Puppy Survival Thread - March - April

[PugInTheHouse]

Just starting a new thread before we run out on www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4141698-Puppy-Survival-Thread-January-February

Welcome to everyone trying to survive the puppy days!

@WeeM just read your post. Must be something in the air! Fingers crossed it lasts.

@Puppypuppypuppy hope the night went well

@ashmts hope pup feels better soon

Biting has ramped up again here too! But I think it’s linked to teething again, he is still losing teeth and has some pretty big ones coming through so his gums must be hurting.

At least I hope it’s that and short lived!

Had a very bitey evening here yesterday too. Dreadful during zoom puppy class-the trainer told me to give up and put her to bed

Not helped I don’t think by the fact that the window cleaner scared her shitless by appearing on the skylight above her pen while she was napping by herself while dh was upstairs. She weed everywhere and was shaking apparently

She also got obsessed with a little sprig of holly! Buried it in a hole and then barked at bedtime to go out and fetch it
I’m hoping we have a more settled day today!

@Petalpup bless her @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat Could just be the age and teething then hopefully. He's still losing teeth too. I also thought it could be that he isn't sleeping as much because there are more distractions when he's not in the crate. But hopefully he'll get used to all the noise and realise it's not worth getting up every time someone moves.

Oh no, poor PetalPup!

Maybe it's a full moon or something because Dpup's behaviour has plummeted too! Thankfully not biting for us, but his recall has gone to pot! You could see him actively weighing up the decision 'go back for treats? Hmm...but then I might get put back on the lead?! I think I'll just carry on running'. Then we he would did back, he snatched the treat and ran off before I could grab him!

He's back on the long line for another day... 🤣

I do remember old dog getting a bit skittish around this time of year-we always said it was because spring was in the air! There must be some good smells around I guess.

Challenge pup is hitting adolescence hard at nearly 7 months. He bolted after a bitch in heat and when caught howled at the door for two hours to go out again and find her! His recall is terrible- like others I can see him hear me and choose to ignore me. And his humping of other dogs and inanimate objects has definitely gone up a notch! On the plus side he's a lot more independent but also I can see a bit fearful in new ways. We seem to have gone straight to this from puppyhood without a calm middle period!

He's on a long line and working with trainer on recall and focus on me, trying to distract when he gets locked in on humping and thinking about other options. It's too soon to neuter in my view although it is something for the future. Any others going through this and any tips or hints?

DPup has become afraid of... I'm not sure?! The dark? The front garden? I think he just weed on the floor because he didn't want to go out there. We do a 'poo walk' at this time of night, just before settling in the living room. Tonight he was really skittish on the walk (it's like a two minute walk to the end Iof the road), and then when we were back in the front garden he kept on trying to make a break for the front door, definitely scared, not just trying to get in.

I sat out the front with him giving lots of treats, but made no progress. I then took him out the back to see what he was like there, and he was fine.

Any experience with this, or ideas how to help him?

So proud of Dpup today!! I've been practising leaving him on his own (*DH working upstairs) whilst I do the school run and he's done really well. So today I gave him a good run about at 8am, left for the school run, then did a 5k. He's been happy snoozing on his own for 50 minutes!

I've got back, said hi to him, given the obligatory tummy tickle. He's come out of his crate and crashed back to sleep on the kitchen floor!

Just checking in.

Doberwow can have a walk on Monday (hoorah).

She is sleeping well.

We just did a really controlled greeting to our cleaner, normally it's crazy, but I kept her controlled, I am upstairs and cleaner is downstairs and I managed to stop her going down.

I work on the middle floor, yesterday she chose to sleep downstairs alone, despite being offered a bed by my desk.

But my goodness, the jumping up and biting........ is incessant!

Tell me it will improve please.

She is 13 weeks today.

@Doje well done!

@Puppypuppypuppy how old is pup?

Doberwow unbeknown to us escaped her crate, but slept longer. So I'm thinking maybe the crate can be removed.

We got rid of the crate a few weeks ago now, around 5 months old. He just snoozes in the lounge. Had the odd wee accident but he’s polite enough to do it on the kitchen floor so I’m fine with that.

@Doje Maybe he could see or hear something you couldn't? Giving treats to desensitise etc is good but if it's a one off I'd probably just have let him go inside away from whatever had spooked him. I also read that if they get scared it takes a few days for their stress levels to go back to normal so there's no point trying to desensitise them until they've calmed down.

@Doberwow It definitely improves! For us it coincided with her starting walks cos she was less bored, hopefully not long to go for you. Re the crate, we still crate at bedtimes and for our meal times. Pup has just been spayed so needed to be crated at the vet and post-op. I know crates can be controversial but I'd be reluctant to ditch it completely until ours is a bit older. The fact she's crate-trained and happy to relax in there has been really helpful after her op, maybe something to think about if you're considering neutering.

hello all! we are nearly at 8 months now. Happy is still happy! His recall is still not 100% back yet so he's permanently on a long line if he's not on a short lead. The day he ran and kept on running still fills me with horror! He's walking better on lead though weirdly the jumping up has come back with avengeance. Not sure what that's about but it's annoying especially when it's wet and muddy out.

he starts his gundog training after Easter - I wasn't going to put him in for it but now that I know him a bit better, I think he will enjoy it. We're doing one to one training and on a farm with animals/prey so that he can learn to behave around them (and not chase/retrieve unless instructed) which he really needs at dp's place (totally rural and surrounded by farms!)

he is still a dreadful dreadful food stealer when he thinks you're not looking!

@doje @familychallenge they do go through another fear period in adolescence so maybe that's why the fear has starting creeping in in some areas.

does anyone have any suggestions for enrichment activities? We've exhausted the kong and lickimat and it doesn't entertain him for longer than 10 minutes

@C4itl I save all my recycling and gradually use it. Kibble in toilet rolls, sometimes I put them inside boxes (toothpaste boxes, OXO cube boxes etc). I use Amazon paper to pad stuff out too. He gets through those pretty quickly though. The best one I've found is a squash bottle with kibble in and an old sock over the top. That keeps him going for a while, but can be noisy! Oh, and I roll kibble up in his blanket, and then tie it in a loose knot. Again, that's about 10 minutes.

Good ideas there!

Pugpup has been a bit odd this last couple of days, not really settling in the evening and up at 630am which is not too bad but he was closer to 7 a week ago. We have been putting him up to bed in the crate at 10pm as he isn't really sleeping so much outside of it after 7pm. He has been having a wee about 9/930 so rather than taking him out again at 10 we have been taking him straight up but he cries in the crate so DH takes him in the garden, he walks round sniffing for a minute (no wee) then goes up to bed fine. He's such a creature of habit so I think we need to take him out for a pretend wee before bed lol.

He has been really good off lead but chased a bike right at the end of the walk yesterday, luckily the cyclist was on the ball and slowed down otherwise it could have ended badly. It really upset me and I keep thinking about it.

He's been in a grump today, wee'd on the rug then had a tantrum throwing stuff around after having his flea treatment. The trainer/walker collected him for a few hours and he then cried at the door after she left. I am feeling all a bit disheartened about it all, we never seem to be able to get all things good at the same time.

He is 6 months on Sunday!

[quote Doje]@C4itl I save all my recycling and gradually use it. Kibble in toilet rolls, sometimes I put them inside boxes (toothpaste boxes, OXO cube boxes etc). I use Amazon paper to pad stuff out too. He gets through those pretty quickly though. The best one I've found is a squash bottle with kibble in and an old sock over the top. That keeps him going for a while, but can be noisy! Oh, and I roll kibble up in his blanket, and then tie it in a loose knot. Again, that's about 10 minutes. [/quote]
I do all of this too. DH gets so annoyed with me saving all the recycling! I also drilled holes in an empty plastic jar and he has to roll it around to get the food out. And I fill a cake tray with kibble and pop a tennis ball in each one. Also sometime pit kibble in a box and all his toys on top. Sometimes I just chuck it all over the kitchen floor and he runs around like a maniac trying to eat it before any of us steal it

Hi all, joining this thread as Gotpup has arrived! Her name is Luna and here she is in all her cheeky glory 🥰 The biting is out of control but the toilet training is going well, and after 4 days she has started going to the door and asking to go out which gives me hope... Although, I am preparing for it all to go south when I go back to work Monday and have to do zoom calls 😂 Would love any tips for controlling the puppy-style biting and enforcing to her that it's not cool!

Petal has not settled AT ALL today.
She normally sleeps a lot so I don’t know if this is one off or if she’s suddenly entered a new phase 😬 if so I don’t like it!
She’s been barking in her pen and constantly wanting to go in the garden but then just digging.
I suspect she’s a bit bored so will see if I can set some enrichment up tomorrow while I’m at work and DH wfh.

We’ve had a week of two halves so definitely identifying with some of the despair and difficulty felt. I’m not sure I have any advice as doing a crap job myself!

Firstly we’ve been trying to sort GeorgiePup’s medication and unfortunately during the tweaks he’s had three seizures. I’ve had the most horrendous depression and anxiety spell that I really worried myself. The final one was last night and though we’d spoken to the vet before, they’d been vague and sort of dismissed our suggestion that it wasn’t a coincidence. This time DH called immediately and told them the meds change clearly wasn’t working and we needed to go back a step. Luckily they agreed completely and have even increased his doses. Such a simple conversation and I felt some hope. This is something I’ve lacked. She also went on to explain this is only step one, we have tons of scope to keep adjusting to get him more stable. I felt so relieved I can’t tell you. I’d started to feel this was as good as it was going to get.

A further turn around....
Today he went to daycare for the first time! He loved it (maybe too much, he had to be calmed down several times as she was worried he would set off a seizure ) She’s also been our trainer and so reassuring and I trust her. It gave me some much needed respite. She thinks he’s great and settled in so well with the other dogs. He’s come home and basically comatose!

This is such a rollercoaster I didn’t sign up for but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt and I see a teeny tiny dot of light at the end of the tunnel. Considering on Tuesday night DH was offering to re home him as I couldn’t stop crying. We wouldn’t actually do it but it certainly shows the despair I felt. Plus hormones I’m sure!

So there’s a little update from GeorgiePup. I read a little message a few days back about someone worrying about their pups health constantly but honestly, just try to enjoy them. Worry about it when it actually happens, otherwise it’s wasted worry

@Gotenoughthanks welcome to the thread! Our puppies have the same llama - cutest thing I’ve ever seen

In terms of the puppy biting, I found the best thing that worked with Plantpup was time outs. Only 10-15 seconds where I left the room, but it seemed to be really effective as she’s so driven by my attention and being with me. She’s 18 weeks now and never bites clothes or people even though she’s in the midst of teething! So it seems to have worked pretty solidly. Yelping when she did it worked to an extent with her but only if she wasn’t too overexcited. If she was in a bit of a zoomie moment the only thing that worked was removing the person entirely. I did a lot of leaving rooms to begin with - 3 or 4 times in the space of 15 minutes in the beginning. But it didn’t last!

Humph - I’m blaming yous for this...

I had a quick read through here, just before I went on my second work zoom of today...

He’s a nightmare when I’m on zoom, I’ve had him climbing on bookcases, windowsills... I ran one meeting with a shoulder puppy (btw he’s currently about springer spaniel size, not tiny) I think it’s the combination of talking, but not at anyone he can see so therefore him, lol and him realising I’m not quite paying full attention so he can get away with stuff.

After being on here, though ooh food in cardboard box with a hole and paper, I’ve not done that...that’ll keep him busy.

About 30 seconds later, hyped up puppy and shredded cardboard everywhere... lol