on her morning walk. The vets gave her an injection to induce vomiting and back it came, 2hrs later a £150 bill.... poor little mite her puppy dog eyes looked very sorry for herself all afternoon. Silly sod has eaten a range of items (tissues, cardboard, lolly sticks etc) she should’ve have over the last couple of months but this was the worse and we couldn’t cross our fingers and hope all would be ok.. I hope she remembers somehow in her subconscious puppy brain not to eat bright blue gloves again!

Oh my goodness poor pup and you! They really do hoover things up quickly

Omg poor you and poor pup! What a shock. Glad you got a vet appointment and got her seen quickly. Hope she's ok now

Poor pup! how traumatic for all.

Just popping in to say hi to old and new friends. Juiceypup was 8 months old today and is still an absolute delight.

I am so fed up 😭
Coco has been awful today. Biting me so much, every time I ask her not to do something or to do something she has snapped at me. If she gets my jumper she won’t let go.
She’s always been bitey with husband and kids but not so much with me. The chewing I expected and prepared for, but the biting is just horrible. Never known a dog like this and the others in her litter aren’t as bitey (I know from facebook) and I’ve got a couple of friends who have lab puppies and they nibble and chew but it’s not as bad as this. I don’t know what to do I’m getting to the end of my tether with her! No one can relax around her.
She has never hurt any of us, it never gets that far because I’m always there watching her with the kids and apart from our hands we have no skin on show, but we can’t even stroke her without her trying to have a bite.
I just don’t feel like this is “normal”

@BlondieJ did you see my post on the last page? Retrieverpup was exactly the same but since doing what the breeder advised, it’s been so much better and I feel more in control too.

@TriSeaSwim99 eek poor pup and poor you (and wallet!)

@BlondieJ how old is coco now?

I think the biting is tough. Really tough when there's kids around. My kids can only reallly interact with pup when they have kibble to feed her - she usually sits nicely or follows them around then. We are playing lots of games from the Absolute Dogs "sexier than a squirrel" challenge which is actually really lovely to allow them to interact with her in a fun way. Only 5-10 mins at a time.

I've also been doing some boundary training to get her calming down on blanket / bed which is going quite well too. She's definitely clever enough to pick up what she's supposed to he doing, even if she doesn't actually do it!

@Sarah75Lou

After some advice please, our puppy is nearly 17 weeks old and omg the biting is hurting. Must admit most of it is directed to hubbie or daughter (10 year old). She starts going crazy around 8pm every might, last night it lasted two hours. Please tell me this will calm down :-)

Hi. It sounds like you need to work on calmness . She needs somewhere to go where she associates with calm and resting then you can put her there for a nap when she's going crazy. So if the behaviour starts at 8pm I would aim to put her away to nap at 7/7.30 for at least an hour and see if that helps. Can you play lots of crate / boundary games to improve her acceptance of that as an option? Does she have access to her bed in your room during the day?

Thanks for everyone's reassurance the other day. I'm having a terrible case of the puppy blues (how have I never heard of this before?!) and think it had peaked. Things have improved slightly. We weren't letting her on the couch but now she can jump on (I know she shouldn't but how do you stop it at 11 weeks?!) and actually having some cuddles has helped me bond with her. Although when she gets her zoomies and is on the couch it's a total nightmare. I'm worried it's bordering on resource guarding? But maybe she's just being a puppy. We've been in touch with a trainer, she's enrolled in puppy classes from January (their first vacancy) and we're hoping to get some 1 on 1 sessions before that, mainly for us for reassurance and confidence building. Although we're now in tier 4 lockdown (Scotland) so not sure if that'll go ahead.

@TriSeaSwim99 Sorry to hear that! Our pup swallowed stones within a week of coming home and we were blue-lighting her to the emergency vet in tears. Turns out she passed them but it's made insurance expensive as had we swapped provider after her 4 week breeder insurance any investigation or treatment if she swallowed something in future wouldn't be covered. And she's a puppy and a spaniel so she's a hoover.

Thanks I’m sure it won’t be her last trip to the vets as she is a food hooverer!

Hang in there with the puppy biting, keep working on cycles of calm/play/training/enforced rest throughout the day, and yes there’s always a mad zoomies hour or two in the evenings. It does get easier if you are consistent and they really do need some enforced quiet time before it hits. We found the weeks 12-16 the worst then it just naturally started calming. We still get a mad half hour in the evenings then she literally just crashes out snoring straight after.

Thanks for the replies, just quickly catching up before school run madness!
Yesterday was a bad day! I had watched some YouTube vids about bite inhibition so we did some stuff on that yesterday and she was really good, gently mouthing my fingers and if she used teeth I’d say OUCH and she would back off and lick me. Then the afternoon was a full melt down 😂

This thread is always making me feel better, so I really want to thank you all!
It is difficult with a 4, 7 and 11 year old to try and keep the consistency for the poor pup.

She is 11 weeks old and we’ve had her for 3 xx

Blondie I don't think it's helpful to compare your pup to her littermates given pups and households are very different. What I am basically saying is don't be down or hard on yourself and remember Facebook only presents what people want to present.

Watch out for puppy tiredness and them being over stimulated. Keeping the environment calm and enforcing timeouts I found was the single most important thing that calmed BiteyDog down when he was a puppy and he was extremely bitey when he was tired. That might have accounted for your afternoon meltdown.

@BlondieJ we are coming up to 16 weeks this Saturday with our spaniel. I also don't think it's useful to compare but I do think over the course of the 8 weeks that we've had her, I can now see her triggers really clearly.

pupthursday is worse at 2 times - first thing in the morning when he's ludicrously excited and when he's overtired and hasn't slept. In a sense it's really easy for me to see this because we only have dp's dcs on weekends normally. And I can see a massive, and I mean massive deterioration in his behaviour when dp's dcs are around because he doesn't sleep for as long or for as deeply as the kids are disturbing him or he's excited to play with them and stays up longer than he should. I also don't think, no matter what I've said to the kids, that they always play in a puppy appropriate way - I don't blame them for this. But if you manage to get to the puppy classes (ours were all cancelled!) or get a trainer, the trainer told us it's a really good idea to do a session with the kids where the trainer shows them how to play safely with the dog

a few things have made a massive difference

1. once walks start, he does wear himself out on a walk. Though walks aren't really for exercise, because he is a gun dog, his nose is stuck to the ground, he's absorbing all the smells and people around and even if we are only out for 15/20 mins he comes back tired, especially if we fit in 2 walks a day. He really conks out properly at night now he has walks. I would also recommend getting a long lead so he can run in a park and all your lead walking isn't by your side. Pupthurs has run since he was taken out on walks and he really enjoys it and it tires him out.

1. we still enforce naps - if he's getting bitey and looks tired, we shut him in the kitchen where his bed is, ban the kids from going in there and let him sleep for quite a long time. This has probably made the biggest difference to his biting

he is still biting and I can see he is properly teething now and his grip is getting stronger but he will respond to commands to stop better than he used to

hang on in there as they do get more rewarding as they get older!

him her I keep getting it mixed up! we also let him out in the garden quite a lot now as he's very happy outside - we got new fencing so we can safely let him run around and that's also made a difference

one of our big issues now is jumping up and snapping. So he's getting quite big now and will jump up and grab clothing (he ripped one of my coats the other day) so that's one of our new challenges!

Nice thread! I will need it! 9.5 wk old ESS here. In the first week I have found the following items really helpful - a Snugglesafe warming pad for her crate. Fairly solid disc that you heat in the microwave and gives off heat over 10 hrs - first night last night and it worked a dream under her blanket for settling her late evening/night. Biteyness - I have a lickimat I squish a small amount of doggy liver paste on which helps calm her down either morning or evening if a bit ott. Works a treat. Have to take it away when paste gone though otherwise it would just get destroyed. Chewing - we give her half a carrot that she gnaws gradually during the day she seems to really enjoy. That's all I can contribute currently, in case it might be useful. Pic below. Hope you all have a great day, getting lots of small training sessions in! Arf.

Nipping and jumping up - it's a pita isn't it. Our pup has her 'sit' quite well which we try to use, but now going for a louder 'leave it' and lots of praise if she gets down, but it's difficult. If we ignore she just carries on..