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

That is true about mainly problem dogs but there are loads of useful YouTube videos that have helped us loads. Crate trained from day 1, in our room for a week and then moved down stairs. Made the crate like a little home, treating puppy every time she went into the crate voluntarily. Toilet training took a couple of days, lots of praise and rewards every time she went on the pad (continuing to praise still after 9 weeks). Sit and stay mastered in a couple of days, repeat repeat repeat. Walkies pretty much down now, apart from some excitement when other doggos are about. Working on jumping up at the moment, Cesar recommends no touch, no talk, no eye contact so now when we walk into a room we completely ignore her until she is calm and sitting down, seems to be doing the trick

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

Oh I haven’t seen the YouTube videos with him, I’ll take a look.

@wineandsunshine dogs should have access to fresh water all day and night, dehydration can happen quickly, Really important it's not taken away to stop wees.

@blackberriesandpears why isn't he allowed in the main house? Our pup takes himself off maybe for a few hours a day, no crate here he has a utility room with the other dogs.

I'd say they like maybe 2-3 hours alone to snooze depending on the breed but the rest of the time he should be interacting with the pack.

Frenchpup is left alone when we are out of the house, and at night time . The rest of the time she is with us. She will take herself of to her crate to sleep sometimes, but normally just sleeps wherever we are.

The issue we have is kids/toys/puppy! I'm worried he's going to swipe a small toy and choke on it!

I think I'll have a big tidy away and get the kids to play high risk things like Lego on the table so he can't get to them.

The house is open plan so he has run of most areas downstairs, just not the playroom which unfortunately is where we spend a lot of our time.

blackberries - would it not be possible for the children to bring toys into the lounge and leave the risky ones in the playroom? We have the gaming room which DS2 is in a lot, all the xmas chocolate etc (as well as controllers/cables etc for the PS4) is in that room but everything else we do is in the lounge.

I have the opposite problem as we have spent too much time with him, or I have really as I WFH, he cries if I leave the room even if the kids and DH are with him. Our dryer is in the summer house at end of garden and he stands up at the glass watching me and barking if I go down there and goes crazy when I get back as if it's been hours.

I am not sure what to do really. I was prewarned pugs were clingy but in my head I thought it would be ok. Trouble is we will be around lots at the moment but there will be times I will have to go into work for meetings.

So i tried to do some training today as pugpup seems in a nice relaxed mood. He dies sot and paw brilliantly and on his way to doing down.

Someone mentioned spin around so I tried that and put treat above his nose then spun it round his body, he didn't spin he just backed up so he could get it haha.

@PugInTheHouse yes I think we will try and bring things through to his room! He's really good at being alone which is great but I don't want him to be lonely!

It's hard when they don't like to be left, we had a standard poodle until recently and she really didn't like being on her own in the beginning even for short periods. Every time we left the room we gave her a chew and she eventually got better. Good luck though, pugs are so gorgeous.

I am worried we are doing bedtime wrong.... already! VacationPup has only been with us for 3 nights. First night he arrived at midnight so not counting that. But last two nights he has been awake every 1 1/2 hours. I know we are very early days, but don’t want to mess up and make it harder in the long run!

We are sleeping in with him at the moment. So he sleeps in his crate. We put him in, door shut. After night time toilet (play?) visits, he goes back in his crate. He cried each time so I let him out, he padded around, tried to talk to me on the sofa, lay down quickly, and I put him back in the cage straight away and off to sleep with no fuss. We repeated that from midnight till 6.30am, when I thought it should be awake him (vacationPup had woken me up). The night before my DH had let him sleep on him on the sofa (!!). My problem is that when he cries I don’t know if he just wants attention or if he wants the toilet.

We have had no nighttime accidents (not surprising because he has been out every five minutes), and no indoor accidents yesterday. But he is also always with someone because we have cats and don’t want surprise unsupervised interactions.

Are we doing okay? Or is VacationPup not being sleep trained but rather is garden training us??!!???

@blackberriesandpears he really is lovely, such a friendly chap and very cute. We have been taking him out in a little papoose and he gets a bit too much attention but he loves it and just licks everyone haha!

@Onvacation I think the only thing you can do is just not interact with him, put him out for toilet then straight back in crate. I think we have just been fortunate re the not crying but I know that pugpup will go a certain number of hours so if he stirs or wimpers in between those times I just ssshh him or put my hand in the crate and he calms down. He is next to my bed in his crate. We cover the top of the crate also and it is always dark upstairs. I am a novice so no idea if that will help you.

@PugInTheHouse we are trying not to interact. What we need is some nights of heavy rain. Going out in them may feel less of a reward . And I am pleased you mentioned your papoose - we just got a bargain (but very uncool) puppy pram. Just for use until he is jabbed, but we thought it might help with socialisation by getting to see more than just us for the next 4 weeks.

@Onvacation We were out every 1.5-2 hours overnight for the first couple of weeks. First puppy so I don't know if it's normal or not but it's not just your dog. Gradually she just needed out less often, I assume as her bladder grew. We also let her sleep on the sofa for the first few nights and gradually worked up to own bed next to us then own bed at other end of sofa then own bed in crate (open) then eventually with the crate shut (this wasn't advised in the books, it just made sense to us. Tried her in the crate night 1 and she was so distressed). I also worried we were making a rod for our own back but apart from that first three weeks she has been an absolute dream sleeper. The last week or so she even puts herself to bed, about 10pm she just gets up and plods into her crate and that's her. Are you on the Facebook group Dog Training Advice and Support? They're all about building your dog's confidence and building the bond, if the dog isn't ready to be away from you they say don't force it to.

The first few weeks are so so hard, I really struggled. The sleep deprivation is tough!

@Onvacation as we have lots of fox poo in garden vet has said to keep him on pee pads till after jabs. I am not looking forward to going into the garden if I'm honest, hes not keen on the cold!

The papoose is great, we are hoping to use when he's older too if we go on longer walks than he can manage.

@ashmts thanks so much! That is so reassuring. I was never able to do controlled crying in any form, so it is good to know that we are doing okay. He does sleep okay in his crate once I've let him pad around a little, and settle next to me, so as long as we are doing okay, I'll keep going. I'll also look for that facebook group. Thank you!

@PugInTheHouse I was really worried about foxes in our garden (we have loads), but the vet said not to worry! So he goes out. We don't get much fox poo in the back garden, maybe because of the cats though. We do get loads of fox poo in the front (partly because our recycling lives out there I think). I was (am) so worried about parvio. I was keen to get VacationPup jabbed as soon as we could, but we were told to wait until 9 weeks (1 week after he came home) for the first jab. So we have decided to go for the doggy pram :D When VacationPup is older he will be encouraging us into longer walks with the whole family, with no moans and complete harmony. So that will be nice. And I have just ordered wellies for our mud-bath garden.

@PugInTheHouse I forgot to say the most important thing which is that PugPup is utterly adorable in his carrier! He will be getting to meet SO many people I bet :D

@Onvacation its so strange the differing advice, so much conflicting advice between vets and online its a bit frustrating.

He loves the attention he gets in there haha

@Onvacation ours was up every 2 hours initially and we were in the lounge on a sofa bed and she was in the kitchen/diner (open plan though). She would go to sleep about 10.30 then be up 12.30, 2.30, 4.30 and then 6.30 for the day. She soon dropped the 12.30 one though and then the 2.30 one. She was in a crate with the door open though and came out when she needed to go so didn’t get any crying. She was fine when we went back upstairs after 2 weeks.

@Retrievemysanity that is good to know. I think we can manage a couple of weeks 😊 (thank goodness for Christmas holidays!). We just spoke to a trainer who thought the waking up was probably more about feeling a bit anxious than needing the loo, but that is okay at this stage. VacationPup has the right to feel a bit insecure after only two days home! I will keep hoping that he will settle in the next few weeks.

Good afternoon all! Been manic since we went to visit BaskinPup last week, but we’re so excited to bring her home in 3.5 weeks!

Strange question, but does anyone have any advice for making stairs with open treads safe? We can close off the hall, as we have doors to the lounge and kitchen, but I’m worried that if we have to nip to the loo/upstairs, she’ll follow and try to get through. A stair gate won’t work as she could just go through the back of the bottom stairs, if that makes sense?

I’m also not keen on crates so wish us luck toilet training without one will probably have a playpen for a safe space in the day if we have to leave her for a few minutes.

Hopefully have attached picture as puppy tax payment

@CarolEffingBaskin so cute!! Not hugely helpful but our GR breeder told us no stairs or jumping on and off sofa until 6 months, because of the potential hip dysplasia. Our stair gate is in the hallway on the way to the stairs, but guessing that won't work for you guys.

@Onvacation our GR breeder said not for a year! Out of interest what did your breeder say about walking? I know the general rule of thumb is 5 mins per month of age but our breeder said even less for a GR!

Re the night time, I did wonder if ours was anxious but she did do a wee each time and she did wee a lot in the day time too. It really is like having a toddler and trying to second guess them all the time!

@CarolEffingBaskin trying to visualise that, if I'm picturing the right thing could you put a stair gate 2 or 3 steps up? Probably not ideal to let pup even that high so could the stair gate go at the bottom of the stairs and you could block off the back with an ottoman/table/IKEA plastic box full of something? Puppy proofing does make the house ugly, my lovely house is a tip these days it'll pass.

Do your puppies breathe really fast?