Puppy Survival Thread - April

[Doje]

Starting a new thread....

yes @GooodMythicalMorning k9 dreadful for escaping dogs. Happy is a houdini and can escape theirs in about 5 seconds (we sent it back!).

I love our perfect fit harness though Happy is between XS and S on the front bit at the moment which makes it a bit loose round the shoulders (and he did pull out of it once, but only once!) and then medium on the rest (and I don't think he's growing much more so we won't need to buy any further pieces). The best we found for Happy was the ruffwear one with the handle on the back and the light material - it's super super expensive so I would only recommend it if you have a dog that's an escape artist. It has a piece round the shoulders, then a tummy panel with 4 clips (one set just behind their front legs and the other set just in front of a dog's willy). This means he can't reverse out of it at all and he seems most comfortable in it. But really only worth it if you have a wriggler on your hands or a dog that spooks and tries to escape quickly.

@ashmts yes I can see how it's worrying :( and I bet she thinks it's a great game! I always find it quite nerve wracking when distraction doesn't work too so I have huge sympathy

We have ruffwear too but I can see it might get a bit hot in the summer months. Puppypup has got out of it once and was chased all over the park by a dog, as I recounted on one of these threads a while back! I think it was because he'd been groomed and so was a little looser though.

I remember that @Puppypuppypuppy! those type of stories still make my blood run cold! !

Me too @HappyThursdays - think it's one of the reasons DH is so much more confident with off lead than me as he wasn't there to see Puppypup being chased towards a road!

Same. Its awful when they get out!

Did anyone struggle with their children's behaviour after getting your pup? My 2 year old is surprisingly ok but my 4 year old dd has been acting up since with got her. She's usually a really behaved girl so it's unusual for her to be like this.

@Lizbiz89 my DCs have been fine (they are teens) but I could totally understand that it could have affected them badly, I have felt overwhelmed, tearful and extremely stressed having a puppy. It has disrupted our quiet evenings and I have had to ask them to watch him at times when they have been playing with friends etc so it has been difficult. It's a big adjustment.

Lizbiz we haven’t had a deteriorating behaviour but my youngest (9) has been quite sad at times that he doesn’t get much time with me any more as I am on permanent puppy duty. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if children struggled with the adjustment.

I was just wondering which methods everyone is following for training? Someone I know irl recommended Zak George on YouTube but I wasn’t sure I could follow his methods. Treating and clickering constantly.
I just saw and advert for k9 institute which advertised on Facebook and seem to say that they teach training methods that don’t require treats as per service dogs. Which I do really like the sound of as I fee bribery is difficult to break out of and it’s good when they just want to behave for you (ideal world maybe).
Also had a look at McCann institute on you tube
And got the happy east puppy squeezed book which I do like

I like zak george but I don't use a clicker.

@Turquoisesol we used treats for everything and now sometimes I go whole days without treating as for instance toileting he just goes when he needs to, at first he would look for a treat but now doesn't bother at all. We now use it for recall only pretty much. We found the trick is to treat every time to begin with then only treat every 2nd or 3rd time so they don't know whether if they do something they will get a treat.

If we are doing a longer training session with him we will use one of his favourite toys but obviously he is a bit older now, I don't think it would have worked as well when he was younger.

“Which I do really like the sound of as I fee bribery is difficult to break out of and it’s good when they just want to behave for you (ideal world maybe).”

It’s not bribery... it’s teaching them how it is you want them to behave...

You do feed them constantly while they’re little and you’re training everything, by the time they’ve been responding to a command for ages, it’s just natural for them to then do it, so you might give them food, you might not... it doesn’t really matter at that point.

I don’t use treats though mostly - if I’m working on something real complicated or in a really really distracting environment I will... but mostly I’ve just got a handful of normal dry dog food in my pocket, it’s part of breakfast or dinner.

Thanks all. I will stick with the treats then. Actually it’s just her kibble seems to be enough of a treat

@Turquoisesol I don’t think the treats do any harm. My trainer always framed it to me like getting paid for working, and we wouldn’t work for free! It is quite easy to wean them off it once a behaviour is really secured - Plantpup doesn’t get treats for things like sit anymore, just a bit of fuss and she doesn’t seem to mind

Oh and I sometimes use a clicker sometimes not... you’ll find videos use clickers constantly, because they’re showing something new and when to mark it.

So for instance I’m doing settle on a mat just now, so I’ll use the clicker for that so it’s more precise and he knows exactly when he’s done the right thing.

But he’s been able to do sit for 6 weeks so I don’t go grab the clicker every time I tell him to sit.

Bleugh, Dpup picked up something dead today!!! Goodness knows what it was but he was very keen to keep it!

Anyone dealt with that kind of thing? I just threw my last bits of liver cake at him, and all the peanut butter cookies in my bag! He sniffed away for a second and I yanked him away. Thank god he had the long line on as I don't think he'd have let me anywhere near him!

Oh, those cakes are meant to be vommy faces!

@Doje Floofy pup managed to find a dead mouse in the garden. She was very happy. My husband, who was trying to get it off her, less so. One of the days I was glad to be at work

Not dead things, but poo... horses, what I assume is foxes...

And I don’t have a good drop going yet...

So um yeah... it’s mostly OMG, no, drop, here... liver cake, for the love of god, no don’t wipe it one me!!!

lol

Turquoisepup stepped in her own poo tonight and I do t know how to clean it. I tried with hose when we got back to the garden but she wouldn’t let me near her 🤔

@Turquoisesol Wet cloth? Over time you can teach them to offer their paw so you can wipe it. When they're little it's more of a two man job. Or wet cloth on the floor and get her to walk over it?

Thanks. It’s all a bit of a learning curve. I started to wonder if maybe I would just leave it and she would lick it clean eventually 🤦‍♀️

We had to give Georgiepup a few baths when he's got himself in a mess. We just runs couple of inches in the bath and wash his feet, legs, bottom etc with our hands and some puppy shampoo. He loves the groomers though and they do an amazing job at making him look like a new dog every 6 weeks or so.

We shower pugpup down in the wet room. We usually sit him in a washing up bowl and rinse him with the shower head. He has only ever needed one bath but we have bathed him once a month basically. He does start to smell a bit I think so a bath is needed now and then.