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

Jofipup is gorgeous!!❤️

Jofipup has such a cute face

Re settling in pugpup has always been super confident he came from a family home not a breeder as such with kids and other pets so I think he was really well socialised. He had spent time at other houses too as the breeders mum looked after the mum and pups mostly. Being a pug he is greedy and never not eaten food either

I think it is more usual for them to be a bit nervous though.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat ours isn't keen on the dry food either, we usually need to mix a wee bit of something tasty in with it (peanut butter/cheese) to tempt her. I wanted to switch her food to something that gets better nutrition ratings but the vet actually advised us to leave it another few months. Probably worth speaking to your vet before you make any changes.

@blowinahoolie Is DH's sister a vet/dog behaviourist? Ours wouldn't have lasted overnight at 14 weeks but yours is a larger breed so might be fine. I doubt you'd be at it forever though... We started getting up at 3am, then 4am, then 5am etc to gradually leave her longer to see if she tolerated it.

All good here, still struggling with loose lead walking and chasing birds, and she seems to have developed a fear of main roads, but we're getting there. She's much easier to be around in the house now, I'm finding I can relax and watch TV for a few hours and my whole day doesn't revolve around her like it used to.

ashmts no DH's sister isn't a vet but is animal mad and knows a lot about dogs. I think she was trying to be helpful, but doesn't word it tactfully 😬 we will see how HooliePup does tonight for six hours but if it's too much we can drop to five hours, or back to four which is what we have been doing anyway. If I need to keep taking her out through the night a few extra months I will, it's not a problem🙂

Glad life is more predictable as they get older. It's a relief to hear that!🙌

Aaww jofipup is so adorable!!!

First walk done! He was a whirling dervish, whining and jumping and straining against the lead the whole way. Just made it down the road and back. He met one other dog so that was great, said hello and was a bit freaked out.

Pugpup seems to have a few lumps under his chin, they look like white/red spots, they are hard to touch. Does anyone have any ideas what they could be?

JofiPup and PetalPup are absolutely gorgeous! BaskinPup arrived home yesterday and I think she's lulling us into a false sense of security!

We've had no accidents at all in the house, she's even occasionally sat at the back door and whined to be let out, then immediately weed/pooed. We're taking her every time she wakes and after she eats and she goes every time. I've taken her after play sessions too, but she wont go, she prefers to go straight to sleep and then go to the toilet when she wakes, is that OK?

She slept really well too: from 12 until 4.30, went out for a wee and then slept until 8am. No other disturbance at all. She's a bit mouthy, but to be expected and she's easily distracted onto toys instead of fingers at the moment. Apart from a bit of whining in the day yesterday she's seemed very settled and happy.

Is she going to turn into a weeing, pooing, screaming machine in the next week or so? Should probably caveat, we've chosen not to crate train and she sleeps (slept) in her bed in our room, which is where we intend for her to sleep anyway, so perhaps this is why she seemed easier than expected?

Tax attached

@CarolEffingBaskin you may be ok, pugpup slept 11-430 then 430-7 from day 1, he now goes 7/8 hrs in a row so generally 11ish till 630am. He has never woken up more that once a night other than an odd night or two where he seemed restless and stirred a lot (didn't need a wee).

His biting was fine for the first week but got worse till about week 14, he is getting better as we have been working with a trainer so we are better at dealing with it now, I think he has calmed down also.

The lickmat has been a game changer, we managed dinner in peace and longer last night as he had a lickimat with peanut butter.

Thanks Pug that’s really reassuring. I think we’d mentally prepared ourselves for utter chaos and for her to be really sad and whiney so the fact she isn’t either of those things has thrown me a bit.

We have a lick mat for her but haven’t tried her with it yet. I was planning on doing so at dinner time today. She had a kong yesterday but didn’t really seem to understand what to do with it! Hopefully the lick mat will be a bigger hit.

We haven't tried the kong yet, I have ordered one though. He loves the lickimat, its possibly a more natural reaction as its sniffing and licking. Same with the snufflemat although he likes weeing in that as well as eating from it! I usually give him his last meal and keep about 5g back of kibble, then when we are eating I spread some peanut butter on and sprinkle the kibble over the mat.

Pugpup was such a happy little thing when he came to us, loves everyone and immediately became my shadow. He's never cried at night going to bed but he does cry when I leave the room or even go out of sight. He felt settled immediately which was nice. The thought of him leaving his litter mates upset me so it was a relief.

@PugInTheHouse happypup also came from a family (who lived on a farm) so he was also really well socialised when he came to us. Dp works with the dad in the family and they have to sort out a customer tomorrow - they kept a girl from the litter so tomorrow happypup will be meeting his sister again for the first time since he's been with us! I've told dp to get lots of pictures!

Where exactly are the spots on his chin? Happypup got some bare patches a few months ago with what I thought were spots but the vet said it was ok (he is black with white flashes and it just turns out part of his muzzle is a bit grey/barer there). He also has some spots which are like moles with hairs growing out of them.

@HappyThursdays they look like human pimples really, under his fur so not bare patches

Baskinpup is beautiful, so fluffy. Feel similar with being lulled into a false sense of security, Jofi pup woke up once for a wee at 2ish and then slept through til 6! I, however, couldn't sleep at all because I was listening out for any slight noise! He's also not been awake for longer than about 45 minutes at a time today, but then his sleeps aren't super long either - I'm a bit nervous about how it's all going to work out when work starts this week. I'm WFH but my partner is out at work, quite long days. I moved my schedule around before Christmas to work better for puppy but all gone out the window now with this lockdown. Any tips for a straight 45 mins of quiet/napping? Am I asking the impossible? He had his first lickimat today but just with his soaked kibble mushed up - it lasted about 10 minutes

Well done on first walk Rabbit! We sat at the end of the driveway today to watch the world go by but absolutely nothing happened, hopefully it still helped building his confidence.

@PugInTheHouse re lumps under chin - I've found very similar sounding lumps in just one of Jofipup's ears, planning to ask the vet about it this week as I have nooo idea.

@PugInTheHouse I had issues a couple of weeks ago with scaly patches/pimples on pup's tum. The things the vet thought could be fungal or a food allergy. Got a second opinion from a different vet who took a scraping and said it was bacterial and totally normal for puppies. It's worth getting a vet check-up (from a good vet, unlike the clown we were registered with) to see what's going on but probably nothing to worry about.

I am getting absolutely fed up of her pulling. It's making walks so unpleasant. Her fear of cars is getting worse too, she practically pulled me into the road earlier. Speaking to our trainer about it this week so hopefully we'll get it sorted.

@MyRabbit79 just wanted to reply to your post about not being able to wear nice clothes. The biting does pass and I can even wear my fluffy slippers now without getting my feet attacked! You just have to embrace the old hoodie/leggings/Ugg boot combo for a month or two.

@ashmts the pulling is a mare. Happypup now walks ok on the way back but is still horrific on the way out. It was really muddy, wet and slippery today and I had to give him to dp as I knew he was going to pull me over. It's still his excitement levels that are the issue and he is far better but we are nowhere near acceptable level yet! Does she love her ball yet? As letting Happy see his ball does motivate him to walk closer but that only twigged fairly recently

@ashmts what are you doing to stop the pulling? Just wondered if we all share the tips we have been given then something might work for all our pups. My trainer has said every time they pull just stop walking, don't yank back, just say wait then wait for them to give some slack then say let's go. It works as in he stops, waits and looks at me for the next instruction but 5 seconds later he will do it again

To me the spots look like tiny infected areas, so pretty much like pimples, we switched to metal bowls only last week but maybe it was too late by then and it was the bowls. I'll call the vets tomorrow.

@ashmts thank you for the reassurance that the clothes ripping will end! Just feel so scruffy and tired all the time.
Hope you solve the pulling, I think we'll have a similar issue. I've heard the stopping method too, so will try that when he's had a few walks.

Essentially if they are ahead of you and pulling to go further, they aren't engaging with you. If you can get the puppy to engage and continue to listen, you can get them to walk to heel because at your heel, they are essentially ready for your next command because they can look up and watch you and see what you want them to do next

We tried the stopping, turning around etc. and nothing worked but that's not to say it won't work for a different dog.

Front clip harnesses help too - anything clipped on his back and he behaves like a sled dog.

On the way back from his walk, he's tired and he's much less energetic so he's happier walking a bit slower and he wants a treat so he knows he will get treats if he walks nicely hence walking well on the way home. On the way out, he just can't wait to get to the park so he finds it almost impossible to calm himself.

Engaging with them is key - you'll look like a mad woman at first but that's the one thing I've found has made a difference but it's taken months rather than weeks and been v slow progress!

(And he's still dreadful compared to most dogs but for an excitable, confident dog I think we are doing ok lol)

@HappyThursdays she's not that bothered about her ball, or toys in general actually. I threw the ball for her yesterday and she just looked at it.

@PugInTheHouse I've been trying to train her to walk next to me by using treats at hip height. Works fine in the house/garden but as soon as we get outside it doesn't really work. She'll take the treat then pull immediately, then I call her back with the treat and it repeats. Feel like I'm then treating her for pulling. I've also been doing the stopping when she pulls which makes a 15 minute walk more like 25 minutes. She's started whimpering when I do that though, eager to get going again. She's never been a whiny dog, even as a tiny puppy. All very annoying.

@HappyThursdays sorry cross-posted with that last post. We don't have a front clip harness so I think that's the next step. I manage to get her to walk nicely for maybe 100m in a row sometimes but I have to constantly talk to her and tell her she's a good girl so yes I do look completely mad! And she is still in front of me, not to heel, so we need to work on that. Interestingly we met my SIL for a walk this afternoon and she took the lead and pup's pulling was terrible. She gave the lead back to me and pup walked nicely for a few minutes before she started pulling again. Maybe we're getting somewhere, but it doesn't feel like it at the time!

@ashmts yes same here, we hardly get anywhere as I spend my time telling him to leave it, drop it, stopping etc. We have stopped treating on walks completely which has help as what he does is the same and purposely does the wrong things on order to get the treats (pretends to pick up leaves then drops them and sits for a treat). It has made it better since we stopped that. It is such a long haul and I feel like I need to take a week off work to really sort things. I am off half term so I can try and consolidate everything then if need be I guess.

It feels like I am complaining about him so much but he really is a sweet thing. The training is harder when DH and DSs are around and they just don't stick to anything they should with him.

Hello everyone.
@MyRabbit79 I had a pair of jeans that I washed and wore thst were torn and awful from all the biting when riverpup was younger. I got them out the other day to do some decorating and realised how ragged they were but it does pass I promise. I think I even asked on here would I ever be able to wear loose linen trousers again and the answer is I think I will.
With pulling riverpup had been doing ok on the harness but I took her out on a lead today and she almost burst her eyes out at first but we then walked with me having a clicker and loads of treats snd each time she got in right position it was click and treat. At first there was a lot of stopping and starting but by the end she did a lot better and think she realised nice walking equals loads of treats, pulling equal strangulation. I could see I haven't done enough pure lead walking with her so need to build that in much more and do walks only about on lead walking not about going to woods or park.
I also think getting her engagement and looking at you is really important, we try and work on this daily but agree it is about a lifetime of friendship and trust so takes time.