Puppy Survival Thread - December

[Hellin301]

Day 5 of new puppy and I’m wondering what possessed me to go through all this he’s a little devil at times, most of the time actually with odd moments of cuteness

@Soppyspanieleyes sorry to hear about your lovely dog and thank you for telling us about her, it does give me hope!

Anyone else not able to wear clothes they don't want ripped to shreds? I just want to have my hair down and be able to wear my slippers!

Frenchpup is doing well, for the most part. House training is done in that we don't have accidents, but she doesn't yet ask to go out we need to remember. Down to about every 2 hours during the day so not a problem. She sleeps through the night until 6am when our alarm goes off, we have had as late as 7am at weekends.

Training is going well, sit, down, place, all good. I'm not teaching stay I'm teaching free as a terminal marker (from Nate Schoemer youtue videos).

I'm mostly walking her on a long lead at the moment as we haven't been able to crack not pulling and I need her walks to exercise her. I'm working part time in the mornings so she is left alone, with a kong. No signs of any SA and she gets very excited about the kong.

It all sounds great written down, but I still seem to be spending all my free time dealing with her (the rest of the family despite promises always seem to have something else to do. They do things if I ask but they never think).

Our 2 biggest problems are the puppy biting, which seems to be getting slowly better but ignoring wasn't helping so she either gets shut out of the room or I hold her collar and try to calm her down (Mccann dogs training videos). The other is that she farms stuff. Anything she can get her teeth on. Shoes are of course a favourite (changing out of slippers into shoes is a comedy act as she steals whatever isn't in my hands or on my feet) but also pens, paperwork, shopping bags, school bags ... She takes them away back to her bed to chew on. She doesn't really to much damage at the moment but we are not a tidy family and we are having to learn to put everything away and keep the living room door closed (a work in progress with my dd). At some point she is going to eat something she shouldn't.

Sorry that was long. To those at the beginning of this journey, it does get better, but I'm still a way to go before a return to normal life.

@Frenchfancy I am the same in that most of the work (and the mental energy) of dog care falls to me and it takes up a lot of time! I guess it won't always be this way but I have lost any sense of when that might be!

@HappyThursdays Puppypup also picks stuff up. Had a horrendous moment yesterday when I saw he'd eaten something chunky and was afraid it was poo. Pulled it out of his mouth (thinking - has it really come to this that I have to do this sort of thing), hand covered in brown stuff, only to discover it was chocolate. Gross but not as bad as I thought.

Same here re care of the dog, I work full time and have to look after him all day everyone is around in the evening and I still have to look after him as well as doing dinner etc. The kids aren't great with him when he's bitey. I'm having a really bad day today and feeling a bit resentful to be honest.

I had planned to start doing some time leaving him for short periods every hour but he seems to be weeing when he is told he can't doing something or if we are ignoring him. Its bloody exhausting.

Happypup pooed a perfectly formed tiny plastic tube today - thankfully a small one which didn't hurt him as it went through. It must have been part of the takeaway hoovering he did on the pavement yesterday grrr. We know the house is safe but we are worried about how he walks when his nose is down and even if that wasn't in the takeaway, there is no way I would have seen it :(. I do worry about keeping him safe from hoovering stuff he shouldn't. He will sometimes do great walking, looking up at us, on a loose lead but not all the time and when he isn't, he is in full on hoovering mood.

@PugInTheHouse I totally get those days too. Today Happypup flew through the air and launched himself at my computer mid conference call and managed to knock it into magnified x300 mode. I was presenting and couldn't figure out how to make it back to normal! I do remember thinking Happypup was weeing when we ignored him but he did go from being terrible with wees to suddenly getting it. I really think it was an age thing. It took us longer than most but I think it was around the 21/22 week thing when toilet training just suddenly clicked. His little friend the cookerpoo who is 2 weeks younger than him (so 22 weeks) is still pooing inside every now and then. I think the issue is the PugPuppy is so clever that it seems as though he should be doing better at toileting but he probably just needs to mature a bit more.

@HappyThursdays I'm really worried about hoovering stuff up on walks too, we haven't even had our first walk but I've seen what he's like in the house and garden. I wonder how others deal with it?

@happythursdays it got worse today before it got better. Tried to take him for a walk this afternoon and he just picked up every single thing off the floor he saw (he's been so much better with this all week). He saw a delivery man, tried to run over to him but I was practicing stopping to get him to wait so he started barking and crying, something hes not actually done before. My son came out to help and he was no good for him either so I just took him back inside. He started sniffing round the back door so we took him outside and he wee'd and pooed so some success!!

Trouble is we are almost re training him with toileting. He was brilliant indoors on a pad at the back door from almost straight away, fairly reliable at going off there even if in the middle of playing, no poo accidents for weeks so now not only was I frustrated he pooed and wee'd on the carpet but also i kept taking him out only for him to come back in and wee. I am being unfair as he can't be expected to just know that's what he now needs to do. I am just tired and grumpy

Sounds disgusting but I removed the pee pad from the back door so if he had a wee on the tiles then I could wipe it up then wipe it on the grass near where he seems to like to go outside. It possibly worked as he did wee there when he went out.

That does sound like the sort of thing one of my cats would do, one of them managed to turn my screen upside down and the other turned on narrator mode on DS2s chromebook, we had no idea how to fix that one lol.

Hes asleep now so he's all peaceful and cute. I feel relaxed other than the fact I want to put my pjs on and if I move he'll wake up, then he'll cry if I leave

Yes I swear I'm going to have urinary retention issues as I've just held onto a wee for about an hour as he fell asleep on my leg fgs!

Haha yes same here

C4pup has started to eat his frozen poos I haven’t had chance to pick up from the garden

I thought I’d come back and update after my miserable weekend last week and say we’ve had a much better week! It’s such a rollercoaster isn’t it? I had no idea!

GeorgiePup still isn’t keen in dry food, should we just give up? We mix feed at the moment but he pretty much skips the meal if it’s dry- he used to eat it begrudgingly but has got less and less. We tried scattering it, putting it in feeding games, snuffle bowl etc. He just isn’t impressed.

Does anyone else’s puppy sleep outside of the crate during the day? GeorgiePup does but he always chooses the doorway between the sitting room and the kitchen! He never tucks himself away somewhere cosy, I’m worried he’ll get trodden on one day.

We have the groomers on Monday, fingers crossed they don’t get told to close before then, he’s desperate!

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat happypup isn't crated so he sleeps where he likes during the day -he has a bed (though you would never know it!) but his favourite spot is on the couch on his favourite cushion!

Have you tried making the dry food wet? We soak it in warm water (tbh now he's older he's happy with cold but we started with it warm) and he seems to prefer it that way

I've just stood in the freezing cold rain in my pyjamas for a minute because even at his age now he hates going for a wee in the rain! The things we do!

Please can I join you? We’ve had our puppy for a week now. She’s 9 weeks and is amazing!
She sleeps a lot which has made things easier and we’re managing the toileting pretty well with normally only one or 2 wee accidents and so far all poo outside-she even asked to go out for one this morning by tapping the door.
We haven’t been able to take her out much to see the world because the weather has been so dire and she doesn’t like the car much yet.
She can be a bit mouthy but we’re still waiting for the real nippy biting to kick in (although she will go for loose clothing if we’re not careful!)
She loves her toys and shredding cardboard boxes!

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat pugpup is more than happy with just dry food but he eats in all in about 10 seconds. He eats wet food much slower so in the evening I put half wet and mix in half a portion of dry.

@HappyThursdays yes he has a bed too and blankets and lots of cosy things but still chooses the middle of the hard floor 🤣 He comes on the sofa when someone is sitting with him but he’s too small to jump up/down by himself. He would probably jump down but could hurt himself. Great idea about the food, I’ll try soaking it 👍 Thank you.

@PugInTheHouse it’s weird how different they all are! GeorgiePup wolfs down his wet food and I mix in dry hoping he won’t notice!

And welcome @Petalpup Super cute Puppy!

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat I wonder if because pugpup has a flat nose the wet food is tricker? Last night we spread banana on a lickimat and then put his kibble on top of that to try and make it last longer. I have tried snufflemat too but he likes to wee in it for some reason

"Does anyone else’s puppy sleep outside of the crate during the day? "

Yes, Georgie our puppy doesn't sleep in her crate during the day. She only gets put in the crate during the day for crate training purposes. We all leave the room for a set time. I am building up to 20 minutes... currently day 5 and she is on 14 minutes being left 🤞

She prefers to stretch out on kitchen or dining room floor for her naps. She likes to nap under tables😂

@blowinahoolie 14 mins is great. Please can I ask how you are doing this? Do you just leave in the crate then come back after a set time regardless of whether they are crying/barking?

PugInTheHouse we put a few of her favourite toys in the crate, a ball which you can stick kibble into is a great one. Keeps them busy. She also will use buffalo horn too to chew on...

We all leave the living room, set a timer on my phone and we head upstairs to the bedrooms and play with toys/read with the kids for this time. I shut the living room door. She does whine/cry briefly around two minutes into this, but calms herself down quickly. The breeder said she needs to get left and get used to. We gave her time to get used to her new home for a few days first before starting crate training.

I am going up in two minute increments just now, which isn't severe. Ultimately I really need her to settle down in a crate comfortably once kids go back to school and nursery so that I can head out to supermarket and home again. Usually 45 minutes all in left alone. I know this will take time to get to this level so I am starting gradually building up before lockdown ends.

Hello everyone. We have a labradoodle puppy arriving on 12 Feb. I grew up around dogs but haven’t had one as an adult and I feel like there’s so much I don’t know! I’ve read Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy but where do I get the non-training knowledge from eg on what and how much to feed her, amount of exercise (I’ve read 5 mins per month of age) and grooming etc? Thanks in advance!

Thank you so much blowinahoolie, thats really useful to know, the lickimat seems to be working well and we have a kong on the way.

He understands 'on your bed' command so we have been using that so we can eat in peace but he seems to get board within 2 mins but today I used peanut butter and not only have we had lunch, I left the room and am now having a coffee and he's still there haha!

I am guessing eventually they won't need bribing with food to stay in the crate happily?

PugInTheHouse you're welcome 🙂 sounds like you are doing great in other areas we aren't with our pup. All swings and roundabouts. They get there in the end. I might order a lickimat too, sounds like it might appeal to HooliePup.

DH uses bribery with a few pieces of kibble to get her into her crate last thing at night. And a gentle nudge to put in her crate as she sometimes huffs about it.

DH met up with his sister and her dog today at the local park. She was saying at 14 weeks old that most puppies should last 8 hrs without a toilet break. We have been getting up at around 2am last few nights. She said we will be at this forever and best to just nip in the bud now and chances are HooliePup won't mess the crate. DH going to put her in at midnight tonight and see if she lasts until 6am🤞

Hi all, Jofipup is home!! He was a bit nervous at first and whined for a few minutes, but has eaten a bit, been for a couple wees, played a bit and is now sleeping in his crate! Were your pups nervous at first? How long did it take them to settle in?

Great reading about all your experiences although I'm a bit nervous about what's to come!