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

Making friends.

Thanks @Frenchfancy. He has been eating a bit more, so I’m reassured. And it sounds like a fabulous Christmas you all will have. I am a bit worried about the socialisation in lockdown. But we’ll it ou!!

@Frenchfancy Very cute! Hope they're getting on okay. My (tiny) cocker spaniel puppy has a best friend at daycare and she's a german shepherd. So funny seeing the pictures and videos of them playing together, apparently my pup is the boss.

@Onvacation I might have picked you up wrong but did pup not have an opportunity to toilet from 12.45am till 8.30am? Our first couple of weeks we were out roughly every 2 hours overnight. Even now we only leave her 5 or 6 hours overnight without a loo trip. I know they're all different.

@ashmts we were hoping that vacationpup would wake my DH up but maybe that was optimistic! Do you all normally set alarms?

My boy is in a crate beside my bed so I hear him when he squeaks to go to the toilet.

He's 12 weeks now and the biting seems to be slowing down. It helps that we have recliner sofas and keep our feet out of his way when he is being bitey. We are really strict and any biting leads to him being put on the floor.

@Redandblue11 calm is something you can teach, use either calm or chill or whatever you like.. so when pup is resting or being calm stroke from head to tail and just say "calm,calm" and gradually they will get the link between nice attention when they are being calm!!

I use it on my devil of a 15 week old and it worked on all of my others.. family of four dogs here, so calm is important.

The other good command is to teach "bed" that's a great one for also getting them to settle.

@PugInTheHouse could you move him onto a high quality protein food? I'd say the pets at home stuff is pretty low on protein so he's a hungry boy.

Try Oscars, see if you have one near you, they deliver the food, weigh pups and advise on the best food. So you feed high quality, smaller portions but they are full for longer, and less poos!

@Onvacation We couldn't get her to sleep in her crate with the door closed for three weeks so sounds like you're doing better than us on that front! We slept on the sofa and she'd potter over from the (open) crate to wake us to let us know she needed out. For a couple of weeks after that we went up to bed and left her down in her crate (closed) but set alarms for twice through the night to go down and let her out. Now we're down to 3am only. Some people here are managing to go the whole night but my strategy is bred from laziness, if I let her out at 3 she sleeps through till we wake her up. If we were up at 6 I'd probably just leave her overnight now.

@snappyoldfart I think the one we have is about 45% protein which i thought was ok? I will check out higher protein ones and see if that helps. Thanks

Love that picture Frenchfancy!

Pup bizarrely has become very afraid of her harness and collar over the past few days. Not sure what's gone on, she loves walks but now runs away when I try to get her ready to go. It's adding such a faff to what was a nice routine, and ending up me often chasing her and sometimes cornering her which isn't helping the fear and I know is exactly the wrong thing to do. I'm wondering if something about it has frightened her or if it's part of approaching adolescence and she's faking fear to get me to chase. So weird! I'm working on desensitising her to it (again) today while we seem to be having a calm day.

12.5 weeks here now and GeorgiePup is getting so much easier. The only slight issue we have is the early mornings, we’re all so so tired 💤 He’s averaging a wake up time of 4.30-6.30am and even though it’s for a wee, he doesn’t really settle in the crate after.

Everything else is going great though, loves his walks (not as keen in the dark!), no toilet accidents since Friday now and in general he’s jumping and nipping less and listening more when he does make a ‘bad choice’. He’s actually quite nice to have around

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat I am so jealous you are out walking, we were told 12 weeks for 2nd jabs then have to wait another week for pavement walking, then 2 weeks for grass. So frustrating and they have rescheduled the jabs from today to tomorrow so an extra day now. We just want to go for walks esp now we are tier 4.

@snappyoldfart, thank you . I have started with that 😀
I have to say he has learnt to stay nicely sitting in his bed by our sofa while we all watch a movie. It has to be after he has eaten and he has had some stimulation, a brief walk outside or a bit of training. Not perfect , but if he starts to try to jump on sofa I take him out and tell him to sit and keep him sitting not engaging with him for a few secs/minute until I let him join the ‘pack’ in the living room and give him a chew. If he tries again I say no and take him out again somewhere boring again. Seems to be working a bit .

Oh @PugInTheHouse I wonder why the different schedules? GeorgiePup had his first jabs at 8 weeks and second lot with us at 10weeks and he’s been allowed out since Thursday (so 12weeks).

Maybe different vaccine brands have different waiting times.

Over the past few days we’ve moved C4pup from kibble and wet to just wet food, I’m giving him the recommended amount on the back of the tin but he wolfs it down and seems to be constantly going back to his bowl to look for more food

Any idea? Should I just give him more of the wet food or is it just a case of riding it out until he’s used to the change?

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat ah yes it could be the brand, we are 8 and 12 weeks. My heart sank when I saw it was the vets calling so I was happy they were only postponing a day. Pugpup has been more hectic this last couple of days, slept well at night but back to being really bitey.

He is becoming very cheeky and now he knows to sit and paw when we give him treats he randomly sits near where the treats are and sits/lifts his paw at us

GeorgiePup is always looking in his bowl ‘just in case’ and equally will randomly sit in front of me as he usually gets a treat if I call him and he sits. Then he adorably tilts his head and I find it really hard to resist.

It is very hard to resist them when they do that isn't it!

How much are all your puppies alone in the day? I don't mean completely alone with you out of the house, but in a room by themselves? We have a 5 month old lab puppy and I'm worrying he's alone too much. I have young children so we spend a lot of time in the playroom/living room where pup isn't allowed. He can still hear us and he never complains (he has plenty of chews/toys available) but I'm wondering if this is normal!

Month 2 of our rottie puppy, it’s ups and downs! We’re finally getting her to a good place (thank you Cesar Milan!)

Toilet training has completely went out the window since Saturday. I think today he’s had 2 wees outside out of the (seems like) 6000 he has per day...

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day

What training have you been doing @Hillary111? I enjoy watching his programmes but find it hard to see what I would implement any of his strategies, he seems really strict. Maybe I’m too soft I realise he’s mostly dealing with problem dogs in his shows though, it’s would be interesting to watch him puppy train a dog from scratch with no past to unlearn. I still watch him hoping to pick up tips.

Pup is 9.5 days here - he has definitely put weight on which is great!

I have a question about water access - we currently leave/refill his bowl all day and take it away around 10pm for bedtime. However, he is going to wee SO much during the day. I wonder if we should just give him water at mealtimes?!

Any advice - what do you do? Thank you!

9.5 weeks I meant 🙄

@blackberriesandpears I don't think ours is alone enough actually. She lives in our living area/kitchen and isn't allowed upstairs but someone is usually with her in waking hours. She's maybe alone for half an hour, twice a day? Usually when she's napping. She goes to daycare if we're out at work and sleeps alone overnight so she's not always with us.

@wineandsunshine I don't restrict water at all, even overnight she gets her bowl in her crate with her. I know some books advise taking it away at night but I feel really strongly that she should have access if she's thirsty. 9.5 weeks is very young, how much is he peeing? Most things I read suggested they need out every 30-45 minutes at that age and my pup definitely peed about that frequently at first. If it's a lot more frequently maybe it's worth a vet check? Could be a UTI?

Don't want to jinx things but I think we might have cracked toilet training... She's 16 weeks so it's taken us 8 weeks which I think might be considered slow for a spaniel. But given the fact it's been constantly blowing a gale/pouring/minus 2, I think we've all done really well.