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

@ashmts she’s nearly 12 weeks so maybe there’s hope for us yet. I’ll try an old dressing gown cord thanks - at least that will keep some distance between us

Just marking my place on the December thread!

We are on day 13 with Frankinpup and oh my days!! The biting!! He has so many chew toys and lovely things to play with (we play with him too obviously) but he'd rather bite my hands, face, slippers, feet! Doesn't bite DH, only me. Any tips? I've tried everything my (many books) have suggested like withdrawing attention (he'll just clamp onto my leggings / slippers and be dragged around if I walk off,) yelping (spurs him on) diverting attention with toys (doesn't work) and on a occasion putting him in his crate to sleep as it's worse when he's overtired.

Housetraining is going well, we haven't had an accident for a week as we've kept him in the kitchen / dining room and he goes and sits by the door when he wants to go out. We've done a bit of training (he can sit) and we've practised getting him to come to us with treats but it's been bloody tough! Our garden is like a swamp from where it's been pouring with rain and trampled all over, not helped by the fact he can't go for walks as he's only 9.5 weeks.

We're hoping to move up to our bedroom tonight as he slept in the hallway from 10-5.30 straight through but we were in the living room. We've got a baby monitor but hopefully he doesn't cry 😫

How soon until it gets fun?! 😭😂

@PoleToPole those tips are ace! @HappyThursdays lovely to hear how things are with you and well done with the walking.

Retrieverpup is now 17 weeks. Still biting but teeth have been falling out so definitely teething. We’ve been practicing recall and she does well when sprats are the reward! Walking to heel is very mixed. Usually starts off well then just goes off on a sniff. Pulls like a train when she realises we’re on the way home! Can’t remember who said about training and tier 3 but I’ve been in tier 3 since lockdown ended and our trainer does face to face in parks and on the driveway.

@Frankincense88 my pup is a terror for biting. Bulls pizzles and cows ears were my saviour at your pup’s age. And the naps like you say! I’ve found it more fun since getting out and about for walks although that brings its own stresses!

@Retrievemysanity it was me who mentioned training, 2 of the trainers I found are only doing zoom and the other one is doing nothing till January.

@PugInTheHouse that’s interesting. There was a lot of debate about what was and was not allowed etc. I’m on the border of a couple of counties and the trainer I use is in tier 2 but she said the general consensus was that she could come to me but not the other way around. I signed up to a puppy package thing with her and the first was a 2 hour zoom, the next 2 were driveway sessions and the remaining 2 are in a park. She said 1-2-1 sessions are allowed it’s the group stuff that’s the issue.

I think its down to money, they couldn't have enough people in a session and didn't want to put the prices up. I will keep looking, I would prefer 1:1 anyway

We took GeorgiePup out for his first walk today, he loved it! Such a sociable little chap, he wants to meets everyone and play! Walked pretty well on the lead too though I know this can change. Met some dogs too, very polite ones who were happy to accommodate his excitement, I appreciate this isn’t always the case.

We have just over a week till we can go for walks but we took him to the pub tonight instead as we go into tier 3 on Saturday

Redpup (11 weeks) went in his first walk today, only allowed pavement so far the other bit of his jab is on xmas eve
He was really good, ds had the lead and I was slightly in front next to them with treats so he was following the smell. We just did 10 min and came back.
I am very pleased with his first walk.
Tomorrow lunch going to a pub lunch as we are also going into tier 3 on Saturday.

@Retrievemysanity oh no!! We think it'll help him burn some energy when he can go on walks because our lawn is just pure mud now so it's a nightmare every time he goes outside! Already worried about him going on walks though he's a sod for eating stones / leaves / dirt! He's also given himself an ear infection with scratching his ears with muddy claws so he's on antibiotic drops for a week!

I've ordered him a couple of deer antlers so hopefully that should keep him occupied re biting / chewing! I'm thinking of saving it until Christmas Day though so we can eat our lunch in peace 😂

It's our first night attempting to sleep in our bed tonight with pup in the hall. Really hoping for a decent night but I predict we'll be bringing the crate onto the landing 😂

We've also booked him onto puppy classes starting in Jan, we move into Tier 1 Saturday so both DH and I can go - hopefully he's a good boy!

Hoping you all have a restful night!

Thank you SO much PoleToPole, been doing it a lot this afternoon and he picks it up so very easily (like with high five, spin around, took minutes if that). Yes he is super food motivated and responds better to my Stop and Nos than DH's (he says them more 'angrily'). The big eye opener is how much he LOVES me focusing on 'training him' (mentally stimulating him?) for a few minutes, he's so chilled after and just lovely.
Another great eye opener in the past few days is getting him to walk off lead! I never thought I'd say this. But he's got a nice little pack down the area where we walk him, lovely owners who said: Just let him walk with the other dogs around the forest bit and weäll all keep an eye, let the lead drag and you can sort of step on it should he shoot off."
He did jump up/followed at a girl jogging past and I was mortified but she took it well, next time joggers came I distracted him with treat & excitable chat.
So that was a good day. He's grown an inch psycjologically I feel (and perhaps so have I).

spellings, jeez I've had ONE glass of wine

Frankincense88 my two cents on the biting (having been pup mum for all of ... 7 weeks or so): If 'be a tree' doesn't work, leave the room for a few minutes.
NO also can work. If he does stop, reward with praise play or treat. Tricky one as praise would over excite VanPup into nipping again sometimes.
The right type of chew can also work, it's trial & error really - yak stick & frozen muslin & pig ear works here.
The real fun for us started after second lot of vaccinations, 2-3 days into walkies when he met some other dogs and started burning off mental/physical energy the right way.

Puppy can go for walks this weekend, really hoping it will help with the biting/general excess energy like many of you have said!

There is SO much amazing advice on here! I am getting anxious because I want to make sure we get the communication/training with vacationpup right - I feel like it will make us all happier. It is like waiting for a baby to be born, except that you have to launch into training straight away!

I have some questions I hope you guys can help with!

1. What collar/lead do we need? The crate box says no collar in there. But at nighttime I am assuming 4am trips to the garden toilet will be greatly eased with a lead? Otherwise it could easily turn into hide and seek in our garden 🤦‍♀️

2. the Christmas tree - it is on a table. Vacationpup will be with someone for first two weeks at least. Should we put a cage around the tree or no need?

3. Baby alarm/toilet training at night - first week or so we will sleep downstairs with vacationpup. But when we move upstairs, is it better to set an alarm to take vacationpup to the toilet or is a baby alarm better? How likely is it vacationpup will tell us if he needs the loo (guessing that is dog dependent!).

I have a million and one questions, but those are the pre-pup arrival ones I can think of!

Thanks!!!

@Onvacation What breed are you getting?

1. We just bought a collar from pets at home, it was a branded one but they grow that fast they probably won't be wearing it for that long. So I'd wait to invest in a better quality one if that's what you were planning.

We have a Kong extendable tape lead, also from pets at home, and a normal, non extendable lead as he's going to puppy class in January and they requested a non extendable.

1. C4pup hasn't bothered with the tree, but we put a metal tree skirt around the bottom (its quite large from Home Bargains) just in case. At his eye level the only thing he can see is the tree skirt so he's left the tree alone, but he's only a miniature dachshund so if you have a bigger dog this may not work. On the plus side, by the time he's due to be left alone, it'll be almost time to take the tree down!

@Onvacation we found that night time garden trips were fine actually, pup went out, did her business as was desperate and came back in. But we didn’t have a specific area in the garden for her to use etc I guess if you’re doing that you might want a lead to guide pup there?! Just a short lead would be fine.

The tree, I guess it depends if your pup would be able to reach it? Our tree is in the lounge and pup isn’t allowed in there so we don’t have that issue but her litter mates all have guards round their trees! Our pup is huge and goes for anything she can reach including tinsel off the dining table!

Night time toilet training-we were downstairs for 2 weeks but our pup got up every 2 or so hours for a wee and we found that she was so quiet that we didn’t notice a lot of the time and she weed in the kitchen. In the end we went upstairs and left her to it. She quickly improved to only one wee in the night and she’s 17 weeks now and is often dry overnight or just one wee on the kitchen floor. People did say to get a monitor or set an alarm but tbh, I function much better with undisturbed sleep so we didn’t. In the day time we rarely have accidents-she wees and poos on walks and at home sits by the back door if she needs to go out so I can’t say it’s impacted negatively on her toilet training but I think it’s one of those things that’s just up to the individual owner and the pup.

@C4itl Thank you for your advice :) he is a golden retriever. I’ll try and get a standard collar - I have been doing a lot online but it is hard (impossible) to get advice on what size. I may take a trip to the shops! I was hoping the tree might be safe until it comes down...

@Retrievemysanity we were going to create a specific spot for the puppy toilet (plans from months ago), but for various reasons it isn’t done yet. The area in question is a mad match, which is going to mean a muddy doggy! So we may have to go free range for now. So, it is great to know that it might be quickly in and out!

@Retrievemysanity We have done the same in regards to toilet training, we just leave him at night as the disturbed sleep was driving us insane.

Almost 13 weeks old and it's usually 1 wee that we come down to in the morning, but during the day the same as you, he goes to the back door to go out and hardly any accidents. Hopefully a few more weeks and he'll be dry through the night too

Just wanted to do a proper introduction after having posted briefly on the last thread. We have a dobermann puppy who is now 12 weeks.

After advice last week on here we bought a training lead for inside- the threat seemed to be enough as he then improved massively overnight and it's only been put on twice

Loads of great tips on here, the 2 things we are really struggling with are: how do you get pup to settle outside of crate? He sleeps lovely in it but absolutely will not settle down if he isn't shut in. I don't want to be using a crate forever!! I am in awe of those not using crates at all - we have 3 in different rooms!!

And toileting overall is good but we have a specific issue that he thinks soft furnishings are a toilet. The other day I was outside encouraging him to come out and he ran to his bed (not in crate) and wee'd on that instead. This has happened several times- not sure if it is the bed specifically or just as its soft - we removed the rug near the start due to chewing and it's all hard floors so bed only soft bit.

@Islandoftheapes We have the same problem, any blankets on the floor that aren't his bed he will wee on. He sometimes even drags his bed blanket out of his bed and onto the floor just to wee on it

@Islandoftheapes have you left him alone much? Just wondering, if you left the house would he settle? We have a crate but never shut it. Our pup sleeps anywhere bless her. If she’s tired, we leave the room and she will slump down and go to sleep. If we go out of the house she will have a wander round and then settle herself down.

@C4itl at least it's not just us then....

@Retrievemysanity if we leave him then he's in the crate, I would fear for the sofas/floors/architrive/everything else otherwise!!

@Onvacation we have a crate in our room and one downstairs. He sleeps next to me and I just take him for a wee when he wakes up for one. Usually goes about 6.5 hrs in a row (nearly 12 weeks) then goes back for another couple of hours. It works for us but then we have 2 cats that sleep on our bed also so makes no difference having him in our room haha. We can't leave him roaming downstairs at night because of the cats, they are still nervous of him as he wants to play with them .

He sleeps better in the crate with the door shut. If he's just on the floor/blanket or with the door open as soon as everyone moves he runs around, if the door is shut he'll look around then go back to sleep. Apparently pugs like crates and the safeness/comfort of them so I think he's happy. He will take himself off into the crate when he's tired.

We had a better night last night after the wee/poo incidents. I heard him sniffing/snorting so started to get up, he starting whining straight away so I got him downstairs and he did his business straight away so I was only up for about a minute. I think I was just trying to settle him when I heard him sniffng etc the last couple of nights so then he just pooed/peed in the crate.