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 agree, start straight away. Sit is much easier than lie down. There are loads of YouTube videos. I like McCann dogs.

GeorgiePup still can’t do lie down!!

Thanks everyone! We’ve just done some practise of sit and we kind of 10% got it

Just popped her in her crate for a nap and left the room - can hear so much crying and whining. Makes me feel so terrible but I need to eat too

I quote like the Pupford free training app, if you can ignore all the adverts it has a few good tips!

Pup has just stolen the pepperami clear wrapper off DS and swallowed it. DS told me it was the sausage at first, so I didn't bother about trying to get it off her. When she'd swallowed it he then said it was the wrapper! Grr. From googling it seems a common thing and I'm hoping it just passes through without too much trouble

one thing I wish phone manufacturers would do is stop touch screens working by 'dog'. The amount of times that dog has changed things on my phone or computer!

'lie down' took a long time here too and he will only really do it begrudgingly if he thinks a treat might be imminent!

@HappyThursdays yes! I keep trying to show him to people on video calls and he leaps at the screen and hangs up.
Our pup loves lie down but hates stay with a passion. Can see him getting annoyed at having to do it and quite often he just refuses.

@Plantlover23 Oh my god, it must be so hard to do it alone. My partner was in hospital unexpectedly when she was about 9 weeks and I really struggled. Do you have a support bubble? My SIL was really great and came round and sat with the dog for a bit while I had a shower and got something to eat some days. Just getting a little break makes such a difference.

We started trying to train straight away too but tbh I'm not sure it was worth the effort for some of the commands. We started Zoom training when she was 17 weeks and in three sessions she's picked up 100 times more than when I tried to train her in the early days, and I'm being shown how to do it properly. If you're finding it a lot (especially on your own) pick your priorities and focus on them. So for us it would have been toilet training and crate training at 9 weeks. Sit, lie down, stay etc are all useful but ours had zero attention span for the first few weeks so it was more trouble than it was worth. Probably depends on your dog, I see videos of 9 week old pups that are super calm. But once mine hit about 12 weeks she was much more trainable. Our puppy class accepts puppies up to 20 weeks so you have plenty time for the basics.

@Petalpup There really isn't enough time in the day, especially when you're not sleeping properly (or we weren't at your stage anyway). I got myself so stressed about it all! Silly, looking back.

Today pup has started lying down on verbal command only, no hand signals. I feel so proud! We also started heel walking in our class so we'll be practising this weekend and hopefully get on top of the pulling.

Hi everyone! Literarypup is coming up to 11 weeks and doing pretty well. He's down to one wake up in the night the last few days which is much better. We've had no choice but to leave him a couple of times (weather meant all the trains went off and I don't drive so DH had to take me to work) and he was ok. He tends to cry a bit in his crate for a couple of minutes and then settle down. Looking forward to his walks and hoping that'll tire him out.

@Literaryseed it's so good when the nighttime wake ups reduce isn't it? We're down to one as well, and have pushed it to nearly 4am.

On the downside he's just drawn blood from me for the first time, to be fair to him I was doing the thing where you hold a treat and only let him get a little bit, as it's the only way we can get his harness on him. But my thumb and it really hurts!

@ashmts I do, my parents are my support bubble - thankfully! They have been popping over for exactly that, letting me run for a shower, hoover, do some laundry! It really is so exhausting at the moment. I have to wait for her to fall asleep to do pretty much anything. Started working on training her to settle in a bed by my feet in the lounge today as if she manages to master this then at least I’ll be able to get some work done! I feel for her as when she’s up on the sofa with me she drifts off so quickly, no fuss no bother, just with a paw or leaning her back against me so she obviously just got wants to be close to me but that can’t be 24/7!

Oh goodness @myrabbit79 luckily literarypup whilst chompy isn't quite at that stage. We're on a 2am ish wake up but oh my goodness the difference from a week ago. Feel like a new woman!

@Literaryseed he's making up for it by sleeping nicely on the sofa with me now, being pretty much angelic for once.

Good boy

We have a 9 week old cocker pup. He’s adorable and making progress on his training but I have to admit it’s been harder than I thought. The main issue is he hates to be left alone. So if we want him to nap we can’t leave the room. It’s like having a new born again. We are making progress but it’s hard to know how much to push it so we don’t traumatise him and make it worse.

Got through first night with 9 week old cavachon. He was in crate in daughter’s room but spent most of the night on her bed as cried so much in the crate.

We also have a 4 year old cavapoo who’s a calm character so we’re interested to see how that plays out. He has barked sharply at the puppy a couple of times to set boundaries but on the whole seems ok. We dug out the kit from his puppy days and among it was a soft fleece sling which I don’t recollect making much use of but looks like it will be handy for this one.

@WhoseThatGirl Honestly could’ve written your identical post, sounds so similar. The only time I can leave my 9 week old alone is if she’s fast asleep and then if she wakes up she cries and cries Its a full time job when you can’t do anything unless they’re passed out!

Whosethatpup can’t even be left when he’s asleep. It’s like he has a sixth sense to being alone.
On the flip side he is so affectionate and snuggly and absolutely loves us.

@WhoseThatGirl bless him! He sounds lovely. Do you just let him follow you around the house then at the moment? I’m really unsure of the right way to handle it all, as obviously she will have to be left at certain times!

We crate him for naps but stay in the room. We let him follow us around and have just been working on moving the crate further away from us. He is getting better. We tried to leave him the first night and he pooed in his crate and jumped in it trying to get out and cried for about half an hour each time we got him up for a wee. But he happily sleeps in there all night now with one of us across the other side of the room. He’s mostly clean in the house now too, although I think we are the ones who have been trained not him. So I think we are lucky overall. Plus look at how stinking cute he is!

@Plantlover23 we started training things like sit, paw and silly things like hi-five from 8/9 weeks. He picked them up quickly, sit is so useful as we now use it to start many of the commands, such as stay, no touch, obv before eating and also he does it when we are saying no biting so he uses it to kind of show us he is stopping.

My 12 yo DS taught him the basics after googling how to.

We have done the tricker stuff like leave it (treats on floor under his nose or when going for stones/leaves), no touch (to stop chasing moving objects) and stay. Stay is definitely the hardest though. He struggles if I want him to stay and I am leaving the room. He will do it when others leave though.

Until he is more reliable with weeing we will struggle with leaving him as it feels like he will just wee when he doesnt get what he wants. I need to find excuses to leave the room when he's just been to the toilet so we know he won't wee in the crate.

Morning! I'm sure this has been asked before but does anyone have any food recommendations? We started literarypup on Harringtons but his poos have been very loose. So we tried Burgess which I like but he point blank refuses to eat. I think the Kibble is too large. Anyone found anything they and pup are happy with?

@Literaryseed plantpup currently eats Eukanuba which she seems to like and the kibbles are the right size etc but I’m not convinced about keeping her on it, so keen for recommendations too!

@WhoseThatGirl he is absolutely gorgeous More more zen than this little pest

Pugpup has Wainwrights, seems ok and decent protein amounts. He has loose poo now because he eats every leaf and bit of grass he can when outside, as well as cat litter and dust. Drives me insane and can't be good for him. Before going outside he was fine