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

New collar! Immaturepup is 11 weeks and got second jab yesterday, so walks can start on Mon, thank fuck. From being angelic in the first couple of weeks she’s turned into a bitey little fucker. However, we took her out at 4 and went to Pets @ Home to restock puppy food and choose the collar, and that definitely meant she fell asleep much earlier after her trip into the big wide world. I wanted a collar so that if she tries to bite my face there’s something to grab hold of.

Toilet training is hit and miss - there was a wee on the floor this morning but no accidents since (fingers crossed), but Sunday was awful with endless accidents.

She’s calmed down in the car - whined a bit but nothing like the panic she used to get into. We’ve only done 10 min trips, though.

It definitely all feels a bit relentless right now, though!

We haven’t left pup for any real length of time yet. On sat afternoon we gave him lunch, had a wee, had a bit of play so we knew he was tired. Put in crate and went out to a couple of shops (felt so nice!) we could see him on our puppy cam and he was asleep for the whole time. We were out about an hour. So we feel confident he’d be fine, obv asleep is better and we wouldn’t go out all day long or anything.

@newpup123 have you seen YouTube videos for 'capturing calm'? I think Kikopup does one. I followed that advice and every time Pup was calm, I'd click and treat. Pizzles and bully sticks really chill her out too. So we'll do 20 mins walk, play or training, then I'll encourage her to lie down with a chew or toy after a bumble around the garden. Then after 1-1.5 hours awake it's nap time.

I've not really left her yet, only maybe 20 mins for school fun or for an hour to shop. Always times when it was nap time anyway. Only ever in the crate, I couldn't leave her freely to roam a room. Hopefully we'll get there at some point!

Please pay the puppy tax at your earliest convenience, new contributors!!

I’m a new poster so can’t pay my puppy tax yet but will do so when able ASAP!

Puppy tax duly paid 🙂🙂🙂

I need to start being able to leave puppypup in his playpen. His crate is in there too and hopefully he’ll settle and sleep. At the moment he’s glued to me and whines when I leave the room. I feel like there are loads of things to get him used to and making no progress at all! He’s fine being left at the end of the day but much prefers to nap on the sofa next to me

@newpup123 I hear ya, I can’t wait until the day I can take pup on a walk and come home and be able to just chill with him snoozing beside me or at least be content to just do his own thing!!

Welcome @achangeisasgoodas and @Sazlock! We started leaving bearpup from quite early on. I’ve been wfh and partner is out at work all day so I have been here most of the time but unfortunately my mum was diagnosed with cancer back in feb so I have been visiting with her when possible (bloody lockdowns) so we had to get him used to being on his own for short periods of time. We try not to make a big fuss when leaving him, he’s in a play pen in our kitchen with his food, water, crate and toys. We also set a camera up to watch him (sometimes this makes it harder as I find myself constantly checking him!). We usually take him for a walk and let him out for toileting and then just slip out of the kitchen as quietly as we can. When we’re out he usually just sleeps or potters about with his toys. Then when we come home we try not to make a fuss again, almost act as if we’ve been there the whole time! The longest he’s been left on is own is approx 3 hours (he’s 15 weeks) and he slept nearly all of that!

Back to vets today for kennel cough vaccine/worm & flea treatment. The difference from when I brought her two weeks ago! She’s so much bigger and livelier

Hope your mum is ok @MumofaBear. Lockdown makes that sort of thing extra tricky

Thanks @Retrievemysanity definitely has been a tough situation. Not only that but I’m due to get married in December, which is now hinging on us coming out of our circuit break lockdown!! So this year has been a bit tricky to navigate! Bearpup has helped to some degree but depends on the day, sometimes I love him more than life and others I think about how much easier it might be if I didn’t have to add him to my list of things to deal with!

Oh my life @MumofaBear, well hopefully your wedding will go ahead! Will Bearpup be in attendance, walking nicely on a lead down the aisle?! My dad died of coronavirus in April so Retrieverpup has been a lovely event to look forward to and I suppose extracting her jaws from my leg is a good distraction from all the consequences of that

Sorry to hear about your Dad @retrievemysanity and your Mum @Mumofabear . Hoping pups are a good distraction not an added burden.

I've had a lovely walk with Pickle off lead and her behavior on lead is improving. The leg biting thing is definitely a fear/ overstimulation thing and I'm learning how to avoid that (mostly).

Hope everyone is doing okay. It’s been a mad day again here, please tell me it gets better!

HighlandPup has started to bark, jump and bite/nip but is still wagging her tail so I think it’s play. Are there any tips that anyone can give us? We’ve tried a time out and removing ourselves from the room

Please can I join?! Another lab puppy here.

I'm so sorry to hear you have both gone through such a tough time @retrievemysanity and @Mumofabear. I really hope good things are on the horizon for you.

Our puppy is 11 weeks now and is doing fine so far, he loves his crate at night which is great, I'm not sure I could take many broken nights with the memory of my children as babies still so fresh in my head!

We haven't left him much yet, he does stay by himself in the kitchen while we go into other rooms but he can still very much hear we are in the house. We start puppy classes next week which I am really looking forward to.

Thanks @PicklePorkPie and @oneblacklab. @HighlandCowLover with the time outs, how long do you leave pup for? I read today that it should only be for 15 seconds and so I’ve tried that today and had a bit of success. Needed to repeat it a few times but it definitely seemed to work. Took Retrieverpup for a little drive to the park to look at the action from the car today. Driving back, smelt an aroma and the darling had pooed on the back seat!

@Retrievemysanity yes we only do 15-30 seconds and repeat if we need. Will persevere! Need to remember that it won’t happen straight away!

Oh no to your car though, they always pick the best moments don’t they

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar starting off with short car journeys sounds sensible. Newpup doesn't whine but has been sick a couple of times. Not sure if it was because we went straight after a meal or just too long for her.

@PicklePorkPie interestingly I've had some leg biting a couple of times when I've briefly taken the lead off - there is a field outside our house and I was going to do some recall. It's almost like she got scared she wasn't on the lead and went a bit crazy 🤷‍♀️

@HighlandCowLover

Hope everyone is doing okay. It’s been a mad day again here, please tell me it gets better!

HighlandPup has started to bark, jump and bite/nip but is still wagging her tail so I think it’s play. Are there any tips that anyone can give us? We’ve tried a time out and removing ourselves from the room

Yes it's a real pain isn't it. I'm pretty zero tolerance to it to be honest. I'll offer a toy to play with her but if she keeps going for my legs I'll either put her in timeout briefly (basically involves escaping behind a door) or into her bed for a sleep.

I've had some good success keeping her on the lead inside this afternoon. A friend suggested it, not sure why I hadn't thought of it before! Anyway it's meant that can I stop her jumping up at the kids and also now settled her on a blanket on the lounge floor (where she is now asleep) instead of trying to get on the sofa and generally being a pain in the arse

Morning all!

Pup is still not eating a huge amount and still dreadful on the lead but we went back to the vet yesterday and they are happy with him. Said he's a totally typical working cocker and they aren't worried at all. Even the nicest treats make no difference to him - he would rather be running around!

Sorry to hear about your mum @MumofaBear and your dad @Retrievemysanity . Must be really difficult trying to plan a wedding @MumofaBear with all the coronavirus restrictions!

Morning All! Happy days here as last night was the first night we slept upstairs while Retrieverpup stayed downstairs on her own. She went to sleep at 10pm and woke at 3am and 5am so a big improvement from up every 2 hours!

@HappyThursdays lucky you-Retrieverpup does nothing but eat and that’s no exaggeration!! Not interested in toys at all. But hopefully she’ll enjoy walking once she’s had her final vaccinations... Glad all is well with your pup.

newpup, escaping behind a door from the biting sounds good but aren’t you worried she’ll wee when you aren’t looking?

I messed up yesterday - pup had been out into the garden 15 mins previously, so when she went into the hall and whined I thought she just wanted to go upstairs (DH had gone up and she does whine at the baby gate sometimes) and I just called out to reassure her. Next thing DS shouted that there was a horrible smell... damn it! I do think that when she can go for a quick after-dinner walk these issues will be resolved - 15 minute walk and she’ll have done her evening poo without us having to watch her like a hawk and jump up every time she looks like she might need to go. Also if she’s being mad-dog-bitey then a quick stroll round the park will distract her in a positive way.

Unfortunately our pup still saves up all his poo until he is home (never poos on a walk and had 2 x 25 min walks now)

Although he always goes in the garden - no accidents in the house

Same here, pup is 16 weeks and has been on a daily walk of 20ish mins for the past couple of weeks now and he never poos. I think he’s too distracted by EVERYTHING!

Had first one on one with a trainer Getting advice re Sid's aggressive streak can hone and was firm like he said and this happened