Puppy Survival Thread - April

[Doje]

Starting a new thread....

@Doje What age is he again? How much is he sleeping through the day, is he tired enough for bed? But I think they do go through phases with sleeping, we had a week or so where pup went to bed fine but then barked about 15 minutes later and we needed to go down, let her out and settle her again. And then suddenly she was fine again.

@Doje I think it is an age thing too. I wish Happy would bark when he just went down but he's got in the habit of barking about once a week at around 3am. i think it is the foxes waking him up and I can't do anything about that but it is a right pita! And when I come down to check he's ok, he's waiting right by the door, shoots past me up the stairs and jumps into my side of the bed before I've even had a chance to stop him the little monkey! I would agree with @Petalpup, maybe it's something to do with the crate suddenly? a lot of them seem to go through that

@ashmts we've booked 3 sessions with the trainer you recommended! She's not the cheapest you're right but I think the fact she specialises in urban dogs sold it for us. Will let you know how it goes! First session is next Tuesday

@LondonPupMum Yay I'm excited for you. I really think she's worth every penny. She expects a lot from you though, we're starting our third block of Zoom lessons with her tomorrow and I'm getting nervous cos we've been slacking with the practise Lots of revision tonight.

@Doje we also ditched the crate around five weeks ago. Puppypup also would not settle having been in it happily at night from the start. Looking at how he sleeps, he's a pup who really likes to stretch out and I think even though it was massive, he just felt uncomfy.

@PugInTheHouse he's been so good in our room so far - we have a thick blanket on the floor for him and he sleeps either there or right at the end of our bed. It's stopped the barking at night for now as he is far away from the back doors and any fox or cat action!

@Turquoisesol he's eight months.

@ashmts . Oh gosh!! Well I guess that's good!
She recommends we walk him on a harness - what one do you use?

@LondonPupMum Definitely, our face to face trainer was very much 'aw well she's close enough' but that's not really good enough for me, so I like the London trainer's attitude. We use Ruffwear, HappyThursday on here recommended it, but I know a lot of people also say Perfect Fit is very good so I'd look at both.

Thanks everyone, nice to hear some similar stories, and there's a few things to try too. @ashmts he's 6 months, so about the right age for adolescence / 2nd fear period I think.

He doesn't sleep loads in the day, but does doze quite early in the evening - sometimes from 7.30pm. I might try and keep him awake a bit longer, and do a bit of brain stuff until 8pm.

DH and I have had a chat in the daylight about it which is better than the usual grumpy conversation we have at 1am... we're going to try to wear him out a bit more and settle him earlier. DH puts him out for a last wee about 11pm, by that time he's been dozing on and off for 3 hours by then, so maybe he's slept enough to wake again for a bit? So we're going to try putting him to bed at 10pm and see what happens. I'm going to throw in a snack too, so thanks for that idea. I don't think it's a problem with the crate, but that'll be my next approach of this doesn't work!! Thanks again everyone! It's so great to get some friendly, sympathetic advice.

@Doje Aw we actually had a similar issue! When she was little bedtime was 10pm and we'd have to hide upstairs but as she's got older we've relaxed and will go to bed about 11/12 sometimes. But she always crashes between 8 and 9 on the sofa and if you missed that sweet spot where she was still tired, she'd refuse to go to bed. I'd actually forgotten cos it hasn't happened in a month or so. I'm hoping it was just a phase, our timings haven't changed but she's always happy to go to bed now (watch me jinx it...). I think your suspicion is right and he's had too good a nap by bedtime.

Plantpup was misbehaving at daycare today...not doing as she’s told, mostly refusing to get off a bed when she needed to go outside! I am finding it a challenge as often the things she is not doing there are not scenarios that ever happen at home so it is hard for me to train her out of it!

@ashmts that sweet spot you talk about is exactly what Plantpup is like! If you catch her perfectly in the nap for bedtime she’ll sleep a dream. If she’s done napping and woken up just that bit too much she’s not anywhere near as keen!

Georgiepup was a friggin nightmare this evening! It's like we'd gone back to the early puppy days and he had tired zoomies. He was pacing a generally being a pest.

I googled earlier and found it was a supermoon this week- might explain all the crazy pups!

The teenage pups seem to be causing lots of us a pain

Have any of you had any luck with yours barking at strangers? (really any people she doesn’t know really well....) Plantpup used to be obsessed with people and wanted to meet and get attention from everyone, now she barks at any stranger who tries to talk to her or me or interact with either of us and I’m really not sure what to do about it

Joining as I’ve recently got a cocker spaniel puppy who is now 10 and a half weeks old. We’ve got a 5 year old cocker who we’ve had from a puppy so it’s not been too much of a shock to the systems but I’d forgotten (or repressed!) what hard work they are in the early weeks!
I’m pleased with how she’s doing so far. She’s sleeping well in her crate next to our bed. She wakes up for a wee between 4 and 5am but won’t settle back in her crate but will nap on the sofa. We’re getting most wees and poos in the garden but we’ve stuck pretty well to taking her out every 30 minutes or so and after sleeping, playing and eating.
Training is going well - she has mastered a lovely sit and wait. Working on down and stay.
I don’t particularly enjoy the tiny puppy stage, but am happy with the progress made so far!

For the older puppy owners, when did you start getting a full nights sleep? My puppy is 11 weeks and I'm sooooo sleep deprived 😴. It's a struggle to get her asleep before 11.30 and she's well awake before 6. If you take her to the toilet then she's full of energy and wants to play. I'm starting to feel really run down now.

Lizbiz we have a 14 week old and what I have found is that if she is in the house she struggles to settle in the evening maybe it is too overwhelming. So if I sit in the garden (largely ignoring her) she runs about for a bit then just being outdoors sniffing everything seems to have a calming effect and she starts to settle. Not sure if that may help you get an earlier night at all.

@Turquoisesol thanks for the advice. Unfortunately we have a very precious pooch who doesn't react to cold weather well. At night she does her business as fast as possible and runs back into the house 😂

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat @Plantlover23 they are all certainly becoming full on teenagers aren't they!!! Pugpup is obsessed with humping my foot/leg/arm. He's never tried it with a dog or anyone else. He is very loud at the moment, he barks at every person or bike. If a bike passes him he pulls so much I worry he will slip his lead and get run over.

The barking I don't think is nerves it is because he wants to say hello to everyone, he hates people walking away from him. When we are in the car and stopped at lights or something, if someone walks by he barks at them, when they look round and see how small he is they laugh. We are trying a 'quiet' cue for when he stops but it doesn't seem to be working. Just hoping he will calm after he is neutured on the 10th. A few friends have similar aged boys and said it really helped their pups.

@Lizbiz89 you have my sympathies, the early weeks are really hard, but it does get better quite quickly as they can hold their bladder for longer. Any night wakings we used to take puppy out on lead to the toilet, no chatting, no fuss, no playing then settle and pop back in the crate. I think she was probably sleeping from about 10-6 from about 14 weeks with only the occasional wake up. Now she sleeps (or is quiet anyway) till we get up at 7ish

We’re having issues the other end of the evening now - we had an hour of barking on and off 10-11 last night. The night before was bad too (I think because of rain noise). Taken on board what a couple of you had said about finding the sweet spot in the evening - will try and spot it tonight. She just finds it hard to settle down in the evenings recently, pacing around, chewing things she shouldn’t, generally being a pest. Not really sure what to do as she gets plenty of exercise/training/enrichment/scentwork. Hoping it was the full moon as @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat suggested

Just to share solidarity with all the adolescent/ full moon crazy pups. Challenge pup is 8 months old tomorrow and frankly this week I could have killed the little sod many times over! As with others he has loads of walks and stimulation and enrichment and training, as well as quiet time, but he has just been restless and chewing and scratching at everything all week. Will not settle even when demonstrably exhausted: have resorted to an indoor lead and keeping him in place and stroking him to sleep a few times. Once he goes down that's it but he fights it all the way. He's also booked on for neutering in a few weeks- have discussed with trainer and daycare and I think it's the right time for him. I hope it helps- we will keep on with the training but having had a couple of months where a lot of this seemed to be improving it does feel a bit like we are back to square one!

@SpreadHummusNotHate thank you for your reply! Makes me feel hopeful. At the moment I'm at rock bottom with it all. Hubby working long hours, young kiddies and now the puppy! But I know things will get better. Would just love at least 6 hours of sleep 😂

I’m putting my fingers in my ears and very much ignoring all this talk of adolescent regression 🤣🤣

We got to take PoirotPup out for first walk today. Longline on big grassy area and he loved it and then came back and crashed out for best part of three hours! So glad we’re finally there- know what PP said about it feeling like lockdown!

We have booked our first holiday without pugpup for December. Our trainer is coming to house sit which is lovely. We also want to go to a theme park for a few days in August, I am panicking about that one a bit more as its quite soon! Its difficult as not sure how he will be by then, my parents could have him for a couple of days if I book some day care also, the trainer will probably happily stay here for a couple of days if not. I am already dreading leaving him, he is so clingy I will feel awful. He should be better by then.

@PugInTheHouse if it makes you feel any better, despite struggling to leave challenge pup alone he has had no issues at all with daycare or overnight there a couple of times. When I go back to work he will have to be boarded quite regularly and so I wanted to get him used to it now, but it has been no issue at all. It sounds like you have a good support network he knows and is happy with so I would try not to worry! Although the first night without him here was reallly weird- I kept waking thinking I could hear him 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks @familychallenge he is fine during the day, he cries when I leave unless he is with the trainer, he cries when she drops him off haha! I definitely need to stay somewhere else overnight just so I know he settles with DH even.

The trainer discussed some herbal medication for his separation anxiety, she said it's quite bad. Roll on 17th May when she is allowed indoors and we can work on it properly with her. It's handy he is so attached to her as she can practice with him when he's at hers too.

She has just dropped him off, he cried a bit when she left, he won't look at me and is sat over the other side of the room