Puppy Survival Thread - May

[Doje]

Starting May off! If someone could link I'd appreciate it....

Think it died a thread death before a link could be made!

Puppy Survival Thread - April www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4210895-puppy-survival-thread-april

A link to the April thread? Does the above work?

Perfect, thanks! Yes I think I was a bit late for this one to be linked on the April one.

Dpup is conked out early today.... it's been a big day for him after our 2nd training session and a visit from the grandparents which meant all day in the garden and very little rest! He'll probably be wide awake again by midnight... 🙄

Brilliant, thanks.

That’s @Doje

Ah @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat sorry to hear he had another seizure. I know in humans it can be very influenced by hormones and growth spurts so maybe that’s the case with him? I hope it settles down soon.

I’ve booked petal into a real life training class starting next week. It’s for teenage puppies, small group, force free so hopefully will be great for for her practise stuff with the (massive!) distraction of other dogs.

We’ve left her on her own for around an hour a few times now and she’s been absolutely fine (watched on camera!) so I’m wondering about upping the time to 2 hours. Do people think that jump will be ok?
With our old dog we had to start with very very short periods of time and up it gradually but once we’d got to an hour he was fine for much longer. Not that we’ve got any plans to leave her long at all but it’s nice to know she’d be ok if we had to occasionally

Thanks for starting a new thread. Look forwards to hearing how everyone's pups get on this month. x

Had a lovely walk today with all 3 dogs now girls have both finished their 1st season. Was really good. dpup2 was a little pulley but probably cos she's had garden exercise rather than a lovely sniffy walk so she was probably a bit excited!

Placemarking on new thread so I can keep up to date with all your pups and especially the adolescents that are cheering me up about my lovely but challenging teenage little guy!

Thanks for the new thread- these threads are such a lifeline on the early days!

Took Redpup to the beach today for the first time and he loved it. He did well on the long line and then DH let him off it (he’s way more relaxed than me🙈).

He had a ball “helping” the DC dig to Australia and chasing DH and was amazingly good at staying beside us and ignoring passersby when I plied him with praise and cheese!

I was always of the Chocolate Button Bribery school of parenting so it looks like I’ll be following the Cheese and Chicken Puppy Training School now👍

@RedLem0ns I was thinking that today as I cut up a bit more leftover roast beef to tempt pup to nap in her crate!

Thanks for creating a new thread @Doje

Hi everyone, I’m looking forward to being able to join this thread on 15th of May when we can pick up our Labrador pup 🥰.

Thanks for the new thread I’ve not been keeping up the last few days as kids had an inset day Friday and it’s been chaos supervising kids and hightide pup.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. All those cafe trips sound wonderful.

Can I ask advice on training hightide pup not to lunge and bark for play. She is getting to be quite an excited bouncy dog as to be expected from a Labrador.. However, she is getting more barky and biting more now in her play also when she wants something. I’m a bit worried actually as it seems quite aggressive. Is this just over enthusiastic pup play/bad manners?

So far I’ve been asking her to sit and lie down as a sort of reset and also stopping play when this happens and waiting until she’s calmed down to play again. Is this right or should I do something else? I had to put her in her crate last night as she was going a bit bitey mad. I can’t have baby gates due to the nature of my house downstairs.

@Hightideattheseaside-yes the lungy, bitey demanding play is fairly standard especially when tired. It should pass!
In the meantime we tried to intercept with a toy before she felt the need to bite and if she did bite then we ignored (easier said than done!) and made ourselves very boring.
And if that didn’t work she went in her pen for a sleep or we left the room.
The sitting etc. to reset is good too
Had to get the kids to stand still with their arms folded if she launched herself at them and tbh they spent a lot of time in another room during that stage!
Lots of reinforcement when they approach in a gentle way and train an ‘automatic sit’ by marking and treating when they sit when they come to you

Oh you're here!

Thank you @Petalpup I think it's a combination of a lot of things. We haven't got his medication levels right yet, largely I think because he's still growing. However this should be slowing now hopefully.

We're off to meet a new pup in the family this morning, will be interesting to see how Georgiepup gets on as the bigger dog. He's always been the baby so far!

Thanks @Petalpup good to know it’s pretty standard. I’ve been doing the whole fold my arms and ignore her and that does work but hard to get the kids to do that. They tend to scream and run and she sees it’s as a game! We will keep doing what we’ve been doing then and what you suggest and weather the storm!

When does the bites play phase start to tail off?

Hope Georgiepup enjoys the play date @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat!

I'm just waiting for partner to get up and we're going to try off lead for the first time this morning. Very nervous.

@Hightideattheseaside we are really struggling with the biting and jumping too. We have a lab x. I have found the standing with arms folded only moderately useful as she has a horrible habit of nipping ankles and it hurts and she doesn't seem to care if you are ignoring her or not. I do find getting her to do a series of sits helps, but I don't always have treats on me to reward her.

@Hightideattheseaside- def try to prevent the kids screaming and running as that will just encourage him. It’s hard work and a bit depressing in early stages when you had visions of them playing nicely together and have to just keep them separate!
I’d say it had calmed down quite a bit by 4 months and an awful lot by 5 months.

@MyRabbit79 -good luck! I’m sure he’ll love it. It’s so joyful to watch them running free!

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat let us know how it goes!

Good luck @MyRabbit79

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat hope he enjoys the play date!

We are off to a park this morning to check out an area we might move to. Happy is full of beans so he will definitely need a walk before we try and have a coffee today.

@familychallenge Happy is a v challenging teen! He has calmed down in some ways (he's great sleeping and will come up in the morning now and sleep an extra hour with us!) but he really is v wilful! We are taking the small victories but it's v slow progress. I am cheered by the fact that those with older dogs say if you just keep consistent, they do turn into lovely adults! Here's a picture of him being his normal lunatic self

Agree the biting had all but gone by 5 months, he lost a lot of teeth over a two week period and then he went through a period of mouthing during play, almost like he was practicing his pressure but never hurt us. Now even if you put your hand in his mouth he's very gentle. He did catch 17 yr old on the hand the other day drawing blood but they were playing and caught a toy at the same time, he didn't realise ds's finger was in the middle of it all.

@Hightideattheseaside @ilovesushi we’ve out of nowhere had a less bitey few days. Think being out is helping. Other things are we’ve finally managed to work out how to play tug with the long toys so PoirotPup likes that - we have two and try to take it out to garden whenever we can.when he does lose it we’ve just calmly said no biting and then left the room/gone behind stair gate straight away then back out and repeat. Flirt pole was also good! We get the kids to leave and go elsewhere to play because they do the same as yours and he thinks a game. We always have a cardboard box to hand and Chuck him one of those to destroy - that’s been great also. And we’ve been hand feeding him his kibble for calmness for two days, or using some kind of puzzle, slow feeder toy, but I spread our breakfast over half an hour chucking kibble every time he lay down...

I remember we had a weird time between 5 and 6 months where toilet training went backwards as did chewing/biting. Then his big back teeth came in at around 6 months and it calmed down a lot (and the toilet training sorted itself!)

They do get better once all their adult teeth are in I think!

@MyRabbit79 good luck today, I'm embarrassed to admit that we've not done off lead walking yet at 7 months...our local areas/parks are full of other dogs & the enclosed fields that you can hire in the wider local area are not very accessible by public transport (we don't drive).