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

We also joke that every day is Happypup's best and most exciting day but today Happypup went to visit the farm where he was born - they have 7 dogs, 3 of which are cockers and are his sister, mum and auntie and he had such a wonderful and exciting time, he can barely move from the couch since he's got back!

We also don't crate @CarolEffingBaskin and Happy has been fine.

We are coming up to 6 months and the vet has sent us a request for a check up as he hasn't been for a while. In their note of things to discuss is when/if we get him neutered which we haven't really thought about yet.

Btw with all the weeing and intervals, something really does click between 5-6 months. Happy was terrible with his weeing but suddenly managed to hold his bladder so much longer so there is light at the end of the long tunnel!

@ashmts you are meant to get a double clip lead to clip on to a front and back clip harness (halti do one) but we only ever used the front clip on its own as anything on Happy's back made him pull harder. If you are looking for a cheap harness to start with, the rabbitgoo one we found quite good to start with. We're now using a perfect fit one as it's got more padding - we had a ruffwear one too but he grew out of it. Cockers are a funny shape for harnesses and we had to try a few and send them back so don't be disheartened if they don't fit at first try!

This is all new to us PoleToPole so appreciate all advice and taking it all on board. Yes, 10-11pm out to pee, then I get up at 3am with HooliePup and we are up for the day usually just before 6am (joys of small DC) so out to garden straight away before breakfast. It's a great schedule to stick to and she is now used to it. Will be ignoring DH's sister, as well meaning as she is. She has a GSD x Malamute. Slightly different from giants!

@PoleToPole your posts are brilliant. They have been so helpful.

We have always had pugpup next to us asleep so generally hear him stir and take him down for a wee, now and then he doesnt actually need to go and then wakes an hour later for a wee but we'd rather get up than take a chance. We used to wake him but he would never wee when we did that. He does sleep for ages without stirring at all so I feel confident he's not just holding it, also he has wee'd and pooed in the crate before if I havent got up quite quick enough when he was younger. He has never been a pup who wees that often anyway so I am not surprised he goes longer at night. From reading these boards every 3 or 4 hours is normal, it's a bit of luck for longer at first I reckon. We have 1 night at about 9 weeks where he slept about 8 or 9 hours and we thought we were so lucky. It was definitely a one off at that age haha.

We put the harness on this evening and put the lead on to stop him chasing the cats. He seems happy enough with it on. He just wants to play with them, when he got close to one earlier he just tapped him but the cat wasn't willing to stick around to find out that he's actually not as bad as he seems

Thank you @blowinahoolie and @PugInTheHouse I appreciate that . It is so hard as its like with DC, everyone has an opinion, and sorting through all of the information and finding things which work for you takes time, puppies and children both seem to have a way of making you doubt yourself.

@blowinahoolie lol yes, definitely helped by small DC who are early risers, I cannot remember drinking a hot cup of coffee recently, guzzling it down cold seems to be the norm now, I have taken to having coffee extra strong in a smaller mug to save time

@PugInTheHouse that sounds like it went really well, hopefully when your cats realise he can´t chase them they will get a bit more confident and interested in him, and often once they want to get to know him they lose their mystique for the pup and are not longer so fascinating to chase.
Another thing you could try is grooming them with the same soft brush, and giving them each a blanket or towel to sleep with and then swapping them, so that PugPup has the cats blanket and they have his. Keep swapping every few days.
Its an old trick but makes them all smell of each other, and fixes the cats = family in all of their minds, which makes things go more smoothly too. PugPup sounds like he is doing so well in general though, and he is so adorable!

Thanks @PoleToPole he is a sweet little thing although I dont think the cats will be impressed that he learnt to climb into the cat tree tonight

HappyPup´s day sounds fab @HappyThursdays

PolePup is doing well, he could probably be DemonPup and still seem like and angel after my Pyrs, and PoleDog as a pup in particular.
The car sickness is awful though, our vet has prescribed him some meds, but suggested it would be better to just keep taking him out on short trips daily to get him used to it. She thinks he will grow out of it, and whilst I admire her optimism, neither of PolePup´s parents, or any of his grandparents every grew out of their travel sickness.

PoleDog grew out of his, so I have decided to remain hopeful. All three of my DC get horribly car sick too, so it is such fun being in the car if I have to take the DC and dogs anywhere at the same time. I am looking at it like a test, sort of like Oliver Queen´s slapping a bowl of water, but messier

Oh no @PugInTheHouse! Crikey that is good going though, he sounds so clever. I shouldn´t laugh but bet their faces will be a picture when they find out!

@PoleToPole it was bad enough when they watched him drink rom their fountain, if looks could kill!!

@PoleToPole I really feel for you with the car sickness thing. I don't know how you cope with car sick dogs and dc! I still get car sick at my age - it's so horrific and that smell takes ages to go! You deserve a medal!

Just a reassuring message for those of you struggling particularly over lockdown.

Newpup is nearly 6 months now and is an absolute dream. Sleeps all night, no toilet issues, walks lovely on lead, friendly to people and dogs but can be distracted away. She's honestly just so lovely and we all adore her now, even DH who was less than keen to start with!

Hang in there and keep up with the training, it's worth it.

Haha oh no @PugInTheHouse!!! PolePup shares the cats fountain and they don´t seem to mind, but they seem to baby him a lot, and are always grooming him and bossing him around. He did drool all over our female cat´s favourite teddy though, and she had such a look of disgust on her face when she picked it up and it was damp.

@HappyThursdays it is grim isn´t it, I still get very car sick too , but I´m fine as long as I am the one driving. Yes the smell, aaargh!
When I was in med school a coroner told me that for the worst times he breaks a cigarette into two small pieces puts one up each of his nostrils as the smell of tobacco apparently negates the other smells. I thought it sounded a bit gross and tbh I wasn´t entirely sure if he was serious or not, but I am genuinely considering it now!

Cantepup is coming to us on 12 Feb. She’s a labradoodle. V excited and nervous. She’s being vaccinated before she comes on 5 Feb but because of the type of vaccine (nobivac Lepto 4) she can’t have her second set until 5 March so it will be 12 March before she can go on the ground. This seems like a long time without being able to walk her properly. Any tips on how to socialise her? Going to other people’s houses or having people round is clearly off the menu....

Cante-there’s some useful stuff about socialisation on the fb dog training and advice pages.
Ours hasn’t been going that well as school run involves a busy road and by the time we’ve got there and back she’s quite over excited/nervous so I think I need to scale that back.
She’s not keen on the car yet either
And she’s quite heavy to carry already so I’ve just ordered a puppy sling! Dh will not be impressed
In other ways she’s still doing pretty well although I’m stressing about training her to be left on her own as so far she’s wanted to be with us all the time

@HappyThursdays That sounds like a great day. So nice that you know pup's family. I think we're going to try Ruffwear first and see how we get on.

@Canteloupe33 A lot of socialisation is getting them used to sights and sounds so you don't need to have people round for that. Ours was fine meeting people once she was out and about at 12 weeks but we have a gregarious wee pup. Depending on rules where you are you could maybe have people round to the garden. Or take her out with you but carry her/use a sling as suggested above. Ours also seems to be going through a delayed fear period so I've been playing sounds on Alexa to get her used to them (traffic noise mainly). What age will she be when she's allowed to go on the ground? I think we were trapped inside for a similar length of time. The main advice I can give you is stock up on boredom busters and make sure your garden is puppy-proofed (secure, no dangerous plants, no loose sticks or stones) because we couldn't let ours in the garden off-lead for a few weeks and it was a killer! Would have been much easier if we could have let her out to run around a bit.

Thanks @Petalpup and @ashmts our garden is very small but it is secure and there are a couple of squirrels who visit regularly, which may cause some excitement! I’ll definitely puppy proof the garden and get lots of toys. She’ll be almost 13 weeks by the time she’s allowed on the ground but we can carry her around, get her used to the car and I assume we could take her to Pets At Home if we don’t put her on the floor. Which sling are you getting @Petalpup?

@Canteloupe33 we had the same vaccinations so pugpup was 13 weeks before able to go out, our vet advised against our garden too due to a fox issue. We just took him out in a carrier, for walks, to restaurants when in tier 2 so he got used to noise and people. He's been absolutely fine. I've attached a pic of the carrier. It has a little clip inside to attach to the harness also

That looks similar to the one I’ve ordered-just got it from Amazon.
Hopefully if I can carry her round the house in it too I might be able to get a few more jobs done as am feeling a bit confined to the kitchen and garden currently!

I decided to change tactic with C4pup to try and tackle the night time/first thing in the morning wee in the house and have been getting up with him in the night, it has went as follows:

Sunday night - up at 3AM, he hadn't wee'd inside - went outside for a wee, next morning no wees or poos in the house

Monday night - 3:30AM - same as above - went outside for a wee, woke up to a wee and a poo inside next morning

Last night - 4AM - same as above - went outside for wee and poo, woke up to wee inside

We go to bed at 10 and get up at 8, so not sure whether to go back to the 3AM wake up (maybe this was beginners luck?) or keep trying later and later until we've missed his inside toilet and go back again and stick to that time. It just doesn't seem to be solving the wee first thing in a morning before I can get downstairs issue.

Any ideas where I'm going wrong? Sorry if this is a long and boring post...

@C4itl 8am is probably too late to get him up. Could you not set an alarm for 7am and take him out then? When I was reading on night time wees it said only push back by 15 mins if they are successful in no accidents but if they are weeing before you get to them then to take back by an hour. It sounds like the later morning is the issue not the middle of the night one. So if you take him at 4am, then set alarm for 7am and see what happens. If OK for a couple of nights push back by 15 mins each time.

Pugpup always went longer from when he went to bed to his first wee in the night but always needed a wee about 7/715 after that.

@C4itl Not boring at all, I feel like I live and breathe toilet training! What age is your pup? Like @PugInTheHouse says it sounds like the later mornings are the problem so you could try the above. I am not a morning person though so tried to avoid getting her up for the day early. Once she started sleeping more solidly we'd set alarms for twice overnight (I think it was like 1am and 4am) and then when she got a bit older we cut that to once at 3am and now she sleeps all night. Could you go back a step and try getting up twice in the night? That only really works if you have two adults in the house and a lot of days off though, if you're working getting up earlier would probably be easier. Does pup sleep in a crate or have room to wander? We've never had an accident overnight since she started sleeping in the crate. If he's pooing overnight it might also be worth reviewing the times of his feeds?

I should probably have added that pugpup has his last meal at 730, we keep some back and at 745 he has the rest on the lickimat while we eat. He will still drink a lot before bed as this is the time he runs around like a demon. He wees 1030/11 usually. Last poo as early as 830pm or sometimes at both 830 and 11 but it makes no difference to night waking. Last night he had poo and wee at 830, wee at 1015ish, got up at 725am and went straight for a wee. He was awake from just after 7 in the crate as I could here him snuffling and licking his cuddly toy.

@ashmts He's 17 weeks, he has full run of the kitchen rather than a crate, so we knew it would probably take us a bit longer to toilet train overnight. He's also a dachshund who are notoriously hard to toilet train!

He gets fed at 8am, 12-1pm, 4:30-5:30pm, so its quite a while before we go to bed, so not sure where we're going wrong there

I'm working from home and DP is on furlough so the sleeping isn't too much of a problem, although ideally I'd like him to sleep longer in the morning eventually.

@PugInTheHouse Yeah it's definitely the morning that's the issue, the fact we're coming down in the middle of the night later and later and there's no accidents proves he must be doing it first thing in the morning rather than at night like I originally suspected. I'll try getting up at 7 tomorrow, which isn't the end of the world as if I wasn't working at home that's what time I'd be getting up to go to work anyway

@C4itl the other things could he be waking early because he's hungry so then as he's awake he needs a wee? There is no way pugpup would go from 430 to 8am without eating (but then he is a pug amd they are always hungry haha)

@C4itl 4.30pm is quite early for his last feed, it must be working its way through his system and he's needing the loo just before you get up. Could you try moving his dinner later to like 6.30pm and seeing if that has any impact? Disclaimer - I have no idea if this will work or make things worse. But I'd imagine he'd get quite peckish going 5pm-8am without food? But I have a totally different breed.

On that note, does anyone with experience of working cocker spaniels have any advice on grooming? So far she had a puppy groom to get her used to the experience but that was basically a bath. She needs her nails cut and she's getting fluffy round her back end but she is quite short-haired. She also probably needs some upkeep with her ear hair. I've read spaniels should be stripped not clipped but does this also apply to working CSs with shorter hair or is it more show type?