Puppy Survival Thread - April

[Doje]

Starting a new thread....

[quote HappyThursdays]@PugInTheHouse dp and I are disagreeing on the neutering at the moment - I think he should be done but dp does not grrr.[/quote]
Has your vet mentioned chemical castration? I've only read about it briefly but as it's non-permanent (it wears off) you can see what your pup's behaviour would be like once castrated.

I'm considering it as DPup is quite nervous and I don't want to exacerbate that. We've got a while to go though as he's only 5 months and they've suggested to neuter at 9-12 months.

Our vet only mentioned the normal neutering, said it would be beneficial for him when I described what he was doing. I have looked on pug specific sites and most people have reported only positive things regarding behaviour after having it and around 8 months seems a common time to do it. No negatives regarding change in personality at all, only some people are very against it.

When I spoke to them this morning they said someone will look after him the whole time to keep an eye on his breathing etc which is reassuring.

@Petalpup, I love the sound of that counting game! Totally gonna start doing it from now.

@PugInTheHouse @Doje he just doesn't believe it needs to be done. There don't appear to be many health benefits. He lives very rurally and it doesn't appear to be done as a matter of course as it would do in a big city when you're encountering more dogs.

as you've probably seen on other threads, Happy has been attacked many times (unprovoked, from behind, with Happy on the lead) when we've been at dp's place. 3 times from the same labrador who apparently has history for attacking intact males. And apparently, intact males are more of a target for dog on dog attacks which really worries me.

but outside of that, I'm finding it hard to give a reason to do it!

@HappyThursdays it's a tricky one. We have always intended to neuter/spay all our pets as I have only ever read good things about doing it so its never really been a question for us but to be him not being attacked is a pretty good reason even without anything else.

Maybe the vet can help either way, at least give you more info re the benefits or not if there aren't any.

we had to have ddog done as he had an undescended testical. We'd have had a bigger decision otherwise. I think it has been good for him in the long run. The day of his neuter I was a nervous wreck though.

Really sorry to keep harping on about food, but how many people feed dry kibble only (plus treats etc)?

We do dry kibble with a teaspoon of sardines plus treats.
She has way under the packet suggestion of kibble but is still growing at an astonishing rate!

@Sparkle79 we only feed dry kibble + treats/chews etc. HummusPup loves the kibble, never refuses it, never seems bored so I don’t worry too much. We ditched the bowl though and only feed through toys/enrichment/training so dry is much more convenient!

I do use wet food for spreading on lickimats though, I have a stash of those in the freezer. I used to soak kibble and spread that on there but the smell of the soaked kibble made me heave and wet food is much quicker! I find 1 tin makes about 8 lickimats though so I tend not to really count it in the food allowance.

We only do dry kibble (Royal canin bulldog puppy) and treats.

We also only do dry kibble (and use that for treats too) though we use different kibble for treats (we pour water into his kibble for meals)

Kibble here too. He was already on purina sensitive pup so haven't changed it. But he has treats, loves to chew a frozen carrot. I use cucumber for training. Once a day I add something to his food like a little brocoli, egg, blueberries. He has salmon oil in his food once a day too

Thanks for the replies, that's really good to know. It's so much easier and we also do the enrichment stuff which means we can eat at the same time without being bothered by him. I do like the idea of adding something extra though @Hamnan84

Another one just giving kibble soaked in a little water. She looks a picture of health, so not feeling the need to change things up yet.

We just do kibble too. We use Tails.com and for pups under six months they don't do wet food - I'm not sure why. We tried Tails out of desperation trying to fix a dodgy tummy (they basically give you a month for free!), so it wasn't intentional.

I have some leftover wet that I smoosh into lickimats and various bits of fruit and veg. The ends of beans when I'm cooking, broccoli stalks, frozen bananas and carrots, leftover sweet potato....

@Happythursdays I haven't thought too much about it - I always presumed neutering is just the responsible thing to do.

I came across this link though, I can't remember where it was recommended though, it might have been the DTAS Facebook group, and it gives quite a lot of positives of not neutering. I think we'll still neuter for peace of mind, but it might make you happier to not neuter of your DH is leading that way.

positivepettraining.co.uk/castrating-dogs/

(So many 'neuters' it now looks weird. Neuter, neuter, neuter...)

Tell me if that link doesn't work! I did it properly but it looks weird to me on the app / my phone.

It works @Doje

Like you, I just thought it was the usual thing but I am in a big city where Happy would meet a lot of dogs. I never really contemplated not doing it. Thanks for the link, it's very interesting. We are seeing the vet tomorrow so I will ask.

[quote ashmts]@HappyThursdays Thanks, it was a bit of a disappointing class actually. The trainer had said she'd revise it to account for the pups being older but when we arrived all the other dogs were basically untrained and all we covered was eye contact and a bit of heel walking. Ours can do that in her sleep now. Quite frustrating, I'll keep going to see if it improves but it seems unfair we're being held back because the other owners haven't bothered doing anything in the meantime. One of the families were saying their dog isn't good on lead so they just walk him off lead, but apparently he's run off and met them at home a couple of times... It's just mental, it's so irresponsible. At least I didn't have to worry mine would be the dunce!

Oh the stories of pups slipping their collars/harnesses always give me the fear. What a horrible experience @LostArcher, sounds like you handled it really well though.[/quote]
That's dreadful @ashmts ! Although makes me feel better about what I'm doing - even if it's not perfect I know what I should be aiming for whereas it sounds like they don't know what is acceptable and what isn't.

Just checking in with you all. Newpup is 9 months now and so lovely.

She was spayed last week which was a bit traumatic. It was supposed to be keyhole surgery but they clipped her spleen accidentally and so they had to open her up to stem the internal bleeding. So a longer recovery than I expected, but she's actually been fine. Can now walk outside again but only on lead.

I follow a lot of the Absolute Dogs stuff and have recently signed up to their training academy. So we've been doing lots of boundary training and practicing being calm. She's brilliant to be honest, not really missed the long walks at all.

So to all you new puppies out there just have faith that all will be fine - and I recommend looking up absoluteDogs on Facebook / Instagram / you tube, lots of the content is free.

@Sparkle79 have you thought about joining the puppy group from the FB dog training group? Sally and Emma run it, and are ridiculously kind and helpful - they can break down all your issues into really small steps, and you pay £20 a month... it's much less scary than the official DTAS page!
CondiPup is now 15 weeks, and DS1 commented today that "he hasn't bitten me for a whole week!". We're all so much happier and calmer. (But don't mention daytime crate training because that is an absolute disaster!)

You've probably all already had this conversation but we're a bit behind! Stillpup gets his final jabs today, hurrah! And we're getting excited about taking him out next week. We've got a really cheap harness and lead set that I bought just to take him out in the garden for the toilet when we first got him but want something a bit more secure and comfortable for our first walks. Does anyone have any suggestions for good options?

We finally had a good night's sleep! Initially we had pup sleeping in our bedroom thinking she needed the comfort of proximity to us after leaving her family. I think bringing her upstairs to a novel environment hyped her up before bed and made it hard for her to settle. Last night we popped her in her pen in the kitchen after her crazy half hour and she was fine! Just slept through waking once to do a wee. No crying, no distress, nothing. What a relief!

@ilovesushi

We finally had a good night's sleep! Initially we had pup sleeping in our bedroom thinking she needed the comfort of proximity to us after leaving her family. I think bringing her upstairs to a novel environment hyped her up before bed and made it hard for her to settle. Last night we popped her in her pen in the kitchen after her crazy half hour and she was fine! Just slept through waking once to do a wee. No crying, no distress, nothing. What a relief!

That's fantastic!!!! Well done!

@ilovesushi

We finally had a good night's sleep! Initially we had pup sleeping in our bedroom thinking she needed the comfort of proximity to us after leaving her family. I think bringing her upstairs to a novel environment hyped her up before bed and made it hard for her to settle. Last night we popped her in her pen in the kitchen after her crazy half hour and she was fine! Just slept through waking once to do a wee. No crying, no distress, nothing. What a relief!

We had second jab sat so we can go out this Sat! Looking forward to it! We have a harness too as ours is a Frenchie. I think it will take a while to get the hang of walks lol!