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

@Jibberoo could it be teething? Our pup is 21 weeks and has honking fishy breath today but has had three teeth fall out in two days so I’m thinking that’s why

Not sure if @PoleToPole is still on the thread but they had some great advice about all this on the previous thread I believe.

Thank you @PugInTheHouse and yep, I am still here, just haven`t had much time of late as I have been playing catch both at work and home up after a DIY accident. Work has also sneaked from locum to increasingly time devouring. This is the first evening in a while I have been able to sit down and relax, so will try to catch up a bit!

PolePup is still doing very well, he`s such a steady little chap, and so eager to do the right thing, which is a miracle fantastic. I am still bracing for a terrible teenage onslaught as he must be brewing up some trouble. DH thinks he is growing up to be the strong, silent type, unlike PoleDog who is in a soul mate relationship with the sound of his own voice

PolePup is so calm and quietly confident too, the only thing so far which has shaken him was when I cut my arm badly with a reciprocating saw, and as soon as I came inside to sort it he was all over me and visibly worried, poor little man. PoleDog was also worried, but more disapproving, he has witnessed my DIY attempts many times before .

Right, off to try and catch up!

@WeeM I am so shocked how stressed I was, I almost can't believe it was me posting yesterday. So strange how it can hit you. I wonder now if perhaps he wasn't very well, he had a couple of dodgy poos and was very bitey but from yesterday afternoon he has been totally back to normal.

We tried 2 meals yesterday and feeding at 5pm rather than 6pm, I think we need to wait a couple of days for his body to adjust as it backfired slightly as his last poo was 530 and last wee 7pm, just refused to wee outside at 10ish so I gave up expecting him to wake up about 1am. He actually woke at 4am (possibly due to DH getting up for his early shift) but he went outside to toilet then had a bit of a tantrum over DH leaving but I actually managed to settle him till 6am then told him no, lie down and he slept till 7am. Perfect start to feeding him breakfast an hour later to normal at 8. Gave him a small kong biscuit and he's sleeping again next to me on the sofa. I feel so relaxed today, literally a different person to yesterday. If he goes to toilet early this evening we'll take him for a walk at 8pm before he settles down for the night.

@PoleToPole sorry to here about your DIY accident, sounds nasty! Hope you're ok now. Polepup sounds fabulous still. I cant even remember what it was I was talking about re your advice, it may have been over the separation thing. A couple of us are having really issues with it.

@WeeM. We found a frozen damp tea towel kept ours occupied. Lamb twists from pets at home as well. Kept directing her to those whenever there was any towel nibbling. Or a frozen carrot. Or a raw frozen chicken wing.

@legosnowqueen, Thank you. She is a mass of fur at present so didn’t notice how bad it was on one side. She is so bitey that its a real struggle and never still. Might have to start wearing leather gloves to do it! Will be off to get some blueberries.

@Posiemam Petal had tear marks when she came but they seem to have gone now-just the occasional bit of goo. I don’t know if she’s just grown out of them or whether her stainless steel water bowl has helped (I read it was supposed to).
Also read you can put a drop of apple cider vinegar in their water.
She’s started sleeping through most nights so I think it’s finally time for dh to move back upstairs! (Or at least to the spare room downstairs rather than his kitchen floor mattress!)
Sorry you had a crap day @PugInTheHouse. Definitely all gets very overwhelming at times especially thinking how much there is still to train!

@Plantlover23 I ordered the yak chews from amazon and they arrived first thing this morning. He loves it, he has actually taken it everywhere with him, not just to chew it but just so its with him

@PugInTheHouse Adorable! Plantpup has been the same - she cried at a shut door earlier because her yak chew was in the other room 😂

Glad you're feeling better @PugInTheHouse. It's so up and down isn't it.

We went from pup's best walk this morning, to one of his worst this afternoon. He ate an entire tissue outside Costa (think it was one of their serviettes) and I was crouched on the ground trying to swap it for a treat. He ate every leaf that he saw and was generally a nightmare. This is after I did a training session on five and leave it as well. And after this week's chewing gum incident.

@MyRabbit79 Sparklepup got a tissue today too. I find no matter how much training I do, a treat from me is never enough when we're out and about and there's something "exciting" to eat. Luckily anoyher dog came to say hi to him and he dropped it. He's eaten worse though. So gross. My biggest bugbear used to be people who didn't pick up dogs mess; my new bugbear is people who don't pick up rubbish!

@Sparkle79 same here, there was no chance of him dropping it. I wonder if I should have just ignored it instead of trying to get it off him.

I feel all your pain although any picking up has been replaced today by crazed barking and running in circles when walking, the seafront was busier than any day I have ever seen so we weren't there long as no social distancing possible at all, I've never seen anything like it. He was so excited by all the people, scooters and dogs he was all over the place. Two young guys (probably around 18/19) wanted to say hi to him and he wee'd on their feet he was so excited. I was so embarrassed but they just laughed.

@PugInTheHouse we have that crazy excitement sometimes too, although he hasn't weed on anyone yet!

@MyRabbit79 unfortunately pugpup has done it several times but it just seemed more embarrassing as they were young lads haha

@Petalpup oh interesting, thanks.

In a positive development, we’ve had no bitey puppy all day(though there are still a few more hours to go!) Its definitely made me more hopeful about everything as well as having a hour or two away this afternoon. Might even begin to love my little fluff ball.

@PugInTheHouse Plantpup did an excited wee on my mum’s feet earlier! It was quite amusing

@Plantlover23 so funny bless them, they are just too excited about meeting people.

@SpreadHummusNotHate thanks for the tip - hadn't thought of that. You might be right s as she is coming up to that age soon.

The weather this week has started to dry out some of the fields so we were finally able to walk them. So much better as I'm not constantly worried about jibpup chasing after runners and jibdog chasing after cyclists - I can finally enjoy a walk off lead without the stress. We did 2 1hr walks today and I've got 2 ddogs passed out on the couch. If only I could do that every day I'd have less of the bitey pup and more of the sweet pup.

Has anyone thought of feeding raw? I've never fed my dogs raw but great mamy god things about it - just not sure I could (a) adores it or (b) find the freezer space for it. Maybe I can just add it to their kibble occasionally.

Took both dogs for grooming yesterday. Puppy had a bath and a hygiene trim. He’s been constipated the last couple of days and cleaning was tricky. Groomer happy to take it as a welfare issue so she bathed and trimmed him. He fell asleep on the table - very cute

Morning all, our pup is 11 weeks. He is doing pretty well, normally up once or twice in the night and getting pretty good at going to the loo outside.

Can I ask what time your pups wake up? We are struggling to get him past 6am, is was 5.45 this morning 😭 tried ignoring him but one of us ends up caving in.

This morning I tried a Kong to take the edge off, but he was just awake. I brought him down to the kitchen and climbed into his bed and fell asleep! Refused to feed him until just before 7am.

I think it will be easier when he can get through the night as we will move him to the kitchen and it is easier to ignore the winging!!

The puppy climbed into his bed, I didn’t....although I felt like it!

@Caplin Plantpup is 14 weeks and still wakes up at about 5:30/6 every day. She sleeps through the night now though! After waking up at 5:30 for the toilet she will go back to sleep for an hour and a half or so.

I think just persist with the putting him back down after that 5:45 wake up and he’ll get the message eventually that it’s not morning time yet. Plantpup grumbled about it for the first few days but seems to understand that’s the routine now

Thanks @Plantlover23, I know that really we need to ride it and ignore him till 7am, but we just end up wide awake. Maybe one to work on this week!

@Caplin I'm going to be that smug person who says pup sleeps until we wake her up about half 8/9. But if it makes you feel better, at 11 weeks she was still probably up about 5 or 6 times a night! There's a Facebook group called Dog Training Advice and Support and I'm sure it has a unit on how to get your puppy to sleep later in the morning, I think you set alarms for gradually later and later or something. Definitely worth a look.11 weeks is tiny and he might just sleep later of his own accord but also might not, I think we've been lucky with the world's laziest cocker spaniel.

Things going well here. Puppy is smashing it at training class, leaving all the other pups in the dust. She's a delight. I'm sure this is the calm before the storm though. Oh and @HappyThursdays she now loooves her ball! I can't remember why you asked me that a while ago but she was not interested then. Now she can't get enough. DP loves playing fetch with her but I'm trying to get him to minimise it with all the joint concerns.

@caplin I’d take ours out at 6 ish when she woke up then pop her back in bed again. It’s a stage, from about 4 months she was sleeping through till 8 or 8.30. She’s now a year and would still be in bed at 11 if we weren’t up. Not a morning dog.