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

I love reading these. I think it really highlights how different our dogs are, but you can have solidarity and support in knowing that everyone has areas to work on so you shouldn’t feel alone.

I forgot the most annoying one! GeorgiePup is a bugger to get in from the garden! 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Sparkle79 Happy has done that too (muddy paws, someone's white coat ). I probably should have put that in bad/ugly. He is too friendly really. If a small child goes towards him, he will run at them (unless we recall back) and will launch himself at them. We don't have young children so he's not used to them!

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat he has always loved the garden I seem to remember!

Ok, so . . .

Good - He is a great sleeper, so friendly, loves everyone, really keen on getting out and about and is mega cuddly. He is also pretty switched on with learning commands and understands many words

Bad - Toilet training regressed, he is 90% going outside but still when tired he isn't letting so know so has the odd accident at the back door (we are on the ball with putting him out but he catches us out less than an hour after a previous wee at times, other times goes hours in between!). He will only sleep in the day if I am sat on the sofa, any movement and he's up. He gets very stressed if we are eating and he isn't. Still gets up a bit early for my liking

Ugly - very bitey of DS2s feet (just his when he has specific slippers on). Tries to chase the cats and they still are very cautious of him. Pulls on the lead to get to any dogs or people. Eats everything off the floor when out walking. Cries/howls when I leave the room ,even if its just for 5 mins and the others are with him. For me that is the worst bit as I have no idea I will be able to leave him.

So our trainer has suggested that we sleep on a mattress on the floor by Doberwows crate, then the sofa and then for us to be going to bed will take a good 2/3 months.

None of this is a problem, but what are other people's experience?

One more sleep until she arrives, can't wait!

@PugInTheHouse I honestly think our pups have been exchanging notes pulling on the lead...crying when I leave the room, they may be long lost siblings

@Doberwow so exciting that she’s arriving so soon! I guess it depends where you want her to end up sleeping permanently, Plantpup sleeps in her crate in my bedroom and I think that’s really helped with her sleeping through the night from about 11 weeks. Obviously if you want doberwow to sleep elsewhere that’s not overly helpful though!

@Doberwow my husband slept next to the crate for a couple of nights, then moved a bit further away to the sofa for another couple, then moved into the next room downstairs for a couple. He was back upstairs within a week. After the first week we would get up a couple of times to let her out to the toilet but she was pretty much sleeping through by 13/14 weeks. I think we are probably lucky with how well she sleeps overnight - but it’s probably because she pisses around and doesn’t nap properly in the day

2/3 months seems like a long time but I’m sure you’ll be able to judge it better after she arrives!

@HappyThursdays It sounds like you're making so much progress on the lead walking, this is definitely our weak(est) point. Regarding the food stealing, have you done any work on impulse control? Probably telling you stuff you already know, apologies! But in our puppy classes we did 5 steps to impulse control. I can now flick a bit of sausage across the floor towards her and she won't go for it, or place a bit on her paw. She does stare at it intently until I release her but she's amazing at it. The first time we tried the exercise she had zero impulse control so I'm so proud of her progress. We don't have a dining room and eat off the coffee table (I need to move house!) and I can leave my meal unattended to go to the kitchen to grab something and she leaves it alone.

@Doberwow Our puppy hated the crate for the first week or so. We did a few days with her on the couch with us, then a few days in her bed on the floor next to the couch, then a week or so in her crate with the door open and me on the couch, then a week or so with crate closed and someone on the couch. It took about 3 weeks before she would sleep downstairs in the crate and we could both go to bed. Looking back that's not long at all. It felt so long at the time! It was about 2 months before she slept through the night though, even when we were back in our bed we were still getting up once or twice a night to take her for toilet breaks. She sleeps all night now.

I'll try a good, bad and ugly:

Good - she's an amazing sleeper. Sleeps until we get her up, this can be as late as 9.30am at weekends. Fully toilet-trained. Lovely nature. Picks up training quickly and easily. This week has started pottering about and lying on the kitchen floor watching me cook etc without demanding attention or causing havoc. Feels like progress.

Bad - she's started jumping up. This never seemed to be an issue before but it's become a problem in the last week or two. She has some weight behind her when she runs full pelt into your legs too. So this is a new thing to contend with. Also think we're about to go into season so need to work out how to manage bleeding and whether she'll be able to go to daycare. He only has 6 dogs max a day and all are female or neutered males so he's hopeful it'll be okay. Recall - She doesn't seem to listen to me out of the house/garden. I've not let her off lead yet without DP being there. I've booked a secure dog field for Saturday to give it a try so will report back.

Ugly - lead walking! It's our fault though, the training has slipped and we've got lazy. The weather has picked up though and nights are getting lighter so I'm hoping to build an after work training walk into our routine.

Also (not the dog's fault) but I'm struggling to get DP to engage with formal training. He relies on the fact he has a brilliant bond with the dog and she does what he says, but she's about to hit adolescence and I can already see she's not responding quite so well to him. I've done all the Zoom training as he's been out at work for most of them. Just struggling to get him to see the need to do things properly in case he encourages bad habits.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat oh yes same about not wanting to come in from the garden! He lives digging out there too We use a whistle as our emergency recall and he gets a piece of cheese and luckily it seems to trump everything else, although I'm sure when he comes a teenager that will change!

@HappyThursdays glad it's not just us!

@Doberwow I can't really help as we skipped that part, SparklePup came to us at about 14 weeks old and we left him downstairs from night one and he was fine. That is the ONLY thing that has been easy about him!

Also I should have put this thread under The Good. You're all so lovely and supportive and it's so good to know we're not alone!

@ashmts please tell me more about impulse control! Happy will wait for his food and that's about it. He won't eat till we tell him (when it's his food in his bowl!). But anything left lying around or unattended is fair game at the moment!

So Plantpup and I are off to the vets this afternoon - she has weed about 12 or 13 times in the last 2 hours, won’t eat her lunch and is being incredibly clingy. I suspect UTI, poor little thing

@Plantlover23 yes they are soulmates I think Hope she is ok poor little thing!!

@Doberwow this isn't for everyone, and some trainers/breeders/vets recommend and some don't, but Pugpup sleeps in a crate in our room. From night 1 he settled straight away and we generally don't have any issues with him at night plus it would help with night time toileting as I could hear him.

I would say this may have contributed to his clingyness to me however reading posts from others whose pups sleep downstairs and are still clingy perhaps it makes no difference.

@ashmts I need your impulse control tips please!

On crate training @Doberwow have you joined the facebook dog training support? There's loads on there on crate training (and everything else). I really wish I had done it initially in the step by step way they describe. We have never managed to get Puppypup into the crate during the day although he sleeps happily there all night.

Glad the good bad and ugly has been resurrected! Puppypup is just six months

The Good
He's a gorgeous little chap who we all adore.
He sleeps really well, crashes around 9 in the evening and sleeps in the crate 1030 until 8 usually. He's also sleeping for longer periods in the day.
He has really good long periods of calm and can entertain himself with some of his toys.
No accidents now unless we really don't pay attention and he can go much longer between wees.
He's not as 'on watch' as he was - so i can do boring things when he's asleep without him waking up and moving. Room flitting did help with this.

He is happy being in another room to me downstairs, and will also be calm when I pop briefly upstairs to get things.
Much more confident with everything although still wary with sudden unusual noises and strangers who are over friendly.

The Bad
He's never been left alone! I think separation was my thing last time. I couldn't for eg even leave him downstairs for half an hour while I do stuff. He likes to be with me. We're advancing slowly but if lockdown was lifted tomorrow we'd still be on the sofa with him in the evening.

The Ugly
He's started to hump - mostly from over excitement. We still have a mad hour in the evenings where he 'hooligans' - he wanders round the room looking for things to scrabble or chew, is a pain with the cats and will hump my leg or mouth my arm if he gets the chance.

@Puppypuppypuppy not joined any, would you recommend any specific ones?

@PugInTheHouse ideally we would want him sleep downstairs, but.......... watch this space! 😂

*her

Yes, it is probably more ideal to have them downstairs but we have 2 cats also so wanted them to get used to him first so wanted them to have downstairs to themselves, that backfired as within a week we now have them back sleeping on our bed with the dog in the crate on the floor

@PugInTheHouse

Frenchpup is now 5 months.

The good:
Sleepless nights are a thing of the past.
Not had an accident in the house for a while (though she doesn't ask to go out, as long as we take her out every couple of hours or so she is fine)
We can leave her with no problems, I'm back at work in the mornings and we have no signs of distress. We can also leave her in one room while we are in another.
She is responding well to training.
Biting is reduced now that exercise has increased.

The Bad:
She jumps up at kitchen counters and at the table while we eat, this is getting better but it is still a pain.
She eats any socks or shoes (or anything that smells of us) she can get hold of. She hasn't damaged any shoes (yet) but changing shoes to go out for a walk is a bit of a juggling act.

The ugly
She can be a bit violent with the cats. They all love each other and happily curl up asleep or groom each other, but when they are playing she drags them around while the shreek. We try to stop her and give the cats chance to run away, but 2 minutes later the cats are back asking for more!

@Doberwow-that’s what we’ve done as we didn’t want to be carrying her downstairs to take her out for a wee. Dh is still on the mattress 1.5 months on but it’s worked well for the sleeping and she either sleeps all night or just one quick wake up for a wee. Eventually I’m happy for her to be in our room but she doesn’t associate it with sleeping at the moment and gets too excited!

Good for us is probably the sleeping. She sleeps well at night and has some good naps in the day.
Also I’m loving taking her for off lead walks-trainer recommended letting her off where it’s safe and capitalising on her wanting to be near us before she gets more independent so that’s going really well.

Bad-lead walking is very much a work in progress.
She’s quite a thief and will take any opportunity to steal things we leave around and take them to her crate (pretty much the only time she goes in there!)

The ugly-definitely the nipping at ds. I keep reading it’s normal and I think we’re doing the right things but it terrifies me that we’ll never be able to have the kids friends round etc!

Pup is 16 weeks now and here's my list:
Good
He had his first groom and apparently was very good
He has started asking to go out to the toilet by standing at the door. No accidents for quite a while.
He's getting slowly better on walks although this is still tricky.

Bad:
He's still quite bitey. We're trying to be really consistent with time outs.
Took him into a shop today and he was a nightmare, shouting and whining and jumping with excitement.
We've still not let him off lead. His recall goes to shit in the garden and I am too scared. Also there's nowhere secure near us.

Ugly
Probably the fact that he still eats everything he can get his mouth on. On walks that's stones, rubbish etc. At home it's stones in the garden
He's also discovered the joys of chewing the skirting board.

I'm loving the good , the bad and the ugly threads!!

@Doberwow the group is called Dog Training Advice and Support - it's run by a group of trainers and there are information units you can work through on lots of different topics. The trainers limit comments - it's really an info resource and then individuals can post asking for specific advice

@Frenchfancy we've had cat problems lately too to the extent I started a separate thread. Basically everyone told me to chill out as long as cats have escape routes Like yours one of my cats insists on following puppypup around and so I have given up trying to keep them apart - am just supervising

@PugInTheHouse it’s nice to know someone else is suffering in a virtually identical way to me

Vet confirmed she does have cystitis she thinks. Gave her an anti inflammatory injection which seems to have helped a little and it’s my job to try and collect some of her morning wee...(which is going to be easier said than done) so it can be tested for bacteria to see if she needs antibiotics

I feel very puppy blues-y today, I think the stress of all this hasn’t helped! Plus it seems to have (understandably) put her in a bit of an odd mood and she has been relentlessly not settling, incredibly clingy, but then when I take her out she sits on the doorstep and refuses to come in? Just been a little on the peculiar side today!