Puppy Survival Thread - January - February

[C4itl]

Continuing on the thread from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4105422-Puppy-Survival-Thread-December?pg=28 before we hit the message limit

They do start to sleep through the night - ours at about 12 weeks suddenly started sleeping through, would wake at 6 desperate for a wee then go back to bed again till about 8.

Now she's 13 months and takes herself off to bed about 9.30 and holds it in till 9 am on the weekends...I think she'd sleep in longer if we didn't get up and she didn't feel she had to haul herself off her bed upstairs to settle in her bed downstairs to keep an eye on us.

[quote C4itl]@Puppypuppypuppy did you get my message about the training? Not sure whether it sent [/quote]
I did thanks so much!

@LondonPupMum Pupppup is just coming up to six months and we have humping here - it's usually a sign of over tiredness and over stimulation. He sometime accompanies it with putting his teeth up and down my leg, not a nip but mouthing - this is the only biting we have really now. He's also started trying to hump the cat on occasion which has taken managing cat/dog relations to next level.

Hello , GrassPup joined our family on Saturday at 8 weeks old. He is an absolute joy and settling into the family.

I have just read @PugInTheHouse saying that foxes are an issue. I have been letting him in our garden to do his business, and am now worrying as he will have a little wander and a sniff but we do get foxes around here.

He mainly stays on the patio currently, I put a piece of astro on there to encourage him to go on that which is working but should I just literally be bringing him straight in after he does his business?

@SaveMyGrass I let them have a little run around post toilet usually outside to build his confidence and also so it’s fun and not making him come in straight away after the loo. I read that they can start delaying toilet if they know you’ll make them come inside straight away lol.

Exception is post bedtime when we take him out to toilet, lights off and no speaking and bring him straight back to crate after

Also is it normal to worry about every little thing. I feel so anxious about him, I couldn't bear it if anything happened to him. It is ridiculous as he is so happy and eating and seems absolutely fine but I keep thinking about everything that could go wrong.

@SaveMyGrass oh I hope it’s normal because I felt that way too and still do a bit lol. What helped was speaking to my breeder actually who is proper old school, and she calmed me down. She said, remember he’s coming into your life not the other way around, as long as you care and mean well then he’ll adjust and fit in your life but you can’t give him everything he wants all the time

@SaveMyGrass Hi, it may be worth checking with your vet. I am not sure we should have worried so much but its hard when the vet said she couldn't guarantee he would be safe. The main issue for us was that there was a family of foxes living 2 doors away so there was poo in the garden every day.

Following with interest as we have a 9 week old pup who had just entered the biting phase!

@SaveMyGrass, I think its partially this as to why I feel on edge all of the time. I am at home on my own all day and I go from worrying about training, we’ve only managed sit so far to grooming and everything in between. We’ve ordered a step in harness as walks are not going well partially because of the drama of getting it on and she is even less keen on a lead. She was lovely the other day and got some cuddles in but then she is back to bitey dog. @LondonPupMum, I have to remember this, I guess whilst she is young, she is the focus but really I want her to be a family member if you get what I mean.

Archerpuppy has arrived. I feel a bit sick from adrenaline and anxiety but I think a routine is being established. Freezing outside and no soft grass so off to get a square of astro hoping that might help the wees inside. I've taken the rug up and very glad we don't have carpet. She came by courier and is a bit scratchy/itchy. Is this likely to be stress scratching or have we picked up an extra 'pet'?

@LostArcher a check for fleas should be easy with a flea comb. We had to treat pugpup early on, he hadn't been given any flea treatment before he came to us and I am guessing picked it up here (we have 2 cats and although they are regularly treated sometimes they still have them)

@LostArcher we bought a piece of Astro for our patio and it has been great. GrassPuppy is going outside over 75% of the time now. He has only been with us a week so I am amazed. We had 48 hours of relentlessly taking him outside every half an hour and showering him with praise and a treat when he went.

GrassPuppy is quite scratchy too. He also seems to hurt himself sometimes when scratching as his claws are quite sharp and he lets out a little yelp.

@SaveMyGrass I felt so worried about absolutely everything when Plantpup arrived, we ended up at the vets twice because I was sure she was unwell So you’re definitely not alone! I’ve had her 4 weeks now and chilled out a lot more and don’t worry about every tiny thing anymore!

I can join the sleeping through the night crew officially this week Plantpup has slept through from 9-5:00 every day this week! Walks outside seem to have helped massively even though we don’t get very far as she sniffs every leaf on her travels.

I think I need to put a little more trust in her now and feel a little guilty for having not really done so. She has been all around the house but is very supervised in each room, especially the ones with things in I would really rather not be chewed (thinking; bookcase with all my previous books on it!) and I feel like when she’s awake I often spend the time waiting for her to be tired and fall asleep again so I can get things done that need doing without watching her, which makes me feel very guilty

Hi, can I join you? Bit late to the party but stumbled across this post when googling and it is by far the most supportive and unjudgy puppy thread I've read.

Sparklepup is 20 weeks old, we got him late at 14 weeks and he hadn't had much training etc so it's been a tough 6 weeks.

He's been very bitey, sometimes it feels a bit aggressive, but we decided early on to use a crate because he wouldn't settle to sleep and he definitely need more sleep. So he/we have got into a routine of putting him in his crate for naps that is pretty much clockwork and it's definitely helping.

It's definitely getting easier but we have a lot to work on.

@Sparkle79 he’ll be at peak teething stage at the minute, C4pup is around the same age and his teeth are falling out daily now, so probably a few more weeks and the biting will be a lot better

Hi all, we are on 27 weeks now amazingly. Happy continues to be very happy!

Things not going so well

• he still eats absolutely anything - leaves, twigs, wood, plastic, stones, paper, cardboard, any poo he finds, last week he found a tube of dp's rehydration tablets and ate them. There's nothing wrong with him (said the vet!), he's just a dog that eats anything fgs
• lead walking behaviour is variable. On the way back home he walks beautifully, any walk where he's being taken to a park or off lead, he will pull and pull until the point that he can run free
• sleeping during the day still only really happens if nothing else is going on
• I still worry about separation anxiety as it's just not being tested enough due to lockdown

We don't get any biting now if that's any hope to you all!

Plantlover I feel exactly the same about waiting for them to be tired in order to get stuff done!

Can I ask those with older pups, at what age did you stop enforcing naps? Dpup is now 16 weeks and I'm sat in the kitchen now. He's had about half an hour sleep, but I know if I get up now he'll follow me unless I close the crate door. If I close it, he'll nap another 30 to 60 minutes. Up till now I've shut the door because he's a git when he's over-tired and it makes things easier to get done! But I'm wondering if I should let him doze more on and off throughout the day.

@C4itl thanks. Not so worried about the teething type biting anymore but the snapping concerns me a bit, eg if we won't let him eat something he shouldn't he will sometimes growl / snap at us, even the kids in frustration / anger

We don't anymore @Doje .If we are both working, he sleeps more during the day but like today when we are both up and about, he won't sleep till we sit down.

@HappyThursdays thanks. And I'm guessing (hoping) at 27 weeks he's not just an arse that bites you if you're not playing with him?

@Sparkle79 That must be difficult. Do you know much about his circumstances before you got him?

@Doje almost 24 weeks and we've not enforced naps since about Christmas. She got more chilled and stopped nipping or getting zoomies so we just let her do her own thing with naps. She tends to have a big sleep after her walk and then will doze a bit through the evening. She never goes in her crate through the day for a proper sleep.

@HappyThursdays nice to hear how Happypup is getting on. Lead walking is still a total nightmare here. Tbh we aren't practising it enough. We really need to start but it's been too cold for much practise, we tend to drive her somewhere she can go off-lead but I know we're making a rod for our own backs really.

@ashmts We know that his previous owner bought him from a working farm. She lived in a flat and was finding it too much on her own. I keep beating myself up a bit for being naive and not researching things more but I have to stop myself because I can't go back in time and he isn't going anywhere now - we love him too much!

@Doje  what he does now instead of all of that is bark or whine. So if we are eating and not giving him something, he will sit there and look pissed off and bark and be quite vocal. And this was the dog on this thread who at 3 months I said barely ever barked! He only barks when he's pissed off and we're trying to get on top of that quickly!

@ashmts it's very hard at the moment, also because you're only really leaving the house to walk the dog if you're with the dog - when outside lockdown you might have been going to the pub, cafe, meeting a friend etc. The difficulty with Happy is that he can do it but he chooses not to if he thinks he's on the way to somewhere fun and he's now so strong and heavy, he's v hard to control when he does that. I need to use my full body strength, just to keep hold of him!

@HappyThursdays what size is he now? Our girl is still only 7.6kg so although she's surprisingly strong even I can still handle her on the lead. It's embarrassing though, especially cos she goes to daycare so the poor guy has to manage all the other dogs and then she's there pulling like mad.

@Sparkle79 what breed is he? Have you got a trainer or behaviourist?