Puppy Survival Thread - April

[Doje]

Starting a new thread....

Last thread here! Last few posts discussing adolescent pups and their recall and marking . . .

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4181751-Puppy-Survival-Thread-March-April?pg=40

@happythursdays it must be so frustrating not knowing what he'll do. Although I am not sure i will ever feel 100% comfortable. I tend to play it pretty safe at the moment i think especially as pugpup is so keen to get to bikes, scooters, people etc so I am not sure i have really tested him properly.

I hate the unreliable recall!! We went for a walk along the canal this morning and it would have been perfect for an off lead morning stroll. Instead, he was like a bloody kangaroo on the lead (I have admittedly been a bit slack on loose lead walking, as his recall was so good and I enjoy the off lead walks more). We saw no-one and I was regretting keeping him on the lead, until right at the end when we met an on-lead very reactive dog, so I was quite pleased he was with me for that bit! Although he's really timid, I'm 99% sure he wouldn't have gone near the barky dog!

Looks like it's loose lead practise for the foreseeable future....

I'm still having a terrible time with recall, especially if there are bitches in season around. When he's smelled one all his recall totally goes and even when I get him home he sits at the door and howls to go back out. It's just frustrating because we do a lot of long line and recall work, it improves and I get more confidence and give him more freedom and then we have one of these encounters and it's back to the beginning. I can't do anything with him in this state, he's just a horny teenager being driven by hormones and he doesn't respond to anything! And he runs very far away- I feel like the worst kind of irresponsible owner. But he will have to be on the lead again for the foreseeable because I can't be confident we won't encounter this. Just feels a bit miserable!

@familychallenge to be honest, even the best trained dogs find it almost impossible to resist a bitch on heat which is why most responsible owners don't walk them at times when they know there are other dogs around. There have been stories of dogs digging through gardens to go back and find the bitch so I wouldn't judge your dog's character by that encounter alone.

We have the exact same problem with Happy in that he goes too far away. It's actually his biggest problem of all because I don't think his recall is that bad but the problem is once he has gone too far away, he isn't going to hear me, even with a whistle, especially with distractions and he's so fucking quick he's gone too far in a flash.

One of the key things is to make yourself the most interesting thing - when happy wanted me to throw the ball today, suddenly his recall was great because he was most interested in me. The minute I'm not the most interesting thing, he's only coming back when he wants to! I'm working on teaching him a circle with the long line past which he gets recalled in the hope that it stops him running so far but it's not working yet lol. I think this is going to be a long road....

@doje have you got a long line? They are great for walks like you describe. It is hugely frustrating the lead walking!

Thanks @HappyThursdays - I know this is relatively normal but it's so challenging. I do lots with him to make myself interesting but can't compete with that! it's the same issue you say, he gets so obsessed and then so far away and he can't then hear me or find me. Just going to have to stick with leads for the time being. Ah well... just when I thought we had cracked it!

When I hear about your boy dogs around bitches in season it actually makes me glad we got a girl! Tomorrow will be two weeks post-op so she can get back out on walks, thank god. She's actually been brilliant and it's been very interesting to see that she doesn't need long walks as long as she's getting the mental stimulation and attention and games etc, good to know for if we get some very cold or stormy days in winter.

@HappyThursdays ours is getting brown ears too, I'm not sure if they've always been like that and we're just noticing it cos of the sun. I love her wee curly ears. I had to laugh at fuming HappyPup, although I bet it wasn't funny at the time. Ours has stopped coming in from the garden when called, she's been living her best life in the sun this weekend (the first warm days since we brought her home) and now I worry my recall word has lost value.

@PugInTheHouse We're on a totally different schedule, I'm a night owl so we don't tend to get pup up till half 8, even later on a weekend. She'll fall asleep on the couch between 9 and 10 and we do let her out for a last wee before we go to bed, usually between 11 and 12. She'll usually go out and then go to bed quite happily but occasionally if we wake her up she wants to stay up! It only happens every so often, I think if she falls asleep early and we go to bed late. By that point she's had a few hours sleep and she's raring to go. Can be quite annoying but also quite unpredictable. We can't change it though, she won't go to her crate if we're still up (unless she's very tired and she puts herself to bed but this is rare, and if she did I wouldn't wake her for the loo) and I refuse to go to bed at 10 just cos it suits the dog!

Just catching up on the last few days. We are also hitting adolescence I think. For one thing there are 2 very visible signs if you get what I mean He also wees little and often on walks which I think must be marking, although he doesn't do the big boy leg cock just yet. His recall is hit and miss but more hit than miss and he is terrible on a lead so we're still doing off lead but just trying really hard to get his attention before he spots someone. We haven't had any bitch on heat moments yet (will look forward to those ) and he's okay with other dogs but I'm just wary if him going up to an on lead dog and occasionally he has jumped up at people which I find so embarrassing.luckily he is very ball focused so often not interested in anything else. I haven't worked out why some people are more attractive to him than others.

@HappyThursdays @familychallenge we were also told about making ourselves more interesting so we do stuff like just all change direction without telling him, or just all start running. So he never knows what's going to happen so that he needs to keep eyes on us. The only problem is that he'll chase after us and leave his ball behind

@ashmts he used to do this too have a manic hour 9-10pm where he'd been asleep for a few hours and was ready to play again , just when I wanted to go to bed. But now he's sleeping way less in the day he will crash from about 7pm and doesnt even get up for a week then, that's it til morning.

@Happythursdays I do have a long line. But if I hold the other end then he spends the entire time yanking me to go further which is uncomfortable and I think will damage the loose lead walking we have done, and if I let the other end trail then he goes really far away from me anyway, and that's the bit I have a problem with! We do a bit of both in different situations, but neither I really enjoy! What do you do?

Now I'm not looking forward to 'real' adolescence and the weeing everywhere and bitches in season!

@Sparkle79 It's not even a mad hour, she just doesn't want to go in the crate and wants to sit on the couch and cuddle. If she's in this mood and you put her in bed she'll whine so you need to go back down, let her out, cuddle for 5 mins and repeat and then she'll settle. Honestly, she's such a sook. This has been more frequent over the last two weeks actually so I'm hoping that once she gets back to her normal routine of big walks or daycare she'll be more keen for bed.

She's also become fascinated by the reflection of sunlight. See if it bounces off your phone (or her ID tag) she'll chase the light. She spent all Saturday on the go chasing... nothing. Do any of your dogs do this? How do I get her to settle out in the garden? I've been taking a mat out and training a settle but while she's amazing during training sessions, she just wants to play the rest of the time she's in the garden. Maybe it's just the novelty, she was mad everywhere when she arrived and now she's calm in the house.

@ashmts we are night owls also so we have been all over the place lately not knowing what to do with him for the best. Pugpup wasn't settling for the evening till about 830/9 then we would go up about 11pm to watch TV, he would also go straight for a wee then straight back to sleep. Now he is doing more exercise off the lead so he is settling around 7ish, will take himself for a wee around 8 when we have our dinner then sleep straight away again. He just likes getting up at 615/630am. Latest has been 645 recently. At least he is sleeping well and DH doesn't mind getting up early. I am fine in the week as start work by 730 but at weekends I'd love to sleep in more haha.

I think pugpup does something similar but its something in the garden, maybe trees moving or the sun on the patio doors but he seems to keep barking at randomly.

@Doje if pugpup is trying to go further than the long line we just use that to practice recalling him or say 'this way' to get him to change direction. Generally he stays near us anyway but today we were on the common which is much bigger than the park so he wanted to explore more. We never let him off lead there as its so big so easy to get lost and near a very main road.

@ashmts pugoup has been quite hectic in the garden but once he has had attention from all visitors he seems happy to settle and will just sit under someone's chair. He doesnt often sleep out there though but we did a long walk today with our friends so when they came back to the garden he wasn't that excited by them and just went to sleep under the table. We take a few of his toys out there for him to run around with also.

Hello everyone. Riverpup is 9 months now and still no season :-(
Recall can be great in familiar areas ( some days) but if we go somewhere new and she is hyper there is no way I could let her off yet I know a run around would chill her out.
For local recall I bought a tuff enuff ball thing on a lead which only comes out for recall, so I call her, she starts running, I run with the toy and she grabs it, quick tug of war and treat for drop it and she is super happy. But never ever allowed apart from recall.
But it seems like some days she is completely up for listening and other days her soft floppy ears must be blocked.
Adolescence lasts til a year I guess? Are we right in the thick of it now?
Lovely to see all the new pups and older pups like riverpup on here :-)

Dpup1 season in full here. Not too bad, but she wont keep a doggy nappy on just shakes it off so just cleaning as we go. I am hoping they'll only have 1 though.

I’ve been wondering about the last night time loo trip too. Weepup goes to bed around 8pm and that’s usually her. We need to drag her out for the loo at 11/12 and the last week or so she’s done nothing at all so now we’re wondering if it’s worth disturbing her as she can obviously hold it all night. Interesting to see that others are experiencing the same.

Interested in the marking too as Legopup has cocked his leg against a sofa leg & twice against the kitchen bin in the last few days...aah!

@legosnowqueen How old is Legopup? Whirleypup is 6 months now, started around 5 1/2 months I think, cocking his leg on sofa leg, bins, kitchen corners anything really!
I’ve tried scrubbing with enzyme cleaner but thinking I might invest in the Roxy and Rocco one... has anyone tried this?
Currently don’t want him neutered and reading other forums this isn’t guaranteed to stop it.
Really struggling at the moment ☹️

@doje it really does worry me that Happy will break my arm! Like @Riverhousepuppy Happy is better in areas he knows well. If we go to a new area, he wants to charge around like a lunatic. If we take him to an area we know, he looks at us as if to say, now what and stays within his distance limit.

@doje we used to let the long line trail behind him but we can't do that now anywhere new because he just runs at 100mph and he's gone before you can stamp on it. At the moment, I am holding the end and trying to teach him that at the end, he needs to come back but I told dp I cannot do it much longer because if he runs fast while I'm holding onto it and doesn't slow down, he is incredibly strong and he will either break my arm or pull me over.

His on lead walking which had got much better has suddenly got worse again. It feels like 2 steps forward 3 steps back at the moment!

The trainer told us to just keep persisting till we see her on the 16th!

My turn to have a virtual cry tonight (and a real life one) Sparklepup had managed to break a plastic toy and was trying to eat the broken piece . I went over to him with a treat to swap and without warning he snapped twice at me and bit me hard twice on my hand. Didn't break the skin but bloody hurt. He's started doing this teeth gnashing thing where he bares his teeth and snaps. I'm so upset as he's been such a love recently. It worries me too that it's a sign of aggression. Please tell me this is just something 6 month old pups do

@Mrswhirley Legopup has just turned 6 months too. We have been struggling with some regression with toilet training for the past few weeks & at first I thought it was part of that but realised it's marking...

@Sparkle79 I hope that's normal because Dpup does it too! It's horrible when the do the teeth baring thing, but I think if they wanted to hurt you, at this stage they could, so actually they're showing restraint! I think they get wise to our tricks of swapping stuff and get frustrated because they know what they should do, but it's not what they want to do!! Hope you feel ok now, tomorrow's another day!

@Happythursdays, your pup and mine sound very familiar at the moment! I had to hand him to DH at the weekend for fear he would pull me over coming down a hill! It would have been a great place to have him off lead too, if only I could be sure he would bloody well come back!

@Sparkle79 @Doje I read that spaniels can be prone to resource guarding so we were shit hot on trying to prevent it, and ours has never snapped or bared her teeth. I'm not an expert so not going to say if it's normal or not but are you both in puppy classes/do you have contact with professional trainers? I'd be wanting to nip that behaviour in the bud before it got any worse.

Hello. We got our new pup 3 days ago and I am so worried we have done the wrong thing. My eldest child adores pup and is great with her. But my youngest (9) seems to not really be very happy. He is scared of all the biting and feels like he has lost us all as he hides away in another room on his own while we are with pup.
Puppy jumps up at him and he panics and seems very tense. He is saying to me that maybe we hadn’t really thought through what it would be like having a dog. And I can tell he wishes things were just back to normal again. We also seem to often have to tell him what to do, where to eat his snacks, not disturb the puppy, tidy up things, etc etc and he is struggling with what he sees as being told off all the time. I am so worried he won’t really bond with her and we will have a divide in the family. It’s making me want to take her back to breeder before she is too old to rehome easily.
But I feel like I can’t say this out loud to anyone. Just lying awake here worrying myself about what we have gotten ourselves in to 🙁

@Turquoisesol

Hello. We got our new pup 3 days ago and I am so worried we have done the wrong thing. My eldest child adores pup and is great with her. But my youngest (9) seems to not really be very happy. He is scared of all the biting and feels like he has lost us all as he hides away in another room on his own while we are with pup. Puppy jumps up at him and he panics and seems very tense. He is saying to me that maybe we hadn’t really thought through what it would be like having a dog. And I can tell he wishes things were just back to normal again. We also seem to often have to tell him what to do, where to eat his snacks, not disturb the puppy, tidy up things, etc etc and he is struggling with what he sees as being told off all the time. I am so worried he won’t really bond with her and we will have a divide in the family. It’s making me want to take her back to breeder before she is too old to rehome easily. But I feel like I can’t say this out loud to anyone. Just lying awake here worrying myself about what we have gotten ourselves in to 🙁

I don't have DC but thought I would reply as I am awake.

It is perfectly normal to think WTF have I done as it's a major upheaval during the puppy months. I have been on these puppy threads for years, since I got one over 4 years ago, and a lot of people simply have to keep young DCs apart until the puppy grows a bit and manage their interaction very carefully especially with the nipping as puppies tend to get excited and bitey and any movement, squealing makes them worse. Some try and involve the DCs in training rather than play as it's more controlled.