Puppy Survival Thread - May

[Doje]

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

That should be
*how’s he doing? Hope he’s better today.

I think I’m an official puppy owner today as I’ve uttered the words, “right that’s it, he’s going back!” 😂 can anyone help with our morning routine? Billy gets up at 4:50 (!) because we have huge trees behind our house with hundreds of crows in and several cockerels in the village 🙈. He goes straight outside to the toilet and then proceeds to bite at my pyjamas, slippers and my oodie until I can finally get him to accept his breakfast, which he likes in a kong and we do a bit of very quiet play in the garden. He tires himself out at 6am and sleeps til 7 but then DS has to get up and it all goes wrong. He immediately starts biting at DS who does his best to stay calm and distract him but he’s relentless. DS has obviously just woken up and has only 40 mins to have breakfast and get dressed for his bus to school. I have to make his beans on toast and packed lunch too. He then goes crazy trying to chew everything til 8am when he goes back to sleep til 9. Then we do some training and he sleeps again while I make my work calls. After his 9am sleep he’s the most chilled out good boy ever but the morning is awful and it’s the time that we need to get things done! His trigger points are definitely loose clothing and excitement at seeing DS so my only ideas are to wear shoes not slippers, try to keep him up til 7am when DS gets up and to make DS wear at least socks as he insists on bare feet which are irresistible to Billy! What else can I do to make this part of the day better? He gets plenty of sleep and enrichment throughout the day.

@LadyCatStark I’m not sure how old your puppy is but just a bit of reassurance that it will get easier eventually and the first few months are really hard if you are juggling kids/school run as well. Do you have any kind of pen to separate kids & puppy in the morning? Or does pup likes chewing things then would a frozen kong or cows hoof or antler or licki mat, May give the pup enough distraction time to allow you to get things done? My kids wore wellies & crocs in the house those first few weeks to stop bitten ankles. Getting kids to stand still as a tree and distract puppy to a better toy & feed kids in separate room were all the things we did just in the early 4-8 weeks. Good luck it does pass eventually it’s just hard work and another stress in the morning that feels quite overwhelming when your sleep deprived. Our puppy did 4wks of 5am starts this slowly drifted back to 6.30am over a few weeks and we covered her crate mostly with a blanket at night which helped with super early sunrises. I’ve got a 1yr old now so just flashes of puppy behaviour as a teen pup but I get 8hrs of sleep so it’s much easier to handle it now.

@LadyCatStark it’s so tough at first. I think I just wore wellies for the first couple of months . At 7.5 months old pup is now fine with feet or shoes but slippers are still irresistible to her, not sure when they grow out of that

I found the very early starts didn’t last too long, and definitely much improved when I knew she could hold it for longer periods. We probably had it slightly easier though as it was winter and dark and at 4:50 I was usually able to persuade her back to the crate until about 5:30

We have a doghorn campaign around here so have a doghorn whistle and lanyard to wear but ideally would like some personal protection spray. I don't feel safe by myself and the dogs.

@Teenminds 14 weeks on Thursday - lab also! He is generally quite tired in the evenings. We find making everyone else go away and one person stay and be boring helps him go to sleep. We just leave him sleep where he wants until after last wee although he often takes himself into crate. I’ve never had much success at enforced settling - being boring behind a stair gate in kitchen works best for us!!!

@LadyCatStark the puppy blues are a thing! Think I cried off and on for about first two weeks as so stressful. We just worked around is as best we could - taking it in turns to have day time naps at weekends when he slept etc... lunches done as early as possible or night before. My 7 year old jumps about like a soft toy so we just had to separate them a lot early on. Different rooms, lots of screen time and baby gates about the place. It’s got easier and easier. But it took a few weeks for us to work it out and even now there are times I feel ‘trapped’ because it’s one more thing to think about and arrange....

Thanks everyone. I know I shouldn’t moan because he’s the model puppy in every other way. He’s been with us for 4 days and he’s already (touch wood) toilet trained, he knows his name and sit, here and he’s working on stay and down. He does sleep through the ‘night’ it’s just that the night ends too soon at the moment! I’m confident it’s the crows and maybe he’ll get used to them? Today he’s been going into his crate of his own accord when he needs a nap and seems to be learning settle. I’m sure he might “forget” when he enters the teenage stage 🙈. We’ve been teaching DS to be confident and to move slowly and deliberately and getting him to do a training session after school. After school, DS said “off” when he tried to bite his trousers and he immediately let go and sat for a treat 😵. It’s just the mornings but the mornings are the time when we need to just get on with things without a puppy hanging off us!

He does love a Kong stuffed with kibble and topped with Primula but he can’t focus on it in the morning. I think he’d enjoy a look at so I’ll pop back to the pet shop tomorrow and get him one. I’m a bit worried about giving him too much variety of food too soon though. He loves a carrot to chew on though and that does work to distract him but he likes me to hold it or he loses interest 🙈.

@MonaChopsis what a pretty puppy!

@LadyCatStark another gorgeous pup. Am going to look up the snake toy thing!

Love the suggestions on this thread. Big thank you to whoever recommended the lick mat a few weeks ago. It has been a brilliant distraction from evening ankle biting. I spread it with dog peanut butter and stick it to the window. I am still wearing winter boots indoors, but I feel we are cracking the biting.

@ilovesushi it’s from Pets at Home. It was only about £7 I think but it has a rope inside so it can be pulled, chewed and cuddled!

Oh and Billy tried peanut butter tonight; he hated it 😂 he had discovered a love for cheese though!

Weepup doesn’t like peanut butter either, it’s the only foodstuff she won’t eat

I haven't yet found anything that Shaniapup won't eat!
I've just cooked some hotdogs for her as high value treats (though actually not sure they're that high value to her!), but how long does everyone keep this kind of thing in the fridge? Would you freeze them once cooked? She only has tiny pieces, so will end up wasting loads.....

I’ve actually never owned a dog that though peanut butter was edible...

Hotdogs - I don’t cook them, just rinse off tinned ones, lol, but I cut them up and bag them into a few days worth portions, put one in the fridge and the rest I freeze until that first one is done.

I’ve started buying the bags of frozen cooked chicken breast pieces and they are really handy. Just leave what I need out on counter and they defrost in an hour or 2.

we've done tiny bits of cocktail sausages as that's what they use in the puppy training classes but actually the girls aren't that interested in them. might try them with the ham flavoured primula, which was also suggested by puppy class

@GooodMythicalMorning Billy loves the ham flavoured Primula!

We had a much better day today! It was more like how I thought a puppy would be; hard work but with some moments of joy!

PoirotPup LOVES peanut butter - I’ve just given him our usual one which is the one with 100% peanuts and nothing else...

Weepup goes totally nuts as soon as she catches a glimpse of the primula tube, it’s so funny

dpup1 has become anxious of going out by herself again. you think theyre getting it then they can revert back

Not sure this what they meant by 'crate training'

Just an update on challenge pup a week post neutering- he turned out to be very determined and agile in getting to his stitches! First he tried to scrape them with the edge of the cone so I put him in a suit, then he managed to get round the leg holes of that and give them a good chew. So now he is in a cone and a suit and on antibiotics for the infection 🙄🙄 he did it in the night so I didn't see him do it. He's actually mostly healed from the original op, but now we have to manage the infection for another week! Beating myself up a bit for not watching him closer but underestimated his determination and flexibility! I don't think it helped that he reacted to his painkillers and was taken off them, I feel now I should have asked for some others. Trying to see it as a learning experience for both of us! @PugInTheHouse hope pug pup has healed well and not had any issues!

@tabulahrasa Thanks for the hot dog tips, I'll do that next time!

@familychallenge so sorry to hear its been a bit of a nightmare. We have been really lucky, pugpup seemed really itchy on Thurs/Fri last week but mainly where the hair was growing back on his leg, he didn't seem to try and lick the stitches at all but we kept the vest on at night but actually forgot last couple of nights.

We are back at the vets tomorrow so hopefully all clear as he desperately needs more exercise. He is barking even more at people and dogs than he was before the surgery so I am hoping its just frustration of wanting to be a bit more free.

Thanks @PugInTheHouse , great news that your little guy is doing well! It's not so bad to be honest, he's being well treated. Am frustrated with myself that I didn't realise how determined and flexible he was! Just means another few days in recovery for him. And in the dreaded cone and suit!

To be fair being pug shaped pugpup is not that flexible so he probably can't be bothered to lick his wound