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!

We’ve been practising putting jumpers / coats on to go to daycare this week so she doesn’t get quite so muddy...took about 1/4 a bag of treats but we got there in the end

I am so pleased, our trainer/dog walker is going to take pugpup for a few hours on Monday morning, we will hope to do it a couple of times a week for a few weeks just to see how it goes. I am not sure how I'll feel as he's always here with me but I definitely need the break to get some work done. Only 2 weeks till the kids are off school for 3.5 weeks but I definitely need some help for the next fortnight.

Pugpup has decided his new favourite sleeping place in the evening is the back of the sofa, he fits on it perfectly, just like a cat haha.

Exciting isn’t it @PugInTheHouse! I think I’ll really miss GeorgiePup but I need a break from the mental load and physically tie from looking after him. I’ll be able to work without him under my feet too!

[quote Frenchfancy]I found the thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4171779-I-had-no-idea-how-contentious-when-to-spay-a-dog-was[/quote]
Thanks @Frenchfancy, the article linked is interesting. Not sure about their conclusions, for cocker spaniels they've recommended delaying spaying beyond 24 months due to increased risk of cancer but if you dig into the figures 17% of spayed dogs got mast cell cancer but 11% of intact dogs got mammary cancer so to me that doesn't seem too significant a difference. Also it's such small numbers it's hard to draw conclusions. Definitely a lot of conflicting information out there. As first time owners I think we'll just follow our vet's recommendation. If we had a boy I wouldn't be so bothered but I think seasons are going to be difficult to handle, and I'm so worried a male dog will get to her accidentally. I think the definite benefit of no accidental pregnancy outweighs the potential unproven risks for me.

Doberwow has been awful today, biting, biting,biting.

Wouldn't sleep
Attacking
Disobedience

She was great yesterday, but today was dire.

It will get better won't it?

Her eyes were red with tiredness tonight, but took ages to settle her.

Give me hope please

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat yes, I think he'll have a lovely time, he really adores her. He will be getting 1:1 attention so I suspect he'll be doing lots of training, it may also help with him getting used to it not being me all the time.

@Doberwow I always found we never had more than 24hrs of awfulness so hopefully tomorrow will be fine for you. It's always the days when they won't sleep!

[quote PugInTheHouse]@MyRabbit79 we finally seem to be there with toilet training too, he either rings the bell or barks at the door to be let out, day 3 with no wees indoors so not long enough to be comfortable but definitely better. It may be a coincidence but it has been since we have given cheese when he wees outside

Thing that has gone downhill is afternoon sleeping which is a nightmare for WFH, now looking into daycare or at least walks.[/quote]
Yay for the toilet training success!
For daytime naps we're still having to crate him most of the time or he roams around chewing things he shouldn't. He's currently jumping his bed in the middle of the living room while I watch tv

[quote GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]@HappyThursdays He does! He’s really good at adjusting his energy levels to the person he’s with so he feels perfect for all of us. He’s a sod at bedtime at the moment but I’m confident it’s just a phase 🤞[/quote]
Such a beautiful pup

@Doberwow I agree with @PugInTheHouse, there is never more than 24 hours of horribleness! Tomorrow should be a much better day. Do you have a way of enforcing sleep? Somewhere for her to go? Sometimes it’s the only way. It does always get better

starpup was insane yesterday to absolutely crackers in the morning until about 10am when I moved him into my office with me which is supposed to be the cats area lovely settles day slept for most of the day. Had a trip to the chippie in his sling then we came home and the zoomies kicked in biting yapping jumping tried time out but he just squealed like a stuck pig. he did crash eventually and has had a good night though.

Ffs GeorgiePup has woken up limping on his front leg! No obvious injury. This bloody puppy is going to be the death of me or financial ruin. Would you take him to the vet or wait and see?

I would probably wait an hour or 2 . It could be that he just slept on it and he's got the equivalent of pins and needles. If he's still limping in a couple of hours then a vets visit is probably called for.

I thought the same but it’s been a couple of hours now already. I feel sick. Literally there hasn’t been a week so far that we haven’t visited the vets.

Oh @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat he is definitely giving you all sorts of worry, how strange that he's woken up with it like that. Have you seen that video of the dog that was limping after its owner broke his leg? They took it to the vets several times and it cost a few hundred quid but turned out the dog was just limping in sympathy!!

A limp could be anything and actually might be a torn pad, torn nail as well as obvious ligament injury.

Have a good feel about in the paw, video the limp on your phone as they have a knack of not limping at the vets (yes looking at you BiteyDog). But I would take them in if they don't get any better after a rest simply because as young pups you don't know if they are exhibiting any problems (I remember one time the vet giving BiteyDog a real pulling about as he said my breed can often have shoulder issues) and finding grass seeds or thorns is not always obvious.

Ok he seems better! Phew! No idea what it is and we examined him completely, he didn’t resist or flinch or cry or anything. We started getting him excited with a toy and he gradually got more steady from using it. I’m still cautious but hopeful. Yesterday was the first day since his seizures that he had two decent energetic walks (only half hour each but that’s the most he’s been up to doing) so maybe we overstretched him perhaps?

I think things are going ok ish here.
She’s still a bit free with her teeth, especially with poor ds but we’re making some progress with walking nicely on the lead.
She does it pretty well in the places we practise it the most which I guess is understandable as I know they don’t generalise very easily.
We are usually able to leave her in her pen while we are in different rooms as long as she’s ready for a snooze and we’re not having too much fun within earshot! I’m hoping this will translate to being able to leave her alone for short periods but haven’t really tried yet.
Quite envious of all the daycare and puppy sitting trainers! Nothing like that round here I don’t think. We are doing all our training via zoom which has its benefits but I’d really like someone to be able to take her and show me what’s she’s capable of in the right hands!
She still won’t really ask to go for a wee but I think accidents are getting less frequent!
Our hardest times are evenings between dinner and bedtime. She wants/needs to settle but the kids are in and out of the room making various commotions and she just gets over excited and horrible! I might start taking her for a quick walk around 8 to see if that calms her down a bit.
Glad Georgiepup is ok now. They really are a worry aren’t they. I’m sure I was like this with the children too.
Pug sounds like he’s doing brilliantly now. All coming together
Doberwow-yes hopefully today is a new day!

I’m loving all the puppy pics especially the new guys. Here’s a recent petal one with her looking a bit disgruntled by me offering her a chew in place of the chair legs!

@Petalpup I read that an evening sniffy walk is calming for thos with active noses - I think yours is a spaniel cross?

@Petalpup Londonpup got a snuffle mat yesterday aand it has calmEd him down hugely each time we use it

@PugInTheHouse and @Plantlover23 you're right a much better day today!

Random question: what do you all clean your floors with? Every so often I would use bleach to deep clean my floors but haven’t since getting GeorgiePup as I assume it is dangerous but it’s starting to show and my kitchen looks awful. It’s mopped with method floor cleaner every day but it needs something a bit more as it’s starting to look dull.

What do you all use?

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat glad Georgiepup's limp got better! I have a steam mop. Floor is still filthy all the time now though!

How does everyone's pup sleep? Because Sparklepup usually sleeps in his crate with a cover we don't actually know how long he's asleep for and how broken it is. He might just be lying in there awake. The last couple of weekends when we've had a longer walk in the woods off lead he's crashed out afterwards on the sofa which is great as it's how we'd prefer him to sleep in the day. But it's very broken sleep - if someone talks or leaves a room, he'll wake up and have a look around, sometimes move somewhere else and go back to sleep. And only sleeps around an hour whereas in the crate he'd be in there for 2 hours. Is it normal for their sleep to be quite broken like this?

Thanks @Sparkle79 I’ve just ordered a steam mop (easily persuaded! )

@Sparkle79 Dpup sometimes falls asleep on the kitchen floor, but if I'm in and out, or if someone comes in he always gets up to check it out, so if I want, or if he NEEDS a proper nap I encourage him into his crate and shut the door. He's more than happy in there, it just means he doesn't nosy about at every movement in and out of the kitchen.

I clean the floor with washing-up liquid. I read that a lot of cleaning products have ammonia in which might encourage them to wee when they smell it. Despite pretty much daily mops, my kitchen floor is never actually 'clean' clean though....🙄